Sunny Day!

Today there was SUN! SUN! SUN!! It was a gorgeous day. Absolutely gorgeous. So gorgeous a useless adverb like 'Absolutely' is more than warranted. After a week straight of rain, including some horrible moments where I've been completely drenched, head-to-toe on my bike, a sunny day was a blessing. A few friends stayed with me last night, friends who I met through Couch Surfing, a great site meant of building new contacts and experiencing other cultures. Matt and Sofie are Parisian, and I hope to send them a visit later this fall.

Yesterday was not so nice. It rained harder, and longer than it has yet, and I got so wet my jeans stuck to my skin. I biked from my place downtown, about 20 minutes, and got absolutely drenched. I met Grant and Amanda for some jazz in Nieuwmarkt before heading back with Matt and Sofie for dinner. We ate too much surinamese food and went to sleep.

Today I did very little. I enjoyed the sun. I went to Vondelpark to read, but it was too busy so I settled on my balcony. I intended to see Calexico tonite, but it was sold out. I betcha it's gonna rain tomorrow.

Lastly, it's certainly been tough integrating. Sure everyone speaks english, but EVERYTHING is in dutch, including cell phone manuals and bank statements. The best thing is, the Dutch pride themselves in inconvienencing you by doing this. They sneer at it. I'm going to enroll in a Dutch language course in September, as I get a huge discount with the University. Off to bed. More social commentary tomorrow.... Oh yeah, read David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. I'm 60 pages in and it is brilliant.