Welcome to my cosy little attic. I hope you feel at home. Feel free to navigate. I hope my insanity is catching. Comments are more than welcome.
What's Up (so don't ask)
30/10/04 The Dude left us - RIP
15/03/05 I turn 18... start counting my grey hairs
16/05/05 Last Exam. Forever, I hope.
21/05/05 Jack Johnson Concert - KickAss
25/05/05 I graduate... maybe
07/06/05 Kaz turns 18. About time bro.
Well, I know I promised way back on July 24 that I'd post soon... that was a promise broken. Now I'm back, and ready to write my next post. it's been a while, but I think I'm up to it.
It's been suggested (and feared) that I write up my account of my trip to the New(er) World. Let me begin by saying that if you expect me to tell you everything, you're going to be disappointed, because there's so much to tell that wouldn't make sense unless you were there. And of course, most of it is personal meaningful stuff to me that I don't want a random bunch of people reading, that's just for the mass emailing that goes on backstage between the GYLC people. haha.
Anyway, take a seat, let's begin. It all started with like 12 hours of traveling, which was topped off with my inablility to find GYLC people upon arrival. When I finally did, I was very much amused to meet someone (from the staff) called Rhett, which is most people's interpretation of my name. that was the last I saw of him however... I quickly began the 'meeting people' process with the other unfortunate souls who had arrived at Dulles around the same time as me... One of them turned out to be Dallas (not from Dallas) who would be in my country group, and one other turned out to be Nic, who was a suite-mate in GWU.
Now, GWU (George Washington University) is a beautiful place... lots of green grass... trees... a fountain and pretty little red buildings which pass for dorms and study halls. When I got to my dorm room, I met Conor, the freakishly huge guy from Illinois, and Wyll, the freakishly pale guy from Canada, eh? and once again, Nic, from Waco, Texas. Don't mind him, he was just a ghost. We never saw him outside the room... seriously. A ghost. If I hadn't lost my camera, I could show you a great photo of him dressed like a ghost. Looks like an arab, tho...
We were a fun bunch in rooms 318 and 317 of Somer's... up late into the night, playing poker, gambling away our sheets and pillows and eventually matresses... I lost my sheets and pillowcase... but Wyll gave that back, because he didnt have my pillow. haaa.
Anyway, this was the nightlife of the first half. We also toured a lot during the day, and spent a lot of time in LGMs (Leadership Group Meetings) which consisted of our country groups, where we discussed different things all the time. For example, sometimes, we would talk about South Africa's policies (that was our country) but after we visited the Holocaust Museum, we spent an hour or so discussing that. It was a great group, lead by Erica, from Ohio. For trips, we shared Bus 6 with the damn Israeli group... damn them all. Wild bunch, always making us look bad for bus count... they were all on time, we were always late. I was overshadowed by Leo's magnificent 'fo-teen' so nobody even noticed my 'NIIINETEEEN'... ouch, Leo, ouch. You can check out Leo's blog (if you can work up the willpower to leave mine). In DC, I managed to get a nickname, after 17 years without: Lucky Charms. If you must know why, it's because I used to steal little Lucky Charms cereals from the breakfast halls and gorge into the night. I still have the packets... I sniff them when I'm lonely and everything is better, if only for a little while...
After a week or so in DC, we took a long bus ride north to New York City, where an escaped Tiger locked up traffic and we took like 2 hours to cross the GW bridge. No kidding... we did, however, learn the words to New York New York by Sinatra, and I managed to lose my voice because of all the singing (we also sang 'I'll be there for you' and 'if you're happy and you know it clap your hands'... nobody clapped. kidding!) but we finally got to our destination: Manhattan College, which is the biggest Lie. It's in the Bronx. I guess if they called the The Bronx College, nobody would go. You should've heard some of the white-people-whining when we drove through (gasp) da projects. oOo.
There, we had different room-mates. I was stuck with Omar (from the SA group) and friggin Andres, the sleepy mexican, and Wayne, a quieter fellow than the rest of us. Anyway, I didnt get much sleep that portion of the trip, because people kept coming in the middle of the night to listen to my killer music or simply to make out (by people, I mean guys and girls, and as far as I know, there were no homosexual acts... unless that wasn't his phone... kidding, pervy kids. Anyway, due to these insanely late nights, and freaking out because the cigarette smoke wasn't being contained by the bathroom, I missed breakfast a few times in NYC... but it's ok, coz they didnt have Lucky Charms anyway.
In NYC we saw a buncha sites... the UNHQ, Ground Zero, but only in passing, and the South Sea Port, just to name a few. It's a truly wikkid city... traffic is slow as fuck, tho. I didnt care, I just snuggled up next to Caroline on the bus. You see, Caroline is from North Carolina... I can't imagine why her parents would do that to her... I couldn't stop making fun. She was cool... even lived in Europe for a while. Immediately promoted to another class of human being, am I right? Back to America, we even went to the financial center, and on the day that there was an orange alert! (thats second highest type of terrorist threat) ah, living on the wild side. Some people were worried by the threat, but I wasn't, for 2 reasons.
a) is there a cooler way to die than by terrorist acts? I mean... what a way to go. Sure, sucks to die, but you'll be among a remembered few. Etch your place in history.
and b) I think if they know enough to announce an orange alert, there's little to worry about. If there's no alert, that's when I'd be concerned. Then you'd be caught with your pants down!
While we were in NYC, we did more debate-type things. Sorta wannabe MUNs, but not really as organised. I was fortunate enough to be elected Chair of my committee, because it was such a boring committee (not the people, the topics) and I couldn't be bothered to try write resolutions. However, I must say, being Chair ain't all that much fun either... especially when you've lost your voice. I got a bit of shit for fucking up a couple times by one person, but I was very happy to see everyone else standing up for me. That was nice, even I thought I'd fucked up. Oh well. it was a funky lot in my group.
To try keep this single post from being longer than all the others combined, I'm going to go straight to the last few days, after the conference ended. But before that, I'm going to talk about the end:
On the last night, we had what the organisers call a cruise, but what I call a boattrip, around Manhattan. It was pretty neat... I was pissed coz I thought Caroline was falling for Creepy Karl, but I did enjoy the sights and even managed to sneak a couple cigs of the back of the boat. Manhattan is beautiful at night... and the night turned out great, because turns out Caroline wasn't falling for Killer Karl, and I managed to steal a kiss, which was happily returned. yay for me. The boat ride was a great way to say goodbye, everyone got all dressed up and I got commended for my cool as ice or hot as fire red bow-tie. I was a classy mofo that night.
Next morning, it was pretty sad, when everyone was leaving. Some (a lot) of people cried, but I didn't, because I'm heartless. We shared our last moments together, and then got on the buses. I wasn't going home yet, I was going to stay in Queens with Len (my older brother) for five more days, but I took a bus to La Guardia anyway, coz Javier (one of the staff dudes) told me that cabs were cheaper from there. So I had a last drink with those others in La Guardia, and off I went. I was surprised how well I managed to find it, tho I must give due credit to the taxi driver, who did all the looking. Anyway, there I was in len's flat (very, very nice place) and there I spent the next few days.
Stuff I did with len: Went to a play, went out at night (we walked for hours before settling in a place where I could actually get a drink), watched HBO On Demand (so cool), went to the movies in Times Square(Collateral, w/ Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx) went to Starbucks, went to the Museum of Natural History, went to Starbucks, went to Central Park, went to Washington Square Park, went to Starbucks, and I spent a morning in Little Caesars with Dean, who you'll be seeing at the Oscars next year, he hopes. For an air-conditioned place, Little Caesars is fucking hot... I was boiling up. Thank god I had Dean's powerbook to take my mind off the real world. He's quite a good script-writer... I can't wait until Somwhere Over The Waterfall becomes a movie... it's so cool. And no, I won't tell you what it's about.
Well... after these times spent in america, I had some serious blisters on my toes (don't have great walking shoes) but I was ready to go home. I planned to sleep on the flight... but they had interactive TV, and i could choose any movie I wanted to play on the little screen in front of me. I never stopped watching shit... but I did sleep on the flight from amsterdam to lisbon. I was so out of it...
Anyway, then I got back home, felt jetlagged for a couple days and got fuckin stressed by my parents for not doing any fucking work. Now I'm trying to work, but I'm stuck writing up my last 3 weeks for you sad people who have no life of your own to be interested in. kidding... i'm sure some of you do.
Well... peace out. I'm going back to doing nothing...
Geert
PS, I dont know who it was that put that comment about the smoker on my site (i'm gonna guess margarida) but it was pretty funny. I liked it. Now I'm gonna have a cig.
