Hoe huppelt zijn paardje het dek op en neer

by Laura Callaghan, seems to capture what I've been up to (minus the bear, plus some mosquitoes)

Nog maar negen daagjes!
Het wordt steeds vreemder om hier te zijn, omdat ik in minder dan twee weken thuis zal zijn.
Hier wordt het nu superdruk, met veel toetsen/assignments/dinners/festivities, dus hopelijk zullen jullie mijn lack of emails begrijpen. Aan het begin werd mij verteld dat MUWCI uit drie 's'en bestond ; slapen, studeren en socialisen. Daarvan lukt het nooit om meer dan twee te doen, waardoor de meesten met een ernstig slaapgebrek rondlopen (je herkent het aan de kleine, rode oogjes, grumpy expression, slumped shoulders en rommelige kleding).

This weekend was MUWCIfest, as well as Christmas Cookie baking, Sinterklaas and the continuous Secret Santa thing we've got going on campus. As one of only four active Dutch members of the community, it meant that we had quite a few poems to write and traditions to explain. It worked out quite well, with the National Committee sending us massive sacks of pepernoten, taai taai, schuimpjes, banketstaven and chocolade letters (amazing. really.) which just about fed the 200+ community, of which most left out their shoes on Sunday night (Sinterklaas shifted his celebration to Sunday here, due to MUWCIfest and the fact that he had a nine hour flight from Holland to India to get).
We also got the Caf(eteria) to cook a 'Dutch' dinner, which was interesting, considering that India doesn't really have much in the way of bacon, or meat at all really. They made mashed potato and carrot with pork sauce (the Indian variation on hutspot) as well as pancakes with watery applemousse and chocolate sauce, pasta (we couldn't think of much Dutch food they'd be able to make), brown bread and veg biriyani (not quite so Dutch but alright). Everyone seemed to like it, though, which is good (:
With a small group of people we also did surprises, which actually worked out quite well. That afternoon, I'd also taught a couple of people how to make speculaas, so although there was no:
snow
cold
very few Dutch
real Pieten
etc
there was some sense of Sinterklaas.
Acting as Pieten, we ran around very early on Monday morning, filling shoes (or not, in the case of one greedy house that had left all their shoes out with a rather rude note informing us to 'FILL EM UP') and picking up nice notes to Sinterklaas (or Sinta Claus, or Sintaklast).
Anyhows, I've got another lesson to go to, so hopefully I'll get round to more updates about Exeat and campus soon!
x

little darling, it feels like years since it's been here

Found this somewhere, thought it was rather nice (:

For the past week, I've been sleeping/eating/reading/working/socialising.
It's stopped raining now, and the pool is looking rather yellow, and in just about a month I'll be back in still raining but rather pool-less (at least, free pool atop a mountain style) Holland (:

I was thinking I should perhaps run a couple of bits on general stuff like the food, weather, people and any other things that are now part of my routine but may seem novel to anyone outside of MUWCI/India.
Any suggestions?

Today was a fairly run-of-the-mill day, with school (which starts at 07:30), football (in which we ran up and down Internet Hill and through the Biodiversity Reserve, I felt a bit like I was in the jungle, which was fun) and college meeting (in which we all sit around and discuss important issues every week).

For the rest, I'm hoping it will dry but not warm up pretty soon, and that mosquitoes will become extinct before I return here in the spring. I should get some sleep.
Night!

worried about our little world falling apart

Vandaag heb ik besloten om alles even anders te doen.

Ik zit hier in mijn kamer gember koekjes te eten en naar het geluid van de (of is het nou het?) regen te luisteren.

Naast me zit m'n kamergenootje, die uit Kerala in India komt. Ze zit te studeren.
Voor de verandering is ons kamer niet met schreeuwerige koreans gevuld, die meestal de linkerhoek in beslag nemen. Het is nu even lekker rustig.

I've been back from Project Week since Monday evening.
Thus I've unpacked, done my laundry, rebonded and caught up with everyone here and started school again today.

It is most likely a nice idea to describe Project Week and what I got up to, so here goes:

Project Week started last Friday, when most of the groups left campus to catch trains and buses to get to all sorts of places. Our group only left on Saturday morning, giving us a little time to worry about an empty campus (it was rather lonely) and pack our stuff.

The train took twenty-one hours to get to Bangalore, which is in the south, in the state of Karnataka. As they speak mainly Karnada there, I wasn't going to get much chance to practice my Hindi, but I took along my Dutch-Hindi book, just in case.
We travelled in Second Class, which means something else in India than in Europe, but I'm not quite sure what. We were in the non-AC section, which was not as bad as one might imagine. There were two square windows for every group of six bunks, with glass sheets and metal bars to pull down if you wanted to. Across the narrow aisle were two more bunks, and every couple of minutes some man with a very nasal voice would come down this aisle, shouting out the name of whtever he was selling (biscuits/chrisps/dinner/chai/scarves) in an irksome singson-ey tone.

I finally started recording thing in a diary (not sure how long that will last) so here are some extracts that sum up my week:

Saturday 31/10/09

Earlier today the scenery from the train was incredible. There were dry auburn hills and green fields, small clusters of earthern houses and a real sense of calmth. There is an elderly couple opposite usm who were initially sitting cross-legged and reading the newspaper. She was wearing a lilac sari, which looked stunning against the blue window frame and seat and the red metal bars on the window. Monday 02/11/09 Wij zaten op een soort dakterra met een uitzicht op een heleboel pastel-kleurige gebouwen. Het was niet te warm omdat we onder een sort pakoda zateb, met chai en koekjes. De man [die ons een presentatie over APSA aan het geven was] zag er een beetje Sesame-Straat-achtig uit, met een very-oversized pale lilac shirt die in zijn hoogopgetrokken-netjes-gestreken broek zat gepropt...Hij vertelde ons over APSA, en hoe ze eerst altijd de 'baseline' vinden (alle basisinformatie, zoals hoe ver de school is, hoe het sanitair is, of ze water hebben, hoe veel enz) waarna ze een 'actionplan' ontwikkelen samen met de community-in-question... [about the vocational training centre]

There was a printing area, with five Indian guys standing around the equipment. In the adjoining room, seperated only by a partial wall on the right, was six sewing machines. These were white, plastic, modern. To the left was a large grey table with beige cotton that three women were cutting into strips...Straight down the hall was a small classroom, with half of it consisting of desks and girls, the other half of old, foot-controlled sewing machines. They were 3 or 5 months into their year of training, and were already making simple children's frocks.

Up a flight of stairs around the outside of the building was the elctronics department, with cute handdrawn images of the tools and their names on the walls. A handful of boys were sitting in a row behind a transparent wall, fiddling with bits of hardware. Another flight up was the computer training section. 30 pupils sat in plastic chirs, copying the text about CDs from the powerpoint slide being beamed up.

Tuesday : Dream School teaching (APSA's school for the children they rescue from child labour and the like)

Wednesday : ChildLine, viewing presentations given on this to government schools (a children's help line APSA is associated with)
Also: meeting with a government official to talk/learn about the health care and education systems in Karnataka
And: staying over at APSA's Girls' Hostel, where girls from APSA can stay for a while until they find jobs and their feet in the world

Thursday : Constituency work (where we viewed a children's meeting in a migratory slum, about what they thought needed improvement)
And: Fabindia presentation (Fabindia is a chain of stores where 60% of the moeny goes to the artisan, thus allowing traditional methods of craft to be preserved. This wasn't really part of our Project Week)

Friday : Inchara (means birdsong, the art and culture side of APSA)
Monday 09/11/09 In ongeveer vier uur komen we in Pune aan. Ik ben net op de middelste bunkk wakker geworden met een gezwollen oog na rond twaalf uren slaap in Rosie's slaapzak (die ze per ongeluk heeft achtergelaten toen ze donderdag avond met andere tweedjaars verder reisde), met als kussen Lenn en Victor's tailored, expensive suits, omdat Lenn dacht dat er twee creepy guys zijn spullen wouden stelen. We hebben net egg biriyani [boiled eggs, curry sauce and rice with bits in] en lassi [sweet yoghurt drink] binnengewerkt als lunch, en zitting nu allemaal rustig te lezen. Gelukkig is het niet zo warm buiten.

So that was pretty much that. It was interesting to learn about how the NGO functioned, and to try out several of their projects.

Some cute, surprising things I'll leave you with:
I found a whole bunch of Suske en Wiske's in a small secondhand bookshop in Bangalore. It really made my day.
I found HEMA stuff in a basement shop in Pune.
I showered with only cold water and ate with my hands all week.
I got my package today!

x

one of these days

A little nostalgia trip (already): this picture is our first time in Pune, I believe.
From l-r, Mette, Sophie, Gesa (:

Now the swine flu panic has subsided a little, and I'm just about halfway through my first term.
Since Bombay, I've mainly stayed on campus and celebrated a lot of birthdays.

Just a brief, overdue summary of Bombay, it was insane to imagine that the city had more inhabitants, 28 million allegedly, than the whole of the lovely flat country I came from.
We went to see the Gateway of India, the Taj hotel, the shopping district and drove past the largest slum in India that weekend. It was definitely an experience.

Sometimes it hits me here that I'm at a UWC, in India, really. We get compulsory Global Affairs, where we discuss all sorts of issues, we have This is India sessions and we go down for overnights in the small villages. It is amazing.
This week was Environment Week, so there were a couple of activities running. The most pleasant was the lunch in the Butterfly Garden, by the Amphitheatre, today. The Garden is situated in the Biodiversity Reserve, that I plan on visiting much more often now that the rains have stopped. We all sat around on the soft but itchy green grassy slope, eating off plates made of leaves and listening to the choir and people playing plastic pipes and glass bottles.

This weekend I've got Film Studies, which is really interesting but means I'll be staying on campus most of this weekend. Next week is Project Week, so I'll be off to Bangalore to work with APSA, but first I'll need to learn jumpstyle, the waltz (I think...) and some Karnataka language.

For the time being, I have learnt some Hindi;
Namaste!
Ap kaise hai?
Me thik hu (:
(Hey, how are you? I'm good!)

and we're currently learning the script, which is rather hard as the alphabet consists of sounds like "t, tte, the, je, jhe, jher, cher, char" etc. Maybe I'll have grasped it by December!

358 Roadways

Some shots of my corner (W3H9R) (:

Happy birthday mr Gandhi

We've finally arrived at Devika's place in Bombay, after a rather interesting trip.

Initially, the jeep somebody had booked was cancelled, so we had to reorganise a jeep to get from campus to Pune.

From there, we had to find some other sort of transport to get us to Bombay/Mumbai. Our original plan- getting public transport- was crushed when we found out that we were an hour away from the station. We picked up another jeep, and were on the road again.

Upon our arrival in Bombay, indicated by the bumper to bumper traffic, we went out to dinner with a bunch of MUWCI folk. Then our attempt to find our accommodation started.

We got into a cab with a MUWCI Hindi speaker, and asked him for the address. He shrugged his bony shoulders, and began to drive, his head barely reaching over the top of the wheel.

The Hindi speaker asked people on the street for directions, but there were several places with similar names which caused us much confusion and many u-turns. Eventually, a man in a white string vest, surrounded by beggars sleeping on the street, managed to point us in the right direction.

It was a rather surreal journey. The cabs here have floor to ceiling carpeting, the group we were with was an eclectic mix of Korean/Nepali/Thai/Indian/Norwegian/Dutch, and Bombay is bright and vibrant, even on a dry (no alcohol) day.

Right now, we're waiting for two fellow students, who were planning on booking into a hotel but haven't brought their passports. Genius.

I'll update on what this night and weekend turned out like soon :)

x

Don't you wanna get out of Cape Cod, out of Cape Cod tonight?

I'm sitting in a common room in a wada in MUWCI, feeling slightly out of whack.
It's now been a month (yes, I still seem to be counting) and I've just spent the past two days in the med centre with a cold. Time seemed to warp there, as all I did was sleep, watch films and eat.
Now I'm healthier again, so I suppose, whilst the internet is still up, I should probably update this blog (:

Since the third of September (woah, that's a while ago), I've been to Pune a couple more times, started school, performed a semi-improv piece on the flute with Benjamin the German on the piano for the First Year Show, dressed up as a Flamboyant Tellytubbie Zombie for the Second Year Show, tried a whole range of Commuity Interactions (known as CIs, where we work with the neighbouring villages) and Trivenis (known as CAS for all you lot) and painted my room.

Last weekend I had Film Studies, which is taught by a documentary maker from Mumbai. We have classes on Friday afternoon, a screening Friday evening, Saturday morning, another screening Saturday evening and a class Sunday morning, every fortnight. The classes are about everything to do with film, from shooting to analysing the film-maker's intentions. I'm still not sure whether I want to take it as my seventh subject, but for now I'm enjoying the classes.

I also went on an overnight, which means going off campus for, as the word suggests, a night. I went to Pune with a bunch of first and second years, tried the Indian clubbing scene (let's put it this way: it was an experience.) and stayed over at Khushi (an Indian who lives in Pune)'s.
It was slightly hard to find her place, as the rickshaw driver didn't know the appartment block, but Mika the Mauritian managed to ask directions in broken Hindi, which got us there in the end.

Things I've learnt in a month here:

- the pool is the best place to be
- on festival days, everything (nightlife stuff) closes at 1am
- compared to Indians, I have massive wrists (I have bought myself bangles)
- the internet actually dies here when it rains
- 'mai tumse pyar kurti hu' means 'I love you' in Hindi (:
- Busted actually made it to India (I have found an Indian-Rahul, who wants himself namechecked here- who can sing along to Crashed the Wedding (: )
- the postal service here is incredibly slow (I'd love to receive packages though (: )


Furthermore, I've seen some amazing views, a standout one being when the girls football team went on a jog up the nearby mountain. We did suicides at the top, on the slippery ground just after the rain, and could see almost the whole of the Mulshi Valley, where MUWCI is situated.

I'm off for Exeat this weekend, which means that I can go off campus from Friday till Sunday. I'm going to be heading for the beach, and I'll try and keep this blog more updated on events after that (:

love x

I smelt your scent on the seatbelt and kept my shortcut to myself.

(Mumbai, on the way out of the city on the first day)

It's been almost a week since I arrived in India now. It doesn't feel like that at all.
Everything is so new still but yet so familiar, and I feel like I've been here for weeks already!
Earlier this week, there was a musical Spotlight evening, in which we listened to some amazing music, such as a cello piece, one of Beethoven's final movements on the piano and a traditional song. I've also been down to a nearby village for a tutor-group dinner, where we tasted some good Indian food.
On Wednesday I went to Paud. It's a small village around 8km from campus, so we walked down and had a look around.
Yesterday I went to Pune, which was downright amazing. It is the nearest city from here, and we are going again on Saturday. It was so vibrant, colourful, alive and busy. Although there is visible poverty, the place seems bustling and I really enjoyed it. We did have to wear masks as a preventative measure for swine flu, but nobody else seemed to be worried. I had my first rickshaw ride, which was terrifying (there were four of us in a three seater) and exhilarating in equal measures. I managed to buy paint for my room here together with Mette and Gesa, so it will be fun to decorate the place here. We also picked up some fresh vegetables from the market, and cooked dinner with a bunch of people.
Today I was supposed to go on a hike, but I woke up with a massive ant bite on my eye, so I'm sitting here recuperating. Tonight I think there is a retro party in one of the wadas (previous ones this week have been the jumpstyle party and other general ones) and tomorrow evening is the First Year Show, in which we are required to entertain the other students. I'll be playing the flute with other musicians, probably a Bob Dylan or Beatles song.
Other activities I've been busy with are the interwada games we had (we played football and basketball against each other) and the biodiversity reserve tour. The reserve is fantastic! It has edible plants as well as local ones, and is peaceful and pleasant.
The photos are taking way too long to upload now, so I'll do that later.
x

Honk Ok Please

Gisteren verlieten Lennart en ik Nederland. Ik kwam met overgewicht, een te-grote rugzak voor handbaggage en drie truien om me heen gewikkeld in Londen aan. Daar ontmoetten we Marte, Mette en Marius uit Noorwegen, Karen en Lasse uit Denemarken, Victor uit Duitsland, Sofia uit Portugal en Isis uit Engeland. Het was even moeilijk om iedereen in het echt te herkennen, aangezien we elkaar alleen maar door Facebook hadden gesproken, maar het lukte wel :)
De vlucht zelf was wel makkelijk, nadat ik even stoelen had gewisseld om naast Lenn te zitten. We praatten met een man die in de buurt woondde, en werden door een oud-MUWCI-student herkend. We kwamen rond de middag in Mumbai aan, waar we door Nicolai (Noorwegen), Bethany (Scotland) en Heske (Nederland!) werden opgehaald.
Het was supersuperdruk toen we rond zes uur op school aankwamen, en eerst heel verwarrend.
Ik deel een kamer met een Indiaanse first year, die heel lief is (she encouraged me to pack, got me up in the morning etc (: ) en twee second years uit Korea en Japan.
Het is hier warm en regent veel, en het is ontzettend leuk om de namen te leren en te proberen te herinneren (het lukt me nog niet helemaal maar ja).

I could stay forever leave right now it's your call either way

(one of our hippie-campfire-esque nights of the summer)

Nog maar twee dagen tot lift-off!
Ik heb ondertussen twee Noorse mede-MUWCI-studenten ontmoet, die allebei heel aardig waren, en mijn tas geprobeerd in te pakken. Het lukte niet zo goed, en ik ontdekte twee dingen:
1. ik heb wel heel veel nodig om te overleven
2. kleding is wel erg zwaar in bulk
Maar goed. Vandaag ging ik naar Amsterdam met Veerle, waar we een hele dag gewoon door de Negen Straatjes rond dwaalden, en naar Haarlem gingen om ijs te eten. Daarna hebben we nog een stel vrienden ontmoet in de stad, maar aangezien mijn inpakken niet zo uber-fantastisch is moest ik naar huis om dat te doen...
Ik heb ook ontdekt wie mijn kamergenootjes zijn, wanneer mijn vlucht vertrekt en andere handige dingen :)
Er was wel een eng moment, toen we in Noorwegen na een week televisie en internetloos te hebben geleefd, een televisie aanzette. De BBC News had als een feature de situatie in Mumbai/Bombay, waar swine flu (mexicaanse griep) was uitgebroken. Ze lieten beelden van quarantaines en verlaten alley ways zien, which was pretty worrying...
Maar we zien wel!

Yellow icing, just a mirror for the sun

After a brief visit home, I'm off again :)
I'm going to be in Norway for the next fortnight, where I will hopefully meet up with some of my Norwegian co-years-to-be.
For the last couple of days, I've unpacked from my previous trip to rainy old (but still lovely) England, and repacked for India and Norway, been for a vaccination-check-up-thingie, met up with some friends, read and sat in a forest with ice-cream :)
I must add here that English radio is amazing.
I'm also looking forward to more exposure to Norwegian style, so I guess this is my next excuse for posting so very little (not like any of you read this right now anyway. I haven't even gotten to India yet!)
Anyhows. I'll leave you with some really cute/nice/awesome images of treehouses. Have fun :)

Now it's time to leave the capsule if you dare

(Cliffs of Les Petites Dalles - Monet)

Aujourd h'ui est mon dernier jour dans Les Petites Dalles.
Demain, tres tot, nous allions en Angleterre.
Oui. Mon francais n'est pas tres bien mais ce ca :)
For the last week, I've been in France. Apparently, this is where Monet and his pals used to come, to paint the seaside. The light is lovely.
We've been spending mornings driving to and looking around small French towns, afternoons on a cute pebbly beach and evenings by a fire watching films.
Nous avons visite un nuclear power station aussi. C'etait tres interessant :)
Aside from that, I've been starting to worry about packing for India.
20 kg max for baggage!
How I will do that, I don't know.
I've also started my (probably futile) attempt at learning Hindi. Very difficult. I'll keep at it though :)


En nu weer in het nederlands. Ik ben de laatste week in Frankrijk geweest, en morgen ga ik naar Engeland.
We verblijven in een schattig dorpje, Les Petites Dalles, dicht bij het strand. Monet kwam hier vroeger om te schilderen :)
Dit week heb ik niet veel uitgevoerd; slapen, strand, een nuclear power station bezocht, films gekeken.
Ik ben wel begonnen met Hindi. Tot nu toe heb ik een beetje grammatica geleerd, wat veel ingewikkelder is dan engels. Maar goed, ik blijf het leren :)

tot gauw x.

Powder milk at a dairy farm.

(The UWC-NL yeargroup 2009-2011 Swaziland, Hong Kong and India students introducing themselves at the scholarship ceremony. From left to right: Anneloes, Oceane (Swaziland), Bas, Marlies (Hong Kong), me and Lennart (India) in our charming orange polos.)

and procrastination seems to be a fully-fledged skill of mine?
hereby a very late post about things that happened over a month ago :)
I've been 'busy', had my last day of school at ISH ever, and am now on holiday in France.Off to England next week, then home, Norway, home, India!
But back to the past and the post that should have been completed ages ago:


Het is weer eens een tijdje geleden sinds mijn vorige post. Ik ben hier niet zo goed in, geloof ik, Maar goed. Sinds 2 juni ben ik bezig geweest met:

- de UWC beurzenuitreiking (!)
- Duke of Edinburgh Award Adventurous Journey
- Sportsday
- andere minder interessante, maar nodige dingen (huiswerk. nog steeds.)

Nou, de beursuitreiking eerst dan maar :)
Na een erg stressvolle morgen (neemt Sander de drumkit mee? krijg ik mijn visa wel? antwoord een: ja, antwoord twee: nee) kwam ik aan bij het Vredespaleis. Na veel geoefen kwamen allerlei belangrijke mensen, onder wie de prins en de staatsecretaresse van onderwijs, binnen om ons te zien. Nou, verder zongen we allemaal een lied, speelde ik mijn fluit en spraken we met onze sponsoren. Daarna gingen we met alle UWC-Nederland eerste en tweedejaars uit eten, wat heel gezellig was :)


Alright. Basically, the day was lovely. Not much else to say, oh, except this one anecdote:
Simon (Bosnia) and I had had enough of the orange t-shirt UWC networking thing that was going on after the ceremony, so we went outside. We were sitting on the grass, me sans my orange UWC-Nederland t-shirt (but I was wearing a dress underneath...) when this guy comes by. He started to chat to us, so we chatted back. Turned out he was the vice-president of hte International Board of UWC, ie. pretty important :o
Hahaha, and I was sitting there without my proper UWC attire, and Simon didn't realise who the guy was and we were both just lounging in the grass. Amazing. Our social networking skills are just ace :)


Vorig weekend (ja, ik ga weer in het nederlands verder) ging ik naar Aachen om een wandel/camping/ultimate test of friendship te doen. Anders bekend als de Duke of Edinburgh Adventurous Journey. Het begon al vrijdag avond, toen Dieuwke, David en Ariadna (hoi allemaal!) bij mij kwamen slapen zodat we samen konden voorbereiden (alvast sorry als ik stomme nederlandse fouten maak, my grammar/spelling is best in English (: ).
We begonnen onze grote avontuur (hahaha.) in Aachen, waar we met grote 15kg rugzakken de/het (lidwoorden...) station en het bewoonde wereld verlieten. Na een 15 km loop door Duitsland/Belgie (ja, ik weet dat er daar een trema hoort. alleen, hoe ik dat moet flikken op een keyboard, tsja)/Nederland, kwamen we aan bij een mooie boederij camping. Ja, 15km klinkt niet veel, maar met warme weer, grote rugzakken en een bos is het wel een eind :)
We kwamen bij de camping aan en vielen gewoon in slaap :) haha, ja, we stonden wel om 04:30 uur 's ochtends op, dus...
Toen we ietwat bijgekomen waren, begonnen we met het avondeten. Twee uurtjes, veel pasta en gerommel later hadden we een salade en een soort pasta mix met vega balletjes (Ari is vegatarisch) en saus gemaakt. Die pasta was zo stevig dat de lepel er gewoon rechtop erin stond. Eet smakelijk dan maar, he.
We besloten dat we de volgende ochtend vroeg op zouden staan, zodat we eerder thuis zouden komen. Helaas lukte dat niet echt. Toen we na een nachtje slapen (lees: ongemakkelijk in slaapzakken met te weinig ruimte in een warme tent liggen) bezweet wakker werden, bleek het al acht uur te zijn. Na een kwartiertje stressen verlieten we de camping.
10km later kwamen we bij een bushalte aan, en rond half twee zaten we al in de trein naar huis. Achteraf lijkt en klinkt het niet zo moeilijk, maar we waren wel erg blij toen we weer bij Centraal aankwamen.


So, a summary of the above in English now:
I spent a weekend backpacking/walking from Aachen (Germany) to Maastricht (the Netherlands) with Dieuwke, Ariadna and David. We did this for the Duke of Edinburgh Award at Bronze level, spent a slightly uncomfortable night together in a cramped, humid tent at a dairy farm and ate pasta with a sauce made out of powdered packet sauce and powdered milk. Hm.
But we survived this, as well as surviving school.
David has now moved back to Denmark, and I'm currently in France in a cute white house very close to a pebble beach. I spent the first night of my holiday in hospital after falling off the back of Ned's bike ('watch out for the poles!' ... 'ouch'). As it soon transpired, it was merely a sprained wrist, but it meant no Tropicana swimming in Rotterdam (shameeee :) haha.) the following day.
After that eventful night, I passed the time out around bonfires (burning schoolbooks :) haha.) and in parks or in town with friends, CD shopping in Delft with Ned and Ned's friend Greg, visiting my Dutch grandparents and other such things. Right now, I'm just reading, tanning, beaching, eating, sleeping, film-watching, and planning on shopping :)
Oh, and today is also the birthday of one of my UWC buddies :) So gefeliciteerd on that :)
In just over a month I will be flying off into the unknown, but for now I've gotten my vaccinations, visa and flight booked, and will be meeting some of my Norwegian co-years in a couple of weeks :)

And then we walked and walked and left the crowd behind.

(Pinkpop, maandag 1 juni 2009,'borrowed' off Flickr :) so thanks to the photographer etc)

It's been a while since I posted?

I went to Pinkpop (a music festival) yesterday. It was really really really good :)

Basically, I stood on my tip toes for ages and ages to peer over the shoulders of the tall Dutch people, but it was worth it :)

When I arrived with Dieuwke (hi!), Ari and Chris, we went off to see the Gaslight Anthem. Lovely. I got to 'meet-and-greet' them later on, and ended up with 'the gaslight anthem' written down the whole of my right arm :) whoot.

After that, we moved on to All-American Rejects, who, I must admit, I'm not overly fond of. We did hear Dirty Little Secret so it was alright :)

Then on to Amy Macdonald, who was amazing, and now blond! She covered the Killers- Mr Brightside and Bruce Springsteen-Dancing in the Dark (both acts had performed on Saturday), which was really good :) Only some idiots behind me did NOT know that Mr Brightside was by the Killers. Argh.

Some suntan/burn later, I'd managed to get a front row spot for Franz Ferdinand. They were definitely the best act. They were, quite simply, amazing.

I really wanted a t-shirt, but they were sold out :( However, after a long ponder I bought a yellow Kooks one, which is pretty lovely, and went off to see them :) I attempted to swap shirts with people wearing Franz Ferdinand ones, but to no avail.

The Kooks. I stood on my tip toes the WHOLE WAY THROUGH, it was great :) Hahaha, and we (Gael, Philipp, Alex and me- we'd found the friends who'd camped there by now) counted the number of All-Stars clad feet in the vicinity, we got like 15 in about one minute and 3m of radius. Seriously.

The last act we saw was Snow Patrol. People had lit fires and we danced like aeroplanes and native americans (political correctness here?) around them :) It was really really good. Veerle (hi!) also managed to be obnoxious to the pizza guy (who deserved it- the service was SO slow) and get tan lines (whoot!). For the rest, I collected cups to get coupons, danced like my limbs were falling off and refused to go watch Katy Perry. Yes indeed.

So now I'm sitting here in my Kooks t-shirt, having slept a grand total of max. 2.5 hours, as I watched The Holiday instead of sleeping on the bus, and pissed everyone off when we got off at Centraal and I skipped around and was generally way too happy for 3 in the morning.

And then school. I had a free, it turned out, so we lay out in the grass and wished we were hippies :)

Tomorrow I'm off to Utrecht for a UWC meeting thingie. I'm apparently playing my flute at some point, which will be interesting.

I WILL upload photos. Soon. After all those other things. Oh dear. :)

Thank goodness for autosave.

Today I and some fellow-MUWCI-students-to-be decided that our 'mascot' would be a green gummy dog. Yes. We have created an in-joke before we have even properly met. Whoot :)

On Thursday I met up with all the Dutch UWCers of 2009-2011, to plan all sorts of stuff. It was all good fun, what with the murder attempt (on me by Jens) , crashing into the neighbour's garden for pictures (this does make sense, truly), the decision to all be 'sick' in order to practice our performance (shh.) and the evening out waiting for dinner for simply ages.

Ah well. Yesterday I went to the Efteling and tried (hopelessly) to get a tan. The rides were great fun :) And we got some amazing pictures of us 'flying' and cute little castles etc.

En nu in het nederlands! Vandaag hebben ik en een paar andere toekomstige MUWCI studenten besloten om een groene gummy hond als mascotte te hebben. Inderdaad. Geen gummy beer (hoewel die natuurlijk ook gewoon ontzettend cool zijn) maar een gummy hond. :)

Op donderdag gingen alle nederlandse UWCers van 2009-2011 naar Den Haag. Allemaal heel erg leuk :)

Alleen heb ik nu niet zo veel zin om alles te 'translate'n, dus je zou dit gewoon in Google Translate (bless it. SO useful. (: ) kunnen gooien als je dat wilt. Maar goed.

Gister ging ik met vriendinnen naar de Efteling. Het was erg leuk, alleen lukte het me niet om bruin te worden, maar ach ja :)

Oh and btw! Anthony has started his own blog, bless :) His awesome blogname was very much my idea as well :)

x

A Translation for Anthony

Alright :)

So, I thought writing in Dutch was a good idea. Only, my very first follower doesn't understand, and has issued a complaint...Here's the Dutch bit in English then :)

I had a really really long day today. It's strange, as I know I only have 33 days of school left here, ever. Nice strange :) But still strange.

Okay, so it's not worth directly translating the text word for word. Shove it into Google Translate if you like :) 

It's Ascension Day on Thursday, and I am looking forward to the extra sleep that will bring :) 

Anyhows, I'll try and update with more useful stuff soon...Hopefully Thursday, after I've met up with all my new UWCers again :)

x

Let's Make Better Mistakes Tomorrow

I'm still trying to get a nice voice-over of my presentation I did last Saturday at the Information/Introduction Dutch UWC day, so until then my wonderous video (thank you Veerle for the post it photography (: ) won't be up here. Sorry about that :)

So, last Saturday. I went over to Utrecht and met all my fellow Dutch UWCers, which was nice. We all had presentations, some of which were amazing. Now, we're busy organizing our act for the sponsorday thingie, and trying to come up with fundraising ideas.

En nu in het nederlands. Ik ga op deze blog al mijn UWC ervaringen proberen bij te houden, maar omdat ik nog niet in India zit, praat ik nu gewoon een beetje over wat er hier allemaal gebeurt. Vorige week zaterdag ontmoette ik al de andere geselecteerden, en we hielden allemaal korte presentaties over onszelf. Het was mijn bedoeling om die van mij te uploaden, maar daarvoor moet ik nog het een en ander doen, dus dat komt wel strakjes :)

Vandaag was een lange dag. Het is vreemd, want ik weet dat ik nog maar 33 dagen van school in nederland heb. Raar, aangezien ik hier nu al zeven jaar woon of zo. Maar wel leuk raar :)

Ik heb mijn huiswerk niet af maar dat geeft niet :) Momenteel ben ik gewoon even met andere dingen (lees: fashionsites en winkelen) bezig :)

Morgen is nog een dag, dus.

x

From a Dutch Interior

Hey,

My very first posting on my very first blog (: Here goes...

I'm Sophie, and I'm Dutch/English/Chinese.

This year I was one of 23 lucky Dutch people selected by the Dutch National Comittee to go to a United World College for the next 2 years.

For those of you who haven't heard of United World Colleges, or UWCs, they are basically international schools who focus on service and international awareness as well as providing the IB (International Baccalaureate) education. 

There are 12 UWCs in the world, and places at these schools are offered only to those selected by their national comittees or by the International Committee. Places are offered on merit only, and to students who the committees feel comply with the UWC aims and ideals.

For more information, you could check out the international website: http://www.uwc.org/

Alright, so now we've had the basics, I'll talk about myself a bit more (:

At the end of the summer I will be off to India, to the Mahindra College (or MUWCI) for 2 years of potentially life-changing adventure and experience. 

I'll be going with another Dutch guy, Lennart, whom I met yesterday (:

So, I'll be using this blog to inform people of the goings-ons, and to show you all how I've been spending my time out on what is now for me the other side of the world.

So excited!

Soph x