Houston We Have A Problem!

We were supposed to have this surprise party for Marion who is celebrating her birthday today. On Saturday I met up with Heidi and Alice in town to make preparations for the party. Clement was busy working and doing his laundry, so he couldnt meet up with us. We decided to cook dinner and Heidi wanted to make a chocolate cake which she's can make very well. On Monday we had another meeting at Alice's place. We had to come up with a way to get Marion to Heidi's place, because we would have the party right there. But last night however, we all received an e-mail from Marion saying that she wanted to invite us all to eat some French products at her house for her birthday Wednesday evening! So then we all of a sudden had a huge problem. Cause we couldnt have her preparing her own party and then call her around 8pm to tell her she has to come over to Heidi's place who needs some help with her Halloween costume, which of course isn't true, but it was just as an excuse to get her there. Well of course we're going to Marion's place right now. We probably still have dinner. Don't know about the chocolate cake, but we'll see. Too bad we couldnt do the surprise party anymore, but we had no other choice. : ( Just came back from town a couple of minutes ago. I went to Tesco after looking at their website and noticing that they did have what i was looking for afterall. I was looking for tofu, but last time I was there I couldn't remember what it was called anymore, so i just tried to discribe that it was something made of soy. But i was told they didn't have any of those products. Turned out they do, if only I had remembered the word 'tofu', 'cause at home we use other words for it. I also went by Wilkinson to buy some plastic boxes where I can keep food in. It's easier as there isn't that much space in my cupboard. Yesterday i talked to Tamar. I went to her office around 2 together with Farhad. I had to choose my courses for the nest semester. Well, Alice and Clement, I will talk to you about it, because apparently there are some places available again for some courses. Cause there was this course about women in world cinema and the course about story-telling. So I've chosen the one about story-telling. So now Tamar will look if she can get me in. So it seems there are some places left again. So if you maybe want to change your courses afterall, you should just ask which ones are available again. The UvA has agreed to let me stay as well, so now I can actually go and pay for my accommodation for the rest of the year. i had not done it before, because I wanted to be sure everything with my courses would turn out alright, but it seems that it will be fine. In the morning, as I had already told i spent time library to watch a documentary. In the afternoon I worked a bit, read some books for my essay and then had dinner a bit earlier than normal. I ate around 6, which nowadays even for me is becoming to be early. I wanted to go to the cinema to watch The Singer (Quand j'etais chanteur) which would start at 6.50. I went by myself as everyone is very busy with writing their essays and taking care of the friends they are having over from France. But i had time, so I went. I really liked the movie, especially Gerard Depardieu. He was really good. The film was both funny and sad at times. Then when I came home I went to do my laundry. I always like it when you've just seen a good movie and then walk back home afterwards. And when I walked home it was already dark and you could see the stars and the moon, which you can see very clearly when there aren't any clouds. At the laundrette I had to wait a while for people to get their laundry out of the washing machines. Two were empty, but they weren't working for some stupid reason. I didn't want to go back home again, because some of the washing machines were already done washing, just the people who were using them had to come and put their clothes in the dryer. And those people could come back every minute. So i wanted to wait. I tried to sleep early last night, but because I had to fold my clothes after drying, I went to bed around 1 am. So today is Marion's birthday, so happy birthday Marion! No longer a teenager, but 20 years old, just like me! It also is Halloween which is really celebrated here. I don't have a costume. But maybe we will go to The Venue tonight for the Halloween party, but don't know if I will be all dressed up. Well...I can always throw a sheet over my head and pretend I'm a ghost.

Made By Heidi

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

I just came back from the library half an hour ago. I watched The Alcohol Years, a documentary. First I was supposed to see it on Sunday, but I went into town instead. Then I wanted to watch it yesterday, but the library was so crowded that I decided to go in the evening. But because it was already so dark and I wasn't really in the mood, I decided to go today, so I did. The movie wasn't so great and I didn't really learned everything from watching it. We saw a clip during the lecture and with Elizabeth already explaining what it was about, i actually knew enough. But it was not so overcrowded like yesterday, so it's definitely better to go there in the morning than let's say, around 1 pm. But yesterday i worked, worked, worked. I wrote 2200 words for mys econd essay, which include the introduction and concluison, so basically it's finished. But that's without having read any books and included any quotes. So i still have to add those, but it isn't a problem, cause I have still 800 words left, in total it must be around 3000. So i only went to the library yesterday to pick up books that i might be able to use. I took as many as I could with me, even if I wasn't sure if they were useful. So sorry for everyone who is desperately looking for a book I've taken with me and maybe not even going to use. Later on that night I went by to Alice's place, just to have a little chat. Nothing special really. And then I went back home again, worked and off to bed. Everyone seems to be very busy lately and both Marion and Clement are having a friend over from France. I'm feeling slightly better, at least better than yesterday. Alice is apparently also a bit sick today, so I guess it's just that period of time. I'm really starting to like this band Spoon, by the way. Been listening to them on my I-pod this morning. Good stuff! :)

...Who Will Sit And Wait For Sunday, To Be Monday

I think I might be getting sick. I'm not sure, but my throat tells me it isn't feeling well. It's all my won fault, because on Thursday night I think I left open my window and then when I woke up I felt my throat hurted a bit and then when I went to open my window like I do every day to bring some fresh air into my room I found it to be already open. :( But I guess I will be fine until Friday, because if I get sick it always starts at a Friday and then on Saturday I will be completely broken. So i probably still have some sick-less days to look forward to. Yesterday I was supposed to go to the library to watch The Alcohol Years, a documentary I want to use for my essay. It had been raining almost all day and outside it was so dark and grey, no sunlight whatsoever, so when around ten minutes past 3 I received an e-mail from Alice, whom I asked if she wanted to come with me to the library to watch the documentary, she told me Marion went by to her house and they decided to go into town. So Alice asked if I wanted to come and of course I couldn't refuse such a tempting invitation. I had not really worked yet that day so it wasn't really a problem. It was really good to be out of the campus for a while and because of the bad weather there weren't many people, just a lot of teenagers. We looked in some shops, which is how I came to notice that i Topshop clothes aren't that expensive and they are quite nice. So it seems that from now on H&M has some competition. I might be buying some things there if I'm done writing my essay. Marion looked for some boots and eventually she bought some which look great on her and fitted very well with the jacket she was wearing. We also checked out Marks & Spencer, but they're so expensive there. Maybe if we win the lottery one day we will go and do all our shopping there. Because we still had some time before our bus to Park Wood was going to leave we decided to have a look at the cathedral by night. I took some pictures, but because the uploading on this blog doesn't work very well lately, I have no idea how long it will be before I'm able to post them. After the cathedral we went home by bus. I had some tomato soup with naan bread and some toretllini's that were still left. Later on that night I worked on my essay a bit, wrote quite a lot of things and I think I will be okay. Hope to finish it as fast as I can. Then I did the dishes, downloaded some music, brushed my teeth (which takes me quite long, yes, Alice :) ) and then jumped into bed to find myself feeling even a bit more ill than yesterday and the days after that Thursday night with the window open. Today I will work work work. Adios!

Ring Ring Goes The Telephone

I was just about to go to bed when the telephonr rang. Besides our own mobile phones every house has a telephone. But i have never used it before since I'm not sure what the telephone numbers of every house are. There's a list which seems to be the list with all the numbers, but ';m not sure. I never tried. But we often get called and most of the time, or always actually, it's for Patricia. So it was just around half past 12 when all of a sudden the telehpne rang. So I went to pick up. I'm like yes, hello, expecting the call to be for Patricia, when all of a suddent his guy asks me do you want free tickets for The Venue. I'm kind of like, what? And he's like, I have some tickets you can have them, i will give them to you for free. So i'm thinking, well okay, are they for tonight. No, no, for the entire week. Right. So I say if you want to bring them over, why not just throw them through our mailbox. And he's like yeah yeah. So at this point I took him to be quite serious, but I thought I don't need those tickets, really, but at the same time I was a bit confused why he would just give these tickets away. So I wasnt sure what this was all about. But then he went on saying, I'll send some girls over as well, would you like that, but they're all sluts. So then i was like, okay, is this going to be one of those calls. So I'm like yeah, whatever, bring them over. And he's like, yeah one of them is this brunette with really big tits. So I'm like, fine. And then he says something like, what about a cow? And I tell him, you mean a real cow, or just one of your sluts that look likes a cow. But he;s like, no a real cow. Rupert. So i tell him why not. And he's asking, where do you live. So i say 16, Grimshill. And he, okay, well i send them to you, what's your name. Danilo. Your from Greece? No, The Netherlands. Ah, okay. But you know a cow right, with horns and stuff. Yeah, i know what you mean. And then he's like, what about, what's the animal called...? And on the background you can hear all these sounds. It wasn't like he was at a big party or anything, because you could hear him very clearly. But the stupid thing was that you could hear his friends go whisper: hipposaurus, hipposaurus! So apparently they're all sitting around the telephone listening while this one guy tries to pull this prank. But he goes on, a hipposaurus, do you want one as well. You know what it is right, a hippo. I'm like hyeah. Well bring that one over together with the sluts and the cow. And what do you think about crocodiles. Have nothing against them. You want one too? Why not, if I don't like the sluts I can feed them to the crocodile. He and his friends in the bachground laughing. You like to lick their balls? Yes, I do. You know, i just went along. So he's like great, great, we're like two peas in a pod. Apparently, yes. And then he used some British slang word for fuck. And asked if I would like to fuck the crocodile for two hours. So i'm like, well that's pretty long. He and his friends all laughing. So what about one then? Well, I can try. Again his friends laughing, student humour you know. By then we kind of reached the end of our conversation. So he's like well i will bring them to you and then he said, like hey mate, you've been a good sport. And I'm like, well, yeah, cool. Have a good evening. yeah you too. Cheers! Bye mate! And that was it. Ten minutes of my life wasted. Some people would have probably just hung up, but I can appreciate those calls, the effort, you know. And I don't know, but it's fun and silly. So why not play along and see what we end up with. But these guys really had nothing to do, just calling to our house for some weird conversation if you can even call it a conversation. But it was cool, i enjoyed it very much. So thatw as late at night. The rest of my day i spend working on my essay. i re-read the whole thing and scrapped a lot of words so now I'm finished. Then I went to town to do some shopping at Tesco. I spent 16.55. I did pretty good. I decided to spend just a bit more. Bought some bagels, vegetarian sushi, bananas, tomato soup, cherry tomatoes, plum jam, orange juice, bread, muesli (I'm addicted), naan bread (love it)...oh what a b*tch. I just notice. That's so not fair! I have the receipt lying next to me right here. I'll explain. You can buy four bagels for 99 cents. Well i did, but what happened. I bought three onion ones and one 'multi' bagel. There was only one 'multi' bagel so why not add that one as well. But apparently, because they are not all onion bagels, so not all four of them, i have to pay for them separately, 30 pence each, so no discount of 4 for 99! That's not cool. So in order to get the discount I have to buy bagels, all of one kind, even if the reduction counts for both. The multi bagels would also get you the discount. But apperently it doesn't count once you mix them! That's really not nice. Well, next time I know, but that aint cool. Well, what i really like though, is that you have this rack full of products that are about to reach their expiration date. So all of those products they put together and give some big discount. So i bought some apples and mushrooms. The apples normally would have cost me 1.48, but now just 90 pence. The mushrooms were only 48. So that's really nice. I really like to do my shopping choosing what to eat every week. I do always have a problem with the many choices we have though. If you just look at how many products there are in a supermarket, and not just this one, but all of them. Everywhere it's the same. It's crazy when you think about it. Especially when you realize that there are people out there, not even that far from our homes, that have nothing, or just a bit of rice or something. And what do we have, chocolate cookies. And not just chocolate cookies. But no chocolate cookies with nuts, with extra chocolate, small, big, cheap expensive. And not just one brand of the same cookies, no dozens of them. So then you think, why so many, why not just one. But of course I know, economy, it;s just the business. It's just how this world works whether you like it or not. But at the end of the day, it's just stupid. Especially when you think about the fact that we don't need chocolate cookies. We really don't. We don't need crisps or any other stupid snack. Those are just for us greedy people who got tired of eating another one of those apples after a while or another carrot. No, we want soemthing else. we're bored with eating the same thing. So there came the candy and all the other stuff. the coca-cola's and the pepsi's. Just because we got tired of them, which turned us into the ideal market for all those producers to cash in on some big money. But we are already so many years further that it would be impossible (but hopefully not) to turn back time, and start all over again. So no, i don't blame you if you buy all those things. I have nothing against it. And of course you're right. So many choices, you have the money, go spend it, go enjoy. One of those key words in life: enjoy, enjoy! That little kid out there wth nothing to eat would probably not even mind. He woild probably day, go for it! Of course. He would have done the same. You have all those things, eat them, enjoy them. Don't let them go to waste. Because you can either say, i;m not going to buy any of those things, because it's so sad for the little kid who has nothing. But then all those products. You would just let them rot away? Then it would be no use. So one the one hand you can say, go eat them, do it for that kid who can't enjoy it. Enjoy allt hsoe things for him. or you can say, like I do, I don't buy all those cookies, I don't need them. I just buy the things I need of which they also have dozens of different variations and brands. So there are always to choices, to options, and for both you can come up with arguments that are inf avour of both. It's like the H&M, whether they produce their products with child labour or not. You can either way the clothes and say, good, if this is made by little kids in small factories, poor little kids, but at least they haven't done all that hard work for nothing, because I will buy them. You can go and say, I won't buy them, but then they would have done all the hard work for nothing. And yeah, child labour is maybe wrong, but they do sometimes earn that little extra money that gets their family through. Without it they wouldn't survive. And even if you would put a ban on child labour, those kids would probably still go, because they need the money. So you can keep buying the close or you don't. You dont, and you say, i'm against child labour. I'm not buying any of the clothes that are made by children, to hopefully make it stop. It's a great thing to strive for, but chances are little you will make the difference. People will keep buying. They won't stop. That's not how it goes. So at the end, no, it;s not so bad if you buy those clothes, but of course it would be better if you didn't. If we all didn't. And I guess it;s the same with supermarket. But anyway... :) I also went to Wilkinson and got myself a new teapot! And I did some things that I can not yet talk about. When i got home I ate the sushi with a bagel pasta, the round things, no gnocchi, but other ones. (just came back from Wikipedia) Tortellini! Yeah, those I bought. And they were nice. But I have some left, because altogether it was a bit too much. Later on i spent my time in the kitchen. Sometimes I'm busy doing something in my room, but then get a drink and before I know it I end up talking to Patricia and Farhad in the kitchen. And that's what happened yesterday. So I decided to put my laptop in the kitchen, so we would have some music. Too bad there's no internet access once in the kitchen, but so be it. Farhad was cooking and I put some footnotes in my essay after doing the dishes. But we just chatted like we always do. And Patricia had dinner with Marie, one of her friends and Farhad also, but I forgot the name of his friend, I'm so sorry. I always feel so bad when that happens. But we had a nice evening, talking about how many people live in some cities like Madrid and Istanbul and Cairo. And we also talked about whether or not there is any real difference from the Spanish that is spoken in Spain and some countries in South America. But the girls said there isn't really. Only some slang words, but that's just normal in every country. But it was realy cool. I like those evenings in my kitchen. And then later on back to my pc and to bed when i received the phone call. I couldn't sleep last night. Only slept for real for three hours maybe, after that I was just lying in my bed, eyes closed, trying to sleep, but not able to. So then i said to myself, why try, just wake up. Your day apparently has already started. Wake up. And that's what i did.

My Life Is Good

Yesterday turned out to be a really nice day actually. Knowing I had the seminar of British Cinema, I expected my day to suck, but it didn't. The seminar wasn't that bad. The blonde annoying guy didn't show up, which was a big plus. And for the first time I felt Keith found the things that i said pretty interesting and quite important. So I was happy that what i said made a real contribution to the discussion. Alice was pretty happy as well as she before the seminar started had spoken to one of the girls from our seminar, the very smart one with a good sense of humour. Afterwards Alice went to town to do some shopping at Tesco's, because her fridge was completely empty, which is partly my fault, because we keep having dinner at Alice's place. So next time I will try to bring a lot of things as well. After getting back to Park Wood and changing my clothes I went to Clements house around 4.45 to go to boxing clas with him and Claudia. I wasn't really in the mood to go, but I'm glad i did because it was very very good. We spend lots of time on our technique, but also did some work out excercises. So yeaterday's class was very well balanced. The professional teacher who usually only comes on Thursday, came to teach us on Fridays as well, for a change. I actually quite like the guy. He comes off as really though and strict, but underneath that whole image, he's actually pretty funny and he helps you really good. He defnitely is a good teacher. 'Cause when you see him you almost feel like running away, because he constantly looks as if he can get all angry all of a sudden and kick your ass. But once you get tos ee more of him, you notice that this impression you get of him is not at all true. For the first time, though, I felt how everyone else is feeling for weeks. Because the guy just can't speak properly. It's like he doesn't finish his words, doesn't use any verbs and he has this weird way of speaking which makes that you don't understand a thing of what he says sometimes. So for the first tiem even i had trouble understanding what soemone says, because normally i hear everything and understand every word. So now I felt like having to use the excuse that i'm an Erasmus student and that's why i don't udnerstand a thing he says. I'm really happy Claudia comes with us nowadays. She told me she did the fencing as well this week and that it was very good and lots of fun. So maybe if I have some time left i well check it out one day as well. There's this other girl in our boxing class who seems like this very though girl, almost a bit manlike, you know, but she is actually very sweet and patient. Claudia was training together with her and was pelasantly surprised of how nice she was. Last time she also helped me and Clement a bit and then i also already noticed how helpful she is. Claudia is such a sweetheart by the way. I can understand why Clement is so fond of her. She is to Clement kind of what my housemate Patricia is to me. Cause like Patricia Claudia is very friendly and funny. Of course I got invited to eat at their place afterwards. Claudia made pasta, which always tastes so good with pesto. I really like pesto. And Clement made some vegetables as well, which he is very good at. Quentin and Fabien joined us as well. And when it turned out I never smoked any joints, even though I study in Amsterdam, prefer not to drink any alcohol or chocolate or other bad things, and don't smoke any cigarettes either, they were quite shocked. But of course you can enjoy life without any of those things. I feel so much better actually, just because i can keep myself from doing all those things. I don't need them and it's fine. Around 22 pm I left the place to go back home and after chatting a bit with Marion about music on MSN and downloading a lot of music, i went to bed. Today I'm going to re-read my essay for British Cinema and make sure I don't have too many words, as well as doing my weekly shopping at Tesco. It's my reading week this week, so no lectures or seminars, just work on my essays and go to the movies, because they will play a lot of good ones this month and also in December. I'm so happy they're going to show Once at the Gulbenkian, it's my most anticipated film of the year. I NEED to fianlly see it, I've been waiting so long already. I have a feeling it will be something like Before Sunrise/Before Sunset. And the songs that they perform in the movie are very nice. It's going to be so amazing seeing that movie, i can just feel it.

Like A Friday

I don't think I ever made so many drawings on my note pad. The lecture from yesterday was ridiculous. Of course Keith our prof was reading again, but it wasn;t even interesting or of any importance. For a while he kept talking about different studios, what films came out and of which of those were succesful. And you could hear everyone in the room was kind of thinking like: what am I doing here? Because after a while the silence faded away and you started to hear people twisting on their chairs and crunching of paper. But the film was even worse. I think I actually slept for some minutes but then woke up again. At one point everyone started laughing and Clément asked me what was said, becasue he had not understood. But I was not paying any attention to the movie and I think the laughing actually woke me up. So i had to excuse myself for not knowing what had been said either. But Clément thought the film was boring as well, so it wasn't such a problem. Alice and Nicholas didn't like the film either and we can't understand that Keith is so happy about this film. And on the movie poster it said that it was the best gangster film after The Godfather. But I can definitely tell you, it's not. Sorry to say it, but you British don't have a 'cinema' . It's just crap. the only type of flms they're kind of good at are the ones that show the social climate and are stories about 'real people'. After the lecture Alice, Clément and I all went back home. I was thinking about going to the library to watch maybe a documentary, but after seeing the film I just needed to clear my mind. It's really awful, because today i have the seminar and I already know it's going to be boring. And of course the one gu and girl will speak the whole seminar as if they are having a private conversation. Later that night Alice and Marion came to pick me up to go to Jan's birthday party. He's now 23 years old. He lives at number 10, also in Grimshill, so it's just very close to my house. After leaving our jackets at his room we went to Heidi, because Alice had to help her to book for our little holiday in London this december. She's coming afterall. Jan's coming as well. So it's going to be really fun. I have to say I'm not too fond of these kind of parties were there are a lot of people and you end up standing outside in the cold. And for me it's no use really, because I always keep talking to the people I know. ometimes I speak to some new people, but only fr a short while, because I don't feel the need to really get to know new people, because I already have people I always hang out with. So I don't need no other connections, even though someone from New York or Australia would be cool. Then I could come over this summer and stay at their place without having to pay for an expensive hotel room. I didn't stay too long at the party, because I was tired. So around 23.30 I left. Mys eminar is at 2 today so i still have lots of time. Have a nice day everyone!

Working Session No. 1

All I did was work yesterday. The only time I went out was to go to Tamar's office with Farhad and to go to our first 'working session' at Alice's kitchen, but besides that I didn't do anything. Of course I ate and did other things every human must do everyday to stay alive. But yesterday was definitely all about trying to do as much work as I can. I left around 12 pm to go back from Alice's place to my house. Marion, Alice and Cecilia were still very busy studying, but I felt I had done enough for the whole day, so I decided it was sleepy time. I actually wanted to study at the library in the afternoon. I brought my laptop with me and thought to get some real work done. Unfortunately the place was so crowded I couldn't find a place to sit and make use of my computer. So after searching for a good spot I left the building. Tamar wasn't in her office, by the way, so I sent her an e-mail about when Farhad and I could meet her, but she hasn't replied yet. At Alice's place we ate pizza and mixed vegetables from the freezer with some bread. I brought some 'drop' or liquorice, which i don't think is typically Dutch, but I guess it depends on which ones, because there are many sorts of drop. Cecilia had some choclate chip cookies, that looked exactly the same as all the other chocolate chip cookies. But here they have like a million different brands for one type of cookie, but they all are exactly the same. Today it's Jan's birthday, so we're definitely going by his house. He also lives in Grimshill so it's very close to my home. Also we're going to check out the karaoke at the K-Bar. I'm not sure if any of us will sing, but you might never know.

I Guess It's Official Now

I said a lot during yesterday's seminar, which makes me very happy and proud. We even had to work in groups of four or three a bit to talk about a certain part of the documentary The Thin Blue Line. I was only with British students. Alice, Nicholas and Clément sat next to each other and therefore formed a group of three, without a British student. Normally I sit with them, but I was a bit late or, actually, when I walked in they had just passed round the paper everyone needs to sign to have proof of your attendance. So i wasn't really late, 'cause they had not yet started. But that's how I ended up at the other side of the room. And the weird thing was that none of the students I was with felt like being the 'spokeperson' of our group. So when Elizabeth asked us, the first group what our thoughts were, I just started to speak, because after a little bit of silence, I knew the others weren't going to speak and because I was already the one who had spoken the most when we discussed the clip together, it wasn't that strange that I put myself on the forefront. But like last week the seminarw as really nice and the documentary we saw, The Thin Blue Line, is just really interesting. I never really been into documentaries much. I highly prefer fiction over documentary. But when it comes to analyzing, I think documentaries can be more interesting. Afterwards I went to the Eurpean Office, after briefly talking outside the Grimond Building to Alice and Clément. At the European Office, Brechje gave me proof that I am staying for the whole year. In my record it says right now that I'm staying until June the 13th. So I guess it's pretyy official now. Today i'm going to take the paper with me when i go by the accommodation office to ask if I can stay in the room i live right now or that I maybe have to move. Hopefully not, because I like my housemates and I don't want to leave them and have to live with other people. In the library I stumbled upon a book that is pretty useful for my essay, so i'm happy I found one. until know I only made real use of one book and two others, but my main source was only one. So now I have another one, which is good. I'm actually already finished. I just have to add some things, make sure I haven't used too many words etc. At home I read in the book a bit and typed some things on my computer. Then later on Marion gave me a link to a French radio station who were going to play a recording of a concert from The National, who were playing in Bretagne. Marion told me this concert was the one that made her discover them, so it was pretty emotional for her to listen to it again. But it was really good. I love it when you hear the crowd in the background. So if this was already this good, i can only imaine how it will be when we wills ee them live, because we're going on the 7th of November. They will play in London. It's so cool to be here, because so many bands come to London to do some gigs. Most of them are already sold out, so we have to pay close attention, because after December I'm sure there will be a lot more interesting concerts. So we have to make sure we can get ourselves soms tickets. Today is my day off. I'm going to work a lot today, first at home and in the afternoon i will go to the library to read and maybe watch a documentary I would like to write about. But first brush my teeth and take a shower. :)

Made By Tania

Some really cool pictures Tania made from our first couple of days living in Park Wood. Thanks for letting me put them on my blog! :)

A Bit Late

Last night I watched Last Tango In Paris for the first time. I went to the Gulbenkian cinema with Clément and Claudia. Claudia had seen the film before, but Clément never did and me neither. Because The Dreamers (Les Innocents) is my favourite movie and like Tango is directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, I really wanted to check it out. I liked the movie a lot with its vibrant use of music and lots of orange and brown-orange colours. I would love to go to the cinema every night this week, because they show a lot of films that will only be shown once. So it's my only chance to see them. The thing is they aren't films I desperately need to see and having already seen the programma for next month, which is filled with films I NEED to see, I wouldn't mind I would miss ht efilms of this week. I was just 5 minutes late for my lecture yesterday. So when I walked in it had already started, but I didn't really miss that much I think. I guess I was late, because this time we didn't meet up at the reception first before going to the lecture. So because of that i left my house later than normally. The lecture again was very interesting. We looked at the the way we as a viewer receive information about the outcome of the story before the film actually gives away the ending. Which some stories we already know how it ends, because they can be about a crime that was committed and of which you know the person who committed the crime eventually went to jail. The documentary we watched, The Thin Blue Line was very interesting. I watched the entire film with lot of interest, so it was really good. At home I worked a bit on my essay. I have it already finished for most part, just have to read it again and again and make little changes. I also went to do my laundry and I'm very pleased my clothes actually came out dry after putting them in the dryer. I cooked dinner as well and then around 8.50 Clément came over to my house to pick me up to go to the cinema. Today I have seminar from Documentary Film. I'm sure it's going to be good. I really have come to like the course. It's better than British Cinema.

Sayyyyy: stroopwafel!

Yesterday has been a very productive day. I worked a lot on my essay and have to admit that I think I have almost finished it. At least, I have everything written down. Now I have to only read some more books and maybe watch the movies I'm analyzing again, to see if my assumptions and writings are correct. I also went to the library, but just to bring back two books I borrowed. It's a pity cause there are a lot of interesting books, but once I borrow them I have no time at all to read them, so then I think, what's the use in keeping them, just return them before it's too late. Afterwards I went by the shop on campus to get some cheese and then went back home to Park Wood. Marion sent me an e-mail to let me know that we would meet in Alice's house to eat together in her kitchen. Clément came as well of course and Cecilia, Alice's only cool housemate, was there as well. We ate spaghetti with olives, very, very nice and then also had some carrots which Alice cooked in some wine Clément had brought with him last time we were together in Alice's kitchen, some salad Clément brought with him and some bread. I always like it to eat together, it's more fun than when I eat at my own house. It's also much better than going to most parties where you end up standing outside talking to people, but not really. And the people you would like to talk to most are spread out in the garden talking to other people or standing in the kitchen preparing things. So I very much prefer our meetings where we just eat together around the table, just talk and have fun. It's so much better and a million times nicer. Because my mum sent me a lot of stroopwafels, the typical Dutch cookies, I took them with me so everyone could have a taste. And just like I expected, they all liked them very much. So when there were only some left Alice said, we're definitely going to finish those, we don't have to worry about that. Next time I will bring with me the hagelslag to see how much they will like that. Now I will have to go to today's lecture of Documentary Film. I will add some more pictures later on today.

New Photos By Alice