Post-exam week update

Exam week was absolute carnage. I don't think I've ever studied this hard for anything, only to do a mediocre job? Ugh.

Now that all the exam fun is over, I can just focus on all the other stuff we need to do for uni, ah well.

IN OTHER NEWS:

I have a Halloween party scheduled next week, and after much debating and zero effort I decided to go as a 1920s flapper, who, unfortunately, is dead. It may seem like a far-fetched idea at first, but considering that I went as a flapper for Carnaval (Thingy we do in the South of the Netherlands which involes dressing up and consuming unnatural amounts of beer) it is probably the most unoriginal idea ever. I have the dress, I have the headband, just need to add some spooky make-up and decide how I've lost my life. It has to be dramatic, yet glamourous, like getting shot while taking a dip in your mansion's swimming pool (ha ha no.). My inspiration for the flapper outfit was Daisy Buchanan though so this could be some kind of payback? Idk if anyone is following. Anyway, I'm very excited to celebrate Halloween as I've never actually properly done that before. I am totally ignoring the fact that Halloween was yesterday so the party is actually just a post-Halloween fancy dress party. I guess Halloween just still isn't such a popular holiday in the Netherlands and it's a shame really, you should never pass an opportunity to have a fancy-dress party and decorate your house with all kinds of cute Autumn-inspired-yet-creepy ornaments.

I also bought tickets to see Bastille in March next year! I'm going with a group of friends and I'm really excited. I saw them at Pinkpop Festival this year, where they replaced a group that cancelled, and they were absolutely amazing live. I love their album Bad Blood and basically every other thing they did so getting tickets wasn't something I had to think twice about. Their songs are just filled with references to history and  literature (or at least that's my interpretation) that as a English Culture student, I can hardly miss. I love when music has an actual meaning and transcends the level of just being catchy or a good tune, the latter probably describing 99.9% of mainstream pop (I used the m-word). Add to that the fact that I am a sucker for Indie bands, or as my brother calls it "that Indie hipster shit you listen to", and the picture is complete. I am not actually sure if it is Indie btw, but I can't be bothered to define it differently. So yes, more concerts, wooo.

Also I'd like to add that there's nothing wrong with listening to mainstream pop and I do it too sometimes, but songs like "Work Bitch" are, to me, the worst things ever and I literally can't stand overproduced, meaningless stuff like that.

I basically just had to work that in just to vent about how much I hate that fucking song.

Exam week Update

So this is probably going to be the most random blog post in which I discuss 5000 different topics and rant about stupid stuff nobody even cares about anyway. Don't say I didn't warn you.

The first half of the first semester is over, and I'm currently in the middle of the first exam period of my second year. I've been quite disappointed in this year's classes, as most of them are linguistic classes and take a wild guess at what I don't like. Yeah.. The literature classes are also quite shit, as I'm doing 17th Century British Literature, which is a bitch, and an American Novel class, which could've worked out, but sadly didn't. Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed reading the required novels, although most of them were really depressing or misogynistic, but the way the course is run is just annoying. We have to have discussions, and the teacher just doesn´t sound like she knows what she´s talking about.

Then there´s exams, which are killing me as usual. Every exam week I get into this rythm of studying all day, looking like a slob and generally being a bitch to everyone I encounter whilst studying (sorryyyyy). The exam I have to take tomorrow is probably going to be the hardest, and I had flashbacks of the management and organisation exams I had to do in secondary school. To illustrate: I was worst in my class, was generally incompetent and always felt like a rabbit trying to open a door.

OKAY so that was the depressing part of this post. The good part of this exam week is that I listened to lots of 90s playlists, and as a result the 'last listened to' section on my Spotify now states: Ginuwine, N Sync, and Eminem, which is pretty embarrassing to say the least. I also watched a shitload of Twin Peaks so I now know who killed Laura Palmer (ohyeaaaah). Let me just say that this series is epically brilliant and disturbing, and everyone should watch it! I might do a Watchlist blog soon, I've been planning on it for such a long time but I just never got to it.

Other good news, and this made me so happy, is that I found out that I can go to both Leeds and Canterbury to study abroad. People that are around me a lot will probably know that I've been talking about studying abroad for years, and this confirmation really means a lot to me. I really can't wait to get it all sorted! I haven't decided yet if I want to study in the North or the South of the UK (although I am kinda inclined to say I favour Leeds), and my choice is probably going to depend on the courses that both universities offer. I'd really like to take a film studies class, and obviously journalism classes are still on my list. I did not get a proper chance to do a journalism minor at my university due to their idiotic conflicting schedules, so it's definitely something to consider.

Other random stuff I forgot to mention:

I saw Gravity and it is really good. It's a film that just swallows you whole with the right amount of action and visual perfection. The oneliners were a bit much though, best leave that out the next time.

Only a few weeks till Vampire Weekend concert and I am really excited!

I'm shit at writing conclusions and introductions...

I still haven't figured out what the lyrics of most VW songs are.

Antwerp

Last weekend was Antwerp weekend! Since my friends and I are all students, and thus broke, we decided that we'd go to Antwerp for a day to do some serious shopping, to kinda get that feeling of being on a holiday (because well, Belgium is another country). Some of my friends didn't get to go on holiday at all this year, or only for a few days like myself, so this was our mini break from work just before school started again. I'm not a fan of Belgium, but I'd never been to Antwerp before and I heard the shopping was great so we just had to give it a try. And the rumours were most definitely true! I can truly say I had a better day shopping there than I had on London's Oxford Street.

We went by train which wasn't that expensive, but it did take forever to get there and back. The day started of great with me and my friend arriving at the station and realising the train we thought was going to go to Maastricht, actually wasn't. So much for planning ahead.. So we waited a bit, took another train, and waited a bit more. The train journey was tolerable, the view was..special, and the airco was killing me. All was forgiven when we finally arrived at Antwerp station, because it is just beautiful. The station is really grand and it reminded me of the Paris Montparnasse railway station from the film Hugo. My friends and I are really into art and pretty things so that was a really great start of our city trip (if I can call it that). Luckily for us, the rest of the city didn't disappoint either. The city just seems to have a really good vibe, Belgians seem to be very fashionable people, and the good weather helped a bit too.

Now for the emberassing bit, we didn't actually do anything but shop. We had a quick bite to eat and after that just went from store to store. My friend introduced us to this really cute store called Brandy Melville, which looked like a cute American boutique. I was impressed by the FOREVER21 store, as I had never been to one before and it was really, really cute. Instead of the conventional large retail store set up with boring grey shelves they had tables filled with bowls with jewellery, jewellery hanging from enframed nooks in the walls, and scarves layed out as if it was some fancy store. I ended up buying more than I had planned, considering I planned to not spend money at all. But this went for all of us, and when we left one of our friends alone with all our bags she claimed people "gave her weird looks". Because shopping a lot is a crime..

Allthogether it was a great day shared with great people. I'd definitely go back there again to do some more shopping and to check out more of the city centre, as we didn't really get time to do that. 

As of this week uni has started again and money is disappearing from my bank account again, so a new shopping trip is not my first priority. I stumbled upon some unexpected expenses this week, one of them being a Vampire Weekend concert me and my friends from uni are going to go to, which I am very excited for! And damn it feels good to be doing stuff again. I am really looking forward to planning my trip abroad next summer which I have been looking forward to for a very long time now. 

Let's hope I can keep this blogging thing up during the upcoming weeks.

Edinburgh

Sooooo as expected I failed miserably at keeping my blog up to date. Anyways, I have been on a magnificent holiday I really feel I should write about.

A week or so ago I went to Edinburgh (Capital of the beautiful Scotland for anyone who is oblivious of the existence of this city). I went with three of my lovely friends from university and it was really nice to be in this amazing place with people who cared about it as much as I do. August is festival month in Edinburgh, because this is the month the Fringe Festival takes over the city. The Fringe festival is an art festival and there are venues throughout Edinburgh. Most of the shows taking place are comedy shows, or at least this seemed to be the case because the only flyers we got were for comedy shows. I really loved how all the dudes passing out the flyers were incredibly handsome, I see what you did there, really clever. However, this did make it slightly difficult to decline (so yeah it might've worked?).

So what have we been up to in Edinburgh? Basically everything a tourist does when on a city trip. The first day we went to see the castle, which was pretty. We made some nice pictures, almost got locked up in a section of the castle, and looked at all the other tourists wondering about (SO MANY AMERICANS). We had lunch in one of the Princess street gardens and looked at some art at the National Gallery of Scotland, which was free (yay). The second day we went on a quest to see Hume's grave, because why the hell not. After going up a hill, some stairs, enjoying a beautiful view of the city and the sea,  and heading down the stairs again we finally found it. There were some Dutchies around who thought the Lincoln memorial at the graveyard was a statue of Obama.. Good job keeping up our reputation guys. After escaping the horror that is meeting fellow Dutchies on holiday we enjoyed a nice downpour (the only one in the 4 days we spent in Edinburgh), and enjoyed the rest of our day getting some dinner and a few drinks.

The Military Tattoo was also on when we were there, and will be for the most of August. It's basically a sort of music/dance event with military bands and such performing. For further reference: http://www.edintattoo.co.uk/. When we first saw the stadium they built next to the Castle we thought there was a Quidditch game going on, because that's what it looked and sounded like. Unfortunately that wasn't the case, but we did get to enjoy fireworks every night.

The third day we ventured to the Botanic Gardens on foot, which was kind of a mistake. We had had reasonably warm weather the two days before but that morning it was really chilly and our feet weren't so happy from all the climbing we did the day before. After a tour of New Town we finally arrived, only to be thrown into a friendly pit of mums with children, and plants.. As I don't really care much about plants, I just tried to enjoy watching the few animals that were walking around, and ate cookies. We left a nice message in the guest book that certainly was not anything along the lines of #plantswaggie, and took the bus back to Old Town.

Things worth noting?
Edinburgh is beautiful and old and ugh, I love it.
You won't hear much Scottish if you go during Fringe Festival, as there are lots of tourists around that are mainly from America/Asia.
Finding a place to eat dinner is kinda impossible during Fringe, but if you're okay with waiting you'll have no worries.
Beautiful men.
The ghost tours are scary if you are very gullible.
We failed at finding Scottish beer to drink
The city is built on 7 hills, prepare to walk a lot.
GO HERE IF YOU CAN IT IS AMAZING

So yeah that was probably all. Beware of agressive Italians shouting "What is you? What happened??" at cabbies. Check if TGI Fridays hasn't burned down before heading over there, and don't be shocked when you enter one of the chillest PRIMARKS ever (I've never been to a PRIMARK that was as quiet as the one in Edinburgh).

United States of fake smiles

Everytime I read something about American politics it reminds me of that one backstabbing popular person in high school.

They say all these nice things to you, but you know they're lying.

It's just all too fake for me.

Vervolgopleiding: The next chapter

Niets in het leven is zeker. Je maakt keuzes op een bepaald moment en  in een bepaalde situatie, en later moet blijken of je de goede beslissing hebt genomen. We kunnen nu eenmaal niet voorspellen wat er gaat gebeuren. Ook op het gebied van school moeten er veel beslissingen worden genomen. Belangrijke beslissingen. En laat ik nou juist zo'n grote beslissing hebben genomen.

Eventjes terugspoelen naar mijn eindexamenjaar. Ik was zeventien jaartjes jong en was bezig met het laatste jaar VWO. Beroepskeuze was altijd al een hot-issue in mijn geval. In de onderbouw dacht ik dat management mijn vakgebied was. Niks leek minder waar. Vervolgens trok fotografie mijn interesse. lekker creatief bezig zijn met een fotocamera leek me wel wat. Maar ik wilde niet zomaar een fotograafje worden die wat onbelangrijke foto's maakt van onbekende mensen. Nee, ik wilde wel een boodschap overbrengen met mijn foto's, er moest een verhaal achter zitten. Zo kwam ik uit op journalistieke fotografie. Allemaal leuk en aardig, maar waar ga je dat studeren, en zit er wel toekomst in? Journalistiek leek me ook wel leuk. Beetje schrijven, beetje fotograferen, klonk allemaal leuk.

Journalistiek it was. Maar daarmee was de knoop nog niet door. Waar ging ik dit studeren? Gelukkig was daar de studiekeuzebeurs in Eindhoven. Ik wist inmiddels als dat ik op HBO-niveau journalistiek kon gaan studeren, maar op de beurs bleek dat dit ook op de universiteit kon. Via een opleiding Nederlands of Engels kon ik een beetje journalistiek meepikken, namelijk via een minor. Engelse Taal en Cultuur sprak me altijd al aan, vanwege mijn grote passie voor de Engelse taal, en voor Groot Brittannië. Het was en dilemma. Kies ik voor een hoger niveau, zodat ik ook Engels kan gaan studeren? Of kies ik voor een gerichte HBO-opleiding, ook al moet ik dan wat niveau inleveren. Ik koos voor de optie die mij het makkelijkste leek, namelijk de HBO-opleiding. Daar ben ik de fout in gegaan.

Ik zag het al helemaal voor me. Stages zouden voor mij geregeld worden, en het was HBO, dus dat zou ik makkelijk aankunnen. Daarnaast kon ik lekker in Limburg blijven wonen, in plaats van te verhuizen naar Nijmegen. Dat was twee jaar geleden. Ik denk dat ik toen niet goed heb nagedacht over de richting die ik ging doen. Ja, ik vind journalistiek 'leuk', maar het totaalplaatje valt me tegen. Ik hou van schrijven, maar alleen over dingen die ik leuk en interessant vind. Ik wil niet voor een krant of de radio werken, daar ben ik nu achter. Mijn voorkeur gaat uit naar het tijdschrift. En niet zo'n beetje. De rest interesseert me misschien gewoon te weinig om allround journalist te worden. Een maandje geleden heb ik dan ook besloten op te stoppen met mijn opleiding.

The new plan? Op naar de universiteit om Engels te gaan studeren. Het is niet zo dat ik me te min voel voor HBO, maar ik denk dat ik veel meer kan leren op de universiteit. Ook heb ik nu geleerd dat ik altijd journalist kan worden, met of zonder gerichte opleiding. Ik kijk er naar uit om nieuwe dingen te leren, lekker veel Engels te spreken en nieuwe mensen te ontmoeten. Het is nog een paar maandjes wachten, maar dat is te wijten aan mijn slechte timing. Bye bye HBO, Hello university.

Harry Potter. The End.

Afgelopen dinsdag was het eindelijk zo ver. Het einde van de Harry Potter film reeks, en misschien wel het einde van een tijdperk. Als Harry Potter fan van het eerste uur moest ik natuurlijk bij de première zijn.

Oké, misschien overdrijf ik nu een beetje. Ja, ik heb alle boeken gelezen en alle films gezien. Maar daar blijft het dan ook bij. Het begon allemaal met mijn broer. Hij spoorde me altijd aan films te kijken waar ik totaal geen zin in had. Het begon met The Lord Of The Rings. Not my cup of tea, dacht ik altijd. Maar na lang aandringen van mijn broer keek ik hem toch, en wat bleek, ik vond hem geweldig! Hetzelfde gebeurde bij Harry Potter. Na lang zeuren keek ik Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone met mijn broer. Op video wel te verstaan. Ik weet niet wat er gebeurde, maar ik was meteen verkocht.

Alle zeven de boeken volgden. Elke keer als ik een Harry Potter boek opensloeg, waande ik me in een andere wereld. J. K. Rowling moet wel talent hebben, want ik las alle boeken in no time uit. Ik betrapte mezelf erop dat ik de spannende stukken zo snel las dat ik woorden, en zelfs zinnen oversloeg. Ik vormde gezichten bij nieuwe personages, die later een echt gezicht kregen in de films. Deel 2 tot en met 7.1, ik zag ze allemaal in de bioscoop. Er was echter een probleempje. Mijn geheugen liet me in de steek.

Toen de vierde film uit kwam was het al een tijdje geleden dat ik het bijbehorende boek had gelezen. Tijdens de film kwamen er vragen bij me op. Wie is dat ook alweer? Gaat diegene dood? Stond dit in het boek? Gelukkig was mijn broer er om mijn vragen te beantwoorden. Hetzelfde gebeurde bij film 5, 6 en 7.1. Meerdere keren dacht ik eraan om misschien de boeken nog eens opnieuw te lezen. Jammer genoeg kon ik me daar niet toe zetten.

Deze week was het dan tijd voor de allerlaatste film. Ik had het zevende boek niet opnieuw gelezen, waardoor ik alleen de grote lijnen nog wist. Het ergste, mijn broer was er niet om vlak voor de film nog informatie aan me door te geven. Maar ja, the show had to go on, and it did.

Ik weet niet wat er vreemder was, de mensen in het publiek die verkleed waren als personages uit de film, of de mensen die om alles moesten huilen. De film was in een woord: leuk. Hij was wel goed, maar niet magisch. Hij kon beter. Naar mijn idee waren de scènes waarin de belangrijkste dingen gebeurden te kort, en andere, minder belangrijke scènes juist te lang. Op een gegeven moment vond ik het zelfs langdradig worden, een gevoel dat ik nooit eerder had bij een Harry Potter film. Voor de laatste scène kan ik maar een woord vinden: zoetsappig. De schuldige? J. K. Rowling.

Ik snap dat ze een happy ending voor haar verhaal wilde, maar voor mij klopt het gewoon niet. Je volgt zeven jaar lang het avontuurlijke en gevaarlijke leven van Harry Potter. Hij vecht tegen het kwaad en overwint het. Voor mij houdt het verhaal daar op, maar voor Rowling blijkbaar niet. Ze beschrijft het leven van Harry Potter negentien jaar na zijn overwinning, en wat blijkt? Hij is een hele normale jongen geworden. Huisje, boompje, beestje. Het tegenovergestelde van wat hij voorheen was, en voor mij is dat een anti-climax.

Genoeg met al die kritiek. Ik moet toch toegeven dat de Harry Potter boeken en films mij al vele jaren amuseren. De reeks is afgelopen, maar zodra ik het eerste boek weer opensla begint de hele rit weer opnieuw. Ik kan bijna met zekerheid zeggen dat ik de boeken ooit nog een keer zal lezen. En al doe ik het niet, veel andere mensen zullen het wel doen. De Harry Potter boeken zijn gewoon een must voor iedereen, jong en oud. Geen zin om te lezen? Dan zijn er altijd de dvd's nog. Ik ben al lang blij dat ik het laatste deel niet meer in een bioscoop met huilende mensen hoef te kijken. Please read the book before going to see the movie next time guys, so you know that the dude doesn't actually die.