The first weeks of uni are behind me and so it’s time to round up at bit, or – as we Dutch would say – make up the balance. Football started again, and although I’m desperately out of practice and thus playing like shit – I have played one or two satisfying matches and even scored a hattrick in one of them. There is still a lot of catching up for me to do though, and I’m working on that. Only terrible downside is that because of the artificial grass I have huge wounds on my right leg which keep my from playing football right now. And on top of that, they hurt like hell (no, really). Today I refrain from putting on pants and I will try to do as less as possible so that it can finally heal (after 5 days).
Then university. It all started again, and after half a year of Dublin chilling I need to step up to not lose ground. I am in my Master year now and that means reading many, many studies, getting deep into literature and performing even outside exam periods is key now. All of this is not too bad though: It makes people more intelligent and after all that’s what you’re in school for, right?! And I’ll manage, I only have to get used to doing things again instead of hanging around all day doing nothing (life in Dublin).
I also started my job at the University Language Center. Although I only did some easy and rather simple stuff I think I’ll like it in the future. I cannot wait until the actual English training starts so I can really put my skills and interests into practise.
This week has been rather boring. I can’t play football because of my injury, I didn’t go out for the same reason and I can’t really think of anything else to do right now. I spent loads of money on band-aids instead of beer, sad enough right?! :-P
One thing I did was putting up ads for the two rooms that will become vacant in our house. A couple is finally moving out in order to properly live together and now we have to choose two freshies to come and live with us. Two ads were put online, and both reached the limit of 80 replies within 5 hours. This means I had to go through 160 replies of boys and girls desperately looking for a nice place to live. After two hours of scanning all the replies I now have a list of people who I would like to see at an evening at our house so we can choose on of them. Like always, this will probably be a hell lot of fun and will bring everybody in the house closer together. History shows that it won’t be too difficult to choose a new roommate, so I am looking forward to two fun nights of drinking, laughing and getting to know new (and hopefully) fun people.
Finally, I want to use this week to get in touch with some old friends again who I haven’t seen for a while and maybe even book a flight to a nice destination to meet some of my Erasmus friends. I really want to travel again, and I can’t wait to meet again many of the great people I met last year. So every Erasmus friend who reads this and has some time and like to invite a nice Dutch boy (and maybe Alice wants to come too), let me know!
So, after a week of slowing things down and being bored as fuck, I hope next week will bring some more ‘craic’ for me (and less pain, muhh).
From my (not so much, don’t worry) misery, I salute you.
Thursday, 17 September 2009
Saturday, 29 August 2009
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
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
Thursday, 23 July 2009
Back in Holland
Sunny day in Heumen. Like most of my days, I got up at 7.30 (yes, AM) this morning and got on my bike to get to work. I work at a camping near Nijmegen, handling check-ins, renting out bikes, listening to crap stories of people, the usual. Easy job though (apart from getting up at an "un-Christian time") that makes some good money: 1500 for 4 weeks is not bad. Cause there is not much to do at the moment, I'm spending all my days reading articles online, listening to the radio and - as you can see - writing blogs.
It has been a while since I wrote my last blog. Back then I was still in my culture shock, having trouble blending in my old habitat and picking up life back in Nijmegen. Like most of the Erasmus I got through a rough period, but now I'm back in the game and doing fine. Not only missing the many new friends I made in the past six months, I also missed (and still miss) the lifestyle I practised. Getting up late every morning or afternoon, eating my chocolate sprinkles breakfast, reading email, making plans for the night, eating, drinking and sleeping again. This had been my life for 5 months in the Irish capital city, and although I was bored at times and didn't know what to do with my life, I loved it! Back in Holland things changed. No Erasmus students who went out every night, no cool card games, no big pints, nothing of that all. Instead there were pre-occupied friends (uni, work, you name it) and a house that mostly contains people who are not home or have a different lifestyle and way of thinking as me. Totally different from my great friend and former room mate Alice, with whom I had an awesome time in Dublin. Although it is kinda crap that you never ever have the place for yourself to just chill out, I couldn't have wished for a better person to share my room (and thus life) with during the exchange months.
Yesterday I had a day off from work and decided to make a selection of photos that I want to use for a big photo collage of my time in Ireland. This was so much fun to do, as I relived all the moments all over again. Drunk-and-eyes-closed-elena, leopard-freak-Kait, guitar-hero-Javi, angry(hungry?)-Margherita, jumping-Tine and many many more. I ordered them I now I'm waiting until they arrive so I can start on the big project.
Now it's three days later, and I'm bored as hell. Nothing to do at work, and I still have an hour left to work... But i'll keep my back straight, just think about the money I will make by sitting here writing my blog. Yesterday I got great news. Just days after the final confirmation that I have my Bachelor Degree in Business Communication (as one of the first of my year). I also heard from the language centre of the Radboud University that I have the job as a student assistent English. I'm really happy, cause this is a great chance for me to do some interesting work and make some money and meet top-managers at the same time. I will have to support high profile professionals who are following a very expensive language course. So that means interesting conversations, great lunches and new experiences. I will start somewhere in August and I'm very much looking forward to that!
This Saturday, the Nijmegen Summer Festival starts. It's a seven-day festival in the centre of the oldest city of the Netherlands and comprehends music gigs, comedy and much much more. Cool stuff, although I have to work so I have to choose my days well as I will have to get up early every morning (work from 10 till 19h). Good thing that I have the Wednesday off so I can get a little rest, although I'll probably be partying the night before and during that day ;-).
Thursday 23rd now. At this very moment I'm still looking for a summer break, cause I don't want to stay in Holland all summer now that I'm used to travelling around Europe. The way it looks now I'll be going to Sardinia (Italy) for a week in the beginning of August. Would be great: Nice weather, white beaches, prob seeing Italian Elena and Nohemi and just a lot of chilling. Gonna fix my tickets today, hope that things will work out.
I did a lot of partying this week during the Summer Festival. The best gig was definitely the Room Eleven concert at Habana Waal Beach Nijmegen. Awesome singer, great live instruments and a beautiful sun and rainbow after the terrible weather earlier that evening. I really enjoyed myself and made some great pictures. Tonight I will be going out too, although (like every day this week) I have to work early the next morning. Let's hope I'll wake up on time tomorrow :P.
Now it's time to finally publish my blog, otherwise it'll never go online ;-).
It has been a while since I wrote my last blog. Back then I was still in my culture shock, having trouble blending in my old habitat and picking up life back in Nijmegen. Like most of the Erasmus I got through a rough period, but now I'm back in the game and doing fine. Not only missing the many new friends I made in the past six months, I also missed (and still miss) the lifestyle I practised. Getting up late every morning or afternoon, eating my chocolate sprinkles breakfast, reading email, making plans for the night, eating, drinking and sleeping again. This had been my life for 5 months in the Irish capital city, and although I was bored at times and didn't know what to do with my life, I loved it! Back in Holland things changed. No Erasmus students who went out every night, no cool card games, no big pints, nothing of that all. Instead there were pre-occupied friends (uni, work, you name it) and a house that mostly contains people who are not home or have a different lifestyle and way of thinking as me. Totally different from my great friend and former room mate Alice, with whom I had an awesome time in Dublin. Although it is kinda crap that you never ever have the place for yourself to just chill out, I couldn't have wished for a better person to share my room (and thus life) with during the exchange months.
Yesterday I had a day off from work and decided to make a selection of photos that I want to use for a big photo collage of my time in Ireland. This was so much fun to do, as I relived all the moments all over again. Drunk-and-eyes-closed-elena, leopard-freak-Kait, guitar-hero-Javi, angry(hungry?)-Margherita, jumping-Tine and many many more. I ordered them I now I'm waiting until they arrive so I can start on the big project.
Now it's three days later, and I'm bored as hell. Nothing to do at work, and I still have an hour left to work... But i'll keep my back straight, just think about the money I will make by sitting here writing my blog. Yesterday I got great news. Just days after the final confirmation that I have my Bachelor Degree in Business Communication (as one of the first of my year). I also heard from the language centre of the Radboud University that I have the job as a student assistent English. I'm really happy, cause this is a great chance for me to do some interesting work and make some money and meet top-managers at the same time. I will have to support high profile professionals who are following a very expensive language course. So that means interesting conversations, great lunches and new experiences. I will start somewhere in August and I'm very much looking forward to that!
This Saturday, the Nijmegen Summer Festival starts. It's a seven-day festival in the centre of the oldest city of the Netherlands and comprehends music gigs, comedy and much much more. Cool stuff, although I have to work so I have to choose my days well as I will have to get up early every morning (work from 10 till 19h). Good thing that I have the Wednesday off so I can get a little rest, although I'll probably be partying the night before and during that day ;-).
Thursday 23rd now. At this very moment I'm still looking for a summer break, cause I don't want to stay in Holland all summer now that I'm used to travelling around Europe. The way it looks now I'll be going to Sardinia (Italy) for a week in the beginning of August. Would be great: Nice weather, white beaches, prob seeing Italian Elena and Nohemi and just a lot of chilling. Gonna fix my tickets today, hope that things will work out.
I did a lot of partying this week during the Summer Festival. The best gig was definitely the Room Eleven concert at Habana Waal Beach Nijmegen. Awesome singer, great live instruments and a beautiful sun and rainbow after the terrible weather earlier that evening. I really enjoyed myself and made some great pictures. Tonight I will be going out too, although (like every day this week) I have to work early the next morning. Let's hope I'll wake up on time tomorrow :P.
Now it's time to finally publish my blog, otherwise it'll never go online ;-).
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