A Little Wisdom

Picture found here.

Sometimes, we all need to see quotes that relate to your life. Well, here's mine. 

Have a lovely day, xo

I am doing OK.

I am still alive, but doing well? That's the big question. I have no pictures, no exciting adventures and no big news which is why it took me so long to put up a blog post. Now I can hear you go; why complain? You're in a new exciting country that is beautiful, the people a incredibly nice and the city is one of the major ones in Europe - you should be happy! Well... Instead of being happy, I am okay. Everything has been going 'okay' since I moved here. I haven't been insanely enthusiastic about this move since the start and when people ask how I am doing now; everything is still just going 'okay'.

Now, being okay is not the worst state of living. Trust me, I have been through worse and that was in my safe quiet environment at home. So in spite of just being okay, I am actually doing fine. School is interesting, even though I didn't get the courses that I wanted, the city is indeed very lovely (even now with all the christmas things!) and I have met incredibly wonderful people. But in spite of all that, I am still doing just 'okay'. I can't become excited about being here because of the room situation (my other room turned out to be a huge scam and we lost a huge amount on money and now I am living in a flat with no guarantee of having a place next semester). I am not freaking out about it anymore but it is a pressing matter in my everyday life. When you move to another country on your own you expect so much. I expected to find myself and grow so much as a person, find people that would inspire me to write more and even, if I were really lucky, I would find a person to fall in love with. Instead I have lived out of my suitcase for almost two months in total, been scammed and still bombarded with emails from them, I'm cold most of the time and find being on my own not that satisfying as I thought I would. So what do I do? Do I go back home, have a couple of months rest, find a little job and figure out what I want? Or do I suck it up and stay here next semester as well, in spite of maybe not even having a room? (next semester is only 12 weeks)

Being in such a life dilemma is not fun let me tell you. Finally I have figured out what I want and the career direction that I want to go in, but at this moment in life I am not heading that way. That doesn't mean that things won't change here because next semester does have courses that are of my interests but only if I get in. It MIGHT change. And this bit 'if' situation is scaring the crap out of me.

I am doing fine. I can honestly say that I am kind of happy with myself. I like that way that I dress, always try to be nice to people, be open and sometimes I am even quite hilarious (if I say so myself). My life if full of questions and if's at the moment and I don't like it. I am still young and have many other chances, but I am just going to put this out here: have I made the right decision?

Concert: Foals

Yesterday evening a friend and I went to Foals in VEGA (Copenhagen's Paradiso) and it was awesome. We stood very close to the stage and they were so good! A little bit heavier that I normally listen to, but you know, sometimes you just got to get it out of your system, and this concert was just the thing for us. Also, look at me making new friends and stuff!

Foals is a indie rock band from Oxford, UK. They consist of 5 members, including (of course) the lead singer Yannis Philippakis. They currently have three albums out: Antidotes (2008), Total Life Forever (2010) and their new album Holy Fire (2013). This is probably their best known song - and also one of my favorites.


Yannis ran around like a money, climbing on the balcony and also stage dived, not once but twice. As I said before sometimes you just gotta let it out, man! I also brought my camera phone but the pictures came out quite nicely - go me!  xo

Up Close: Lund, Sverige

Since my housing situation has turned into a absolute disaster, I decided to take refugee in the neighboring country Sweden. Luckily I have a dear friend living there so I am able to stay at her place until I go home this weekend (excitement!). Even though I am in a tough place, Lund is absolutely gorgeous. Do you also think that even though you don't feel well that the place could make it better? Well, Lund makes my days better and I wanted to share why. Be aware, building porn coming up!


These are all university buildings, how cool are they?! They are all either libraries or class buildings of all kinds of different faculties (the last one is my friend's library building at the linguistic faculty, don't you just want to study when you see this?!). I just love this time of year. You can see the leaves chaining colors and it makes the buildings so pretty! I love the smell of autumn, the colors and the outfits. It's safe to say that I am definitely a autumn girl.


This is Lund's pride and joy. It's the main university building and the biggest one in the middle of the center. I think it kind of looks like a government building and it reminds me of the static buildings in Washington.


This post cannot be complete without some food. I mainly wanted to show you this because this sandwich was bigger than my hand. And it was so good! The truth is, every time me and a friend go and do something we either go and eat food or watch series/films. Best way to spend you time anyway, eh?

xo

Christianshavn

I am still here. I don't know what I expected, but things haven't been going great lately. Why is there no rulebook for moving to another country and dealing with a totally different society and school and people and stuff? Seriously, because I need one. Things have not been going well for me, everything piling up like snow and I am unable to see through. But then again, sometimes, you see this.


Look at the beauty, the silentness and stillness. I hate when people have a #nofilter tag underneath something, but honestly, this is how the picture came out. Isn't it stunning?

I promise I will write more, tell exciting things and be awesome but for now I need to figure this sh*t out and deal with it. I feel like I am growing but I don't know into what and I am just asdfjkl, if you catch my drift.

xo

Copenhagen

I have been here for 2 weeks now and I'm still getting used to literally everything. However, the weather has been making it more bearable because it has been so so lovely over the past few days. I have moved hotels again and hopefully Sunday I will FINALLY get my room! Excitement.



In the middle of the city center there stand the 'Rundetaarn' which means the round tower. We climed on it and look at the view! It was nice to have a little orientation point and we could see Sweden! Sometimes I forget how close we are to another country.



If you're from Scandinavia you probably know this but Denmark is flea market heaven. I've been to a little flea market on Sunday and let me tell ya, it's amazing. I bought a jumper, necklace, sunglasses and a top for 15 euros total. And they are all good quality! Go me and bless Copenhagen.



I always knew that Copenhagen and Amsterdam looked alike but I never know how much! Every time a cross a corner I immediately think 'if I didn't know I was in another country, I would think I was in Amsterdam'. I must say that it is a nice feeling because it doesn't make me feel homesick at all. Yay for Copenhagen.



When you're on the metro you can see the front and the back of it. It makes you feel like you're in a roller-coaster and I love it. Luckily the hotel I'm staying at has a metro stop which makes me feel so adventurous doing so, sitting in the front of a automatic metro line. We all need our little pleasures right?!

I am still very new to all of this but I'm still alive! I think that in the future I might reflect on this period and have lots of opinions about it, but at the moment I am literally waiting for my room to be done and to finally have a solid place to live. The phrase if life gives you lemons, make lemonade has never applied to me more.

xo

Chapter 2.0: Honesty Hour

I have emigrated. It feels weird to type it like it has really become true, but the matter of fact is: I am living in another country. These last month and a half have been so hectic and so adventurous that I honestly either forgot to post or would like to keep private. Therefore this post is going to be a short one and without any pictures (sorry).

So where have I been? I have gone on holiday twice (Portugal first and then London) and they were both so great and lovely and relaxing and really needed. The first holiday was just soaking up the sun and chilling out, finally being able to have a think about the past four years of college and also finally being able to be happy about everything that had happened to me. I mean, I managed to get two university diploma's in four years and that's pretty impressive. I didn't really took if for granted but then again I may have taken it for granted sometimes and that week of a holiday just really made me feel incredibly blessed and happy I am about all the experiences that I got. It made me realize how much I like England and the English language and also being, for the very first time in my life, proud of myself for taking that adventure and completing it. It may sound stupid and we all had our unhappy moments in life, but I literally had never been proud of myself. I took myself for granted as well and now I've realized that I shouldn't. The second little trip just really made me feel so blessed with my friends. I know we all say this; but I truly have the best friends in the world. They mean everything to me and for some reason they like me as I am. I always thought that people just felt sorry for me and out of pity they would talk to me, but I realize now that they might actually like me - which is a scary thought I might add. If the people I hang out with like me for me than maybe I should start liking me because they make me a better person and I honestly love every single one of my friends. Needless to say my little break was full of epiphanies. 

So now I'm in a foreign country, a city that I do not know and a language that I do not speak and I feel incredibly vulnerable. I cried non stop yesterday just because I was so out of my comfort zone and luckily I had a friend beside me (via Skype) to calm me down. I am alone. Truly and utterly alone in a city that I have been once before. So what do I do? I am living out of my suitcase unable to start this new adventure. Tomorrow school starts and I am terrified. I know these are all normal feelings but I really need to remind myself not to call my parents and ask to come home. Because deep down, I really don't want to (unless the course sucks then I probably will). I literally need to start over here and I decided to take you guys with you and by the end of this two year (!) experience I will have developed and grown as a person and I will also be proud for taking this next step. So hi old friends (and new ones if you're reading my blog) and let's  embark on this new journey together. 

A Day at the Amsterdam Summer Festival (DWDB)

Yesterday Louise, my parents and I went to a summer festival. I am a big big fan of festivals but for some reason (mostly school related) I wasn't able to go to any of the Dutch summer festivals as I used to. So luckily this little festival came around and I was able to go! Yay! My brother was supposed to come with us but he had to work so I called up Louise and told her to get her ass to Amsterdam and she did (yay for my friend). The festival was called 'de wereld draait buiten' which is from a Dutch TV-show and discusses a lot of music and news and such. But we got to see three (more but those are the only ones I took pictures of) amazing artists namely: Lianne La Havas, Vampire Weekend (!!!!!) and Ben Howard. Let's just say that Louise and I were way too excited for Vampire Weekend, haha. They were truly amazing, if you haven't listened to them yet - go check them out pronto!!

Look at how amazing this day was?! I had such a lovely time. On to some artists!

Lianne La Havas


ieee!!! Look at Ezra! (fangirling over here) They were truly amazing.

And last but not least: Ben Howard. We were a little late for him so we had to stand all the way in the back but it was okay because we heard all his hits loud and clear anyways.

Before we ended this day Louise and I made a shameless selfie. Finally we have a nice picture of us two together (seriously, we known each other for 4 years now and this is the 1st ever picture!)


Summer is finally happening, yay! I am going to spend this week meeting up with friends, working at my dad's and trying to relax before going on holiday next week! Me so excited!
Have a lovely day! xo

Sushi Dinner

Today I received a very important email... I graduated university!!!!!! I am so relieved and glad and excited and asdfjkl about it. I basically didn't know what to do with myself today. I phoned my dad in hysterics and he said that we should have a celebratory dinner in honour of this milestone; and if you let me pick the restaurant it will obviously be a sushi place. So here are some of the delicious things I had this evening:




Sigh.. I really love sushi.  Anyways, enjoy your weekend - I have something exciting coming up that I will share with you all and I'll see you soon! xo

Up Close: My Walls

I decided to blog more this month. I am going on holiday in two weeks (eek excitement!) and since the weather has turned down again, I decided to do an 'up close' fragment of my room. I have some other bits and pieces planned out as well so we'll see how far we go with this shall we?

This is one of my walls in my room. Here I have all kinds of bits and bobs collected over the pasts view years, these are basically all kinds of experiences I've had. You can see (moving from the window on the left) three postcards which have quotes from Jane Austen on it. Since I am a huge Austen fan AND saw them when I visited Bath, I couldn't help myself and bought them. The third one down is the same postcard only then with Alice In Wonderland quotes, which is my favourite book of all time. Then we have three posters bought in the country of origin: The Beatles card from Liverpool, Le Chat Noir from Paris and the Hundertwasserhaus in Vienna. Below that are some pieces that I either got (Rowena Ravenclaw from my chocolate frog when we visited the HP Studios), Sherlock Baker Street Sign from the Sherlock Museum and a gift from a friend - a drawing for my birthday. I love it so much. On the right you can see another birthday gift - Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. Below that is the Lucy Rose poster that Louise and I got when we went to her concert (she is lovely!). Below that are all my necklaces, I might have a little obsession...


Then in the middle we have all kinds of things I've gathered through my years of travelling (see the American dollar on the board), when we visited museums, special cards I received when I was living in England, some pictures, my 18th birthday sticker and my two gold medals from when I still did synchronized swimming. I am very proud of those actually! Above the board are just all the things I did when I lived in England. We have a large picture of my and my friends when we visited Warwick Castle and around that all kinds of train tickets and things I've visited during my stay in England. I love looking at them and think of all the beautiful things I've done and seen while studying abroad.


This is the wall opposite my bed. Now, I'm not going to get into detail because I have a story about almost all cards on this wall, but I just love love love this wall in my room. Since each card has a story I just love looking at them and be reminded of all the things I've experiences. The dream catchers on my mirror are all from Native American Reservations while traveling in the USA. They were all made by Native Americans and since I believe in dreaming they keep me sane sometimes (sounds weird but they work for me). The two posters on the right are traditional French Parisian posters which I bought almost 10 years ago at a flea market while visiting Paris.

This is my closet wall. I call it a wall because my room has a really high ceiling so it's pretty big. On my closet wall are posters that keep me inspired. On the high left is a black cat poster. Next to that is a pretty large Escher poster, one of my absolute favourite artists. Beneath the cat poster is the piece that I bought on the book market, it's a piece from a children's book, one I read when I was younger. It's in the same style as many Annie M.G. Schmidt books, the drawing is a typically Fiep Westendorp drawing. It just reminds me so much of my childhood, I just love it. Under the drawing is a Clash poster (one of the teenager obsessions I had) but I just can't throw it away. Next to that are two mini postcards I bought whilst in New York, one is from the New Yorker and the other is a old Vogue cover. They are both vintage postcards. Beneath that is a 'keep calm and drink tea' poster that a friend of mine bought for me one day. I love this variation because I like tea. All the way on the bottom is a picture of Audrey Hepburn - one of my favourite movie stars.
So those are some of my walls! I hope you enjoyed seeing a bit of my room and some of my stories and I'll see y'all soon :). xo

My Day Out

Sorry I've been so MIA recently! I had school exam stress and then I became severely ill and I literally couldn't move for a week. But I'm all better now and to celebrate that I decided that me and Louise should go to Amsterdam for the day and just eat. Sounds like a solid plan right?!

I do really love Amsterdam. We decided to go to a breakfast/lunch cafe in the 9 streets, called Nielsen and oh em gee, I had the most amazing sandwich ever. Warning: foodgasm ahead.


I mean, look at this piece of art. And it was amazing! I had the chicken, bacon, avocado and mayo sandwich. Lemme tell ya; just when you think it can't get better - they add bacon. I mean... I can't even describe it. Let's just say that it was very quiet at the table when we had our sandwiches, haha. Definitely recommend this cafe if someone is thinking of going to Amsterdam and wants to find something for lunch. Delicious! After that we perused around the 9 streets for a bit and decided that it was tea time. And with tea time comes cake. I mean, rule number 1 of tea time right?! So we went to Pompadour (also in the 9 streets) and I had the most delicious chocolate cake ever. (And I am very picky with my chocolate cake.)



nomnomnom...
We then decided to walk back to central station where we would both get our own train and go home. Luckily Amsterdam is not so big so we were able to walk for a while when...



Hello book market! I forgot that it was a Friday and Friday's are usually the time where 'het Spui' in Amsterdam has its little book market. Now I am a sucker for books and when they are cheap, I go a bit loco. Luckily I didn't buy any books but I did buy something incredible which I will show you soon (oh, such a tease!). Spoiler: it's not a book. Excitement right?!
To round it off: I am very sorry for leaving my blog for a whole month (sorry blog!) but I just needed some time to get heathly and get through the stress that is graduating. Luckily I passed my final exam which means I am now celebrating my well deserved summer holiday. Hooray for me!
Have a good week y'all! :)

Book Haul

I have a confession to make: I am obsessed with books. I love to read and I want to buy books all the time. If I didn't have to spend money on food and clothes, I would just spend it on books. Since my study finances came in last week I decided that it was time to go and buy new books. So me and my friend Cora went to lovely Waterstones in Amsterdam to indulge ourselves.

Sigh, I want to live in Waterstones. I hadn't been there for quite a while so I was excited to go. What more ways to enjoy the day than to buy books right?! When I lived in England we had a Waterstones in our town, which was good for me but not so good for my bank account. And the books are so much cheaper in England than The Netherlands as well. I cannot buy new books every two weeks anymore, sad times. However, now buying books is a trip for me and that is also exciting. I ended up buying four books off my to-read list.


I look way too excited in this picture. But these are my lovely new babies! I bought:

• William Makepeace Thackeray - Vanity Fair. A classic that I haven't read yet.
• T.H. White - The Once and Future King. A book retelling the stories of King Arthur and Merlin, one of my favourite tales of all time.
• Jasper Fforde - Shades of Grey. This book explains a dystopia where people are ranked by seeing colours. The more colours you see the higher ranked you are. Seems interesting enough for me.
• Margaret Atwood - The edible woman. I love Atwood's poems so I though I gave her books a try. This book summary starts with: 'Marian is determinedly ordinary, waiting to get married.' Well, I think I will like this book just by this sentence since I'm an romanticist by heart.

I'll let you know how I get on. If you want to follow me on Good Reads, you can :)

Have a good week!

Over the weekend

This weekend my friend invited me over for her birthday party. I was so excited to get out of the house and see some of my friends. They are the people who I met while studying in Wolverhampton and luckily they are Dutch as well so we can keep in touch like this! She made beautiful food and we had a slumber party and watched Geordie Shore and movies all night. I love doing things like this <3. It was also nice to get out of the house for a while, even though I am SO TIRED now! But it was all worth it.

Ugh, I'm getting hungry again. The night was a tapas evening and she made the most delicious food. Luckily my friend is an amazing cook as well because if I was the one making the food it would not have ended so well. Consequence: we ate until we couldn't walk anymore.


At the end of the evening we all had gave us her presents and then me and some friends stayed over and some friends left. I had an amazing time and I also had time to make a shameless selfie:
Hello!

Life's Update pt.3

Breath

I cannot more forward

I'm stuck in this dying place.

Close my eyes to catch something

I cannot see, smell or breath.

The earth is moving beneath my feet

Time has turned against me.

My skin is cruel, my lips are weak

My voice is gone, wanting to scream words

or make sounds.

Struggling to keep up, I close my eyes

and breath.

I shall be okay.

I shall be okay.

I shall be okay.

This week was a very rough week. Keep getting so tired and just cry over the smallest things. Placement has been such a struggle that I wanted to give up on everything. But since yesterday I am feeling a bit better. I got a great motivational speech from my mentor at school and now I just need to stay positive and on track. I can do this. This poem expresses all my feelings at this moment, but I promise you that the next posts will be much more up beat and happier! Even though I'm stressed out, some things on the internet just makes you smile and happy. These are some things I've been loving this week:

• The lovely parcel. I think this is such a great initiative and I can't wait to send something over!
• Since I am doing a (double) degree for becoming an international English teacher, this made me laugh out loud.
• I read this just at the right time and agree with everything she says. Amen sister!
• I absolutely love photography and I think this is a great idea and also creeps me out a little.
• How to make miso soup!
• I saw the film Touble with the Curve last week and I absolutely adore it. If you are a fan or feel good movies and baseball, this is your movie.

Have a good week!

Being a Big Woman

Picture from here

Today I want to talk about body image. I know that I'm not an expert or a professional but I do think it is an important thing to discuss. Lately I have been hearing to much about body images and it makes me so angry sometimes. I truly believe that our world these days (even over the last decade) is obsessed with skinny women. But like, really skinny women. And I don't understand why. First of all, being skinny does not mean that you're healthy, it doesn't mean that you're better than others and it definitely doesn't mean that you're more beautiful than bigger women. Although these are just plain simple truths, the media keep pushing people to go on a diet and especially celebrities are being pushed "to set an example". And what example is that? That's right, being skinny.

I decided to do some research. I read an article in Psychology magazine called 'Why too big? Why we should stop being obsessed about weight'. The article explains that women who are a little bigger are being bullied by other, intentionally or unintentionally. Because the media sets us with an example, women who don't look like that are not accepted according to the magazine. And I agree. The other day I was in a shop to look for summer stuff for my holiday and they didn't have my size on the rack and the lady who was helping me carefully asked me that maybe I should look at the 'plus size' section. This is so insulting! First of all, I am 1.80 m (5.9") and I weigh 80 kilo (176 pounds). According to the BMI index, I am still perfectly fine on the scale. Maybe a little to the right side (the bigger side shall we say) but perfectly fine. And then some little skinny brat has the nerve to say that to me. I am a size 12/14 people! Anyway, what I am trying to say is that people should stop being so obsessed with being skinny. They seem to forget something that's called a body type. A body type is the types, pear shaped, apple shaped etc. Women have different shapes and they will always have different shapes and sizes. If you a really skinny and small you're okay but if you are a little bigger you are supposed to fit a box that clearly doesn't fit you. And why should we?

Another thing said about bigger women is that they are less happy. I always want to punch people in the face whenever I hear that. I have met bigger women (I am a big woman) and I am perfectly happy. Maybe I am stressed or tired, but that has to do with factors of life (in my case, trying to graduate) and has NOTHING to do with my body weight. I don't even weigh myself that often! I literally haven't met any women that said they're unhappy because they are a little bigger. Most are even proud of it. Stop fitting people in boxes that they (literally) can't fit in and look at their personality. Let's all be kinder to one another shall we? And accept us for who we are. There are of course issues with being a little bigger. According to the Psychology article there are a few factors that indicate that you are too overweight:

1. When people with obesity have an illness related to/because of their weight, like diabetes/sleeping diseases,
2. When they get psychological problems related to their weight, like becoming depressed,
3. They they are unable to perform daily tasks and,
4. When they get high blood pressure, high cholesterol, devious blood sugar or too much belly fat (although all these problems are able to happen to skinny people as well)

All these issues have to do with whether you are eating heathy and taking exercises. With eating healthily, I mean don't only eat McDonalds or too much products with high fats. This doesn't mean you can't eat chocolate or anything you don't want to, just play it safe. Also with exercise, it doesn't mean going to the gym 5 times a week, or doing exercises every day; just try to walk as much as you can, bicycle somewhere if it's not too far and take the stairs. If you can go to the gym that is good but only because of eliminating changed you might get sick (think of heart diseases or high blood pressure). 

Basically what I'm trying to say: be happy with who you are and what you look like. If you have issues with yourself, always check you insides first (emotions, character trades) and then the way you look. You don't have to be skinny to be happy and you definitely don't have to lose weight then others tell you to. It is your life and if you are happy with the way you look, then sod them!

(I would also like to apologise for the rant, sorry) Have a great week!

Sometimes Good Things Happen to People Who are Stressed Out, Very Tired and Cry a lot.

This weekend my friend and I went to the Japanese Garden in the Hague. The sun was shining, the trains were on time and we were excited. It's so lovely to do something totally different sometimes because it keeps you on your toes and get you inspired.

The garden was lovely, a bit small but unfortunately not everything had blossomed yet. However, we did get some beautiful shots and a good walk around. Then we decided to keep the Japanese theme and get some lunch. We went to one of the most delicious Japanese restaurants ever apparently because the food was am-a-zing. We decided to get some sushi and a bento box. I went for the fish box.
Looking at this food makes me oh so hungry again. It was so delicious! We stayed there for quite a long time because we were just enjoying the food and we also found out that they serve Hello Kitty High Teas so we'll definitely go back there, I mean, how cute does that sound?! Then to round off a perfect day, we went to my friend's sister and did yakitori, which was absolutely amazing. I've never had it before but I'm going to try it whenever I can!
How amazing does that look right?! Needless to say, we had an amazing day.
Yesterday some friends and I celebrated Queensday with having a Ghibli marathon and it was just lovely. And then.. suddenly.... when I went to check my email...
I got accepted to the University of Copenhagen to do my Masters degree!!!! How amazing is that. I am still a bit stunned but this gives me so much motivation to do well this semester and just get it over with, because I am going to Copehagen in the fall. I also booked a divine holiday to Portugal this summer so I only have good things to happen. Which is quite a change from a week ago. I am full of motivation and inspiration and let's get on with the last part of my course!