Day 14 + 15

I sense this thing trending towards multiple days rolled into single posts, but I'm enamored with the "Day X" counting, so I'm going to have to find a solution.

Day 14 - SUPER BOWL

Yesterday was action packed, a welcome departure from Saturday's laziness. First thing I got up and went into town to buy some groceries. My biggest hit discovery of this trip was the Dutch equivalent of Hot Pockets. They're round balls of dough, filled with Tandoori chicken, and they're only 1 euro at the supermarket. I anticipate buying hundreds. I also made my discovery of Doritos "Cool American" chips, the Dutch equivalent of Cool Ranch. They're less flavorful but still delicious. Buying groceries is now one of my favorite activities, and I feel tremendous afterward.

Cool!

Following grocery shopping I went over to the nearby University Sports Center for basketball practice with my team for the Intergalatic Tournament. We unfortunately got chased off our court by some programming, and ended up running a more technical practice in a fencing room, as there are a lot of newcomers to the sport on our team - it's for fun anyway. There were a bunch of boy's field hockey games going on while we were there, and that was weird to see. Play real hockey, guys. After practice we went back to Dani and Karen's new house, which they're renting from someone who is studying abroad. It's amazing. Very cool layout, in a nice quiet neighborhood. I'm extremely jealous. Our team name is Space Balls, and we ended up watching Space Balls as a bonding exercise - not as funny as I remember it from watching it 10 years ago.

After Space Balls I went to a Chinese place - Nieuwe Wereld - in Oegstgeest for Steve's birthday. The menu was really extensive, and it was pricier than I'm used to paying for Chinese, but it ended up being pretty great. There was definitely not the "Oh God what have I done," feeling that accompanies Chinese in the States. We got hot towels for our faces afterward, which was luxurious, and Steve got a flaming ice cream sundae for his birthday. All in all it was a good dinner, and Oegstgeest appears to be very cute. Some of the houses were massive, and I may be wrong about this, but it appears to be a bit of an upscale suburb of Leiden. Except for the Rijnfront.

Birthday boy with fireworks sundae

Then it was time to head to Bad Habits for the Super Bowl party. We got there a bit early and were able to snag the booth with the pillows, which would prove to be an awesome choice. People trickled in, and by kickoff there was a pretty solid crowd of Dutch and international students alike. Somehow, everyone seemed to be rooting for the Packers (Sorry, James) and I was fine with that with the one and only Charles Woodson in the green and yellow (Sorry, Lamarr). It was a pretty good time when it was all said and done, though the lack of commercials, and their replacement with a bizarre collection of ex-NFL guys nobody has ever heard of in some weird studio in London at every commercial break was less than terrific, but it just meant I got to have some good conversations instead. The novelty! It was kind of a battle to make it to the end of the game, as it ended around 4 am local time, but the dedicated amongst us made it. I rode back to the Rijnfront with Ariel, and the wind was cooperative and we made pretty good time. Somehow, 4:30 am wasn't a good enough bed time, so I stayed up talking to my Gumbgloo buddies, who are always just the loveliest.

I'd also be negligent if I didn't mention getting great emails from the parents, and I now feel compelled to give a shoutout to blogfan Cathy! Thanks for reading, I'm sure your kids will say nice things about you once they mature a bit and realize how great you are!

Day 15 - I'm really good at this sleeping thing

Woke up around 4 pm, which was great considering my late bedtime and lack of anything to do today. I've been lounging around, eating, interwebsing. I got an email from Rachael that needs a response and I skyped with Mallika which is always great - even if her internet connection is the worst and she's incapable of maintaining a video feed for more than 3 minutes.

Planning on getting some reading done today, and hopefully going to sleep at a decent time to wake up and be productive tomorrow. I'm sure I'll be on Facebook for most of the day, so find me there or on Skype if you want to chat (Skype name is amgodd).