Saturday night in Scheveningen

Last night we all biked to Scheveningen to celebrate two friends' birhtdays. When we got there, we were really astonished. They had prepare a table full of snacks and finger food! It was all simply delicious, and everyone was standing around that table the whole night.

In all it was a very fun night, even though I got tired around 2.30 and went home. Today I'm going to powerwalk a bit, study and then meet up with a friend.

Me  and my Germans again

Last night at the housewarming

Last night was a lot of fun! Their apartment was completely full (kind of like our apartment last weekend) and we were playing music from the 80's and 90's. Everyone looked utterly ridiculous of course, which made it even more fun. It felt like everyone was bordering to looking like prostitutes. For example, I had my hair up in two ponytails, a LOT of eye makeup and clothes that just looked horrible. I also wore a Turtles t-shirt, and got a lot of attention for that. One guy even wanted to buy it from me: "it doesn't matter if it's too small, I'll stretch it out!". Huge Turtles-fan, right there.

After the housewarming we went to the International Pub, where we got some strange looks from people. The worst thing is that I don't know if they thought that I had really bad taste and looked like that normally, or if they understood that we were all dressed out. To be on the safe side I stayed close to the group so they could see I wasn't alone.

Oh, another fun thing that happened last night was that I met two Swedish readers at the pub. It was really nice to meet them, although it was pretty embarrassing to do so in that outfit.

Today I'm going to study a bit and later tonight we're going to a birthday party in Scheveningen!

Yeah... not really looking forward to summarizing yet another chapter of the marketing book...

Bad Taste Housewarming

Today was a rather chill day, meaning I didn't study at all. Even though I probably should have. But, as my wise roomie said: It's Friday!

So, tonight we're going to a housewarming at some friends' place in Laakkwartier. When I told my mom about it, she told me to wear a bulletproof west. I guess the bad reputation of Laakkwartier has spread, hehe.

Anyway, the theme of the party is "bad taste". Yep. Bad taste. Since I obviously don't have any clothes here in Holland that I hate (why would I bring that?) I decided to just mis-match everything. Checked stockings, a flower-printed skirt and a leopard-print top should do the trick. I'm also going to put my hair up, crazy-style.

And no, I'm not going to post a photo of my outfit here.

Have a good Friday night people!

Great motivator, HHS

Today I stayed home to work on the project and to study IMC. I feel like I'm being brainwashed, since I was just in the shower, thinking about the different positioning strategies of the shampoos. Seriously?

Oh, and I got the shock of the day just now when I read an email from our project coach. Apparently, since our group underperformed yesterday we have to organize the next coaching session. I honestly don't know how we ended up in this situation, but if this is the teachers' way of "motivating" us, they should probably take a course in pedagogy.

Right now I don't feel motivated at all, I just feel stressed and as if everything is out of my control.

It should be called "guessing game" and not project

After being home for 4 days in a row, it's somewhat of a shock to go up at 07.00 and be in school until 16.30. When I came home I felt as if I would faint (again!) in the kitchen, but after a salad I'm now feeling a lot better.

We were discussing the project today, and after the "feedback" I have the same feeling as I did with the last project: failure. It seems like the teachers deliberately give us vague instructions and unclear expectations just so that we will try it, and then get massive criticism.

Just sayin'.

When you're a poor student...

I love these ready made salads from Albert Heijn! They're really the best, and not that expensive either. A couple of days ago I bought 4 of them so I have dinner for the days ahead. Tonight I had the caesar salad, one of my favourites!

The ever-changing Dutch weather

I just came back from a 60 minute powerwalk, so nice!

The weather is great today, unlike yesterday when it was raining non-stop and almost storming outside. The roof of my neighbours' house even blew off! They had to call the Brandweer and later in the afternoon they fixed it. You can imagine the surprise!

If she likes me, does that mean we've bonded for life?

Even though I've now lived in Holland for over a year, I still have these moments sometimes where I think "what the f'***?". Today I had my first encounter with the Dutch health care system. It was really one of those moments.

In Holland they don't have free health care like we do in Sweden, so if you want to go to a doctor, you have to contact a huisarts (housedoctor). Last night I googled on how to find these huisarts, and got to a website where I had to fill in my postcode and then got a list of practices that are located nearby. Each practice had a grading of 1-10 with comments on how good the service was - as if I was choosing a restaurant or something? 

I found one that had a good rating and that was very nearby my street and called them this morning. That was by far the strangest conversation ever. I got to the receptionist, and first of all, she spoke good English but kept mixing in Dutch words - especially the word "hoor" (pronounced like "whore"). This is a word that Dutch people say sometimes and it literally means "hear" but I still haven't figured out when or how to use it. You can imagine how it might come across when you say that particular word in an English sentence.

Anyway, I asked if I could get an appoinment and she said yes, and I gave her my date of birth and my address. Yes, I lived in the neighbourhood.

So far so good. 

Then she realized that I wasn't a patient of that practice and said that "you first have to make an appointment with the doctor and see if you get along, hoor". 

Excuse me? I don't want to date the doctor?

"You first have to get to know each other and then she will decide if you can become a patient here. We can't take everyobody in, hoor!".

Okay...

So tomorrow I have an appointment with the doctor. Or maybe I should call it an audition?

Better be on my best behavior, I guess.

Thank God it's Monday

You know that feeling when you wake up a bit earlier than your alarm and realize that you can sleep an hour longer? That's what I had yesterday, but times 10, when I realized I don't have classes Monday and Tuesday.

I know, too good to be true, right?

So, today I'm gonna be at home, reading, working on the project etc. Sounds like the best Monday in a long time!

Housewarming - check!

So, Sunday afternoon again. On Friday me and my roommate finally had a housewarming and the apartment was completely full! It was a lot of fun though, and it seemed like everyone liked our apartment. Lately I've been completely nagging on my roommate that we have to get a microwave. NOW. Then it turned out we have soo nice friends that they got together and gave us a microwave as a housewarming gift! Thank you!

Who knew I could get so happy by getting a microwave.

Another very nice thing was that my Belgian friend came to visit for the weekend (she left this morning) and she gave us a gift card from Ikea. Thank you, it will definitely come in very handy!

As most of you know though, the more fun you have at night, the more shitty the next day is going to be. Yesterday when I woke up I fainted in the living room and woke up a few minutes later on the floor next to my bed. Not really a good start of the day. The rest of the Saturday was spent either in my bed or in the sofa, watching movies and eating a lot of unhealthy stuff. Tha was very nice, indeed.

Me and my roomie before all the people arrived

Someone had fun with the snacks...

September 19th

Just got back home from an exhausting day in school. Everyone seems to be sick now (except me, knock on wood!) and the level of enthusiasm is not really high. Although it's really nice that school started and I get to see everyone again, there's just an overload of work to do. I feel like I'm not doing anything else than reading, working on the project, or being in lectures.

A lot of the courses this semester are basically repetitive or building on previous courses, so there's not really much new stuff to learn, just focusing on doing it better and more advanced than last year. For example, last year we had a course in intercultural communication and this year it's cross-cultural management; basically just applying our knowledge to the business world.

I can't stop loving the internationalism that surrounds me here though. It's really something that I wouldn't have had if I would have chosen to study in Sweden. For instance, today we had a 2½ hour break between two classes and were sitting around a table, some chilling and some studying. The conversations were in French, English, German, Swedish and Dutch. I love it! I am 100% sure that this is the type of environment I want to be in when I start working.

Cross-cultural Management vs. H&M catalogue

Guess who won?

Looking for snorers

Today I'm staying home with my roommate. No classes on the schedule but we just finished an online meeting with the project group at Google Docs. It feels like we got a lot of work done, and tomorrow we're going to present it in the coaching session. This wole anti-snoring project makes me think of nothing else than snoring. Is there any snorer out there who would want to do an interview with us? :)

We were just too hungover on our regular cleaning-day. And the week before that too.

Me and my roommate have been procrastinating the cleaning a bit too long now, and you now it's bad when it seems like even your cat (who is the nastiest creature ever) starts to sneeze and show discomfort in the sofa. So today we cleaned.

This morning I went to school for an extra lecture on Integrated Marketing Communications. At 8.45. Normally I would have had Monday and Tuesday off.

---

Enough said.

So, after the lecture I met up with a girl that is an exchange student at uni. She wanted to buy a book from me that I honestly didn't have any use of anymore. Finally some incomes again! I can't wait until I can sell the books I'm reading now. And no, I didn't buy shoes this time, okay?

I was going to show photos of the mess here but then I got scared that you would be so horrified that you wouldn't want to follow my blog after that. 

...So I decided on a picture of George after he's conquered the sofa instead :')

Time for the birthdays and housewarmings season

Finally Friday, and tonight I'm just gonna chill at home. There are so many parties this term (housewarmings and birthdays mostly) so I thought I'd give my liver some rest for tonight. Tomorrow my neighbour is having a birthday party so I guess that'll be enough for this weekend. We have so much to do in school that I feel like I have to read constantly, and since my brain hasn't completely got used to that yet, it takes some time to plow through a 650 pages thick marketing book.

Anyway, soon it's time to have our housewarming and I'm really excited about it. A lot of friends that I haven't met in a very long time are coming, so I think it's gonna be a great night! I'm a bit worried that we won't have enough space though, since the guestlist just keeps getting longer and longer. Shall be interesting to see!

We had our first project meeting today, and we outlined the group contract and took care of a lot of tecnicalities like that. I'm still not really sure what it is exactly that they want us to do, and since I'm not really comfortable with incertitude I'm kind of getting a bit stressed. So far I haven't had to start using my braces again though, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time...

What a great book...

They would probably love to email the schedule every morning: "Surprise! You've got a lecture in 10 minutes. On time management."

Ah, so typical The Hague University; there was a mistake with our schedule and now it's Thursday and we still don't know when we're going to have the (Integrated Marceting Communication (IMC) lecture. I'm sure they're gonna put it at 8.45 on Friday morning, and then blame us for "not getting up early enough to check the schedule online".

Yesterday I went to the copy shop with a couple of friends to copy some books for this year. We have a marketing book of 650 pages (what's the deal with those marketing books btw?) that we have to read in 6 weeks.

...I've read one chapter so far.

Anyway, we've divided the task of summarizing the chapters between a few friends, so each person only has to do 3 chapters. That's really great, because otherwise summarizing is really a pain in the ass.

Today I only have one lecture and the rest of the day I have a date with my marketing book. Yay.

Anti-snoring project?

This day started at 10.30 with a lecture in Expert Analysis. We have to write an argumentative report about a communication topic of choice apparently. I felt like I'm really not used to focusing for that long now after the summer, and towards the end I couldn't help but yawn constantly.

After the lecture we had a lunch break and then at 13.00 we went by bus to a company in Oegstgeest (?) to get briefed on our new project. We have to design an integrated marketing campaign for an anti-snoring device. I think we could come up with some creative ideas about that actually. Afterwards, we finally settled the groups in the class, and I'm now with two Germans and two Brazilians.

I'm completely exhausted now, and will start cooking dinner soon. Me and my roommate were biking home with the wind against us (as always) and then it's really tiring.

This is the product that the project is all about. 

Stressful start

So, the first day of school is over and yes, I am sure I will need my braces to bite into tonight. The teachers really don't have any sense of how to gradually adjust us to the new pace. Tomorrow we're going to a company which is going to be our client for our new Integrated Marketing Communication project, and before that they squeezed in a lecture. We also have to form groups with at least three nationalities, something that turned out to be harder than expected.

On top of this, me and my roommate called our gas and electricity company and found out that what we thought would be our fee for every second month turned out to be a monthly fee. Great. And to even think that I just made some extra space in my shoe closet...

Last day of "freedom"

This weekend my mom came to visit me and to attend the first year diploma ceremony. It was really nice and we also took a trip down to Roermond in the south of Holland to do some shopping at the designer's outlet there. Now I'm home after having spent the afternoon with two friends at the beach. We were enjoying the nice weather and the last day of vacation before school starts again tomorrow morning. The Hague really wouldn't be the same without that beach. I love it!

Scheveningen harbor beach

Me and friends after the ceremony in school on Friday. 

Oh Oh Intro Festival

Today I went downtown to meet up with a girl that is going to start her first year of ICM to sell her some of my old books. Perfect to have some incomes for once and not just spendings; those old books just financed my new pair of shoes I bought yesterday. What can I say, a girl needs her shoes.

Later this afternoon me and my roomie are going to meet up with some friends at Lange Voorhout to check out the Oh Oh Intro festival. It's basically a festival to celebrate the new academic year in The Hague and to welcome all the new students. There are some musical performances but also a lot of companies trying to give you stuff and make you sign up for whatever they offer. Last year we got free pens and popcorn. I have to admit that the chance of being that lucky again is basically why we're going this year again. Or, at least that's my motive.

Photos from last year, borrowed from Oh Oh Intro.

Back in the The Hague again

Last night I came back to The Hague after a week in Sweden. I've been at my mom's farm mostly, just chilling with my family. Sometimes it's really nice to leave the city of The Hague and get a change of scenery, and then the countryside of Sweden is the best. My mom is actually coming here to visit me on Thursday and to attend the first year diploma ceremony that is held at school on Friday. I'm really excited to show her my new apartment!

On Monday the 10th ICM year 2 starts and it's back to school for me. I have quite mixed emotions about it, since it will be nice to see everyone again and to have something to do, but on the other hand I'm sure I will regret ever having said this in about 3 weeks when I have homework to last for the rest of the year. Anyway, I'm sure this year will be great!