Looking Into Green

SoGoPro painting

2010-10-08T17:33:00.000-04:00

A painting of the SoGoPro logo on a canvas

Hello everyone!

I finally did something with the SGP logo as well. I've seen so many creative things so far, like the logo in the snow and the Halloween pumpkins of course!! I already had trouble painting this, so I can't imagine how hard it must have been to cut that pumpkin, haha! Kudos to you guys.

Hope to see more of you doing something fun with it :)

~ Hanne

Tea Bags!

2010-09-17T05:07:00.000-04:00

I must say it didn't take thát long to save tea bags for my collage, cause a lot of people helped me with it. So a big THANK YOU to all of you :)

This idea actually started many, many years ago with my sister Annemieke. She started saving these tea bags, so one day she could decorate a whole wall with it. This was at least 10 years ago, and she stopped saving them b/c she had drawers full by then. Now, years later, happily married, she's just waiting for them to buy a new house so she can do something with those tea bags (not the only reason ;p). Although I must say: the last time I talked about it with her husband, he didn't look too pleased...

Anyways, that's where my idea came from. I was making all different kinds of collages and then this popped into my head. And here's the result! My friend Anne said it looked much smaller on the picture. But it's actually 120 x 90 cm big and there are 294 tea bags on there. I saved about twice as much tea bags. Not sure what to do with those yet. Someone suggested to decorate my doors with it. But well, we'll see!

I hope y'all have a good day!

~ Hanne

Another collage

2010-04-10T10:49:00.000-04:00

Hi guys,

Has been a while since I posted. I was in a creative mood this morning and made another collage. I collected lots of things like tickets to museums in Rome I liked, and lot's of other crap, and just smashed it all on it.

I've got some idea's for the next few collages, and they're not as messy as chaotic as this one. So let's see how those turn out...

~ Hanne

update

2010-02-10T09:36:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone!

I'm afraid I've got some catching up to do. Usually when I start writing a blog, I get distracted or tired, and I save it as a draft, and then yes... forget about it. So I just stumbled upon a crap load of drafts - ooops!

The last 2 months I've been looking for a job, and I found one last month :) I work now as a nanny 3 days a week in The Hague. It's a lovely family with 2 boys, and a girl will be born in May. So apart from the traveling it's quite neat! But they're on vacation in L.A. for the next 3 weeks, so I can entertain myself again with lots of fun things. I wanna make a few more collages (got some materials for it in the past 2 months - yay!), I'll go to the piano studio more often, will go see my family & friends more, and SGP chat...! I've missed chatting with all those noodles. Anyways, lots of things to entertain myself with! :)

The holidays were quite hard for those who want to diet. That's why I didn't even try, haha! My mom and I had the deal that we would start after the holidays. Of course that went wrong... So am constantly getting comments like:

Dad (picture his satisfied face): Hanne, I taped a program on tv for you about dieting!!

Mom: Good morning! I thought of you this morning - I read an article in the paper about dieting :)
H: Good morning to you too, mom >.<

And my roomie (Caspar) likes to ask frequently how the diet is going.
So I've got a brilliant tip to everyone of you: if you want to diet - don't tell anyone!!!

Last Sunday, Lisa and I went to Annemieke & Frederik for dinner. And Annemieke asked us to be her witnesses at their wedding!! Super excited about it! Lisa and I also have to arrange her bachelorette party. So you'll probably hear more about this in the future.. And with this good news, I'm gonna end this blog.

Enjoy your day, folks!

~ Hanne

SoGoPro Secret Santa

2010-02-10T07:19:00.000-05:00

Hey guys!

Ok, I'm a month late with this blog, but what the h#ck. Just gonna post it anyway! As y'all know, the SoGoPro Secret Santa was a big success! Kaitlan was my Secret Santa, and she got me a very interesting bird. Maybe some of you have seen the pictures of it on Flickr. Anyways, she added a note, saying "the Brushkin story". Here it goes...

The story of the Brushkins' beginning is as intriguing as the product itself. Eighteen years ago Michael and Dinah Dychinco, a young couple in the Philippines, looked at a scrub brush and began a dialogue about what could be made with that brush. That dialogue and a pair of scissors combined with a huge amount of ingenuity, hard work, and creativity had produced a thriving manufacturing business. That business now creates over 700 styles of exquisitely made ornaments, figurines, pencils, and magnets. Production provides jobs for over 400 people who are giving their families an increased standard of living and more educational oppurtunities.

The line is sold throughout the world. Nature's Accents is both proud and fortunate to have been the exclusive US distributor for 15 years. The attention to detail by the artisans and the high level of quality control makes it a very unusual product in today's world of mass-produced merchandise. It is a very "green" product - made from natural substances with no destruction of trees or plants. We are in the process of getting the maker certified as a fair trader. My close connections over the years with the factory and manufacturer has made me very comfortable with the ethical values of this organization.

I believe I asked for something artistic, and this definitely is! I thought of the perfect place to hang it in my room. I just need my dad to visit me, to make some construction or something :)

It's one of the many projects that brings the Street Team closer to each other. Thanks again KO!! :)

~ Hanne

The word doesn't reachs everyone...

2010-01-16T17:26:00.000-05:00

I just gave my parents a listen to 'Ode to SoGoPro' by Kendall. A discussion followed, starting with...

Dad: What's the problem with this song?
H: There is no problem dad. It's an ode to SoGoPro.
Dad: What is SoGoPro?
H: Oh daaad, I told you hundreds of times about SoGoPro.
Dad: Were you talking to me?
H: YES, I was talking to you.
Dad: I still don't understand what the problem is with this song...

Sinterklaas

2009-12-06T20:14:00.001-05:00

For the people who don't know who Sinterklaas is: that's what wikipedia is for! Celebrated Sinterklaas 3 times this year: with church, Prometheus and at home.

We celebrated Sinterklaas with the church a week ago on Saturday at a friend's house. This one was with surprises. I always prefer to do only presents and poems, but luckily just one surprise this year! I had to make one for Sarah, and didn't know what to make at all!! Couldn't make a hockey stick or a tennis racket for her as that was forbidden, cause people who play hockey or tennis always get those surprises. So my dad came up with this weird idea.. I made a 60 year old pregnant Sara for her, wearing a t-shirt with the Bible texts on it. I'm not that religious at all, and so ain't she, which made it extra funny. The first thing she said, refraze: yelled, was: Why am I pregnant?!?! Well hon, you've got all the time you need to find yourself a boyfriend.. *sigh* on her side. Oh crap the photo of her with the surprise is still on my camera, so will add that later! 2 people made a surprise together for 2 other people. Most hilarious surprise I've ever seen.. They made the church choir. They cut out the heads of the people from the church - from our youth group and also a few parents, and put it on the bodies of some 'hot' dressed people from magazines. It was ridiculously funny. I'll add a pic of this too later on! See if you can spot me in the surprise, haha!

Last Wednesday Sinterklaas himself came to Prometheus, together with two Zwarte Pieten. Was good fun! Some people had to come sit on his knee, the Praeses got tickled (who 'happened to be' his girlfriend in real life), some people had to sing a song (like me) and so on. I came in late cause I went to my singing course. But the last part was fun! I had to buy a gift and write a poem for my roomie Caspar. I was a little harshe on him *pet pet* but he could laugh about it anyway. :) Had a great time there afterwards! Stayed till they closed, at about 2am (or was it later?). And sang a fun Sinterklaas song with my other roomie Annelieke and with the praeses, Wieneke. A and I both learned it at our singing course that eve. Merel (teacher) made us sing 4 songs at the same time. It was a great mix, haha!

Yesterday was the big day: December 5th. The whole family was home (meaning: my parents, 2 sisters, brother-in-law and I), which is always fun, and we wrote Sinterklaas poems all day. I think that's what I love most about it all. Cause we all sit there, writing about each other, and chuckling whole day long about the fun things we come up with. Best part is that you find the stupid things people say that day back in the poems. We always buy a present for each person and write a poem for each. Normal people write their poems before Dec. 5th. We don't do that. We're chaotic and always in need of a bit more time to write just a little more.
My sister Lisa had been laughing for hours over the poem she wrote about me, warned me multiple times, and just before we we're gonna start she came to me and said with a very serious face: "Hanne, you're almost going down." Then she walked to my other sister Annemieke and said with the same straight face: "Annemieke, you're going down next year." And then we all started giggling like a bunch of noodles. It wasn't as bad as she I expected, but I did get a bit nervous after all those warnings, so I made her sing songs at 2am and look for her presents with hardly any clues. But at least this year we started early! We started at midnight. Last year we started at 2am or something like that, b/c the poems took just a bit longer than expected.. It was all in all in lovely day!

Already feeling the Christmas spirit after Annie's Christmas PNP message. So moving on to the Christmas songs! "You can say there's no such thing as Santa, but as for me and grandpa, we believe."

~ Hanne

psychogogy

2009-12-06T10:02:00.001-05:00

Pretty long time since I blogged. I always tell myself I'll blog more, but don't do it in the end. Anyone recognizing this? (A)

Last week was a weird week for me as I quited my study. I went to a psychologist who did a few tests and analyzed it to see what my 'talents' are. Bleh, don't like to use the word talent here. Anyways, she wrote a report about it. Guess what?! I should do psychology... Exactly what I was looking for in her answer. I wasn't enjoying psychology too much and I didn't like the 600 TALKING people in that huuuge arena lecture room. So great advise. But the results said that I'd be good at psychology-ish jobs, and also pedagogy! Soo, since I was planning on doing child & adolescent psychology anyway, I decided to quit psychology and start pedagogy next college year (and no, you can't start in February >.<). Sooo looking for a job as a nanny now! Any of you readers in need of a nanny? If it's not for your children then maybe for yourselves?

It's really strange to not study anymore and knowing you're supposed to be studying, but not doing anything instead. And it's esp. weird to wake up in the morning and knowing you've got nothing useful to do except for making yourself breakfast, lunch and dinner. Makes me feel restless somehow. At those moments I find myself annoying even when I'm not annoying. In other words: it's weird... Anyone here some good ideas for me to keep myself entertained? :p

Anyhooo, gonna write later today about all my Sinterklaas events of the past week :) Esp. yesterday was so much fun! Was chuckling whole day long! But will blog about that later - time for lunch now! (yes, 4 pm is a perfect time for lunch)

~ Hanne

sports

2009-11-21T16:59:00.000-05:00

I rarely talk about sports, and it's even more rare when I sport myself. But for one of my classes we've got to change something about ourselves, a problem, and I chose to live healthier, meaning: eating healthier and sport twice a week. Sooo I'm going to the USC (university sport center) with a friend now to try out all sort of things, like zumba, aerobics and dance workout or something. And since I did something stupid I thought I'd give y'all a laugh.

The first time we went, was last week. We did an hour of aerobics and we ended with a few minutes of abdominal training. This week we went on another day, and the class only took a half hour. And at the end of the lesson the teacher said something about abdominal training again. Annet (the friend) asked me if we were gonna do that, and since that's where we ended with the week before, and it was all part of the lesson I said: yea, sure! She looked a bit odd at me. The lesson had been pretty tough, but I thought: oh well, those few minutes extra - it's good for me. But then the teacher kept going... At the end of the lesson I said to Annet: I can't believe that was only a half hour! Apparently I voluntarily said yes to an extra lesson of abdominal training....! Who the hell says yes to a half hour abdominal training?!?! Don't tell me you do, cause I know you don't...

~ Hanne

Cinema

2009-10-27T20:19:00.000-04:00

I went to the movies tonight. Saw two movies actually. First one was 'The Ugly Truth' with Katherine Heigl & Gerard Butler and 'Julie & Julia' with Meryl Streep & Amy Adams. Perfect way to spend an evening!

First of all let me say that I love movies with Katherine Heigl.. She has become one of my favorite actresses. Not because I watched her in Grey's and became some hysterical fan of hers, but just because of the simple fact that I like her work. And I must say: I really liked her work in this movie, again. I liked the storyline, cause it's always an issue: what do men/ women fall for? Is it the inner beauty, the outer beauty, or is it 'simply' all about sex? Lots of mixed emotions about it in the movie, and loved how both Abby (Heigl) and Mike (Butler) had to change their opinion about the whole situation and both turned in to better people - I know, just another chick flick you think. It kinda was, but... 1. I love chick flicks and 2. there were lots of scenes not like every single chick flick, like the scene with the vibrating underwear. I really enjoyed the movie and a real recommendation! Liked it better than 'Julie & Julia' and 'Fame'. I'm afraid I recognized a few bad habits of Abby in me - not good!! So the movie got me thinking. First of all about my own love life, which is not a good thing to get into (nothing much and nothing blog worthy). And then I started thinking about what I'm doing with my life. So life changing moment here - if you read this: you're part of a turning point! (and probably a failing turning point - but I'm not gonna tell you that right away, cause that's not the right way to think if I'm still about to start) Anyways, I figured I'm too much on my room doing nothing, unless you count refreshing my twitter and facebook page every two minutes, so I should activate myself! So, I'm gonna sport twice a week (dancing not counting) and I'm gonna watch what I eat (since I have to watch my weight anyway). Please do hold me to this one. Especially you Toontje, if you're reading this... That noodle (Toontje) is gonna live in the room next to me. The only thing that seperates our rooms is a wall of gypsum, so he can practically hear me chewing... *sigh*

After this 'big decision' - which I made on my way from the one cinema to the other - I saw 'Julie & Julia'. Guess what this one was about... FOOD!!! And how lovely and great food is.. Oh dear God, like I was being tested already. I wouldn't really recommend this one. I enjoyed the movie, but it wasn't really special with like something you 'work' towards to. I enjoyed the acting of the four main characters though, cause they're just good actors. Further, I like food (blush), cooking and I liked the accents!! Oh I love accents in general, esp. the English ones. And Meryl Streep had such brilliant accents - her English accent and her French accent!! Esp. her French accent was so funny.. the way she pronounced French words with an American accent. But I better not get carried away by those accents. Soooo not the best movie ever, but it was a nice watch.

Next Friday 'Up' with my sis. Going to Amsterdam for this one - gonna be fun! :)
But, enough rambling for tonight - gonna turn in! Enjoy your day/ eve/ night :)

~ Hanne

public transport

2009-10-24T18:37:00.000-04:00

People always talk to me in public transport and I seem to meet strange people there lately. Last week I met a goth. Nothing against goths - only this guy had to tell me all his problems and everything that bugged him... He started really smooth tho. He started about my agenda, which he thought was a book for friends you used to have in elementary school, where all your cute little friends could write their names in and their hobbies and everything. He was totally into it - of course you are when you're almost 20 (he was gonna turn 20 in October) - and even showed me his: one of Nijntje! But he lost the key, and he didn't want to break the lock... Ok, I guess you all get the picture now.. So at one point I was sitting in the train, and I was alone with him, wondering if I should jump out of the train, since he was telling about his psychiatrists, psychologists, doctors, medications, ex-girlfriend in jail, lawyer, and so on. B/c it was late and already dark outside, and the platform looked pretty deserted, I decided to stay in the train and nod 'yes' and 'no' to this guy. But when I finally saw The Hague Central Station, I was so relieved. It really seemed to take ages to get there. So I was like: phew, at least I'll get home safe now. And at that point the guy HUGGED me!! "I'm a hugger" was his explanation. Totally freaked me out - esp. after listening 15 minutes non stop to his psycho problems. And do not ask me now "Why are you studying psychology then?", cause I wanna work with kids. You know, kids who have those friend books when they have the right age..

And then today, I met some lady in the bus, who started talking to me. At first she started about how doctors only know so little about the human body, and that she didn't believe there would be too much progress in 100 years from now. They can only heal a few people and make lifes bareable. I answered her really polite about this all, and then her whole view on things just turned upside down! She turned into a die hard Darwin fan. She told me I should go on a safari and see how chickens get killed by their moms if they're not 100% healthy. And she thought the same about humans: if they have a physical problem they should just die... And that's when we arrived @ Leiden Central Station where we had to get out - leaving me there with my mouth open in horror.

Is this gonna be a weekly thing or something? Cause those people are just maaad! So if it is a weekly thing, I'd like to know it now, so I could just make a sign saying 'I don't do talking - so last week' or something.

Just saw the movie Fame with my dad. It was such an uplifting movie, full of talented people! I loved it and felt so energized when I got out. Even my dad liked it! So definitely gonna drag him to all the chick flicks I wanna go see, haha! So if you haven't seen it yet - go!

Anyhoo, enough for today - wanna hit my bed before 1 am!
Night people! And enjoy your evening/ day all of you from different time zones!

~ Hanne

New room

2009-10-04T12:23:00.002-04:00

After months of searching, train rides and frustrations, I finally found a room in Leiden! And actually got this one... In The Netherlands we have a whole other living system. We don't have a campus with dorms and everything, but every student just has to look for a room somewhere in Leiden. So we have houses here full with student and landladies. The centre of Leiden is surrounded by canals, and I'm gonna live right out of the centre with view over the canal. So I'm quite lucky to have this room. My landlady rents her attic to students. And I'll be living there with a friend I've known for 5 years, and a girl from my student union. It's quite a big attic, with 3 rooms, bathroom, kitchen and a place to sit.

Yesterday I was gonna paint my new room with my best friend, but it didn't really work out the way I hoped. The 3rd of October is celebrated every year, and it's a huuuge party. But it was way bigger than I thought. We couldn't even get into Leiden with the car! So I'm gonna be painting my room next week with my dad, and also gonna put a new floor in my room. And I think we're gonna move my stuff next weekend. So it's gonna be an exciting and busy week!!

This morning I cleaned my room before I have to pack everything in boxes, made pictures of it, so ready to pack! I never moved, so it's gonna be pretty weird to live on my own in a new house, new room and different people who live in the house. And I always spent quite a lot of time in my room, so I do feel kinda bad that I've got to leave my room here. But it's gonna be great in Leiden anyway!

Enough about this mile-stone - enjoy the rest of your weekend!!

~ Hanne

My song of the week:
Sam Tsui - Michael Jackson Medley

Kids...

2009-09-20T13:21:00.000-04:00

Discussion between my mom (M) and me (H) during dinner.

H: Didn't you use your knife?! (offended)
M: No hon, you don't eat pasta with a knife - you use a fork and a spoon.
H: Yea, well that's what I did. You see? I only have a fork and a spoon. I don't understand why you wanted a knife...
M: I didn't want a AAAARGH

We had two more discussions like these during dinner, and at the end of dinner tears were rolling down my face from laughter... You should've seen the look on her face - lol!! It was just priceless..

~ Hanne

The Study Adviser...

2009-09-17T07:49:00.000-04:00

I went to my study adviser two days ago, cause I read like inmensily slow, and I have to read about 50 pages per day (if I read every day). That sort of made me panic a little, hence the study adviser. So I sat there, explained the problem, and he came up with a couple of great ideas: study a couple of years longer, drop a class, and go to some institution to run some tests to see what's wrong with me. Djeez, thanks. Seriously, if I weren't in such a great mood, because of my turning point of the day (see quote at the bottom), I would've been darn grumpy for the rest of the day.

You see, my plans for college look something close to this:
1. bachelor Psychology year 1
2. bachelor Psychology year 2
3. bachelor Psychology year 3 & bachelor English year 1
4. master Psychology & bachelor English year 2
5. post-master training programme Psychology year 1 & bachelor English year 3
6. post-master training programme Psychology year 2 & master English
7. Try to get into some academy in the USA or GB (preferably USA...)

Mapped out or what?! I know, it's insane. But I really hope it's gonna work out. Anyways, it's a lot of work and it takes 6 years college already if everything goes well, which means I don't want to just do it in a couple years more or just drop a few classes and do those exams another time. And since I have to get those 40 study points for the BSA (if you don't get your 40 study points in 1 year, you can't study that study anymore at that university) dropping a class wouldn't be so smart either. So I'm gonna stick to my own plan.

At least he put me on the list of people who get an hour extra on their exams. So this leaves me to his last comment about this: I need to give him a note from the doctor or from some instituation to keep that extra exam time. But he said it in a way like 'It doesn't really matter what's going on, as long as you give me a note that says something is wrong with you - whatever that may be'. So I felt kinda offended by the way he said it. Not that it would make me happy, but if I do have some sort of dyslexia (like he suggested it could be), it would at least explain why I had to work so damn hard at school, and why I suck at some parts of studying. But seriously, what is it with men being "subtle"?!

Well, those were my frustrations of the day. A happy blog entry later on...

~ Hanne

My song of the day:
Bethany Joy Galeotti - Quicksand (featured in OTH s07e01: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pboFAL-NQI)

Quote of the day:
"Today you have a choice. Happy or sad, strong or weak, productive or lazy, positive or negative. Make the most of today. In 24 hours it'll be over." - Lori Wyman

Collage for Elize

2009-09-08T06:58:00.001-04:00

I made another collage. This one is for Elize. I know her from church. She 'guided' a group of adolescents, including me, for years. And last weekend we all stopped, so I made her this. I put a picture of every 'kid' in the groups on it. The lady is an angel... :)

~ Hanne

First week of college

2009-09-08T06:56:00.000-04:00

Oooh first week of college! You imagine yourself sitting in that huge lecture room for years, and when you finally sit there, surrounded by 500-600 people, you think: Wow, this is it then. I've never seen a class room that big. Our high school (different school system, but junior high and high school was all one school) had about 500-600 students, and this was just one class room...! It's insane. I knew there were so many students, but if you see them all sitting there, then it kinda overwhelms you. You don't know that many people, and because there are so many new faces, you don't just introduce yourself to someone and make new friends. Small talks only. Everybody is a little scared and taken aback, so everybody just sits there with the people they do know or sort of know. It's just all new, all really exciting, and after about half an hour you start to fall asleep. Yup, it's not THAT much different... My first class was 'Methods & Technics' - the most boring class of all they say. You're not suppose to like it. I was dozing off from time to time, but it was not even that bad. The next class was nice: Introduction to the Psychology. I really enjoyed this class! But after 4 hours of lectures everybody was looking tired and wanted to go home. Which means: I actually survived my first day of college! Woohoo! I do have to admit that I finally experienced that feeling of being surrounded by hundreds of people and still feel all alone.

Next day was my day off. My mom stormed in my room to tell me that my room was a mess and I shouldn't and couldn't live in it and that I HAD to clean it up. So I did. The cleaning took my whole day, and at the end of the day Lisa & Peter came over for dinner. We had a lovely dinner, made by those two noodles, and we talked for hours. I had a really great time! So when they left, I looked up my schedule to see what I had to prepare for my next day of lectures: damn... about 130 pages in English. Damn, 11 pm already! I did start reading, but I read as slow as a bunch of slugs. I think I stopped reading at page 7 orso (2 hours later that is..).

Wednesday I had another lecture of 'Introduction in the Psychology', but this time by another man. He seems to be all popular and I do get why: He just doesn't stop joking during his lectures and he keeps everyone awake because of it. It was fun!
That evening was the 'guilds evening' of Prometheus (student union). The guilds are all these little groups you can join. So this evening al the guilds introduced themselves, and you could also start a new guild. I joined 9 myself and also started a new one. To give you an idea of what sort of idiots we are... I joined the tea guild, chocolate guild, snow and ice guild (in the winter we go ice skating and in the summer we eat ice creams), writers guild, photography guild, drama guild, musical guild, modern music guild and the werewolves guild (we play that game I talked about earlier) . The guild I started is the 'frisky guild'. We're gonna do all these crazy things and put it on tape. I got the idea from youtube - ImprovEverywhere. So click here, and you'll see what the idea of this guild is. If any of you guys have a good idea, please tell me! Anyways, it was a fun night :)

Thursday. Boring as hell, but... stayed awake.

I had a great class on Friday! The teacher, who's still a student, was really nice and explained everything so well! She really made me feel comfortable in there. But then I found out I was in the wrong class, so that was the end of my awesome class, lol.

All in all, it's just a weird experience - so many new things, so much to process. But I think I'm gonna like it here.

So.. I'm gonna start studying, like I planned. At least I started my day good: Breakfast with bread, which only has love & passion added (says the bread bag). Try to top that! ;)
Have a great day you all!

~ Hanne

Week 35: my last week of vacation

2009-09-03T16:30:00.000-04:00

It's been one adventurous week! First of all: my brother-in-law is in The Netherlands for 2 weeks. He arrived over a week ago on Saturday, and we had a big family dinner that evening. But no, the family dinner wasn't for his arrival, but because my dad left the next day. He went on pilgrimage on his super green reclining bike.

I had a camp (of Prometheus, my cultural student union) from Monday until Wednesday. It was one of the best camps I've ever had! When we arrived Monday in the early afternoon, we did a few games to get acquainted with each other, which were pretty fun. In the evening we had a book swap game. We were all divided into little groups, and we all brought a book. And then we had to play dice. For example: 1: everybody has to give their book to the person who's sitting on their right side. 6: read 7 lines from your book. 4: switch places with someone from another group. Because of this method, everybody constantly kept moving, and so did the books. So in the end everybody had a 'new' book. I ended up with 'Haroun and the sea of stories' by Salman Rushdie. I didn't have the chance to read it yet, but I'm also reading other books now. I'm currently reading 'the curious incident of the dog in the night-time' by Mark Haddon. Really interesting book about an autistic boy. Anyway, we also played a game afterwards called 'Werewolves', which is a really fun game, but to complicated to explain..

On Tuesday we went to Eindhoven, a city close to the hamlet we were staying. We started with a visit to the Abbemuseum, which is a museum for modern art. I never really appreciated modern art, but this was the first time I actually enjoyed it. I'm still wondering what changed for me. Maybe it's the artistic influence I'm getting from SGP, and maybe even already from Prometheus. Nah... it's SGP, definitely.. Anyways, after that we went to a book store, where I found this book about a brilliant French artist, named Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. He's the one from the Moulin Rouge posters. I really like his art. I even think I have a poster of one of his paintings in my room *looking already*. Anyway, that evening we had a quiz - Prometheus' famous quiz. And it was haaaard! My team got 3,5 points out of... I don't know, 36 orso? We weren't the worst though! There was also a group with a half point. The worst question I think was the whistle question. We had to listen to 5 fragments of parts of movies where they whistled, and we had to write down the names of all these 5 movies. You didn't get them all right? No point for you... BUT, we were the most enthusiastic team, cause we applauded for everyone. And they also probably called us that, cause they couldn't pronounce our team name, which was: Parangaricutirimicuaro. It's a vulcano mountain thingie in Mexico. Anyway, it was good fun! We played some Werewolves after that, and that was the end of camp, since we left the next morning.

From Thursday until Saturday I went to Frederik, my sister's boyfriend. I worked on a collage for my brother Marc, and we just hang out and went to shop on Saturday, where I bought a really big canvas (90 x 120 cm) to make a collage on. Freddio (nickname) also bought some crazy presents for Marc. But it was really relaxed, and it was really nice to hang out with him again. Hadn't seen him in quite a while.

Saturday evening we went to Marc's housewarming and birthday party. Package deal. After a couple of (hard) years in Dublin, he finally found his way back home and lives in an apartment with a friend from Dublin now. It was really big and it looked good! I'm really glad for him he finally found a place of his own again :)

And then, with the birthday party of my 64 year old uncle, an end came to my biggest vacation ever.... And this was an awesome vacation!!

I'll blog later about my first week of college - exciting!

~ Hanne

SoGoPro Fan Art Contest submission

2009-09-03T16:18:00.000-04:00

Collage

2009-08-28T18:47:00.000-04:00

click 'all sizes' to see the bigger version of it @ flickr :)

I didn't come up with all these wise words myself unfortunately. Only a couple of them are mine. So thanks for your help George! And SGP: 'Go witness people doing something just for the love of it' is from a blog entry by Hilarie, which I found one of their most inspiring blogs.

~ Hanne

A'dam

2009-08-18T08:00:00.000-04:00

Just read Megan's blog, and she was right: the intro of a blog is awkward. Where the hell do you begin your "oh so entertaining story"?

Hmm, maybe I should just start at the beginning: our oh so screwed OV system. *growling* When you go to university, you get a card for public transport, so you can travel for free. And a few days ago I got a receipt saying I could pick up my OV-card. This news made me totally happy, cause I had a few trips planned, and now I could travel for free: phew! I did have to make a photo Monday morning for on the card, and I would get it right away and I could go to my sister Lisa in Amsterdam right away (for free). WHAT a plan. Yes, it was the best plan ever. So when my alarm clock started to annoy me I snoozed, and then I snoozed for another 3,5 hours (stupid I know, but my bed seems to be way more lovely in the morning). But then Lisa called at 12.15 orso... I jumped out of bed, picked up the phone, and she asked me if I was out of my bet yet. Lucky me: I could honestly say that I WAS out of bed. Took a shower, got dressed, dryed my hair, went to the photographer and then realized: hmm, Monday morning is probably not the best moment to have my picture made if I want to look slightly good at the picture. But hey, I want to travel for free, so just let this get over with. So the man took the damn pictures, I went to the post office, and he fixed a beautiful OV-card for me, and then casually said: 'But don't use it yet, cause if you'll use if before September you'll get a fine. Have a nice day!' AAARGH!!! All the trouble for nothing... It really made me pissed off. I went to my sister's anyway of course. But luckily, when I had to travel by tram in Amsterdam, the lady in the tram was so stupid enough to assure me that my card was valid already, so she let me travel for free. (The card clearly says with fat characters: Valid from September)

When I arrived at Lisa's, Carine told me the moment I walked into their house: Try out the new bed!! Lisa bought a bed, but they delivered the wrong version: the luxurious... It's about 2 times as high and looks like a hotel bed. So Lisa was like: fine by me! I wish this bed was mine... It's the most comfy and soft bed. I actually had the honour to sleep in it last night. I slept like a princess (till the neighbour turned his drill on).
Anyways, we went to a bar, called 'l'affiche' and after a beer Lisa still owed me (for singing the song from blog May 21) Tess, a friend of Lisa and Carine, joined us. Tizzle Tess (Lisa & Tess are in their 'izzle' fase) brought a plant for Lisa and Carine, and because Tom (her housemate) and she couldn't find another good reason, they gave it because Lisa & Carine were so nice. Well, if that doesn't brighten your day :) The weather was lovely, so sitting at a café with a drink was a perfect way to spend the afternoon. We went to the Burgermeester (the Burger Master) for dinner, where they make excellent burgers. Sam & Carine joined us here, so it was Lisa, Tess, Carine, Sam and me. Plus the plant. Yes, the plant didn't have a name yet. But now we were all together, we thought of a really great name for the plant: Stiffy! Ok, it really was a suitable name, cause it was the nickname of something somewhere... But I actually forget what it was and where it was, so I don't think this is a good explanation for this beautiful, though slightly awkward name. Anyways, after the burger we went home and it was time for GAME NIGHT! Woohoo! Yes, it was fun... We started with Party & Co. For the people who don't know this game: it looks like Trivial Pursuit. And when we finished that game (Sam, Carine and I won :)) we played uuhm.... yeah, what did we play? And again tonight I don't know the name. I don't even know if it has a name at all. Well, what the heck, I'll explain it to you. I really do suck at explaining, so if you don't understand, blame it on me. Each person has to wright down 5 names (of real people or cartoon people orso), each one on a piece of paper. You throw all of them in a box and then you have 4 rounds, and 1 minute for each team to guess. And you have to get as many cards you can. When all the names are guessed, you start with the next round, and so on. Four rounds are: 1. describing the person. 2. describe the person with one word, and one word only. 3. acting 4. sounds. The fourth round was the funniest... For example: how do you sound like Barack Obama, without talking!! Seriously, try it...
By the time Tess was heading home, she remembered she wanted to take the last few pictures of her camera that night. So that ended up in a dressing up party with looooots of pictures. Crazy pics of course. Sooo time for bed! That lovely lovely lovely big bed...

Next morning: DRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. I looked REALLY mad at the alarm clock, and wanted to slam the damn thing, when I realized it wasn't the alarm clock.. The horrible loud sounds were coming from the neighbours, who apparently possess a drill... And they HAD to use the darn thing all morning. Lisa thought it was pretty funny that I had looked so mad at the alarm clock. I was just grumpy as hell, haha!
Lisa had to give a frisbee workshop, so I made myself a yummie cheese pesto sandwich, and talked to Carine for a bit. In the afternoon Lisa and I went for a walk, and because we forgot Stiffy at the Burgermeester, we picked him up on the way. He didn't eat too much at the Burgermeester (we asked), so that was good, but he was a little thirsty. Unfortunately when we sat at the canal, we couldn't reach the water. We sat there for a while, and on our way back we did a series of photo's: Stiffy on tour. We made all these random pictures of people with Stiffy on a important place in Amsterdam. Some people looked really weird at us when we asked, and some people found it pretty funny. I even made one picture of Stiffy @ the shopping street of A'dam with a lady who wore a shirt saying: Bad Girls Go To Prague. I already showed George the picture and he was very pleased with it, haha! We had so much fun doing this! We just tried to think of the most weird things to take pictures of. We were taking care of dinner, which meant: supermarket! (Stiffy helped at the supermarket... Such a nice plant) And we made... *drumroll please!* a salad, then blueberry pancakes, and as dessert they could choose between two sorts of bubblegum (ever had a dessert like that?). But seriously, those pancakes are soooo good! Great recipe! (if you want it, just comment) And that sort of was the end of my little trip to Amsterdam. Well we talked for a little more and we sang a phew stupid songs, but then I went home...

Oh well, end of the story you guys.. And for the weird pics, just click on the links in the blog.
Sweet dreams ;)

EL-CID

2009-08-15T20:54:00.001-04:00

Haven't been blogging in quite a while, cause every time I go to my account, I see new blogs of others, and when I finished reading those, I have to go somewhere. BUT blogging time!!

As some of you might know, I've been away quite a lot lately. First 1 week Belgium, then 2 weeks France, 1 week Vrouwenpolder (in The Netherlands) and then a week EL-CID. The EL-CID is the introduction week of Leiden, the city I'm going to study. It's for all the freshmans to get to know new people, the city, and everything that has to do with student life. So now I'm back for real, I've got some real catching up to do.

I wasn't really looking forward to the EL-CID week, cause I didn't really know how it was gonna be and the whole idea just made me nervous. I actually named it 'the EL-SHIT week'. My family found that so hilarious that they started to translate that in about 8 languages, which took them an hour orso. So when I started the week, I had a note in my bag with 'the EL-SHIT week' translated in Dutch, English, Hungarian, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Swedish I think. Crazy folks. When I walked out of the station at 8.45 am the first thing I saw were a couple of jumping Easter Bunnies or something, and I heard the most loud horrible music... It was so weird and overwhelming that I stood there for a minute and just looked around. There were students all over the place, and it was definitely party time. So I thought: I'm just gonna do this and it's probably going to be a fun time anyway :) And it was.... We all had to go to a big square, where we had to look for our group - they all had numbers. Mine was 61. We went somewhere, sat on the ground and did some lame 'get to know everyones name'-games. I actually memorized them all at onces, while I usually forget everything. After that we went to the church where the official opening was. I didn't get too much sleep so I had some hard time to stay awake, but they had some really cool drumming! So when we were almost starved we went for lunch at the Hortus Botanicus (a big garden). We had a beautiful place: close to the pond, in the shadow (it was really hot) and next to a dead frog. We were with about 16 people, and of all people I had to sit next to the dead frog: enjoy your lunch! From that moment on the frog had a permanent place in our conversations. The most funny part about it was when Tom (one of our 2 mentors) stepped on it when he wanted to make an announcement. I looked at the frog, and the poor thing was totally squashed. So I squeaked: Tom, you squashed the dead frog!! He looked at me, then looked at the dead frog, then back at me: I DID NOT! He totally did... But he refused to admit it for the rest of the week. Poor squashed dead frog.
After lunch we want for a walk. We got to see Leiden a bit more and we went to an information market. The first day was... impressive. There were students everywhere, loud music, and especially a lot of flyers. Everywhere I came people gave me flyers and drinks to get my signature or something like that. It was insane... I was quite tired of my short nights the week before, so I went off early to get some proper sleep done.

Second day started with sports. I planned on sitting this one out, cheering from the side lines. But the moment I arrived I heard music and apparently there were all sorts of workshops. I totally enjoyed this morning - salsa, zumba, pilates and a lot of chatting + music. Talking about pilates.. I know lots of famous people do pilates to lose some weight, but it always looks so relaxed.. It totally was NOT. So naive of me to think that.. I had to do the whole workshop once I started and it was haaaaard... This actually was the second subject that kept coming back into our conversations the rest of the week. I personally called them my aching pilates muscles.
In the afternoon we only had an information market. When you arrive you get a flyer (you see? flyer again... people are flyer addicts in Leiden) that shows where you can find everything and everyone, and where you can get which flyers. I told you, it's all about the flyers...
And after dinner, I went home again - didn't go to bed early the night before after all, so really had to get some good sleep this time (I can hear you think: you didn't go to bed early, did you? No, I didn't, again..).

Next morning was what I've been looking forward to. LAK Theater!!! I love theater, so I was only one of the few people who was able (or just wanted) to get out of bed for the morning programme. I went to 2 workshops. First one was singing (musical). The teacher Merel taught us a song in a half hour and it sounded pretty good! Second workshop was theatresports. Theatresports is mostly about improvisation, and I'm not the best when it comes to improvisation, so I was glad that it was easy. We were with a group of about 50-60 people, and the lady had to give us an impression... Hard job I thought, but she did it quite well. The game we liked most was 'Woosh'. Never done it before, but it was hilarious with the big group. It was about giving the person next to you 'the woosh'. You had to wave your arms to the person next to you and say 'woosh'. But then there were things that made it funny, like 'BOINK': when you want to return the woosh. And 'high five': everyone has to run to the middle of the circle and give somebody a high five (imagine this with 60 people...) or 'freak out', our favorite, where everyone has to find a new place in the circle while screaming. So I really enjoyed my morning, and I'm probably going to do a course @ Lak with a friend I made during the EL-CID week! After the morning programme we split up, cause everyone had the afternoon programme at their own faculty. Unfortunately I had to cycle quite a bit. At least long enough to get totally soaked. And for the record: I do not like being soaked. (frustration of the day) During the talk at my University about a Psychology subject I felt asleep a couple of times, sleep shortage kicking in, whoops! But at least the rest of the day was alright. It stopped raining PLUS we were in a great mood. Casper, the joker of our group, couldn't stop talking and making jokes, and we were almost falling of our bikes because we were laughing so hard. Really felt my pilates muscles at that point btw... Anyways, one of our group members didn't really see how the stupid jokes were funny, which was quite imaginable, and kept looking like: What the hell did you guys eat or drink or... do?! And after a couple more jokes, drinks and hours we all went to bed. What a great day :)

Thursday started lovely. My group was going to a museum I had already seen, Naturalis Museum. And I really didn't feel like going to that museum while I 1) had already seen it 2) was so tired 3) like my bed sooo much. (and do not place point three out of context) This line was one of the running jokes btw: placing people's lines out of context. So after my lovely nap, I went to Cecilia (our other mentor) where they had their lunch. Afternoon programme: FESTIVAL!!! This meant: a couple of bands, pizza, beer, and an awful lot of flyers. Great or what?! We also did the EL-CID dance a couple of times. Here you can see the dance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfoi6TJ9LFc (On the stage was a guy doing the dance, and all the people who didn't really know it yet could just follow him) We also did a workshop: pimp your mentor. Awesome workshop! Anyways, lots of fun. In the evening I went to a student house, together with about 7 other people, to try to get a room there. Unfortunately I didn't get the room.

Last day already: Friday. During brunch we gave our mentor Tom (mentor Cecilia sort of stopped being our mentor) a little monkey for being such a sweet mentor to us, and he named the monkey 'Everything Or Nothing'. After brunch (they let us sleep a little longer), in Hortus Botanicus again, we went to a café and sat there on the boat and chatted all day about everything and nothing, and it was evening in no time! We had a BBQ on the streets and stayed there quite a while. There were bands (of course), we had 3 desserts (there was a chocolate fountain - hallelujah!) and... a lot of fun :) During the BBQ the team spirits grew stronger and everybody started to yell their number, followed by their slogan. Ours was: 61 - EVERYTHING OR NOTHING!! Always fun to have a good excuse to yell nonsense ^^ Because quite a lot already went home, only a few people were left for the last evening. We went to SSR (student society - or at least one of them) and after that to the big party In Casa, organized by Labyrint (study society of the psychology faculty). We seriously were the first people, but we started dancing anyway, and it was crowded in no time, and I enjoyed....

After a quick goodbye (we had to catch the train) we went home, and that was the end of my awesome week. I have a few really nice new friends and I had a great week. So now I'm back, sitting here in my room after a loooooooong nap plus a dance evening with 2 friends, catching up on everything I missed and updating photos and accounts. After talking to a few people in chat already, I'm gonna enjoy all SoGoPro's new vlogs, blogs and podcasts now. Always a great welcome home ;)

Prague

2009-06-14T12:34:00.001-04:00

Well, let's finish my story about my little trip. Cause after I went to Budapest, I went to Prague as well. From the moment I walked out of the metro station, I loved Prague. Prague has lots of similarities to Budapest. Only it looks more like western Europe. We only had one day to see everything, so I only saw the most important things of Prague. We've been to the castle, the bridge with all the statues on it, the clock, and we've walked through the Jewish district, which is one of the best parts of Prague. I liked the atmosphere in the city. It was really friendly and also artistic somehow. All of you who haven't seen Prague: it's worthwile to go there some day!
After Prague, we had to drive about 900 kilometers back. A pretty long drive... So that took us 2 days. When I got back, I had to prepare already for my next little trip: a weekend away with the church. Busy, busy, busy!
To see some beauty of Prague:
Picasa webalbum: www.picasaweb.google.nl/hannekouwenberg/BudapestPrague
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26329441@N07/

~ Hanne

Budapest!!

2009-06-11T19:21:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone!

Just got back from my vacation. As some of you know, I've been on a short vacation (1,5 weeks) to Budapest & Prague. My mom left earlier for her congress in Budapest, and my dad and I travelled to Budapest by car. First few impressions: the city looked a little dirty (my suggestion: soap and water), the traffic is really chaotic, the roads make you feel like a milshake (even though I've got no idea how it feels to be a milkshake), and the houses have the most weird colours: green (mint green - dark green), orange, red, yellow, blue, brown, grey, creamish and white. It's one colourful city!

When we arrived Thursday evening, I didn't get to see a lot of the city. We just went out for dinner, and turned in early. But the next day we went to explore the city. We had a map with even the metro's pointed out on it, which was great, cause we were in need of those. The metro in Budapest is a whole experience... To get onto the platform you need to go down with a moving staircase, which is incredibly sloping, long, and it goes faaaaaast. The combination of those three things makes you wanting to hold the banisters real bad. And when you get on the platform, and a metro is arriving, there is so much wind that you're almost being blown away.. Anyways, when we got into the centre of Budapest, we took a bus for tourists which drives along all the beautiful things in the city and includes an audio guide. It's a great way to explore the city, and you can hop off and hop on whenever you feel like it! So we got out at several points and walked a little through those area's. You can see pictures of it on my Flickr account. I love how they decorated the houses! That evening my dad and I were also envited to come to the dinner of my mom's congress, organized by Nutricia/ Danone. It was a pretty chique dinner at the Museum of Fine Arts, which is a really beautiful museum!! I really liked to experience that, since you don't come across dinners like that every day.

Friday my dad and I did the last part of the bus tour, and we went to see the Museum of Fine Arts. It's a huge museum and we didn't have time to see everything, so we only saw the parts we really wanted to see. We split up (our interests our not quite the same), and I went to see the remainings of the Mycenaean and Minoan period, which was really interesting for me b/c I've got a lot of classes about those periods. I really enjoyed it!! At this point, my moms congress ended, and we went to see her. The three of us walked through the most beautiful street of Budapest, and ate in some cute Italian restaurant there. We finished our night by making pictures of 'Budapest by night'. They've decorated everything there with lights, so you have a beautiful view at night.

Saturday. Rain. Rain. And more rain. At about 6 p.m. we went out, because we didn't want to starve, and we got to see the last bit of Budapest. We mainly saw a little of the centre: a beautiful cathlic church and the shopping street. I came across the Burger King there, and no, the Burger King itself isn't that interesting, but it had Greek pillars as its entrance... Some weird mix of cultures!

This evening we ate at an Italian restaurant. Again, I know. But there was such a funny man. He was Italian, black long hair in a ponytail, white clothes (I think it was linen), and he decorated himself (I can't call it differently) with a matching belt and cross, which were.... BLING!! The lady at the table next to me and I both started grinning when we saw it, and were wondering if he did it on purpose or not. Still not sure... But I don't think so, since he also had a little dog with him, which looked a little like Bobby Gorgeous (the dog from Hilarie and Nick's vlog) and was also dressed. Weird man... :)

Well, this was the end of my little Budapest trip! After Budapest we drove miles and miles to Prague, but that's a story for another time! And just look at the pictures on Flickr to see what I've been doing there ;)

~ Hanne

Exams

2009-05-12T19:44:00.000-04:00

Exams coming up in 5 days! We had a couple of weeks to study for this, but those who know me know that I don't study really well without the pressure. Well, pressure is here now! It's not that I stress, but it's just... well let's put it this way: I'm aware of the fact that I've got to take 8 exams, starting from next monday. It's going 'o.k.' so far. Today was a good day. I had a history class with only 7 people today: 'how to study for you history exam for dummies'. It was quite motivating, so I wanted to start studying right away. But then I got home, and I couldn't stop myself from watching the new episode of One Tree Hill. Beautiful episode btw. Anyways, had to go to a Greek class after that. It surprises me every time how much they learn you in those few hours. Really makes you think why they didn't give you all that information before. And this time I got home, I really started studying, while listening to Kate Voegele. Again. I should turn in. Not a great (first) blog, but hé: it's 2 a.m.

~ Hanne