Ouch!

The inevitable has happened. After surviving the cold, snowy and icy winter on the cobbly streets of Utrecht for over two months, my bike and I fell down this morning at 7.21 AM on the Griftstraat on the way to work. A bus was taking a turn and I had to bike right in order to avoid said bus, but when I did, I hit a patch of ice hidden underneath a pile of fresh snow and fell. Hard. It didn't hurt as much as I'd imagined it to be all those times when I biked through the snow this winter, and it happened a lot faster than I expected. I quickly scanned the street for any upcoming traffic, but of course there was nothing there, it being 7 AM on a dark Tuesday morning and all. A nice sorority girl in a mini skirt asked me whether I was okay, which I was, but damn, that's a nasty way to start one's morning. The result: a big bruise on my left hip.

World Trip Update # … (where did we leave off again?!)

More news on our upcoming world trip, even though it’s been kind of quiet lately. Something that we do do every week is going downtown to see what’s on sale. We discovered last year that prices drop to an ultimate low in January and February, so we’ve been searching the stores for knock-offs for almost two months and ended up buying a lot of great stuff, like backpacks, rucksacks, camp gear and this great tent that is super small and ultra light but still houses two people in extreme weather. We also went to the Vakantiebeurs (Dutch for: Holiday Fair) and bought some small necessities like a travel pillow, travel sheets and one of those toiletry bags that has a hook so that you can hang it in any gross bathroom that you might (and will!) encounter during your travels. We also became members of Joho and received a bunch of information to browse through, so we’re basically having a lot of fun getting excited about the possibilities. We also think that we have finally chosen two possible routes from this infinite number of possibilities, but we have discovered that people’s opinion about said routes can be divided into two camps. There are those who think that if you are going on a 9-month world trip you might as well try to see as many different things as possible. This is the side that we’ve chosen. But there are also those who think it’d be better to just visit one region and really get to know it (and then there are also those who actually move away to, say, Brussels, but that’s really taking it too far). I do like the idea of really exploring one region, but how would you even choose a region from all of the great options available? I, for example, really want to go to South America, but Jochem insists on going to Australia. Compromise, anyone? Besides, I think 9 months offers you the opportunity to see more of the world than just one region, and since we really want to go on a WORLD trip, we came up with these two routes:

(1) Amsterdam – Beijing//Bangkok – Cairns//Melbourne – Christchurch//Auckland – Tahiti – Easter Island – Santiago de Chile//Lima – Guatemala City – San Francisco - Amsterdam

(2) Amsterdam – Windhoek – Amman – Mumbai – Bangkok – Cairns//Melbourne – Christchurch//Auckland –Tahiti – Easter Island – Santiago de Chile//Lima – San Francisco – Amsterdam

We’re already halfway through anticipating the whole thing.

And on a slightly different note: do you know that song called "Maybe Tomorrow" by Stereophonics (probably, since I am always at least a year behind everything)? I once saw it played during a travel show on TV and now I always have to think about our world trip when I hear it. Just like I always have to think about our Provence trip whenever I hear the soundtrack to Amélie. Perhaps this means that I only enjoy music in circumstantial settings (because it reminds me of something) and not because of its inherent quality... Can we still be friends, Kiran?

I have to go - I convinced Jochem to see Valentine's Day with me at the movies on Valentine's Day (hihi) and it starts in an hour and a half and I still need a shower...

The Dress

I bought a dress. [pause for surprise] It’s true, so compose yourself. It happened on Friday. Jochem and I were downtown to do our usual grocery shopping. I had to go to the H&M to buy the absolute cheapest new shirt to sleep in, since my usual model was beyond dirty and couldn’t possibly be worn any longer, to the point where I was ashamed to wear it front of anyone other than the boyfriend, the cats and the fish (because who wants to casually be asked why you have stains on your boobs by one’s own mother (you may wonder why I have stains on my boobs in the first place, but that’s what happens when a certain person stays in one’s pajamas all day and ends up cooking in said pajamas, which causes stains in said, white (of course), shirt, which wouldn’t be any problem in an ordinary world, but in my world means that when I try to remove said stains, it only gets worse. I don’t iron for the same reason.)). Damn, that was a long sentence. Anyway, the fact that I bought anything, let alone a dress, is pretty much a miracle, since I hate shopping. That’s right. I’m not a girly girl, I don’t like to wear make-up, and I don’t like shopping, unless, of course, it means shopping for food in small delis or shopping for camp gear for any upcoming trip. The truth is, shopping has become a luxury for me due to all the saving up for the world trip. I have a great mom who is nice enough to buy me a few pieces each season and who often gives me her hand-me-downs, but most of my clothes I’ve had for years. I have wholes in my jeans but I don’t buy new ones, but instead ask my mom to sew them up. Sometimes it can be quite frustrating, like when you, literally, have nothing to wear to an event, but at the same time I’ve gotten quite used to it. My mom says this is because I’m cheap, which is probably true, since I discovered a while ago that me working multiple jobs + Jochem working multiple jobs + us saving basically every penny = a lot of money in the bank (you know, the kind of Math I can do). So these days, anything above a few euros is a lot of money for me. I’m not an impulse buyer, but always think everything through at least three times. For example, on the same day I bought the dress, I decided not to buy a cute top that was on sale for €3,95 because, well, I already have so many tops. The dress, however, cost a fortune. That may not say much where I come from, but it was a dress from a store where I usually don’t even look inside, so go figure. We just happened to pass it on our way back from the H&M. I looked to my left, saw the dress, and had to see it up close. This is usually how I shop. It means I never have the urge to just go and buy anything, but it also means that once I have my eye on something, I almost always end up buying it, even though it’s really too expensive. But so, we went inside and looked at the dress, which looked even cuter up close, and I decided to try it on (a miracle in itself, since I absolutely detest getting changed in stores). I tried on two sizes, walked around for about 20 minutes, even let Jochem call my mom for a second opinion, and finally bought it. Now tell me: what it worth the trouble?

Valentine's Day

Wow. It has been over a month since my latest entry unto this weblog. It clearly shows that I could really never be a professional writer since I clearly can't produce under pressure. I've been too busy playing teacher in Culemborg to make time to write about it. You see, as DIO's (Dutch for: Teachers In Training) we have to keep track of all, and I do mean ALL, of our progress in this hellish invention called an online Portfolio. You can't turn your head in an educational setting without having to account for it by answering a million questions, like: What was your intention? What were you thinking? What were you feeling? What were you doing? What have you learned from it? What do you intend to take with you for future settings? et cetera et cetera. This constant self-reflection is so exhausting that when I finally get home and Jochem asks me: "How was your day?" I can only mumble a mere "Fine." Having to write everything down makes the prospect of writing even more of it down in this weblog a daunting task indeed. Luckily (or at least for all of you Dutch readers), one of my fellow DIO's has just started a weblog himself called Dagboek van een DIO (Dutch for: Diary of a Teacher In Training). Check it out here; it perfectly explains why 4 HAVO students (10th graders) are impossible on Tuesday afternoon but relatively easy-going on Wednesday morning (and why we refer to them as 'a bunch of lazy asses'), why activerende didaktiek (Dutch for something like: activating didactic techniques) is not God's gift to teachers, and how we are constantly balancing euphoria with suicidal thoughts.

the story of our lives: with Daniëlle (Mathematics), Myrthe (Art History), Willard (Mathematics) and Chantal (Geography) behind the computers, yet again

Our KWC mentorgroep (Dutch for: Koningin Wilhelmina College (= our internship school) mentor group), however, is still as close as ever. There used to be 12 of us from different disciplines, but now we are one woman short because she couldn't pass up the chance to enroll in a PhD program in History. We are in fact so close that our in-school supervisor has made it her personal mission to break us apart in order to get us talking to other people. What can I say? We're quite the tight little group. Besides the obvious school-related activities we visit each other's rehearsals; we make student pastas together; we have beers at the Stairway to Heaven (including bitterballen of course, which, sorry, is a concept that simply cannot be explained in English); we have bets on corny TV shows (who the hell is that damn mole?!); and yesterday we went to StuKaFest together (Studenten Kamer Festival, which is a festival in which bands play in student dorms and students pay a small fee to see the artists up close; Willard happened to live in a dorm where Hit Me TV was performing and we all came by to witness it up close). So yay for great people to work with every day!

with fellow English teacher in training Nienke (and OH MY GOD my hair is sooooo long! perhaps I should cut it again, because this is getting out of hand...)

with Evelien (Art History), Nienke (English), Myrthe (Art History) and Ellen (Biology) during the school's charity event for Haiti, where all of us raised over €10,000!

and my favorite picture where Evelien 'casually' walks by the camera

But what I actually wanted to write about was Valentine's Day. Jochem and I usually just give each other cards on this day, but this year I bought him a kitchen machine aid thingy and he bought me a mug with hearts on it that says "Mrs." We don't have any plans all weekend (which is a first in a very long time!) so we plan to spend it cooking, eating and I somehow convinced him to join me in a matinee viewing of Valentine's Day. Unfortunately, I also have to work, but I'm hoping that the soundtrack to The Boat That Rocked will get me through it. Because yes, that movie and that soundtrack is my latest new thing. A certain musically gifted friend is probably about ready to kill me for needing a romantic comedy to enjoy music from the sixties, but what can a musically challenged person like myself do about it? What are YOUR plans for this year's commercialized display of romantic love?