A fun week in review

Hello

It was quite fun during the last week.

Last Monday, I got my midterm back from Dutch class which I did the week before. Funny thing is that the week before the exam, I was sick and didn’t go to class. Therefore, when I came to class that Monday, I had no idea that it was midterm day. I didn’t study or look over anything. Fortunately, the test was easy, and when I got it back last Monday, I got 80%. It’s quite the boost to the confidence knowing I can wing the test and still get 80% =)

Anyways, since it was the usual Monday bar night, I celebrated my success =)

Wednesday was my second time at Jiu Jitsu. The warm up was harder this time with more push ups and sit ups but my ego didn’t let me quit. I learnt some new ways to defend myself if I was knocked down so that will be useful when I walk down the mean streets on Enschede hehe.

Also, Wednesday marked 7 months that I been with Connie. I miss you Sweetie! =(

The rest really start to get fun on Thursday. Ana’s friend from France, Jonathan, came to stay with us for a couple days. I got to use my French for the first time in a little while. J'ai appris beaucoup du français au cours du week-end, mais Ana était toujours le meilleur Français parlant.

Friday, we all went over Hinke’s place for a BBQ. It was my first BBQ of the year so I was looking forward to it. Hinke lives with 10 other people, and with our 5 (Mizuki left for Spain on Friday), there was quite a lot of food there. We had burgers, fish, kebabs, and salads. Wine was quite abundant as well. After dinner, a fire was started and my firebug tendency kicked in to maintain a nice warm fire for everyone. Equally impressive, Shing came by bus so was bikeless when it was time to go home. Shing rather then sitting at the back of one of our bikes for 20 minutes proceeded to run the entire way back home instead. It was impressive site and made possible by his love of playing football all the time (copious amounts of alcohol to slow inhibition and reason may also have been a factor).

Saturday was sports. We all sacrificed our usually 12-14 hours of sleep on Saturdays, to get up early to play football. AIESEC and us organised a little tournament. I was pretty bad and out skilled. My team, the Mighty Beavers, put up a good fight, but went 0 for 2.

Afterwards, we went to go get ice cream (it was such a nice warm day) before breaking off with AIESEC to get groceries for the weekend. Enschede was bustling with more activity and people then usual due to the batavierenrace (a big long distance race). Every year, there is a long distance race from Nijmegen to Enschede and it began. Students or anybody really, take part in various legs of the race with the final stretch ending in Enschede. In the evening, there is a big party held on campus and it is actually the biggest Student party in the Netherlands, attracting upwards of 10000 students. Therefore, after a nice supper, we headed to the campus to join in the festivities. I bumped into Tina (a nice girl I met at the International Student Party earlier this month). We also met up with Sandra and her friends so there were plenty of people to hang out with. The campus was packed but we had a lot of fun. Good times =)

Sunday was a relaxing day. I have been downloading a new game, Evil Genius, so I was playing that all day. I’m glad since I downloaded a few, but none of them worked on my computer until now =(

The highlight of the evening was the French meal Jonathan cooked for us. Besides 2 French salads, sausage, cheeses, and wine, we had escargot =)

I had them before and I love it, but it was a first for the rest of my roommates. It was a great meal.

Today it’s back to the usual grind, as I sat here at the office on my lunch break, and now later at home. Tonight is the usual Dutch class followed by the get together at the pub. Looking ahead, on Saturday is Queen’s Day. For my non-Dutch readers, it’s a National Holiday to celebrate the Queen’s Birthday (The Dutch Queen Beatrix, not the English one). We are headed to Amsterdam on Saturday to join in the festivities. I also have to wear something orange that day as per tradition. 2 weeks later, I’m headed to Austria to watch hockey.

I’ll post pictures later

Take care everyone

LEs