Capital a

Today I had to pay a visit to Amsterdam. Yes, had to.
I needed some books (play texts) from the Theatre Institute and that is based in Amsterdam, so I had no choice but to go there. No, I don’t really hate the city, I just don’t find it very appealing. So I got there at 1:10 pm and I took the train back at 2:07 pm. It’s a 15 minute walk to the institute, and I knew exactly which books to get, so it was done very quickly. It was pretty cold outside, the wind especially. The city is not Christmas proof yet, that will start next week I think, after Sinterklaas. There were already some lights though and as it was a bit grey because of rainy weather, it already looked very cosy. I love all the lights with Christmas.

Out of the 16 plays I have to analyse, I already had 11 of the texts. I gathered those during the years of my study. I had to copy a lot of texts, buying the book would probably have been cheaper haha. Not to mention the time it costs to copy!! 4 of the 16 plays had to have some kind of theme or something else that ‘bonds’ them. After thinking about it for a long time, I eventually came up with absurdism. 2 of the 4 plays I chose for that probably won’t mean a thing to anyone, so I’ll just mention the other two. One is from Samuel Beckett, “Waiting for Godot”. A couple of years back I saw it on stage, with my dad and brother I believe. The two main characters were played by tow very famous Dutch mime players, so that was very interesting to actually see and hear them talk. It’s going to be a challenge to analyse the text I think, it’s quite difficult. The other play that might ring a bell is from Eugène Ionesco, “The Bald Soprano”. I’ve never seen or read it before, but a long long time ago in high school we had to read another play by him for my French class, namely “Rhinoceros”. For the life of my I can’t tell you what it was about, except that the citizens all transformed into rhinoceros(es). We were 16 when we had to read it, in French, and we didn’t understand a thing of it, that is what I do remember. So I’m curious to find out how this will go.
To be continued…

Food for thought

One should never go grocery shopping when one is hungry. That’s a fact and it is true (well duh). Haven’t had it happen in a while, but always when I buy groceries around 5, I’m bound to buy stuff I really don’t need. Like chocolate, or cookies, or chips!
I cook decent stuff at least 3 times a week and at home I also eat fairly good stuff, so a pizza every now and then is no problem. However, I never ever use the microwave. At home we’ve never had one and here in Utrecht we have two of those things. I’ve eaten microwave meals at my work at times, but I generally find them gross. There’s this icky taste to them. Today I didn’t feel like thinking of what to cook, nor did I feel like eating pizza, so I did the unthinkable and bought a microwave meal!!! Chicken tandoori with yellow rice. In theory that sounds great and yummy, but in practice… well, I’ll figure that out in an hour or so.

In other news, I have started a new term this week. The second one of the year. Last night I thought I’d check if maybe one of my grades from last term was already up and there was one up!!! The one from my art history exam, apparently I got a 7 (1-10 range), so that’s like great haha. I passed it yay! I was so happy Don’t know yet about the other one, I’m a bit afraid of that, but we’ll see.
This term I’m doing two courses I’ve done before. Twice actually, but let’s not talk about that. After finding out last night I passed the art history class I’m confident again that I can pass these classes too. Will be lots of work, for one class I have to analyse 16 plays. Will be like 12000 words in total!!! Madness!! The ‘thesis’ to end your bachelor only has to be 5000 or 6000 words… And the other class will have an exam and a paper about something historiographical. I hate it, but it’s mandatory.
I also did a whole lot of figuring out on Monday, when I had to sign up for courses to follow in term 3 and 4. So now I have an outlined program until January 2009, when I should be able to have my bachelor’s degree. It means I’ll have to pass all my classes from now on, so let’s hope for that!

Still alive and kicking

*waves* yes I’m still out there. I know I haven’t written anything in a month or so, but today I was asked by a certain someone when I was going to update this again. So here I am.

I actually had this week off of uni. Our academic year has 4 term and between each term we get a week off. So great I think, because you really don’t have to do anything. No preparing classes, no studying for exam, just a whole week of relaxation!
And did I relax!! On Wednesday I went to a sort of spa with my mother. I don’t dig saunas and bathing naked with other people though , so we only had a massage. A massage of an hour!! It was SO good. Never had it before, so I was curious and nervous, but it was great. Definitely gonna do that again sometime! After that we went for a drink in a cute little place cafe/restaurant nearby, in the “Rottemeren”, lovely place.

Last Monday I had a ‘Boltmeet’ again, since ages. Of course Bolt is no longer with us, but I still have contact with the Dutch Bolters every now and then, and this Monday I met up with 2 of them. One I had met a couple of times before, Elise, even went to Lowlands with her in 2005. The other guy I hadn’t met before, he was cool too. And the boyfriend of the girl was there too. It was in Leiden, a big university city, hadn’t been there in forever! Most of my classmates from high school went there, because it is so close to Zoetermeer. For me that was a reason not to go there Anyway, it was nice to be in Leiden again. I wouldn’t want to live there, but it’s nice to spend a day there. Unfortunately the weather was pretty bad, so we just had a small walk through the city. Then we went to the house of Elise and her boyfriend, where we just talked and chilled. At some point we got hungry, so we went into the city again and went to eat something. After that I hopped on the train to Utrecht again, was a fun day.

Because of all the train rides I made this week, I FINALLY finished reading the book I had started last December/January. Yes, I worked my way through Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina”. I’m not good at writing reviews, so I won’t bother with that. It was very detailed and I think some parts could’ve been shorter, but overall I quite liked it. He really showed the depth of the characters, they were very real, I like that.
Now I’ve started in Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway”, but I’m only a couple of pages in, so I can’t say anything about that yet.

Tomorrow I don’t have to work! In the afternoon we’re going to an exposition of my uncle and three of his friends. he makes sculptures and he paints. I haven’t seen much of his work, but I like some of it, so I’m curious about it. I think my brother is coming too, so after that we’re going to have dinner somewhere.

And then on Sunday I can mentally prepare myself for the new term.. I’ll only have 3 classes, so I can’t complain. Two on Tuesday and one on Thursday, so that’s not bad! And this Mondy I have to sign up for the courses of term 3 and 4, so that always counts for some figuring out and puzzling if classes won’t overlap.

That’s all for the little update, I’m looking forward to a certain exciting event, which I’ll keep to myself, because I can!