Saturday Feb 21

Hello again,
It is the 21st of February, and I cannot believe I've been here this long. I'm actually beginning to feel as if I live here , which makes sense.. as the case is, I do. However, I have encountered many problems along my road to becoming part of the Groningen "herd". Take yesterday- I arrive at the smokey room of my local laundry-mat with almost everything I have to wear, all my boxers, all my socks minus one pair, and all my shirts minus one button down dress shirt. Ah, lets not forget all my dish rags (No paper towels here) and my ONLY towel. The gentleman informs me between long drags on his self-rolled cigarette that I can pick everything up, at the cost of 1Euro per KG, on Monday morning. I politely pick up my things and explain I cannot do this, as I must have my things for the weekend, and that I will return on Monday to drop them off. He counters by saying "Ahhhhh. Well. You are a traveller, and so, come back at 4.30 and you can pick everything up". I thank him and go about my day. I return at 4.30 to find the roll down closed, and peer through to read the sign with the hours of operation 9.30-15.00. Really? This kids close shop at 3? Well. I guess his "four" was a dutch/lish accidental pronunciation on "two"... The night was much better than the day with a theme party at one of my friends International Student house. After hanging around and drinking some Pimms with apples and limes, Scott (A gentleman from Dublin) and I decide to head to the bars. Along our route we meet a homeless man.. "This is it" I think as I see him gesture to us and then the beater old RANGER bike he has. I approach him fast as if the cops are in pursuit and say "Oooy (Hello) Fif (My version of the dutch term for 5) Euro?" He shakes his head yes and I gleefully pay the man and take my new bike. I knew it was worth the wait. I had seen a transaction much like this on my second or third night here, and knew that was the route for me.. I dont have no damn 90Euro for a beater cruiser.. But 5, I can deal with 5. It seems that like always, you have to take the good with the bad.
In other news-
As you have seen, my first video blog is up, but if you have tried to watch it, you have seen that it is a fraction of an actual clip. I have tried many attempts to get the rest of that one, and the 7 or so other I have down uploaded, but, Blogger takes an incredible amount of time to upload video, and I cant stay in the library more than 45 minutes, because I have the ADD's.
HOWEVER
I do have pictures, and that is what you will have to get by on for now. Shown are- The GroteMarkt Pub/ A little Dutch Car/ One of the many canals/ A typical Dutch Breakfast/ and a Giant Boat. This sums up whats going on here.

All of my Love,
Zachary