Funny Things...



Tuesday night, there will be a poetry reading of Pablo Neruda's 20 Love Poems and a Song of Despair, set up by the Language departments of RA. The poems will be read in Dutch, French, Spanish, English, Russian, and German, by students and teachers.

Unfortunately, it costs 15 euros to attend (plus the bus fare to get there).

I also spent 40 euros on readers for classes. This is in addition to books, not instead of them.

When I bought my Dutch book/workbook, the woman who rang me up said something to me in Dutch. Ironic, as I was buying two books: Language and the Brain and Help! 1: Kunt u mij helpen? I figure if I'm buying a beginner Dutch book, it should be relatively obvious that I don't speak Dutch.

I told her I didn't speak Dutch, and she said "Oh," and then proceeded to say that I don't get the RA discount on the Dutch book because it's in Dutch, not English.

I really love the Netherlands. I really do. However, there are a few little things which don't just don't seem logical to me.

I finally finished the sociolinguistics reading for Thursday which I didn't get to because I was assembling furniture. Then I look to see how much I have to read for tomorrow - eighty pages in one book! And there is more reading in the second book!

I'm taking a break from sociolinguistics and doing Dutch. Then I'll go back to sociolinguistics, and alternate breaks of jumping rope (excellent for stress relief, and really good when you're losing focus) and eating mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. (My stash is disappearing!)