there is no title for this post

before i launch into the splendour of thursday, 26.07.07, i wanted to mention that the judge of the ICJ presented a lecture/discussion on the inner workings of the ICJ [int'l court of just-us, i mean, justice]. it was pretty interesting, but of course she couldn't / wouldn't / shouldn't go into anything really juicy about the innards of the ICJ. anyway, the best was that the last question was the most provocative and she really rose to the occasion. anyway, it's apparently not the end of the world if you submit redacted, responsive to the ICJ. the question was a two-parter, the first part being about the serbian redacted document and the second part being about criticism against the court in its Genocide opinion [i'm going to go out on a limb here and say that i think the conclusion is that genocide is bad. very bad.] the court relied on secondary & tertiary sources for the factual underpinnings of the case.

no more school stuff.

after school, i took the train to delft, a short train ride away from me. delft is where S lives. S is someone i met on my croatia trip. he works for shell and is based in delft. S also takes kickass photographs, has travelled to everywhere and is a super swell guy.

one note on S. when i met S, he was sporting a pair of glasses that i think honestly were meant to cover two faces. they looked like a safety visor. S wears bifocals. the lenses on these babies were so huge that S would actually have to lift up his glasses to use the bifocality function of them. whaaaaa? so, in my usual tactful way, i told S that his shitttastic glasses had to go. anyway, he knew that i would be in the hague this summer and i told him i would take him to go buy another pair of glasses. S wisely averted my interventions by buying himself a pair of glasses that could not possibly double as a face shield. yay!

i basically came to delft to get dinner with S, so i will have to return to do some exploring. and to buy some of that fugly blue porcelain crap for my parents. S and i had dinner at a yummy indian restaurant (apparently the only one in delft) run by bangladeshis. S is bff with the guy who runs the place. food was really yummy.

funny thing about delft is that the "new church" (N.C.) was actually built as recently as 1381 [i hate that ugly 'modern' architecture, so gauche!]. in front of the new church. the nieuwe kerk contains the dutch royal family's burial vault, which is sealed with a 5000 kg cover stone between funerals (so would-be grave robbers start working out now). in front of the N.C., there is a statue of hugo grotius (!!!!!). apparently there are several famous delft-ors. vermeer, van leeuwenhoek (mr. microscope) and grotius (mr. international law). vermeer and van leeuwenhoek are buried at the oude kerke ("old church" or the O.C.).

before my journey to delft, i stumbled upon an amazing law bookstore! amazing. law. in one sentence, is your mind blown? but really, this bookstore has so many interesting books on international law and european union law. i was definitely trying to remind myself that since i gave my sherpa some time off, i'd have to carry anything i bought on my own back. back to new york. definitely have to think twice before buying. but of course i still bought a bunch of books. when you see me back in new york, please don't mention the crooked, humped back i will have developed from carrying all the stuff i have with me back to new york.

oh, another development. i'm boycotting the croissanterie. i feel like this is deja vu. i can't tell if i've already blogged about something, or if i am only remembering it because i told people about it happening. fruit. that means there will probably be repetitive content. welcome officially to my transformation into my mom.

anyway. thursday morning, i walk to the croissanterie to get my usual (2 plain baby croissants, 2 cheese baby croissants). the woman speaks to me in dutch. i point at what i want and say 2 please. she adds up the price and it sounds like 2 euro, 40 (cents? mini-euros? eurolings?), but i'm not sure. it sounds sufficiently german enough to make me think i'm right, but i need to confirm. so i ask (in english -- the international language of commerce, might i add) how much it will cost. she freaks on me (and for the first time ever in the netherlands, starts to be super linguistically bitchy) - in a snarling voice: "if you don't try, you'll never learn the language". it wasn't even said with a friendly grandmother smile. it was spat out at me. i wanted to fling my 2 euro 40 at her, spin on my heel and exit with drama. or i wanted to put on my most sarcastic face and ask how much cantonese she expects she could speak after being in taiwan for four days. but instead i just stopped smiling, gave her 2 euro 40 and exited. only to curse her silently on the way to school. yes, ordinarily i think cultural awareness / learning is super cool. i would like to learn some dutch while i'm here. i can say a few basics (all the polite words, anyway - the thank yous and excuse mes of the language), but i haven't yet figured out how to say "have you been an as*holey jerkface for your whole life, or is this a recent development" in dutch. still, the croissants were yummy. my boycott / embargo will probably end very shortly.