So I left off...

With Amsterdam, damn I should really try to make these posts more often, it's hard to write when you have a shit ton on your mind. This week was a busy one, but a quick one. Monday I had absolutely no will to do anything just sat around basically until class at 3, then went to work on the group market research assignment from 6-9, then I went home. Tuesday we worked on it again, but before that I picked up my pincode for my ING bank card and went food shopping. There was also the official Welcome for international students, the bachelor students, the masters and the exchange. Turns out there are other exchange program, we just don't mingle with them because they are in other schools, like the School Of Economics. The Official Welcome Program was a bunch of speakers talking cliches and one of the least funny comedians I have ever seen. It was a guy named Greg Shapiro, an actor/comedian from Chicago who came to the Netherlands in 1994 and never went back. His show is called "How To Be Orange." They said it was going to be a standup comedian so I expected some guy wearing a flannel shirt walking up to a microphone stand, removing it while greeting the audience somewhat awkwardly, situating some sort of stool and taking a gulp of water. But instead this guy had a powerpoint slide show and was dressed in a suit and stood behind a podium; not great affect. They had a procession reminiscent of a graduation, the professors dressed in garb and robes and they even had a guy dressed to look like the Erasmus statue by the Student Service building (I got a picture with him, woo!!). Then after that was to be a 'Dutch buffet' in the Sports building lobby. They gave everyone a voucher and tokens for 2 drinks from soda to beer. Everything at the buffet seemed to have something to do with mashed potatoes and that's not hard to believe considering kroketen and patat are 2 of the most popular street foods in this country ( that is, knish-like cylinder and french fries). There were also pancakes outside and some sort of pea soup. All in all, ok, but bierbals can burn your tongue if youre not careful! I was not planning to go to B.E.D. that night because of market research class at 9am on Wednesday, but ever-party-ready Igor convinced me to come for a bit. I got there about 11pm so it was already after Happy Hour was over, found the group in the back, and as usual good music was spinning but they make the songs too short. Stuck around til 2, as HIMYM, Nothin Good Happens After 2 AM. Got home on my bike around 2am. The next morning on Wednesday class was at 9, I figured I'd done this before where I am home before 3, but that morning I just couldn't get myself out of bed, I needed a full sleep. Plus we were meeting for the Consumer Behavior research assignment at 1:15. So I went for that in the G building conveniently right next to mine. But as is my custom I didn't leave enough time to get there and ended up walking to the wrong side of the building. Once we reserved a meeting room (minimum 3 people and you must hand over your ID card...legit!) we got down to business shooting the shit about what about Cristiano Ronaldo we wanted to test. It was a circuitous route, where someone would say something and someone else would request explanation or elaboration and it then confused the original proposer. Finally we settled on a demographic and some questions and decided to meet the following morning at 10:30 to get our subjects in the dining halls in C, H, and L buildings. We were sticking pretty well to the plan of brainstorm on Sept 15 and act on Sept 16. Then later Wednesday was the Pancake Boat! This is what I went to the rotterdam Bibliotheek for to get a RotterdamPas. It is a 12.50 Euro pass that allows for all sorts of perks to tourist-y things in the city. You can swim once for free at Tropisauna Club, you can go up the Euromast tower, and you can eat on the Pancake boat for free. It is basically a ferry boat you go and sit inside at a table, it looks like Cracker Barrel on a boat, and you go up to the Pancake buffet when they call your table number.  Everyone asked me in the ensuing days 'how was it??' and the best description I come up with is 'disgustingly good,' emphasis on the disgusting. They say that we Americans like to slobber our food. I don't know who in the world ever came up with the idea of having a pancake bowl and a buffet featuring everything from sprinkles to mints to chocolate to jelly to sliced fruit to cheese to salami to ham to sugar. How the fuck are you supposed to decide what to put on it? Let's not forget you can choose from 3 different pancake bowls, 1 with bacon in it, 1 with apples, and 1 plain, just buttermilk dough. So being the regular indecisive type that I am, I take pretty much everything, careful not to mix them together, in sample portions. It was pretty disgusting after all and of course my actions got me the typical 'now THAT's an American pancake!' After the boat docked again I had to run back to my room to get my bag because we were meeting to do the SPSS assignment for Market Research. We stayed until 9pm again, and were basically done with the tests. Then some of my friends down in the south side (over the river) had invited me  for hookah but here it is known as shisha or nargila because there are no Indians but rather Moroccans and Turkish. I biked down Boulevard Maas and crossed Erasmus Bridge, it was crazy windy that day, I kept doubting whether I should go, but then figured since it was a breeze of a ride back from the Pancake boat, that the ride back would be okay. So I was met at the end of the bridge in Zuid Rotterdam and we biked to African Inn and around the corner went to the Turkish restaurant and ordered not 1, but 2 hookahs for just 3 people! 2 flavors, apple and cherry, very good overall. They had a soccer game on a tv, and it was like a big Turkish cafeteria. Shot the shit, had some tea, and went to the apartment to see what living on the south side was like, also had brie on a stroopwaffel, interesting but I dont think for me. Then it was time to go, long ride back at like 11, I was given a shortcut to the Red Bridge which is a bit less steep than Erasmus Bridge. Next day Thursday the group met to enact our testing of asking people what they associate with Cristiano Ronaldo. The first person I talk to knew of him, and said something about some recent game and was shocked I did not know about it. I hear this guy's name and think of the guy Brazilian guy Ronaldo from the days I used to receive SI For Kids in the mail! We were done with that pretty early like 1:00, and then later in the day was the STAR party at Club Vie (no white dress code this time). I still had to buy a ticket so I went to the STAR office to find they had sold out of physical tickets and that were 'about twenty' left online, so I ran back to my room to buy one online and thankfully it was still available for 8.50 Euro, no free invitations this time like ESN does :(   There were also 2 parties prior to the club. Astri was having a birthday party with Indonesian food so I could not pass that up, and Dianna was hosting a BYO pre-drinks. I resolved to bike to Dianna's, grab the tram 25 up to Het Noord and pop in for some Indonesian food for an hour, and then headed to Dianna's near Weena and I grabbed a 6 of Heineken at the open-late AlbertHeijn on the way. Pretty fun until it was decided we should all get going. Some did not have tickets but decided they would try to get in anyway. We hopped on our bikes and headed down to Club Vie, which thankfully is not a far ride back to the campus just down Maas Boulevard. Night was good, we danced upstairs for a bit, until someone reported it was more fun downstairs where there was hip hop rather than House music. Don't remember anything notable from the night other than Maxime telling me I should go talk to a girl dancing, so I was as concise as possible and asked hey whats your name, do you want to dance and she gestured to her friend and said something I couldn't hear so I said ok and walked away. I honestly dont know its done, I know I'm deaf but some people do it. And Alex saying you just grind up on girls, I have never heard of that being effective. The next day Friday was to be a long one, got to sleep in, had class at 12, then to the labs at 3, but Dorothee was really tired and only stayed until 3:45, then I slaved away at figuring out what test on SPSS to run for the last test. Finally at 5pm I gave up because I needed to go home, eat a big meal before Yom Kippur fast and get dressed to leave by 7. I decided to go to the Chabad Kehilla synagogue for Kol Nidrei and that required taking the 21 tram to Centraal Station. As is customary to wear white, I donned my nice new slim fit 6 Euro white shirt from Primark, and some cons, because you know it's not acceptable to wear leather, so it's an excuse to wear sneakers to Temple! Service was ok, couldn't follow along half the time because there was almost no congregation chanting. I walked in, and was greeted at the door by the guy manning the security tv's and system (yes they have to buzz you in to the synagogue here) and said gmar chatimah tovah to a few people and hung up my coat. As soon as I had walked to the north side of the station it started raining of course but thankfully I had brought my umbrella! We were all whisked into the sanctuary, I got a tallis and a machzor and chatted small talk to a few people, met a couple Brazilians, and an old Orthodox guy from Chile who somehow knew I was from New Jersey and decided to introduce me to someone else from New Jersey. His name is Steven and it really amazes me what some people wear to synagogue even on the most holy day of the year. He said so you're from near Elizabeth, which community? I say Cranford and he says he is from Linden and then we chat shortly about how the Conservative temple in Linden merged with Cranford in 1998, and I said how the merger of Clark and Cranford is imminent in the future due to dwindling populations and being less than 2 miles away from each other. He said he came to study in Leiden and never left. Then the service started, I was sitting next to Shir from Israel and some weird old guy wearing Adidas flip flops, the seats were too small. Rabbi Vorst made a sermon that I didn't understand because it was in Dutch, he is a captivating speaker though, habitually turning his head after 3-4 second from L to R to L to R. There were more people on Kol Nidrei then on Erev Rosh Hashana. probably about 60 this time, most of the men's seating was filled and some of the women's are too, not a lot though. After the service, I talked to some people got my coat and was talking to Alex from Brazil who works for a fuel trading company after spending 2 years in Switzerland. I said I needed to catch a tram but instead I got a ride home, asked if I needed a ride in the morning but I'd be going to the liberal congregation. Had begun the fast, and the next day decided to ride my bike to the synagogue because taking the tram would take too long plus I wanted to sleep in so I woke up at 8:45, left before 9:30 (when you fast, you don't have to do much more than get dressed) and was there by 9:50, service started at 10. Inside I sat down, there weren't too many people there, and one of the ladies introduced me to another American. We talked throughout the service, she graduated GW in 2007, and worked in Colombia for 2 years and now works at some non-profit leadership development group in the Netherlands, said she has been here for over a year and does not know any Dutch. Finally the service was done by 2:30/2:45. Stuck around a little and talked to some people and then left to head to Albert Heijn to buy the lox, bagels, and cream cheese I would bring for the Break-Fast later. Got home around 4, and realized I had to leave within an hour to catch the Metro and then the Tram to get there by 6:45 for Neilah. I really do miss TBEMC dramatic high holiday services with the choir going ''hmm hmm aa aahh" in the denouement. The LJG Rotterdam services were quite nondescript, not much high holiday tunes, a 5-person choir for a few prayers. and when the shofar came it was a small one, and not very long, it just ended the holiday. Oh well, then off in the car to Melanie's house for break-fast, not before seeded tangerines in the car courtesy of Ruthie. Had thought about trying to make it to Lukasz's birthday party since he lives not far from the synagogue, but Melanie lives almost in the countryside outside of Rotterdam plus we were talking all around the table for quite a while that we needed to rush to make the last metro of the night. I got home around 1am, and called it a night. Sunday was a lazy day, did some chores and work, and today class at 3 was the only big thing. My bike I noticed the rear brake is worn and the wheel wobbles. It rides fine but it's so annoying. And if you ride on gear 1, 2, 6, or 7 the gear belt grates. Wanted to bring it in to get fixed today but naturally it's not open on Sundays or Mondays and with a 10am group meeting tomorrow I don't know if I'll have time even. Gotta get to bed, don't wait til the end of the week to write a blog, you'll; end up with shit like this, just write it when you know it and feel it. PEACE.