ik ben erg blij

hallooo c: í've had a lovely weekend, a weekend to restore my faith in being batshit insane enough to come here. unfortunately for you, that means less snark, which, i know, makes the horror and tragedy that is my life incredibly incredibly entertaining. so i'm sorry you're missing out on that. but don't fret, even when my week is good i always have something ridiculous to report. because, come on. i live in a dorp.

every cloud has a WHAT THE FUCK IS MY LIFE lining.

so, last week left me in a rather dejected state. i was feeling a bit lonely and social pariah-y, and all i really wanted to do was curl up into a ball forever. on friday, i had to bake cupcakes for the potluck that was today. i figured, "oh hey, ill just make something non-committal like cupcakes. that will be super easy, and baking will lift me out of this rut!". however, i was blithely unaware that netherlanders dont believe in things like "canola oil" and "buttermilk" and "large bags of powdered sugar".

the biggest contained of powdered sugar they make.

so my options were quite limited. i thought maybe if i just closed my eyes and put a bunch of delicious things in a bowl together and baked them it would all come out okay.
i returned fromseveral hours of perusing the store with white cupcake mix, bananas, chocolate pieces, cream cheese, butter, and 4 shaker tubes of powdered sugar. it was time to get down to business.
after the initial shopping hell portion of my cakemaking journey [it took me like an hour to find the sugar aisle because i was thinking "baking supplies" when i should have been thinking "koffie"] the rest went fairly steadily. i realised that i pretty much had full freedom with the recipe, because hey, how wrong could it possibly go? i put some bananas n chocochips up in the batter, whipped up my cream cheese frosting, and i was so in business. i accidentally made way more than intended though, and wound up with like 30 cupcakes. delicious delicious cupcakes. a story of success! though, i spent the interim between making them and bringing them to the potluck hoping to dear god that they would stay yummy.
anyway, so friday ended on a good note. on saturday, i trekked to winterswijk to visit jelle. i managed to take the train thee without fault, and had a lovely warm day chillin out in jelle's dorp. i had to leave at like 5.30 to be back for floris' birthday party, though. which i did, but then missed my changeover train and had to wait an extra half an hour at the platform anyway. and im not talkin' like "oh shoot, the train i wanted to take just pulled away!", im talkin' "NAW i dont think thats my train, i'm just gonna wait here like a doof and OHWAITSHIT THAT ACTUALLY WAS MY TRAIN. AWESOME".
turns out, the next train to hengelo DIDNT stop in borne like the first one did, so i also had to catch another train back to borne from hengelo. i watched my little town speed by the train window with sinking desolation. it made me tired and confused, and by the time i was back in borne i really just wanted to go to sleep. BUT! instead i went home, made sure i didnt look completely like a zombie, popped some cupcakes in a tupperware for a present for floris and fietsed to the party.

oh cupcakes, you go above and beyond your duty.

the party was super fun, and i met a looot of people c: at midnight we all biked to hengelo to hang out there. hengelo was fun, having pink hair means i can make new friends on a dime :D
i went out for delicious 3 am food with some new single serving friends after most of my original party had gone home. it was wonderful, i forget what it was called but it was just a giant plastic cup filled with potatoes, shaved meat and sauce. which is exactly what i want to stuff in my face at 3 in the morning. after that, i biked home, ate a bowl of cereal and slept like the dead.
today, another exciting winterswijk adventure! all the exchange students from our region met up essentially
to freak out and complain about our lives. it was quite nice, to be able to talk about everything, but i didnt really have much to complain about. i was more embarrassed, while other people were complaining i was like "yeah so my family is really too good to me, because im pretty sure another family would have kicked me out by now..."
after that, jelle the fancy AFS volunteer took us out on a tour of winterswijk while our families freaked out and complained about us. it was a really nice day, so we just kinda putzed around for a few hours and then went back for the potluck. whiiiich, i am happy to report nobody was poisioned by my experimental cupcakes, and actually they were quite popular :D score one for angela's baking skillz! its okay though, i owe all my success to frosting, because they dont eat frosting here. making my cupcakes automatically ten times better than all of the other cupcakes they've ever eaten, by default. also to the makro, from which i bought possibly the only measuring cup in the netherlands. seriously, how does anybody bake with a scale. ohmygod. they dont even use teaspoons and tablespoons D:
after we got back, i decided i HAD TO EXPLORE and nothing was going to stop me. i got home, changed into my SUPERVET jogging pants and set off on my bike towards adventure.
i decided i needed to know where the road past the train tracks went, so i just followed it in a straight line forever. turns out, it curves, goes past the pannenkoekhuis, and goes in a giant circle back into borne. i kept following roads as straight as i could throughout borne, and so now i sort of have an idea where stuff is. it was really fun, actually.
PLUS, GAIZ GAIZ i taught myself to bike without my hands. so uh, yknow, just chillinnnn. i will never use that skill, though, because it can only end in misery and broken teeth. BUT ITS A GOOD SKILL TO HAVE, yknow, just sitting dormant in case you are biking really really really need the use of both hands. like what i have to fend off a bear but also cannot stop because i'm in a really big hurry? exactly.
the only truly bad thing that happened this weekend is that my pinky ring with the moon stone was really loose lately and slipped down the shower drain this morning. i cried, real bad. i don't know why i love my pinky rings like children, but they always stayed on and i felt like they were part of me. SERIOUSLY, I HAVE RING TAN ON MY PINKIES. so that was pretty depressing, cos i really liked that ring. it looked like the sky. on the plus side, now i get to find a new pinky ring, because shopping for pinky rings is a favorite passtime of mine that i have been deprived of for the last year.
anyway, basically this weekend i just started feeling like i actually understand my life a little bit and have some friends. it will get better, and it already is. and honestly, i really do like it here. it's quirky and ridiculous and full of bread and bikes and "leuk" and its my home now :3
just one week left to live through and then metal festival! SO SOUPEDDD. and gym tomorrow :D lets see what borderline deadly game they want us to play this week. honestly, i feel like they probably just have meetings where they review the various gym equipment they have and figure out how to induce the most potential injury with it.
TOT ZIENS C: