Good times at Montclair 646.
What with preparing spaghetti and forgetting the pasta? What with playing the guitar, singing gibberish, writing silly film scripts, acting them, and of course, dancing to Belgian house music?
It takes no more than four... and a bottle of vodka.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Monday, April 2, 2007
Spring Break (part one)
Listen to The Blackadder Theme
It took half a miracle to get me to write another post. A succession of diverse coincidences resulted in a week without any classes (!). First time in weeks I can relax a little.
Yes, I know you're enjoying your two week Easter Break, Belgium, but it's highly unusual not to have classes at this time in America.
It's these industrious Protestants, blame them.
About four weeks ago, I made an unforgettable roadtrip to the West.
Cathy, Kikol and I traveled about 1300 miles (yes, miles) in 8 days. The trip was wonderful, although we had another awkward experience with the Christian Church, only minutes after arriving. We got picked up at Los Angeles airport by friends-of-friends of Kikol’s. They offered us a free dinner, which was gratefully (and somewhat unthinkingly) accepted. Ended up at a sort of meeting, which seemed perfectly normal at first. As dinner evolved into casual conversation, the host suddenly started praising the Lord and wishing he could be very close to Him and hold Him and be one with Him. I thought there was something wrong with him and glanced around for a reassuring nod of the head. Yet the other residents piously closed their eyes and encouraged him with a repetitive Amen. As they promptly worked themselves to an exaltation of sorts, I started feeling increasingly uncomfortable and was trying to draw the attention of our chauffeur. I was so relieved he didn’t make a fuss about us leaving the meeting, although I am sure I didn’t imagine that grimly accusing gaze as we left the building.
LA didn’t really impress me all that much. It’s a vast city and it is hard to get around without a car. It took us three hours to get back from the center to UCLA (university of california, los angeles), which supposedly still is fairly ‘central’ in the city. After two nights of poor sleep – I shared a small college room with two Chinese and a Russian student(s) – we picked up our car – a stylish Chrysler PT Cruiser – and headed for San Diego.
I immediately fell in love with the city. We stayed at a very nice hostel in the Gaslamp District, downtown’s main food and nightlife center. The atmosphere was great, all the more because of the perfectly agreeable weather (San Diego is at the southern border of the States, close to Tijuana). Very much enjoyed our visit to Balboa Park, a park annex museum site in Spanish colonial style. It felt good to be in this “European oasis”, almost felt as home. Got awfully sun burnt though, almost forgot about the sun and its potential there.
Armed with sunscreen, we visited Coronado Beach afterwards. Very nice. Looked like a golden plane. My travel guide informed me that this was caused by some mineral called “Mica” which is scattered all over the beach. We got up early the next day to see Old Town, where historic San Diego is presented in two blocks of open air museum. A couple of old houses were meticulously rebuilt at this site, yet it has a certain “Bokrijk”-feel to it (for those who know the place). Also had my first confrontation with some Mormons, who offered a free bible. Unfortunately, no free meals this time. As we continued our journey to Las Vegas, we passed by a beach town called La Jolla, where we saw seals, pelicans and a squirrel.
The ride to Las Vegas was exhausting. By the time we got there, I was so tired that Sin City felt even more surreal than it probably already is. After seven hours of desert, seeing the lavishly ornamented casinos and their exuberant neon lights feels like entering a strange sort of dream. I’m not talking about the nice dreams, I mean the...................
Ok, this is it for today. It’s taking me a lot of effort to remember the exact details of the trip – even while I am not taking chronology very serious. I will continue this later this week. I promise.
It took half a miracle to get me to write another post. A succession of diverse coincidences resulted in a week without any classes (!). First time in weeks I can relax a little.
Yes, I know you're enjoying your two week Easter Break, Belgium, but it's highly unusual not to have classes at this time in America.
It's these industrious Protestants, blame them.
About four weeks ago, I made an unforgettable roadtrip to the West.
Cathy, Kikol and I traveled about 1300 miles (yes, miles) in 8 days. The trip was wonderful, although we had another awkward experience with the Christian Church, only minutes after arriving. We got picked up at Los Angeles airport by friends-of-friends of Kikol’s. They offered us a free dinner, which was gratefully (and somewhat unthinkingly) accepted. Ended up at a sort of meeting, which seemed perfectly normal at first. As dinner evolved into casual conversation, the host suddenly started praising the Lord and wishing he could be very close to Him and hold Him and be one with Him. I thought there was something wrong with him and glanced around for a reassuring nod of the head. Yet the other residents piously closed their eyes and encouraged him with a repetitive Amen. As they promptly worked themselves to an exaltation of sorts, I started feeling increasingly uncomfortable and was trying to draw the attention of our chauffeur. I was so relieved he didn’t make a fuss about us leaving the meeting, although I am sure I didn’t imagine that grimly accusing gaze as we left the building.
LA didn’t really impress me all that much. It’s a vast city and it is hard to get around without a car. It took us three hours to get back from the center to UCLA (university of california, los angeles), which supposedly still is fairly ‘central’ in the city. After two nights of poor sleep – I shared a small college room with two Chinese and a Russian student(s) – we picked up our car – a stylish Chrysler PT Cruiser – and headed for San Diego.
I immediately fell in love with the city. We stayed at a very nice hostel in the Gaslamp District, downtown’s main food and nightlife center. The atmosphere was great, all the more because of the perfectly agreeable weather (San Diego is at the southern border of the States, close to Tijuana). Very much enjoyed our visit to Balboa Park, a park annex museum site in Spanish colonial style. It felt good to be in this “European oasis”, almost felt as home. Got awfully sun burnt though, almost forgot about the sun and its potential there.
Armed with sunscreen, we visited Coronado Beach afterwards. Very nice. Looked like a golden plane. My travel guide informed me that this was caused by some mineral called “Mica” which is scattered all over the beach. We got up early the next day to see Old Town, where historic San Diego is presented in two blocks of open air museum. A couple of old houses were meticulously rebuilt at this site, yet it has a certain “Bokrijk”-feel to it (for those who know the place). Also had my first confrontation with some Mormons, who offered a free bible. Unfortunately, no free meals this time. As we continued our journey to Las Vegas, we passed by a beach town called La Jolla, where we saw seals, pelicans and a squirrel.
The ride to Las Vegas was exhausting. By the time we got there, I was so tired that Sin City felt even more surreal than it probably already is. After seven hours of desert, seeing the lavishly ornamented casinos and their exuberant neon lights feels like entering a strange sort of dream. I’m not talking about the nice dreams, I mean the...................
Ok, this is it for today. It’s taking me a lot of effort to remember the exact details of the trip – even while I am not taking chronology very serious. I will continue this later this week. I promise.
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