Richard Chetwyn

Of course it would be that out of all the towers in this castle, the one I live in is under construction. I awoke this morning at 8 AM (three hours before I had planned to wake up) to the sound of hammering. Lots and lots of hammering. Thank God that Mom bought me those earplugs because I would never have fallen back asleep. I feel a bit sick, but nothing more than a drip in my throat. That will go away if I follow my usual "NyQuil in the evening" regimine for times like this. (I don't even know if I spelled the word "regimine" correctly.)

So I fell back asleep and woke up again three hours later, had a nice sandwich, and went to my first class in Europe... European Literature. The professor's name is Richard Chetwyn. Mr. Chetwyn, born and raised in Boston, has hair that is longer than your average female (which he obviously refuses to brush.) He looks about 15 years older than he should because of his smoking habits, is extremely liberal, and very funny. I suspect that he came to Europe to escape the Vietnam Draft. I had assumed that he'd be lenient professor when I met him on the boat cruise last night, but just to be sure, I checked him out at ratemyprofessor.com. I was right, but I didn't realize from my brief meeting with him last night that he was a man of sarcasm. I'm very excited about that.

He informed us that a majority of the literature we read this semester will be that of Czech authors (all the books on our list are.) Therefore I'm renaming the class Czechslovakian Literature.

The IT Man told me that it wasn't my computer after all; that the entire server is messed up and most people haven't been able to log onto the internet. I am very glad that I don't have to spend 30 Euros on a new radio. I can't wait to start using webcam and Skype, although I figured out today that I can call the US for free for the first three times using Skype, after which it's only less than a Euro penny per minute to talk... which is really cheap. I wish I had known about that sooner?

After class I took a walk into town to go to the store called All Under One Roof. They meant it-- they have it all. I bought soap, a travel soap carrier, and a travel toothbrush carrier. Then I went to the grocery store and bought some brie, crackers, salami, and orange juice. It was a good snack. There were three elementary school kids who cut me in line and apologized, but I said, "Oh, no, no, please." They were really sweet (it was two boys and an Indian girl -- all Dutch, obviously), and they said, "Oh, danku! Danku-well!" (Oh, thank you! Thank you very much!) They saw me later when I was walking home and were laughing and said "hallo" again, and they were very kind.

I like Dutch people.