Again, a visual impression....

Just a wee look into Liverpool's greatest assets (to be completely honest, there are some bum-ugly buildings out there, and half of the suburb is boarded up because the houses are uninhabitable...but the centre is gorgeous at times:)

1. The Liverpool 'Piazza' - Walker Art Gallery, the fountain and some scousers
2. The students of John Moores get to stay in this little picture of a house...lucky buggers.

3. I think this was Liverpools Boyscout club or something....it's now the local YMCA (Though walking around the Pool in an Indian/Police/leather/or whatever those blokes where wearing- outfit will not be a very wise thing to do...)

4. This little park called 'Abercromby Square' (For the linguists under us: short cat-vowel, not long phase-vowel) is just around the corner from my humble abode. It's quite nice, and I can't believe there's still flowers out and about while the temp is gradually dropping below acceptable Myrthe levels)

So that's a little impression of the things see or walk by everyday. I will, in the near future, shoot and post some things from the other end of the scales; there's still a lot of decayishness and bad architectural ideas going on here. For instance my Faculty is basically a step down from my Leiden Arts Fac, and that's when I thought buildings couldn't go any lower on the ugly scale. Also some of the areas are still very 'Northeren town -trying to be a metropole but actually not grasping the thought behind it'-ish. In addition, as I said before, the suburbs, some of them, are a sad picture. Possibly comparable to the Amsterdam lowlife areas outside the citycentre; there's scum walking the streets, little bored children throwing bottlecaps at passing cars, and bums playing tiny broken off-key flutes asking passers-by for money to buy some 'food' -- unless booze and crack have suddenly become part of the five food group pyramid, I highly doubt they will...

But luckily, this is not the main feeling that Liverpool oozes, no, it's more a City on the rise. A city that wants to make a name for itself, a good name. As of January 2008, Liverpool will be the Capital of Culture, and everybody is trying very hard to get that message across. Intricate systems of scaffolding are dominating many of the lovely Liverpool facades and city counsel workers are tidying up many of the small parks and greens around town. I bet that in a few months time the city will come out of it's little extreme makeover as nothing less than a (be it in her Northeren moderation and still a bit akward on it's feet) beautiful swan...So, no reason not to come visit in the year 2008!

The Dutch in me

It's Sunday today. A very gloomy, tissue sniffing Sunday. A perfect day to spend inside a stuffy, overcrowded hall shuffling past little booths and stalls were every imaginable student related society, union, music venue, transport association and other loonies pass out free promotional items, flyers and food. It's Freshers Fair today and the goal is to get as many flabbergasted Uni newbies to sign up for what you are advertising. This, first of all, is done by shoving leaflets and information booklets in everyone's hands; irrespective of your desire to receive them. I, for instance, was supposedly suited to be handed flyers to join the Malay speaking society, the Men's Frisbee club and the Gothic appreciation group. I am neither from Malasya, a man or a goth (even though I was wearing a black jacket and some eyeliner).

However; I was very happy to receive the info on the Drama, the Culture and the English societies, and will probably sign up for these in any case.

Secondly, this signing up thing is achieved by providing you with free items. Ranging from a marshmallow or gummybear to, to my ever Dutch Delight, a disposable camera, an assault alarm for icky harass pervs, and shotglasses. (I won't ever use them mummy! I'll only drink juice from them, I promise) These were things that you could actually get me out of bed at 8.30 for. Besides that, I snatched a few nice stickers and postcards from somewhere, and got some new canvas bags for my groceries.



On a different note: in the last couple of days I: signed up for all my classes, bought Bridget Jones' Diary for one pound, got myself a free Liverpool Central Library membership and took out half of the chick lit department, discovered H&M is sadly NOT the cheapest shop around, Asda sells ontbijtkoek and met the latest addition to our flat; my roommate Chris and his gf Dani (which makes the total of Danis in my house 2 and the final count of 'Jos' 2 as well) who are both very nice and very British

One other thing I discovered, only a few of the homeys eat vegetables, and none of the N-Irish like to eat them at all. It might be something very British, but it seems the closest they come to getting their vitamin levels up is eating beans on toast and drinking Cranberry squash. I get very weird looks when I prepare my stir-fry with my 'legume mix' -fresh spinach, red onion, corn, garlic and carrot- in my new wok (God, I love my wok). So now my aim is to make them something delicious someday to show them that veg are cool. Cus they are. Seriously cool. Go veg!

Roomie pics

It's still a bit of a mess, my room, but then again, I doubt that will ever change. I do love my mess...

Anyway... a little accomanying text; that colourful thing that's trying to resemble a face is actually a genuine Sylvia Plath painting (Sylke, that's cool innit!?) I didn't really like it at first but it's growing on me and making the place look a little brighter. (God, how I hate white wood furniture and you can see, how Murphy, it's all around me)

The three posters I bought are the ones on the door and on the wall in that one picture. And the other one I got for free. (Thanks Bart!)


I've got some pinboards to pin up photos and the like. And a very very large desk that can hold all my clutter fabulously. All in all quite nice, no?

Oh right, and I went to Bart's over the weekend:

A few days have passed and I'm starting to find my way around town. My second night (that was Thursday I guess) I was party crashing a Theatre school Pub Crawl. Two of my roomies, Jo and Dani, are freshers at LIPA (Liverpool inst. of Preforming Arts) and their mentors found it a wise idea to let a flock of 18yr olds loose in town while wearing wrist bands that provided them with free alcohol... When I was that age (I know I know, that's not been such a long time, but just bear with me) I would've thought it a brilliant plan too. However, one roomie came home in tears, the other couldn't find her way home. I on the other hand had a very good time and handled the complementary cocktail that was thrust upon me while pretending to be a aspiring actress quite lovely. The following two as well. Who'd've thought that cranberry liquor, milk and cream could make such a wonderful drink.....But to make a long story short, my first night out in the town was a success. Liverpool is literally littered with bars, pubs and clubs, and there's something for everyone. There are also plenty of little restaurants and cafes that offer much more than the conventional fish and chips, and there usually are so many veggie options that I don't even to think about ordering 'just the tomato soup please'.


I also pimped my room a little bit. It was so bare and empty that not even a minimalistic Stalinist would feel at home. Uni hosted a big poster sale so three fabulous posters I bought (3 for £10) livend the place up a good deal. But it needs a lot more to make it feel totally like home; I miss all my books so much, and all my little boxes, plants, picture frames and cards that I am used to having around me. However, all of that is made a little more bareable by the fact that I have my own bathroom, I don't know if I mentioned that before, if I did, that is how excited I am about it! I can shower in peace and quiet, leave my stuff lying around on my own bathroom floor and draw smiley faces on my own damp mirror.

Well, I have to say adieu, the library is closing. (Yes, sadly still no internet in my own room, is going to take some more time) But I'll leave you with a picture of the cathedral that my room looks out upon.


(by the by, want to post a message? click the little text balloon or the rabid dogs link, think that does the trick....)

Just some pics....

1-My kitchen
2-My house
3-My view

Scared sheetless

Yes, you can all resume your daily routines, get a normal night's sleep, blow out the prayer candles and in general breathe again; I have arrived... To be precise, I moved into my new flat yesterday afternoon at around 1 o'clock. I almost immediately had to get out again because to my utter surprise, the bedlinnen and other such things that I had expected to be there were in fact not, and the pots and pans that my eyes were trying to find in the kitchen storage had no physical apparation either. Actually, besides the usual major appliances, there were almost no kitchen utensils at all except those of my (then) two (now 5) roomates. So I had to walk downtown (which for some is ideally located on walking distance from my home, but for others (me) a fair bit of trodding away up and down the hill that is Liverpool (where's the pool anyway? It's more like a mountain if you ask me) to buy such and such. Got mistaken for a Swede at one point, but luckily also a Brit, bumped into a very large sweaty Liverpudlian, witnessed the largest queue in history, the worst accent in history, and a major muscle ache from all of the bumping, looking and trudging up hills.

I would like to write more (or for that matter; more eloquently, better spelled and less chaotic) but I only have an hour at the library computers and the reason I am one of those computers is a whole 'nother story in itself.

So, Cheerio for now and I'll be back soon. Hopefully on my own internetconnection where I'll be able to post pictures of my homey and my homeys.