friday

today i was sad. walking to all the book places and finding them to be really lame and having no friends to hang out with on a friday night gets me down. i did find a cool book place and bought a hand-bound book of german haikus (which i could actually understand), which i kind of regret now because it was 48€, but whatever it's VCU's money, probably. then i went to the Planten & Blumen park and walked around but didn't enjoy it that much because i was a big grump.

a really tall (by european standards!) hotel building looking over the park.

later that night, i ran into the american group again. they weren't going out because their amsterdam-bound train left at 5 AM or something, but i hung out with them and actually got on really well! the ones i talked to most, david and the blond guy and alex, knew each other from Way Back, like early grade school (aww). we bonded over arrested development, which they had all seen repeatedly. i was really surprised i enjoyed their company that much because my first impression was that they were kinda douchey. too bad our meeting was so short.

it's uncanny how whenever i'm feeling really bad, i find something or meet someone that turns everything around. this keeps happening. like finding the good bookstores randomly on the way to somewhere completely different, or making friends with AMERICAN PEOPLE when i was sure i'd be going to bed at 9:30. i hadn't noticed how much i missed not having any culture/language barriers.