I just need to post this before I forget

De Beer is Los. Yes.  A week ago I went to my friend Tommy's house and I wanted to play a board game. He provided me with : DE BEER IS LOS. For those that know me, you probably (or not) know of my love for bears. The name of the game roughly translates into "The Bear is Out".  Some Dutch expression that kinda means everything is going to chaos (am I making this up? Idk...) But yea it was grand. And I love the picture of it.

Let's see... not a lot going on right now. Everyone (including friends AND the fam jam) was out of town last weekend so it was verr, verr chill. Too chill. This coming weekend should make up for it-- Csilla's bro is coming into town Saturday and we will all prolly be attending Andrea's birthday fiesta. Then some more of Csilla's friends'll be arrive early next week or something. Ou  and lots of things (shows) going on November:

-Nov 14 mandaag  3 Melo Death bands from Finland (Insomnium, Before the Dawn, My Grain)
-Nov 18 vrijdaag brings in 2 blackmetal and 2 deathmetal bands (Gorgoroth, Vader, Valkyrja, Toxocara)
-Nov 19 sat is the Fleshgod Apocalypse show (with Decapitated, Cyanide Serenity, other bands I don't know)

That Saturday show is destined to be superfun. But I checked out the other bands for earlier in the week and they seem fun enough :) Why not? Will be a busy week.

Tra la laaaa. Went to the Boijman Museum today. Free admission on Wednesdays but I think I did it wrong... seemed way too small and way too many like... plates and ceramic vases and stuff. Hm... still cool from what I did see.

Today's Mission: Finish A Clash of Kings. Book 2 of the Song and Ice series... soooo gooooooood.

Europe is awesome.

But bringing technology to Europe is not so awesome. Things you might want to bear in mind if you plan on moving to the Netherlands for a year:

• Obviously, appliances from the States will not work in European sockets. But even if you have an adapter, it's a bitch trying to find a power converter (I gave up.) I ended up buying a new charger for my 3DS and my camera. Neither were that cheap.
• Computers. It is very expensive to ship them. Most people have laptops so this isn't really an issue but for people that love pc games, heh, have fun. Oh and wifi makes things all the more difficult with desktops.
• Don't even THINK about keeping a Netflix account if you plan on living in Europe. And forget Hulu, too. If you want shows, you're gonna have to either buy them (if you can find them) or torrent them. /shrug
• Nintendo 3DS's can access the internet here but if it's an American console, apparently you can't get into the Nintendo eShop. Which means no downloading the free games that you are entitled to for buying the 3DS before the price drop. Lame. Also, you have to get American 3DS games shipped to you because, for no good reason, Nintendo 3DS's are region locked. Yep.
• Wacom Tablet users-- hope you have a laptop. Because if you plan on using a computer that doesn't already have the software installed, there's no way to download the Autodesk Sketchbook and Photoshop software that comes bundled with your Intuos4.

Like, the first two are understandable and obvious. But seriously-- we live in freaking 2011. There is absolutely no reason that I should not be able to access the Nintendo eShop if I have access to internet. Period. That's just rude. And.... ughhh this whole not being able to download my wacom software.... it's not soooo terrible. I ended up finding a free program called MyPaint. Isn't as nifty as the commercial software but it is pressure sensitive to tablets and has layering and a decent variety of brushes. I'm just really glad to have it. :D

These probably wouldn't even be problems to like 90% of people being an au pair or something, but I guess I'm just more technologically dependent than most. I BLAME SOCIETY AND MY UPBRINGING. ;) Just kidding-- I don't apologize. I love how I am. Haha.

May I reiterate the region lock sucks? Because it does. It's dumb and mean and unfair to a lot of people (namely Europeans because America and Asian regions get more [and better usually] games). Luckily, Andy is supposed to be shipping Shin Megame Tensei to me soonish. By soonish I mean hopefully by Christmas and hopefully right after I finish Ocarina of Time. Which is awesome.

So I thought it'd be a good idea to play with the curling iron...

I was wrong. Turns out I fail at being a girl. While my hair looked pretty cute all night last night (and you know how important it is to look cute at death metal shows...) I reeked of burnt hair smell. Luckily the place was full of sweaty metal dudes who apparently don't believe in deodorant (did I say "luckily"?), so no one could really tell. Except today after I shower the smell STILL lingers and WHOA what's that? Oh yea... just my hair breaking and falling off. No big deal. It's hot. I will be getting all the boys and fashion awards. FML. :)

Caroline's birthday is coming up...

And she was celebrating with her friends yesterday. I didn't know if  the fam was celebrating yesterday too so I went out and got her something. Had to spruce up the blue wrapping paper, though.

One thing my mother taught me well: wrapping persents, and the importance of.

Also, sometime last week I stumbled upon this incredible drawing of a girl and a rainbow creature atop a wheel. With a gridded sky. Never have seem anything quite like it.

Untitled (as far as I know), Caroline Haas. 2011.

I asked her what it was and she was like, an elephant and a girl. This description wasn't nearly good enough for me. I asked her what the girl was holding (it looks like a remote control thingy) and why the sky was gridded and why the elephant was multicolored with jigzaw pieces covering it. She was annoyed by my interrogations (and honestly, who enjoys explaining their art?) and i got some half-ass shrug and a few impatient part Dutch/ part English answers. I may never know. But I asked her if I could have it and she said yes. So it's hanging on my mirror. And though it definitely did add some character to my bedchamber, the wall over my bed was a little lacking so I asked Ineke if I could dry out her roses when she was about to throw them away.

And now when I'm laying on my bed, I look up to this :)

Yay. Got another show tomorrow night. And next week a mini-staycation. No trip to Belgium, but there will be plenty of other occasions. Huzzah!

Oh what a weekend.

Friday was pretty nice. Went out for drinks and dancing, per usual. Nothing too crazy, though. Saturday was when the magick started. Csilla and I were more than ready for the witches and wizards party.

Not pictured: Csilla's long, warty witch's nose. It was awesome. Got a lot of "Hey Hex"'s on the bike ride there.

The bike ride to the party was an adventure, as it is most certain to be when you're adventuring to southern Rotterdam. But crossing the Erasmus bridge is freaking awesome at night. I mean, when you get to the top and take a moment to catch your breath, it's really beautiful.

Stole this picture, but yea Erasmus bridge is pretty cool.

So we get to there and it's a squat party. Which is fabulous. Takes forever for anyone to come and let us in because the "doorbell" is actually one of those honky horns that you generally associate with clown noises. And it was kinda hard to hear over the DJ's inside. But luckily for us, Csilla is an experienced whistler and her loud ass got the attention of a girl inside on the second story. Also, some random old guy kinda wandered in with us from off the street. I hope he didn't steal anything but he seemed harmless enough and had mad dancing skills so I think it's ok. There were lots of cool magic hats and a ton of Wizard Staves. Success.

Yesterday was Heidenfest in Tilburg and we rode there with Alanson and were pretty much hangover-free by the time we got there. Most of the bands were pretty terrible but Trollfest made me laugh a lot. They ordered the audience to "bark the alarm" for the next song in which there were a lot of "woof woof woof"s. Very silly. There was one band (can't remember the name) that had a violinist and it had so much potential but they didn't really do anything with it. Pretty boring. But naturally Wintersun blew everyone away. Was incredible. :) Heh heh heh. But what I thought was most hilarious was how the different the crowd was from what I'm used to. Back home, the crowd consists of people that look more or less like this:

Bahaha thank you Google image search for "metal fan."

But really, that pretty much sums it up. Dorky guy in black band shirt. Easy mode. Heidenfest brought on the stereotype hardcore. Lots of long hair, and studded belts for the girls (who wears that stuff, seriously?) And like... combat boots. Idk... silly business. Granted it was a folk metal festival. But still-- LOL I saw some guy wearing a Linkin Park shirt bahaha. AND oh! There was a guy just wearing a chain link vest as a shirt. That was kinda cool. But by the end of the night Csilla and I just couldn't keep our hands off this one guy's Mufasa-like mane standing in front of us and that turned into us touching everyone's hair that was past their shoulders as we made out way out of the venue, which I think was half amusing, half very embarrassing for Alanson and Maarten (his friend that met us there). But seriously-- why grow long hair unless your intention is to have it be petted? :)

So I started my Dutch classes last week...

And I pretty much know everything we have gone over and will go over. But that's OK-- cause at least it gives me a chance to speak it, and my new-found friend from New Zealand is kind of on the same page as far as vocabulary goes. And so then after class last night, this lady from Wales was chatting with us and and somehow World of Warcraft got brought up. I don't know how WoW ever should casually get brough up in conversations but happens more often than you'd think. So I blurt out "Oh my God, you play WOW?" Because this is a lady in her like... late thirties early forties. And she's like "yea, that's how I met my husband." And she was a femtaur! It was kind of hilarious.

Speakingggg of video games. I finally got my pc. Got it last Wednesday. Went to pick it up from Leiden, and the trek back to Leiden Centraal carrying a rather large (and after a while, disturbingly heavy) box was quite an ordeal. I had a 30 min resting period on the train back to R'dam but hot DAMN... carrying that thing from Central back to the house left my arms, neck, and back sore for 4 days. But it's so awesome.... at least I think. I still don't have internets for it yet... we're still waiting to hear back from Ineke's computer guy. I'm about ready to offer bribes. It's cruel having a new computer and not being able to use it :C Haha.

Anyway, the weather is back to overcast and drizzly after a 5 day spell of ideal, beautiful, cloudless skies. Csilla and I spent a lovely Sunday afternoon at Museumpark with a guy we met from Couchsurfing. He's a juggler so we had all the toys-- hula, diabolos, pois, and ridiculous amount of juggling balls as well as some for contact juggling... which if you're not familiar with it... looks like David Bowie's tricks from the labyrinth.

I was looking for actual pictures of Bowie contact juggling and couldn't... now I just wanna watch the Labyrinth and/or listen to the soundtrack.

Anddd so this weekend should be fun. Got a Witches and Wizards themed party on Saturday (courtesy of Jay the New Zealander from my Dutch course) which should be fun. Everyone has to bring a six pack of canned bear and construct a wizard's staff from the empty cans as he/she drinks them. I'll look for some tallboys. Har har har. Wicked. And then Sunday is Heidenfest in Tilburg. Which should be amazing. Como se dice.... WINTERSUN? Oh right-- WINTERSUN.

Crazzzy weekend.

Oh I am le tired. And achey. Oh yea but a week or so ago, I went with Caroline to the Blijdorp zoo. Which was AWESOME, by the way. I had been wanting to go to the diergaarde since I arrived here (love zoos). I won't bore you, Dear Readers, with boring pictures of animals we've all already seen (though I took tons of just-animal pictures :D), unless you count the seldom-seen Carolinus mimickus

She is trying her hardest to be a flamingo.

And their playground was huge! I wish I had had access to castles when I  was eight.

Seriously-- I went in. It was insane.

But yea... so last Friday I went to that metal show. No big deal. No mosh pit. Kinda strange but whatever.  This past Friday I went back to the Melkweg to see Shapeshifter which was like a drum and bass band that used two keyboards, a bassist, a saxophonist, a drummer, and vocalist. It was super fun and then the people I were with thought it'd be fun to start a mosh pit. It was pretty weak, but kinda hilarious. Then the after show (which was free if you just stayed in there and lingered for a bit) was a DJ playing dubstep (which has its own time and place). And everyone was going NUTS. I had never been to an electro show of any sort where there was a mosh pit. And this was like the entire floor almost of people pushing and shoving and actin' a fool. SO much fun-- but SO DANGEROUS.

Granted, I bruise really easily, but STILL. Seriously?? From dubstep?

Stayed in Leiden that night at Alanson´s place and saw the bits of what will soon be my computer! Very very exciting. He started working on it but didn´t have it together in time but I should be getting it within the next couple of days. Yay!!

HAH. And then last night was supposed to be the Mexican dinner at Andrea's house. Ásta had spoken to Andrea and apparently where she lived was right near where Ásta lived back when she was little and living in Rotterdam. So Csilla and I blindly follow our fearless leader on what was my first (and probably longest-ever) Rotterdam metro ride. It takes quite a while to get to the stop. And I am famished from not eating anything that day but half a sandwich... dinner's supposed to start at 7:00 and I was gonna have to leave by 9:00 to make it to the Baroeg Open Air fest to see Korpiklaani. So we're walking around and not seeing where we're supposed to go. Ask a few people where this street is-- some shrug. Others are like, oh it's across the river. Apparently we took the entirely wrong line? We kept getting different answers from different people, though, and Andrea didn't seem to know exactly what station to get off at...???! So we make it back to the station and talk to a driver who said we could take the B line to get there... We finally figure out which stop we're supposed to be at (by this time it's after 8:00) and it's gonna take at least 30 minutes to get there. After switching trains we make it there. But it's 8:40 and they were gonna pick us up from the metro and take us there and then I would only have like a minute to hang out before having to head back which would be quite pointless so Csilla and I hop back on the train to just go back to Beurs to switch lines and grab some food and then head to the show.

Yet before we make it to Beurs we have to switch trains yet again, and then at the next stop the metro cops come and inspect the ov chipkaart things to make sure people are paying or whatever. The lady gets to me and just kinda looks at me (I was using what I thought was a one day pass) and asks how old I am. I tell her. She says that the card I have is only for children under 12 or senior citizens. ... Oh. She asks me to come off the train with her. Csilla follows, of course. Exit stage right.

Oh shit please don´t fine me. She and a couple of other officers ask me what I´m doing here, how long I´ve been here, blah blah blah. I tell them I´m new. I´ve been here a month and it´s my first metro ride and I thought that the card was good. They look a bit skeptical (and I thought for sure they weren´t gonna let me slide.. stupid American girl) but they were very sweet and just explained that usually there is a 38 euro fee and then another one for 75. But they weren´t gonna hit me with those. (Must be my winning smile). I told them I was sooo embarrassed (which I was) so they gave me a handwritten card saying it was good for an hour so I could get to where I was going... which was sooo nice of them. But by then we were running pretty late and so we had to skip getting food (which made me die a little inside) and instead just grabbed a Snickers from a vending machine and headed to Baroeg Open Air. Made it JUST in time to find Alanson with his friend Jaap before Korpiklaani came on. They were hilarious! And awesome!

The violinist was my favorite, of course.

They put on a great show and we didn´t stop dancing. But now I am le tired. And that´s why we have Sundays.