Monday again?!

I don't know how the time flies. It's really quite terrifying - I realized today that I have a TON of work to finish and only 3.5 weeks left at my job! How did the summer fly by so fast? I'm really going to miss it here...It's been an amazing journey and I don't want to act like it's over (after all, I still have almost 4 weeks which is almost a month...) but really, how did it go by?

Thursday night I went back to the Paard van Troje Cafe with Fabio and Aernout and a few of their friends. Kim came with me, which was really really nice. She and I get along great and we have the same sort of social understanding and expectations. She had to catch the last train home, but I have a bike so I stayed quite a bit longer; I didn't get home/to sleep until around 4:30 or 5, which, needless to say, meant I was a wreck (again) at work the following day. This happened last week, as well; I stayed out far too late just shooting the breeze with F and A, about politics and pop culture and who knows what else...Thursdays are becoming habitually late nights, but I don't mind. I really like hanging out with F and A, I just feel really at ease with them. So no complaints.

This weekend we had two days of perfect weather. Between 24 and 28C, sunny all day, not a cloud in the sky. Friday night I went dancing with some Couchsurfers, which started out awkward but ended up being really fun. I went by MYSELF! I was so proud - I knew people would be there and be friendly, but still, to walk into a social situation alone...that is so NOT me. And I pulled it off!

Saturday I went biking through the dunes by myself for some alone time, stopped on the beach for a couple of hours, and then continued on to Leiden before coming home (about 15 km away from Den Haag). Leiden is such a cute city! I had no idea...no one ever talks about it like they do Delft or Amsterdam (which I still haven't been to...I know, embarrassing!). But it's honestly my favorite city/town so far. I really like it. Unfortunately, I've pretty much stopped carrying my camera so I have no pictures. :(

Saturday night I went to the cinema with Miriam, we saw Ocean's 13, which wasn't bad! Much better than Ocean's 12, though not very much substance...it was entertaining though, so I'm not complaining. It was a nice, relaxing evening, following two really late nights.

Sunday we went back to the beach to try to find a Brazilian festival, but we ended up on the wrong end of the pier so Miriam and I just lazed around on the beach for hours, then went to a beach club for a drink when it got to be evening. The sun stayed really strong, though, so we sat in the shade and just hung out for a while until it got a little weaker so I could bike home without making my sunburn even worse. Between Saturday, biking around all day, and Sunday on the beach, I'm pretty much a tomato. But probably I'll be okay in a day or two. It already hurts less than it did last night.

After the beach, we both went home for a shower, and we met back up for drinks near Miriam's house at this cute outdoor cafe. It's so funny - the minute the weather is nice, TONS of people come out, and I totally understand that the Netherlands is the densest populated country in the world. But until it's sunny, you'd never know because everyone stays indoors.

Anyway, great weekend, all around.

There are so many people on holiday this week, that it's just me and 2 or 3 other people in the office (this is a foreign concept to me - who takes holiday for three weeks in a row?! Apparantly all of Europe.). So, instead of getting bread and spreads from the grocer for lunch like we usually do, we decided to each take a day and cook lunch. Jessica cooked today; tomorrow is my day. I bought my own little basil plant from the grocer a few days ago, so I made pesto, pasta, sundried tomatoes (though I bought them from the supermarket before I came across a turkish stand at the market in Leiden; I'm sure they would have been better from the stand but who knew I would come across it) and garbage cookies. It's so relaxing with the office so quiet! That will end by the end of next week, as people start to filter back, but for now, it's nice!

Anyway, back to cooking. More in a few days!