New York Shorts

Tonight I went to a short film exposition. It was in this big old factory with concrete walls and high ceilings and red couches and felt very New York, only more spacious and with people smoking hash. And much cheaper--entrance was free, so I had entertainment and two glasses of wine, all for six euros. It even sounded like New York. People were mostly speaking English, but accented English--there didn't seem to be any American or British people there except my friend and me. One thing about short films is that language is less important--they're weird and you pretty much either like/get them or you don't, regardless of what language the subtitles are in.

It was kind of a strange day even before the short films. I was briefly Skype-stalked by some guy in Utrecht who "likes to talk to American girls." Ick. The only reason I started talking to him in the first place is that I actually know someone from Utrecht, but this stalker guy was clearly not my Dutch friend. And then it started raining. I don't mean that in the Southern California "Oh my god what is falling from the sky? This never happens here!" way. The weather here is nice, but it's not that nice. (I tried to buy an umbrella in LA once. No stores sold them and everyone acted like I was trying to buy napalm or something. Even though it was actually raining at the time.) The rain was weird because the thunder that came before the rain was so loud that I really thought we were being attacked for a little while. Also, it wasn't supposed to rain, so I didn't have an umbrella and had to run in heels through puddles to get to the short films. Which would have also felt very New York, except there were no $2 umbrella guys to be found. And I really could have used one.

Oh, and just to keep you updated, I did end up having a drink with my landlord and her Portuguese friend. So that kind of worked itself out. As I was leaving, I heard myself offer to speak English with her 9-year-old son. Seemed like a good idea at the time....