Bummmmmmmerrr....

Today started nicely, and then went downhill. Well, it ended down, because here I am at the bottom.

I woke up this morning to see snow, snow, snow, out my window. How nice! I love snow. So I got dressed and went out.

I walked to the library and took lots of pictures. Middelburg, always so picturesque, is even better in the snow! I checked out a copy of Harry Potter in Dutch. Harry Potter, for those of you who don't know, is my favorite way to learn a language, after actual immersion. And since the Dutch homework last night left me frustrated and annoyed, I thought it would be nice to spend the weekend learning Dutch in a more enjoyable way.

Dutch class itself was all right, but still rather slow. I am learning, now I can feel it, but I have to quiz myself on vocabulary, not try to communicate. The highlights of class were the snowball fights during the break.

The next three hours were spent studying and "studying" for sociolinguistics. There was a quiz at 4, worth 4% of our final grade. I didn't spend too much time studying for it, as it is only 4% and I still had no idea what kind of quiz it would be. What if it was easy and I spent hours studying?

Well, it was pretty easy, but with my luck I got a C. I experienced the "Tip of the brain" phenomenon and remembered reading two of the terms several times, and somehow I could not recall what exactly they were. Nice way to start the semester. To qualify for exchange, I need to get at least two B+'s and two A's this semester, and my current grades are zero, zero, B+ and C. Not too encouraging.

Also in sociolinguistics, we got the subject for the first essay. 2000 words, due April 2nd - the day after spring break. And not the most exciting topic - something with English-speaking in middle class schools taught by young women in the English-speaking country of your choice. Dun dun dunnn...

The dinner situation tonight was hilarious; Daan cooked some casserole thing, but didn't precook the potatoes, so they were rock-hard. So he stuck them in the oven for another half hour, and we sat and talked and waited for at least 15 minutes before we realized that he had not turned the oven back on. "That's it, let's go to Ali Baba for kebab". So I went along, mostly for the sake of being "in the house" and sort of present and involved than for the food.

Then I spent 4.50 on a kebab which I did not even really want, because I was a) not very hungry, and b) broke. Was it worth it? Meehhhh...

Then I come back to write a 750 word essay for human geography: "Are maps objective? Can they be?" I spent last Thursday night freaking out about/working on a presentation for that class, (the one that got me a B+) and this Thursday I have to spend on an essay. Thursday being a Roosevelt Academy barnight at Club Havana, which I really like and which is not usually host to RA barnights. Also, my friend Thomas was bartending.

I would like to point out that it is the second week of school, and this is a 100-level class. I am trying to talk myself out of the bad thoughts like, "why am I taking this class?" and "I should just check with my tutor and see if maybe it's not too late to switch into Fiction and non-fiction writing". (I can think of several good reasons besides "human geography is too much work for a subject I am only mildly interested in". As if that weren't good enough on its own.) Too late though. The second week of school and I have to deal with this class, and, besides that, I have to deal with everyone saying "I told you so" (even though they didn't tell me so until after classes started).

And now it's midnight, and my essay is more or less finished but I still have to read two very long articles for... Human geography! And write my "Reading Journal" entry for... Human geography! And all I want to do is the reading for Psycholinguistics.

Because next Thursday, which will finally not be spent on a human geography assignment, will be spent studying for the first test in Psycholinguistics. (80% of that class is tests.)

I am already not enjoying this semester too highly. Hopefully it will get better. I can still revel in the fact that I don't have class until 1:45 on Friday.

And the fact that tomorrow is Friday... !