The secret Language of Music

Question: How do you get a guitar player to shut up?

Answer: you put a piece of sheet music in fromt of him.

I tell you it is not a joke it is the pure and awefull truth. Most of you who know me know I play music. I can read notes.. for a alto recorder and the right hand piano. I can figure out the left hand if I need to too, just not very fast. I can play guitar, okay lets not boast, I'm self tought, but I can play some songs and it is not all awefull. So I figued: put two and two together, it can;t be that hard.

WRONG!
I think I need to go study. I just remebered my weekness in music. Reading notes... Give me tabs! let me play after someone elses tune! but I guess this is simply a part of playing classical guitar. Wish me luck! and time...

My art class looks like it is going to consume me. Here I was thinkign I could take another class on this semester! Wheeeehaaa! This very English lady used to be a singer and an artist and teach.. and is all about planning. well if you dindlt know how to, she'll make you learn real fast. She told us we'd have 10 pieces done in twop weeks and she has some really random assignments! fhew!

So that is it for the creative part.. mostly. My other doom this semester will be BioPsychology. this is no matter of fun. This is some serious brain study and I think it will leave me rather brainwashed. And al these teachers expect me too read those 800 page books.. good thing practice starts soon.. I'll have a good excuse (for myself) not to be up to date..

Excited for tomorrow.. my psychology on self expression class.. hope it is as good as I think it will be!
Okay.. gotto go read :) I'm still pretending to be studious at the beginning of the semester ;)

Music: highway and people
Quote: "Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence. " -Abigail Adams (AMEN)

China Town

First day of school, but that is not very interesting, or well it was but going to China Town was way more of an adventure!

So I had to get some duplicates of our key because sharing two keys for an apartment is not a good plan! And I wanted to get a T-Mobile simcard so I could actaully call people.

I borrowed Amy's moped and drove down.. very nice.. slightly awkward driving in this country where passing left or right doesnlt make a difference, but it was fun. Then found a parking spot, still not sure I was allowed to park there but it worked fine.
Ran into the first store that I saw that looked like the sales person might speak some kind of English and asked her where the T-Mobile store was.. while she was chattering to her friend on the phone I looked around and bought a very nice tiger eye pendant which obviously bought her friendship too.

So it is a bit of a long story, but basically I got taken into the inner circuits of chinatown. I had mentioned art so I was vaguely instructed on T-Mobile and then escorted to a little art store (I mentioned I liked art) there she left me ith a man who was barely capable of speaking English.
Obviously the plot was to let me buy some art. And I must say I would have but the 20% discount brought the amount down to $560,- Well I'm sorry but I donlt have that kind of money!

He was visibly disappointed, but still in good spirits. took me out the back door, up a stairs into this gambling hall where all these Chinese people were gathered together and well.. gambling. For a second I thought: Oh God! this is what parents always warn their kids NOT to do! But I was there.. and about a head taller then the tallest people around and well I wasnlt exactly scared.

I got given a new guide who was assigned to me witha waterfall of chinese out of which I only understood the word T-Mobile. BAck down the stairs out the door and through a couple of little streets. Into this little mall.. (I guess it was a little mall with all these little stores inside, wares stacked up to the sealing, seamstresses, food, things I don't want to know what they were and a lot more.) Into this supermarket pointed at this little Chinese guy and told me to give him my keys. (I'm not sure when I mentioned the keys, I think to the first lady I met, but I din't think she had understood me.) My keys took a while and meanwhile I was pointed to some other place in that mall and left to myself.. I got a T-Mobile sim card, walked back, payed 2 dollars for the keys and was done.

Yes I'm too trusting, but sometimes that is good!
The rest of the day consisted of broken down mopeds, simlocked phones, e-mailing about beds and a desk, making dinner and getting used to living with four very different people in one household.

Quote: "I'm astounded by people who want to 'know' the universe when it's hard enough to find your way around Chinatown." -Woody Allen
Music: Colour, Blind Counting Crows

Update on Forgotten Things

Like most of you know, occasionally I feel the urge to write stuff. As usual, inspired by the people and things in my life!
Hope you enjoy.

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Happy Endings

We Read books with happy endings
To content our troubled mind
Compassionate donations make placebos
Experimental
Double blind

In dreams our life is perfect
Pure light from dawn till dusk
Though the image of a gold rimmed raincloud
Mesmerizingly
Intertwined

Lo and behold the beauty lies
In creations less then perfection
Unique the flaws that make things whole
Happy endings
Redefined
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Cardboard boxes on the Beach

So yeah.. I know a lot of you thought I would be comping out on the beach right now but Hawaii wouldnlt be Hawaii if you wouldn't be taken in. I passioanately hate asking people for things as I always think I can sort things out myself, but WOW..

When I arrived I signed a lot of papers which Amy had sorted out with Kelly and Emily (the other two girls which are staying with us!) and faxed and posted them. Then I got invited to Laurens Birthday party!! So me and Amy took the bus over to Lauren where we had a very relaxed evening. (I had some trouble staying awake initially but after a while (when everyone else was passing out) I got quite active.
We crashed there and had fresh farm eggs for breakfast. Really relaxed. We went back to Mich's office the next morning.. uhhm afternoon, to call people and find some more places to stay.

Now we are staying with Margie's mom, who decided we needed rescueing from the teamroom (where I have not stayed a night yet) so now we are stayng at Kailua, really amazing place, where we can make dinner, walk to the beach (which is 5 minutes down the road and way better then Waikiki or Ala Moana.

And best of all.. tomorrow morning we will be signing the lease for our house! We will be hunting for beds and cabinets and other random stuff that needs to go in it, but if nothing else, we can always sleep on the wooden floor.
I havnlt actuially seen it yet :) But I know it;s good.. I've been into a similar one and we have a terifiic kitchen en living room (of which half will be Kelly's)
It will be great! I just hope we can find and organise bes and things tomorrow!
Wheee!

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We got a place.. 10th floor! really cool view when there is no traffic. This is Amy in our room.. it is an absolute chaos we've got no furniture and no beds yet.. sorta expensive :) but we're doing good deals on second hand stuff..
Today is Sunday.. the day on which all shops here are open except for the ones you might need. Like the bicycle shop to buy a new lock or the key shop to get our keys copied. 4 people 2 keys and an elevator that needs a pass to get up.. really inconvenient.
The apartment is quite nice, we have loads of windows which is great because we're not allowed to stick anything in or on the walls. :S Maybe I can find a bed with a desk underneath. Hmm.. would be interesting. I need to store all my stuff!!! ahh!
Tomorrow school starts and I can go get my books and organise everything else, it will be good when we are really settled in!

And then we can get internet instead of hoping I can steal it from floating connections occasianlly if I'm lucky.. like now.. better publish before it is gone! (so also sorry for not e-mailing yet, I might mail some from the student athlete center tomorrow!) if I don't feel too rushed with all the things I need to do apart form school! Love for all!

Quote: "Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home."
-John Howard Payne
Music: A Sorta Fairytale, Tori Amos

San Francisco 11pm Local Time

So yeah.. I figured I would get a hotel room for the night but as I didn’t manage to keep my eyes open on the last flight I’m really awake right now. So I guess I’ll keep my-self occupied for a while and well, aint you lucky, you get to enjoy my boredom.

I really like San Francisco Airport, it’s one of the better ones, BY DAY! The last flight just arrived; I’m pretty sure they came from Honolulu if I look at their clothing and attitude. They just look very Aloha. So except for the staring people walking past me and two cleaning ladies the airport is deserted. All the shops and even food stalls have just closed. Not before I got myself a Grande Tao Tea, Green Ginger of course, which looked delicious, (after not being allowed drinks on the plain and not getting enough liquid in me), but tasted like soap. At least I know which tea not to take next time.

I’ve now armed myself with a bottle of water (I can have one as long as I’m on the airport) and a couple of muesli buns I brought from home and am sitting here waiting for time to pass.

Every so many minutes the loudspeaker clicks on and a slightly too loud ladies voice tells me I have to report unattended bags by calling 911 on the nearest phone, closely followed by another female voice almost to soft to hear that WE are in a state of war and that security measures have been moved up to orange which means that we are now not allowed any liquids aboard… *sigh*

At Chicago I was happily entertained by this guy I met named Paul. Actually it was a happenstance meeting caused by a little girl which traveled by herself.. in Dutch we call someone like that: een UMmetje.. or, an unaccompanied minor. She was really young and crying and obviously very unhappy so I offered to sit next to her instead of the man who just read his newspaper and didn’t seem to be bothered by the fact that this little human being was so distraught. Which was a good plan for the time being… however she was looking for her friends.. people she had met on the other flight, and when they finally showed they ended up sitting with her and I got one of their seats. Well done! Emergency exit so big I could stretch my legs entirely.. next to Paul.. nice to meet you.. oh you’re Dutch too?!

Sometimes you meet people that just seem to be interested in the same lines of thought and with whom you can just about put the whole world under a loop. Fun and interesting. He is a doctor at the AMC in Amsterdam and was off to do his PhD. I guess psychology is something that is interesting in his line if work as well and the research he was doing on fainting made him interested in waterpolo.. well as some of you know once you start me on waterpolo you got me going so that was that..

In Chicago we figured we’d go find some dinner as he had a 5 hour lay over and I had 7 :S so we went to find the food court. Once found, the healthiest thing were wraps (apart from the McDonald salads that is). WOW I miss the food at home already! We had earlier discussed that in America all the food starts tasting the same which we then proved by getting confused about whose wrap was whose because eI had tuna and he had chicken..

After saying good bye I went for a run around the Arcade (another section in Chicago) and another round and another one… bought an orange for 1,20 found some coffee which was drinkable and had a gevulde koek. Wrote one of my friends a really long letter and went though her wedding pictures from last year. You definitely get some funny looks if you are stupidly smiling at your computer screen and give an occasional chuckle.

The next flight was pretty much spent in silence.

Okay I’m boring you.. if you made it till here good for you! I’ll bugger off now! I’ll be back with on a regular basis in Hawaii! See you there!

Music: Camille, L'Amour
Quote: "Little by little, one travels far." -J. R. R. Tolkien