Day 37 & 38 - Glasmozaiek

Wednesday. Woke up with a sore throat and alot of sinus pressure. am i surprised? no. i haven't been sleeping more than 6 hours per night, i'm never home, always going somewhere or doing something, and its cold and rainy everyday. obviously, i'm stretching myself too thin, overcommitting, stressing myself out. what's new? why do i do this to myself? matthew's aunt emailed me today to see if i wanted to come over for dinner sometime this week. when i thought about it, i dont have any availability until next wednesday. and after that, not until after the new year! so we're going to get some itilian food next wednesday. i already know what i'll have.... lasagna. can't wait!

in the morning i went down to talk to france, one of the fugro mechanics. his office is plastered with pictures of naked women. i guess when you work with a bunch of mechanics all day, its acceptable. they work on maintainig/repairing the CPT and drill rigs, and all the other fugro vehicles. i tell him about the car, the flat tire, give him a map showing where i left it, etc. he laughs at me. whatever, i don't care, i tell him its ok to laugh at me. i give him the keys and he says to come back in the afternoon and it will be ready for me. so i came back in the afternoon, with one of the nice black fugro sweatshirts robin v. brought me from CA. i tell him "kadoojte", (present/gift). the other guys all start laughing hysterically and france blushes bright red. i'm not sure if it was inappropriate to bring him a thank you gift for going to pick up my car, fixing the tire (actually he put two new front tires on), and putting new windshield wipers, but i thought it was appropriate. on the way out of the garage, one of the CPT operators was there and i said 'doei Arno' (bye arno). he turns to the other guys, and says in dutch 'she knows my name!!'. haha i walk back up to my office, smiling, thankful i've been taking those dutch classes.

so during lunch i went with claartje to the drugstore down the street from Fugro. interesting side note, we saw a garbage can on fire on the way there. claartje took a picture and kept walking hahah! so we get to the store, and i tell the lady my symptoms and then say give me the strongest thing you've got. she looks at me defiantly, locks her eyes with mine, and slides a package across the counter. 2 days of medicine, 3 vials per day, and you're done. perfect. i dont mess around.

when i got back to the office, i open the first little vial. its filled with little balls that look like small dippin dots (remember that 'space age' ice cream imitation?? god i love the 90's). i let the dots dissolve on my tongue. kind of taste like candy. yum. i want another one. i didnt really feel any different all afternoon. no worse, but no better. i think maybe the medicine really IS candy. that woman at the drugstore is chuckling to herself somewhere i bet....

after work i drove up to amsterdam, picked up jill, sarah, and monika from the train station and we had some dinner at a restaurant up there before class. jill, coincidentally, is from rochester originally. what a small world. it always surprises me how small it really is. jill is very petite, very sarcastic. i like her pesonality. i like to trade banter with sarcastic people. i'm not particularly adept at conversing with story tellers. you know those people. always have a long story with an ebb and flow and a memorable ending. these people like campfires and dinner parties. i prefer hot tubs and cocktail parties. more short, punctuated conversation. i like the quick comebacks and interjecting commentary. i like debaters. people that have a passion for something. people that have something to say. dont confuse debaters with rhetorics. debaters truly love to exchange ideas in heated conversation. rhetorics just want to dispell thier own thoughts and hear themselves talk. rhetorics want an audience. debaters want a dance partner. i like dancing.

class was good today, we wont have any more until the beginning of january. i'm kind of bummed becuase i feel like i'm starting to really get the hang of things and now i'll be on break. time to focus my efforts on brushing up on my french for paris.

Thursday. still not feeling any better. the magic vials are not all i was hoping for. oh well. guess i'll have to resort to, i don't know, actually sleeping, drinking lots of water, and slow down from a milllion miles an hour to maybe a hundred??

I got to work and figured out how to listen to internet radio. christmas music all day!! i'm starting to get in the holiday spirit. i found a little miniature christmas tree in my closet and plugged it in. its on my desk. very festive. robin wasnt in today. wasnt in yesterday either. working in the amsterdam office i guess. good! now i can turn the heat up in our room!!

for lunch i had a poor excuse for a burrito (carolina would be rather insulted), but the burrito was slightly offset by the fantastic bean soup. the soups here are quite noteable and i will miss them.

after work i went over to Lisenhage (a nearby open air mall) to return some pants i had bought at the H&M in spain. even though they said 28, and i have another pair of jeans that are 28 and fit perfect, i couldnt even get these pants over my knees. whatever. so i returned the pants, grabbed a quick ham & cheese croissant, and headed back to fugro for a glasmozaiek class (glass mosiac making). earlier i learned how to electronically transfer funds with my Rabobank caluclator thingy to pay for the class (17 euro) quite easy actually. Henk helped me.

so me and elisabet start our mosiacs. you get a big round plate and theres a million different types of tiles and glass. theres about 15 women all making the plates. it was fun but wow it took a lot of concentration and a steady hand. it took about 3 hours to make my plate. its of a wave and the sun (if you can't tell). it needs to dry for another day and then i will grout and glaze it, then voila! my own glasmozaiek!!