15.2.10
Stephen solves snake cube
7:51 PM | 
Posted by
Maj
13.2.10
For the birds.
You know how it is. Every so often, someone develops a new way of staying connected to people you haven't talked to in years, a handful of people you know use that social networking tool to keep in touch, and all of a sudden you find yourself filling out your 9,236,847,643rd internet profile. Every time, I list "psittaculture" as an interest of mine. Recently, I've wondered whether it's still appropriate for me to put it in there. I haven't read a parrot magazine since I was eleven. I haven't worked in the pet trade in nearly five years and don't see myself going back. Maybe, I've thought to myself, the bird thing is over and done with.
And then I get here. I'll tell you, the first mammal I noticed at all was a rabbit I ran into on the way home last night. But the birds, the birds!! Oh, people of the Netherlands, you've got yourselves some pretty striking avian friends. Friends that I noticed within an hour of getting here.
So today, I decided I'd go out and get some photos of these guys with my new camera.
Magpies
So I bet you're thinking, "Gosh! That's a great photo of a magpie, Maja. ...Maybe a little too good." And you're right; this is too good a photo. In fact, I don't know who took this photo, but I'm inclined to think that God himself must've snapped it, because magpies are total jerks when it comes to posing for the camera. I chased one magpie down the street trying to get a photo of it, and it just sort of bounced along (they normally walk around, but they have a fantatstic, buoyant stride when they're running away. IT MAKES ME WANT TO PHOTOGRAPH THEM ALL THE MORE. Ugh.) I'm sure I looked like an idiot, especially since these birds are, like crows, never really skittish. But they're like... wacky crow cousins. Bright, but not in that boring, Congo African Grey, I-want-to-solve-puzzles-instead-of-rolling-around-and-making-obnoxious-noises kind of way. No, magpies normally seem like they're all about being smart and doing stupid stuff. Of course, I may just think they're clever, but it seems they must at least be perception-geniuses to know the difference between little old me and little old me plus desire to get a magpie photo.
Coots
I mentioned that, when I first got here, there were these weird ducks everywhere. Well, after about a week of Google frustration, I finally figured out what these guys are: coots. (Surprisingly, they're nothing like senile fogies.)
I was pretty disappointed with my photographic excursion when the magpie wouldn't cooperate. We're talking about a bird that hangs out near people all the time, yet is impossible to photograph. Since I'd never tried to approach coots before, I was worried they, too, would take off in some emasculatingly cute way. But no! The coot forever secured its position as my favourite Dutch bird by actually running toward me to see what was going on. The internet suggests coots do this sort of thing because they're aggressive and territorial, but this clearly wasn't a case of territorial defence. The bird didn't try to scare me away or bite me, it just ran up to me and started to walk around me. Checking out my boots, checking out the camera. Super awesome. If only I'd had a memory card in the camera, I'd have made a video. So, sadly, I only have the photo above to show you guys. Check out those amazing blue feet, they look like they're made of leaves!
Well, those are all of the photos for now. Maybe I'll be able to get a great blue heron sometime soon. I'd upload pictures of pigeons, but no one seems to like them except me. But Canadians should count themselves as lucky, since pigeons are far more pestiferous (har har) here than in Canada. I see them bumbling around in the metro, in city hall, in grocery stores. Yep, the Supermarkt owners across the street have to shoo them out all day. A couple of times, the woman owner had to come in from out of town to let a robin out of the store because it set off the alarm at something like 3 in the morning. :)
Tot ziens!
Well, those are all of the photos for now. Maybe I'll be able to get a great blue heron sometime soon. I'd upload pictures of pigeons, but no one seems to like them except me. But Canadians should count themselves as lucky, since pigeons are far more pestiferous (har har) here than in Canada. I see them bumbling around in the metro, in city hall, in grocery stores. Yep, the Supermarkt owners across the street have to shoo them out all day. A couple of times, the woman owner had to come in from out of town to let a robin out of the store because it set off the alarm at something like 3 in the morning. :)
Tot ziens!
12.2.10
Pepperell to Bergwijkdreef
Oude Turfmarkt at Nieuwe Doelenstraat, Amsterdam, 12.02.10
There's obviously so, so much to talk about. Sadly, I've been looking forward to writing this post for what feels like so long now (about a week?) that it's hard to actually get down on, erm, cyberspace. I know there's no point in trying to go over everything properly in one post, so expect a series of posts about my first two weeks in A'dam (as all the cool kids call it.) Here's a (painfully thorough) rundown of my move. Do not expect similarly comprehensive posts in the future, as I'll surely let you down. Do expect some pretty hilarious anecdotes, though!
Interblagular friends, hello!
There's obviously so, so much to talk about. Sadly, I've been looking forward to writing this post for what feels like so long now (about a week?) that it's hard to actually get down on, erm, cyberspace. I know there's no point in trying to go over everything properly in one post, so expect a series of posts about my first two weeks in A'dam (as all the cool kids call it.) Here's a (painfully thorough) rundown of my move. Do not expect similarly comprehensive posts in the future, as I'll surely let you down. Do expect some pretty hilarious anecdotes, though!
Pepperell to Bergwijkdreef: everything looks better on a schedule.
January 29th
19h00 - Goodbye party begins.
January 30th
05h00 - Goodbye party comes to a messy, grinding halt when Stephen, Colin and Chris try to get me to go to McDonalds. (...Apparently.)
11h00 - Alex Campbell shows up to help me clean. And then goes to get me coffee. Amazing.
14h00 - Stephen and I go to Smitty's for one last breakfast together. We make shadow puppets and order way too much food.
19h25 - I'm still cleaning out my (now old) bedroom and trying to stuff everything into luggage. I throw out useful notebooks in the process... crap.
20h50 - On the way to Montréal.
January 31st
14h00 - Haircut at Coupe Bizarre. My stylist warns me that Dutch staircases are tough to climb (we're both under 5'5") because they're designed for the (on average) tallest people in the world. She also warns me that some Dutch walls contain food. Awesome.
18h55 - On the way to Amsterdam. My plan is to sleep, but I watch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs instead. You should be walking to the video store to rent it right now if you haven't seen it. I took to it like Jared to Gatorade.
February 1st (Amsterdam Time)
07h45 - My flight arrives and man, am I in an ugly state.
08h30 - After putting my luggage in a locker and buying water in an exotic looking bottle, I take a cab to Binnengasthuisstraat. I hear the driver pronounce the street name and oh, the horror. It sounds nothing like what it looks like. I start to worry Dutch is just unlike German enough to fuck me up, bigtime.
9h00 - First sighting of mysterious black duck-goose things amidst some unmysterious white geese.
9h10 - Get out of cab. Dutch-speaking student comes up to me and tries to... get me to be an activist? Get me to go to a play? No one will ever know. ...I take his pamphlet, smile, then throw it in the first recycling bin I see.
9h15 - Undergo university intake procedure. Acquire free map (thank goodness.)
9h30 - Walk around the city for -- wait for it -- about six hours? Eight? In very cold rain, without an umbrella, trying to run all the errands I must in order to get my apartment keys. The rest of the day is a map-reading, passport-showing, foot-acheing blur, apart from lunch (2-euro Dutch wall-burger. Awesome.) I see about a billion of those weird black duck things, like them and resolve to find out what they're called.
18h30 - Cab to my new apartment in Diemen with my luggage from the airport. The cab driver asks me out to dinner...? Weird.
18h34 - I realize my microwave has dials. Weird.
18h35 - Glorious sleep.
More to come. :)
3.2.10
New post to come.
For now... photos of my new place (and new haircut.)
Washroom!
Bedroom!
More... bed region!
Kitchen and desk!
Desk and entrance!
Microwave with... dials?
And hair.
Zie u later, alligator.
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