Teenager no longer
So, does being 20 feel any different? Of course not. But birthdays are a good excuse for gifts and parties anyhow.
Speaking of parties, I'm giving one, in honor of the start of my twenties, this saturday. Feel free to drop by!
Now, where did we leave off...Oh yes, I had stumbled home from Sylvia's party. I actually managed to get up at seven the following morning and get to my class on time. Of course, it turned out to be quite boring, the interesting ones are always the ones you miss. I went to Physics class, did research for 2 hours, went to my TV class, and actually felt surprisingly awake for the 3 hours of sleep I'd gotten. This would change (*cue drums*).
The family arrived back rather early, around 5 if I remember correctly, and told me that while they'd had a great time, what was it with this rain! Oh, of course I told them it rained here, told them about the torrentiality of it, about the deluge, but no, they had to see to believe how bad it could be...
Birgit was left with me while the rest went to eat. Birgit and I went to Nico's for lasagna (it took a while) and then the big quest started: where to find a party? There were two options: Wing, a friend of Benson's, was having a party, and there were rumors of a frat party with a musical performance by a friend of Michelle's. We decided to go to Wing's party, which was not such a good idea as I barely knew any people there and Birgit tends to be a little reluctant to speak to people she doesn't know. And the frat party...Well, we couldn't find it.
Seems the best way not to go to a party is desperately looking for one. Also, the fatigue finally hit me, and before long I stopped making sense, and I stopped wanting to walk around.
Saturday morning we first went to the Warner Brother's studios, but it turned out they were closed in the weekend. So, Universal Studios it was, or rather the Universal City Walk, filled with eateries (my mother finally understands why I talked so much about food in the first few weeks), and as the theme park did not really appeal to us, we went to see "The Aviator at the theatre there. We also went on a wild hunt for the Hollywood sign, but to no avail. We did manage to go and see the Kodac theatre (the carpets were being cleaned) and the handprints in front of the Chinese theatre. Then, of course, seeing how it's 9 hours later in the Netherlands than here, we decided my birthday dinner, fancy and all, would be on Saturday night and not on Sunday. After first looking at the wings from Dogma at Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash, we landed at Eurochow.
Winged Jacob
As the name indicated, Eurochow serves a mix of European and Asian food, and it was very good. The restaurant looked quite fancy too, and with three waiters asking us what we wanted to drink and our napkins being put in our laps, it certainly felt like a special dinner. Afterwards, the night got even better: presents! A guide of New York, a really nice shirt and an even nicer jacket, a beautiful necklace from my little brother, a framed picture of and from my sister...
Birgit stayed over again, and this time the night was nice. Jordan had a slumber party, and while we did not stay to slumber, we did get to watch the deliciously awful "young guns", a western with a soundtrack that screams "80's!!!" and stars that were probably promising back then but have long since petered out.
Sunday we had planned to go to Joshua Tree, but it rained and rained and going anywhere outdoorsy did not seem like a good idea. So to downtown we went. First stop was the Disney music hall, a recently opened building that looks kind of like the opera of Sidney but then smaller and metallic., really cool in any case. You can walk all around it, and there was a big rose made of smashed up porcelain tiles from holland (we saw some dutch words).
After this we went to Union Station, and to the Los Angeles County Museum of Arts (LACMA). Musea are always a good place to spend a rainy day. There was an exhibition of Arts and Crafts, and there were some African and South American statuettes, some Japanese drawings (in a very nice building)...Actually, we were relieves when we finally found the modern art section. It's strange how things so disrupting can feel so familiar and comfortable.
Sunday night both the siblings were staying over, and we were planning to go to a party. However, as it was already raining so much we were considering building an arch, and with one inch an hour predicted by the weather people, we stayed in instead. Monday morning it was raining still, until, of course, we'd resolved not to go to the Warner Brother studios but to the mall instead: the minute we entered Santa Monica Place, the sun broke through.
After buying some shirts, we drove to Warner Brothers again, then, only to find out all the tours were already full. Warner Brothers and the van Driels apparently weren't meant to be. We decided to go to Long Beach instead, and it was actually worth the drive (oh, it rained again when we were there, but I finally caught on and wore slippers). We saw the Queen Mary, some adorable little shops (Birgit disillusioned me: those big barrels of candy in candy stores? Far from full, there's only a little heap on top), and a double rainbow when the sun made a guest appearance.
That was pretty much it, I think. Jacob was the only one staying over last night, and we just had a calm night in front of the TV. This morning, dad and I made a futile trip to the Tower store (I wanted to get a wristband to see Tori Amos, I'll go tomorrow and see if I'm still one of the first 250) while the others plundered the UCLA store. And now...They're on the plane, *snif*. Well, not really. It was really nice seeing them again, but thanks to the wondrous invention that is the internet, they're never really far away.
Gilmore Girls in 10 minutes. Yes, some old habits do stick.
Cheers,
H.
Speaking of parties, I'm giving one, in honor of the start of my twenties, this saturday. Feel free to drop by!
Now, where did we leave off...Oh yes, I had stumbled home from Sylvia's party. I actually managed to get up at seven the following morning and get to my class on time. Of course, it turned out to be quite boring, the interesting ones are always the ones you miss. I went to Physics class, did research for 2 hours, went to my TV class, and actually felt surprisingly awake for the 3 hours of sleep I'd gotten. This would change (*cue drums*).
The family arrived back rather early, around 5 if I remember correctly, and told me that while they'd had a great time, what was it with this rain! Oh, of course I told them it rained here, told them about the torrentiality of it, about the deluge, but no, they had to see to believe how bad it could be...
Birgit was left with me while the rest went to eat. Birgit and I went to Nico's for lasagna (it took a while) and then the big quest started: where to find a party? There were two options: Wing, a friend of Benson's, was having a party, and there were rumors of a frat party with a musical performance by a friend of Michelle's. We decided to go to Wing's party, which was not such a good idea as I barely knew any people there and Birgit tends to be a little reluctant to speak to people she doesn't know. And the frat party...Well, we couldn't find it.
Seems the best way not to go to a party is desperately looking for one. Also, the fatigue finally hit me, and before long I stopped making sense, and I stopped wanting to walk around.
Saturday morning we first went to the Warner Brother's studios, but it turned out they were closed in the weekend. So, Universal Studios it was, or rather the Universal City Walk, filled with eateries (my mother finally understands why I talked so much about food in the first few weeks), and as the theme park did not really appeal to us, we went to see "The Aviator at the theatre there. We also went on a wild hunt for the Hollywood sign, but to no avail. We did manage to go and see the Kodac theatre (the carpets were being cleaned) and the handprints in front of the Chinese theatre. Then, of course, seeing how it's 9 hours later in the Netherlands than here, we decided my birthday dinner, fancy and all, would be on Saturday night and not on Sunday. After first looking at the wings from Dogma at Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash, we landed at Eurochow.
Winged Jacob
As the name indicated, Eurochow serves a mix of European and Asian food, and it was very good. The restaurant looked quite fancy too, and with three waiters asking us what we wanted to drink and our napkins being put in our laps, it certainly felt like a special dinner. Afterwards, the night got even better: presents! A guide of New York, a really nice shirt and an even nicer jacket, a beautiful necklace from my little brother, a framed picture of and from my sister...
Birgit stayed over again, and this time the night was nice. Jordan had a slumber party, and while we did not stay to slumber, we did get to watch the deliciously awful "young guns", a western with a soundtrack that screams "80's!!!" and stars that were probably promising back then but have long since petered out.
Sunday we had planned to go to Joshua Tree, but it rained and rained and going anywhere outdoorsy did not seem like a good idea. So to downtown we went. First stop was the Disney music hall, a recently opened building that looks kind of like the opera of Sidney but then smaller and metallic., really cool in any case. You can walk all around it, and there was a big rose made of smashed up porcelain tiles from holland (we saw some dutch words).
After this we went to Union Station, and to the Los Angeles County Museum of Arts (LACMA). Musea are always a good place to spend a rainy day. There was an exhibition of Arts and Crafts, and there were some African and South American statuettes, some Japanese drawings (in a very nice building)...Actually, we were relieves when we finally found the modern art section. It's strange how things so disrupting can feel so familiar and comfortable.
Sunday night both the siblings were staying over, and we were planning to go to a party. However, as it was already raining so much we were considering building an arch, and with one inch an hour predicted by the weather people, we stayed in instead. Monday morning it was raining still, until, of course, we'd resolved not to go to the Warner Brother studios but to the mall instead: the minute we entered Santa Monica Place, the sun broke through.
After buying some shirts, we drove to Warner Brothers again, then, only to find out all the tours were already full. Warner Brothers and the van Driels apparently weren't meant to be. We decided to go to Long Beach instead, and it was actually worth the drive (oh, it rained again when we were there, but I finally caught on and wore slippers). We saw the Queen Mary, some adorable little shops (Birgit disillusioned me: those big barrels of candy in candy stores? Far from full, there's only a little heap on top), and a double rainbow when the sun made a guest appearance.
That was pretty much it, I think. Jacob was the only one staying over last night, and we just had a calm night in front of the TV. This morning, dad and I made a futile trip to the Tower store (I wanted to get a wristband to see Tori Amos, I'll go tomorrow and see if I'm still one of the first 250) while the others plundered the UCLA store. And now...They're on the plane, *snif*. Well, not really. It was really nice seeing them again, but thanks to the wondrous invention that is the internet, they're never really far away.
Gilmore Girls in 10 minutes. Yes, some old habits do stick.
Cheers,
H.
posted by Hedwig @ 6:15 PM
4 Comments:
At 9:36 AM,
Jessica said…
Happy Birthday, Hedwig! Just found your blog randomly using the "next blog" button and have enjoyed reading your archives. I kept laughing out loud because I'm an American living in Germany and I have experienced all of those things in reverse. Every time you say "crazy Americans" I am thinking either, "yeah, I really miss that" or else "I really appreciate that about Europe!"
I hope you don't mind me reading your blog, but you seem to have grasped the American concept of being welcome at strangers' parties. :-) I have to say, you are having a better time there than I am here. I am also not at University, but working in a small town with no social scene. And definitely no parties.
My only question is why do you speak English so perfectly? I know you don't dub your American movies, which makes a big difference, and I know lots of Dutch people who speak amazing English, but not PERFECT. (I like reading your friends' comments because I can basically understand all of them if I let my mind sort fo mix up German and English. It's fun!)
At 1:35 PM,
Hedwig said…
Hey!
I do not mind you reading my blog at all, actually, I love it when people who don't know me land on it. MAkes me dream that one day I might actually have a readership full of people who read what I write because it's interesting, and not just because they like me ;-)
About the english, I've always been a bit mystified as to why it's so easy for me. I think it's a combination of the not-dubbing, the fact that I did MUN (Model United Nations) in High School, and maybe also the fact that I was brought up bilingual Dutch/French, I think that when there are already two languages cohabitating in your brain, it's easier to fit in another one.
By the way, I hope you don't mind, but I took the liberty to check out your blog, and I like it a lot. Somehow, I recognise a lot of things, and at the same time it's the exact opposite of what I'm living. For example, I am amazed that most people believe in God here, while you seem to be surprised to have to go so out of your way to find a church that suits you.
I think it's the small differences that make you homesick in the end. Today I went to a record store, and noticed that while there are many, many listening posts, much more than in your typical dutch store, all cd's are wrapped, so you can't pick out a random cd and ask to listen to it. It's such a tuny thing you probably wouldn't even notice it on holiday, and I didn't even notice it when I went to record stores before, but it is one of the small things that remind you you're not at home (to make up for that, I bought a CD by a Dutch band, Bettie Serveert).
Anyhow, I'll be keeping up with your blog from now on!
H.
At 1:41 PM,
Jessica said…
I'm linking you on my blog. Maybe a few strangers (well, my friends now, who mostly used to be strangers to me too!) will come adn read what you write just because it's interesting and not because they know you! And it IS interesting!!
At 4:24 PM,
S Tidey said…
Hey Hedwig
Zozo, transatlantische vriendinnetjes! Wat cool! Leuk ook om al jouw belevenissen met je ouders eens uitgebreid te lezen. Sorry dat ik vnvnd niet mee kan naar de film, maar misschien volgende week! Have fun!
=x= Syl
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