Friday, May 10, 2002

 
In other news today, I went to look at a couple of apartments and have since become completely disenchanted with both my makelaar and the city of Den Haag. One was in a lovely neighbourhood, had a really huge balcony and was fairly cheap. On the other hand, it had an awful kitchen and was remarkably underfurnished for a fully furnished apartment. Also, it would take me an hour to get to work.

The other apartment was a nice apartment in a crummy nieghbourhood (boring and dangerous--good combination), but it was extremely expensive. And it was covered in cats. My makelaar made a point of introducing me to Dutch politics on the whole trip, talking about a neo-conservative guy named Pym Fortuyn (I'm sure I spelled that wrong) who was killed about a week ago. According to my makelaar, whose name escapes me, the man was a genius and should be elected as head of the country posthumously.

At which point, the car stopped at an intersection and I jumped out.

I think I may have to find myself another makelaar pretty soon.
posted by Alleen at 5:55:29 PM

 
This post is the post that I was trying to post earlier, but was sidetracked by being hit by a car. Today, I got to the Internetcafe only to realize that my disk was ruined. The nice man fixed it for me and put me on a PC, so now you get this post, which. frankly, is going to be stunningly anticlimactic. I wrote it on Tuesday, which means that it should have been posted on May 7th. So those of you who are purists for chronological order will just have to bear with me.

The doctor is out. Today, I went to work and pretty much headed straight back home, since the accused in my case had a bit of a stomach bug. Kind of odd, but it was cause for much joy in the back rooms. The French court reporters tend to work straight days (which means 8:30am to 8:30pm—sick), so they were pretty happy to actually see the sun while it was out and not just on TV.

Buffy is the greatest show ever. Even though “Slayer” in Dutch is “Doder”, so it’s actually Buffy the Vampire Doder here. Well, it’s actually Buffy something something Doder. Or since I have a dictionary, Buffy de Vampier Doder. More importantly, Spike is really cute when he says things like “silly bint.” It’s so peudo-British.

But anyway. On to more important things. I had kind of a sucky, homesick weekend, which was nicely complemented by the sucky weather. This whole weekend has been rainy and windy, which, since all travel is accomplished on foot or by tram here, meant that going out wasn’t really on. Instead, I spent Saturday running little errands and Sunday, I went to Leiden to visit the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (the National Museum of Antiquities) where they were having a special Armenia exhibit.

I’m not sure whether I paid extra for the honour of feeling just that much more Armenian, but if I did, boy did I get gypped. Basically, it was one room full of the contents of a tomb. And, they had traditional Armenian music on in the background. They had a really big wagon –

Oh wait, Spike just pulled his shirt off. Dang.

Anyway, they had this 6000-year-old ox cart which was actually kind of cool. Still, how long can you stare at a 6000-year-old ox cart? Judging by me, about eight seconds. And I couldn't read the information or watch the extremely helpful and informative movie, because it was all in Dutch. As far as I can make out, 6000 years ago, when Lake Sevan in Armenia was much lower, this guy and a bunch of his friends and family were buried on its shores. He was buried in his ox cart. His women, however, were buried in their jewels. I'm not sure who got the sweeter end of the deal here. Anyway, 50 years ago, the shores of the lake receded (for reasons I didn't quite grasp) and they dug this guy and his ox cart up.

Pretty damn exciting.

Still, Leiden is actually very pretty. It’s a lot less modern than Den Haag. I didn’t go too far around the town, because the weather was beyond vile, but it looked pretty cool. Leiden is a college town and, in fact, has one of the oldest universities in Europe. More importantly, I passed a guy on the street there with a dreadlock mullet. How can I not go back to a city that has the dirtiest man alive in it?

Must dash. I’m watching some very important TV here.




posted by Alleen at 5:45:38 PM

Thursday, May 09, 2002

 
And it's got an index! This is some crazy shit right here.
posted by Alleen at 7:46:14 PM

 
Hey. My web page is pink! Props to Aleta, yo.
posted by Alleen at 2:08:35 PM

 
Okay okay I suck. I've been trying to post an entry that I typed on my computer like two days ago, but I haven't managed it thus far due to lack of e-mail access at home and blocked floppy drives at the ICTY. I went to a internet cafe to post it, but ended up getting hit by a car instead, which made me late for not only the internet cafe, but also work. I can tell you now, the UN doesn't appreciate tardiness. Unless you're a judge, of course, and then you can be as tardy as you want.

I wasn't actually hurt in the car accident. Basically I got bumped by a car making a turn, when he should have been waiting his turn. (That's pretty clever. I wish I'd thought of that when the guy was yelling at me for my obvious suicide attempt. Clearly I'm some kind of freak who likes to jump in front of cars going 10kph because I like the attention it gets me.) I stumbled a little bit, but was basically okay and really ready to move on, when this freak jumps out of his car (blocking the intersection, I might add) and starts yelling at me. Why? I don't really know. He spoke Dutch, I spoke English, and all I could figure was that he was irritated that I'd touched his bumper. After about five minutes of this, I walked away, which is when he grabbed my arm. That's when it got ugly.

So. For those of you who are planning to visit, please keep in mind that in the Netherlands, pedestrians do not always have the right of way. Bicycles have the right of way, then mopeds, scooters, and motorcyles, then cars, and then pedestrians. On the plus side, I got lost after work trying to find a coworker's apartment, and managed to stumble into a gigantic art supply store and possibly the area of town that I would like to live in. So, it was kind of an up and down day.

Anyway. Hopefully, I will be able to post my trip to Leiden soon and then you can all learn about 6000-year-old wagons and how they relate to 6000-year-old Armenian burial rites. Until then, you'll just have to guess.
posted by Alleen at 2:07:54 PM

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