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the preface, of course

Wednesday, January 1st, 2020

greetings from the future!

this is the post from 2006 that floats magically atop the others so that i can be a controlling blogger and greet you all upon entry.

hello.

background: i’m living in amsterdam for six months. i was actually given money to do this. isn’t academia marvellous?

below is my blog. i hate blogs. i would tell you why but some of you have blogs and i don’t want you to think i hate your blogs. i just hate the idea of blogs. and it’s really not the vehicle i would choose. but until i figure out how to make my own minimalist website, which has been sitting at the bottom of the to-do list for about five years now, this is just easier.

oh, and unlike the burning log, this one actually follows blog chronology. so it starts in the archives (down on the left column) on december 28.

cheers

p.s. the future is fantastic. flying cars, t.v. phones, everything they promised.

29 january 2005

Saturday, January 29th, 2005

It’s four in the morning and I just can’t sleep. Last nite – which is rapidly becoming the nite before last – I went out with my language class to celebrate the course’s end. We spent a few hours at an Irish pub where, unlike in most Dutch bars, the alcohol came in full-sized glasses. Of course it’s still just as strong as the alcohol that’s served in small glasses. So if you aren’t paying attention, you’ve basically had six beers when you think you’ve only had three.

By two o’clock our international crowd was fully drunk and looking for a new scene. We had heard about a bar called Casablanca with dancing and no cover. Our small staggering mob headed toward the red light district, stopping en route to ask random passers-by for directions. Casablanca turned out to be ridiculously fun: it was, in fact, a cross between a young hip bar and a Dutch karaoke venue. The music included the standard embarassing 80s karaoke faves with a smattering of Dutch hits, belted out by whichever crowd of dancers happened to be on the stage at the moment.

I got home around 4:30, in time to get five hours of sleep before a few students in my international student group arrived for the breakfast I had, during a moment of regrettably poor planning, promised to make. I had a wicked hangover and could barely muster friendly conversation; when they left I went back to sleep. I slept for much of the day. What a waste.

And now my clock is all backwards. In appeasement to my body I skipped going out tonite and have instead been working. The hours after midnite can be so productive, and since tomorrow is a Sunday I can sleep in. It would be nice to be doing this work in studio though, surrounded by a few of my red-eyed classmates. Is it possible that after only one short month, I actually miss Lawrence Hall?

26 january 2005

Wednesday, January 26th, 2005
Tonight I learned to play lacrosse. Natalie, Mariecarmen, Maria and I biked twenty minutes to the sports complex, where city teams can use public fields. All of these fields were uncharacteristically covered in snow, but no one seemed to mind. There ... [Continue reading this entry]

24 january 2005

Monday, January 24th, 2005
It’s 2:30 on a Monday afternoon. Hoske down the hall just woke up; he’s watching Robin Williams stand up on his laptop. I can’t hear the routine, but I can hear him break out laughing every 2 – ... [Continue reading this entry]

20 january 2005

Thursday, January 20th, 2005
The first week was a week of disorientation. The second week was a week of exploration. The third week has been a week of working my ass off. My intensive Dutch class happens every weekday morning from nine until ... [Continue reading this entry]

pop quiz

Saturday, January 15th, 2005
it’s 2:30 a.m. and you’re sitting in a room in amsterdam with a guy cutting his sixth line of coke with a mastercard on an imposter delftware plate and a girl obsessively twisting her hair to the sounds of the ... [Continue reading this entry]

14 january 2005

Friday, January 14th, 2005
I got home ten minutes ago from five hours in a bar with a South African, a Russian (from Kazakstan), a Hungarian (who grew up in Transylvania), and a Peruvian. Then a Polish boy walked me home. Between ... [Continue reading this entry]

13 january 2005

Thursday, January 13th, 2005
This week has brought lots of changes. For example, I am no longer the only person living at Plantage Muidergracht 20. I now share the six-story, fifty-flat building with Natalie from Venezuela and Hoske from Iceland. I ... [Continue reading this entry]

so, the toilet

Tuesday, January 11th, 2005
Let me start by saying that the Netherlands is, unquestionably, a nation of designers. More design hours have been invested in the average Dutch child’s sock than are spent in the design of a typical American art museum. This reality ... [Continue reading this entry]

10 january 2005

Monday, January 10th, 2005
My alarm – which is actually my cell phone, since I have no clock – goes off at 7:45: a synthesizer-swing melody that, when accompanied by the rattling of the vibrating phone on my night table, jolts me awake. ... [Continue reading this entry]