Alive

I cant remember anything to this very day
cept the look, the look...
Oh, you know where, now I cant see, I just stare...

I, Im still alive
Hey i, but, Im still alive


Now though it's not that serious - in a way that I can't remember fuck till today - I'm kinda glad that I'm still alive. After 6 weeks of (more than) full time working at the reception of camping Heumens Bos, a week of awesome travelling to one of the most beautiful islands I've ever seen, 10 days of partying with freshmens who I showed the city- and nightlife AND going to Lowlands Festival 2009, I'm kinda wrecked. A had an awesome couple of weeks with old and new friends, great travel buddies and everybody else I ran into, but at the end I'm still human and no robot (or dancer) which causes me to collapse after too much partying. But I'm glad I made it, and therefore being able to write you this blog.

It all started with working at a camping in Heumen, about 10k from Nijmegen. I worked an average of 48 hours a week (6 days). Not too hard; the only thing was that I had to get up early every morning (7.30am) which is quite impossible for a person in his student life. I rarely made it on time, and although I never got into real trouble with that I could sense I pissed them off. But hey, at least I was not drinking coffee till 9 but just started working at 8.37am. The job itself was kinda easy, and after a week or so I could even do it without concentrating or anything. This especially became a good thing during the Vierdaagseweek (Four Day Marches Week) when the camping was (more than) fully booked and people started to go nuts and ballistic, especially my colleagues (God knows why). Some people where complaining, others were nice. But most of them were just plain idiots during that week. They seemed to just lose their mind cause they were so stressed out of all that walking that they started to do crazy stuff, such as raiding the reception desk at 7.45pm (25 min after I had left) and still thinking they had the right to come in although we were formally closed since 7pm. This resulted in problems for me the next day as my colleagues blamed me for this happening. At times like that, I don't like Dutch people. Germans would NEVER even think of doing such a thing, and neither would Italians, Spanish or French. During and after living abroad I oftenly find myself struggling with these Dutch behavioural actions, as I want to dissociate me from this. Don't get me wrong: I'm proud to be a Dutchman but I reject certain cultural elements that are present and associated with us. This week I spoke with Irish people in Nijmegen, and they said that Dutch people don't have this patriotism, this proudness of being Dutch like the Irish are proud of them being Irish. I think that is a misconception: Dutch people ARE proud, but we show it in a different way. When we go to a pub to party, watch us when a Dutch song is played. When our national (football) team plays, watch us. And when it's Queensday, watch us. When you see that, you know what being Dutch means and does to people. We connect, but on a different level.

So I feel Dutch, but I love to be among other nationalities and cultures. This is why I went to Sardinia, the beautiful Italian island with the nice beaches, little towns and rich cultural and humane heritage. Sardinians are different from Italians, and they like to let you know. Walking around on this island does not go without seeing graffiti on the wall telling you "Sardo no est Italia" (excuse my spelling). Many people in the world have a mutual feeling. Basks, Irish, Kurds, etc. etc. Something I can understand on the one hand: You want your own identity to be acknowledged. But how can a small to-be country like Sardinia survive in a world in which enormous nations like India, China, US and Europe rule the economy? Their economies are just not strong and independent enough to compete with these powerful giants or even just to serve their own people by creating enough jobs and having a proper and affordable health care system. Even a country with a strong economy like the Netherlands or Germany needs to team up with other countries to be able to compete with others and not finding their economy destroyed and their people without jobs. Small countries just can't survive without a link with a larger country, and even those large countries should form a union to assure a good position in the world market.
But back to Sardinia, because I was there for fun and relaxation; I wasn't on a diplomatic mission. I had a great time there, although the east of the island was kind of boring. Another thing that was disappointing was that I didn't meet my friends Elena and Nohemi who were only 30k away from where I was staying. For me it was impossible to get to where they were, but they couldn't do anything either to meet me (whether this was because they chose to sleep or genuinely couldn't come - I don't know). A missed opportunity, while I was already so close and looking forward to meeting them after such a while. But once I got back to Alghero (west) - after having loads of trouble with the Sardinian public transport (think busses I had to wait for at the side of the highway that were half an hour delayed, crazy trains and ticketing) - I had a great time in this historical little town. Especially the camping was superb! Crowded it was, but the people there were really nice, you could just charge your phone at the enormous shower-area and come back 2 hours later to find your devices untouched and fully charged and there were many people travelling on their own (like me) or together with a friend who wanted to have a chat, grab some food in one of the nice restaurants in the historical town center or have a drink in the lively bars. And now I did not even mention the great weather and beaches: It was so nice to just lie there in the sun, enjoy the great azur blue sea and get totally relaxed (and tanned ;-)). It was a shame to be having to go back home again, although great times were waiting for me: Introduction 09 at uni and Lowlands Festival 09. More about that next time. One thing is for sure. I will go back to Sardinia one day, as long as

I'm still alive