Back in Middelburg

The long trip back to Middelburg climaxed with the loooong walk from the train station to my room in Bagijnhof. Usually about a 20 minute walk, I'm pretty sure it took more than 40 this time, due to the 101 pounds or so of luggage I was dragging along with a carry-on bag. At one point, I tried to speed up the process by carrying the non-wheely suitcase on my shoulder instead of pulling it on top of the wheeled one, but then the strap broke.

Let me correct myself: the metal buckle connecting the strap to the bag broke.
THE METAL PART!!!!

So I had to put the bag back on top of the huge wheeled suitcase, this time fearing it would break the handle of my wheely suitcase. Which would have been a major pain.

But, luckily, it didn't.

Now I'm back in Middelburg, facing misery, homesickness, jet lag, etc. This never happened until I came back last summer, when I felt homesick; now that homesickness is multiplied because a) I'm not going to be home for almost a full year and that's a pretty scary length of time, considering I've never been away from home for more than 6 months, and b) because no one else is in town yet, even though classes begin on Monday - most of them are coming back on Sunday, or even Monday.

So I ate dinner in front of the computer, by myself. I'm really glad my house eats dinner together. I hope the house ambiance holds up after Daan and Paul are really gone.

It's nice to be back in my room, in many ways. It's a little weird, though, because it's the symbol of a totally different lifestyle. But being hear doesn't mean you switch into "Middelburg mode" or "RA mode" or "Student mode". I have to go gradually from "home/vacation/family/Portland/American mode" to "Middelburg/RA/student mode".

A funny thing: Passport control officer addressing me in Czech, obviously pleased that he could say a few words. I understood him, and all, but really didn't want to have to tell him, "I actually speak more Dutch than Czech, maybe we should try that", or worse, "Actually, you probably speak more Czech than I do, sir..."

Tonight before bed I think I will make a list of things to do this year, and/or ways to take advantage of this year... Maybe I'll post it up here. I know one of the things already: Read all of these books you've acquired, and keep dragging between two continents. Even the Spanish, French, and Dutch ones. Good for your language skills!

Now time to get back to cleaning and organizing. Joy is coming over shortly to say hello, collect a laptop, and share a pot of tea and some See's chocolates with me, so I better make sure there's a place for us to sit and all.

Ooh. Maybe if I hurry, I can put together my padded footstool before she gets here!

It's Crunch Time,

Which means life is getting difficult at RA. Presentations, essays, exams... well the exams come later, but they're looming on the horizon, which is, in many ways, worth. To add to all the academic stress, a few of my good friends and I have an addition weight on our shoulders: that of the soon-to-be-released media website. It's been a lot of fun, putting together this new website, but it's also a lot of extra work.

Add to that, the new issue of Tabula Rasa, which I am putting together with Martijn and Anne, who are both involved in the website as well, and you have a stressful few weeks.

Unfortunately the stress got to me Monday; I went home after my French class Monday morning feeling so incredibly exhausted, I slept for two hours, then wrote an email to my teachers saying I wouldn't be in class. I worked on an essay for an hour, then slept for a half hour, then worked for another hour, then slept for an hour...

I stayed home Tuesday to, except for a half hour or so in the afternoon when I went to pick u pa book at the Roosevelt Study Center and mail a birthday present to my sister.

The Roosevelt Study Center is a really nice place. It is in no way connected to the Roosevelt Academy - except that students are welcome to make use of their resources, etc. I am always amazed, however, at how welcome students are. In order to go to the RSC, as it is abbreviated, you have to email them and make an appointment. If you are going for a particular book (which you can find in the internet catalogue of the Zeeuwse Bibliotheek, the Middelburg's public library), they will set it aside for you. When you arrive, you ring a doorbell, and someone comes to get you at the door, then escorts you to the actual Study Center. (This is not a matter of being friendly and welcome, however; this is a matter of security.) In the Study Center, there are two large, round tables, and rows of bookshelves. It is not stock full of books, and the bookshelves have wheels on them - I suppose they are put away at night or something. Anyway, you select a book, and sit down at the table - and then they ask you if you would like a cup of tea or coffee! How civilized!!

But the purpose of the Roosevelt Study Center is Dutch-American relations, Zeeuwse history, etc. And it is fascinating. I went to pick up a book I needed for a presentation and got distracted by A one-volume abridged edition of H.L. Mencken's The American Language. It's from 1977, so quite outdated for linguistics, and absolutely fascinating. The first section is called "The Two Streams of English", and basically talks about the simultaneous developments of American and British English and how they moved away from point A - except that British moved towards B and American went in the opposite direction (would that be point Z?) or, anyway, a different direction.

I really hope RA doesn't mess things up so bad as to not offer any other linguistics courses. Professor Mark Janse, who taught my introductory course and is very well-known in the field, as well as being an interesting instructor, has left RA for Oxford. One can't really blame him for that career decision, of course, but as a result, the classes that he was supposed to teach have been canceled. So, although Ernestine is taking over the 300-level class on Linguistic Theories and Linguistic Practice, Professor Janse's classes on Historical Linguistics and Language Contact & Language Death both seem to have been canceled.

And those are the two aspects of linguistics that most interest me!
Of course, there is always the option of doing an Independent Research Project (as long as I get a 3.3 GPA), but that simply isn't as much fun as taking a course. The thing about linguistics, is that it's exciting and fascinating and fun, and what's the fun of it if all you are doing is privately studying a topic and writing a formal research essay about it? The only conversation you get is that which you have with your mentor.

And I could write a research paper anywhere with a library.

Ah well, no time to worry about that now. Next semester I have the linguistic theories class to look forward to, and if things work out well for me, I just might be able to go on exchange next fall. But in order for that to happen...

I better get to work on my two presentations for tomorrow: The first, on transportation and travel in Victorian England, and the second, on Moliere's Les Femmes Savantes (that one's for French class).

Hi Everyone!

I never post anymore. I wonder how that happened? I think of it often enough, but never get around to it.

Today I have nothing particular to say, so I will just write a few things as they come to mind.

In literature, we finished studying Anthony Trollope's The Way We Live Now in class yesterday. This is unfortunate, because I still have 200 pages left to go. Monday, we start reading Moll Flanders, by Daniel Defoe. This is also unfortunate, since I haven't started that one yet. I might as well also add that we finished Vanity Fair three or four weeks ago, and I haven't finished that yet, either.

I hate not finishing books!

Unfortunately, I have too much other work to do.

French is become a more and more demanding class, which is inconvenient because I don't feel like I am getting very much out of it. I should have gone into the 200 level, not the 100. I almost wish I could take the 300 next semester, but it doesn't fit in my schedule.

I have chosen my classes for next semester, and they are:
Introduction to American Studies (100)
Stylistics (200)
Linguistic Theories and Linguistic Practice (300)
Film in Context (200)

Originally I wanted to take Journalism in stead of film, but I have to take film because I have to complete another track, due to various complications with the way RA is revising the whole setup of the department, which is really messing things up for arts and humanities students like me.

Today we did our first debate in rhetoric; I was very nervous but thought I did pretty well after all. Then I got my grade and that made me think that I had done less well (but it was a B, totally respectable).

Last Saturday, I went to Brussels with my friends Eva and Dilyana. It was kind of hectic and unplanned... I've never been to Brussels before (at least, not recently). I went earlier then the others because they wanted to sleep, and intended to go to the comic book museum. Unfortunately, my sense of direction gets very muted when I am in unknown cities, and I instead spent an hour and a half wandering around trying to find it. It was further complicated when Dilyana and Eva missed their train and came an extra hour later.

But it was still fun, and worth it. I bought 400 grams of delicious Belgian chocolate. It won't last much more than a week, but that still isn't bad. And it is so nice to sit down in my armchair with Trollope, a cup of tea, and a chocolate. Actually, the chocolate doesn't really go with the book, because when I actually eat it, I have to put down the book and think about the chocolate I am tasting, because it is just so good.

Today and yesterday seem to have officially brought us into winter, weather-wise. It's been hailing a lot. I had forgotten that it does that here. It's kind of unpleasant when it does that at night, since I live on the ground floor - and by ground floor, I really mean ground floor. The houses are not even slightly raised above the streets outside. I can sleep through anything - anything, except really loud, hard rain (and, apparently, breaking glass, but that's a very old and different story). What's more, the spout from the gutters dumps all the water right outside by room, from one or two stories up, and it makes really loud splatting sounds.

Ah, the inconveniences of student housing. If I didn't like my housemates and house so much, I would try to move to Roggeveen.

The reasons I like my house so much are because, first of all, I get to live with and know people who I would otherwise never talk to. I'm not only the only second year student in my house, but also the only arts and humanities student (except for Romy but she does singing at the conservatory half the time so she's also rarely around), and would hardly come across the other students. Also, we have house dinners. From Monday-Thursday, we take turns cooking. The food is usually pretty good. Last night, for example, Daan and Jesse made red cabbage, fried potatoes, and meatballs. On Wednesday, I made tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches with bacon bits. It only costs ten euros a week, and you get four meals, plus bread. That's a pretty good deal. All you have to do is wash dishes one night and cook another night.

Also, our house is very spiffed-out. (I think I just made up that phrase but it works well for what I am trying to say.) There are too many housemates for everyone to cook each week, so one of us just pays ten euros a week for house expenses and extras. So far, we have bought an extra fridge, a computer for the living room (for music, quick reference, movies and TV shows online, etc.), an X-Box, and other things.

Unfortunately, we recently had a house invasion/robbery, and the X-box and all of the DVDs (including my copy of Borat!) were stolen from the living room. Ah well, it is probably good for the sake of the grades of some of my housemates (who will remain unnamed ;).

Now it's Friday and I feel a little bored and restless. I haven't done anything this afternoon/evening, including any reading. How silly! I watched "Asterix & Obelix: Missie Cleopatra", so that's at least good for my French, and two episodes of "Frasier". (Maybe I could pass that off as preparation for my American Studies course?) Now I'm hungry again, but it's 11:20 so not exactly the best time for cooking! I guess I'll go to sleep and get up early. I have to go to the library tomorrow to stock up on books for my short literature essay and find a book in French, that has to be French literature, but can be the children's version, and I have to read it by November 22. I don't have time for all this!

Easy to say, when I've spent an entire afternoon/evening on msn, facebook, and watching episodes of "Frasier"!!

A quick overview...

You know you're back in school when you start talking and writing about things as if you were giving a presentation or writing an essay.

I keep meaning to post about various things, and figure I had better get it done before time zips by (too late, that's already happening) and I forget about them completely, or they are too far in the past for me to post about them on a relatively up-to-date blog (hahaha, as if!).

Attention: This blog entry is baseball-heavy!!

My trip to the Twin Cities to visit Koko at Macalester

or

An experience with baseball in the Midwest

My summer vacation ended on a high note, as I was able to fly back to the Netherlands through Minnesota and stay with my friend Koko for three days in the Twin Cities.

I think perhaps the best possible way to convey this experience to my faithful readers is to publish clips from my journal about the experience. So, enjoy...

Monday, August 20th, 2007

9:02 a.m (I think), Central Time (I think...)

Koko's House! (Duplex, I mean)

St. Paul, Minnesota (!!!)

I haven't been to a new city like this in AGES.

Well, wait, I guess Brugge and Rotterdam were new, and Middelburg was new when I got there last year, but I had been to the Netherlands before, and it wasn't that different.

Okay, so I've been to Minneapolis/St. Paul before, too...

Let me rephrase that: This is the first time I've been to a "new" city in the U.S. since I don't know when. I never go on exciting new local trips, just Seattle and California (Seattle's practically an old friend now).

Koko met me at the airport last night - such a treat! People only ever meet me at the airport in Portland. We took a cab back to her place at about 11, talking and laughing and having fun. I called Mom to let her know I made it, and Koko and I stayed up past 2, talking and gossipping.

And I woke up at nine! I might as well get up and get ready now, because then... EXPLORING!

Tuesday, August 21st, 2007

around noon, Minnesota time

MINNY-SODA!!

Koko's working, so I have the day to myself to explore. Kind of scary. The funny thing is, it's easier for me to be thrown in a foreign city, with it's compact, centralized city center, unknown (or only slightly familiar) language, and easy-to-locate maps, easy to understand subways, buses, public transportation.

I haven't been to an unfamiliar American city since I don't know when. Isn't that strange? Paris? No problem for me. I don't know it like a local, but then again, I don't carry a map around with me, either.

Minneapolis/St. Paul, though? Not so much. It's not one but TWO interconnected cities, huge and sprawling, with (according to Koko) a relatively useless lightrail, and clusters of interesting shops and restaurants spread hours away from each other.

Right now, however, I'm at a great little cafe, Kopplins. Mom & Dad found it on a google "espresso map" - one of only two entries in the Twin Cities. Crazy.

But it's so nice! There are cups hanging from the wall, with a description of the drink that comes in them: "ESPRESSO RISTRETTO: A double shot pulled ristretto-style to extract all of the sweetness of the bean." Or what I got: "CAFE LATTE: More milky than a cappucino, with about one part espresso to five parts steamed milk"(they only sold 16 oz.) - very good, definitely equal to the better Portland lattes. Unfortunately, I ordered before I saw the "CAFE MOCHA: Our dark (about 70%) house-blended hot chocolate with a double espresso. Available traditional or sweetened."

I shouldn't have gotten orange juice with my latte, because I'm afraid I'll have to try the mocha as well. Gosh, I could sit here all day (as long as my pen doesn't run out of ink...).

My plan for the day, I guess, will have to be adjusted. I just want to sit here and write. It probably took me about an hour to get here... Whoa. According to my (shiny, spanking new) pedometer, it was a two-mile walk! Crazy!

Oh yes, I could sit here all day.

You see, my original plan was to walk down here for breakfast - a nice, Portland-style coffee, maybe a muffin - then continue further, back up to Grand and over to Victoria to look at a few stores I found in my handy-dandy "eat.shop.twincities" book. Afterwards, I would walk back to Koko's house by 3 so I could catch a glimpse of her when she comes home after her shift at the Japanese restaurant, before rushing back out to her job as publications assistant at the Macalester church for a couple more hours. That way, I could take a nap, relax, maybe post something to my blog or re-organize my suitcase.

But it's 12:30 right now, so... I dunno. We'll see...

Oh, look at that! "ESPRESSO MACCHIATO: Our espresso 'marked' with a small amount of creamy steamed milk. Available American (4 oz.) or traditional Italian (2 oz.) style."

That is the best solution to the macchiato problem! Starbucks makes a latte macchatio, which is like a latte but with less espresso (I think, I've never had it). Most places I've worked or bought at, however, serve an espresso macchiato, and people always come and order an espresso macchiato, expecting a LATTE macchiato, and instead ending up with an ESPRESSO macchiato, then raise hell, thinking we didn't take the right order.

But anyway. What happened yesterday...

...I need a mocha first. :D

Teehee, I feel like a combination of pig and coffee freak... and I love it!

Yesterday morning, Koko and I got up and showered, etc. I woke up around 9, this after staying up till 2:30 or so the night before. Jet Lag/Bakery time at work!

We went out for coffee first, at a place near Koko's house. I had.. was it Turkish coffee? It was like a latte with condensed milk instead of regular. No foam or design or anything, so nothing like the mocha I just got. This barista is good... it's a combination tree/rosette and heart, like I never learned to do. Yum.

Oh that is so good. What is better than unsweetened chocolate mixed with unsweetened espresso? The only thing I can think of is when it's spicy, too. ;)

I wonder if people here would think me weird for taking a picture of this... I don't think I care...

After coffee, we met with Koko's friend Jalene for lunch.

Man this mocha is driving me to distraction. I can't take a sip without losing my train of thought and thinking about this delicious blend of bittersweet combined with milk for this... this.. this Perfect Thing!

Gosh, I can't even remember yesterday anymore. I guess after lunch, we went back to Koko's place, then to Uptown Minneapolis, which ad a cluster of eat.shop.twincities destinations I wanted to check out.

Seriously. This mocha is good to distraction. It's probably the best mocha I've ever head. Forget that remark about spicy mochas, that's a totally different thing. This is just delicious. It's like eating a fancy dark chocolate bar... only not. Mmmmmmmm...

Uptown was not what I expected. Doesn't "Uptown" sound sort of... fancy? Ritzy?

Well, it wasn't. Some of the shops were, but there were lots of homeless people at every corner. On the bus on the way back, there were at least two passengers that were severely under the influence of something - one so much so that he more or less passed out on the bus, and although several passengers, as well as the driver, tried to wake him up at his stop, he hardly lifted his head.

Weird.

But while we were Uptown, we did some exploring.

Our first stop was a used bookstore, full of books in good condition for a very reasonable price, that come with a history of previous readers. What, I ask, is better than a great deal on a used book that somebody else has read and loved (or hated)? (Besides this mocha, of course. It's still too much for me.) I found a book I had been fruitlessly searching for in Portland.

It was awesome. Almost as awesome as this mocha, which has reached the stage where it is a murky brown puddle at the bottom of my cup with no foam left on top, luke-warm milk with the thick chocolate and grainy espresso grounds that have sunk to the bottom of the cup over the last 45 minutes or so (because it is now 1:20. Yikes).

We looked at more shops, and my lucky streak continued with the discovery of an Urban Outfitters T-shirt I had been fruitlessly searching for in Portland. This shirt, which is a brick red color and says something along the lines of "Ho lasciato il mio cuore in VENEZIA", with the words dripping down into a bowl of spaghetti, had been a steep 25 bucks when I first saw it in Portland, and had disappeared from the store completely when I next returned. But there it was, in the Urban Outfitters of Uptown Minneapolis, on sale for only 14.98, take an additional 50% off!

I think it must have been my reward for so many hours of flight delay in Denver on Sunday.

Unfortunately, the shoe store only carried Minnetonka Moccassins up to size 10, but you can only be so lucky, right?

After Uptown, we went back to Koko's for a break, then we went to Izzy's Ice Cream for a very healthy dinner (I had a sundae with Dark Chocolate Zin ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream and pecans). Then back to Koko's again to talk, surf the web a little, and watch the documentary "Word Play", which is about Will Shortz, the New York Times Crossword Puzzle, and the National Crossword Championships, held annually. Also about the celebrities who enjoy doing the crossword (including MLB pitcher Mike Mussina puzzling it out in the dugout).

And I believe I will have to purchase a book of NYT crosswords and get hooked. (It would also be very beneficial to my embarrassing vocabulary deficiency.)

And the cherry that's on top of the nuts, whipped cream, hot fudge, and delicious ice cream that IS this three-day trip in Minneapolis/St. Paul? The Minnesota Twins are hosting the Seattle Mariners tomorrow at 12:10, while Koko is working. So I can go to the game without missing out on time with Koko or dragging her to an (unfortunately) indoor sporting event, which I know she doesn't want to attend, AND I can root against the Mariners, when they will for ONCE be the visiting team, with no obnoxious Seattle fans cheering whenever the screen tells them to or booing when the opponent's fans get too loud for Seattle's comfort. We'll see how Minnesota fans are cheering, though; I hope they're a bit more diehard than Seattle. Seattle has become second only to the Yankees in the book of Grace's Least Favorite Fans in Baseball.

But my hand, elbow, and shoulder are all aching from writing this novella-length entry; my latte, OJ, and mocha are all gone, and it's time for me to be moving along with my itinerary for today.

22 August

Twindome

12:17 pm

Wow, the Twindome. MARINERS SUCK! Lose, lose, lose!

This is where David Ortiz used to play. You know, despite all that stuff people say about domed stadiums, this isn't so bad. The colors are pretty nice; I really like the blue seats against the green turf. The ceiling looks like a down comforter or something. Ichiro was just throwing fly balls with the left fielder (either Adam Jones or Jose Guillen), which I've never seen them do. Then I realized, it's because the ball must kind of blend in with the roof. It must be really weird to always see the ball against the sky, then come to an indoor stadium and have to judge a ball against a white ceiling.

And indeed, Ichiro, even the great Ichiro Suzuki, takes a few wrong steps on a routine fly ball. That's interesting.

Later - 3:10 pm

Koko's room

Wow, that was a fast game. It couldn't have been much more than two hours and 15 minutes. It wasn't a great game, either. The final score was 8-4 Twins. The Twins scored all their runs in the first two innings (7 in the first, 1 in the second) and the Mariners scored 2 runs in both the 7th and 8th innings. So there was a kind of exciting inning or two, then a bunch of boring innings where very little of interest happened and neither team advanced many runners, and then the last 3 innings were relatively exciting. Of course, by then, I found myself rooting for the Mariners a little bit, but I got over it. I just have to admit that I do like both Yuniesky Betancourt AND Adam Jones, their rookie outfielder.

However, several interesting things did happen, both on the field and off. Torii Hunter nearly collided with the left fielder, Jason Kubel, and when Torii made the catch, they hardly looked each other in the eye for an apology or anything. I've seen several near-collisions, and the players usually smile or say something or at least swat each other's behinds afterward. I wonder if there's any tension between Hunter and Kubel.

In the 7th inning, Ben Broussard hit a home run to left, which Kubel very nearly caught. In fact, he did catch it; he jumped and reached over the wall, and the ball hit the webbing of his glove, then slid out of it.

The Twins also have all sorts of players that I've never heard of, but that are apparently big hometown heroes, like a newbie named Tommy Watkins, and the leadoff batter, Alex Casilla. His at-bat song was "Gata Traicionera", which was nice as I'd never heard that song outside of the Dominican Republic or my iPod.

When Adam Jones replaced Ichiro in the 7th, he looked around at the fans and the dome in a kind of curious, surprised way. I bet he's never played there before this series, and it is a kind of funky place. But then he twisted to his left and flung his right arm around and under and released a small orange something, letting it fly into the stands. It looked like a mini bouncy ball, but he had thrown it pretty hard; I think a bouncy ball would have reached the stands with a light toss. Maybe it was a wrapper or similar trash, and he couldn't just leave it on the field...

But yeah, I gotta admit, I do rather like Adam Jones. He's always looking at the people in the stands, but he doesn't seem unfocused.

That's the great thing about watching baseball games in person: you get to see the players do all of these things, little everyday things, that just makes it all so much more interesting and entertaining, as well as making the players come off as much more real than they seem on TV.

Sigh. In other baseball news, the Red Sox picked the player they want in exchange for Wily Mo: Chris Carter.

Okay, based on names alone, who would you pick: Wily Modesto Pena, or Chris Carter? I'm sad Wily Mo's gone, he was definitely the closes thing I had to a favorite.

In conclusion (there I go again, with the academic speak!) my trip to Minnesota was a highly successful introduction to the Midwest. I hope one day to return and experience firsthand Minnesota's independent league and the new ballpark, which will soon replace the Twindome.

At home with my family and the Portland Beavers (July - August 2007)

As you may know, I spent my summer working six days a week at a bakery and doing... uh... nothing, I guess. With the exception of becoming a great supporter of Portland's Minor League Baseball team, the Portland Beavers of the AAA level. I gotta say, the first time I saw the name "Yordany Ramirez" on the screen at PGE Park, I knew that a) Yordany HAD to be from the Dominican Republic, and b) that the Beavers were finally diversified. Besides Yordany, other international representatives included were two [French-speaking] Canadian players. (I had a real good time cheering for one batter in English, the second in Spanish, and the third in French, all in one inning.) It was also nice to see former/current Major Leaguers Shea Hillenbrand and Hiram Bocachica back in action, after having seen them play against each other in Seattle on numerous occasions (Shea for the Sox, and Bocachica, Franny's nickname-sake, on the Mariners).

Even though the Beavers had one of the worst records in the Pacific Coast League, it somehow happened that only one or two of the 6 or so games I attended were at all uninteresting. Others involved record setting grand slams, incredible defensive plays, and a particularly interesting game that involved the reversal of a called third strike to end an inning, leading to the ejection of not one, not two, but three Beavers players and coaches, including the manager. This in turn led to a shortage in coaches, so although I did not get to see Yordany Ramirez play ball that day, I did get to see him coach first base - something he had obviously never done before!

June 22 - 27 2007: Family trip to Seattle to see the RED SOX!

Ages and ages ago, at the beginning of the summer, my family took five days off of work and other obligations to go on our more or less annual baseball vacation: Seattle Mariners hosting our beloved Boston Red Sox. However, we also spent a couple of days in Seattle BEFORE the Red Sox arrived, allowing us to explore some parts of Seattle we can't get to on the days we spend 5, 6, or more hours at the ballpark.

On this particular trip, we spent some time in the parts of Seattle that I no longer remember the names of. I do remember that we went to Belmont, saw the giant Lenin statue as well as the troll under the bridge; went to Gasworks Park with old friends of my mom, had coffee at the Caffe Umbria that replaced one of our favorite Torrefazione Italias, tried several bakeries and cafes, and of course, returned to the famous (and delicious) Top Pot Donuts.

Baseball-wise, the Mariners swept the Sox, making it 8 (or 9?) consecutive games the Red Sox had lost at Safeco Field. How's that for a nasty streak? (Luckily they redeemed themselves in August with an incredible 4-3 win.) During Batting Practice, Manny did his best to avoid the fans (left). On the other hand, I made good use of my Dominican language skills by introducing myself to a man on the field who was talking to many of my favorite baseball players: Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, Wily Mo Pena, and Julio Lugo. He turned out to be a childhood friend of Julio Lugo's from Puerto Rico, traveling around with a friend of Wily Mo's from the DR, catching all the games, all over the country. He was really nice, met up with us on the mezzanine and told all sorts of fascinating stories about the behind-the-scenes Red Sox. Franny got to ask about when the Red Sox players ate lunch during day games, and he explained that Modest Manny is misrepresented in the media.


So the losing was ALMOST made up for. But not quite.

Still, better to see a losing Red Sox team than to see no Red Sox at all... ;) (And we had really good seats!! [below])
But I may never forgive the Sox for getting rid of Wily Mo Pena, who was fast becoming my favorite Red Sox player. Okay, that's not true, I'm already over it, but why do they always get rid of a player right when I'm settling on him as my favorite? Now I'll have to go with Yordany Ramirez of the Portland Beavers, though I know that he's too talented to be stuck in AAA for long.Good-bye, Wily Mo! It was nice to have seats so close to you this summer (with a sign reading "FANATICA DE WILY MO") and to drop Dominican cookies and a note for you and Papi in your dugout in 2006.

And so... it begins

Ah, the work, the scramble, the hurry, the pressure, the weight hanging over you...
Good times, I tell you, good times.

Very happy with most of my classes so far. Much less happy with one, but I won't say which. I must say, however, that Rise of the Novel so far looks VERY promising. It turns out that several people in the class either did not KNOW they were supposed to do a lot of the reading over the summer, or simply didn't bother to do so. So, having read one and a half of the required books, I am actually in relatively good shape.

I mustn't let that go to my head! But really, it doesn't get much better than good books and good teacher. And a comparative essay at the end! I can almost do those in my sleep, they were so drilled into us at high school. I am very much looking forward to all of this reading. Tomorrow, I finish my classes at 11, so I will head to the library and read, and be done with Dickens before Thursday's class for sure. Then I can spend the weekend skimming over Emma by Jane Austen in preparation for the next few weeks, and spend those two weeks on the next two (much longer) books. I think I will be fine.

I am also very happy with my new housemates. They are all very nice and friendly. We had our first house dinner tonight and it was quite fun. I spend too much time at the table (and doing the dishes afterwards). Luckily, it is the beginning of the semester; plenty of time before dinner is sitting down for ten minutes, shoveling food into your mouth, and then pulling an all-nighter. That is what seems to happen the last month and a half of the semester!

My room feels like home again, and it is very cozy since I cleaned and did a little rearranging. I am drinking tea from my "Smart Women: Thirst for Knowledge" mug, sitting on my orange chair with my laptop, get to fall asleep hugging my positively huge pillow, and am back to tying back the burgundy curtains with my familiar green ribbons.

Soon, though, I will be exploring the newer things that are here in Middelburg. The new Illy Cafe, the new Koestraat building where several of my friends have moved, the new supermarket, and of course, meeting all of the new students. There is a student here for the semester from Georgia, and two American boys in my history class. Not to mention plenty of international students (though perhaps not so many as expected), including my housemate Dana, who is Belgian but has lived mostly in Panama.

So there is a lot to do. And the first thing?

Read Great Expectations.

It's been a long time since I last posted, as multiple family members have been kind enough to remind me. (Hey, family members! If you post comments here, I may write more often!)

And unfortunately, I won't be able to change too much about that right now. This is why:

• Classes start day after tomorrow, Monday
• I have to study for the French qualifying exam, which takes place Monday at 845 am
• For the third time since I chose my classes last May, the authorities have directed my attention to the fact that yet another one of my classes has been canceled: there will be no 199 Dutch this fall. After agonizing about the fact that there were very few classes left that I found interesting, I decided to see if I could get into The 200 literature class, Rise of the Novel. Luckily, Dr. van Werven was nice enough to let me in at the last minute (although he can, of course, change that); however, this means I have to catch up on all of the reading that the other students did over the break. (Thus the large addition to my "to-read" shelf on goodreads.com.)
• I am the chair of the school magazine, Tabula Rasa, and have as yet very, very little to show for it.
• I have to get up bright and early on Wednesday to take care of some residency issues in the Hague.

So I don't think I will be writing too much again for a while. Hopefully, I will read all of "Great Expectations" before 13.45 on Monday; maybe then I will be able to post another quick note. I would really like to tell you all about my three-day trip to Minnesota, so I will do my best...

Board elections, sociolinguistics & gender

Technically, I'm supposed to be working on my essay draft for human geography; I have a meeting with my instructor later today to discuss my draft for this 2500-word paper. So far I have 346 words. Sometimes I have a hard time motivating myself.

Yesterday in sociolinguistics, we discussed language and gender. A tricky topic, but more fun because of the fact that it is sociolinguistics. Professor Janse was auditing the class, as head of department, but as he is also a) a linguist, and b) a man, he added a little dimension to our discussion. Also a little intimidation.

The discussion was, as usual, very interesting, and, as is even more usual, a little strange. Gender and language is one student's favorite linguistic topic, so she is very enthusiastic about it. We touched on all manner of bizarre subjects and the instructor constantly had to draw our attention back to the task at hand.

Janse left at the break, during which I ate strawberries with Liv and Ellie and talked to friends in the courtyard. Back in class, we got into a discussion of words such as "gingerbread man", the "Actor/actress" distinction, etc, which led to the topic of snowmen.

"Why are they called snowMEN?"
"Because they have a hat."
"But look at them. The first snowman ever did not have a hat at first. Now compare a snowman to a gingerbread cookie. A snowman looks more like a gingerbread woman, who has a skirt, than a gingerbread man, who has two separate, distinct legs. So if you had just built the first snowman ever, but had not given him any features yet, he would look more like a curvy woman in a skirt, than a straight man in pants."
"Grace, what happened to you! Your talking again!" said Dr. Lahey.
I blushed and jerked my thumb back to where Janse had been sitting. "He left."
"Oh is that what it was? I thought it might have been..."
So then we got into a discussion of how men affect our conversation, and I had two excellent examples in Janse's presence and absence and in my silence at home at the dinner table with my six male housemates. We also reminded the teacher how we had suggested, in our mid-term evaluations, that we be allowed to bring a date to our gender discussion to even it all up a bit.

That class is simply the best. I hope the 300 level is this much fun next semester.

In other news, elections for committee boards are coming up. Some foreign students want to make a new RASA rule stating that at least one-third of the RASA board be foreign students. It's a good idea, I think, but completely impractical, as I only know of one foreign student who is even running for board.

My main dilemma is which basket to put all of my eggs into. Unfortunately, they can't be split, and I have to choose between the RA yearbook and the RA magazine/newspaper, Tabula RASA (TR). I was originally planning to run for chair of yearbook, because I had a lot of fun doing that this semester but would really love to make the whole committee much more organized and thought-out, and have a lot of ideas for how to do this. I would love to arrange the committee from the beginning of the year, have a person specified as photographer for each and every event, etc, etc, etc. However, TR needs a new board, as none of the current members can re-run, and they are having a hard time finding candidates. Of course, I should not do TR because they need me instead of Yearbook, which I want to do, but when I think about taking a board position on TR, I realize how much work there is to be done there, too.

For starters, the attitude that this school has toward its magazine needs to be turned around. People are downright disrespectful of the work we put into TR, and then they turn around and talk about RA*dio -- as if interviewing the RASA chair about goldfish was a hard-hitting journalistic piece. Second, TR can change its image and focus to gain a lot more respect and readers from the student body, without turning into a popularity contest of grocery counter tabloid. I'm already thinking: letters to the editors, more opinion pieces, articles about more of the everyday occurrences that occur at RA, and less stupid things such as that article about "is it worth it to turn your A into an A+". As if many RA students were even in the situation at the first place - and then there's the fact that there is no difference between an A and an A+ in your GPA.

That's beside the point, though; I just meant that TR could be much choosier about its articles; committee meetings could be more frequent, more involved, etc; and it could gain back readers from the student body. But yearbook could also be much more organized, have a better jump start on the process, maybe even have an organized THEME this year.

What to do... what to do...