A Little Update on the Life of Me

In my first weblog I promised to update you on a number of things going on in my life, and I'd like to do that now before I head off to California on Wednesday (and because I also don't feel like doing any homework so close to going on a trip ;)).

First of all, about Jochem. September 15 was our two-year anniversary, a big milestone for both of us, and we officially moved in together on August 1, even though Jochem had been living in our apartment from mid July onwards to renovate the place. He did a great job -- together with family and friends he turned an old student apartment complex into a grown-up's apartment. I've always loved my apartment and the neighborhood in which it stands, Wittevrouwen (or White Women :P), but right now I am just absolutely in love with it! Our apartment consists of the top two floors of an old house, and what's great is that we have a LOT of space and massive windows that offer the most amazing light. But it being a very old house, I have a sort of love and hate relationship with it. For example, the house is not properly insulated and the windows are very thin, so in the summer it gets pretty hot inside, but what's worse is, during the winter it's FREEZING! Sometimes it's even colder inside than outside, no kidding! One time I spent the entire morning in my fake Uggs and woollen sweater only to go out and see that it was actually really warm outside. There's nothing much we could do about the cold except for hang up curtains everywhere in order to avoid a draft, and placing the thermostat in the living room and out of the hall. We did give the entire place a good paint job, though, and thanks to my parents we now also have a brand new carpet in the living room. We also bought some new furniture and lots of other cute things. Jochem and I spent five whole days cleaning up, merging our things together and putting everything into place, but now we really have an amazing house! :) We have a big living room, an open kitchen, a teeny tiny balcony (but it fits a table and two chairs, so who cares?), a restroom, a bathroom, a bedroom and a study/extra bedroom. We LOVE it!

Living with a man, however, and living with Jochem in particular, leads to several interesting things. Anyone who knows me, knows me to be the biggest perfectionist and control freak around, and anyone who knows Jochem, knows that he is very messy, scatterbrained and unorganized. You'd think hell would break loose straight away, but it's really not that bad. We divided the chores evenly and Jochem really considers my feelings (most of the time). I never have to put down the toilet seat, I rarely find his hair in places where I don't want to find them (at least not more often than my own annoying hair), and somehow I've convinced him that it's a good idea that he cooks and does the dishes every night. But there are also some other things. For example, he always wears these black socks that leave little black fluffy things on the carpet and it drives me INSANE! Also, one of my chores is to do laundry, and I always ask Jochem to put his jeans in the wash inside out, and his socks separated from each other, but he ALWAYS forgets! So on Saturday I threw his jeans to his head. That serves him well. But overall, it's really great to live together with Jochem after two years of a weekend relationship.

The cherry on our sunday was the week we spent in Cinque Terre in Italy. We had been to Italy the year before on a four-week road trip, but had only been to Cinque Terre one day (and only because my friends Marije and Michiel had told us about it). We immediately loved it there and vowed to come back within five years. So when my parents decided to give us a week-long vacation abroad for my graduation, we did not have to think long before we booked a B&B in Manarola during the month of August. We took the train to Milano and from there to Manarola, and spent five blissful days hiking, touring the different villages, swimming in crystal clear waters and having delicious Italian foods and drinks. It is absolute heaven and anybody who goes to Italy simply MUST go to Cinque Terre as well. We spent our final day in disappointing Milano before returning to our rainy native country.

Other things that have happened is the big Housewarming/Anniversary/Graduation/Birthday Party that Jochem and I threw on September 20 for forty of our close family and friends. Something that I never wanna do again, by the way, because it causes a lot of stress and you end up cleaning your new home all of the next day after that, but we did end up having a great time. Luckily I have amazing friends who prepared their signature dishes for our guests, and a friend with a driver's licence and a car who helped us get supplies. We had people coming over from 2 PM until well past midnight, received a lot of great gifts, and were able to show everyone our new home.

Also, after three years of studying English Language and Culture and American Studies at Utrecht University, I received my second Bachelor of Arts on September 29, together with my good friend Mag. We had given a graduation party together the Saturday before, and since this was my second BA, and not nearly as big a deal as University College Utrecht was, it didn't feel nearly as impressive. But perhaps that's also because I see this second BA as a means to an end, in order to enroll in the educational master. My parents and brother also weren't there because my parents were on vacation in Spain and my brother had to stand in for my dad at work, but luckily some of my good friends showed up and we had lunch afterwards at Broers (or Brothers) in downtown Utrecht. I also got a lot of flowers.

So now that I have this second BA I was able to start the educational MA program at Utrecht University in September, and I gotta tell you: it's no picnic. Grad school is very hard -- it feels like I'm back at UCU except now I only have two classes instead of four and I have a household to run and groceries to buy and food to prepare and cleaning to do and I also have to work in order to pay for all of this. So it's been tough reading five hundred pages every week and spending hours upon hours in the library, but luckily I am very interested in the material and hopefully I'll get more into it as the year progresses. Since I no longer work as a teaching assistant at the university, I've been looking for a new job and I finally have an interview with the Studiekring, an organization that helps Dutch students in primary and secondary school study. It is in Utrecht and I would be a tutor for Dutch, English, German and French. The organization has a good name and the job sounds great, but I wonder how I'd find the time to work.

Luckily I have also found my new religion: yoga. I first came into contact with yoga six years ago when a guy named Roni, a fellow student from UCU, started giving lessons in power yoga. Anna was immediately converted, but I soon quit because it hurt my knees. I started doing yoga again recently to relieve stress and to strengthen my body. A couple of months ago I had to quit running and give up my goal of running a half marathon due to a leg injury, but after spending the entire summer not working out I was ready to get started again. Jochem got me a DVD called Yoga for Dummies, which I started doing once a week, while running twice a week. This quickly turned to running only once a week and doing yoga twice a week, and now I don't run at all any more and only do yoga. I've even started taking classes at Yoga Moves, a great yoga center run by a woman from California, which is conveniently situated near my house. I absolutely love yoga now and dream of scenarios where I become a yoga instuctor and am forever surrounded by peace and happiness (although Anna says this might be because I'm just too stressed out ;)). After I return from my trip I'll take a couple of more classes and then we'll see where it goes.

The last important event happened yesterday when I turned 25. I always feel like I should feel different or care about getting older, but I never do (although I did buy night cream because I figured I should start using night cream now that I am quarter life, but I now realize I forgot to apply it yesterday). I wanted to keep it small because of all the other big parties I've thrown recently, so together with Jochem and six other friends we had dinner at Humphrey's, a really good and hip restaurant near where I live. I got a lot of cards and some cool presents, although I believe more is to come...

Looking at the long update that I wrote I realize that I must write more often, and I will try to do just that as soon as I return from my trip to California. Danielle and Tom are getting married, Anna and I are bridesmaids, and all of us will be there for a big reunion. I can't wait! :)