Queensday

As a good friend pointed out to me a few days back, I haven't updated this blasted thing in months, it might be time to do so. And what could be a better time than to upload a few pictures of Queensday, cus on the queen's b-day things happen that could fill a googolplex blogs. No, not Google, indeed, googolplex is (according to my trusted ally Wikipedia) 10 to the 10th to the 100th. Or in other words "one, followed by writing zeroes until you get tired".
However, nothing outrageous happend to me.
The only thing I can write about is that had a very good time; togehter with about 4 classrooms full of other wild youths we ransacked Albert Heijn for beers and crisps. Of both there were very few to be found but we did manage to get our hands on some foodstuffs. This in order to man up for the two and a half hour walk to the Museumplein, which under normal circumstances should take you just under 30 minutes, and stand on the very very outer edge of the field to maybe catch a glimpse of a band that you actually don't really like, and enjoying it tremendously anyway. After that we took our DIY coolingbags (I had the brilliant idea to put some packets of frozen spinach in amongst the lukewarm beer to get them chilled) and headed for the Vondelpark in an attempt to chill out for a bit. Great atmosphere (try not to trample on little kids playing the recorder in an positively horrifying key) and best of all great weather. I went from orange to red that evening.

Home is where the heart is (and the food)

My friends and me went to visit the dear Mum in Hoorn. First we flirted with disaster by going on the train, and then even more dangerous we bought drinks and food in this Polish Supermarket. Yes, it was an eventful day which ended with a delicious meal by mummy herself. Bro-dear had a little dance routine he showed us, he's getting better at this dancing stuff as we speak, and the cat thought it was funny to join in in the breakdance (I'm sure he regretted it later).

Anyway, a very entertaining day and a good preperation for the time to come. (I'm ISN guide still, and been lugging around clumps of studens to show them what Leiden is about, but getting up at 7, making my way through wind, cold and fog is not a motivater for me, nor the students. The cafés were very happy to see us come for yet another beer to keep the blood going through our veins)

The winter still has not fully set in, it has snowed for about 4 minutes, and there's been huge winds, but the icey roads are still to be feared in a future sense of the word. But that's besides the point, a girl can still enjoy her hot cup of cocoa with rum even though she's not freezing to the bone right?

Humphf

The weather is so bad, it's driving me nuts! Gusts of wind that easily reach a 100km an hour, and rain that pours down like small pieces of brick. Horrible, I can't even keep my bike steady while I'm cycling, I eventually end up in either a field or against a tree. It makes living in Holland a lot less fun.
Something else entirely, I'm on a little bit of a reading streak this month. I'm planning on finishing at least 10 books before the end of Feb. I just feel like I have to catch up on all the pleasure reading that I just haven't had the keenness to do during uni time. All the crap I have to sift through for class can sometimes be so utterly boring that reading just seems like a total drag. Takes all the fun out of one of the most entertaining things in this world. So I'm reading some acclaimed novels at the moment to find out what I've been missing this past year, so far it's been an interesting read. A little bit too intreresting maybe because the nights that I read past 1 or 2 at night while I have to get up early the next morning are starting to be less beneficial than anticipated. But it's all in name of the written word, and that's all that matters right?

Tea

Oh, this is not a blog about tea, I'm just having the best cuppa in a long while; rich fragrant herbal tea with a drop of honey, Yummm.
No, this is just a bit of random ranting about the shitload of work one has to finish over the holidays. I mean, what fun is Christmas if you know you have to study your bum off the next week? And every piece of firework that goes off near my ear is a second towards more reading and studying. However, besides all that, I had a great Christmas and New Year's. Spent it with the best people in the world who I hadn't seen for a while, which was even better. I ate way to much, drank not nearly enough, and talked in English, German and Dutch for the duration of both. Even the last bit of 2006 is an international one, albeit not with the original crew.
And now it's time for schoolwork, time for going through the endless notes about subjects that at long last have stopped interesting me. Time for surfing through Sparknotes and Wikipedia in the hope to get a better explanation than the one offered by your teachers, and usually failing because the good Proff got his notes off the web as well. There's one glimmer of hope though, after my last test, on the 16th of this month, I don't have to do anything at all untill the 5th of Feb. Yay! This is going to be my real holiday, this is when I'm gonna get into Christmas spirit, will light fireworks at 12 every night and sit in front of the hearth reading Pride and Prejudice or Little Women sipping my newly discovered herbal tea and nibbling on chocolate cookies!
Until then....Back to the incomprehensible scribblings on the paper in front of me. I hope I make to the 16th.....

That's it then....

When you're an international student mentor you make a lot of new friends. You also have to say goodbye to a lot of friends at the end of a semester. It's really sad, especially now during Christmas. But I had a wonderful time and wouldn't have missed it for the world. Meeting new people is always a great experience, and learning about other cultures has (let's be totally sappy now) really enriched my life. (I sound like 40 year old, but it's true!)
Last night was the Goodbye Party, I did not get to say goodye to all the people I wanted to, but I closed off this brilliant semester with a bang nevertheless. Now it's all down to keeping in touch, which sadly is the hardest part of friendship!

Thanks all!

Oh dearie

I promise to blog the winter blues away, and then I post nothing for weeks! I should be ashamed of myself.

Well, to be fair, the winter hasn't really started has it! I mean, end of november and I went out to do groceries in my summer jacket. Which by the way, is a really cool jacket. But yes, of course, now that the rain has set in (and Oh Boy, has it set in, our doormat hasn't had the pleasure of feeling warm dry boots in days) this girl has time to scribble down some irrational blabber.

Speaking of irrational blabber, essay time has begun again and instead of writing not-so-well constructed sentences with little or no intelligent content on the web I should actually be writing grammatically accurate and seemingly scientific paragraphs in m'good friend Word. (You know, the one I dumped my typewriter for, sadly still seems like a loveless marriage though.) But the harder I try, the more incomprehensible shit comes out of my keyboard. (And for the people who know what my keyboard looks like; No, that is not because all the letters have eroded of the keys, I still know where the leppers are!) For instance, when I try to talk about First Language continuity, I actually write down "Language is influenced by chocolate covered strawberries". And as much as I try to find out what is wrong with that sentence I cannot find fault. Neither does "Mushrooms are the source of Second Language constipation" or "Come and meet my left butt-cheek" sound wrong. Writing is hard you see, even writing out of utter boredom. Especially writing out of utter boredom; at some point you start counting the flickering of the cursor after you typed the period. 1,2,3,4,5........382, 383.
I think it's best to go back to writing my essay, at least there I can still get away with "Chipmunks stole my rhubarb!"

Winter

Come winter I cannot help but want to stay indoors wrapped in a cosy blanket to wait for spring to arrive and make everything warm and pretty again. Winter and I are not good friends. Winter and I do not go together. And Winter and I certainly will not ever feel love for one another. The only good thing about the season is the feeling of your hands and feet regaining their normal colour and temperature while sipping a hot cup of spiked cocoa.

Therefore I defy winter. I shall not sit peevishly indoors, but shall sit productively indoors while keeping up with a blog. A blog that is appropriately called sense and stupidity, because that is what I am all about. Mabe some will say one applies more than the other, but then again, others might say that the other applies more than the one. We'll see in due course who is right, for this is going to be a very long winter.