Ik spreek Nederlands!

It's been a busy week. See Re-Caps below:

Tuesday, August 11, 2009
We had our first dutch lesson. Mijn naam is Natalya. Ik spreek drie talen: Engels, Russisch, en een beetje Spaans. That means my name is Natalya. I speak 3 languages: english, russian, and a little bit of Spanish. Isn't that cool? Then we had our first seminar to discussion about the previous day's lecture. I enjoyed it, interestingly enough. Most likely because we discussed ethical issues and the stereotypes of the netherlands. We learned about the values in Dutch culture most important for example no waste, value in saving, and my personal favorite: " Doe maar gewoon, dan doe je al gek genoeg" which means " Act normally, that's strange enough" We also went over the ideas behind dutch policies on drugs, prostitution, etc. The reason the things are the way they are is pragmatism. It'd be more dangerous to not regulate it, ya know?

Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Second dutch lesson. Hoe gaat het? or Hoe gaat het met jou? This means How are you or how are you now? As we did not have a seminar on this day, I went upstairs and did my assignment about the pros and cons of legalized prostitution. It was interesting. Then we went to a fabulous event entitled "Go Dutch or Go Home" The challenge was to eat 10 stroopwaffles, 2 beer bottles of water and find a piece of chocolate in a bowl of mayonnaise. Angie DOMINATED. It was quite amusing. On the way back we quickly stopped by the bar but there was nothing really interesting going on there so w/e.

Thursday, August 13th 2009
The most interesting day this week, by far. The language class is going pretty well, the seminar was fascinating because of the discussion about Abortion, Prostitution and Euthanasia in the Netherlands. It kinda sucks that that's what the country is known for but the policies are interesting to discuss. Lunch was fascinating because of the amount of topics discussed that go through my head on a daily basis, however nobody here really knows the things that run through my head on a daily basis so its very amusing. I also met a very hot guy from New Zealand, unfortunately I forgot to get his name but he was tall, blonde and very pretty. Plus since he's taking a course at UCU right now, I'll hopefully run into him again. (*giggle*) The lecture we had was AWESOME. It was about Immigration and Integration in the netherlands. We then had an assignment to go to the "ethnic" part of town. Which I thought was awesome. It was so much fun. I went with Inna, Tiffany, Ricky and Jay. Not only did we find out where we're going grocery shopping for the next week but we found a buttload of cute clothing at this really cool store. I also found a hella legit head shop with a gorgeous hookah with a cobra on it. It was soooo cool . We got ice cream and on the way back laughed our asses off on the bus and I think we freaked everyone out with our loud American antics. It was a little ridiculous. We then came back home and hung out for a little bit. The guys on the 16th floor were having another party so I stopped by for a little bit. They were playing beer pong and I was highly amused. I put on my heels for the first time in forever. It felt sooo good. Now I'm watching Numb3rs and chillin until I go to sleep. My housemate is out clubbing with Tiffany and some other people. As I would like to wake up at 6am tomorrow I'm staying in. I'll go out another time. . .maybe Saturday.

I'm pretty much done with my strippenkaart so I need to buy a new one soon. Frelling frell balls. Tomorrow we're going to the Hague which sounds like SOOO much fun. I'm excited, except for the part about having to be at UCU at 8:15 instead of 9:30 like normal. Whatever, I can sleep on the bus or something. I was worried at first we would have to pay for the trip and go on the train but we're taking a chartered bus just for us which makes me rather relieved.

It still feels a little wierd not being in california but I'm readjusting quite well which makes me happy. (Yes captain obvious lives in my head).WoooooHooooo!!