ensche-day with alex!

today nothing interesting happened, so i'm going to talk about yesterday! actually, one interesting thing happened today, my maatschappijleer teacher brought our whole class suikerwafels and slagroom because it was our last lesson. i don't really need to describe suikerwafels, i will just say that that translates to "sugar waffle" and they taste several times better than you think they will.

the most interesting part of my day is a waffle. that's laughably pathetic.

also, i know there's a lot of stuff i need to talk about that happened before yesterday, but i'll get there. fear not.

this week it toetsweek. it is a thing they like to do here, sort of like exams except i don't have to take any of them. i just reep the benefits, which are only having to be in school 'till like eleven every day :D
i decided to take advantage of this opportunity and finally go to enschede to shop, which i had been telling myself i'd do all year. i figured it was also a good idea because i could visit alex too! who i hadn't seen since christmas. which is simply tragic.
so, after school was over, off i headed.
i *happened* to catch site of the albert heijn to go on the way out of the station, and *maybe* i went in and bought a cookie and ate it for lunch, maybe i didn't. who knows, not important.
anyway, enschede is a pretty self-explanitory place, and if you've been there once you can probably find your way around, so i wandered over to where most of the shops seemed to be and browsed around. even though i was there to shop, i am horribly thrifty, so i would up in the bargain fashion store, where most things are under 25 euro. these types of stores are plentiful, carrying mostly the same type of stock. or maybe it all just looks the same to me, since the entirety of their color palette is pastel pink, gray, white, black, army green, navy, and taupe. seriously, i was browsing the "taupe" section of the store when i realized WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY LIFE. also, most of the stock stems from questionable taste, and only comes in one size. even with those roadblocks, i did alright :D
i bought a black lace dress with a zip-up drop back [or i am just fashionably wearing it backwards, it doesn't have a tag] for 7 euro, and a pair of 4-inch lace up black pumps for 12. because girls here wear high heals on a regular basis, and my suh-weet doc marten work boots were starting to feel a little bit insufficient. you understand. but y'know, stuck to a theme of black because why would i need other colors? i will see your limited color scheme, nederland, and go one further.

cave into peer pressure.

after i was done shopping, i headed in the direction of alex's appartment c: i walked through the market on the way there and caught sight of a large piece of pink faux fur fabric. WHICH I OBVIOUSLY PURCHASED, because i didn't think it through very well :D so now i have that. it could be a shawl, or a uh, giant pink piece of faux fur have i mentioned that it is pink faux fur?

or i could make a this thing, don't judge me. 

found my way to alex's, we chilled out for a bit, he showed me his hamster who is ADORABLE and his name is Awesome :D he is not one of the large, rat-like hamsters, but rather one of the ever-so-tiny "sweet jesus how is it alive its so little and fluffy" hamsters. i am fairly sure it is a roborovskii, or one of the similarly impractically-sized hamster breeds.

but where is your leg part? do you have those?

then, since alex recently found a bulgarian supermarket in leeuwarden [he is bulgarian.], we snacked on some of the things he bought. apparently bularians don't eat like.. meat n cheese n stuff on sandwhiches. they mostly eat a vaguely tomato-sauce like paste or a supersalty spicemix, and some butter. or at least alex does. WHICH IS FINE WITH ME, it was actually weirdly delicious for being not a real food item. like i ate a piece of plain brown bread with butter and a thick layer of harena sol [colorful salt]

this stuff. 

and it was so delicious I ALMOST DIED. though admittedly, it could have also been the sodium content, i wouldn't challange you on that arguement.

this took me forever to find, internet. 

after that we went out and did some shopping. y'know, hamster cage had to be changed, cereal had to be bought, etc etc.
we would up purchasing this cereal that i've had my eye on for a while? its called tresor, and it is assumedly a young child's dream breakfast. seeing as how it is cereal pieces filled with that liquid chocolate stuff.

don't worry, it has nothing on lucky charms and fruity pebbles.

of course we didn't have any milk, so i ate it with chocolate pudding. same difference.
we also found an asian market in enschede. which is wonderful! they sell pocky/frozen sushi [questionable and wrong], and delicious crackers, and those little sugar covered bits of ginger. we also bought some lychee pudding, which was good, but not too good so i gave most of them to alex.
we came back home, ate dinner and spent some time with his housemates watching family guy c:
then, alex had a meeting at metropool, the poppodium where he volunteers in hengelo. he was like "YOU SHOULD VOLUNTEER TOO, COME WITH ME!"
an offer i simply could not pass up >w<
so i went, talked to the guy in charge, filled out some forms, and ta-daaa~ i am now a volunteer at metropool! c: which means i can work at shows, and if i do two a month, i get 5 free tickets. so basically i cannot wait and i hope its fun C: fun fact: the word for this type of work in dutch is "horeca".

and now you know.

that was the first image that came up when i searched horeca on googleimages. i just hope i can be as classy as that fine gentleman, goodness me.

so yeah, yesterday was full of new jobs and clothing and hamsters and bulgarian and i got my cookie. IT WAS GOOD C:

okay sidenote: my dog is the loudest snorer EVER and all she does is sleep all day all the time. make it stoppppp T_T lol

yes, i really am going to dedicate an entry to this. it's necessary.

dear blog,

i am sorry i neglect you. i know you get lonely and want to know about my life. as an appology offering, have this 100 page blog post about the last two weeks of my life. 

sidenote: i skipped over blogging about the holiday season, and you might just get a healthy helping of christmas in july if you're lucky. someday i'll share the oh-so-delicious details of my winter vacation with you. someday.

ANYWAY. just gonna uh, jump back into things. chronological order is for suckers.

first, i would like to croon to you my hardship. this is going to be a long rant. about something near to my heart, and vital to my well being. 

living in nederland is difficult. not because of the language, or adjusting to the system, oh no. no, i've discovered a serious flaw in the system.

THEY HAVE SHITTY COOKIES. at first i didn't realize it. but it's pretty much impossible to escape.

and you say "oh but angela, they have those little koffiekoekjes, those are cookies! you are just being ridiculous."

to which i reply,

i'm sorry, i meant like an actual cookie. 

not to be confused with 

i'm sorry zandkoekjes and shortbread, but you aren't actually worth eating.

but then they say "but albert heijn has chocolate chip cookies in a box, and those are good."

to which i say: 

.

okay, maybe i am picky about cookies. but if its not gonna be good, it isn't even worth it. 

cos like, in america, if you want a home-made cookie, *shhh secret* you don't actually have to make it. you can go to a cafe or a bakery or stop n shop and pick up one that they have baked. and then you have your cookie. or, OR, you can even pick up one of these babies

A BAG OF REAL COOKIES.

but here, they don't bake cookies for you. 

BUT. i have come across two ways to overcome this problem. first way! to actually bake my own cookies.

whiiiiich, after scouring every supermarket in borne on one particular day because i HAD TO HAVE A COOKIE, i finally did.

here is the recipe i used.

http://alpineberry.blogspot.com/2006/08/nutella-cookies.html

i used granulated salt instead of table salt on purpose [not just because i'm dumb] which actually was AMAZING, because then you get little bursts of saltiness sometimes to balance out the criminal amount of chocolate/nutella. 

and uh, to reflect upon the amount of patience i have in the kitchen, the recipe is supposed to make like 30 cookies. i carefully dolloped out 15 human sized cookies, and then, deciding i was fed up with rules and that the common sense could suck it, used the other half of the batter to just make 2 giant cookies on the other baking pan. this was *maybe* the best idea i've ever had.

anyway, so then i had my cookies. i would like to inform you that while they still existed, i started eating them for breakfast on occasion. exhibit A: last week i made myself a nutella cookie and stroopwafelijs [remember stroopwafelijs?] ice cream sandwhich at 6:30 in the morning. WANNA KNOW WHY BECAUSE I DON'T GIVE A SINGLE FUCK THAT IS WHY.

i don't need your rules, society.

anyway.  so that was solution number 1.

solution number two isn't really a solution, but still counts. i have found that there is one store that sells bakery cookies. that store is the albert heijn to go. not to be confused with the normal albert heijn, they don't do that kind of thing. actually, this solution sort of caused the problem. see, i didn't even know i WANTED a cookie before this cookie. i was contented with my cereal and apples and i guess the desire for a cookie was lying dormant in the back of my mind. but, when jelle and i were in amsterdam [i'll get there, this is about cookies right now. remember i said chronological order is for suckers?] i bought a "big american triple chocolate cookie" on the way back. 

worth 1000 words.

and it was so, so good. it ignited a fire within me, that burned and burned with the neverending desire to eat cookies for every meal. i kind of hate myself for having that cookie, because if i hadn't i wouldn't be having this issue right now, and i would be happy with the limited and unfulfilling selection of koekjes offered by the supermarket.
anyway. luckily, i thought, this cookie exists and i can purchase and subsequently eat it!

BUT LIFE IS NEVER SO SIMPLE. because the closest albert heijn to go is in enschede, which is a twenty minute train ride away. and i am not going to enschede for the sole purpose of acquiring a cookie. that is not a thing people do. BUT, this is a solution in that it proves that nederland does have good cookies, they are just exceedingly well hidden.

thank you all for listening to my story about cookies, i appreciate it. really. now onto real life*

*please see next entry for stories about actual life and not just my undying love for sugary baked goods.

guess what

guess what
guess what
guess what

ít's nothing!!

spannend, i know.
so i should probably blog about the holiday season so i can savor and cherish the memories always, but that will be like a straight up NOVELLA of words. so i am biding my time.
buuut if it makes you feel better, i have drawn up a full and detailed outline of my vacation, so i don't leave anything out. organizational tactics, whoop whoop.
but uh, in the mean time, HAVE A PICTURE OF NEW KIDS TURBO

fun fact! the netherlands apparently still considers the mullet a socially acceptable and valid hairstyle.

best movie ever. truly a masterpiece. i'm buying it on dvd and making every single one of you watch it with me and NO you don't have a choice :DDD