The kids are doing excellent and this was a very good week. Pim is fast as lightening and he's started pulling himself up onto his knees now! This morning when I went to get him out of bed, he was leaning over the edge with the BIGGEST smile that made me forget how tired and hungover I was. I'm in love with that little boy. Tijn got a haircut and now it's easier for me to see his adorable little face! Lara's been really good and helpful and not as temperamental. Of course, she still cries like clockwork every Thursday evening at dinner about her swimming lessons on Friday but we're used to it and it wouldn't be Thursday dinner without it. Niek is phenomenal. I just got back from a walk with him and he's such a little adult.. He walks right into the bakery and gets in line with his hands folded behind his back, inspecting the goods. I almost expected him to pull out a wallet full of euro and buy the cheese croissant he was obsessed with.
I'd heard before that Americans weren't really all that popular in Europe and this week, Jaime and I experienced it firsthand. People have such a negative view of us, which sucks for them cuz we're utterly fabulous, but I digress. Our Dutch course takes place in the evenings from 7:30-10. We don't always have time to eat so we always bring snacks to combat our hunger. At Monday's class, Thea asked Jaime to stop eating, which was annoying but to make matters worse, some Serbian chick Mebitcha chimes in with a comment about it being loud and that she's hungry too. Well duhhhh, do something about it cunt, we're hungry too, hence the snacks. If she didn't think to bring any, WHOSE FAULT IS THAT? So at Wednesdays class, Thea asks us not to eat that night. I was stuffed but I had cookies in my bag that I wanted to eat out of spite and Jaime was fiending for her apple. So then Mebitcha's birdbrain friend feels the need to make a comment about how eating is "rude in Europe". I can see why Thea would find it distracting because we do sit in the front blah blah blah, but it's not like we're bringing in Sudanese take-out. The undertone of her comment was very hostile and petty and it felt like she'd been waiting to say something like that for a while. Earlier this year in class, another Argentinian girl, Annaliya, jumped down Jaime's throat after she made a joke about American bankers. She basically told us that we don't care about anything that doesn't involve our country and don't care about anyone else. I can understand why she feels that way, given the way we're portrayed in the media and with a bobble-head president like good ol' G. Dubbayah but I don't appreciate false generalizations/assumptions about my personal character; in the infamous words of T.I., YOU DON'T KNOW ME.
Last night Mayra, Jaime, and I decided to treat ourselves to dinner. We dined at a hip Mexican eatery, stuffing our faces with burritos, nachos, and RIBS and downing glasses of wine. Whenever we go to places, the employees always look so young (at the night club we went to in Rotterdamn, the door security guard was 17!!). Our waiter was cute and we jokingly assumed he was about 16. Turns out we weren't far off since he was 17! Stat was really nice and even gave us free margaritas and invited us to the pub next door after we ate, with his friend Uni-brow. There we enjoyed more free wine as well as unnecessary shots of tequila. We also encountered more people who were only interested in discussing politics and being anti-American. I will spare you much of the details but Uni even went as far as to tell Jaime that we deserved 9/11 then had the audacity to say he wanted to do an internship in Miami. He needs to not bring his fuckery to the US but he was aesthetically amusing and I will say that I haven't laughed as much as I did last night in too long!
I'm exhausted right now but am really excited that it's the weekend. I really want to get some rest but I have a strange feeling that won't happen, given the company i keep ;-p
