My final words....

I'm back in Montreal, my first day back, and this will be my last entry in this blog. There are a few things that I wanted to say that I hope that you are all reading.

My trip home was exhausting but adventurous. Maaike and Paul drove me to the Schipol airport, where we dealt with heavy traffic and parking troubles (get a smaller van, Paul!). They were so sweet to drive me there and not let me leave Holland alone. Goodbye was too short because I was late and we couldn't park the van everywhere, but you both know that I love you and I would have liked to have spent more time with you at the last minute.

I hopped on my plane and got as far as London. However, we landed too late and I missed my connection. It turned out that I had to stay in England overnight and catch the plane the next afternoon. This was kind of sucky since the new security rules made sure that I had no makeup, deoderant, toothpaste, clean underwear, or anything with me. I spent the evening in my (free) hotel eating (free) buffet dinner and chatting with English and Irish rugby fans to pass the hours. In the morning, I hopped on the underground (which wasn't underground until it was near the central area) on the Picadilly line and managed to see Buckingham palace. This was a very short tour of London, about 45 minutes of actual picture taking, but it was fun nevertheless.

After an hour of going through security at the Heathrow airport (yes, I had to take off my shoes), my plane left late again (curse British Airways!) due to an engine problem with the original plane. I landed 1 hour late and, you guessed it, my baggage did not make the trip with me. I still don't have my suitcases, which means that I have no camera cable, so I have no pictures to show you in this entry.

But, in the end, I made it to Montreal safe and sound (to the relief to Mom and Dad), where my sister Lisa picked me up at the airport and took care of me (Cameron was working late).

I went into shock last night seeing my apartment for the first time in half a year, but my cat soon recognized me and things started to settle back in slowly. There's just no place like home.

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Before I sign off, I wanted to leave a list of all the crazy things about the Netherlands and Groningen that for your amusement. This list is inspired by Janelle, who started one herself and showed it to me hours before she left Holland herself.

The crazy things about Dutch and Groningen life, Susan's perspective:
* Giant black and white cows (apparently all B&W cows in the world were originally raised in Friesland)
* Kangaroo farms to feed the rich fancy meat
* Groningen bars are open until 7 am (and still busy until closing!)
* Scary narrow stairwells
* No tipping except for sit-down restaurants (though I always tipped and got great service for the gesture)
* Extra-foamy beer that is poured in a way that will shame the English
* The bike phemenon
- Carrying everything from beer crates to toddlers on bikes
- Taking passengers on the back of your bike with buses whizzing by an inch away
- Wearing dressy clothing on a bike to go to a fancy night out
- Going home drunk on a bike
- Couples holding hands while riding their bikes
- Cars go out of their way to let bikes rule the roads
- 90% of the bikes have been stolen at least once
- Humongous bike parking lots
* Wearing clogs at the hospital for work
* Stores are strictly open 9am-7pm, and never ever on Sundays (so you starve if you don't plan ahead)
* Orange madness during football season (everything from toilet paper to food is orange)
* Public urinals in the middle of the street that pop up out of the ground at night and disappear mysteriously during the day
* The refusal to use 1 cent and 2 cent coins (they round up to the closest 5 cent rather than deal with them)
* Strict IOUs when lending money to friends (hence the term "double dutch" when going on a date), except for buying rounds at the bar
* Big Bird from Sesame Street is blue
* Everyone knows English because American shows are subtitled and not dubbed
* The food
- candy on bread (little sprinkles and slices of pressed coconut candy)
- raw pickled herring, eaten whole with raw onions (the old man favourite)
- peanut soup (like hot peanut butter with onions)
- huge mounds of mashed potatoes mixed up with green veggies
- all butter is unsalted
- bi-colour meat slices with pictures (including football players)
- Febo food from vending machines, particularly fried unrecognizable grey liquidated meat
- all iced tea is fuzzy
- a gazillion potato snacks dominating 60% of the supermarkt aisles
- tea is never served with milk
- vla and kwark
- yoghurt is always in liquid form
- curry ketchup that doesn't taste like curry nor ketchup
- frites with "special sauce" aka mayo, curry ketchup and raw onions served in a paper cone (which they say is Dutch but the frite stands are Belgian)
- awesome fresh water from every tap
* The lack of Dutch who smoke pot (vs. 90% of tourists)
* The whole country is basically under sea level
* Holidays (days off work) every second weekend
* Rain is ignored, you just get wet
* Their outspoken (don't ever say "blunt") and direct way of speaking (which I totally appreciate and respect!)

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I will miss Holland and its people with all my heart. Though, I will be back next year for another internship, I promise! So, "tot ziens" not goodbye!

Keep in touch. You know how to reach me by email.

I will be starting a new blog from Montreal (also listed in my links) so that you can spy on my life from wherever you live.

I love you guys and thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for the best time in my life!

Love,
Susan

Farewell Holland!

The past few nights were farewell party after farewell party, saying goodbye to all the wonderful and loving friends that I have met over the past six months. This was a very emotional and sad period for me, as you can probably guess. I am cleaning out my room taking down the memories I have built up and trying to fit them in two suitcases. I am still in a weird kind of denial that I'm going to be in Canada and that this is all really over.

Tuesday night Maaike arranged a farewell party from my co-workers at the lab, a group of very special people that showed just how much they care about me. This was a very exciting evening for me, as it has been years since I have had a party in my honour. I felt like I was a twelve-year-old having a birthday party!

We started out in the tapas bar and sat around eating good food. Then they brought out some gifts for me that touched me deeply. The most special is a CD of Dutch songs that they had compiled. Each member of the lab chose one song that is special for them and the CD insert has picture profiles of each person with their song listed on it. It actually made me cry. I also got traditional Dutch treats (stroopwafels and licorice candies) and a book of traditional Dutch cuisine. I find this really funny since I am already obsessed about food and find Dutch food the strangest! THANK YOU so much, to everyone in the lab, for doing this for me and making me feel so welcome during my stay with you. You all are awesome!

After dinner, half of us continued for the next entertainment of the evening, to a show at the local festival. The one we saw was an American show (with an American tent) about how to do Ebay powerselling. The show was more to laugh at then to laugh with, but it was good entertainment. I think that the Dutch audience didn't really appreciate what the American guy had to say, but being Canadian, I found some parts quite humorous. Standing around the show was a real national park ranger, ranger Steve, from Yellowstone. His friend was the artistic director of the show and hired him to hang around as a a living prop.

After the show, we split up and people went their own way to enjoy the rest of the evening. It turned out to be quite a nice bonding moment for some of us and I'm so glad that we had this time together.

Wednesday evening Ricard had the sweet idea of arranging dinner in my honour. So him and Myriam and Wicax cooked me delicious pasta and frittata and we spend the evening chitchatting about life. You guys are the sweetest, thank you so much for doing this for me!


After dinner, we decided to play a game of pictionary. This was a good ol' time where we shared with eachother our memories of Groningen and our views of the Dutch life through silly little drawings and many great laughs.


After spending an exhausting day of running around doing errands and packing, Thursday was my very last night in Groningen. I decided that I want to go back to Sally O'Brians and the Three Sisters, the places that started it all 6 short months ago. My hardcore friends came out with me and we drank our sorrows of goodbye away. I will particularly miss Wicax and Jorn," my boys" from my floor, who have stuck with me through my ups and downs since day one. Thank you for being my bestest friends ever!

*** I will miss you all so very much and I love you all! ***

Squeezing in the fun!

Ack! I can't believe that I have only 4 more days left in the Netherlands! I just can't bring myself to start getting ready. I got as far as buying some boxes from Ikea so that I can store some of my crap at Maaike's, sort of like a guarantee that I will be coming back to Groningen. I think that I will be needing to buy an extra suitcase, though, to lug the rest of my stuff back to Canada. It's amazing what one can accumulate in 6 months!

These past few days have been pretty darn amazing, though. I'm doing my best to have as much fun as possible and experience all that I can before I have to leave.

Wednesday night me and my buddies went to Spieghel, the jazz cafe, to chill out to some funky music. On the way, it was pouring rain and we got absolutely soaked! When we got there, we peeled off our wet jackets and tried to warm up around the single candle lit on our table. There wasn't actually any live show, which was sad. But the jukebox was free so we put in a couple of requests. After a few hours, we still didn't hear our music so we asked the bartender if we were pushing some wrong buttons. It turned out that she had entered a gazillion (slow and boring) songs earlier in the evening and there was no way to fastforward. What is the fun of the free jukebox then?

We hadn't intended to, but we ended up staying up really late after the jazz cafe. We hit the Three Sisters and hung out at the back of the bar, away from crazy crowds and superloud music. I took out my camera and that provided us with the evening's entertainment. Some very, very funny pictures were taken that evening!

The night ended with us dancing at the bar that starts with a T, a teeny little dance club. We tried to dance on the tables because there was no room to stand, but when we did people threw coasters at us and so we had to settle with dancing on the benches.

Afterwards was a good meal for breakfast (Donairs... yummm) and a good night's rest.

Thursday, after working hard in the lab to finish off my results, I tried to assist Sjoerd with some bartending but I was so pooped that I ended up going to bed at midnight and left him alone to work. I just needed to catch some zzzzzs so I could continue my research on Friday.

Friday, after another hard day at work, I brought my co-workers (Maaike and Lowrens) together with my international gang and we had a superb night out! The centrum was packed with students partying because it was the beginning of welcome week. There were flame jugglers and dancers on the street, and kids were overflowing out of the bars and pubs. Me and my friends ended up being honorary members of a fraternity (so they call it, but it's not anything like American fraternities) called Cleopatra. Their frathouse was realy chill, more like a house party than a bar. We later headed out to the Kar and danced before finally ending up in front of Febo. Febo is a fast food place that sells unrecognizable fried pseudo-meat products out of vending windows. Dutch kids seem to like to eat this stuff after drinking, and I did admittedly try it once, but I won't try it again. Dangerous food....

Saturday, me and Bore and Myriam and Wicax headed out to Amsterdam. I had arranged this trip so that I could say farewell to Holland the proper way. I had planned to do all these fun things while we were there, including a bike tour and the Heineken museum and Anne Frank museum, but we had been out the evening before and my friends did not support the idea of hopping directly on the 6:30am train after no sleep. Therefore, we left towards noon. In the pic is the new bike parking lot at the Groningen station, quite impressive compared to the old system, with parking attendants and protection from the rain.

So we caught the train at about noon and after taking a detour to Den Haag to visit a friend of Wicax's in the hospital, we didn't arrive in Amsterdam until after 6pm, too late for the daytime activities. When we got there, we met up with Janelle (I went to Paris with her, remember?) and Bore's friend, both who were staying in Amsterdam.

The evening started with a free outdoor concert on the canal. We had to ask directions to the right canal from this guy running the gay and lesbian information hut, a colourful little gem that is isolated on the sidewalk. The show itself was beautiful, it included opera and classical piano. It was so crowded that we couldn't see the performers, but listening and people-watching was such great fun! Weird people hang around this city. There were also people on their private boats parked in the water, eating their expensive snacks and drinking their expensive wine, who were fun to look at. We got harassed by the guy who kept asking for Bore's cigarettes, though, yet 5 minutes later an undercover cop flicked us his badge and asked us if were OK. That really impressed us and made us feel very safe in the crowds.

After the concert we took a walking tour around Amsterdam, guided by Bore's friend. He works in different tourist shops at five different locations around the city so he knew the sites pretty well and this was a nice treat.




Somewhere along the way Myriam had to get some money out of the bank machine. There are so many friggin' tourists in the city that we had to line up for a half an hour to use the ATM (see in the pic)! A strange site that was.

We finally made our way to Bulldog, a famous tourist spot that is a bar, club, and coffeeshop in one. There is a story about how the customers were arrested hundreds of times in the early days, so when the police headquarters went up for sale in the mid-eighties, they bought the building and set up the bar there. You can see (in the pic) the old sign for police headquarters engraved on the front of the building. Inside, they have a wall of fame with pictures of celebrities that have been to the bar and the ceiling is covered in foreign currency.

Afterwards we ate at an International Pancake House that was a blend between a sports bar, a restaurant, and a cheap club with disco balls and bad music. Wicax was the one who actually ate a pancake, which resembled a pizza without the crust more than a pancake.

We needed to stay up all night for two reasons: We were to help Janelle with her luggage and take her to the airport at about 6 am (so sad - she went back to America!), and the first train back to Groningen was at 7:30am. The problem is that most bars and restaurants were closed after 3am. But we did end up finding one place that was busy and looked fun. Quickly, we (except Bore, who seemed to have no clue) realised that it was a gay bar. This was fun because the Drag Parade was taking place the next afternoon so we got to see some drag queens all decked out in dresses made out of plastic (like plastic bag stuff). The bathroom, however, was kind of scary because there was only one stall and I learned that it was a meeting place for couples "getting to know eachother". I had to time my entrance to the bathroom very, very carefully to not interfere!

After sending Janelle off, we left Amsterdam towards 9am and got back to Groningen after noon. We all slept all day Sunday, bringing me to where I am now.

The countdown begins...

Hello everybody! First of all, I want to **thank you** all for checking out my blog regularly! I've gotten so many nice comments and I'm really happy that I can share my life with you and that you actually care enough to read my silly stories.

Today I started back up in the lab after my holiday. With only about 5 more workdays left before I'm finished my internship, I'm trying to gather enough concentration to work efficiently. I'm actually striving to get more experimental results as well as wrap things up. Since I accidentally cooked my cells to their death before leaving to Paris, I have even more catching up to do now!

After getting home from Paris on Friday, I slept for a full evening and night (after updating my blog, of course) and the very next morning I went to pick up Andi at the train station (remember him from my older posts?). He's my hero - he actually worked overtime all week then traveled 16 hours on the train just for a weekend visit to good ol' Groningen!

That evening (Saturday), we had a gettogether with the international kids and student managers in Blekerslaan, the newest and hippest hangout in town. Hahahaha! We watched Wallace and Gromit and chilled for the most part. Some of us even slept over in the empty rooms, being too lazy to bike home, which gave the night a feel of staying in a cheap motel. It pays to know the student managers in situations like these!

Sunday finally felt like a real vacation. It consisted of sleeping in and doing almost nothing. In the evening, Andi and I met up with Myriam in the centrum and the three of us ended up going to see Superman Returns at the local cinema. It was a terrible movie. The positive point, however, was that I finally got to hear the Superman theme song again. I've been trying to figure it out since the last time I went to the theatre weeks ago, and kept ending up with the themes for Indiana Jones and Star Wars instead. I give two Euros to the next person that can hum the Superman theme song!

Monday, after a yummy Austrian dinner (a simple but deelish version of mac and cheese), I gathered up the Kornoeljestraat gang to our common room (Andi, Myriam, Wicax, Ricard, Lucas and I). We had planned to hit Monday night at Sally's but it was raining outside so we dropped that idea. We ended up playing cards all night, using my souvenir pack of cards from Schipol airport, while polishing up my souvenir bottle of Nobeltje from my visit to Ameland (see Wicax taking his share of the liquor in the pic). We tried to do flaming Nobeltjes but it just wouldn't light up so there are no fancy pics to show there! This ended up to be one of my best nights in Groningen. I learned some really fun games that I hope I never forget, including "Lying" (not "Lion") where you bet on if the person next to you is bluffing. In that game, by no coincidence it seemed, the person sitting on the left of Wicax always seemed to win! So we switched to another game called "carré et signe", or "square and sign". This was hilarious - we split up into two teams and when someone gets a 4-of-a-kind, you must let your teammates know using a secret sign while the opposing team tries to guess what your secret sign is. Our sign was so secret that even within our own team, we kept missing it!

Yesterday I spent most of the time on buses and trains. I brought Andi to Schipol airport then turned right around and came back to Groningen in time to have dinner with Maaike, my favorite babe in town. Maaike and I discussed the ups and downs of being a girls while eating yummy food and going out for ice cream. These are the good moments, the little things in life, that make me happy.

With 9 days left in Groningen, I'm feeling panicked and sad and excited all at the same time, and now I have to deal with the annoyance of the Heathrow terrorist threat situation as well (I'm flying through Heathrow).

I feel like I'm changing the backdrop in the theatre version of my life.....

Ooh la la! Paris!

I just got back from Paris a few hours ago and I'm quite exhausted. I meant to hit the bed as soon as I got home but I was drawn into starting my blog entry right away in case I forget some details during my long, deep sleep. There is so much to share (hundreds of pics!) but I will do my best to tell you just the interesting parts, though this will undoubtedly be my longest entry yet.



**Sunday**

My adventures started in Groningen, on my way out. Wicax was kind enough to drive me to the bus station on the back of his bike without one complaint about the extra weight of my luggage in addition to my fat ass. We got to the station so early that we sat down for a drink, but it turned out that we lost track of time and I almost missed my bus altogether! I was 2 minutes late and, by coincidence, the bus was running about 3 minutes behind schedule. I still got a good scolding from the driver in Dutch about being late and he punished me by not letting me bring my backpack to the seating area (don't worry, mom, I had my carry-on).

Our bus was driven by a Frenchman that pretended to be Dutch, or vice versa. He actually had a giant orange Wuppie on the dashboard to claim his Dutchness. Fascinatingly, the toilet on the bus is a box that is hidden behind the side door. It took me hours to realise that people were peeing there and not getting off the bus and disappearing mysteriously. The other strange thing is that seatbelts were obligatory. "Pas de ceinture, pas de télé!" (plus a 90 Euro fine).

I got as far as Amsterdam where I was surprised to learn that I actually had to change buses to get to Paris. There was no mention of this on my ticket reservation. So, with 2 hours to kill and an itch to do something fun, I hopped on the metro to go to Amsterdam central and hung out in a jazz bar that had the best music I've heard in a bar in a very long time, if not ever.



**Monday**

I arrived in Paris 12 hours later, at 6:00 in the morning and found my way the the Auberge Internationale des Jeunes (youth hostel). There, I was greeted by a smooth-talking frenchman that tried to kiss me despite my stink and bad looks from the travel. Good thing he liked me though because he broke the rules for me and allowed me to sneak up into my room before check in hours (3 pm). Lucky for me because we had met other travelers that were forced to leave the hostel upon their arrival and come back at 3pm, despite the fact that they were exhausted and were carrying their heavy packs with them.

After dumping my stuff, I woke Maria up (my lovely German companion - in the pic), who arrived the night before. The first thing that we did, upon my request, was sit in front of a French café and have cappucinos and baguettes while we waited for Janelle (my American girlfriend) to arrive a few hours later.

We later figured out that Janelle had actually missed her night train and wouldn't arrive until the evening. So Maria and I got to know eachother by wandering around through the streets of Paris. We decided to head to the main attractions area by sauntering along the Seine river, gawking at the gorgeous architecture and the many impressively carved bridges. The locals treat the Seine like it were a beachfront, sunbathing on its borders and having beach festivals along the water (they actually imported sand and lounge chairs to create the beach effect!).

Maria and I still had the urge to do something very French-like so after taking in the atmosphere for an hour or so, we stopped for lunch at a pretty restaurant where we ate on the terrace and watch tourists go by with impressive architecture posing in the background. That is the moment that we learned that Paris really is the most expensive city to visit.

We wandered through the Latin quarter that was full of delicious food and souvenir shops. After shopping for a bit, we were lured into a festive salsa bar during happy hour from another sweet-talking Frenchman (Egyptian, actually). We had fancy cocktails and pretended we were at a fiesta before moving on.

"Sex on the beach for you, and just sex for you" - the suave French bar host

Our next destination was the Notre-Dame cathedral. This ended up being a strange and shocking experience for the both of us because the public treated the cathedral more like a carnival attraction more than a sacred place. A service was taking place inside while obnoxious tourists walked the insided perimeter using flashes with their cameras (not allowed) and having loud chit-chats. Some actually climbed on some of the beautiful carvings on the outside wall to snap photos. When we came out we were quite disgusted with the whole scenario and tried to make up for it by making an effort to read about the history of the church and showing the site some respect that it deserved. On the other hand, I am a bit of a hypocrite because I did take pictures myself (without flash), including this one (on the left) I snapped through some gates of the back of the cathedral where you are not allowed to walk through.

We picked up some groceries (bread, cheese and wine of course) and headed back to the hostel to wait for Janelle. There, we found Talia. She is an American sweetheart from LA who was traveling Paris all alone because her best friend cancelled at the last minute. After 5 minutes, we knew that we would get along so we recruited her into our group and that's when our foursome was made. Janelle walked in a few hours later with a million pounds on her back, exhausted from her unexpectedly long voyage from Spain. We tried to get her to go out with us that evening but she decided to sleep early and would not allow us to stay back at the hostel with her.

So, Maria, Talia and I hit the Paris nightlife! We decided to try a bar that is actually a houseboat (barboat?) that is floating on the Seine river. When we got off the closest metro, we got our first eyeful of the Eiffel tower, lit up all pretty in the distance with the almost fullmoon shining above (in the pic the Eiffel tower is the small gold one).

When we found the blue-glowing barboat at the quai, we had to climb over the barriers in our skirts to get to it. While doing this, we encountered to other girls our age who were also climbing over the barriers. Turns out that they were super-friendly Parisiens (Émilie and Éliane) that both recently graduated from the tourisme program so they were interested in meeting us and could speak English quite well. We decided to go in together, the five of us, and with a few cute smiles we got in without having to pay the 5 Euro cover charge.

We sat on outside on the top deck of the boat, chatting in English (Talia does not speak French) when we were overheard by people on the next table. Coincidentally, they were two New Yorkers (Jason and Rob) visiting their French friend (Arianne). They decided to join us so, all of a sudden, we were a big group of kids ready to have some fun in Paris!

It turned out that we ditched the barboat after one (expensive) drink and decided to take the night bus towards a better club. After getting lost in the middle of nowhere, Paris, Émilie and Éliane went home and the rest of us continued our search for this club despite that only one of us was French and she was not even Parisien. However, we finally found the right area and ended up strutting down the infamous Avenue des Champs-Elysée that was lined with impressive window displays and superchic clubs. We passed the supposedly largest dance club in town, Le Queen, which is also famous for being a gay club. We wanted to go in but they are selective about only letting in the "beautful and chic" and it would have cost 20 Euros at the door.

We walked the entire length of the street, looking like a scene from Friends like we knew eachother all of our lives, and made it all the way to the Arc de Triomphe where we took a bunch of pictures. By the time we made it there we were so exhausted from our navigational efforts (we never did find the club we were looking for and didn't want to pay cover) that we ended up taxi-ing back to Bastille (right near our hostel) and having a small drink and dessert crêpes in a pub at 5 in the morning before heading to bed.



**Tuesday**

A few hours later we woke up to have breakfast at the hostel by 9:30am, which consists of a small baguette with butter and cheap jam, along with a few squirts from the hot drink machine.

The four of us (Janelle, Maria, Talia and I) headed out to do errands shortly afterwards. Janelle had lost her bank card in Spain and had to deal with the Dutch on French payphones, which was quite a struggle. We also hit the internet cafe where they had Germany World Cup 2006 desktop images on the monitors, which was surprising considering that France lost the finals.

Soon we were hungry again and, having learned that Paris is expensive, we found a cute little deli that sold cheap combos consisting of a gourmet sandwich, extravagent dessert and a drink for the low low price of 6 Euros. We took our lunches down the street and ate in front of the famous Bastille roundabout while facing the Colonne de Juillet. Surreal.

After lunch we separated in pairs. Maria and Talia went shopping while I escorted Janelle to the train station to purchase her train tickets to Berlin. Along the way Janelle posed for a pic with a troup of French firemen we found lazing at the local station, just like in a calendar. The station itself (Gare de Lyon) was very impressive and gorgeous so there we took more pics.

After playing a game of scavenger hunting by text messaging for about 2 hours, we finally found Maria and Talia again at the Forum des Halles, a main shopping area in Paris. We shopped some more and slowly headed our way towards our destination of the evening - the Eiffel Tower - stopping along the way to see various pretty sites and pick up supper at the Monoprix, the gourmet version of Wal-Mart.


The Eiffel Tower, the famous landmark of the world, the identity of France. We got there by sunset and walked by the École Militaire to get to the actual tower. By the time we reached it, night had settled in and the tower was glowing majestically against a cloudy, purple sky.

None of us had any idea what to expect when we got there and all of us where stunned. It was crammed with people, and it was literally a carnival, with lights and stands and carousels. There were military soldiers wandering around with big guns (I've never seen one close up! How scary!) and kids smoking pot and banging on tam tams, families and teenagers, a gazillion cameras.

The lineup to go up the tower was huge, like you see in Disneyworld, so we ditched the idea of going up. Instead, we sat down on the grass (along with many other hipsters) a few hundred meters away from the tower and ate bread and cheese and drank cheap wine while taking in the scene.

Every 5 minutes, men came by pushing wine and flowers until they started to feel like flies buzzing by regularly. Every hour, the tower suddenly sparkles and the crowd goes "oooohh..." giving the feeling of a dramatic fireworks show. We were approached by the suave Frenchmen several times and we gently turned them down. When we were leaving, we bought souvenirs at a bargain from a teenager wanting to get rid of his stock before going home.

Our evening picnic in front of the Eiffel Tower was the most extraordinary feeling I experienced while in Paris.



**Wednesday**

We got up too late in the morning and missed breakfast, so we took our leftover bread and cheese to the nearest park and ate in the sunshine. Talia left us for the day to meet her friend while the rest of us did some more shopping. Later, Maria went to do a rush tour of the Louvre while Janelle and I, wanting to rebel from the feeling of obligation to see the Mona Lisa, decided explored a big underground mall instead. It was mostly a day of leisure and relaxation, preparing for the evening.

That evening, the four of us plus Talia's friend Stephanie dressed up in pretty dresses and went to the Moulin Rouge cabaret show! I got to wear my new Paris dress with stars on it! So chic! There were no cameras allowed inside but I snuck in a few pictures after the show. It is difficult to describe the show, but we all agreed that bizarre was a good word. It started out like and Abba show with sparkly dancers then it switched to a French version of the story of Aladdin crossed with Indiana Jones and Grease, before switching again to a circus show with sexy clowns. They had live animals, including miniature ponies the size of dogs being led by half-naked jockeys, and a see-through water pool in which the sacrificed blonde virgin danced with real living snakes. They did the classic can-can and moulin rouge scenes as well, giving it a vegas feel at times. There were variety shows between the scenes by mimes and ping-pong ball jugglers to break up the sexy feel every so often. Bizarre.

We took a taxi cab ride home from the Moulin Rouge, where I made friends with the driver until he ended up only charging us about 25% of what he should have. That is one thing that us girls have learned about Paris. A little bit of flirting gets you a long, long way with bargaining and getting special treatment.



**Thursday**

We packed up our bags in the morning and stored them in the dungeon (in the pic) and ate breakfast in the park again. Then we headed back to the Latin quarters to buy souvenirs and gifts for our loved ones, taking everything at a very slow pace. Maria left earlier than the rest of us. Janelle, Talia and I ended up having coffee at this place with an antique-style Turkish bathroom where we had to squat on the floor - an unexpected experience in France (Talia, don't hate me for putting up this pic of you peeing on the internet!).

We ate more good French food, did more French shopping, and had more fancy cocktails (with sparklers!), this time at the Latin Corner Cafe where the motto is "Sexy Bar for Crazy Night" and the cocktail menu lists drinks like "sperme du serveur" and bras are hanging from the chandeliers and the waiters do the sexy dance for you on your table (I did one with the host on the table for passing tourists). It's too bad that we were there during happy hour and not the evening because apparently it really does get crazy there at night, with waiters in G-strings and body shots.

Later, Talia and I dropped Janelle off at the train station to send her off to Berlin where she will meet up with Maria again. We tried to encourage her to get in the bunk car with 6 cute guys but we don't know yet how it turned out.

Finally, Talia escorted me to the bus station and the poor girl is alone there (in Paris!) for one more night. I know she will meet some new friends, though, and have a blast.

Le Paris - the greatest city on Earth!

A whirlwind kinda life

I'm sitting at my computer trying to squeeze in a blog entry before I leave for Paris in, literally, 45 minutes. A lot has happened over the past few weeks, so much that I can't really remember it all to write it down. Here are some highlights ....

Jorn, the best student housing manager in the world, left Kornoeljestraat last weekend. Last Wednesday, we had a farewell party for him, starting with pie in our common room. Later, we hit the centrum, starting out in Pand48 before heading Shadrak. Shadrak (in the pics) is an underground dance bar that is located in the back alleys of the centrum. I took the pics with Wicax's camera that night on an impulse because I was really inspired by the seedy, European look of the bar from outside. Shadrak is usually a million degrees inside and crammed with kids in the earlier hours of the morning, and includes the only dancing pole in Groningen that I've seen so far.

I'm quite sad that Jorn is now on the south side of the centrum (in Blekerslaan). He is only a 15 minute bike ride away, but nevertheless, I miss our evenings of dinner and reality tv and mornings of bedhair and bread - things that only flatmates can share.

On the flipside, we have a new housing manager, Lucas, who we are welcoming with open arms. At the age of 20, he is like our new baby brother and we feel an obligation to take care of him! So far, I've managed to get Lucas to join me in continuing the Monday night ritual of reality tv (America's next top model - ack!), come out for a wonderful dinner at the pub this past Wednesday, and enjoy a drink at our flatbar when I was bartending.

Last Thursday, I picked up my "new" bike, on loan from Bore. It's a really sweet bike. It has back-pedal braking as well as a hand brake. The cutest part is that it also has two bells on the handlebar, both of them which don't work one bit. I promised to take good care of this bike so I've been very careful to buddy-lock at all times. A bike will not be stolen under my care ever again!

Last Friday, me and my new international gang (just can't stay away from them!) also went out to the centrum. The old international kids (Wicax, Bore and I) made sure to show the new kids (Myriam and Ricard) a good old fashioned Dutch evening. We took pics with Bore's camera phone but he has no way to download them so we've been trying for the past week to arrange that he send them to Wicax then he can download them (squish that hologramic angel, Ricard!). I may put them up on the site next week if we finally get the pics. That night we ended up in Enzo and found Jorn and the other student managers. We ended the evening at 6:00 am when we decided to eat some pizza. We took the leftovers home on our bikes like a worn-out pizza delivery team. Very funny site to see!

PS - I've been writing Myriam's name Mariam in previous posts. My oopsies. Pardon, ma chérie, pour cette faute!

Saturday evening, I cooked dinner for Sjoerd (salmon... yummm) and Sunday evening Maaike and I had fondue and watched Amélie together (Spoken in French, subtitled in Dutch). A real girls night then.

It was a hard week at work because I'm trying to finish up as many experiments as possible before leaving back to Canada. I worked really, really hard!

Wednesday evening, Lucas, Wicax, Myriam and I decided to eat in an actual restaurant (Bore joined us later), an unusual thing to do here. We went to Stadtlander's, a pub of a nationality we still haven't figured out yet and where they have giant decor, including ashtrays the size of buckets. We ate huge plates of meat and shared yummy side dishes. Very carnivorous. We later relaxed at the Three sisters before heading home early enough so that we could all get up for work the next morning.

Thursday evening I did another bartending shift at our flatbar with Sjoerd. Turnout was low, but my friends (Maaike and Lowrens from work, Myriam, Lucas and Ricard) came to show their support. Once again, I'm proud to say that at the end of the evening I had made tips, which I invested right back into the bar.

Friday evening Maaike and I bonded some more. We both worked late at the lab then decided to treat ourselves to a tapas restaurant. This was some of the best food I've ever tasted! After dinner, I actually drove Maaike home on the back of my bike! My very first bike passenger ever! And without incident! I am now officially one more notch Dutch :)

Finally, last night was a fantastic evening. Jorn had invited the Kornoeljestraat kids to Bekerslaan to cook dinner together and get to know eachother. Bekerslaan consists mainly of Italians right now, but I also met some great French, Turkish and Swiss kids. They have a giant common room and kitchen that the whole building shares, a really great environment! Now I see why Jorn abandoned us to go there ;) We went to the biggest supermarket in Groningen (the giant Jumbo in the pic) to buy the food. It was just like Canada there! Big and big. We kept having trouble finding eachother inside, though. So, we bought ingredients to make our own pizza creations. When we got back to the house to cook, no one could figure out how to use the gas ovens so we made 2 small pizzas at a time every 12 minutes. It turned out to be a great dinner idea, like having appetizers all night. We drank wine, ate good food and sang to Italian guitar music. There's a really funny song that you sing in rounds and put someone's name in each verse and make up Italian rhymes to describe them. Kinda like Bananarama...

Oops. I'm out of time. I'm off to Paris now. Wish me luck!