Friday, July 6, 2007

There are reasons for the 24-hour clock.


After the leasing agent leaves, I put the sunflowers I bought at the store in a vase (only 2.99E), unpack, take a shower, eat a sandwich. I sit down to study the two inches of reading that I was assigned when I got my apartment key for tomorrow's class. I really want a cup of tea. I can't get the gas stove to ignite. Given my history with fire,* I give up on the idea of tea for the moment and go back to reading.

There is nothing like the law to make you want to sleep. At about 5:30 p.m. Amsterdam time, I decide to go to sleep and finish reading when I wake up. I sleep like a ROCK thanks to a Soma pill.
I wake up when it is light outside. I grab the alarm clock to see what time it is (you know, when you look to see how much longer you get to sleep?) and it is 8:00 !!!!!!!! OMG!!!! I had set my alarm for 7:00 a.m. because I needed to be at the university at 8:45 a.m.

I get up, run take a quick shower, steam my wrinkled clothing, pack my school things in my bag, which is still too heavy to comfortably carry on one shoulder (think I'm going to give in and get a backpack). I leave at 8:30, rushing in the direction I think the University is in from my apartment, without really getting to look at the map.

I can't find a damn taxi ANYWHERE!

I'm walking fast, carrying my laptop in my shoulder bag, and finally get to the university at 9:00. The professor said there would be signs pointing to the classroom, but there aren't any. There are no other students around so I assume everyone is already in class and I'm the only idiot who is going to walk in late.

I go up to the security / reception desk and ask where classroom A-008 is. They tell me that there are no classes scheduled. I insist there are classes and show them the paper that says my classes start on Friday, July 6. They tell me that it is only July 5th, which doesn't make any sense to me because my plane left Seattle on July 4 and landed in Amsterdam the morning of July 5th. However, I assume I've made some mistake about the plane landing the next day after departure. After some more conversation with the security guards, I find that what actually happened is that I woke up at 8:00 P.M., three hours after i went to bed, and thought it was morning.

It was still Thursday night.

*For those of you not familiar with my history, I burned down the kitchen of my condominium two days after moving into it in 2000.

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