But before that, lets "shortly" summarize what has happened during the last week... okay if you are too curious about how my bikes look like, just scroll to the end of the post ^^
Weekend was funy, after going to the Noorderslag-Festival (The next day, I found out that Ginga had played on the day I was there, but I didnt see them - daaaaaamn) on Friday, I had dinner at a Mexican restaurant on Saturday with my Aiesec Family.. after that I explained some of the guys how to play "Waterfall".... well and then I was forced to demonstrate it x). Btw this is my 2nd culture shock here in the Netherlands: You only get 0,25 beers in a Pub!!! That's perfect for Boat race but not for partying :/ and you pay ~ 2,50 for them.. wtf.. I want my Krügerl !! :(
During the weekdays, besides working (I still really enjoy it going to work every day, and now by having a bike, getting up at ~ 8.15 is not akward at all!) the main focus was to manage all the administrative stuff. Here is a short extract from my conversation at telfort (mobile phone provider like telering, etc...). In order to make it as funny as possible, probably not everything was said with exactly these words ;):
sales man (S): Hi, how can I help you?
Darius (D): Hi I am from Austria and I need a mobile phone here in the Netherlands.
S: Do you want prepaid or a contract?
D: I think I take a contract, prepaid cards are only for pussys.. I dont want people to laugh about me ;)
S: Okay, *explanation of the product..blabla*. In order to check if your bank account is valid and active, we have to charge 0,01€ right now on your bank account.
D: Oh, I just opened a bank account. Here is the contract, but I dont have a bank card yet.
S: Oh sorry, we need a bank card, otherwise its not proven that this is your active account.
D: But, here is the contract with my name and my account number, is this no proove ?
S: No sorry.
D: Well they will only send the card within the next 1-2 weeks, there is no chance I can get a contract now?
S: *asks for the store manager - he explains the same lame stuff to me*. But what I could offer you is that you take a prepaid card now and as soon as you have your bank card we can change it to a contract and you can keep the number.
D: How much would this cost?
S: 7,75 for the sim card and then it depends on how much you use your telephone.
D: How much is calling for 1 minute?
S: 0,35
D: wow thats expensive! *I asked several more questions, about how to check my balance, what the minimum amount is, costs for keeping the number, which numbers are available at the moment and blaaa blaa...After beeing in the store for ~20 minutes I was finally convinced that I would take the sim card now, and change it to a contract in 1-2 weeks*
Okay I take it..
S: So this would be 17,75. 10€ for your prepaid card + the simcard
D: Alright. *taking out my purse, looking for 20€*
S: Oh sorry, you can not pay cash here!
D:I can not pay cash here?
S: No, sorry
D: Can I pay with mastercard?
S: No sorry, only with a dutch bank card!
HAHAHAHHAHAHA - most stupid sales man ever - I left the shop and will start a contract when I have my bank card!! :D so I am still waiting for the card and my dutch mobile phone number... But I already have an Albert Heijn bonus card - I think this was most important to me.
Yes, I also registered here in Groningen, I realized that I dont have an health insurance yet and I filled in the form for registering at Fit4Free (not registered but almost ;), I signed my contract in the student house, I watched a lot of TV with my awesome student house collegues (greetings to all of them that are reading this ;)) and I started watching the 2nd season of Ally McBeal.. Thanks Sevi :)
On Monday I also attended the LCmeeting of Groningen. I got to know the whole LC and the LCP who seems like a really cool guy. I had a short presentation about myself, Austria and Vienna.. Although, the OPS seminar at "future" in November was useful, I didn't use any of the information from there ^^.. I more provided some funny facts about Austria/Vienna.. there is one I dont wanne keep from you:
At the cemetery of Vienna there are 2.5 million tombs! As the population is ~ 1.8 mio people, there are more dead people then people alive in Vienna.. quite scary actually xD
Oh yeaah and my dutch is really improving.. A PONS audio-cd+book for Beginners really was a great investment.. I guess the people here are a little bit annoyed when I am always telling them how late it is.. but I am really good in telling the time in Dutch :)
I dont have any philosophical thoughts this time... I will try to think about something for my next entry, if you miss this input..
This weekend, is not so much of a party weekend, unfortunately most of the students here are totally busy with studying so I will have to wait until approx. February to introduce DrunkenDadj to them :)
Oh well yeah and I had 2 blue screens on my laptop while writing this post.. I am afraid he wont last for long anymore :(
So that's it for this week
<3 Darius
just joking ;) ...here is the long desired bike-story: On tuesday I went with two friends to Damsterdiep, a street somewhere at the other side of Groningen.. It was a 40 minutes walk (but my last walk!!) from my studenthouse. When we came there a sympathic guy, that reminded me of "Baloo the bear", called Hank brought us to his private garage where he keeps his bikes... well, in the end I got this cool bike you can see below and so far it really is working fine. I just realized that gloves are totally necesarry!!
Sooo please everybody, help me find a name for my bike:
By now I have 3 ideas for a name:
Hanky (because of the seller), Gazelle (as thats the brand of the bike) or Gisela (as that almost sounds like the bike's brand).. please like the names on my fb status or provide other ideas... the name with the most likes will be chosen (unless the name is too akward for me xD) :)
haha joking dadj!
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