Consciousness: "Child wake up and check your phone."
Me: "AAA %&#¤#:@!"
Flesh and blood is arriving in an hour and still stuck in bed and have the hoover waiting in the kitchen. Rush rush rush, but remember to also check Facebook!
So I was greeted with a suffocating hug by a character resembling Santa Claus;
1. She defied gravity.
2. She brought me lots of presents.
Enough reasons already to compare Mama to Father Christmas.
Oliebollen and a short sunny walk home. Chocolate enough for the rest of the decade. And The Holy Balls. Touching them after a long time felt like reaching out to heaven and being able to grab a piece of it. I thought my mother would be tired after a long travel, but she insisted we go out for a walk. So the beauty of our neighborhood was shown and the famous "cheap store", which all cottage residents show to their guests. Exploring by foot was really difficult, since it's hard to stay out of the bike road, but a pharmacy and pizzeria were found! Loempia in the city and dazzling Christmas lights and the landmark of whole Breda, which is every exchange student's light back home.
good friends since the age of 5
eskimos do come from finland
cheap store
we'd all be lost without you
Day 2 and what else than Sweden's pride IKEA! Yes, it is the place where I would like to play hide and seek and go to when I miss Finland. Later in the evening we had dinner in the gezellig Borenstompatt. Like I promised in one of my entries that I would bring people from Finland there, so I had to keep my promise. Such a nice place, but this time it was impossible to finish the food. The day ended with a post-Christmas tradition of mine; watching The Breakfast Club. It was for the third time now and I realized that each time it's been in a different place with different people. This time it was great to see it with someone, who loves that movie too and someone, who needs to watch more good movies. And yes I also took the public bus for the first time in Breda.
heja sverige!
grote markt
one of the best!
Day 3 and home made food after a long time! First time Mama trusted me to cook the rice, which ended looking like porridge. I only cook for three people; Me, Myself and I, so no wonder it was a bit hard to put the right amount of ingredients. No one died, that's the most important fact.
Day 4 we're proud to be NHTV. We took the longer way there, because I wanted to visit an old friend. Kjehehehe. Hanging out in the Asian stores took more time than I expected, after which we went bowling.
mama and orko do not get along
kidz kidz stay away!
New Year's Eve. Last day of the year. Chillaxing at home, preparing for 2011. First time I'm scared of the upcoming year. 2010 you treated me well. In the beginning you were a nightmare, which will be haunting me forever, but towards the end you became to be the pal to look up to.
2011, what better way to start you with probably my first proper Dutch tradition. Hanging out at the beach with 10 000 people and taking a dip into the "warmer than I thought" sea was something definitely needed. The Unox hat and gloves were really warm, I didn't really think them to be made of good quality, since you just paid 2€ of which half went to the seals. And the world is saved. Then it was time to walk around Den Haag centre and Rotterdam after that. I hate walking around Rotterdam, due to the tall buildings blocking your sight and therefore not finding places that easily. It always feels good to to be arriving to Breda's trainstation. It somehow feels like arriving home, wonder how the feeling will be in half a year then in Finland.
the most expensive hotel in the netherlands
always the outsider
the first king
erasmus
good times with you <3
Last day of the week and to mass after a while. The sun was shining it was warm, but the church was not. Grrr. Only way to warm up was a trip to McDonald's like in good old days. Perfect breakfast. On TV they showed an Abba documentary, which I had seen before already, but now it had Dutch subtitles and it really messed up your brains when they talked in Swedish every now and then. Weird that I understood Dutch more, however I've never been good in listening excercises with foreign languages. Later in the evening it was time to say goodbye to Troy. It's sad to first say goodbye to my beer tasting buddy and now to my museum buddy. Friends come and go, but museum cards what they leave behind is something to cherish! Kjehehe, thanks Troy! Thanks for all the good trips we've done and for introducing Crystal Castles to me! X
pictures in mama's purse
art from niki, britt & pepijn X
goodbye, hello troy <3
Already a week had passed and it was time to say goodbye to Mama. It was very early at the train station in the morning. Haven't had fun experiences spending time at train stations, but that is a story to tell later on. Thank you Mama for putting food in my fridge for the next 4 days and make sure not to have the stroopwafels in the micro longer than 20 seconds!
And the big cottage was empty again.
the new and improved
One more thing. Thanks to all who have been part of my life the past year, I hope you will be there this coming year too. <3
First Christmas away from home. Must admit that I was regretting a bit that I didn't go back to Finland, but as soon as the morning of 26th came or rather say afternoon, I was extremely satisfied how things turned out to be. It's because it was different. Different how? Well, let me tell you.
Christmas Eve started by a call from the NHTV in the morning that the laptop, which my dear flat mate Judit had returned with her assignments was there again. So off I went on CHRISTMAS EVE to school to get the assigments. I would have never imagined myself being on that day at school, which smelt like beer from the previous night's party. Also in Finland my holiday would have started a week earlier, but hey no complaining, not everyone can go to another country for an exchange! After that me and hungovered Jordan headed to the city for breakfast and present shopping. Actual shopping took about 5 min.
at bruxelles
I had to clean the house for the upcoming dinner, which I wasn't able to complete, don't remember why though. But groceries with Anneke took longer than I expected. She just kept throwing more and more food in the basket. MORE AND MORE. Which actually was a decent amount in the end. I guess it was just my lack of knowledge with wines, which took a bit of time.
A juicy ham (finally once again!), nicely ready-seasoned turkey, pyttipannu and so on with glühwein, chocolate, cake and ginger cookies for dessert made the whole feast very lekker! Plus the gezellig cottage. AAH. The evening ended with online trivial pursuit (which made people yell at each other) and finally a visit to Speeltuin. Already a Christmas to remember? Yes, but wait until you read what happened on the 25th.
damn, we didn't compose our own Christmas song!
dankjewel!
all this and dessert did not even cost much! :)
see that person with the blue/white shirt? she's the one, who makes the leftovers disappear
Before writing about it, many have asked why I didn't go back to Finland. The answer is that I wanted to experience the whole year here and whatever comes with it. If I would travel somewhere, I'd put my money on another place than the one, where I grew up. And back to the story.
So, Christmas Day was spent at David's place. He cooked us Hungarian food, which was yummy, I had to peel potatoes. There were two Bulgarians and Henna there too. Five of us were having a peaceful evening, until David took out the feared game. Me and Henna have great memories of it from the first week here. This time the Finnish team was ready to beat the Bulgarians. After thrilling moments we did. Just glad that I wasn't in the loosing team.
traditional hungarian dish
henna goes wacko for puma
losers
Laughing my ass off was good for me. Haven't really had a moment like that in a while now. Especially when we decided to play it again with different teams and once again not in the loosing team. MUAHAHA.
It was something like 1AM already and few of us were thinking to leave home, but David put some good dance tunes on, which kept us yet for a while in the house. Me and Ivan had fun dance battles, which I guess was more about him teaching me to have a mean face, while dancing. Then happened the glühwein incident. Have no clue how Ivan managed to knock a kettle of 2l of glühwein on the floor. Everyone cried after the drink, when Ivan cried for his burned foot. Poor Ivan, all he heard was Henna yelling at him: "YOU IDIOT!" Don't worry Ivan, we're not bitter anymore, you're a lot of fun!
It's 7am. WHAT?! 7am. WHAT?! 7AM DAMN IT! Gosh, you could almost see the sun rising, when I rode my bike home. I still didn't feel tired when I got back, so I had to listen to some more music myself. Finally at 8.30 Sandman came. I guess he had a busy night too.
So this was Christmas and what had I done. Nothing what I would have done back home. This time different was good. Different experiences are always good, they don't make you richer through your wallet, but through your mind. Still laughing and looking back with a smile, for sure also when I get old (25).
Thank you all, who made my Christmas so special! Certainly wasn't anything I expected. You topped my expectations! Thanks for being here for me <3
End of a semester. A time to let people leave. A time to say goodbye. A time to say goodbye, but also see you again. That's how the student's life rolls year to year. Every half a year you start a new era. This time it is different. Different in better and worse. People here have become your new family. You get used to their customs and they are there for you. As soon as you get to know them better, they leave. Most heartbreaking was to see my dear BTC and movie friend Janne say goodbye. On his last week, we finished our task of tasting all the special beer boxes we found from this city. Result was that Belgium kicked Holland's ass. I still remember when we sometime on the first days set our eyes on one of the boxes on our bike trip.
After watching the movie Knocked Up (funny, but don't remember why), we headed to Speeltuin for 3 of my flatmates' b-day party. 5 roomies and 4 of us born in December, good thing that they had a combined party..
Next day Jolien, our buddy tutor finally cooked some Dutch food for her buddy tutorés, and it was yummy! It also looked simple to do, so probably even I might attempt to do it. Or not, since I would need to peel potatos, which I don't like to do.Then we went bowling, I'm sorry Janne, but I will never be in your team again, since you want to have fun and not have the Finnish competitive attitude. Pff traitor.
So came the day, which I waited for and stressed about; a formal Christmas dinner. I don't mind wearing a dress, it just isn't my thing, but understandably I took the most essential clothing (skinny pants and band shirts) with me in my 20 kg luggage. Therefore I did some treasure hunting and had stuff from at least 3 different people, dankjewel for that! Biking in the cold in a dress wasn't that nice, but awesome food with awesome people warmed me up and so it was already after 4 when I got into my warm bed.
And it was already after 8 when I had to get up from my warm bed. Filming in the cold didn't have the best timing, but luckily we had great actors and production team, which made the shooting last only for 5-6 hours.
watch out for the poop and ice falling
naturally talented vitali
hilarious marieke
richard, great in eating fries
producer
camera woman
editor
director loca jara
poor vitali
Party later in the evening at the Achter de Lange Stalle (their first and last? :D) brought up some more memories from the first days. Sadly had to leave earlier, simply was just exhausted after our wand battle with Chelsea. Stupifying and being stupified is energy-consuming.
STUPIDFY!
Sunday, bloody Sunday! Why do the weekends come to an end? It was time for me to finally visit the Graphic Design Museum with Janne. Really nice place and definitely going there more often, since I do have the museum card! The museum visit was followed by another nam nam dinner by Jolien. Which was then followed by having fun with white powdery stuff.
We planned to have a (first) last supper with the flat mates, but no one talked about later on, until they had called me many times and yelling where am I. Well, I managed to hurry up for the relaxation and looking back session. Even though you guys drive me crazy sometimes, I still. Yup.
Fifth day of farewell. Long farewell it was. It first started with great sledge time at school! That was just what I needed. Then off to the edit suite to finnish an assignment, but OOOPS my lecture was not at one it was earlier. *SIGH* Nothing else to do, but off to Janne's then! And from there to the train station, the sun was shining and it felt like spring break in Finland, just 20 degrees warmer. Finally the dreaded moment arrived; bye bye to one of the most incredible persons I've ever met. Janne, one of the few persons I was able to rely on over here and I will miss knocking on his window! He promised Henna that he would go jogging with her and with me continuing our BTC and going to the best indie club back home in Jyväskylä! One must have a balanced life.
knocking on the window for the last time
miss you dear erg mooi friend <3
You usually tell the people, who leave that you will see them again. Most of the time it just does not happen. But I am absolutely certain that these are the people when after saying goodbye to, I will again say hello.
