madelinejo

Rules of the Road

2010-09-23T07:16:00.000-07:00

So it's been a while since I've been able to update, because I've been quite busy settling into my classes and getting into some excuse for a routine here. It's really been crazy. So to sum some things up, here are some general rules of conduct that I've learned from being here so far.

1. Tequila is not conducive to studying.

2. Neither is beer.

3. Neither is wine.

4. Having a lovely canal-side windowsill makes for a great place to hang out, have a glass of wine, and maybe sing some of your favorite songs while enjoying the view. Keep in mind though, that when you visit the bar across the street for some drinks later, they will know it was you--give it some thought before you opt to sing your favorite Michael Jackson song in falsetto.

5. Michael Jackson songs are always appreciated. Bonus points if you dance in the window--you can get an ovation from people eating at the outdoor restaurant across the canal.

6. Tourists move in groups, they move slowly, and they can't seem to hear very well. If you see some ahead in the bike lane, start ringing your bell early, or you could risk faceplanting into someone's shoulder or being struck by an unruly handbag.

7. It takes about a week of drinking coffee every day for my addiction to be revived and well. Find a place with cheap coffee!

8. Sometimes it's a better idea to wear your bike lights on yourself instead of the bike--it keeps them from falling off or being stolen while you're off at the bar. Plus if you leave them on all night maybe they'll keep your drunken ass from plowing into someone on the dance floor.

9. If you're planning to start or join a cypher, get off your bike first, you look like a tool. (You know who you are!)

10. The misconception that freestyle rapping is mostly about yelling repeated profanities, "yo yo yo," and repeating the same word over and over is alive and well worldwide--watch out.

11. But it can be hilarious to watch and laugh...and film.

12. Wonderwall is the ultimate song for international sing-alongs. Make use of it often!

13. Singing along to the Ghostbusters theme while pregaming on a Wednesday night can attract the RA to come shut your shit down, but it's totally worth it.

14. If you find a juicer on the side of the canal at night, take it--it just might work.

15. Do not, I repeat, do not turn to look at yourself in a window to gauge how stupid your leopard outfit is on your way to the party on your bike. You will probably almost get hit by a car.

That's it for now!

STROOP, there it is!

2010-09-06T13:08:00.000-07:00

Stroop, the favored syrupy substance favored by the Dutch, is a main ingredient in "Stroopwafels," a sugary little snack that I may or may not be developing a slight addiction to. This of course goes along w
ith my addiction to sparkling water, however, which is a lot healthier. I still think the best kind is Talking Rain and am constantly disappointed that I can't find it anywhere but Seattle--oh how I need some of the berry flavor right nowwww.

Anyway, speaking of Stroop, some friends and I ventured to a little pancake house about half a block from where I live the other day, where we discovered the wonders of Dutch pancakes--they will stuff a pancake with pretty much anything under the sun if it's edible. Also, it was at this fateful (and delicious) breakfast that we decided to add Stroop as a vocabulary word, as in "Stroopse, I forgot to bring the poptarts," "Stroop, there it is!" or my current favorite, "you make me wanna stroop, stroop-a-doop, stroop-a-doop, stroop-a-doop-a-doop-a-doop." <--If you don't know what that's from, get with the program.

Speaking of stroopsies, I made a bit of a mistake with my last post. So while naming off the various countries my ISN friends were from, I came to one whose nationality I couldn't remember. I felt it was possibly incorrect, but based on accent alone I went with Irish. Of course no one from home would know if I screwed it up, and I was certain nobody from my group would see it either. Well actually the person in question happened to read my blog post and brought it up the other day....he's from Prague--but in my defense, he's spent enough time traveling around to have a rather mixed accent that's quite difficult to pin down. Well, stroopse! (Also, I hope I got it right this time, haha)

Another wonderful part my the Amsterdam experience has been bicycling all over the city. There are basically express lanes for bikes all over the place, which makes it the most efficient way to travel. Also, it gives you full authority to yell at any bumbling tourist herds that wander their way into your lane of traffic.

Being an aggressive driver and therefore aggressive biker, I was glad to see that most people are responsive to a bike bell. The crappy thing is that the bell on my bike broke within a couple of days, and since I don't really feel like yelling "ding ding!" at people, I've been dealing with a bit of irritation until I get a new one. Sometimes I say "sorry," which is basically the Dutch way to say "excuse me," but I find that it isn't very effective and certainly doesn't feel satisfying to say. Sorry??? They should be sorry they are standing out taking up the bike lane! It's like having to say "fudge you" when you really want to tell someone to fuck off.

Anyway, s friend of mine here at the program also had that problem when her bell imploded on itself--as she furiously rang it at a crowd of tourists in front of the Anne Frank Huis, it fell apart, flew off the bike, bounced across the street and landed in the canal. One can only imagine how fantastic that scene must have been.

But all is well after getting a new bike bell. Now the thing is to get the rest of my friends to get their own bikes. You see, it's common in Amsterdam to have a friend ride around on what I like to call the "bitch seat" on the back of your bike--the rack that is normally used to store things in transit. Unfortunately for me, every one of my friends is taller than I, and therefore they can't fit their legs behind mine on the bicycle. Thus I get to enjoy the privilege of riding around in the bitch seat of my own bike until they get theirs. I almost feel like I should install one of those little kid seats in the back that many Dutch parents use for their children (or Dutchlings, as I call them).

Some of the things I've noticed that seem to be the same everywhere: little kids are cute, motorcycle gangs are irritating, and the rituals of the Greek community appear to be equally ridiculous. My first experience with some frat boys was seeing some in a bar dressed up in suits who were participating in a hazing event. The only difference I saw between these and the ones I've seen back at home was the long hair. I've also seen boys hanging about in speedos at Vondelpark, girls dressed up in what appeared to be costumes of Mrs. Trunchbull from Matilda in Dam square and groups of young adults bicycling to some event wearing ridiculous costumes at 2 in the afternoon. And the weirdest part about the costumes was that I could find no unifying element; there were animals, disco dancers, ballerinas, roller-skaters, the list goes on.

Whether they're doing it in regular clothes or animal getups, the Dutch definitely do know how to party. One of my favorite things to do at home in my lovely apartment is to sit up in the windowsill and watch the boats full of partyers float by on the canal. My window is at the perfect height for people-watching. I'd say it's just high enough to be able to spit on people's heads, but not nearly high enough for it to be worth the risk, as they'd still be able to tell it was you.

Anyway, at all hours of the day, boats loaded with Dutch people and/or tourists come floating down the canal, often bumping loud techno music. Many of them seem to favor one song in particular, but I don't actually know the name of it. Watching these individuals packed onto boats fist-pumping to techno music as they float down the canal at midday is quite amusing--I think they look like ants on a log.

Aaaand speaking of partying, this brings us to the next vocab word for the day: TTFO--Titsed the Fuck Out. This can mean 2 things: Being dressed to the nines and/or wearing some kind of wild outfit, or being ridiculously inebriated.

So on the last night of ISN orientation, there was an animal-themed rave party that went until 4 am. Of course, I happened to find an awesome leopard onesie at a store near my house and decided to wear it. So I was TTFO, I was looking ridiculous, it was awesome and I was stoked for the party as I rode over to my friend's apartment to hang out and pre-game for the party. Unfortunately, I ended up getting TTFO in terms of the second definition as well. Due to a combination of exhausted, jet lag and alcohol, I was forced to go home early in the bitch seat on the back of my friend's bike. Luckily the leopard onesie also makes fantastic pajamas.

And it's a good thing too, because about a week later I once again tried to wear out the leopard onesie, and once again found myself sleeping in it instead of wearing it to the desired event. Lesson learned. And of course, the final vocab word of the day is: leopard fail. Epic fucking leopard fail.

In conclusion, here's a picture of the beautiful view from my room tonight:

Proust!

2010-08-27T02:03:00.000-07:00

It's cheers in Dutch, but for some reason I haven't actually heard anyone say it yet. I learned it from a friend at USC who was studying abroad in Amsterdam last Spring. (By the way this picture is the view from my bedroom window!!)

So I go to check into my room (which is in a fantastic, canal-side location), and decide to look in the mailbox in case there's anything left over from the last tenant. And what should I find but a letter addressed to my friend who went abroad here last year--I'm living in her room! Must be a sign...Also, I found her name listed in the phone I was given for my time here in Amsterdam (they re-use them each semester so that you don't have to buy a phone in Amsterdam).

Aside from unintentionally stalking my friend's past, I've also been doing a week-long orientation program through a program called ISN, the International Student Network. I think there are something like 700 of us in this program, and for the week we're divided into groups of about 12. I've got a girl from Philadelphia, one from Kentucky, and one from New York. Then there's a boy from Ireland, one from Germany, one from Paris, 2 girls from Spain, one from Chile...the rest I haven't gotten to know too well so I don't remember. But undoubtedly this has been the most multicultural experience of my life. I'm having a blast.

When I signed up to go abroad in Amsterdam I was a little disappointed that I wouldn't get much opportunity to practice Spanish, which is the only foreign language I have anything close to fluency in. But on the first day of ISN activities, I was already carrying on with several native Spanish speakers who want to improve their English. ISN has even set up a little network to connect people who want to practice their languages here by going out to cafes or bars together. Awesome!

The ISN events have been pretty fun, although their food hasn't been that great--apparently Dutch people have a thing for sandwiches that are really just a slice of ham and cheese inside a hamburger bun masquerading as sustenance. And on the second night of orientation there was a dance party at a club, which was great but the food distribution was nothing short of chaotic shenanigans.

We were all packed around about 3 long, skinny bar tables on the dance floor when I heard word that food would be served soon (I've found that Europeans are quite tall, and I generally have no idea what's going on anytime I'm in a crowd unless someone tells me, because I can't see anything!). Anyway, someone started handing everyone little takeout containers with forks, and when the tubs of pasta came out, pandemonium ensued.

If you've ever studied magnetism in a science class, you've probably seen the teacher take a dish full of metal filings and hold a magnet underneath--this is exactly what happened. As the pasta was put out on the table, this cross section of the world's population scrambled for the tables like animals to a feeding trough.

Noodles were flung, forks purloined, and beers tumbled about in the fray as the horde surged for the tables, each student trying to squish noodles into his or her container as fast as possible before the trough ran out or someone else pushed them out of the way. Some just stood by the table and ate directly from the tubs while trying not to get spilled on. And of course, all of this was happening to the tune of so many languages that, when paired with the music in the background, became a fabulously unintelligible babble. What a wonderful celebration of diversity.

More seriously though, it really has been a lovely experience to discuss things with the amazing selection of students who are here on this adventure with us and I think we'll learn a great deal from each other.

If anyone wants to contact me, you can use my online phone number, (206) 973-7534. You won't pay any fees, it's just like making a local call--but it will redirect to my cell here in the Netherlands (it's free for me to receive calls, so it's awesome!)

Amsterdam--Day 1/2

2010-08-21T03:03:00.000-07:00

So...at 4:30 pm Seattle time, I got on a plane to the Keflavik airport in Reykjavik, Iceland (I have no idea if I spelled any of this right. The flight was about 7.5 hours, but for some reason I wasn't able to sleep at all, so I just watched a lot of movies. Date Night is entertaining but not super great, fyi.

On my second flight (3 hours from Iceland to Amsterdam), my left middle finger started to hurt really bad--I've had some swelling on the fingertip for a few days, but it really started getting maddeningly painful and irritated on this flight.

(Current Update): Hurts like fuck. Also, I went to have it looked at and they told me I'll have to soak it for a day or so and then come back to have surgeons look at it and see if they can drain it. I guess on the bright side I can go around pointing at people because it looks like ET's glowing finger from the movie. (What did he have that for anyway? To transmit signals home? I really don't remember...)

In other news, Dutch is pretty hard to pronounce. Luckily almost everyone speaks English here, but it definitely helps to know a few Dutch words, especially because most of the writing is in Dutch. Also, it's kind of embarrassing asking people where a street like Rapenburgerstr or Utrechtsedwarsstr is without knowing how to pronounce it. (Also, I had to look at a map to even figure out how to spell these just now).

After an ordeal getting to the hotel with my baggage (took the train, then tram, then walked with my 2 big rolling bags, which would have been fine if there weren't crowds of people all over the place), I finally reached my hotel. I was a bit skeptical as it was much cheaper in price than a lot of the others I had seen while searching at home, and the only assurance I had of a reservation was a form I'd submitted on their website--which looks like it was designed in 1995.

Anyway, I went up to the door (it was one of those doors where the top and bottom halves can swing separately), and rang the bell. After a moment or two, the top half of the door swung inward...and there was no one there! But I heard a shout, and I looked up the exceedingly steep green linoleum staircase to see a middle-aged woman crouched at the top of the stairs with one hand on the pulley rope she'd used to open the door--less than 24 hours in Amsterdam and I've already discovered I'm staying in a puppet hotel.

More later...

30 Days

2010-07-22T13:12:00.000-07:00

Finally, something that will get me to actually keep up on my blog! I really do love writing but I am always so distracted and never know what to talk about in here. So this is what I'll be doing:

# Day 01 — Your favorite song
# Day 02 — Your favorite movie
# Day 03 — Your favorite television program
# Day 04 — Your favorite book
# Day 05 — Your favorite quote
# Day 06 — Whatever tickles your fancy
# Day 07 — A photo that makes you happy
# Day 08 — A photo that makes you angry/sad
# Day 09 — A photo you took
# Day 10 — A photo of you taken over ten years ago
# Day 11 — A photo of you taken recently
# Day 12 — Whatever tickles your fancy
# Day 13 — A fictional book
# Day 14 — A non-fictional book
# Day 15 — A fanfic
# Day 16 — A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
# Day 17 — An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
# Day 18 — Whatever tickles your fancy
# Day 19 — A talent of yours
# Day 20 — A hobby of yours
# Day 21 — A recipe
# Day 22 — A website
# Day 23 — A YouTube video
# Day 24 — Whatever tickles your fancy
# Day 25 — Your day, in great detail
# Day 26 — Your week, in great detail
# Day 27 — This month, in great detail
# Day 28 — This year, in great detail
# Day 29 — Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
# Day 30 — Whatever tickles your fancy

....and day 1 probably starts tomorrow, because picking a favorite song is damn near impossible for me. I think I'll have to cheat and choose one...or two...or five...that I really like.

We'll see.

- Blue

Seatown to LA

2009-12-04T17:59:00.000-08:00

My latest painting... made this a while ago for a birthday present :). I'm the alien on the saucer, and yes, the dinosaur is my boyfriend. The skyline is made out of Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Cool Video

2009-12-04T17:58:00.001-08:00

Painting I Made

2009-08-18T18:56:00.000-07:00

So, I made a goofy painting for my dad's birthday since he's one of those people who is really hard to shop for. It's based on this picture of us when we were playing with the photobooth camera on my macbook last summer. It's mostly made from stencils I cut, because I can never seem to get the lines that smooth when I paint them.

Also, the photobooth camera is still the only one I have, so that's all I have to take a picture of the painting with, but oh well.

Here it is:

Woohoo! This picture is sort of too dark to tell but I'm holding an umbrella.

-msmadelinejo

I Wish this was Real

2009-08-14T14:20:00.001-07:00

The Retrocycling Robot is one idea presented by an animator for Challenge Your World 20/20, where video artists submit their ideas for inventions to help deal with environmental problems in the future. Some are real ideas, and others are funny little things like this robot.

Here's how another artist interpreted the challenge:

(I love the little sound effects that the people's feet make in this one!!

There's a bunch more at http://challengeyourworld.com/2020. They're all pretty cool & funny ideas with dope animations. I found these on Motionographer.com, which always has really cool animations, music videos, and stuff like that on it.

I Can't Believe this is Real

2009-08-14T13:40:00.000-07:00

I know it's out of season, but this is like...fantastically disgusting. How is this actually serious and who would eat it???

This lady's fucking crazyyyy yo!!! The part where she scoops the pie filling into the center i feel like throwing up a little. I also found this Christmas cake she made with like 5 cans of frosting glooped all over it. Ahhhh!

She pretty much drowns everything she makes in frosting. I'm weirdly fascinated by how ugly/gross it all looks.

-msmadelinejo

Fairies Sail All the Way to Love...

2009-08-11T18:03:00.000-07:00

Probably not what she's really saying, but it doesn't really matter you can make up whatever you want. It's made of samples/sound effects from Alice in Wonderland, and I'm pretty much addicted to it. And the video too.

-msmadelinejo

I've Been Wondering Why...

2009-08-11T17:32:00.000-07:00

...there aren't any reaction videos yet of people watching Drake's music video for Best I Ever Had. I mean don't get me wrong, I like him, and that song is a good song. But this video has....basically nothing to do with the song, is pretty much the last thing you'd expect to see, and is pretty ridiculous.

I just gotta say I have not seen ANYONE watch this video yet and not have a pretty interesting reaction by the time it hits about 15 seconds. Shock/Delight/Disgust, whatever it is, its pretty funny when it happens. One of my friends just got heeella surprised and then laughed her ass off the whole rest of the video.

Like you're about to watch this video and u think it might be him and a girl, or something like that...and then the first thing you see basically...

Like can you imagine proposing the treatment for this? We have this song that's about this guy and a girl and its kinda sweet, and then we're gonna start the video with a bunch of girls in psuedo-stripper-bathing-suit-basketball-uniforms running towards the camera with their boobs all over the place, sound good? Yea, fantastic.

The Rap Up: "Breast I Ever Had would have been more appropriate."

-msmadelinejo

A Very Pretty Evening

2009-08-10T20:23:00.001-07:00

I wish I had a better camera than the macbook webcam to capture what the view of downtown Seattle looks like right now, but this is the best I can do. Love the way the downtown skyline looks really ghostly in the background.

And I LOVE listening to the rain :)

-msmadelinejo

There's a New Baby in My House

2009-08-09T18:40:00.000-07:00

And her name is Lyla. She's so dark it's kind of hard to take pictures of her unless you have a good camera (which I don't), because she basically just looks like a black puffball. She's a 6 month old Pomeranian and is about 5 pounds.

She's already adopted a collection of stuffed animals and squeaky miniature tennis balls that she keeps in her crate, and if you put them all out on the floor she collects them all up one by one and takes them back in with her. Welcome home cutie!

-msmadelinejo

The Way I See It

2009-08-08T23:48:00.000-07:00

So basically I'm a little behind on the times in not checking out Raphael Saadiq's motown album until this June (it came out in almost a year ago), but its niice. I already like motown, and its awesome to hear some new music that is equally fresh but brings out some of the classic.

Can't actually link the music video but if you click it should take you to Youtube where you can watch it. It's a nice mixture of graphics and real footage that comes with a kind of James Bond feel. Dope concept & I love the look. There are so many details in this video that I am feelin every time I watch it.

Okay and I had to add that this song, "The Big Easy," doesn't have a music video on Youtube but you can listen to it here. A tribute to the 9th Ward & other Katrina victims.

-msmadelinejo

Sure Thing-St. Germain

2009-08-08T20:43:00.000-07:00

So on something like a Tuesday night a few weeks ago I was at home working in my room at about 1 in the morning or so...and my mom was listening to Jazz After Hours on NPR. I started hearing this song coming from the living room that just sounded really enticing in a kind of dark jazzy/funky/electronic way. So I wandered out to listen to it and all the lights were off, my mom was off somewhere in the basement, and this is what was playing:

It's Sure Thing by St. Germain, a French composer/producer who released his 3rd album, Tourist,in 2000.

The song is composed using samples of vocal and guitar riffs by blues legend John Lee Hooker. These sounds are woven into the beat in a way that kind of feels like a soundscape to me. It was a pretty dope midnight discovery.

-msmadelinejo

If You Haven't Yet

2009-08-05T19:06:00.000-07:00

Please check out cakewrecks.blogspot.com. It's about "when professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong" and honestly, I don't think I've ever read a blog that I found as funny as this one. There are actually some cakes out there that are ridiiiculous, and the commentary is sooooper hilarious.

-msmadelinejo

Goodbye Young Shi

2009-08-04T21:03:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since this happened, but I didn't really know what to say about it until now...on July 23rd we had to take our 12-year-old dog, Shiloh, in to the vet and have him put down. He still looked like a puppy up to the very last day of his life, but Shiloh was actually getting pretty old and was having kidney failure and heart problems that weren't treatable anymore.

If you want to know what a legitimately old-aged puppy looks like, this is it (this first picture is from June):

My mom found this dog sitting in the turn lane on Rainier Ave. 12 years ago and after looking for his owner for about a month we decided to keep him. For most of his younger years he was a loud and attention-seeking but awesome little dog. As he got older he tended to sit and observe us with his big button-eyes while we hung out around the house. It's kind of funny that we always sort of thought of him as being a puppy when, for his years he's been older than all of us for quite a while. I think he was more ready to go than we were ready to let him. It was hard but I think we did the right thing for him.

Goodnight little bear <3

Being home alone...

2009-08-03T21:23:00.000-07:00

...was only fun way back in the day when it finally meant I could sneak in the kitchen and steal some ice cream or have people over in high school. Now I'm realizing more and more that it's just....depressing. I kind of crave my alone time when I'm away at school, but I've gotten so used to being surrounded by people all the time that now being alone in my house is just lonely and weird.

I'm trying to edit a Wordpress site that I'm starting for my next semester at school, and I think it's gonna be a really cool idea/should really pop off...if I can ever figure out how the fuck to use some of this css stuff. It's pretty much a foreign language to me, but I figure, delete a few things here and there and rearrange some stuff and it'll turn out the way I want it to, right?

....Sort of?

Anyway, in conclusion there's a griiiip of fucking terrible web design out there. So after wading through a lot of really ugly Wordpress themes, I'm trying to turn this one I've found into something not-shitty. Hopefully something really dope. Hope it goes well!

-mj