ALLES IS LEIFDEEE

listen to that song once, i dare you. it never goes away.

so guys, i cant decide whether my favorite part of school is walking through the halls trying to figure out how to NOT look like a total loser, or watching white dutch kids do unironic daps. its really a toss up.

also, another fun dutch word. gezellig. it doesnt directly translate into english, but it sort of means cozy/pleasurable/nice? i like it. a lot. it is a good word to describe how i like things to be, and how much dutch people like things to be. other words i like include lekker, natuurlijk, zakje, doof, vet, and [technically a name] jochem.
anyway, today was a good day c: i only had three classes, so i got to leave school at 12:40. after that i biked to hengelo and purchased some sweatpants lol buuut of course they were too long, because everything is too long here. but i got them anyway because i needed a pair for gym so badly. we do craaazy shit in gym. you know all that freaky equipment of questionable safety that they have on the ceilings in american gyms that they probably used back in the seventies but now essentially just collects dust? yeah, we actually use those. on monday we used these swingy hoops to swing by our arms back and forth and do flips n shit. i feel quite muscular now.
anyhow, post-sweatpants, i met up with jelle and we went on an epic quest for pannenkoeken. because we were talking about how ive not had dinner pancakes yet, and how the dutch think its silly and odd that we eat them for breakfast. we walked around for legit like 2 hours XD and we found nothing. apparently there actually is a restaurant for them, outside the centrum. FAIL.
but instead we went to a bar and ate there. fries+applesauce=win. corona=win.
anyway, its super late and i dont have much more to say, next blog will be better. deal? :D
ciaoo

WWWOOOAOAHAHAHAHA ROZE HAAAAR

day by day, people do not seem to get less totally souped about my hair. today two third years [they were like half my height] came up to me in the hallway and gawked for a little bit lol. debby told them that i was only into guys with beards and that i was too old for them anyway XD and like 4 people in the hallway today were like roze haaaaar :OOO its better when i'm out at night though, because then all the drunk teenagers are like WTF WHAT IS THAT ITS SO MYSTICAAAAL its like i'm a mythical creature or something.

FUCKIN' MAGESTIC AS HELL.

i'm trying to figure out if i'd be any less of a social pariah if i could speak the language. cos i figure then i could defend myself against being a total freak with pink hair. well, half of those things, anyway. i think maybe i could muster up a little bit of popularity if i could talk. in time! plus, i have a good number of friends, im content c:
anyway, school this week has been confusing but not too hard. were reading a book in english called somethin somethin oscar wao, about dominicans in america. and the main characters name is BELICIA.
i have a present for you:
http://www.thesource4ym.com/teenlingo/
that is how i feel when my british english teacher tells the class about reggaeton music. really, this book brings me right back to the south side hur hur
also, for CKV we have to do like this adbusters assignment where we remake and advert and look at how they effect us. which is riiight up my alley :D also, we have to go to like concerts and arts events. this is legit a wonderful wonderful requirement.

this is super balls, i should have taken history.

i have yet to have a full week of school. today, my dutch teacher and my music teacher were both absent, so i got to leave at like 1 lol.
i met an english teacher yesterday from ohio, too :D shes like super duper nice. shes lived here for like 15 years and we got to talk about how lots of things here are mad different.
EXAMPLES
airing out rooms: people here keep their windows open ALL THE TIME. its like 2 degrees outside. its because they like to keep the rooms smelling fresh haha. like at the hostel last weekend, the lady told us to open the windows because our room smelled "sleepy". i understand it, but i am constantly freezing all the time, so i keep my windows shut XD
bathroom birthday calendars: i noticed that a lot of people keep monthly calendars in their bathrooms with birthdays listed on them? which seems like an odd place to be remembering someone's birthday. but i think its just a more useful version of bathroom magazines.  i thought maybe it was just my family being oddly practical, but no. pretty much everyone else's house i've been in has one too.
coffee and tea: ITS ALWAYS COFFEETEA TIME. like all day erryday, its time to break and have a little cookie and some serious r&r. i am totally okay with this, its a wonderful thing. and pretty much its required to eat a little cookie with your coffeetea. it just makes it a much more pleasant experience.

i see that your koffie is not yet complete. would you like to complete it with a koekje? y/y

the thing i am not okay with is that i cannot find a brand of tea to suit my fancy. sweet wood tea is okay, but its so sweet it makes my mouth hurt XD i bought apple spice chai, but for realz it just tasted like hot water. and then i actually FOUND some apple cinnamon tea, but it was by lipton so it tasted like nothing and awfulness. so basically someone needs to import me a box of celestial seasonings, because so far the quest is not going well.

anyway. tomorrow i dont have to go to school cos im going to get my residency permit i think c: which is good cos i get to wake up late. BUT the passport photos that i had taken in america arent up to dutch passport standards [your ears have to be visible :/] sooo i have to go take more.

so, today was picture day. which they did not find it necessary to tell me. luckily, i wore something that doesnt look like asses and butts, so thats good. but, the picture guy was like "HOI PINKY, SAY COOKIES!" and i was like UH WHAT DOES THAT EVEN WORK?
so my picture is probably me looking baffled and horrified. seriously, cookies?
also, i got my hair done today to, so i was struck by the utter irony of my hair bein perfect and beautiful a meer 3 hours after taking school pictures.
but after that i had pretty stellar luck all day C: got out two periods early, ate a stroopwafel, hit every green light on the way home, and got my hair dyed the right color. i consider this a win.

the rest of the week should be pretty win-ish. no school then hengelo with my new friend jelle on saturday :O
'cept for forking over 5-10 euro for new passport photos. seriously, i am dirt poor. haha

OH ONE MORE THING the lady at the hair salon asked if i'd want to model for a photoshoot later in the year if they need it. because it doesnt matter how jacked i look, i have pink hair! i love getting to represent things c: i'm pretty excited. now that my hair is actually longish and prettyish, im enjoying it more.

aaanyway. going to sleep pretty early tonight because i am constantly on the verge of falling asleep. seriously, i almost dozed off while i was getting the dye washed out today. i'm a trooper.

some stuff about my life but mostly food.

hello, blog! i have some things to report, of interest or not.
i spent this weekend at the AFS orrientation camp! it was in a little town in the middle of nowhere at a place called the stayokay hostel. so obviously, this was set up for success.
it was really really wonderful to see all the other exchange students again. we all compaired notes on how our lives are going. because, really, nobody quite understands "I CRY EVERY NIGHT LOL" quite like other exchange students. we all decided we hadn't anticipated the utter bone-crushing loneliness that we would experience. but, we're not exactly saddened. we spent most of the weekend laughing hysterically at our utterly pathetic and hilarious existances. also, finally other people who understand my dilemma:
food in america: vegetables, fruits, cheerio's and lunch meat.
food here: KAAS BROODJES. and beer. and thats pretty much it.
the volonteers were super awesome too. they were all in their twenties and were really more just like chill dudes who could give us advice. i'm retty excited to go on all the trips with them. a bunch of returnees were also there. i saw the girl who stayed in RI last year, which was cool. it was weird to bump into her on a different continent XD
we also played a bunch of traditional dutch games. there was one where you had to eat a really dry bisquit and then be the first one to whistle? i opted out of that one because the people playing looked like they were dying a little bit. my personal favorite game, affectionately known as spijkerpoepen, or "poop a nail", involves wearing a belt with a nail on a string hanging down in the back. the object of the game is to dip the nail into a bottle of beer without using your hands.

the dutch know how to party.

they also had really good food. they had this one thing, which was like a tasty red brick full of mushed up veggie matter? it was legit the most delicious thing ever. i'm not kidding. i can't even post a picture of how gross it looked in comparison to how good it tasted, because nobody knew what it was called.
another thing the dutch are quite fond of is krokets. a kroket, as i have learned from experience, is essentially a deep fried gravy-filled log.

lekker, lekker, lekker!

i thought american food was greasy and terrible for you, but apparently i had no idea how much worse [more delicious] it could get. sidenote: america, you know there is something you can put on french fries that makes them a billion times more delicious that ketchup, right? its called MAYO, and the dutch have the right idea on how to eat fries. i'm sorry, america, french fry rights revoked. also found in this picture, onions and curry another thing the dutch enjoy putting on their fries: satesaus! which is basically peanut butter. this country was made for me.

america, you really just don't understand.

more about food, 90% of my life is officially centered around cereal. cruesli, granola, and bran flakes are my only loves. basically, i eat at least three bowls of cereal every day. i think my family thinks i'm a little bit crazy. but if it were up to me, i really wouldnt eat anything else. EVER. if i had my way, i'd eat cereal for every meal.

it is always always the proper time for a bowl of granola.

seriously i daydream about cereal. its unnatural.

i had my first for real day of school today. i started off the day by almost getting hit by a car on the way to school, so that was nice. that didnt make me as sad as the fact that someone who wasnt even involved honked at me on their way by afterwords. i was like ITS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS MOVE ALONG >:I
anyway, i got to school and watched gym class [because i dont have a pair of those sweet ankle elastic sweatpants yet]. all the kids here have a pretty sound concept of how to play basketball. which worries me, because the only time ive ever touched a basketball was to be hit in the face with it.
i had a bunch of other classes too, but i mostly just sat in class and pretended like i was able to pay attention. which wasnt so bad, im soaking up some of this language business like a sponge. i mean, i'm about on par with my french skills, and i took that shit for three years.
uhh yeah. mostly school is really boring, i'm frustrated, and i'm constantly laughing on the inside about how screwed up my life is. nevertheless, i actually do like it here, and it's better than life in america XD

DOEI

ik ben dood.

dear blog, i come to you today, tired and defeated, to tell you about my whirlwind of a half-week. grab a drink and adjust your panties, this is going to take a while.
DINSDAG: tuesday, we went to the zoo. it was miserably cold and rainy, but that was not at all going to impede my complete enjoyment of the zoo. we took the train there, which was an adventure in itself. i love trains, and i got a window seat so i spent the entire hour long train ride glued to the window watching farms, grass, and cute little dutch houses. also, i saw my first windmill! debby suggested i take a picture :P AND I WOULD HAVE, had we not sped past it so quickly :C
anyway, i've decided that what i really like about dutch housing [besides everythng] is that all the windows on the first floor are really big. they're all these cute, ground level little houses with huge windows. i dunno, they're pretty whimsical, even the ugly city houses.
we also saw so many farm animals. i think i have seen more cows and sheep and horses in the three weeks i've been here than i have in about three years in america.
anyway, we got off the train in arnhem. i'm in love with it. it's full of pretty little ornamented appartment houses all smushed together. its quite a pretty place. it reminded me a little bit of a compressed european providence c:
then we took the bus to get to the zoo. it was a very long journey. en route, i was trying my very hardest to say "bataaf lyceum" the most correct way possible, and obviously i failed pretty hard. so some boys were making fun of me for that. it's really an endless loop, you know. my accent is terrible so people make fun of me, which makes me speak less dutch, which makes my accent remain terrible. etc. and like, its so different when you're american trying to speak a different language. when exchange students come to america, nobody makes fun of their shitty english. but here, everyone laughs at you when you speak wrong, because you're a stupid american.
but i must keep going, if i ever want to speak dutch! cos its not gonna be easy.
ANYWAY, so we got to the zoo and it was ffffffffffreezing, so we beelined for the part of the zoo that's indoors. we went to the ocean part and saw sharks, and all the fish from finding nemo, and rays and eels and everything, which was swell. then we did some other stuff, and then we went to the monkeys because debby is in love with monkeys. they were really cute, and one of them had a little teeny baby monkey :3
we had a good amount of extra time that we didn't want to spend outside trudging around the zoo, so eventually we just navigated to the swanky zoo cafe and got coffee and snacks. it was really swanky for a zoo. they tried to doll it up like some eclectic luxury lodge, which was hilarious :P
after we finished at the zoo, we went into the town center to do some shopping. since i'm dirt poor [i've spent more money than i'd like to express on food] i didn't buy anything, i just shopped around.
after shopping, the rest of the kids went back to hengelo by train, but debby, suzan, i, and one of the teachers took the train 45 minutes to utrecht. to get starbucks coffee. because thats the closest one. we were legit there for like half an hour, all we did was drink coffee lol. i got a chai latte, it was completely heavenly. they don't have my teas here, so it was nice to get something that i missed. also, i bought pretty much THE MOST DELICIOUS sandwich ever? it had mango chutne in it. i don't even know what that is.
aaaaaaand then we took the train the bajillion hours back to hengelo, and i biked home.
WOENSDAG: hike up your sweatpants and put your hair up, its camping time!

y'all ready to get woodsy and adventerous?

i'm not sure why anybody thought that any part of this day was a good idea at all, but i digress.
we got to school at nine, and then we had to bike to the place where everything was happening. which was an HOUR AND A HALF by bike. oh sweet jesus. we were like "i think when we finally come to terms with the fact that we are just never ever going to get there, we'll be there." something about biking in the freezing cold is that it is absolutely impossibly to be comfortable in what you're wearing. because before you bike, you want to be wearing a snowsuit. but then while you're biking, you want to take everything off and just wear a tshirt. but then of course when you stop biking, you're like THAT WAS A SHIT IDEA, and you have to pile all your layers back on.
when we finally did arrive, we met up with the people who came by car. who, in my exhausted state, i vaguely recall wanting to set on fire. ANYWAY C:
the first thing we did was high ropes. i'm sort of a baby about these sort of things, but i put on my brave face and my harness and got ready to do some serious climbing.
i'm really really afraid of ladders, so even before i got on the actual course i was scared shitless. i'm going to skip the boring parts where i was just walkin' along, right to the part where i was 20 feet off the ground on a rope the thickness of my thumb, crying. because that's the interesting part. i was feelin' pretty okay, like maybe i could magically ford the course and not fall and get wicked harness crotch burn. oh, how wrong i was. there was one gap where there was a foot rope and an arm rope, and then at the other side there was no platform, just a tree and a different rope to walk on. the idea of switching my harness without a platform made me want to die a little bit. but anyway, i started crossing it, and halfway through i realized that, being really really short, i wasnt going to be able to reach both the hand and foot ropes at the same time. i promptly started to cry.
i figured that it was an equal amount of suffering to go back the way i came, and i wouldnt get to do the zip line, so i kept going :P the rest of the course wasn't that hard.
debby said she had a mad panic attack too, cos she fell off one of the nets. so at least i wasn't the only one XD
after that fully traumatic experience, we had a picnic. which was wonderful and full of sandwiches and bananas, and made me forget about the horrors of the day thus far :P

i don't remember anything before this moment, sandwich.

but obviously these teachers were determined people, and had sooo much more planned for us. the rest of the students were going to go water skiing. it was like 2 degrees out.
debby, suzan, and i, being grumpy lazy people decided that we wanted to leave and take the train home c: so we did. but first we had to bike to the station at the center of enschede. which wound up taking an hour anyway, because we got mad lost. also, something to remember in the future: you have to buy an extra ticket for your bike if you want to bring it on the train. that ticket costs 6 euro. :C this is why i'm poor.
the good part was, i got to get off the train in borne, so i didn't have far to go after that.
it was one of those days that wasn't good, but at least it was an experience :P
DONDERDAG: sidenote: best day name ever? yes.
today was horseriding. basically, i didn't want to wake up this morning. and after i did, i just wanted to go back to sleep. first, i biked 50 minutes to the place where the horses were. it was really sad cos we kept biking past farms with horses, and we all got our hopes up, but then it was like JK THIS IS HOLLAND EVERYONE HAS HORSES KEEP GOING. D:

these are not the horses you are looking for.

i'm pretty scared of horses, and suzan was sick, so we decided to sit today out. i wish i could tell you more about today, but honestly i went upstairs and went back to sleep until we went home. bummer, i know, but i cant even express how tired i am lol. apparently debby fell off her horse while i was asleep? so i'm kinda bumed i missed out on that lol.
then i biked home and bought like ten packs of instant soup and a giant ice tea and set up camp on the couch. because nothing is more fulfilling and mentally stimulating than binging and watching room-raiders and super sweet sixteen.

truly enlightening.

we had chinese food for dinner, but chinese food here is better than american chinese food? i can't explain why, it just is. the common dishes are slightly different. so thats good.
also, i had like 4 servings of granola cereal today. that shit is the best. omg so good. also like 3 apples.
mm i'm pretty much planning on going to sleep nowish. i have to go to school tomorrow and do nothing for a few hours, and then i'm going to the weekend long AFS camp. woop :D

<3 <3 much love, angela.

p.s. people here don't quite understand how i use the word "cool" here. cos i use it to mean "okee-doke", but here it means "that's super awesome!"
and usually conversations sort of happen like this:
"what are we having for dinner?"
"i don't know, we still have to decide"
"cool."
"... is it?"
:/ lol

p.p.s. i'm not really thinking coherent or interesting thoughts right now, so forgive me if this is extremely long and not very full of content. i'm havin'a rough week, ladies and gents.

ECHT BEROEMD

sidenote: when i was looking up the work famous i opened to exactly the right page. because i just know these things.

quick update, because not a lot has happened since yesterday but i feel the need to tell you about ALL OF IT.
today, i came downstairs to find that i was in the newspaper today XD a photographer took a picture of my friends and i at summer square, looking truly ridiculous, and its huge and full color. its really quite cute c: because i am a nerd, i'm saving it to show you all. if people here didnt know me by my hair before, they do now.
also, when i biked to school i got there maaaaaad early, so i had to wait in the aula for class to start. there were maybe 20, 25 kids in there. DO YOU UNDERSTAND how odd it is to walk into a room and have EVERY SINGLE PERSON stare at you? it is hilariously awkward. lol people find my hair so funny here, they think i'm a first year [do i really look eleven? really?] and theyre all like WHY WOULD YOU EVER DO THAT SWEET JESUS.
teehee c: but it makes me ever so easy to spot at social events. and i glow under a blacklight! because i'm a moon monster, obviously.
today was all about learning to take pictures. we split off into groups and went outside to try to take some seriously awesome photos of the ducks swimming in garbage. and we did :D floris was out there too, so we said hi to him. then we went into the aula and took pictures of all the kids looking LONELY AND EMO, of which there is a plethora. we were really only supposed to have one theme, but most of the lonely kids were sitting near trash cans, so we figured it all had to do with garbage. and that was good enough for us.
that only lasted until one, and we were allowed to go home. so suzan, debby and i biked to hengelo and went shopping and eating. i ate a frikandelbroodje, because it was so delicious i wanted to die. ohmygod. its one of those foods that i will probably only eat once, ever.
its pastry filled with meat and spices and curry sauce. and it is enormous.

obviously a healthy life choice.

so yeah. after shopping around a bit, i biked home. day well spent! zooo time tomorrow~
bye

FUN THINGS C:

havent blogged in a while because my laptop charger is messed up a bit, but here goes.
friday was an okay day :P i had class and break alternating all day, so i had three free [incredibly boring] hours. also, i was supposed to have economie last period, so i waited through a free hour, and then my teacher was like JK I CANCELLED CLASS YOU CAN GO HOME :D
and i were so upset D: lol
something i have noticed: EVERY FIRST YEAR LOOKS LIKE JUSTIN BIEBER. it is apparently a look here, and it is hilarious to be surrounded by swarms of little three foot tall biebers.

welcome to my life.

anyway c: yesterday i went with my friend suzan to a festival in hengelo called summer square. we met up with her friends there. it was really cool, there were so many good bands and cool things, and now i have more friends c: haha. i spent most of the night with suzan, debby, and anemiyq [SPELLING?]. debby suzan and i are also all going to the oo next week for school, IM HELLA PUMPED. i love the zoo.
anyway, we were there from like 2 to 11:30. we left for a bit to go get ice cream, cos apparently its quite famous in hengelo. it was soooo delicious. i had haelnut, peanutbutter, and banana in a cone <3 <3 lol. since i was out all day and i had a bit of a hangover that morning, all i managed to eat was ice cream and raspberries XD today i want french fries, i miss them badly.
at about 9, we met up with floris [how did he manage to spot me in the crowd? i havent a clue], and spent the rest of the night with him, too. when it got dark, they started playing some good dance music, so we all danced a bit, which was mad fun. i forgot how much i like dancing :D apparently theres some weekly free parties starting up here that were gonna go to.
after that, the music got kinda shitty so we went into hengelo and sat around at this nice outdoor patio for a while. it was MAD COLD by the time i biked home with floris, oh my god. the day started off blazing hot and ended frigid cold haha.
anyhow, no plans for today, so just chillin out. took a really great scalding hot shower, and i noticed that the shampoo we have has shiny rainbow sparkles in it and smells like a tootsie roll. awesome C:

hallo, ik ben angela.

urr today was my first day of school c: it was pretty good, actually. i left at 8, just to make sure i'd have time to get there, and luckily i managed to tag along behind a group of kids going to the same academic complex thing. it is so friggin cold in the morning. ohmygod.
i got there and pulled into the front, and there was a teacherly looking guy, who was like "i like your hair", so i thanked him. but then he said something about me turning back, and going around, and i was like WAAAT. so i said i speak english. apparently, that solved any prior problem, cos he was like OH just put your bike over here. so i did :D

nvm everything is groovy now. glad we got this sorted out.

the first class i had was social studies. all the teachers were like UHH ILL SPEAK ENGLISH. and i was like reeeally dont. so, they didnt. i didnt understand much. i can usually tell how they feel about something, just not exactly what that thing is. so my page of notes wound up being something like "really nice, a lot, complicated, democracy, how do you feel?"
i am obviously going to be top of my class, rest assured.

a teacher also came in and gave me a sheet to sign up for activities next week because i'm not going on the trip. apparently i get to go to the zoo and horseback ride. :D the few girls i did manage to converse with are also going, so hopefully i'll see them there and we can hang out c:
after that, the student i was shadowing for the day and i went outside for break. basically, it was 20 minutes of being surrounded by tall, beautiful, popular, dutch teenagers out for a smoke break. they were all like "YOU'RE FROM NEW YORK?? why did you fucking come here? new york is fucking cool this place fucking sucks!" i've noticed that dutch teenagers love to swear in english, because nobody cares at all. but it still sounds odd to me to swear in front of the teacher haha.
anyway, floris called me which was a relief because i got to stop having my awkward conversation for a bit. also, slightly embarrassing because my phone is essentially a brick.

i'd love to chat, but i'm being paged.

anyway, we were going to go get coffee, but by the time he got to where i was [i didn't know where i was, so it took a while], my break was almost over. so instead of a nice cup of tea, i was rushed up 3 flights of stairs to economie class.
which was like the most boring hour i have ever lived.
i've forgotten to tell you, since we have school trip next week, none of the classes are actually starting. so nobody is taking notes. or paying attention. the teacher is just talking, forever. lol. so i spent the time making a list of things to bring, and looking up the odd word here and there to write down in my dorky dutch notebook.
a few people talked to me c: i talked too, but its awkward because i SO want to speak dutch, i just dont have the vocabulary yet. so i have to choose between being devoted to speaking dutch, or making any social connections at all. i think i'll pick the latter and slide into the former.
after that we had math. i was in math A, even though i'm going to be in math B, but it still looked hard. i couldnt really read the stuff we were going to do, but i took a list home with me, and i can see if i'm actually in the right class.
then, at 12:30, it was supposed to be the second break, but i found out that ACTUALLY we all just got to go home because we only have certain classes this week :D i was freaky hungry and decided that i was going to get lost ANYWAY, so i might as well stop for food. so, i sort of dicked around the streets a little bit until i found somewhere to take my weird debit card. i went to this bakery and bought essentially buttered dough filled with sausage and covered with cheese. it was delicious, for obvious reasons.

clearly, i am aware of how nutrition works.

then i tried to find my way out of the shopping thing i'd stumbled into, but all the roads were under construction, so i just picked a direction and went with it. i was like FFFFFFU, and i had it all planned out in my head how to tell some poor person that i'm trying to go to borne how do i get there. but, then i managed to bike past a place that i remembered, and then i went home. also, totally multitasking, i rode my bike, ate an apple, AND didnt die, all at the same time. great job!

also tonight, i went to chorus for the first time. there were two kids from my economie class in it. but they all were nice and i had fun c: we sang this song from the great gatsby, five foot two, which was hilarious. they all already knew it, and had a perfectly choreographed little dance that they all did. I TOTALLY LOL'D. C:

aaaanyway, looking forward to tomorrow. i'm not really sure what to do after school, but i might go out somewhere and look at things, and also hopefully chill with floris. but that still leaves me legit like 3 hours to do nuffin'. i want to bike around and explore, but i realize that i would literally never find my way home. so maybe another time :P

bye <3 <3