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!