Hedwig at UCLA

Back in the Netherlands

2005-06-29T01:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday it was good being back, I missed James but the weather was nice, it was great seeing my family again, and I was hyper all day (which helped me stay awake). It's set in now, though, nobody's home but the help, the weather is grey, and I feel incredibly groggy. I'm glad my job starts next week, because I can't stand doing nothing, and I need something to distract me from thinking about James all the time.

Oh well. At least the last days were fun. As you know, we spent them in the "greatest city in the world" (James managed to make me admit it is as great as Paris, after mucho nagging), and here, at last, is my report.

We arrived on Thursday afternoon. Unexpectedly, I had to fly over Cincinnati instead of directly. It was a little annoying, but on the other hand, it means I have now set foot in 4 states, and it also meant James and I arrived in NY within ten minutes of each other. We took a van service that James' uncle recommended, which used a yellow school bus as a van, and after two hours in traffic we arrived at James' uncle's apartment in the south of the Bronx. The apartment was kind of small and dirty, but the view was amazing: we were right on the border of the Hudson.

In the morning -well, around 1 pm, when I finally managed to wake James up- we took the train to Grand Central Station, which is absolutely gorgeous. Big, with a really nice dining concourse, and over 100 tracks. From there, we walked to the NY library, another building that amazes by it's spaciousness in such a cramped city, where they had a Gutenberg bible. After seeing the library we walked up fifth avenue, seeing many of the famous shops (Tiffany and co. for example) and buildings, and the Rockefeller center. When we came to Central Park we of course went into it, and I have to admit this is where I fell in love with New York. It's great walking in this enormous, huge park, seeing the Bethesda fountain I only knew from the Angels in America opening sequence, and all along seeing sky scrapers sticking out behind the trees.

We spent the evening looking for, first, James' pizza place and, after it turned out it probably had moved, for a pizza place his parents had liked 30 years earlier. Unfortunately, when we finally found it, the pizza wasn't that great. After dinner, we walked to Times Square, which is really something to be experienced. According to my guide, nothing can be built there without neon, and it shows: huge moving bilboards you wouldn't expect outside of Japan, flashing light everywhere, een the subway signs flashed on and off.

We took the subway home, but that turned out not to be too great and idea. The train didn't stop at the station we were supposed to get out, and from the next one it was a long walk back, through a kind of shady neighbourhood.

The following day, for some reason, we left very late, only around four, and didn't arrive at Central Station until five. We bought bread and cheese at the Grand Central market, took the subway to Central Park, and had a very nice breakfast/lunch/dinner in the park. After this we spent about an hour and a half in the metropolitan museum (seeing only a small fraction, it took us fifteen minutes just to find the entrance, that's how big the thing is), and after some searching finally had real, good, NY pizza, pizza that James had been telling me for months is the best in the world.

Sunday was the big money spending day. First we did the Circle Line cruise, a three-hour boat tour around Manhattan. The guide was entertaining (though not always 100% accurate, as far as I know, "Yankee" isn't the Dutch word for "Johnny"), and it was amazing seeing the skyline for real. Of course, seeing the Statue of Liberty was really cool too. After the tour was over, we walked to the Empire State Building and -after an hour in line- went to the top. Unfortunately James got really bad vertigo up there, but I absolutely loved it. It was dark by then, and Manhattan was a sea of light. My favorite sky scraper, the Crysler building, looked especially gorgeous, but i was also the sheer scale of the island that was imposing.

We had dinner on Times Square, unfortunately at a chain, bought hard lemonade and went to James' uncle's home for the last time, staying up as long as we could (we were planning on staying up all night, but we were just too tired) to enjoy as much time together as possible. Around two, James went with me to JFK, and we had to say goodbye.

I'm not going to whine too much about how I miss him, but I do. A lot.

I loved New York, and I'm determined to go back. I mean, I have seen nothing of Lower Manhattan yet, and I feel like I only caught a glimpse of what there is to do and see there.

I had the best six month stretch in my life during this exchange. It's going to be hard to get re-adjusted to my life here, but I'm sure I'll manage. I'll cherish the memories I made forever, as corny as that sounds. I had a blast, and I want to thank everyone who made it so great, not just James but the whole 1-0-5 crew, my apartment mates, my professors for interesting classes, etc.

Interested in what I'll do from now? It will probably be much less exciting, but I'll update from time to time on the 105 blog. Also, I'm planning on making at least one more update on this blog, to tell you about my short trip to San Franciso.

Cheers, and thanks for reading!

Hedwig

NY!

2005-06-26T11:59:00.000-07:00

I don't have time for a full update, but I just wanted to let you all know: I'm safely in NY and it rules!!!

Only five more days now...

2005-06-22T15:45:00.000-07:00

I don't wanna go I don't wanna go I don't wanna go...

I mean, thanks mom for trying to make me feel better about coming back, reminding me of apple pie and rose, but I don't wanna go...

Oh well. I think it's just that I hate how everything is ending. Thursday night I stayed up until five in the morning to finish my final paper. James stayed up until eight to finish his, and slept only for two hours. Friday I stressed out moving out, going to James' commencement ceremony in between (Umberto Eco was there, but the favorite speaker seemed to be Cookie Monster), checking out finally at 9:30 pm, half an hour before the deadline, only to find James missing. He didn't answer his door (even if I'd phoned him and told him I'd be there in 10 minutes), didn't answer his phone, nobody had seen him...As he'd had a big fight with his parents before, I was afraid he'd gone out somewhere, wandering around. When I came back from checking if he was maybe in my apartment and being confronted with a closed door and the realisation that I really couldn't live there any more, I rang his doorbell many times out of frustration, and this managed to drag him out of the coma he'd apparently fallen in.

Saturday morning we had to get up early: graduation! It is unbelievable how many history graduates there are at UCLA; according to the speaker, it is the biggest history department in the country and possibly in the whole world. James doesn't really finish college until the end of summer quarter, but he got to walk this saturday. The names of hundreds and hundreds of graduates were called, and finally..."James Kennedy"; and he got his 5 seconds on the stage. Oh well. He looked cute in his outfit, and I am glad I could be there.

The Graduate & Me

After graduation James parents took us to lunch, and after a little bit of shopping in Santa Monica we went back to James' apartment, where a huge task awaited us: packing. So much stuff... The short version is James stayed up until 6 packing (I felt sick around 2 am from finishing off all the frozen foods, and went to bed), screwed up his lower back in the process (packing all books in one box is not very wise), and we still weren't done.

I'll make a long, long, interminable story short again: we spent all day packing and moving. James couldn't move into his sublet until tuesday, but he could already put his stuff there, and James was able to check out about ten minutes to the 10 pm deadline.

The problem was, Tidey, Bridie, Jordy, Max and Martin were leaving on their roadtrip somewhere that Sunday night, and I really wanted to say goodbye. Another problem was that during lunch at South Street on Sunday, I'd left behind my phone, and some $(&^(@#* asshole took it (my only consolation is that I had only 80 cents of phone credit left). This meant the only phone numbers we had were Jordy's and Max's, and neither was answering their phone.

We didn't really want to risk taking one of the last busses to go to Bridie's if there was a chance of them already being gone, and we were homeless after check-out, so we decided we wouldn't go, and see Batman Begins instead. Guess what happened during previews? Jordy called, and we decided to walk out and go to Bridie's anyway. We even managed to get a refund, and to catch the last bus to Bridie's...The first of the two busses you have to take, anyway. The second? Unfortunately, we had to take a taxi, but it was worth it: we got to spend about half an hour to say goodbye, and I'm very able I was able to. From Bridie's, we took another cab to James' parents' hotel, where they had kindly reserved a room for us, and collapsed.

We didn't do much on Monday, which was probably good: James really needed to relax, and I could use for rest too. I tried an ice-cream float, which, to my great surprise, actually tasted good (it's a scoop of vanilla ice-cream in soda, in my case in coke). In the evening, some of James' friends came down from Palm Springs, and we had a good time with them, first at dinner, then in the hooka bar in Westwood.

Yesterday we checked out of the hotel, went to James' new apartment, and walked to the UCLA store to sell back my books. With the money, I bought a New York City guide. My parents already gave me a thin, handy one for my birthday when they were here, but this one's more meaty, for reading in at night in preparation for the next day. We drove a bit up the coast, had seafood for dinner, and unfortunately had a bad surprise when we came back to the apartment: there had been a "miscommunication", and this meant Jams would not have a bed when he would come back from New York. All this, of course, didn't really contribute to relaxation

We watched a movie in the hotel with James' parents, and headed back to the apartment. We had to move some boxes, and unfortunately James hurt his back again, worse this time, and the pain persisted until the next day. He's ok now, thanks to painkillers mostly, but I hope he'll be ok tomorrow when we have to wake up at 4 to catch our respective planes. He flies at 8, I fly at 9, and tomorrow afternoon? We'll be in New York! We'll be staying at James' uncle's place, in the Bronx just across from Manhattan.

I'll post my adventures soon!

11 days to go

2005-06-17T01:23:00.000-07:00

These last weeks are passing so quickly, I can't believe it. I don't wanna leave yet, but at the same time, some things make me uneasy about staying, too. The four (4!) earthquakes we've had in the past week for example. I haven't actually felt any of them, true, but still, two of them were big enough to be reported on nu.nl, and one of them elicited a tsunami warning (quickly withdrawn, but still). So yeah, being on the West coast in a week doesn't sound that bad after all.

Of couse, I'm also starting to miss home. Mom wasn't feeling too well lately, and I felt bad about being away, my great aunt died and I had no opportunity to say goodbye, and after seeing the pictures from graduation at UCU and the picnic afterwards I must admit I felt homesick.

Then again, I'm having so much fun here. I'm not just talking about James (but, trust me, we're having plenty of fun), but also all the friends I've made here and all the things we do together. Like going to see "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", an absolutely perfect mindless popcorn-flick I would definitely recommend, especially with a big group. Or like, for example, the undierun, which you have all seen the pictures of. Suffice to say, it took some alcohol to get us out of our clothes, and alcohol and running…not an advisable combo. It was very much fun though, worth the twenty bucks that the panties cost.

I will miss getting drunk among my friends, talking with people from Ireland, New-Zealand, France all at once. Brigid and Sylvia each had a book for people to write messages in, and for a moment I felt like being very derivative and getting a blank book too, but then I came up with another nice idea. The idea is: I would like everyone to send me a touristic post card from their hometown (or else their university town), inscribed with whatever. If you feel like contributing, the address I would like them sent to:

(erased)

I’m looking forward to having crrrazy pictures from New Zealand, girls in G-strings with “Brisbane” on their butts, etc.

I’m drunk now from Sylvia’s fab party, and I’m going to see how its continuation in 105 goes. Don’t forget to check out the new communal blog, 1-0-5.blogspot.com !

Cheers, bitches!

Hedwig

2005-06-16T01:16:00.000-07:00

Sylvia in her porn-star pose..and of course me and the jamester.

2005-06-13T18:23:00.000-07:00

The butt of my undierun panties

2005-06-10T21:27:00.000-07:00

His cuteness himself (aka. James)

2005-06-06T00:25:00.000-07:00

Red Rock, the american way (from the car)

Vegas Baby!

2005-06-05T22:25:00.000-07:00

I'll just summarize my not writing lately to this: I don't really know why I haven't been writing, and I apologize. Too much has happened to put in one post, but that's good news for you: I'll be putting those online bit by bit over the coming two weeks. For now, I'll just tell you about my past weekend, in Vegas with Dad.

The thing is, Dad works in Houston every once in a while, and even before I went to L.A., he proposed 'hopping over' sometime. Not really realizing that he would have to hop 1400 miles (+/- 2200 km). He did finally do it this weekend, and vegas was our destination. We drove, of course, in an SUV, a white jeep, because as he says, in America, you have to do as the americans do (plus, he kinda likes big cars).

It took us about two hours to get away from L.A., friday traffic being friday standing still, but after that the ride was pretty smooth, and arrived on the strip we immediately located our hotel, the "Tropicana" (the big neon letters on the facade were a give-away). We also immediately saw a big black pyramid with a shaft of light coming out of the top, many weird towers, and the statue of liberty. Yes, we were in Las Vegas. And our room offered us a view of the MGM, the Excalibur (the place with all the strangely colored towers) and the NYNY.

That night we explored our hotel (not very interesting, lots of slot machines and tables), the NYNY (nice on the outside, pretty much the same on the inside, or at least what we saw of it that night was), the MGM (big lion outside, biggest bronze statue in the world apparently, invisible lions inside, not much else), and walked a bit along the strip. Dad was of course very jetlagged, and I was quite tired too, so we went to bed early.

On Saturday morning, we woke up early, around 8, and started walking. In the sunlight, everything looked very different. The Excalibur looked even tackier, but the statue of liberty looked quite nice.

Warning: not really New York. You'll see those pictures in about three weeks

We walked over the Brooklyn Bridge (according to my handy little travel guide, many more people walk over this one each year than traverse the real one) and after some steady walking ended up near the Eiffel tower. Wonderful, isn't it, being able to walk from NY to Paris? It was quite nicely recreated too, the opera was there too, and inside they recreated the feel of paris pretty well, although they had paid surprisingly little attention to langue ("Eiffel tour" it said, for example, on a street sign). We had a very nice breakfast with french coffee, pains au raisin and little baguettes there and on we went, walking more, to see other casinos. We took a picture on the steps of the Bellagio, bought souvenirs and ended up at the Venetian. It was convenient to have the san Marco tower and the Rialto bridge next to one another, and the gondolers were very good. The canals ran into the casino also, where there was -as in the Paris- a beautifully painted fake indoor sky, a recreation of the san marco square, opera singing costumed people, a living statue of Dante, and real venice masks. We had lunch there, looking out onto the square, and afterwards slowly made our way back to the hotel.

We wanted to see something besides neon and slot machines also, so we drove to Red Rock Canyon and did the scenic drive there. Red rock canyon is pretty much, as the name implies, red rock, but it is beautiful and we made many great pictures (see above).

At night we had tickets for a comedy show, but unfortunately it turned out the comedy was in a bar, meaning I couldn't go in. We considered going to "Zumanity", a cirque du soleil show, but I wasn't allowed in there either because it featured "sexual content" (yes, at twenty, I can't possible handle anything of a sexual nature. And while flyers for "hot one-on-one action" are handed out in the street, I can't see an erotic acrobatic show). We ended up having a very nice dinner at the Irish pub, with live irish music, and even jog dancing, by a girl who, admirably, kept her smile firmly fixed on her face while dancing like crazy.

We went home early this morning, because dad had to catch his flight. We did make one stop at the ghost town of calico, a miner's town that's been entirely commercialised, but is still fun to see ( a cowboy tipped his hat at me). There was a saloon, a photo shop and everything, it was a perfect stop along the way.

Back in L.A., we had lunch at Chili's with James and we went back to the rental place with dad (I've become a pretty good navigator apparently).

That was it for Vegas. Updates about San Franciso, surfing, parties, films, James, underpants and more will soon follow (I hope).

Sorry to have kept you waiting so long!

Hedwig

Writer's block

2005-05-08T13:41:00.000-07:00

I like writing this blog. I really do. And I have things to tell again, which is good, meaning I have actually done things besides studying and being distracted from studying by a certain boy. But then I open the blogger page, see the indicated in the title box blinking, and my mind goes blank.

I mean, I had an angle for this thing, relatively worked out even, I was going to talk about the joy of material possessions...but then so many things didn't fit it. I mean, it fit that my books made me so happy, that the one I've read so far (the polysyllabic spree) made me want to be Nick Hornby, even if, as James pointed out, he's bald and middle-aged. My DVD's certainly would fit in, of Before Sunrise and especially my Firefly-the complete series-DVD of which James and I have already watched 9 episodes. And while he tried to resist, he likes it :-D

James' coffemaker would have fit in too, it's really cool, you can program it to start brewing just before you wake up in the morning, and it's certainly saved James a lot of Starbucks money. But well, so many much cooler things wouldn't have fit within this theme, and there are many things besides material possessions that make me happy.

Oh well. Step by step then. Last weekend...No, not a good idea, last weekend was mostly a lot of hanging around in James' appartment, trying to get a Queen's day dinner of the ground, but failing miserably because everyone (including me and James) had studying to do. We decided to move said dinner to Thursday (also a Dutch holiday, after all), and it was great. Pumpkinsoup, really good pancakes made my Sylvia's mom (her parents and sister are over), and mangomash (from my mother's recipe). We played Dutch music, danced the polonaise and generally made the few non-Dutch people wonder how we could possible ended up as relatively sane as we are. Afterwards some people went to the Century Club, but I decided to be boring and stay in.

Friday we did go out. Jordan told us in the afternoon that he was going to a concert by Goldenhorse, a Kiwi band, with John (also from New-Zealand), and we tagged along. The concert was held in a club called "the Mint" which had a very relaxed atmosphere. It was 21 and over, of course, but the bouncer let Jordan and me in after drawing big black crosses on both our hands with permanent marker (I can still kind of see mine). First there was a band with a french-language singer, which was ok but a bit boring, and after that Goldenhorse took the stage. They were good, very energetic and with a very good singer. James bought me their CD, and I've already listened to it three times.

After Goldenhorse a girl started singing. After a while, we looked to our left and...Jordan and John were gone. Through some texting we found out where they were..."upstairs". Upstairs was not easy to be found, but turned out to be the band room, incredibly tacky a la American, with walls in red, blue, yellow, chandeliers with plastic hangers etc. It was a lot of fun just sitting there and talking, though, so that's what we did until one or so.

On Saturday James wanted to finally get a new phone. The Verizon store was on Wilshire somewhere, in the direction of Santa Monica...It took us an hour and twenty minutes. It took us the same time to get the phone, thanks to the fabulous inefficiency of the Verizon people. We'd walked so far we felt we could walk more, and walked all the way to Third Street Promenade where we had a delicious (and well-deserved) dinner. We looked the distance up afterwards: apparently we'd walked over 8 miles. Needless to say, we took the bus back.

We were already in bed, around 2, when Sylvia rang. She and Brigid were downstairs, Jordan wasn't here yet, and they wanted to get in. They hung around here for about half an hour, greatly amusing in their dunkenness, then left. Did we sleep then...Not exactly. Jordan, about half an hour later, still thinking Tidey and Bridie were here, knocked on our door, and of course, tired as we were...we agreed to join him and two tridelts for a game of cranium. I won't say exactly what it is, suffice to say clay is involved (and we lost).

As you understand, I have to go study now. *sigh*

Hedwig

Busy, busy, busy

2005-04-28T09:44:00.000-07:00

When your friends start asking you for signs of life, you know you've been neglecting your blog. This time, it's not even that I don't have anything to tell, I have quite a bit to tell actually, but the truth is, I now understand why the standard amount of courses here is three. It's a very simple reason, really. Four is just too much *insert expletive here* work.

And I don't really want to drop any of them either. History of the American Motion Picture is so cool I didn't even mind working my ass of on the paper that was due yesterday, Cosmology and Particle astrokphysics is frustrating because I don't understand it one bit, but it's fascinating, Biophysics is a lot of work but it's not too hard, it's interesting, and it makes me practice my basic physics skills, and with francophone cinema we watch a lot of gripping movies (the last one was "La Haine", which seriously left me silent for ten minutes) and (probably because I haven't been doing the reading so far) it's not that much work.

Oh well, back to what I had to tell. Last Fridat night, Lisa was kind enough to give us (= James and I) a ride to San Diego when she went there with a friend. As you have maybe read on Sylvia's blog, she'd gone there last weekend, and loved it. Stefan was kind enough to let us crash on his (very comfortable) couches, en even to show us around town on Saturday. It was nice (and a little odd) to see him again, to talk with someone from UC again face to face. It'll probably be odd too when I come back, but I'm sure that'll pass.

On Saturday we took the bus and made a couple of stops, the first one at La Jolla coves. The weather was, luckily, much better than predicted, and we got to say all kind of animals, including:

Sunbathing Seals

The next stop was at Mission Beach, a very, very, very long and beautiful beach we walked along for a while, then walked back to go to IHop for a very late lunch. It was nice, but I still miss Dutch pannenkoeken.

The last stop was at Old Town. I didn't love it as much as Sylvia did, but it was one more example of the strange American esthetic based on the principle that fake things are somehow more true that real ones. Seriously, Stefan had a picture of the inside of a schoolbuilding there that had "85% original material" on the blackboard :-| The concept of Old Town is that that's the place where "California was born", where the first settllers lived, but if they did it certainly wasn't in the fake "authentic" building standing there. I'm glad I went though, it certainly is something special.

The bad thing about taking the bus is that it takes forever, but the good thing is you get to see a lot, and I think I got the "feel" of San Diego. It's a much more laid-back, relaxed city than LA, and I can imagine that living there could be great.

After the tour of San Diego we were invited to a Lacrosse game by a friend of James. She was on the girls' team, but the match we watched was the men's team. To my surprise, it was actually quite fun to see guys hitting each other with sticks, and in the last five minutes, when San Diego first lost the advantage they had so far, then came back and won the game with 13-11 (I think). People were very fanatic, girls screaming "kill him!", guys chanting, very annoyingly, "thri-ller, thri-ller", and all in all it was a fun experience.

Back at Stefan's, we watched Blade Runner (one more classic I can strike off the list of classic I still have to see) and went to bed. Lisa came to pick us up at ten the following morning as she had to be back in time for work, and around 1 we were back in Westwood.

That afternoon, we caught the last two hours of the huge "festival of books" that was taking place on campus. And...I found the McSweeney's booth, and got "The Polysyllabic Spree" by Nick Hornby and "How We Are Hungry" by Dave Eggers for 20 bucks! I was giddy like a five-year old, James was much amused.

Monday night we went to a free screening of "The Man Who Wasn't There", one of my favorite films. Not only did it look even more glorious on the big screen, but Roger Deakins, the cinematographer, was there, and asnwered some questions. Sometimes I wish I had four lives, even if there seem to be too few hours in a day to lead even one. I wish I could be a cinematographer, I mean, it has the perfect blend of artisticness and technical details. Oh well. I can dream.

The rest of the week was spent mostly on my paper, and on various physics homeworks (for my two physics classes, but also my weekly tutoring of Lisa). So: boring. But I still love it here, and the end of the quarter is much too nearby.

Cheers,

Hedwig

Outside of classes

2005-04-16T11:24:00.000-07:00

So, last time I told you all about my classes, but, even if I do have four courses and quite a few hours of class, don't worry, I'm still having a lot of fun outside of classes, I can assure you. First of all, walking over campus has never been this fun. The weather is finally really and consistently good, and, believe it or not, I'm actually getting a tan without burning! Yes, you read that right.

Also, the campus is just a wonderful place. I couldn't quite put a finger on what exactly it was before, but during a conversation with a German girl who was leaving after being here for a year it finally hit me: the campus is just so alive, so evolving all the time and full of energy.

I mean, for example, two days ago there was a strike by the workers here on campus, just the way a strike should with the walking in a circle, yelling "what do we want?" (followed by something unintelligible), "when do we want it?" "NOW!". Another example: this week the two dollar movie was "hotel Rwanda" (harrowing, but very good), and afterwards, the committee for action in Darfur was waiting for us to urge us to take action.

It's not just the activities, though, or the bustling on Bruin Walk, it's also that with the sun shining so many people are lying in the grass and walking around that campus is like one big living breathing animal.

I do get off campus sometimes, to go to Westwood (to see Sin City, for example, or to go to the Famer's market on Thursday, but often also just to walk around) and, lately, also to go to Santa Monica, which has become my favorite shopping place. Not that I buy that much, lately just two very nice shirts at the Gap and one sweater-jacket, oh, and "the Waste Land and Other Poems", but it's nice just walking around, looking around, spending two hours at Barnes and Noble with the boyfriend (yes people, I found someone who can spend as much time browsing in a book store as me), looking at the sunset from the pier...

Also off-campus, but this is already two weeks ago now, we went to Magic Mountain (=Six Flags), which was very very cool, and very very cold when we'd stayed until the end and waited for Maximo (who was kind enough to drive us back and forth) until 11. It's warm during the day, but at night...it can still get very cold, especially when all you have on is a short-sleeved blouse (or, in James' case, shorts and flip-flops). It was worth it though, the Goliath was amazing, the Scream a lot of a fun, and others looked so scary (esp. the déja-vu) that I passed.

Aside from that...Well, I'll be honest with you. I am in love, and much of my time is spent just hanging around at James' apartment. There will be even more of that going on in the coming weeks, as his roommate is on some trip to Ecuador.

I know I haven't said that much about James here, but that's because what I want to say would probably make you gag. Yes, people, he has turned this thoroughly cynical girl into a full-blown sap. I don't want to turn this blog sappy, so if you want more information and are willing to stand the sappyness, just e-mail me.

That's all, basically. Life is back to the routine, but it's a routine I love, filled with movies (in classes, but also at Ackerman, besides "Hotel Rwanda" I saw a sneak of "Sahara" and, finally, "Sideways") and sun and fun.

I don't want to leave...

Hedwig

Finally, then!

2005-04-14T13:30:00.000-07:00

No, I am not dead.

No, Larry isn't either.

Then why haven't I updated you ask? Well...Browser crashings, little to tell, and much time spent with a certain very cute American boy, probably. Also, I'm just a lazy bastard.

As I don't even remember what happened exactly each day, so I'll just go by theme. The first thing, of course, being classes. Yes, school has started again, it's almost the end of week two even (time flies), so, what about those classes?

My only true physics class this quarter is "Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics". Yes, that is scary. The professors themselves confess to playing it "good, cop, bad cop". The good cop is my professor from last quarter, Katsushi (yes, this makes me laugh), a little excited japanese man who mostly likes showing us nice pictures on overheads at top speed. The bad cop is a very young russian theorist called Alexander Kusenko, who writes frightening equations on the board but then explains them really well. Also, today he wore a glow in the dark T-shirt about dark matter. My kind of geek.

I also have a kinda physics course. By which I mean a Biophysics course. It's nice and quaint, getting back to Newton's laws and formula's like "in equilibrium the net torque = 0". The teacher is Dutch, coincidentally, so even 6000 miles from home I can't get away from Dutch accents, I mean it, they're pursuing me: yesterday on Discovery Channel, after Mythbusters (aka. the show that makes me want to be one of those bearded, bespectabled, big-bellied nerds), there was an "extreme engineering" show about Holland's battle against water, filled to the brim with Dutch-accented English.

And then...enough of the science courses, on to film courses. Well...one of them is actually a little bit of a social science course. See, when I subscribed for "French Cinema", I thought it would be about Truffaut, Godard, Chabrol etc. What I found out during the first class was that it was actually "Francophone Cinema", and that the main topic was colonialism and (mostly) the immigration problematic in France and Great Britain. So far, we've watched "The Battle of Algiers" and "Inch-Allah Dimanche". I've decided to stick with the course even if it isn't about the great french directors, the topic is very relevant and gripping, and it's nice being taught in French again, even if it is overly slow and articulated French.

My last course is "History of the American Motion Picture". And you wanna know the coolest thing about it? It's taught in an actual movie theatre. Well, there is an even cooler thing about it: after seeing Casablanca so often on DVD that I can say most of the lines before the characters, I'm finally going to see it on a big screen. So far, we've watched "Singing in the Rain" (which was pretty much just filler for the first class, and I'd watched it with my film class last semester as well, but who cares), various short films by Thomas Edison and the Lumière brothers (my favorite was an Edison short called "cat boxing". The title was meant to be taken literally), some famous somewhat longer, edited shorts, notably Meliès' "a trip to the moon" and Edwin S. Porter's "The great train robbery", a D.W.Griffith film and three comedies, one of them Charlie Chaplin's "the Kid" (and boy was that kid cute) and also Buster Keaton's "Sherlock Jr."

So much for courses. Next update, hopefully to be up soon, what have I been doing outside of class?

Until then,

Hedwig

P.S. All Dutch speakers should check out my dear friends' yearbook entry here. I miss them.

A relatively safe trip across the border. Most of the time.

2005-04-01T09:16:00.000-08:00

Yes people, here it finally is, the big Mexico update. Let me just get the big questions you all must have out of the way. No, I did not dance in a cage wearing a short skirt with a g-string underneath (although, trust me, plenty were, one, apparently, even without the g-string, with just a sticker on her ass). No, I did not end up sleeping with a random guy in the spa (though again, some did. One of us even went a little way in that direction...but I'll leave that for that person to tell). No, I did not flash anyone, not on purpose anyhow (damn you, bikini).

But then, the answer to the biggest question of them all: did I have fun? Absofuckinlutely!

Oh, seriously, it was so amazing. The american girls thing was just luridly fascinating, I mean, those spring break videos definitely have to need to exaggerate anything. The things these girls do...I'd be passed out before I ever drank enough to do them. It makes me wonder whether they actually thing they're having fun doing this, or only make themselves believe they are because they're supposed to.

Trust me, girls, there's plenty fun to be had without getting plastered and/or naked. Not that we didn't get drunk. Or partially undressed.

So, what did a typical Rosarito day look like? Wake up at ten, look in vain for the promised free breakfast (the travelling company promised much, but delivered, well, nothing), end up having a huge breakfast as Abuelita, lie by the pool/sit in the spa, take a nap in the afternoon (we napped a lot, and liked it so much we've all decided to make it a habit. Of course, for Maximo it already was), and then at night, burritos at "Macho Taco" and...Well, you're expecting "PARTY!", I know, but we didn't party, exactly, most of the nights. The first night we sat in the spa for hours, as I think I mentionned in the last post. The second night we did go out, to Club Iggy's. That's where we first saw the cage dancing, and came to the realization that American girls really have no shame. American guys don't have much either, though, dozens were lining up below the cage staring up, and others came up to girls (including me) and just started grinding away. Ugh. Not very appealing, not to me anyhow.

But, I have to admit, the party was a lot of fun. We went out of our minds to "hey ya" and especially to "Gasolina" (a very disgusting spanish song whose main lyric, "Dame Gasolina", literally means "give me gas" and more metaphorically "fill me up"), a song we've all grown to love in the past few days.

Talking of songs, incidentally, we had an IPod and two little speakers in the room, and it was great. I really want to have an IPod now that I've discovered how fantastic the interface is, I really love the little wheel, I think it's one of the smartest, user-friendliest things invented recently.

But, back to partying, that night at Iggy's was great. The following night we also wanted to party, and we went to Papas and Beer at eight already because we'd been promised a free dinner buffet. Guess what? There was a dinner buffet, but for "another group from mexicospringbreak.com". Bullshit. If there was another group, where were they? We decided to boycot Papas and Beer as a result, and ended up finishing a whole bottle of bacardi (combined with coke) playing "I never". Now, this is a very instructive game. And it gets more and more instructive, and revealing, as the players got drunk. But: what happens in 1217 stays in 1217, so you will get nothing from me.

Around 1 we decided to call it quits, but couldn't really sleep. Maximo and Jordan ended up going out, while Sylvia, Brigid and I had a really fantastic conversation in the dark. Really a great conversation. Around three, the boys came back, Sylvia sang her usual lullaby to Jordan, and all of a sudden it was our last full day already.

We spent it mostly by the pool again, a little on the beach, a little in the small streets behind the facade of the main street. I bought an awesome cowboyish hat and an even awesomer mobster trench coat, Jordan got himself an entire new wardrobe, and Sylvia got her hair braided. It looks extremely cool now, Sylvia looks like she belongs in Hawai. We also found a great little show that sold A4 size schoolroom posters, you know, the one full of images detailing history, science etc. I bought one of the skeleton of the human body and one of the discovery of the atom. All in Spanish, of course. They also had really cool little pulp (and porn) comic novels. I bought one called "amor assasino".

Back in our room Jordy and Maximo showed what truly great guys they are. Maximo gave a wondeful little speech about how great spring break had been and how great it was to spend it with this particular group (I think everyone agreed completely with him on that) and they gave us matching necklaces, with five little sea shells in a star shape to symbolize the five of us. Ain't that fantastic?

At night things were a little less rosy, unfortunately. Jordan couldn't find his credit card, and Maximo couldn't find his 80 dollars emergency money. Calling New Zealand from Rosarito to get the card blocked was, as you can imagine, not that easy. We spent some time in the room of some nice Germans (yes, they exist) we met on the bus playing more drinking games, this time with cards, but by that time I was a bit tired of Bacardi and Coke and even alcohol in general (getting drunk three nights in a row is plenty for me), so I didn't really join in. After a while we went out to Papas and Beer, but after getting there I realised I really felt to tired to party, I went back to the hotel and was able to sleep four wonderful hours alone in bed. Ahhhh, that was good...Because you see, five people in two queen size beds? It's cosy, sure, it's gezellig, but it's not all that comfy.

Thursday we were sad to have to go, but it took us much less time that we thought to long for home. See, first the bus was late. Half an hour late. Then, close to the border, it hit a taxi.

Yes, you read that right. We hit a taxi. And I'm telling you, that taxi was not in good shape. To make a long story short, we stood still again for about fourty minutes, drove the 2 minutes it took to get to the border from there and? Stood still for at least half an hour again. Getting through the border wasn't actually that difficult, we just had to drag our bags through and show our passports, but the waiting was gruesome, especially since our bus had no air conditioning.

Now, I'm betting you think that once we passed the border all was easy and quick? Well, you think wrong, my friend. See, first there was bad traffic, so we moved very slow. Then we stopped by the side of the freeway, and well, didn't move any more at all. For about three hours. Waiting for another bus, coming from LA (and traffic was even worse in that direction) to pick us up, because apparently the accident hadn't left the bus entirely unharmed, and there was something wrong with the tire. To be honest, listening to the groaning of the gear box, I didn't have much faith in the bus to begin with.

To make a long story short, the trip that took us 3 hours on the way to Rosarito took us ten hours on the way back, and it wasn't until after nine that we finally got back home. Strange, that a foreign city can become "home" so quickly, feel so familiar.

Then tonight, hopefully, I'm off again, this time to palm springs, seeing James again (finally).

On a sidenote, it's April 1st today, which doesn't just mean april fools day, but also that I've been here three months. Three months. I really don't want to leave yet...These past three months were amazingly awesome, and I'm sure the next three will be just as great. And then, back to the netherlands, boring nine to five job? *groan*

Well, I guess I'll just enjoy myself while it lasts.

Cheers,

Hedwig

P.S. The title of this post was the motto of the bus company Jordan and Maximo used to get to Mexico and back, but seeing our trip back, it applies to ours a lot better.

P.P.S. For pictures: www.sylinla.blogspot.com . For a report from another perspective www.briginla.blogspot.com. Yes, blogging is contagious.

Mexico Dude!

2005-03-28T15:49:00.001-08:00

First of all, a note to the parents: do not worry, I am fine, I have just been a little too busy lately to post and mail. Actually,that's not true, I am not fine, I am very good, I am in Mexico and it rules (despite a drawback I'll get to later).

Ehm, where shall I start...I'm thinking I'll go for impressionistic today, I really do not feel like a dry and boring account of my visit to Universal Studios, the trip here, what we've done so far.

Impressions then. The strange aethetic of pop culture has stayed with me lately, nickolodeon figures side by side with the terminator, street facades you realise suddenly you've seen in countless movies figuring as countless towns, and the fact that time travel dilemmas are now assumed to be common knowledge. Even here in Mexico: Che is everywhere, but then so are spiderman costumes and Mr. Incredible pinatas.

Two hours after we got to Rosarito, in true Spring Break style, we were already drunk on one dollar beers- some more than others (in true Spring Break style, Jordan threw up within a day in Rosarito)- from Arturo's cafe. So drunk, in fact, that parying didn't appeal to us that much that night, so there was just much listening to loud music, jumping on beds, and sitting in the spa for hours, even after the jets had stopped until the water was cold and we shivered running back to the room only to find out there was no more hot water to shower with. Cold in Mexico, we managed it, and this morning of course Brigid jinxed us by saying "at least it's not raining" when the promised free breakfast turned out to be cancelled, and it rained.

It rained. In Mexico. Sylvia suggested we should go to Africa and make the people there very happy.

Luckily, " at least the sun's not shining" turned out to work too a little later, and we laid by the pool in the sun. Shopping was next and the back streets reminded me of Morocco, but so commercialised, and without the smell. The smell goes, I think, when Subway's and Blockbuster move in, when in some stores you can't even pay with pesos, just with dollars. The smell goes when little kids on the street start selling you chewing gum.

Those little kids make me so sad. Dirty faces, no sense of play in them, no sense of mischief, just pleading eyes. It makes you feel guilty of being so careless and rich, of being able to go to another country just to get drunk(American girls are annoying, on the bus " like, my goal for tonight is to black out", another, in the street "Papa's and Beer is my only reason for being here", sad. The cream of the crop from the mightiest country on earth.), just because you can.

The drawback, then, I need to say something about that because it's lingering in the back of my mind all the time, even when signing at the top of my lungs, even when closing my eyes and enjoying the sun: James had no passport or California ID, just his driver's license, and apparently that's not enough to go to Mexico. Well, not enough to come back: we weren't even checked when we went across the border, but there was a very, very long line of cars waiting on the road to the other side. So, he is not here now, might be wednesday or even tomorrow but is not now, and it sucks.

I do have to say, however, that aside from this ommission the company I'm in could not be better. I'm here with Brigid, Sylvia, Maximo (whose Spanish works wonders) and Jordan, and we're having a blast.

Now, to close off with, a quote: "we really have to get fucked tonight".

Yes Brigid, sure you were talking about getting drunk.

Greetings from Rosarito!

Hedwig

Undie run

2005-03-24T01:14:00.000-08:00

Sylvia, Brigid and I are just full of plans.

It's not just that we're having a nice nd of quarter dinner tomorrow night with oreo milkshakes as desert. It's not even that we're planning to celebrate Sinterklaas' half-birthday on the 5th of June. But now, it seems we're going to order panties with "Godverdomme" on the ass on Neighbourhoodies and participate in the undie run at the end of spring quarter.

Oh well. At least it will be warmer then. Maximó sure looked cold ("damn, it's so cold my nipples are hard"), although Willem (and many others) seemed to have imbibed enough alcohol not to care about the freezing wind. Or about wearing the most ridiculous outfits. Or about basically the entire concept of taking off most of your clothes, shout a lot, and run though the streets.

But it was fun! So much fun, to see in any case. There must have been more than 2oo people in their underwear (or in diapers, beerboxes, capes), counting down to midnight and then running down Landfair. And there were certainly about 200 more spectators, hoping to catch a glimpse of a nipple with their digital camera's (Mads had a big grin on his face as he showed us the results), or just marveling at how wonderfully funny crazy customs can be.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering? Pictures should be up soon, as soon as I get them from Brigid, Sylvia and Mads actually (I did not, unfortunately, have my own camera with me, but it's not that good with low light conditions anyway).

Anything else to report aside from undie run? Well, not really, aside from the little fact that...I'm DONE!

Almost, in any case. For Physics I need to grade all the papers and presentations (everyone has to), which mostly means reading through a big packet of physics gibberish. Luckily it's pretty interesting gibberish. My presentation seemed to go well in any case, that is, if I can trust the guy who came up to me afterwards saying I was one of the few people who seemed to know what they were talking about (just shows how well I can bluff).

It's late, and despite the fact that I'm done, I have to get up early in the morning (waxing. *yikes*). So, to bed with me!

Cheers,

Hedwig

Raining again...

2005-03-22T15:12:00.000-08:00

Sunny California? Pshaw. And the forecast in Rosarito for Saturday might be sunny, but with a maximum temperature of 14 degrees...Oh well. I'll stay the eternal optimist and believe that by sunday afternoon, when we will get to Rosarito, it will be not only sunny but warm, too.

Plus, somehow, when you're almost done with the quarter rain doesn't matter that much. Two courses down, one to go! I even already have the grade for my Film and TV class, and guess what? It's an A+!

*does a little jig*

I did the final for Human Genetics this morning, and I think I did ok, I should have at least 200 of the 250 points. For Physics I rounded off my paper yesterday and I have to give my presentation (on supersymmetry, a topic I wouldn't recommend to anyone) tomorrow.

Then, at 1 (or, seeing how presentation sessions always last longer, around 2)....DONE! And that's when the fun starts: we're picking up our tickets at 3, getting our legs and bikini line waxed on thursday morning, having a "yay! Finals are over!" party Thursday night, and on Sunday we leave for the (hopefully) sunny beaches in Mexico.

It's actually a miracle I managed to survive finals so well -so far anyway- since I've been, ahem, a little bit distracted. I don't want to make it a habit to put too many details about such things on this blog, but suffice to say I wouldn't say any more now that I just don't find American guys interesting. 'Cause there's at least one that is :-D

Hm, rumble rumble now, this is a thunderstorm it seems. Hopefully it'll clear up the air and make way for a long stretch of days filled with sunshine (yes, I know, a little on the optimistic side, but I'm having an optimistic period).

Woo...I think I just felt earthquake number two. It still feels strange, the ground shaking beneath you. A little scary too, something entirely out of your control. But cool :-D Brigid felt it too apparently, and is very giddy about it. On a side note, the blogging fever has caught her too.

Alright, so yes, I didn't really have a purpose in typing this post besides procrastinating. Hope you at least enjoyed it a little bit!

Hedwig

A musical interlude

2005-03-20T16:58:00.000-08:00

I've been tagged by Jessica with this music quiz...Very different from another entry, then, but I hope you enjoy it anyhow. Also, I'm heavily procrastination. The idea is to tag three more people, so here they are: Sylvia, Sabrine and Joost.

What is the total amount of music files on your computer?
4.19 Gb. I used to have much more, but I have gotten rid of many embarrassing remnants from my musical past before I left for the US.

What was the last CD you bought?
"Attagirl" - Bettie Serveert

What was the last song you listened to before reading this message?
I can't remember before I read the post first, but I can say which song I listened to before starting to write this post: Kings of Convenience - singing softly to me. Seriously, check the kings of convenience out. They rule.

Write down five songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you:
Just five? This is a challenge. Well, ok, but with the disclaimer that this is a random selection and many fantastic songs have been left out.

Ryan Adams - Wonderwall: exactly what covers should be like: respectful of the original, but doing something new with it, so that it's not one of those pointless just-like-the-original-but-with-another-person-singing things. I actually think this version is better than the original, more layered. And, of course, Ryan Adams is a god. Other songs of his worth checking out: "La Cienega Just Smiled", "Monsters", "Wish you were here", "Dear Chicago", "Damn, Sam, I love a woman that rains" and well, I could go on, but you get the point. For another nice (but not as fantastic) reinterpretation of Oasis' anthem, look for Cat Power's "the covers record".

Tori Amos - Mr. Zebra: my friend Anna told me about this song long ago, and I fell in love with it. Short, sweet, funny, it's the perfect little song. Another song she introduced me to and that I still listen to is Marcy Playground - Sex and Candy. Yeah. I know it's cheating. But hey, you get to know about one more great song.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch Soundtrack - The Origin of Love: and to clarify, no, I don't just love the musical because the main character shares my name, I also think the mythology of it is wonderful, and this can be seen most clearly in this song. Just for a taste, here are the lyrics of the first verse:

When the earth was still flat
And clouds made of fire
And mountains stretched up to the sky
Sometimes higher
Folks roamed the earth like big rolling kegs
They had two sets of arms
They had two sets of legs
They had two faces peering
Out of one giant head
So they could watch all around them
As they talked; while they read
And they never knew nothing of love
It was before the origin of love

Elliott Smith - I didn't understand: Ok, so first off, picking one Elliott Smith was really, really hard, since they're all so wonderful. I ended up choosing this one because the singing on it reminds me of "Because" by the Beatles, especially the a cappela version, which allows me to sneak another fantastic song in here. Also, it shows Elliott Smith's charm perfectly: intricate melodies, harmonious, all while singing "what a fucking joke". Other great songs include "Somebody that I used to know", "Oh well, okay", and "Waltz #2" (and this is really restricting myself).

Gabriel Mann - Artichoke: I think the only thing you need to understand why I love this song is the following excerpt from the lyrics.

My, my, you're just like pie
When I call you on the phone
You say hello and that's the crust
But the filling is yet to come

My, my, you're just like eggs
You're all slimy on the outside but yolky in the middle
Wait a second
That's not right, what I really meant
Is that Iove you in the morning

I actually don't know any other songs by Gabriell Mann, I should go look. Other songs with interesting lyrics are Dresden Dolls - Coin Operated Boy, Smog - Dress sexy at my funeral.

Honorable Mentions: David Byrne - Civilisation ; Badly Drawn Boy - A minor incident ; Beatles - Across the Universe ; Belle & Sebastian - If you find yourself caught in love (or anything else, really) ; Bright Eyes - Nothing gets crossed out (for all Bright Eyes songs: for the patient only, but worth the effort) ; Cat Power - Love to be silly ; Daryll-Ann - Everybody's cool ; Goo goo dolls - acoustic # 3 ; Hooverphonic - Mad about you ; Matthieu Boogaerts - Sens ; Nellie McKay - Toto dies ; Raemonn - Supergirl; Rufus Wainwright: "Instant Pleasure" or "Cigarettes and Chocolate milk" (also did good covers of "the origin of love" and "across the universe") ; Sondre Lerche - On and off again ; The Sheer - Strangelove ; The Thrills - Til' the tide creeps in ; Tal Bachman - she's so high.

Ok, ok, I know, I know, 5 songs, not 30...Well, sorry, I just love music too much, and I can promise you, each and every one of the songs listed above is worth a listen. Definitely. And I could have listed twice as many easily.

On a final note, I would like to link to aurgasm, a blog that introduced me to many wondeful musicians and songs.

Well, Sylvia, Sabrine, Joost: tag, you're it!

First finals, my very first california sunburn, and: the midnight yell

2005-03-19T00:06:00.000-08:00

Yet another week gone, I cannot believe how fast it's going. First quarter almost over, which means I'm almost halfway through my stay... Brrr. I'll just focus on the here and now.

Tuesday I finished my first course, the easiest, of course (why can you never be done with the toughest course first? It's evil), my film and TV class, with a paper and a laughably easy quiz. Tuesday night I made dinner for Sylvia and Brigid and me, and we went off to James' to watch Gilmore Girls...and found out that it was an old episode. We studied a little, played spoons (a very populal game, lately, somehow), and blablabla (weekdays really can be boring). Wednesday I took the Physics final, and well, I've never bullshitted so much on a science exam in my entire life. There were mostly "conceptual" questions which showed that apparently, we were actually supposed to have understood all the complicated stuff he'd talked about in class, and even other complicated stuff that we'd been supposed to read about. Oops. Luckily, it was an open book, open notes, open everything exam, and it seems I'm quite good at bullshitting, because I got a 92/114 (+/- 80%).

Wednesday was also when I went to my final capoeira class of the quarter (I'm planning on signing up for it again next quarter), and afterwards found out a marvellous thing:

Ladies and gentleman, I can cook.

Alright, I see you all, shaking your heads, laughing a little, Hedwig cook, yes sure, we can all add some ready-made sauce to pasta, but I would reply, no people, I don't mean that, I actually cooked. As in, made a real dish. To be specific: I made risotto. And ladies and gentlemen, it tasted good, no, heavenly. And I didn't even have a recipe! I just googled "risotto recipe" and deducted the basic ingredients and cooking actions from the first half-dozen I looked at.

Actually, risotto is the perfect dish for me. I'm such a restless cook, I just have to stir something all the time, even if it's just pasta, and if I have something in the oven I just have to check up on it every 5 minutes (well, actually, I put the kitchen timer on 5 minutes telling myself I can't check before it goes off, or else I'd check even more often), so a dish where you have to add new broth all the time and stir a lot, yep, I'm in for it.

Because the weather was so marvelously nice on Wednesday, and because it was the last day of classes, I'd invited everyone to come study on the beach on Thursday...and of course, when James and I arrived at the beach (Sylvia, Brigid and Maximo were cutomairily late), there were clouds, a cold wind was blowing, and the whole beach experience was just not as I'd imagined it to be. But of course, just when you start to despair, the sun decided to come take a peek, lying on the beach turns out to be quite nice, and lo! playing basketball with Martin and Sylvia proves that I'm not actually all that bad at putting balls through a net either! (alright, so I'm not exactly good...but at least I don't suck any more).

Anyhow, as usual, the sun only needed about an hour to make sure my head looks like a traffic light right now, but as it is raining again now (no worries, not as much as it did before) I kind of like the burn, it reminds me that the sun did shine, albeit only for a little while.

Of course, not much studying had been done at the beach. Did I spend the evening studying, then? Well...not exactly. First, I went to Ultimate Improv' again (funny, but not as much as the first time) with James, and it was only after twelve that I finally started on my Physics paper. But: I set myself a goal, and I reached it: by two thirty I had a thousand words. That means, one more thousand tomorrow, one more thousand sunday, and I'll be done!

By the way, to all those people I complained to last semester that I had lost the ability to sleep in? It's back. Big time. As I was reminded of yet again at 02:09 this afternoon, when I finally woke up. Woke up. This is 2 pm that I'm talking about. And I did not wake up a single time in between.

I guess that just means my biological clock has given up on me. Oh well. We'll make friends again when I'm at my eight-to-five job this summer.

Luckily, all I really had to do today was a genetics review at 3, which turned out to be profoundly useless (I left halfway). Sylvia and Theresa made a wonderful, lengthy dinner (beets and bratkartoffeln), and we watched Don Juan DeMarco, still the most effective manipulative romantic comedy in existence on this earth. It was made even better by Sylvia's reactions, little yells and "ow"'s and sighs over Johnny Depp's beauty.

Finally, I'd like to tell you about a little bit of UCLA lore, or should I say customs. During finals week, at midnight, when tired and crazy from cramming...people yell. Loudly. Lengthily. And in a long wave you could probably follow across Westwood. There is an addition, too: apparently, in the Wednesday of finals week, so next Wednesday, people run down the streets in their underwear to celebrate. Four words: this I gotta see.

A -not yet yelling- sunburned Hedwig bids you goodbye.

Palm Springs (at last)

2005-03-14T12:56:00.000-08:00

I don't know why I didn't write this up earlier. It's not like I did so much this weekend, but I felt a bit groggy. It's ok now though, so finally: how was palm springs?

Well, to be able to say that, we first have to get to Palm Springs. And as it turns out, that's not the easiest thing on friday afternoon. It took James and me about four and a half hours, and the rest (who first had to drop Jordan off at Union Station) two hours just to get out of LA, and almost six hours in total. Needless to say, our golfing plan fell through: after all, it's nice if you can actually see the ball. What then? Food, apparently, despite the rations we took with us in the car (brownies, lollipops, sandwiches, and the other car had donuts too), at Applebee's with a big group of people who just seemed to pop out of thin air.

After this we went to a castle-like structure containing, amongst other things, "Dance Dance Revolution". Now, for those of you who have never seen one (as there are, according to Sylvia, only 3 in the entire Netherlands, you might not have) it a contraption with a screen in front of your face and four arrows at your feet. The idea is that bad dance music plays, arrows comme up the screen from the bottom, and when they reach the top you have to step on the appropriate arrow(s). It sound silly. It is, however, incredibly fun, and very impressive when you can do it well (one of the guys there was amazing).

We also played various other games such as air hockey (2:1 loss for me, alas), skeeball (Brigid seemed to like that a lot), and we did a go-kart race (don't believe anything Brigid and Maximo say, James and I won. That it, he drove, I yelled "go go go!"). We had a fantastic time, but then we got out to the parking lot...and found that both of Maximo's car windows had been smashed in. For no reason, apparently, since nothing had been taken.

Needless to say, this put a damper on the euphoria. We decided to go home, but of course driving on the freeway without windows is not very pleasant. Luckily we found and open supermarket, and managed to improvise something:

Maximo showed his MacGyver side

This wonderful contraption managed to shield us from the wind. It also, unfortunately, made an extreme amount of noise, but it turns out Queen can overshout anything if it's turned on loud enough. So there we went, some asleep and some awake, "The show must go on" blasting, providing a very surreal end to a trip that was, despite the bummer ending, pretty great.

Random link of the day (well, not entirely random if you know about my infatuation with everything Dave Eggers is even remotely connected to).

And now, for something completely different....and update on my tumultuous relationship with physics. As you all know, physics and I have our ups and downs. Oh, we'll probably be together for a while yet, but that doesn't mean ours can be called a stable relationship. Sometimes, for example, it saps my self-esteem, makes me doubt myself, makes me erupt in fits of passionate anger. But then there are the other times, when it suddenly decides to open up to me, when it shows me one of its beautiful sides, when it offers glimpses of insight to come, and everything suddenly seems alright.

We're in an up phase now. On Friday I finally solved a problem I'd been stuck on for almost a week, attended an incredibly interesting lecture that showed once more the beauty of local gauge symmetry (you have no idea what I'm talking about, but that's ok. Suffice to say that it's a theory that makes so much sense and is so beautiful once you get it...something I think I might in a couple of years), and today we had yet another fascinating lecture, this time by a guest teacher on neutrino mixings. That last lecture was mostly interesting because it shows how inventive experimenters have to be and have been, and to what strange results it leads.

To round off, yet another completely different thing, I need your opinion. I have discovered a wonderful site, www.neighbourhoodies.com , where you can make you own personalised hoodies, T-shirts, bags etc. I've decided on a bag, but not yet on the texts. Some of the options I am considering are:

I talk to strangers
Poo Poo Occurs
Short Chicks Rock
Wake up, Donnie
Cellar Door
Some Physics formula, NOT E=mc2, but maybe the Dirac equation or something
Something Else (that's where you come in)

Of course, I told Brigid about the idea and she immediately came up with a brilliant idea, namely to get a "Godverdomme" bag...Anyhow, let me know which option you prefer, or if you have any ideas!

Cheers,

Hedwig

P.S. Brilliant phrase of the day (or actually of yesterday): "The end is extremely fucking nigh"

Me = movie geek

2005-03-10T19:19:00.000-08:00

I just spent 30 dollars which I probably won't get anything for in return. And I'm happy I did.

Let me explain. You probably all know I'm a movie geek. Big time. And what you might now is that every day I go to several movie websites to read up on news, analyses, and mostly reviews. Well, one of my favorite sites is the one on which MaryAnn Johansen writes her reviews, www.flickfilosopher.com.

Some exerpts to show you what I mean. From her most recent review:

Hostage [...] is like a petulant teenager who wants to be seen as all grownup and mature and demands to be treated as such but then goes and gets roaring drunk on cheap beer, vomits all over the yard, and crashes Dad's car into a lamppost in the high school parking lot.

On the Spongebob Squarepants movie: I've heard tell that there are some grownups who don't get why other grownups might want to watch a cartoon. I guess those grownups have forgotten how good it feels when you're braying like a hyena for 90 minutes straight. Maybe if we told them, I dunno, that nonstop laughter is good for the abs or something, they might see the value in it.

And I have to make the following quote, on The Wedding Date, as long as it is, because I just can't even decide what's the funniest part, and in fact I recommend reading the entire review if you feel like laughing:

Hooray! Now all those women who had their sense of sexuality perverted by the "fairy tale" of Pretty Woman have the perfect twisted fantasy movie cure for their messed-up love lives: Don't wait anymore for a man to come along and purchase you -- buy him instead!

Six thousand bucks for a weekend, sex not included.

It's "romantic," see? It's "charming" and "funny" and "sweet," too, get it? Oh, and it's "warm" and "sentimental," because, c'mon, what modern gal hasn't hired a whore to accompany her to a family function? Hilarious! Delightful! The feel-good date movie of the year!

*thump* *thump* *thump*

I'm just banging my head against the wall for a while, because it's less painful than contemplating the image of 21st-century womanhood depicted in this agonizing movie.

*thump* *thump* *thump*

Can I ask: Who the hell let Debra Messing (Along Came Polly, Hollywood Ending) loose, and can we consider that a capital offense? Her character here is barely distinguishable from the one she plays in the awful gayface sitcom in which she stars. Her Kat Ellis is a nightmarish golem-creature constructed, Frankenstein-monster style, from the worst stereotypes of modern femininity: she's insecure, indecisive, spineless, unbelievably uptight (I'm guessing from her reaction to the male anatomy that she has never seen a penis before), and refuses to take responsibility for her own behavior. Idn't that just iwcky-poo adorwable?

By now I'm sure you either understand why I absolutely love this reviewer. Or maybe you don't know me, but those two seem to be the only options. Anyhow, she's just started an initiative to try and make a living out of writing reviews, with the added bonus that she'd be updating every day of the week. The goal is to get 1000 people to donate 30 dollars to make this possible, and I've decided to be one of the first ones.

I mean, there's no denying that 30 bucks is still quite a bit of money for me. But I figured, I did spend the same amount on Amazon earlier for 3 books, and I've only finished one of them until now. If I'm willing to spend it on books, why not on another form of entertainment? Granted, it's entertainment I might as well get for free, but then I would also just download every movie I wanted to see without ever buying a DVD...And not spend a ridiculous amount on money on them as I do (this stay in the US is good for me...I can drool over the cheap DVD's they have here, but because of the regional code thing I can manage to not give in and buy them).

There is another reason, and I'm not talking about having my name in the hall of fame. I very much like the idea of being able to make a living by running a website. Jeph from Questionable Content does it by selling T-shirts, but this looks like a good way too. If it's starts becoming common, website makers will probably become a lot more invested in the quality of their writing and the regularity of their updates. And who knows, maybe some day I'll be able to make a living by keeping up a website -yes, I know, "keep dreaming"...I intend to!

In conclusion...There are few things I dislike more than someone who tries to convince others to their cause (if you're dutch, you can read my comment on Sylvia's latest blog entry for more details), so don't worry, I'm not suggesting you do the same thing as I did. But if you're ever bored, I recommend checking out her website.

On a sidenote, Gilmore Girls really rules. It's on right now, and any show that mentions making love to a cup of coffee is worth watching by my rules. Plus, tonight's episode has a Tarantino party, including a nod to Travolta's dance with Uma.

One last thing about movies (I promise! for today, of course). Closer is the two dollar movie this week, and I went to see it yesterday. Boy, how depressing can a movie be? I can't even point out exactly what was so depressing about it. After all, one of the two relationships (or one of the four, depending how you count) works out in the end, right? But these people are just so ugly. I mean internally, of course, because the actors playing them are georgous, all four of them, incredibly beautiful and what's coming out of their mouthes is so in contrast with that...Oh, I'm not talking about the sexual part of what they said, I can handle my share of crudeness, but the hateful things they threw at each other were exhausting after a while.

Ok, finally, I'll release you from the movie talk! Do I have anything else to say...Well, oh, but no, documentaries are movies too...Well then, what have I done this week? Not much really, seeing how it's finals week and all that. I had sushi for the first time, two light allergic reactions (not to the sushi...to diddy reese cookies, unfortunately), and saw a really good Queen cover band, with a singer that had the Freddy Mercury look, including wifebeater, sunglasses and mustache, down. Didn't sing too bad either.

Ooh, and, of course, I made brownies, because tomorrow...It's road trip time! We're going to Palm Springs, 7 or 8 of us, I'm not quite sure, and I think it'll be great. And exactly how great, well, you'll get to know about that in the next post!

Hedwig

A frat party, an improv show, and finally...a celeb!

2005-03-06T16:00:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know, I've been neglecting you. It's cruel, leaving you hanging with an open end like that, leaving you guessing and wondering what went on. It's callous of me to be so inconsiderate: 4 whole days and no update! I repent, I do, and so, a long account for today.

First of all, the frat party I got so dressed up for (I saw Ella on the street, and she seriously did not recognise me). Was it worth it, you ask, was it all frat parties are cranked up to be? Well...that depends on what you expect. The evening started promising enough: the party was in Santa Monica, and we were driven there in...real yellow school busses! Seriously, they would not be a good idea to implement in the Netherlands, normal Dutch people would most definitely bump their heads. In the bus, we came to realize two things. One, people were already wasted going to the party. Two: Americans are very, very loud when drunk, and think they're very funny.

One other observation came to join the previous two when we arrived at the club, which looked curiously empty because it was too big for the number of people there. Three: even when they're adults, or should be, Americans still dance in sex-simulating ways, you know, like fifteen year old high schoolers think is cool to do. The thing is, that kind of dancing is disturbing enough when it's teenagers, but when it's skinny sluttily dressed girls with older, 0ften long-haired, sleazy-looking guys, it's ten times worse. You feel sorry for the girls, really, waking up in the morning not just with a terrible hangover, but also with the realizationg that, shit, did I actually do that?

Sylvia, Bridig and I weren't drunk, not even really tipsy (we'd had one or two drinks each, something like that), and being a sober observer was...interesting. But not for two long. At one point, we actually sat down, told each other we'd just each pick one guy to hit on...and stayed silent for a long, long time. Oh, there were a couple of cute guys, but they either had their tongue down a very skinny skanky girl with perfect hair, or were surrounded by a swarm of them.

Sylvia made the remark on her blog that it's annoying how at these parties, everyone categorize girls and boys so strictly. To girls, other girls are competition, and guys are the goal, and vice versa for the guys. It's depressing, really, to be reduced to the equation of your genitals and outer appearance. I'm glad that at house parties, you can actually just have good conversations sometimes, with girls ánd guys, and yes, sometimes there's an ulterior purpose involved there too, you can't just shut of hormones after all, but at least there "hooking up" isn't the only goal, just a possible side advantage.

Conclusion: no more frat parties for me. Oh, it was nice, I'm glad I went and had that experience, but once was enough.

This time, after getting only about 4 hours of sleep in the night from Thursday to Friday, I did the wise thing: I did go to my classes on Friday, but I took a nap in the afternoon. Sylvia, Maria and some other people went clubbing on Friday night, and actually it was very convenient: not being 21 yet, it gave me a very good excuse to spend the evening on the couch, watching Tv, drinking some of the leftover wine from my party. Boring? Yes, but boring can be wonderful sometimes.

Saturday I spent the day as a true lazy pig. I think I saw three movies that day, managed, somehow, to do some reading during (I am done with all my reading for Film and TV this quarter, and only have ten pages to go until the end of my Genetics book), played some stupid games on my laptop, chatted quite elaborately with my dad and Birgit...

At night, I met up with a big group of people at the gypsy café. Most of them ate there, but seeing how it's a café where people smoke hooka (is that spelled this way?), i.e. flavored tobacco smoked with a water pipe, I didn't think it was such a great idea for me to soend a lot of time there. We went to "Ultimate Improv" a small improvisational comedy club (I think the room fit about 30 people) to watch their show. It was very funny, a bit too much acting for my taste, but amuzing. They weren't as good as the people from Boom Chicago (who obviously have had more experience), but it was interesting being much closer to them, much more like you were really involved in the show and not just watching it.

There was a party on Midvale, we heard, and that's where we went next. It was loud and strange, and soon got broken up by the cops because two guys were stupid enough to smoke pot outside. I actually felt sorry for them, despite their stupidity: the cops, big and broad-shouldered and with those huge flashlights, put handcuffs on them and lectured to them while they had to face the wall, and I think they actually got taken to the station.

We moved to Maximó's, and I actually had my first encounter with a burly American policeman: James and I went to my apartment to get the leftover alcohol, and while we'd been careful enough in that James (who's 21) was carrying the alcohol and I only had the grenadine, apparently if you carry alcohol around it doesn't just have to be closed: it needs to still be sealed. We got off with a warning though.

I ended up staying at Maximó's until four thirty, just talking (mostly about religion), watching part of "Waking Life", walking to Subway's in the middle somewhere to try my first sub. I just can't get used to the fact that bread used for sandwiches here is soft, not crispy. I miss ciabatta's and baguette bread.

This morning I met Claire, a physics classmate, at Starbucks to work on a physics problem. A set of problems, a really special set of problems: the teacher predicted that it would take us about two weeks to do it, but if we managed it we'd get full credit on the final. A challenge, then, that we gladly took. We worked on it for almost four hours in total, I think, and I think we finished more than half of it. Woo!

Now, a small explanation about the why of our location: we chose Starbucks partly because of the big tables and the fact that they let you sit there forever with one cup of coffee, but also because the Starbucks is right next to the theater where Robots was to premiere that afternoon. The result: my first celebrity sighting, and not just of any celebrity, no no, I got to witness (from a certain distance, true) the gorgeousness that is Ewan McGregor. Woo. Another LA experience I can cross of my list. Oh, true, it would be nice to see a celeb in the wild too, but for now I'm satisfied. As to Sylvia, she got an opportunity to show Brigid and Maximo the correct opportunity to say Godverdomme: Maria called her to say that on Thursday, Orlando Bloom and Colin Farrell had been in the same club as them. So close, and yet so far away...

The phone call came when we were driving to the LA Convention Center, where Jordan and Tristan were set to graduate from their five-day learn-to-love-yourself, face-your-fears, new-agey "mastery in Transformational Training" course. We didn't quite know what to expect, speculated about brainwashing cults and virgin sacrifices. It turned out to be mostly much crying and even more hugging, but luckily our friends had not changed so much that we didn't recognise them any more.

Alright then, you're all up to speed again. Weekends are nice...they help you face the thought of another dreadfully draining week.

Goodnight unto you all!

Hedwig

Getting ready for the frat party!

2005-03-03T21:37:00.000-08:00

with thanks to Sylvia for the shirt & to Lisa for the sweater & fab eye make-up

Dude! Mexico!

2005-03-03T19:01:00.000-08:00

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

Shake, Quake and Blend

2005-02-27T12:46:00.000-08:00

Well, then, progress report...

First of all, my hair. You can't really see it well in the picture somewhere below, but I'm happy to report that Sylvia did a grand job. My color is a bit lighter, shiny, and, I'm happy to report, uniform.

After dieing my hair, we went to Arjun's party (a friend of Maria's). They had an actual bar, pizza, and a pretty good athmosphere. A shortage of girls, too, which always leads to interesting results. We (Sylvia, Maria, Jerry, Tiger -I'm not kidding-, some other guy and me) got tired of the party after a while and tried to find another, but without any result.

On Saturday I slept in and when I got up signed up for two courses next quarter: History of the American Motion Picture (I figure I have to take advantage of being in LA) and a seminar on the Physical Limits of Biological Design. I want to sign up for two other courses, either two biology courses (one neuroscience course and one on cell biology) or the neuroscience course and a literature/women's studies course called "Imaginary Women"

I had great plans for the afternoon, homework and all that...then Sylvia called and asked me if I felt like shopping. Well...I did. We went to Santa Monica, and what did we find there?

My very own café ;-)

After getting back, I made myself some dinner, stocked the kitchen table as an alcohol table and...waited. And while waiting, suddenly the floor shaked! At first I thought, what are the neighbours doing, but there was no noise to go with it and I realised...My first earthquake!

Terry came out of her room yelling "did you feel that!?" and I knew it hadn't been my imagination. I think it's pretty cool. I mean, obviously I don't want to be here when the big one happens, but it's one more LA experience. Now if only I managed to spot a celebrity...

First to show up to the party were Sylvia, Brigid and Jerry, around quarter to ten, and later Maria arrived with some Co-op people, Adam, Benson, and even for a short while Nico, Matthieu and Jamie. It wasn't by far as busy a party as Sylvia's, but the atmosphere was very nice, and I had a great time. What's more, I got presents. And what do you think they gave this alcoholic? A "retro cocktails" booklet, and a blender! I can't wait to buy me some ingredients, not only to make cocktails, but also smoothies, milkshakes...

I am actually remarkably not hungover at all. My system must be getting used to alcohol. I'm not quite sure whether that's a good or a scary thing. This afternoon is Oscar afternoon, and we're going to watch the ceremony at Brigid's, and sleep over.

Homework? What homework?

Don't worry, I do manage to find some time in the middle of all the partying to keep up with my reading ;-)

Cheers,

Hedwig

2005-02-25T23:34:00.000-08:00

And just in case you thought I was kidding about the rain...

2005-02-25T21:38:00.000-08:00

Palm trees in the rain...LA: the city of contradictions

Random amalgam of musings

2005-02-25T11:38:00.000-08:00

Alright, since not all that much exciting stuff happened since the last post, this is going to be rather random. But then, randomness is fun! Just look at Grafik Dynamo.

By the way, for those of you informed of certain events and wondering about if I feel all right, yes, I feel more than fine even. Wednesday, the sunshine made everything except the weather insignificant, and Thursday...well, let's just say that when, while walking to class, you see not just one but two guy's wearing a T-shirt saying "Kiss me, I'm Irish", I'd say you're having a good day. The sleeping in until twelve thing didn't hurt either.

Fun fact: Sylvia can kick a plank in half on her first try. Woo! I'll make sure not to make her mad from now on ;-)

Haircolor (hopefully), starting tonight: Reddish Blonde

Movie recommendation of the week: Kinsey (because of general hilarity, Peter Sarsgaard, and the brilliant casting of Tin Curry, but also because it delivers a good message about the importance of informing people about sex)

Annoying coincidence: Bettie Serveert, my new favorite band, is playing in LA, there are still tickets, and they're affordable too...But it's tomorrow, and well, my party is my first priority.

Now for a slightly longer segment, my father suggested that I write about the first come, first served mentality in the US, and I think that's a good idea in the context of cultural differences. There are many instances. At restaurants, you often can't make reservations, you just have to show up, get on the waiting list, and well, wait. At Warner Brothers studios, you also had to come early to get a spot. If you wanted to get an autograph from Tori Amos, you had to get a wristband at the record store, and apparently people were lining up at 4 am already (the store opened at 9).

I'm not sure what I think of the procedure yet. I mean, I can see that it's fair, granting priority to those willing to go through the most trouble, but it's not very effective, seeing all the waiting. I can understand the popularity of IPod's now (I'm beginning the drawbacks of my minidisc player now, as I don't have a CD-player to transfer my new CD to a minidisc. Most people don't have stereo systems here, just pc's with boxes). As a person who doesn't mind waiting (waiting for me just means daydreaming time), I don't mind the system, but I can't understand how the US economy got so big with all the waiting that's going on.

Fun fact #2: I have the same shoe size as Peter Sellers. Little man, apparently.

Course news: I had an 86 for my second physics midterm. Seeing how I'm in a class full of fourth years...I don't think I'm doing too shabby.

Currently in my Amazon shopping cart: "Digital Ash in a Digital Urn" and "I'm wide awake, it's morning" (something that often does not exactly apply to me) by Bright Eyes, the soundtrack to Garden State, and the posthumous Elliott Smith album "from a basement on the hill". A total of 41 bucks, which isn't much for 4 cd's, but there's no telling when I'll finally jump the hurdle to actually ordering them though.

Current books: Neuromancer by William Gibson and The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene.

New experience of the week: going to the sauna. Never knew that the weirdest, and most uncomfortable, part of it is breathing hot air. It was relaxing though.

I think I'm out of random facts, and you're probably tired of them by know. Next post will be a more conventional one, probably, featuring descriptions of how my hair turned out, and of course of how my party was.

Until then, if you're really in need of more randomness, check out what those crazy New Yorkers are saying to each other.

Over and out,

Hedwig

2005-02-23T14:01:00.000-08:00

Family (-photographer)

Teenager no longer

2005-02-22T18:15:00.000-08:00

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.

Sylvia's party

2005-02-18T03:51:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I'm going to have to use that disclaimer again...I know it probably doesn't look to good that I post so often in this state, but honestly, I'm not drunk all the time, it's just that when I get drunk I have things to tell, and also that when I'm drunk and I get home I usually force myself to drink a lot of water, and that gives me some time to, well, type.

First then, what happened since the last post? Not a whole lot. I missed Capoeira for the first time (that dryer really doesn't work...and working out in humid sports pants? No thanks), but I made up for it by reading 2.5 chapters of Genetics. I went to the Spongebob Squarepants movie with Lisa (we were the first two, and in the end there were only about 15 people :-|) which was bizarre but fun (David Hasselhoff as a speedboat? Sure, why not). Then today (or should I say yesterday), I watched Wednesday's Genetics class on tape in the library, and saw Singin' in the Rain in my film class (it WAS raining when I got out, but I didn't much feel like singin').

But then, the party...Many people I knew (among them the two guys who sold Sylvia and me our cell phones), many more I did not know (but I know some of them now...). "Neuken in de keuken"-guy was there (I don't know this guy's real name...but one of the two phrases he knows in Dutch is "neuken in de keuken", as he already told me at another party). Some of the people I did not know I got to know (the great thing about American parties).

And the coolest thing: it was the first party I ever went to that was broken up by the cops.

Oh, I didn't actually see any men in blue (say it with me people: awwwwwwwwh), but we were told they were downstairs and we'd better split. The end of the party? Of course not. We just went on at Jordan and Maximo's place, where interesting mixes were serverd (something with a lot of grenadine and vodka), and serious/drunken conversations (I am actually already amazed at my loose-lippedness). There was dancing, also (salsa) and bread being toasted by holding it over a flame (and yes, I am aware of my overuse of parentheses).

Well, my water's finished. If I hurry I can still get in 3 hours of sleep before my 8 o'clock class (yay!).

Good night unto you all,

Hedwig (warning: inflammatory)

P.S. Incriminating (but mostly just embarrassing) pictures were made, you can expect them sometime soon.

P.P.S. I know many people read this blog, everybody tells me so...But looking at my comments, I'm not getting much lovin' in here. So raise your voice, tell me what you think!

P.P.P.S. Ok, really going to bed now...

Laundry day

2005-02-16T11:52:00.000-08:00

There comes a time in everyone's life when the big question presents itself:

Why is the rum gone?

No, seriously, the question I'm talking about is, "what now?" or rather "what next?". I was confronted it for the nth time today during my physics midterm. Alright, alright, it wasn't a tsunami-scale disaster, but I'd say it-rained-a-lot-and-now-the-basement-is-flooded is a good analogy. I'm pretty sure I got at least half the points, but I don't think I got much more than that.

So. I ask myself again. Is physics really the right idea?

The thing is, the dilemma is, I like physics because it's difficult, because it challenges me, because I feel like I'm actually learning something. I hate physics because it's difficult, because challenging me also means frustrating me for hours, and because to be quite honest, I'm not very good at it.

Oh, I do alright. I'm not too bad at grasping the abstract concepts, actually. But then there's the calculations themselves. I just don't seem to have a feel for it, no easiness with it. And this brings me to the next point: is a UCU bachelor's enough? If I really want to do physics, I'll have to develop some easiness with calculations, I'll have to become better at this, and I think the only way do do this is practice, practice, practice, which means doing many more physics courses than are offered at UCU.

Oh, I'm sure it's possible to work things out. I mean, I could do one, maybe two, basic physics courses here next quarter, then take some off-campus courses when I get back, and who knows, I might actually be up to speed. The problem is that I'm not entirely sure physics is what I want to do. It's kind of a negative choice, which doesn't mean that I don't like physics, but which means I mostly settled on it because nothing else seemed interesting enough to focus on exclusively for several years. It doesn't mean it's a bad decision, it does mean that I doubt it sometimes.

To put this in perspective, it is true that most people in my physics class are fourth years, so it's logical that they're better than me at juggling around equations. And, truth be told, they didn't think the midterm was too easy either.

Oh well, enough about physics. I'm shaking it off for now, I'll worry when I get my grade. And if all else fails: I seem to be pretty good at human genetics (131/150 on the second midterm), and that's kinda interesting, not too easy and all that, so I have a fall-back option.

Plus, you know, life is great. Why worry or be unhappy about anything when the sun is shining so much you can put your laundry on your balkony to dry, when you're going to Spongebob Squarepants for 2 dollar this evening, when there's a party tomorrow night...And, of course, when your family is in the same country as you, the same state even, and they're going to be here for your birthday, conveniently on the middle day of a long weekend.

While they are in the same state, by the way, they are not currently in the same city. With the Cherokee Jeep dad paid too much for to rent, they went to Monterey first (visited the Hearst Castle, I'm told), they are now in San Francisco, and....it's raining, pouring so much they can't see 3 meters in front of them (or at least that's what they tell me).

They were here on Sunday though, and that was very, very nice. They woke me up at 9 (despite the strange shots, without a hangover, but with angry intestines), and after I showed them the campus we went to Santa Monica, Venice and finally to the Getty center. The last thing I hadn't seen yet (shame on me), and I'm glad I did now. The building and the layout are wonderful, the view phenomenal...but the artwork? I think it's best described as unknown works by famous artists. Seriously, you'd be in a room knowing there was a, well, say a Frans Hals. Well, asked to point out which one it was, you'd probably see two obvious choices...and the actual Frans Hals would be an entirely different painting, one you'd never guess was by Frans Hals.

Dad made a valid point about this though: art history is heavily canonized. We tend to think of artists in term of defining works and styles, forgetting that they might have done a lot of different things too. As a reminder of that, I agree that the Getty is an interesting experience.

The rest of the week so far was pretty boring. On monday I woke up 5 minutes later than usual, and as I wanted to get to my midterm on time I made my coffee to go. Long live my Starbucks mug...which I of course left on the kitchen table. The good thing is: apparently I can still function relatively well without caffeine. Yesterday, I skipped the second half of my film class to go grocery shopping, cooked for me an Nico, and made him watch half an episode of Gilmore Girls (the second half, Nicole watched American Idol. The sacrifices I have to make...;-) )This morning I overslept, waking in a panic at eight, then calming down when I realised it only meant I missed my genetics class (which is taped anyhow, so I'll watch it at the library tomorrow), and that I could still make it to my midterm on time.

In short? *Yawn* I think I'll save you the day by day account from now on, for the simple reason that it's boring. I am in the routine now, go to class, make sure I eat, go to capoeira (I'm quite proud, haven't missed a class yet) etc. A routine abroad is no less boring than a routine back home, and I'll spare you the details starting now.

One small note in conclusion: dad remarked that the tone of my blog is a bit "Ils sont fous ces Americains" (or "Rare jongens, die Amerikanen" in Dutch. I don't know the english version, basically he complained I present americans a bit too much as crazy people). I agree. I do point out things that, to me, are very odd, and I might exaggerate for comic effect. That does not mean, however, that I've lost my sense of cultural relativism: I am fully aware that in American (or basically foreign) eyes, Dutch people and Dutch habits are pretty crazy too.

Ils sont fous, ces humains...

Cheers,

H.

2005-02-14T12:50:00.000-08:00

Chinatown!

Family!

2005-02-13T00:32:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: statement made to protect one's ass*
In this case: I've had quite a few strange shots, so take everything I say here with a grain of salt.

Alright, Friday: rain, as you probably suspected from my previous post. It did give me a good excuse to spend almost 2 hours reading in Kerckhoff coffee house with a giant coffee and a just as giant coffee. I was tired though, and decided to forego the clubbing. I apparently missed something: Sylvia, Maria &co. ended up at a rockabilly club inventing their origin: we are not Dutch or Danish but from Zealand (capital: Stoffel; famous country mates: Abel Tasman (who didn't just discover Tasmania, but also New Zealand, obviously) and the guy who sings the awful song about how he's too sexy for his car; King: Ludwig, who by the way will be shot and left in critical condition next wednesday). I actually wouldn't be surprised if we can convince some Americans othat Zealand actually exists.

Anyhow, back to friday: Koen attempted to cook. With the emphasis on attempted. Apparently, mixing sour cream (main ingredient: non fat milk powder) with wine is not such a good idea. The sauce was truly inedible, and the obvious solution was In-N-Out (with, naturally, the wine we'd already poured). Unfortunately, my intestines didn't much appreciate the combo, and spent the rest of the night reminding me of my stupidity. I did watch "Miller's Crossing", one of the few Coen Borthers' movies I had not seen already. I loved it, the look, the atmosphere, the double-crossings... I think the only ones I still have to see now are "Barton Fink " (about writer's block, apparently), and "The Ladykillers".

Saturday, then, day of the Chinese New Year's parade, but only, of course, after a french breakfast of kind of self-made croissants and chocolate milk that my intestines punished me for. Going to Chinatown turned out to take a bus (I've stopped being surprised about how you can easily spend 45 minutes on 1 street) and two metros. Union Station is really adorable, a beautiful building, but standing on the platform you'd think you're in some third tier Dutch station, cute, but small. Actuslly, not Dutch, Spanish, it looked like a Spanish station. I don't think the concept of trains has really penetrated this country.

On an aside, the group I was with illustrated the kind of people I hang out with here: there were four Dutch people, one German studying in Maastricht, two Danish Physics people (well, officially one geophysics and one astronomy person), an Indonesian usually studying in New Zealand (yep, Benson), one American (but one who studied in N-Zealand as well, a Bulgarian girl (I think), and some others, few of them American. I feel so foreign, such a citizen of the world. We are citizens of the world, those interesting multi-cultural people who will rule the world in the near future, we are those people untied to any conviction or nationalistic feeling, we are those always at home yet never settled...Ok, so that's the booze talking (damn you Nico, why did you have to pass me that glass of whisky every two seconds), but still, I like the idea that one day, every one will be free from allegiances to any one area of soil.

The parade was alright, but lacked enthusiasm. I'd expected more of an excited atmoshpere, but everyone was kind of dull, dreading the rain that never came but loomed ominously from behind dark clouds (note to self: alcohol does not improve your style). The lions/dragons (I never know) were nice though, and we saw the one place in LA (according to my guide) that sells live poultry (making me long for Morrocco). I want to go back there for a longer time when it's less crowded.

I left rather early to go find the Best Western Hollywood Hills. Now, I knew it was on Franklin Ave., but as I've learned, knowing which street something's on is not very useful. The intersection, now that's useful, but the street? Well, luckily I landed within 1000 numbers of the hotel, and I only had to walk for half an hour.

Seeing my family again... Well, the strange thing was actually that it felt as if I'd seen them only yesterday. We went out to " The old Spaghetti Factory", and then I took a taxi home. We'll probably go see Venice and Santa Monica tomorrow, so goodbye, midterms...

Well, hopefully my hangover won't be too bad.

Cheers,

H.

* Kevin Smith

It is raining.

2005-02-11T09:44:00.000-08:00

AGAIN!

Why?

Inside Deep Throat

2005-02-10T21:36:00.000-08:00

No, sorry to disappoint, but this is not going to be a full-blown account of my recent, uhm, activities. Too bad. If you are looking for smut though, I have just heard that there's an obscene amount of Gil Grissom slash flying around on the net...

Okay, to come to the point, I have seen ridiculously many movies in the past week, and the last one, seen at a free sneak preview in Ackerman tonight, followed by a Q&A with one of the directors, was "Inside Deep Throat", a documentary about the making of famous porn movie "Deep Throat" and its effects. It was very interesting, and besides that very, very funny. The scenes from the movie were funny, but they also did some very good editing, and often the expressions of people before or after they were saying something were hilarious (and telling). There was some scary stuff also, of course. For example, the prosecutor in the case against the lead actor in the movie said, right at the end, that it was annoying that there was so much terrorism because it meant so little energy could be devoted to battling smut (I'm paraphrasing, but you get the point). The director was a very laid-back and entertaining, and had some interesting views on censorship today and all that.

I still sometimes stop and suddenly realise, hey, I'm in LA, that's actually pretty cool! You tend to forget it when you just have your daily life of going to classes, hanging around on the couch watching TCM, and ehm, making out, but it is very cool just being here, and being able to go see movies for free where the director is actually present (or, to be precise, one of the two).

And not just one! Nohoooow, people, a sneak preview, cool? Pff, it was already my second. And the first one, last Tuesday, was no indie cool documentary either, but a full-blown blockbuster (or so they hope): "Constantine". Keanu Reeves as a bad-ass exorcist? Well, strangely enough, that I kinda bought. The motive for the bad guy however, I still don't understand. But well, you don't go to these kinds of movies for the plot, and the film certainly did the whole aethetic thing well.

Other movies (I'll be shorter about these): 4 of the 8 BMW short films (Terry has the DVD), Citizen Kane, Gaslight, and today in film class, "Un Chien Andalou" followed by "Clueless" :-|

Now, I can hear you thinking, is all you do watch movies? Not really, but it is the only part that seems even remotely interesting. Going to classes, Capoeira (5 classes in a row now, and I think I might actually maybe be getting a tiny fraction of a bit better at it), reading "The Elegant Universe" and liking it, and basically sleeping much too little. The weekend should be a lot of fun though. Tomorrow night I'll either go clubbing (I'm actually not superenthusiastic about the idea, I usually need some booze to lose my inihibitions and self-consciousness about dancing) with Sylvia, Koen, Lisa etc. or to the movie "Bride and Prejudice", a Bollywood version of Pride and Prejudice, with Ella and maybe some other people. Then Saturday, there's a Chinese New Year parade in Chinatown, and my family is arriving in the afternoon. Yay! Also, I heard Jordan's giving a party on Saturday night, and if Birgit isn't too tired it would be cool to take her there. Then Sunday? No fixed plans yet, but showing them Hollywood or Venice would be cool.

Well, to bed with me now, there has been too little sleeping in the past week...

Cheers,

Hedwig

Homeless

2005-02-06T13:52:00.000-08:00

To make a long story short....but no, short stories are boring, you'll just have to sit through the long version.

Friday meant dinner at the co-op (it was nice, but I'm glad I'm not living there, and get to decide myself what I'll eat on any given night), followed by movies at Nico's. We rented "Hellboy" and "Garden State", and watched them both with a big group that got smaller and smaller until, well, there were just two.

Saturday morning meant brunch at Sylvia's. We had grapefruits, pancakes, Pains au Raisin (American format), little croissants (we actually found the US equivalent of Danerolles) and french bread with scrambled eggs. Suffice to say I didn't really eat the rest of the day. I did try to study a little, but due to missed sleep most of my studying consisted of me dozing off on the couch. I did have enough energy to make the brownies I promised, and they actually turned out to taste pretty good. Around 8 we went to Benson's party, which was very nice and very crowded (how many people can fit comfortably on about 20 square meters? A lot). Brigid was staying over at my place, but somehow in the course of the evening I kind of found out I wasn't, so I gave Brigid my key...

Which explains why I am now without a home: Terry is at work, Brigid left for a job interview, and there's nobody to let me in. Luckily I ran into Jordan and his roommate Maximo (with an accent on the o), and seeing how it's raining (again) I'm glad I have a roof. what's more, Maximo has a car and is going to drive me past Urban Outfitters where Terry works. Shower!

This afternon there's the Superbowl, but I think I might skip watching it...One all-American experience less, but at least I'll have gotten some reading done.

For details...Well, you'll just have to e-mail me.

Hedwig

UPDATE: I am now safely inside my home again, so worry no more.

Phone!

2005-02-04T16:05:00.000-08:00

I finally got around to buying a phone. 125 dollar for the phone and 50 dollars of prepaid whatever (what is the English word for "tegoed"?). It sounds like a lot, but seeing how this country is crazy, you have to pay for incoming calls and text-messages too. So, especially people back home, don't call me instead of an emergency! ;-)

For those who need to reach me, to get into the apartment or to invite me somewhere (those calls are always welcome) the number is 310-619-7751.

That was all for the short update. Not much happened here, much studying and little worth reporting. The weekend's here now though, so I'm hoping it won't stay that way.

Cheers,

Hedwig

I spoke too soon

2005-02-03T10:16:00.000-08:00

Yes, after three days I am online again! It's slow, but it's there. I feel like such an internet addict, it feels like I've finally gotten my fix ;-) Of course, now there are problems with the water, but more about that later.

So, finally time for the one month overview, even if the counter is now already at 1 month and 2 days. I still like it here, love it even. I've settled into a routine, but there's still so many nice things happening. Take last Tuesday. Knowing that Physics homework is due on Wednesdays, and that it was a lot this week, I'd predicted it to be boring, just sitting at home agonizing over why I can't do physics (it's strange...I ended up getting an 85 for the midterm, which is pretty good, but I still feel hopeless) However, you know me, a lot has to happen before I miss Gilmore Girls. Because there's a scheduling conflict with American Idol and it was officially Nicole's turn, I'd made sure I could watch the show on Benson's huge TV. Nicole turned out to be out of town that night, but still, Sylvia and I walked all the way up Gayley (a very long way up a very up Gayley), and of course, instead of just watching GG we watched TV until 9 thirty, were then joined by Tristen, went down to Westwood and were joined by Jordan, ended up eating at Chili's (a restaurant featuring a big sign saying we shouldn't be surprised if their food gave us cancer), and basically having such a good time that I didn't come home until it was almost twelve.

And still had homework to do. But strangely enough, Physics homework seems to get easier as the night (or morning) progresses.

Ok, so I guess it's no small wonder I almost fell asleep during my 8 o'clock class the following morning, or that I've been drinking coffee all the time for the last week or two. But hey, I'm abroad, and I'm using that as an excuse to have as much fun as possible.

And it's not like everything I do is decadent and late-nighted (if it's not a word it should be), not to mention filled with alcohol. I mean, I've been to three Capoeira classes in a row now, on wednesday last week, last monday and yesterday. The first class left me mostly with sore abdominal mucles, the second one with torn up and blistered feet, but after yesterday I'm actually feeling more or less ok. Not that the warming up wasn't torture. Who, after all, would be sadistic enough to come up with the following: first, walk on your hands and feet, both legs and arms straight. Then, turn around, and "walk"with your back to the ground and your hands beneath you. Then switch again. And again, and again, until at some point you couldn't even complete the switch any more, let alone walk. I did "play" in the end though (one of the wonderful things about capoeira is that you don't fight, but you "play", and there are no winners or losers), and well, let's just say grace and suppleness are concept my body denies the existence of, but it was fun, and at least I made a "good effort" (when people say that to you, you know you suck...but it's sports, it's me, so what did you expect).
t
Once again, my whole weekend is planned out (it already feels like weekend for me on Thursday. Class only from 3 to 6, and it's the session of my film class when we spend that time watching a movie, "the Piano" this time. Oh, I have to pay attention and answer essay questions about it later, but it's still a very relaxed way to spend a Thurday). Friday night I'm having dinner with Sylvia and Maria at the co-op, and afterwards there's a movie night somewhere. Saturday there's a party at Benson's, and it's going to be kind of a potluck thing, so I'm going to finally give one of those brownie mixes a shot (I didn't dare do it just at random, knowing what would happen if I had a batch of brownies all to myself). Then Sunday it's the Superbowl, and apparently there's some kind of get-together around that at Jordan's.

Now, about the water thing. First (and this is mostly directed at my parents, in particular my father), don't worry! There's just a small problem with the water that has as a consequence that we get scary e-mails from the university saying "BOIL THE WATER BEFORE DRINKING", and has Terry saying over and over "I'm going to die!" because she drank about 4 glasses before the notice came through (but really, don't worry: the e-mail said the consequences would only be "stomach or intestinal illness", and Terry felt perfectly fine this morning).

Oh, and I do study. It might not feel like it (writing about studying is boring) but I do. I'm now in the middle of a great easy book on supersymmetry (I'll have to use another one, with actual equations in it, for my project though. *sigh*), I'm still up to date on reading my biology chapters, and for film class I also do all the work I should be doing. See, wasn't that a boring paragraph? So trust me, no news about studying means good news from now on.

I think I'd better get dressed, it is 11 already.

Cheers,

H.

The silence, the silence! Why?

2005-02-02T16:15:00.000-08:00

Don't worry, I'm still alive...

One simple reason why I haven't posted lately: the internet at the apartment does not work. I'd planned a big "I've been here for a month already! that's over one sixth! Wah! Why do fun things go so fast?"-entry, but that will just have to wait. I might get one of the 2-hour computers tomorrow and let you know what's going on (answer: not much). In any case, I'll be checking my e-mail regularly on a 15-minute computer, so if you want some news, just send a note to H.J.vanDriel AT students.uu.nl

Cheers!

H.

Party!

2005-01-30T15:32:00.000-08:00

I think some of you might be surprised to see me now. The stay-at-home-on-the-couch-in-front-of-the-TV-gal now goes out every weekend, and not just once.

I think part of the explanation is that American parties are really my kind of thing. People mingle, everyone talks to everyone, and even when there's music it's you usually can talk to each other without yelling.

Then there's the drinks...

Apparently, every kind of liquor tastes good sunrise. Not just tequila, but also vodka, whisky...Tequila Sunrise is still my favorite though.

Strangely, I'm not even that hungover. Oh, a little bit, my stomach is not liking me very much right now and my head feels a bit fuzzy, but I'm not feeling as bad as, say, Sylvia.

To recap what actually happened: friday night we first went to see "The Motorcycle Diaries", and at the contest before the movie started I won the poster. The question was "in which Linklater movie has the main female character named her cat 'che'?", and I remembered it was Before Sunset.

The movie was great. Beautiful landscapes, a beautiful man, much more laughs than I'd expected, and at the end you just wanted to pack your bags immediately and go travel through Latin America.

After the movie, we had dinner at In-N-Out and went to Claudio's party. It was very nice, one of those parties where there are barely any Americans, but which is very American nonetheless, in the sense that there were plastic cups to drink from and that everyone talked to everyone. I talked a bit with a guy called Adam, an American who just spent a year (I think) in New-Zealand, and practiced my french for most of the night talking with Nico, a French guy who lives on the same floor as Sylvia. It turns out that while my French is not bad when talking about straightforward things, I have lost all sense of subtleties and all that. And well, I stumble, look for words...I really need to practice more.

Saturday I went to the "Westside Pavillion" mall with Theresa and Sylvia. At first it looked deserted, ghostly, but then we found the part where all the shops are. It was alright, but it turns out that clothing is not by far as cheap in the US as people say. Actually, it's quite expensive. It was nice to add a visit to the mall to my list of all-American experiences though.

At night we (in this instance composed of Benson, Jordan, Adam, Sylvia and me) set off for Century City, where Brigid lives. We had to take two busses, we'd been told. The first one took about half an hour to arrive. At the next bus stop, we saw that busses came at 9:32 and 10:32.

It was 9:34

We waited for about five minutes to see if maybe the bus was late, but no such luck. We decided we'd just walk, and it took us about 40 minutes. Century City is a bit weird, lots of high buildings, and not a pedestrian in sight. But behind that facade...Brigid turned out to live in an extremely luxurious, close-gate apartment complex, which looked a bit like a hotel but then instead of rooms there were huge apartments.

There's nothing much to tell about the party. We talked, had a lot of alcohol, some people got drunk (me), some people wasted... I claimed the couch, and I actually slept pretty well.

Of course, then you get back and there's this pile of Physics homework... And instead of doing it, you watch "Spellbound".

I am going to do that homework now, though.

*Sigh*

Hedwig

P.S. In case anyone wants to e-mail me, the address I check most often is H.J.vanDriel AT students.uu.nl

Rain...

2005-01-28T13:30:00.000-08:00

Ok, so when people said in the beginning of January that the rain was an abnormality, a freak incident of nature, basically, when people said that I was right in thinking rain in California was not supposed to be, I believed them. When the rain stopped, and the marvellous weather started, I almost forgot about the rain even, ignoring its stain on my stay so far.

Then it came back.

Ok, to be honest, it isn't as bad as it was in that first week. The rain actually stops from time to time now. But my feet still get wet, and if there's one thing I don't like, well, it's wet feet.

Luckily we made the right choice for our exploration this weekend. Our goal this Saturday is the mall (mostly because both Sylvia and Theresa have boyfriend coming over soon and want to get suitable underwear). I'm very curious to see what it's like, a true blue American mall...

Actually, very atypically for me, I have my whole weekend planned out. Tonight we're going to see "the Motorcycle Diaries" on campus, and after that there's a party at Claudio's, and tomorrow night we're going to party (and probably sleep) at Brigid's apartment in Century City.

That's the future, now what about the past? Not that much to tell, really. I'm in a weekday rythm now that's probably not very different from anyone's. Last Wednesday I finally got off my butt and did Capoeira with Terry, followed by sit-ups I can still feel. Yesterday, I had a lazy day. I had only one class, at 3pm, and in that class we watched "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly". I was surprised to find out that Clint Eastwood was actually pretty hot, a long long time ago. Also, I love westerns, I don't know why, but the aesthetics of it somehow really agree with me.

On a sidenote, it's strange seeing Kill Bill 2 before ever seeing the Good etc. Tarantino used some Moriconne music from the latter movie in Kill Bill 2, and hearing it in its original context is strange when you associate the music with something else. It's not like I expected the Bride to waltz into the frame, but it felt very postmodern.

Cheers,

H.

Look what I bought!

2005-01-26T20:44:00.000-08:00

I looked for the version with James Dean, Marylin Monroe and Bogie, but I couldn't find it. But I really like the original too :-D

I. Fucking, Rule.

2005-01-26T16:19:00.000-08:00

So how do you think my midterm went on Monday.

You know, the one for the upper-divison Genetics class? The one that I don't really have the prerequisites for, just high school bio?

The midterm at 8 am on Monday morning?

Well....

I ACED IT!

As in, Perfect Score, 105/100 points (i.e. all my answers were flawless, including the answer to the extra-credit question).

Woo!

Who's the man? I'm the man ;-) (well, figuratively speaking)

I was so happy I let some radical leftie (although he opposed to the term "left activism", according to him, the terms left and right had been created to "divide and conquer") talk to me for a while, and it didn't even spoil my mood.

Don't get me wrong. I'm definitely on the left part of the political spectrum, very much so in this country. But I dislike those people with intense eyes and conspiracy theories. When I finally managed to get rid of him by saying I preferred to think about these things alone in my room with a book, he called it masturbation. But whatever's wrong with that?

Of course, the Physics midterm didn't go quite as well. Oh, ok, it's Hedwiglike "not quite as well", which means I'll probably have a reasonably good grade, but still. The test had two elements, and while the first part was easy (and worth 70 points, so I shouldn't complain), I screwed up the second part. Yes, it was only 30 points, but I spent most of my time on it and got out of the classroom very frustrated. There will be no surprises here, either, because when in one of your processes you can't seem to make charge conservation work, you know it's wrong.

But really, with a perfect score for another midterm, who the hell cares?

On a smaller side-note, Driek van Wissen became "Dichter des Vaderlands", i.e. "Poet of the Nation" (the Dutch nation, in this case). Yay for him! Also, just in case you wonder why I picked this snippet of news when there was so much to choose from, it's because Lia and Jelto, two good friends of my parents', campaigned extensively for him.

I know people who know people who know people...Beware!

Alright, I know, it's a very scattered posting...

To close off, more randomness, in the form of an addition to the list of strange American habits:

They drink milk with their cookies, and eat cookies with their milk. No wonder they don't have tea! They've found another excuse drink to accompany cookies with.

Cheers from LA

A very happy (and did I mention amazing?) Hedwig

P.S. I now -thanks to Terry- have all the necessary ingredients to make Tequila Sunrise. Life is great.

2005-01-24T20:33:00.000-08:00

The Sunset...Could be a postcard, ey?

Venice Beach

2005-01-23T14:34:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, I promised an update yesterday, but somehow, it wouldn't come out, probably because I was too preoccupied with my Human Genetics midterm. Thankfully, it's over now, I think I did ok, and I can write the update now.

First of all, a little riddle: what does "Ped Xing mean?". I finally asked someone on Saturday, and it turned out to be so easy... Hint: it's frequently written on little yelow boards hanging from traffic lights. The answer's at the end of the post. Oh, and it's not Chinese.

I guess I'll just go back to chronological mode...

We did go out on Friday night, and this time to a "Real American Party", i.e. a house party at which people drink either beer or very cheap, disgusting liquor out of big red disposable cups. The great thing about American parties is that you can just go there even if you only know a friend of a friend of an acquaintance of the roommate of the person who's throwing the party. The not so great thing about the parties is that people really drink to get drunk.

Unbeknownst to us, the theme was bling bling, meaning some people walked around with afro's, fake fur coats or big golden alarm clocks around their neck. It was fun, with peope trying to convince us to come to Mexico in spring break and others teaching us turkish words. It's amazing how widespread international people are: at the party, we saw Willem, Ben (australian guy) and Matteo (Italian guy), presumably each knowing a different friend of a friend etc.

We (i.e. a very drunk Terry & I) went home rather early, around one, because the 4.5 hours of sleep were telling me they wanted company, and the next day, after some studying (not a whole lot, to be honest) and the purchase of a really cute pair of sandals for 15 dollars, we were off to Venice. The fellowship was composed of two Dutchies (me & Sylvia), one Aussie (Brigid) and two Kiwi's, one of which is actually Indonesian (Jordan & Benson). I try to integrate, I really do, but somehow there seem to be more foreigners than Americans here.

It's true what they say about LA: it's not really a city, but a couple of towns cobbled together. As a consequence, it rarely feels as if you're in a giant city. It just feels like every time you step out of the bus, you're in an entirely different place. Westwood could not be more different from Hollywood, and Venice is not like any of the two.

Venice Mural

The place that it most reminded me of was Benidorm, except instead of fat, tattooed Dutch people there are New Agey people with dreadlocks. And well, lots of crazy people too. Not as much people working out and showing off their pecs as we'd expected, and muscle beach was definitely a disappointment. It seems the boardwalk is the place to get to know your future (psychics every ten meters, including, in Santa Monica, a psychic cat), but there is also a lot of music, and many, many shops selling T-shirts and pipes.

We met Tristan, of course. It seems you can't go anywhere in L.A. without running into Tristan, recognisable by his orange hat. Actually, it was not such a coincidence, as he lives there, and we got to see his house: bohemian as can be, with a no shoes policy (I finally understand why Tristan takes off his shoes at every opportunity), and a didgeridoo. I got drawn into a long discussion with Tristan's housemate J.C. about fear and how we are programmed into the matrix (don't ask). The house also had two doors leading into the bathroom, neither of which had a lock (once again, it's better not to ask).

We ended up going to a vegan restaurant called "Real Food Daily", and I had a delicious and filling (!) salad with beans and corn and avocado and spicy tortilla strips and all that. It was expensive for American standards, but that still means I ended up paying only about 13 dollars. With the prices they have here for vegetables, making the salad at home would probably not be much cheaper.

I ended the evening going to Benson's with Jordan. Once again, I just love how you can drop in on people you've just met. There were about eight people, I think, I had a good time (and a tequila sunrise) but left in time: Sunday was to be studying day.

I did study, so Sunday was pretty boring. Sylvia came over for easy dinner, and we watched the premiere of a very, very, extremely, words-cannot-decribe-how-bad show, called "Young Blades". Think of the worst adaptation of the Three Musketeers you've ever seen, amplify the Americanism and bad one-liners, add some mysticism and bad special effects, throw in a zest of not funny anachronisms (including a dialogue, and a long one, on "miracle cleanser") and there you have it.

Alright, I really have to go grocery shopping now...

Cheers,

H.

Ped Xing = Pedestrian Crossing

The Pacific Ocean

2005-01-23T13:18:00.000-08:00

"Every great journey begins by touching the sea"

The Gubernator's Butt

2005-01-21T18:02:00.000-08:00

Where to start...

First, I'm just going to keep track here of weird American things I notice. Today's strangeness? Butter spray. Or actually, the stuff that's in our fridge, which is "I can't believe it's not butter!" spray. :-

Of course, this is just stalling. I'm sure the title has aroused your curiosity, and that you're just dying to know what it's referring to (ok, so I'm exaggerating, bear with me), but I won't get to that just yet.

On the nice side of American things, the books I ordered on Amazon last monday arrived today. Neuromancer (Gibson), Quicksilver (Stephenson) and "The Best American Non-Required Reading 2004", edited by the always amazing Dave Eggers, and with a foreword by Viggo Mortensen (he looks great in Aragorn getup AND he writes? Woo.)

It's too bad I won't have time to start reading this weekend. I have a midterm on monday, study questions due on tuesday, and on wednesday homework due and another midterm. I've decided to keep some space for relaxation though: we're going to Venice Beach on saturday afternoon.

Alright, enough stalling already. Let's get to Ah-nulds bottom. I'll be honest, I waited with it so long because it's not that impressive. Nope, I did not happen to enter a bathroom where, just by accident, the governator was just pulling his pants back up, nor did I find incriminating photographs. I just watched "The Terminator" in film class yesterday (to give the class some status, we first watched an experimental french movie, but that was only 20 minutes) and in it, Schwarzy arrives on earth nekkid from the future. It's strange. We find it normal to see an actor's posterior, but it's strange when you realize that the behind is now part of a politician.

After film class, I went to the EAP party. It was nice, especially because everyone had either been on exchange or was now on exchange. We realised there was a group bigger and more invasive than the Dutch: the Germans from Maastricht. Seriously, we met at least 4. After the party, a group of us (including me (duh), Sylvia, Tanya (who'd just come back from Moscow), Tristen, Jordan (yet another Aussie, or actually, I believe that would be insulting to him because he'd from New-Zealand. Oh well. The accent is the same to me ;-) ), and Brigid (she was an Aussie) went to Ackerman Union to see The Incredibles, and we were joined there by Maria.

One more thing I like about the US, or actually about UCLA: 2 dollar movies. Next week it's "The Motorcycle Diaries" and I'm definitely going.

It was a very fun movie, I recommend it to anyone, and after it we ended up, somehow, at the apartment of a guy called Benson, a friend of Jordan's.

Yes another thing I like: it's considered normal for a group of complete strangers to drop in at the apartment of some other complete strangers with an elaborate assortment of hard liquor.

Oh, I didn't drink anything. I had class today (then tomorrow) at 8, and I knew tired was bad, but tired and hungover was worse. I kept to it, too, I only had one sip of very good, imported from Mexico tequila.

From left to right, top to bottom: Sylvia, me, Brigid, Benson and Tristen.

So we had fun. We discussed politics with Benson's housemate Noah, Sylvia tried to talk indonesian with Benson, and, well, basically it was quarter past two before I realised it. By that time Tristen was hungry and everyone went with him to Westwood, but thinking of my early class I only walked with them for a while and then went back to my apartment.

Unfortunately, Lisa and especially Terry had been worried about me (I'd told Nicole I had a party, but she was in Orange, and I had not expected to come home this late). Maybe I should get a phone.

I woke up amazingly awake this morning at seven (the two cups of coffee might have had something to do with my staying awake, but getting out of bed and making the coffee was no problem, in any case), and from then there's not much to tell. Classes, classes, classes, hanging out between classes, mostly reading (I found the reading room!) for my Genetics midterm on monday.

In half an hour I'm going over to Sylvia's to see what we'll have for dinner (another reason to get a phone: there is no bell), and then we'll see from there. I'm all for finding a party, but Friday nights are always a bit slower, because so many people go home for the weekend.

Wow....Even when barely anything happens these entries get looooooooooooooong. Oh, and sorry for the quality of the picture: I had not brought my camera, this picture was made with Benson's phone. Tristen, Brigid and Sylvia made pictured too, though, so I'll post a nicer one later.

Cheers,

H.

2005-01-20T12:11:00.000-08:00

My bed

Daily Life and Crazy American habits

2005-01-19T16:56:00.000-08:00

I like Wednesdays. I have class from 8 to 9 and from 10 to 11, and then I am free until my Human Genetics Discussion Section at 3. Somehow this makes me spend my afternoon much more effectively. Last week on Wednesday I did the laundry, and this week I went grocery shopping (I succumbed to the Wheat Thins again...They are just so good, and they were 2 for 5 this week. Oh, and I bought Oreo's, but with three girls on their period, that's allowed), called grandma, made soup for lunch, chatted for a while and read over the paper for Human Genetics once more.

It turned out, actually, that I didn't make the test last week so badly. 8 out of 10! And I feel like I did better this time, so who knows.

But, of course, I promised I'd talk about crazy American habits.

Take toothpicks. You know, big boxes of little chips of wood you use to take things out from between your teeth? Well, I have looked and looked, even asked a couple of times, but they seem to be unaware of the concept. Oh, there are toothpicks. But they are electric, and only that. Even then, it's not common at all: 4/5 of the dental care rack is filled with floss (also electric). So, I shelled out the 8 bucks, and I am now the proud owner of an Oral-B electric toothpick/floss combo. I just hope it works.

Another thing here is traffic. I don't know if it's just the automatics, but driving here seems to be constituted mostly of accelerating and braking. Even on the freeway! Needless to say, it's rather scary when you're in the passenger seat and see that the car approaches the one in front of you with less than a meter in between, and because of the automatic, every time you accelerate it sounds like you're in too low a gear.

Then, there's Bruin Walk. I've said it before, but just in case you forgot: Bruin is pronounced "Broo-in" here. It's a stretch of camous filled with those triangular advertisement boards and with small desks, full of people trying to get you to join their club. There's ethnicities: Chinese, Latino, etc. There's the religions: the Christians, the ones from the church of Latter Day Saints, the ones representing the Bahai faith, the Muslims. There's combinations: the Chinese Christians for example. There's the UCLA Democrats, and ten meters further the UCLA Republicans, there's the "Queer girl" association, the Tour Guides, the Unicef people, and so on. There's people making music (I think those were the Hindus. They were bald and wore robes, in any case), people trying to shake your hand, people handing our flyers. It's crazy really, but I kind of like it. It makes the campus feel alive.

Bruin Walk; every ethnicity, every religion, every major, every hobby and any combination of the above: you'll find your club on Bruin Walk.

Of course, there are more differences, small ones. Some of them I really like, like for example the fact that in Ackerman Union you can just sit down on the floor with any magazine or book they sell (or of your own) and read it. I like that there is such an incredible selection of interesting magazines (I even saw one with a translated story by Maarten 't Hart). I like the strange combination of bagels and cream cheese, I like that people are much more inclined to smile, I like that it's not considered dorky here to walk around with a big backpack. And then there are the less pleasant things. Vegetables and fruit are ridiculously expensive (peppers (i.e. paprika's) cost 2 dollar a piece, grapefruits, freakily big, the same), there are soda and snack machines everywhere, and you need a car to be a babysitter. I don't like the cheese, and I don't like the tea.

Overall, I'm still having a blast. The weather is so warm that you actually feel one of those blankets of warmth descend upon you when you step outside of a building. I mean, I can see the top of some palm trees when I sit on my living room couch, how cool is that? Also, despite the fact that the amount of money I spend on groceries scares me, I really like the independant feeling I get here: despite my sharing the room with a roommate, it feels like I really am an adult now, someone with her own apartment who pays her own rent, cooks for herself, and basically takes care of every single element in her life. I'm sure it's a feeling that bores quickly, but right now, it's exhilerating.

One last note: Happy Birthday Birgit!

H.

2005-01-18T10:09:00.001-08:00

Johnny Depp's Star

2005-01-18T10:09:00.000-08:00

Some more Hollywood Pictures

2005-01-17T13:33:00.000-08:00

Hollywood!

As you can see, I finally figured out how to add pictures to the blog. You can expect more of them later!

Hollywood

2005-01-16T23:02:00.000-08:00

There sure are a lot of crazy people in the US. People who eat out of garbage cans, people who come over and stand with you at the bus stop acting as if they belong there, people who dress up as Fiona from Shrek, as Legolas (badly), as Batman (twice), people who jump over other people, and people who walk up and down Sunset Blvd. (no, not the whole thing, that would take two days) for no apparent reason (and yes, the last ones would be us).

Most of these crazy people seem to accumulate in Hollywood.

Getting there, however, was more difficult than we had thought. Looking up the bus routes and schedule online was easy, but then, which side of the road do you stand on? We crossed the road three times, but in the end, only half an hour later than planned (and seeing how beautiful the weather was, waiting wasn't so bad), we were on the bus and riding on Sunset Blvd. towards Hollywood.

Just to give you an impression of the length of the boulevards here: we drove on it for half an hour, and that was only a fraction of its length. Oh, and to clarify, the "we" consisted at that point of Sylvia, Maria, Dave and me.

The first thing we noticed on Hollywood Boulevard was a very ugly silver thing. We still have no idea what it is. The second thing we noticed is that the walk of fame is kind of drab and disappointing. We didn't know most of the names (we found Johnny Depp after a while though, but this was at least half an hour further, the walk of fame is very, very long), and the stars didn't look very spectacular.

Around this point, we got a call from Tristan, saying he was also in Hollywood, at the Mann's Chinese Theatre to be precise, and we went there to meet him. Now, this Chinese theatre truly is a sight. Not only is the forecourt filled with the famous hand and foot prints of famous people (The Gubernator's "I'll be back" included), but there are dozens of -I presume-wannabe actors walking around in costumes. I spotted the above mentionned Fiona, Legolas and the two Batmans, but also Gandalf, Wonder Woman (who didn't have the legs for the part), Catwoman, NightCrawler, the Phantom of the Opera (we didn't actually recognise this one, he told us himself, in a very cheery voice), and many, many more.

Even watching bad disguises can get boring after a while, and luckily the next attraction waited at us next door at the Kodac Theatre: a beautiful view of the one thing we knew we shouldn't miss: the Hollywood Sign. On photographs it reduces to a white blur, but it looks quite impressive to the naked eye. Across the street was the El Capitan theatre, where, according to my Lonely Planet guide, Citizen Kane premiered, and where Pirated of the Carribean was now playing.

Walking down there were more sights. The T-rex above the Ripley's believe it or not, the erotic museum (oddly enough much less tackier than the rest of what we saw) many, many souvenir shops, with prices for T-shirts going down as we progressed (from three for fifteen dollars to five for ten), and so on. After a while we turned around, because Maria really wanted to see Ocean's twelve at the Chinese theatre. As it turned out to play only at 7 (it was 5), we decided to get something to eat first.

This is where the endless walking comes in. Because what looks closeby on the map really isn't. When we finally arrived at the restaurant we'd picked (the "old spaghetti factory", which looked really nice), it turned out to be full, with a 35 minute waiting time. No way we'd make the movie. So what did we do? We just took the bus back to where we came from.

We ended up at "Hooters". The concept? Very spicy food, and very scantily clad waitresses (mostly the latter). I had a quesedilla, which is a tortilla with a lot of cheese, mostly (some chicken, too). Tristan spent most of his time trying to get the optimal zoom-in on the waitresses butts.

On a small aside, there is one thing I like about American restaurants, any American restaurant, actually. You get as much tap water as you want, for free. I hate this in the Netherlands, they never have big bottles of water, just the tiny ones that you then try to stretch out over a meal, which is almost impossible. Why not just give out tap water?

At the theatre, I got a "I {heart} huckabees" poster. The movie was nice. A lot of fun, mostly, it didn't pay to think too much about the plot. Seeing Amsterdam was nice, and some of the scenes that were supposed to be located at Amsterdam station were actually filmed in Haarlem, so that was nice to see. I'm not really homesick yet, but I admit that my respulsion to Guus Meeuwis has lessened considerably.

So, that was it. The Hollywood Experience. So celebs, unfortunately, although we did see two limo's. They were probably all at the Golden Globes.

Back to normal now. Homework tomorrow, bed now.

Hedwig

My first real American party

2005-01-15T02:42:00.000-08:00

Ok, please excuse any incoherence and typos in this post, as I am quite drunk at this point. But, you know, Terry is in the shower and I definitely need to go to the toilet before going to bed, so I migh as well write.

The plan, as I wrote earlier, was simply to eat In n Out burgers, and we did, and they were very nice. We actually saw an employee there cutting potatoes into fries with one of those machines, so we were very reassured as to the freshness of everything. Afterwards, Terry went home and I had a nice talk with Theresa as Sylvia took a shower. Around nine, Maria called and told us there was a nice party at the Dashew international center, so we went there.

It turned out the party was connected with an art show, and they were giving away all the food, pushing it into people's hands even, giving them (and them included us) take home styrofoam packets. I ended up taking mostly fruit, as it's the one thing I'm not buying very much because it's so expensive.

With the food packets (Willem had three), we went to Ralphs. The reason? Today (i.e. yesterdat) was Willen's birthday, and we needed booze. e bought vodka, Jack D's, Pina Colada Mix, Cranberry juice, Coke...We then went to the co-op, and played a drinking game.

Now, drinking games are not a wise thing to do. Especially when a)the drinking game sometimes requires as many as 8 sips after each other b)your drink of choice is whisky, with or without cranberry juice. Hence the drunkenness.

Around eleven, eleven thirty we left for a party we heard about. We first walked in a circle (passing the same fridge lying on the sidewalk twice). but we finally got there. I stopped drinking anything but water by that point, but it was a typical American party: lots of beer. and lots of the vodka we bought (and which turned out to be undrinkable), in an apartment, and nice.

In the end, I enjoyed tonight. I flirted with two cute Italian guys and one cute Australian guy (those accents just make me melt), and I actually had good conversations with them (Bir, if you're reading this, apparently Bologna has a nice university). Also, the music wasn't too loud, which is a vast improvement, IMHO, on Dutch going out. Finally, I ripped my pants, isn't that the ultimate sign of a good night out?

Terry sure is taking a long time in there...I'll just go check if she hasn't fallen asleep. It is three o'clock after all...

Good night unto you all,

Hedwig

My first squirrel

2005-01-14T14:27:00.000-08:00

If the weather is always like this here, I think I might consider never coming back. The sky is marvelously blue without even a trace of clouds, the temperature is perfect (not too warm, but a T-shirt is enough), the campus looks beautiful in the sun and life is wonderful. Oh, and it's weekend for me now, and because of Martin Luther King day it lasts until Tuesday morning :-D

Jealous yet?

Oh, and I finally saw a squirrel! Two, even, to be precise. Cute little buggers. Most people here don't seem to think so, though.

In my description of a typical day, I forgot to tell what I do on the other two weekdays, mostly because it varies. On Tuesdays, I have class from 12 to 1 and from 3 to 6, and on Thursdays I only have class from 3 to 6, so I get to sleep in as long as I want. And the weekends? Well, that varies even more. For tomorrow, the plan is to explore Hollywood, as any foreigner in LA should, right?

What more to tell, what more to tell...Terry and I went to see Hero last moght at Ackerman Union for 2 dollar, that was nice. It's a shame I saw it first on a small screen, because the colors and composition really deserve to be seen big.

Tonight, we're going to eat something unhealthy, greasy, and typically American. We is me, Sylvia, Terry and manybe a couple of other people. We're not quite sure what we'll eat yet, but I'm sure we'll find something.

Cheers,

H.

Settling in

2005-01-12T11:59:00.000-08:00

There's not so much news to report here, but I thought it would be nice to give you an idea of what my life looks like now.

On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I have class at eight, which means my alarm goes of at seven. I switch it off as soon as I can, grab my glasses, put on my socks, and stumble to the kitchen to switch on the coffee machine. Then I try to get my clothes from the room without making too much noise (difficult, seeing how I'm still half-asleep at this point. My jet-lag is really over now), get dressed in the bathroom. I drink my coffee and eat my cereal, I pack my bag and I'm good to go! It's about a 25 minute walk to campus, so I leave around half past. My first class on those three days is Human Genetics, which takes place in a very big, very moderly equipped classroom with screens descending from the ceiling at the push of a button. The teachers use microphones :-

After the class I go to Ackerman Union to see if one of the comfortable chairs there is free. Today there was a free chair, but most of the time they're all occupied. I spend an hour reading. Actually, a lot of people are sitting in the book and magazine section of Ackerman Union reading, just on the floor everywhere. It surprised me at first, but it's a great way to spend an hour between classes.

At ten my Physics class starts, in a tiny little classroom this time. At eleven, when it ends, I either go directly home directly or go by the grocery store first (today, for example, I needed laundry detergent badly, mostly because I have only two pieces of underwear left). I leave for my afternoon classes half an hour is advance as well, I eat dinner around six or seven, and go to bed around eleven.

That's about it, I guess. Not very exciting, but nice.

To close with, some small things I think are funny about the US, things I still notice. For example, the teller machines at the grocery store have only bills in them, your coin change is automatically dispensed by a small machine. Also, the priority rules are entirely different. The first person who arrives at the crossroads gets to go first! There are many small things like that, like that a) there are commercials for medication on TV here and b) theymention all the side effects.

I have to go check on my laundry...

Cheers!

Hedwig

The Sun is Shining!

2005-01-11T08:38:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I know you shouldn't cheer to soon, but it looks beautiful outside. I'll still put my books in my bag with plastic bags around them, but I will put sneakers on again.

Actually, the above fact was the main reason I wanted to update. There's not that much to report here. Classes are fine, I've done a lot of grocery shopping yesterday, and finding a babysitting job is tough because most people want you to have a car.

Let's see...I can't really think of anything else to say, except maybe that I have to go and buy some readers now.

Cheers,

Hedwig.

Weekend!

2005-01-09T13:32:00.000-08:00

Ok, so dad said I'm writing about food way too much, and maybe I am indeed being contaminated with the American obsession, but never mind, I'm going to talk about food one more time.

Noodles, this time.

We went out for lunch to "Noodle Planet", and we got huge, HUGE bowls of noodles. As in, we ate half of it and were so filled up that we only had cereal for dinner afterwards. I liked it, but it's not really my thing: I tried eating with chopsticks but I'm a natural disaster at it, and the taste is a little too exotic for me.

Ok. Enough about food. More about big things.

In this instance Target, which is a shop we went to yesterday, and stayed in for I think about three hours. It is simply huge. I first thought it was kind of a really big HEMA, but they have so much more things (an much less consistent in taste). Everything from clothing to DVD's to kitchen ustensils to bedding to food to everything, basically. I was mostly there for a comforter, but ended up buying a fleece blanket instead, and so did Sylvia. I also bought a water bottle, cornflakes, and shampoo (yes, I know, I'm buying a lot of that but at Target I finally found anti-dandruff shampoo that wasn't head and shoulders).

After this I became a blockbuster member (or maybe Sylvia did...We used her passport and my credit card, so it's confused) and we rented Collateral and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Lisa's DVD player is here now, and despite the fact that all movies get distorted to fit the non-widescreen TV, it's great to be able to watch movies. Collateral was a good action movie, mostly nice because it takes place in LA, and Eternal Sunshine etc. was as fantastic as I remembered it. There were four of us watching, Nicole, Terry, Sylvia and me, and we had a great evening.

Today is work day. I've read three genetics chapters, which is hard work, and I'm going to work on my physics after this. It's ok though, with the rain I don't mind staying in. Tonight there's a party at Sylvia's which should be fun, but I won't stay there until late because I have class at 8 tomorrow.

I think my entries will become shorter from now on. I'm kind of settling into a routine. I'll keep you updated on my impressions though (american coffee really is weak, but I don't mind. So many people here have IPods. And so on).

Cheers!

Hedwig

1 week already...

2005-01-08T11:56:00.000-08:00

I went "out" for the first time here yesterday. And in the US, going our means staying in, or at least being in someone's apartment. Sylvia's, in this case. I went there around 6 because we'd agreed to have dinner there, me, Sylvia, and Maria, the other Dutch girl. When I arrived there they hadn't done any grocery shopping yet, so through the rain we went, to "Whole Foods" the healthy, and thus expensive, grocery store around here. I wasn't very hungry, consequence of Terry making pancakes and me having one, but it was nice shopping for a real meal. Theresa, Sylvia's German roommate, went with us. We bought potatoes, broccoli, oven dish material! And wine, because nearly all my friends here seem to be over 21, which is good :-D And, you know what I found in that wondrous store? Stroopwafels. 4 dollar for 8 of them, true, but still, they have stroopwafels here, for when I get really homesick (my pack isn't finished yet, though, so I'll be fine).

When we came back to the apartment and started cooking, all kinds of neighbours and friends started arriving, bringing, amongst other things, a container of Smirnoff, aparently everyone's favorite drink here. So, I had a couple of screwdrivers (simpler than it sounds, just plain wodka and OJ), and before I knew it it was eleven, and I wasn't tired. The food was good. I'm starting to like salad, oddly, or actually, I'm starting to appreciate how good dressings can make salads (in this case, honey/curry, an odd combination, very spicy, but good).

You know what all the cool kids (or well...all the students anyhow) who live here do at night? They go to Diddy Riese. And no, that's not a bar (I don't think I'll go to many bars here, seeing how I'm 19 and all), it's an ice-cream and hot dog place. They have sandwiches there for 1 dollar. And not just any kind of sandwishes, oh no. They have the kind of sandwiches where the buns are two cookies of your choice, and the "meat" is any ice cream of your choice.

Ok, so it's a once in a very long while thing. But good!

To make a long story short, it was a really nice evening, and I came home around 1, later than I've gone to bed lately. I slept until half past nine this morning, so I think I'm finally getting in the rhythm. Also, walking back at 1 was not scary whatsoever, this is really a safe neighbourhood, the streets are very very crowded at 1 am, and I even saw a police car go by, just cruising along, you know.

The plan for today? Going to Target (big store, to get a duvet), maybe doing the laundry (with this weather, jeans are really the only possible pants, and both of mine are dirty), and tonight maybe renting some DVD's at blockbuster and watching them.

I can't believe I've been here for (almost) a week already. One week ago I was in the plane, I believe somewhere between NY and LA, closer to NY though. Now it's my home, a temporary one, but a home nonetheless.

Hedwig

Soggy, Soggier, Soggiest

2005-01-07T15:00:00.000-08:00

Ok, so apparently, the nice weather yesterday was just a fluke. It's back to raining non-stop now, and (I've been keeping count) my feet have been soaked five tomes today. Because you know, the thing is, the rain is annoying, but not terrible. The problem is that the city is obviously not equipped to handle all this water, so there are pools, no, lakes, and rivers everywhere. And of course, I did not bring any waterproof shoes. Oddly enough, few people are complaining, but I, of course, am upholding the time-honoured Dutch custom and do.

I don't really feel like the chronological thing this time, so I'll just free-associate, kind of. Courses, first.

Let me start by saying that courses here are very different from how the are at UC. The classrooms are bigger (with the exeption of Physics), and all the chairs in the big lecture halls have individual tablets that you can put into place in various complicated ways. This is where the lecture part of courses takes place. There is also a second part in each course, namely the discussion sections, led by the TA's (Teacher Assistants). I've only had one so far, but apparently it's smaller groups in which you can ask questions and actually say things yourselves.

Introduction to Visual Culture is interesting. We'll first have a part about art, then about films for five weeks (yay!) and then about television (we're going to watch the Buffy musical episode, amongst other things). The teacher actually says "alrighty", I thought people only said that as a joke. The lecture was nice, the discussion too, although the first half was, quite strangely, just about summarizing the lecture, as if we weren't really expected to get it.

Human Genetics is difficult. I might have aimed too high, but I'm going to try anyway. The teacher said that it should be doable as long as I'd had some genetics, and I have. It's a lot of work, but at least I know that this course will be (or at least, should be) accepted as a biology 100 at UC. Besides, the topics are very interesting, and that always makes working hard easier.

My third course is Elementary Particle Physics. The teacher is Asian (not a problem per se, after all, two thirds of the students are too), but unfortunately he has quite a bad accent in English, so he is hard to understand. I think I should be able to do the course: it's much more practical and calculation focussed than my physics courses so far, but I've already had most of the theory.

So, that was for courses. What else? Well, let's look at purchases:

- Two more expensive books for courses
- A remote (so many channels and no remote is annoying)
- An alarm clock (which didn't go off at 7 as planned, but I woke up at 7:15 of myself)
- Food
-Conditioner & shampoo (I wanted only shampoo, but bought the wrong thing the first time

Ehm, what other lists can I make? Food? Well, not that much to say about that, except maybe that my bowels are obviously having a little trouble adjusting, as evidenced by cramps. I'm trying to balance the easy and the cheap. Yesterday night was probably the healthiest meal so far: a big salad, with corn, beans, bacon, tomato, cucumber...today's lunch was probably unhealthiest, as it consisted of one glazed donut (hey, I was wet). Of course, one donut isn't really enough, so I made a handful of rice when I got back to the apartment, and that's actually not such a bad lunch, I think. I still think the food here is oversweet.

Concerning food, I think the country is a bit, or no, very schizophrenic. One the one hand every single magazine (with the exception of newsweek, and yes, this is a tested hypothesis) in the newsracks has something about weight loss on its cover, and people seem obsessed with becoming thinner (I have been unable so far to find non non-fat yoghurt). At the same time, there's sweet food everywhere (like the donut shops and the cookie shops around here, and other "bad" foods too (like Burger King), and all packages are huge! Strange people...

Well, that was it for now. I'm going to have one more cup-a-soup, and then do some reading (so much homework already....luckily the weather's so bad I'll probably stay in this weekend). Please, please, if the weather's good wherever you are? Don't tell me.

Hedwig

P.S. Stefan, who most of you know, is also on exchange. You can read about his experiences in San Diego on www.ucsa.nl/sderksen

First day of Classes

2005-01-06T09:03:00.000-08:00

Woo. Slept until 9, with effort. But let's go back to yesterday.

Sylvia arrived at 11 sharp, and we went to pick up her key. The people at the housing office were very kind and quick, so we decided we had some time before the meeting to move her in. We walked to her hotel, and were picked up by a very funny and sweet Armenian cab driver who had much trouble with the bags (and was surprised we kept smiling. Hm. Americans maybe not so nice after all?). He talked all the way, about things like his trip to Zandvoort (after he heard we were Dutch). At Sylvia's apartment, we discovered two things. a) she lives on the fifth floor. b) the elevator was out of order.

Sylvia started ringing doors on the second floor to see if someone knew how to operate the elevator, and a guy came out and offered to help us carry the bags upstairs. Which he did. And they were heavy! I guess being a girl has advantages from time to time.

The first thing we noticed about her apartment was that it was, well, very smelly. The second thing we notices is that it's also very very big. It's a three people apartment, but they have two bathrooms, so much closet space it's impossible to fill, and a big room that does not really seem to have any use. And the best part: when we went out again, we found out that there's A POOL just in front of her door. Conclusion? When it's finally sunny and warm, I'm going to be spending a lot of time at Sylvia's.

The meeting afterwards about the visa and all that was boring and uneventful, with the exeption that there is now kind of a Dutch club here: Willem, from UC, was there too, and so was a girl who studies Life Science & Technology in Leiden and Delft. According to the EAP guy we visited later, there are 5 Dutch people in total this quarter, so just one more to discover. He also gave us a T-shirt.

Of course, a T-shirt wasn't enough, so we spent something like an hour in the UCLA store, trying to decide upon which UCLA sweater to buy. It's kind of like the uniform here: of all the people on campus, at least half has one of those sweaters on. I picked an anthracite (that's what they call it...I call it dark gray) one, and Sylvia a light blue one with yellow letters.

That was pretty much the day. We had dinner here, (American cup-a-soup is not that different from the Dutch kind), then Sylvia left, and we watched Alias (big two hour season premiere. Terry loves the show and actually lets out little yells during it), an item about Nicole's middle school (a teacher slept with two thirteen year old boys. Eww), and I went to bed, for the first time with my room mate there. It turns out that when your roommate is not your sister, there's no problem at all.

Eggs are ready.

Cheers.

H.

Day five

2005-01-05T10:14:00.000-08:00

First off, let me answer some questions I've been asked.

My classes will start tomorrow, i.e. Thursday.
I am living in an off-campus apartment, so not in a dorm or anything.
I'm a 25 minute walk from campus, good exercise 'cause this isn't Dutchy flat.
The weather is better now, and I have actually already explored the campus quite a bit, enough not to need the map any more. It's beautiful when it doesn't rain.
I have stayed in Westwood so far, with the exeption of the cab drive from the airport and the drive we took with Nicole. There are many busses though, and Sylvia and I have already agreed to go exploring on weekends.
The apartment is equipped with a rather large kitchen, including fridge, stove, a lot of dishes, a table, and several bottles of vodka. There's also a living room with a TV and a very comfortable couch, two rooms with each two beds and two desks, a bathroom with a shower, toilet, and a bath that doesn't drain, and some drawers and closets.
About the vodka (and beer too, incidentally): officially, the cannot be any alcohol in apartments with people under 21, but according to Nicole,they say explicitly at the introduction that this is not enforced as long as you don't exaggerate. I haven't drunk anything yet, but I don't miss it so far.
I can receive Solismail here, so feel free to e-mail me. And yes, Elspeth, I got your very nice email. Sorry for not replying.
I am going to follow three courses (I considered four but my schedule is busy enough as is, thanks mostly to my physics course). They are: Elementary Particle Physics, Introduction to Visual Culture (something to do with film, but I don't know exactly what it entails), and Human Genetics.
Oh, and mom? A sorority is a female fraternity, it's mostly about getting drunk together, apparently, but also about the whole bonding, having fun together stuff. I prefer my group of friends mixed, as in with girls AND boys, so it's not really something for me. All fraternities and sororities have names consisting of three greek letters.
I don't think anyone asked me about this, but I'll just say it anyway: I'm the tallest of my roommates. It feels good.

I think that pretty much covers it :-D If you have any more questions, feel free to ask, I forget to put so much in these blog entries....Now, back to the chronological description.

After Nicole and Lisa left the day before yesterday, I fell asleep on the couch, again, and slept so deeply until one thirty that Terry said she'd tried to wake me a couple of time but failed. When I finally woke up, I relocated to my bed but found out the whole sleeping-bag-in-duvet-covers thing is not a good idea: the sleeping bag went to one side entirely and I was very cold. I woke up around seven thirty again, and passed the time after that by having breakfast (the croissants here are HUGE), chatting a little and finishing my book until Sylvia showed up around 1 pm. We still had some things to arrange: we needed to check in at the international hall, and we needed to get our e-mail address at the Powell Library. We did both, saw the campus in the sunshine at last, and wanted all our friends to be here to see where we were going to school and be jealous.

We kind of improvised the way back, and when one road we took ended at the door of some building, we decided we'd just go in and see where it would lead. It turned out to be some kind of academic hospital, all kinds of people walking around and doing things, and somehow nobody seemed surprised at our presence. It took us a while to find the exit, but we did, and without asking anyone.

Our next stop was a merchandise store Sylvia had noticed when walking to my apartment that morning. It was amazing. All things Spongebob, Marylin and Elvis, and a lot more. The calanders were "buy one, get one free", so we each bought one: Sylvia a Johnny Depp one, and mine with all kinds of pictures of the beautiful James Dean. Very Hollywood, we thought, very L.A., and our rooms needed decorating. My room looks very strange now, Lisa's side is very decorated, with all her pictures of Angeline Jolie, and mine is bare. No longer! Sylvia also bought a Marylin Monroe wallet, in the spirit of the town.

We'd decided that we'd cook a very Dutch dinner for our roommates, so we bought baking mix (which, according to the package, can be used to make anything from biscuits to pizza), milk, eggs, bacon, raisins, and syrup: pancake night! Unfortunately, it turned out that Nicole wasn't back yet (she only got home around ten thirty), so we ended up making them just for ourselves and Terry. The oddity of combining bacon and syrup turned out to be a common practice in the US too, except it's a breakfast food here. Crazy people. The pancakes in the end were a mix of the Dutch and the American: they tasted rather Dutch, but because we used an American baking mix they burned much more quickly and were much thicker.

Gilmore Girls was on TV after this. An episode I'd already seen! Reruns, or did I just watch too much in advance? It was a nice episode ("We've got ourselves a Pippi virgin"), so I didn't mind. After Sylvia left, I kept myself awake with much effort until eleven, and went to bed. I woke up at seven thirty again, but this time I managed to make myself fall asleep again a couple of times, stretching my time in bed until nine thirty. When I finally got out Terry offered to make me breakfast: scrambled eggs with onion and spinach and bacon, with some ketchup as a bonus. I'd never thought I'd enjoy that for breakfast, but strangely enough, I did.

Sylvia should arrive at eleven today. We'll first go and pick up her key, then we have a meeting at the international center about keeping our visa (help! Didn't know I could lose it....) and after that, we're going to go to Sylvia's hotel, get a taxi, and move her into her apartment, which is just five minutes walking from here.

Then tomorrow, first classes...I'm very curious to see how they'll be.

Cheers,

H.

P.S. If you're interested in Sylvia's version of events, you'll be glad to hear I'm contagious. http://SylinLA.blogspot.com

Sunny California?

2005-01-03T13:20:00.000-08:00

When you think of Los Angeles, what are the first things to come to mind? Movie stars, palm trees, SUNSHINE...Well, I haven't seen any movie stars yet, but that's not so much of a surprise. As for the palm trees, it turns out they're just like people: they look depressed in the rain.

Seriously, when it rains here, it pours. Streets have tiny rivers on both sides, and it goes on and on an on. This explains why Sylvia and I didn't do that much yesterday. We sat inside, first, waiting for the rain to stop. Finally, we decided just to go to the supermarket to get dinner and toiletpaper. Inside, we watched sex and the city episodes on my laptop (the dvd's of seasons two and three were here already), and "cooked".

When Nicole came in at ten thirty, I'd fallen asleep on the couch, the Law and Order marathon apparently not fascinating enough. She immediately started cleaning out her bad and room, and I decided to join her, unpacking my bag. I still slept on the couch, after reading on in my book and reaching the inner story (the book is like a russian doll, six related stories inbedded in each other).

For this morning, I'd bought the cereal that looked healthiest. "All Bran". It turns out, they sweeten even that! We'd already found out that bagels were sweetened yesterday, but this came as a surprise. Sylvia and I had agreed to meet in front of the supermarket at ten, so I had to go out, despite the pouring rain. We went to get our "BruinCard" (pronounce Broo-in), and we wanted to get an e-mail address but the library was closed. Then we went by the Bradley International Center, but we didn't have all the papers we needed so we still need to go back. Back at the apartment, we heard that Terry had moved in, but left already. Nicole then took us, in her car, first to eat some skewers for lunch, then to buy books (80 fucking dollars for one, not even that thick, book!, but I did get to use my credit card for the first time, and it worked!), and then to see her father. She needed to get a cheque from him, we mostly were interested in seeing the sights a little bit. Driving on US freeways is SCARY. Five lanes, weaving in and out, the car making roaring sounds because it's an automatic, and a driver not exactly very careful.

Now we are back at the apartment, and I've met Lisa, my other roommate. She turned out to like stroopwafels very much, but that's very much a given, who doesn't? Terry just came in with her sister and her sister's boyfriend, so it's very crowded and cozy: the four inhabitants, sylvia, and Terry's family.

Well, the rain will pass. Until now, at least this is starting to feel like home.

Hedwig

Big, Bigger, Biggest

2005-01-02T09:23:00.000-08:00

I woke up at six this morning. Jetlag. I feel quite awake though, despite sleeping so little, and it was nice chatting with Birgit and Jacob.

Then, onto the supermarket! because there's barely any food here, and none I'd willingly eat. Before I got there (I asked a couple of joggers, the only kind of people on the streets on sunday at seven thirty, aside of course from the drunk guy eating out of a garbage bin), I passed:

-A starbucks
-Two starbucks clones
-A donut shop
-Three Pizza places
-Two cookie stores
-A Burger King
-"Jerry's famous Deli"
-a chocolate shop

No wonder these people get fat! As for the supermarket, Ralph's, it was absolutely huge, even to the big supermarkets they have in France. Isles and isles full of choices. Hundreds of different "pour water on me and you have a meal" things, not just with noodles and pasta but rice, too, an entire isle with all kinds of cereals... Oddly, I was not at all incline dot buy a lot. Usually my weaknesses are cookies, crackers and nice kinds of bread, but the cookies didn't look too good (and the packages were much, much too big, as with everything), the crackers were rather expensive, and the packages also too big (I finally bought "zips", fake ritz crackers, and after tasting two I know I won't finish them), and the rbead looked plain disgusting, and was quite expensive when compared to dutch prices.

I ended up buying noodles, dried mushroom rice (I'm very curious), the smallest pack of orange juice (half a gallon, i.e. 1.87 liters) and those crackers. Not very much, but the jetlag is affecting my appetite: Now I'm hungry, but not much considering that before the crackers, I'd eaten only a rice krispies bar in 22 hours.

Well, at least I know where the supermarket is now (it's about fifteen minutes from the apartment), I even have a customer card already, and I have enough food to survive until tonight. I'm curious if Sylvia will be able to find the place...in any case, I'll go sit outside with a book around quarter to twelve, considering there's no bell (the book is "Cloud Atlas" by David Mitchell, and fascinating).

Greetings from LA

H.

"California, California, You're such a wonder that I think I'll stay (in bed)"

2005-01-01T21:53:00.000-08:00

Phew

Ok, let's start at the beginning.

Yesterday (for those still in the Netherlands the day before yesterday), the 31st of December to be exact, my bags were packed. I went to bed relatively early for a new year's eve (about 2, I think, I couldn't resist watching a little of Gone with the Wind), and the following morning, 7 am, I woke up just a tad nervous. Luckily my dad was much, much more nervous (had been for the past few days), and it somehow had a relaxing effect. It didn't really hit me that I was really, truly leaving until I checked in.

"Look!", Birgit said, "that girl checking in next to you is also going to LA!", but I didn't pay much attention to it.

I asked for an upgrade to business class, but without any success. Platinum elite? Doesn't mean a thing, not to Delta Air Lines anyhow. But: not being seated in business class turned out to have a very nice consequence, namely that I was sitting behind a girl who was enthusiastically telling her neighbour that she was going to spend six months studying at UCLA. I of course exclaimed "hey! me too!", and we found out with much relief that not only would we have someone to talk to, but we were also on the same flight from New York to L.A., and we could share a cab because we were both staying somewhere near the UCLA campus.

Eight hours is a long time to sit still with little leg room. I tried to sleep, but only manage to for about fifteen minutes, maybe thirty. I watched parts of "the Bourne Supremacy" and "Anchorman" without sound: I'd declined head phones because I had my own, but it/they didn't fit. My head phones were great to have with me: it produces anti-sound, and for a long stretch of time I had them on without music, just to dampen the loudness of the plane. One good thing: the food was ok. We got one "meal" (the main course, pasta with something, was good, the rest not so much), and later on a vegetarian pizza.

The transfer was much easier than I'd thought. The girl, Sylvia, and I passed through immigration (the guy was reallt very, very friendly, nothing at all like all those stories) got our bags (and hey! the girl was indeed the one checking in next to me! I recognised her bag...), passed through customs and checked them in again. We then treated ourselves to a ridiculously expensive but very good cup of Starbucks coffee (we felt it was almost mandatory when entering the US, but that 5 dollar was definitely too much to ask for coffee. Do you know the price on the price list is actually without taxes?), and checked in for our next flight.

There were no two seats left next to each other, but we convinced her neighbour to switch with me. I tried to sleep again, and managed a little, but I never really fell asleep, I only dozed a little. The movie on this flight was Winbledon, and even without sound you could see how rote and tedious it was. This flight, you suddenly had to pay for everything: ear phones, and even food. But: this flight also had a good side to it: when we arrived, we flew above L.A. for at least twenty minutes, and with all the lights in the dark it was impressively enormous, and great to see.

All the above was the easy part. It goes on for a little bit: all our luggage came off the plane, and we had no trouble getting a taxi.

Sidenote: in the Netherlands we always complain that immigrants don't learn our language correctly. Remarkably, most moroccans and turkish people are much better at Dutch than some of the people we met here are at English. Our taxi driver among them.

The first stop was Wilshire Avenue, where Sylvia's hotel was. We agreed to meet tomorrow (again, today for some of you), to explore the campus together. She gave me some money for her half of the cab fare, and on it was.

In the Netherlands, you expect a cab driver to know every street in his city. I realize it's not realistic to expect that of a L.A. cab driver. Still, it was mildly annoying that he had no idea where to go, and only after fifteen minutes remembered that he had a map. He stopped the meter though, that was nice. In the end we found it, and the next problem surfaced.

The deal was originally that my roommate Nicole, who I've emailed with a lot, would be there to open the door for me, as I could not pick up my key until monday. Then, her boyfriend surprised her with a trip to Vegas, and she told me that she'd leave the back door open, that I could get into the downstairs neighbours apartment and get to the apartment by using the fire escape.

The problem? No bell. Anywhere. At all. Oh, lots of doors, with slots for key cards. But no bell. The guy was really nice about it (probably because I paid him a little too much, but I'm glad I did). He tapped in numbers on some strange keypas, shouted at windows...He wasn't really helpful, but it meant I wasn't alone, and that I had a ride in case I gave up. I was on the brink of giving up and going to Sylvia's hotel when three girls showed up. I was in! At least, in the patio. They were not at all the downstairs neighbours: the downstairs neighbours are conspicuously absent. They did help me, however: one of them let me use her phone to call the emergency houding something (she had the number), and on the phone they told me I could pick up my key now, but I'd have to go to Weyburn Terrace, and I would have to pay extra rent.

I didn't feel like worrying about money. At that point, I'd been awake more or less non stop for 22 and a half hours, and I just wanted to get into the damn apartment. The girl who helped me showed me the way, and off I was, with my backback, into the big dangerous city. Oh, I'm exaggerating, it was only a ten minutes walk, but still. My big bag I just left in the patio: I didn't think anyone would want to steal 31.2 kg of clothing.

The woman on the phone had been very annoyed with me, but at the housing office the people were very, very nice. It took me a long time to find the pdf file that proved I'd indeed been accepted at #014 in 558 Glerock Ave. and to find my student ID number (I knew it by heart, it turned out, but looked for the file to be sure). It took a while, but then had it! My own key card, entrance to my new apartment.

The guy who helped me (a student, I think) drove me back (he lives across the street, it turns out), and even helped me carry my bag upstairs. I'd been stressed out when things weren't working out in the beginning, but we talked about Tarantino (he spoke with him last year at the premiere of Kill Bill) and the Kings of Convenience, and I finally started to feel like I could actually feel at home here.

And which here is that? The apartment has a rather large living room, with TV, a kitchen, and two rooms about as big as my last UC room, but with two beds each. Also, it's very, very filthy. Now, you know me, when I think something is filthy, then it's really bad. There is actually a pack of Roach traps standing here. *shudder*. On the positive side, apart from it being dirty, the apartment is also vey cosy: there are posters and pictures everywhere (someone here aparently has an Angelina Jolie fetish), and the couch I'm sitting on is very comfy.

Tomorrow, I'll explore the town with Sylvia (if she can find this place), and at night Nicole should be there. A guy named Mark (Marc?), my "apartment co-ordinator" just came by to say hi and meet me and all that, saying also that he has a vacuum cleaner (meaning we don't...). He's really the kind of guy you expect in California, talking rather slowly, hands in his jeans pockets, and a wool hat.

I really am here. Wow. I stink though. So, shower it is, and I guess I'll just crash on the couch after that, seeing how in both rooms the beds have been pushed together as double beds, and look kind of dishevelled and covered with stuff. It's a nice couch. I'll sleep fine.

Leave comments if you like!

Greetings from LA

Hedwig

The Day after Tomorrow

2004-12-30T01:40:00.000-08:00

I guess I'm mostly set.

Let's see...I have a laptop (his name is Larry). I have picked which clothes I want to bring. I have contacted my housemates. I have an international Driving License, all the medication I'll need, I've enrolled in courses... I'm ready, or almost (still 2 visits to the dentists to go).

It feels strange. Two days ago I was suddenly all panicky and wired, but now I'm strangely calm. Tonight I'm going out with some of my best friends, see them for the last time. Then tomorrow night with my parents, and then on Saturday morning, take-off!

Hedwig

One month to take-off

2004-12-01T11:00:00.000-08:00

It's a new month, and a new blog. One month from now, at 11:00 am on January 1st, I will be flying to Los Angeles, to spend a semester, or rather two quarters, at UCLA.

The preparations so far? As can be concluded from the above, I have a ticket. I also have a visa, and I've already enrolled for two course: Elementary Particle Physics and Introduction to Visual Culture. What I do not yet have is housing: I'm on a wait list, and I'm supposed to hear sometime soon whether I'll have somewhere to sleep.

I'm not quite sure yet what exactly the purpose of this blog will be. First and foremost, I want to record my impressions and experiences, for myself, to be able to remember what I though when my hair's turned gray. Second, I've learned this summer tha blogs are a very good way to keep your family and friends updated on what you do, without having to write the same things in e-mails to several people. Thirdly, this will be a place to write, since I don't want to stop now that NanoNovember is over.

I'm curious what this will yield.

H.