Beware the Ides of March

Not only is today Hug an Engineer Day and the day after Pi Day, it is also the dreaded Ides of March (dreaded for Caesar anyway). March 15, 44 B.C., did not turn out to be one of his better days.

Fortunately March 15, 2010 is not turning out so bad for me. I am mostly just stuck in the long, slow crawl towards SpRiNg BrEaK! Let me explain...

The VU does not have one organized spring break that spans all majors. In fact, all departments run on whatever schedule they think is best. My biology classes meet for only four weeks in all, which is why I haven't started them yet, and my history class lasts for eight weeks. So my "spring break" is whatever time I can squeak out between the end of my history class and the start of the biology classes.

And the end of the history class is near. I had my last normal lecture this afternoon, and will have one last guest lecturer on Wednesday. Then I have an ENTIRE WEEK to study for my history exam on Wednesday, March 24.
Thursday...Friday...Saturday...Sunday...Monday...see what I mean by a long, slow crawl?

We will also be taking a mid-term for our STNL class next week Tuesday, so I feel I should include that in the mix. Two exams to take is sadly going to be the most homework I have done yet this semester.

Ok, so we have two exams, ten days to go, and then (and here comes the seamlessly-worked-in-Ides-of-March-reference) ROME!

Yep, three days in Rome will be my spring break, and what a whirlwind those three days will be. It's getting very close now...and I am getting antsy...10 days...10 days...



And now for something completely different, a story from my day:

I managed to run out of all my food at one time, so after class today, at about 3:15 or so, I made a much-needed trek to Aldi. The only thing is, Aldi was strangely closed (I'm sure the sign on the door explained it all, but I didn't understand it). I turned around and headed back towards Uilenstede to go to Super deBoer. By now it was about 3:30. About a block away from Super deBoer, walking by the local junior high, I realized that 3:30 must be the time that the junior high lets out school for the day.

Great.

Let me explain to you the cultural differences I've observed between junior highers in the Netherlands and those in the United States:

THERE ARE NONE

You see, these junior highers think, and I'm sure all U.S. junior highers would agree, that it is absolutely the coolest of cool things to go hang out at Super deBoer after class. They clog up the aisles and check-outs buying energy drinks and candy bars, and then hang out in super-cool groups right outside the door to laugh and make generally snide comments about the other junior highers who are hanging out on the other side of Super deBoer (trust me, I don't need to know Dutch to know that this is what's going on). When there was snow last month, I even witnessed a few snowball fights across the tram tracks. And absolutely all of them wear black. Boy, these kids are the coolest of cool.

So after getting stuck in a slow-moving mob of them on the last block between the school and Super deBoer, I spent some quality time this afternoon shopping with Amsterdam's coolest bunch. The kid in the check-out line behind me was even buying -- no joke -- a Red Bull and a carton of ice cream. I had to laugh at how predictable my little tween friends turned out to be, and how universal I've learned the junior high attitude really is.

Don't worry, kids, you'll make it out of junior high soon enough! We all did!

Weekend Excursions Part II is coming up tomorrow!