Breathing fire

fire blowing
Originally uploaded by dutchlop.

The air is crisp, my bones are creaking (attribute that to sprained ankles)...fall has arrived in the netherlands. although, summer never really made an appearance, except for maybe in april. it was a constant summer of cool, cloudy days, and rain. it hardly ever got over 75 degress F. Really quite sad and depressing.

My ankle has improved, its still purple and still hurts some, but I can walk normally again. I wear a brace all day, its still quite unstable. i don't think jogging/running/basketball is an option yet. I can ride my bike fine, just not put too much pressure on my foot when starting to pedal.

Integration classes started last week- the level i was put it is 3-4, 4 being the highest level. its a bit too hard for me, and i was quite stressed and upset on monday when i entered the class, almost everyone knew everyone else from the spring before, and they are all speaking in dutch. and i can't speak much at all...i would like to be in level 2-3, and that may happen after this week. the text we read and had to answer questions on this week was extremely technical- the scientific discoveries and contributions of Huygens. Hello, I don't even understand physics and pendulum movement in English. I get extremely frustrated very easily, and I sort of shutdown. I don't want to be stressed out and nervous and always behind...especially when I have to spend 2 nights a week doing this. It affects my relationship, my sleeping patterns, and my entire life and attitude. If I am to learn Dutch, i would like to go down a level, get a better foundation of vocab and grammar on which to build upon. So, by wednesday I will decide, I'm pretty much set on going to a different class. Too bad, because my teacher is really very nice and encouraging. She's probably the nicest Dutch woman I've ever met. seriously. That's saying a lot.

So, this past Saturday I went to the coolest party I've ever gone to in my life! And funny enough, I was the one to get the invitation to it...and I hardly know anyone here! One of the girls I worked at the hostel with, lives in this 'huge' (for dutch standards) old mansion just outside of the city of utrecht....with like 12 or 20 other people (i got conflicting reports on how many people live here). Its a shared living house, so its not your typical type of people who want to be "married by 28, own your house, kids by 30" type of people (the typical american life course). Apparently, every year they throw a huge party with a different theme, and a few hundred people show up. This year it was Carnivale, based on the american tv series on HBO (I've never seen it). Seriously, it was so surreal, I felt like i was in a dream sequence of a movie. This party was part carnivale, part haunted house, part freak show. They had lights and tents outside in the back. They had a stand of people making and selling crepes. Little kids dressed up were walking around selling lollipops. They had a terot card reader and fortune teller. Bands were playing inside and out. There was a line at the 'box office' to get in - it was 5euros entrance and drinks were about 1 euro each. The band inside when we got there was from the UK! They were old and had dreads and beards and looked like a cross between Sargent Pepper's lonley hearts club band and old british sailors or something strange. there was a TREE in the living room area where the band was playing ....they cut down a tree and put it in there!! The bathroom was an entertaining adventure as well...a paper-maiche head was hanging by a rope and pulley and when you opened and closed the door, it would go up and down...and stared at you while you were on the john. Outside there were tents and bonfires in oil barrels ..mostly everyone was dressed up in some sort of carnivale/freakshow type garb. Unfortunately, I do not carry 30's/40's era- freak show clothes in my wardrobe...but I had a nice hat on.

At 1 am there was a 'procession'....they put the crazy british band up on a wooden cart, 5 people pulled it as if they were horses, and everyone had candles and torches and we walked towards the back of the property --following the fire blowers and torches. I couldn't see what happened from there, but I heard that 3 people were baptised. After that there was a huge "lightning" display...you know those electricity balls...at the science museum...but this was huge and spewing lighting like 3 yards out from the ball! there was someone on stilts. There was a guy hanging from a rope from the roof doing acrobatic movements while hanging upside down. It was absolutely a surreal, colorful dream that I was living! I left at 230, but could have stayed much longer...simply amazing.