Dude! Mexico!

Yep, the trip is booked. 210 dollars for 4 nights in Rosarito, plus bus fare and access to several parties. I'll be sharing a room with Sylvia and Brigid, spend my days sleeping on the beach or by the pool, my nights partying (and mostly observing crazy drunk American students party), and basically living one of the most typically American experiences. Woo! We're leaving on the 26th.

And now, for something completely different...I love my blender! Favorite concoctions so far (but I've tried many more): orange juice with pomelo, and banana/chocolote/yoghurt. Tonight, I bought strawberries, and because I did not have enough money left for ice cream, an In-N-Out vanilla milkshake, I'm curious how that will turn out.

Then...Actually, this is the reason I haven't been updating much: there's just not so much to tell. I mean, I'm not out going to interesting photo shoots (for the dutch speaking: http://sylinla.blogspot.com ), to premieres (as Benson and Don did), to anything interesting really. Not that I'm not having fun. On Sunday I watched the Oscars at Brigid's, on Tuesday I watched Gilmore Girls at Bensons (and spent the rest of the night agonizing over physics homework), yesterday night I watched reality TV (I'm not a big fan, but my housemates are) with my housemates and had leftover wine and chips from my party. But it's all in the routine, all in the standard way of things, and thus, not very interesting. It's also because finals are approaching (I have one on the 15th already, a second on the 16th). Tonight might be: if everything works out, I'm going to my first real frat party.

Well, one thing before I close of then. I'm afraid it's just another "those crazy americans" thing, or "those odd americans" as I'd rather phrase it. It's just a thing I've noticed: Americans are very much aware of someone's race. Now, by that I don't mean racist, not at all. But they seem to consider it to be a vital part of someone. An example: I had to write a paper about an ad in the beginning of the quarter, and I brought my ad to the professor to ask if she had any suggestions. One of the first things she said was: "well, you should probably discuss why she'd black." I'd noticed she was black, probably, but it hadn't really occured to me as something significant. Another example: Sylvia was telling us about the supercute guy she'd met at the photoshoot, about how gorgeous he looked without a shirt and about his amazing smile. Then she showed us a picture. Now, I agreed with her on the torso, that's the first thing I noticed, first thing I gave a thought anyhow. But Lisa took one look at the picture and yelled, "Oh, he's BLACK." Now, let me be extremely clear about this, far be it from me to accuse Lisa of being racist, I know she's not, not at all. It's just that apparently, here, when you talk about someone you mention they're ethnicity, or something. Oh, I know it's not so straightforward, it's also that when a white girl mentions she thought a guy was cute, it's assumed that the guy was white and that if he wasn't, she'd say so. But still...

I know that I'd not really qualified to say anything about this. I know much too little about the history, the background etc. Race was a big issue here, and I realise it still is a big issue. It's just that it surprises me, it's something I don't have much affinity with. Oh, I won't say there aren't race issues in the Netherlands as well, they just tend to center around Arabs (and especially Moroccans) instead of around black people, and seeing how that kind of racism is new rather than old, growing rather then going away...I guess I don't even have anything meaningful to say on the issue, but the racial awareness here is just something I've noticed and thought I'd report, for lack of something more interesting.

Reactions and thoughts are welcome!

Hedwig