Honk if you hate James Joyce!

I did it! After sending several e-mails to my professors, I found out today that I received an 8 for Mapping Joyce! YAY!!! :) I am beyond happy because I had to pass that class. My master thesis has turned out to be much more difficult than I had anticipated, so there is a big chance that I'll have to work on it next year. Fortunately, this is accepted in the educational master, but only as long as you've passed 45 ECTS. So had I failed Mapping Joyce, and hadn't finished my master thesis either, I wouldn't have been allowed to start the second year. That's why I spent days writing 4,500 words about women in Hamlet and Ulysses. But it paid off, so at least now I know my position for next year is safe. Now all that's left is rewriting my master thesis, which I've been doing for the past five days. It's a lot of work, and I'm in that "what-I'm-writing-makes-no-sense-at-all"-phase, but Thursday it'll all be over. Because even if I have to rewrite it again, I am taking a long and much-needed break from sociolinguistics!

One Small Happy Family

"What greater thing is there for human souls than to feel that they are joined for life - to be with each other in silent unspeakable memories."

~ George Eliot

Happy Feet

My toe nails are pink again!!! :) I hate grooming, but I convinced Anna to do them for me when Jochem and I were in Brussels last weekend. Ever since I had a pedicure in New York last summer and walked around with red toe nails for weeks, I LOVE bright colors on my toe nails! I can't explain it, but it makes me very happy. This is especially helpful during the "laatste loodjes" that I am engaging in right now; my master thesis is due on Friday and one week later I am supposed to have written 4,000 words on Ulysses. Compared to what I've done so far it's fairly easy, but I'm just so not motivated anymore. So pink toe nails help a lot to make the process a bit more fun!

Conditioner

I caved. I bought the Honey Moisturizing Conditioner at The Body Shop in downtown Utrecht today.

A New Routine

I have A New Routine. My whole life is made up of routines, which gives me a sense of calm in a hectic life, but this New Routine is something I am particularly excited about. In the morning, I get ready, feed the cat and the fish, make breakfast, and watch programs on my computer before I start working. I used to watch the news in the morning, but these days Jochem and I usually watch it together at night (which is the routine my parents have been engaged in for as long as I know them, so how scary is that?!). I also used to watch a lot of wedding shows, but now have found something really great: RTL Travel. This is a travel show and on their website the documentaries are divided by country, so I am watching them in the same order as our world trip! How cool is that?! I have just started watching documentaries about Asia and will then continue with Australia, New Zealand, South America and Cuba. Right now I'm watching documentaries about India and I just can't wait to go!

Hair

Ever since my friends subtly (not so much) told me that my hair "wasn't looking so good" one Friday afternoon, I have been a little bit obsessed with my hair. Before I could explain to them that I had just washed my hair and that it is always fuzzy after just having washed it, they had put a hair mask in my hands with a bunch of instructions on how to make my hair look better. What they don't understand is that they've hit a somewhat sensitive spot. My hair is probably what I like most about myself (at least when it's been washed), and now I'm told that it doesn't look good. "You've got split ends", they tell me. Well, considering the fact that I am saving up for a 9-month world trip and my hair grows like it's eager to get somewhere, I am not about to spend €30 a month on a hair dresser. I go to the hair dresser once a year; right after the summer break when it's been exposed to numerous sun hours and Mediterranean sea water. But apparently this can all be solved with a hair mask. I tried the hair mask which is (1) very expensive, (2) smells funny and (3) takes a lot of work, but okay, my hair did look better than usual (even though it was still fuzzy when drying). What my friends also don't understand is that I hate spending time on my hair because it takes so looooong. When I take the kind of shower where I wash my hair, it takes me about an hour to get ready from start to finish. When I really make an effort and put on some jewelry and make-up, it takes me another 15 minutes. Seeing as that I am, like, superslow in getting ready, have always been, and will probably always be (except when I have 15 minutes to get to class), I am not exactly looking for more activities to add to my already well-established getting ready routine. Their next solution was to leave in my conditioner longer than usual when taking a shower. When I explained to them that I don't even use hair conditioner, I believe they almost had a heart attack. Today I took the shampoo and conditioner sample from a magazine and tried them in the shower. Result: it took me an hour and a half to get ready and my hair is fuzzier than ever. So you can see where this is going.

Aaahhh...

After what seems like an eternity of reading, doing research and writing the end of my master thesis is finally in sight. I'm not sure whether I'll need to spend a couple of weeks during the summer break rewriting or whether I'll really be done at the end of June, but I have 84 pages thus far and am only short one conclusion and a couple of paragraphs on didactic International English. Meanwhile, I've also managed to read the 732 pages of James Joyce's Ulysses (see below) and write three assignments on it of 1,000 words each. I have one more assignment and a 4,000-word final paper and then the academic year is really over. I've also managed to work five days a week for the past two months, but luckily those days are over now. Until the summer break I only work Tuesdays and Wednesdays, as well as three days supervising for the British Council and one extra day exam training for the Studiekring. So it seems like my life is finally slowing down. I cannot wait to be done with this year and to start my internships in the fall, because I can guarantee that I will NEVER do this again! It's been a bleak couple of months, but there were two strays of sunshine in between. First of all Jochem's 23rd birthday party. Jochem was about to let the day pass by without notice, but of course I couldn't let that happen. So I organized a small dinner party with friends, wine and good food. AND I gave him the first three books of Jamie Oliver, from which we've been cooking ever since!

After eight weeks of working every Saturday, Sunday and holiday for the Studiekring (besides working Monday through Wednesday and struggling through Modernist Lit. and Sociolinguistics) I had almost forgotten what it was like to sleep in or to have a weekend. So Jochem and I decided that the best way to celebrate my first weekend of 'freedom' was in Brussels! I have been too busy to be sad about the fact that BFF Anna and her boyfriend Ashwin have moved to Belgium. Even though it's only a 3-hour train ride away from Utrecht (which is NOTHING in American terms) I am not too happy about her being so much farther away. Still, I am very happy for her that her life has taken this positive turn! Brussels is a great city and the neighborhood they live in is very pretty (Mini Coopers, Fiat 500s and pugs are wherever I look, which is all I need to get a smile on my face!). Their apartment is also amazing and it was great to stay there for a couple of days (even though we really missed Manchego). The weather was great, and I went grocery shopping, walked around the Magritte Museum (which we'll have to visit next time since we couldn't get tickets for the opening), had beer in the park, had Thai food, had coffee in my pajamas, took a very long bath, read tons of magazines (no study material allowed!), attempted to draw, sunbathed in the grass, had bagels and pie for lunch, took a walk around the embassies, cooked risotto and salmon, watched The Office and Slumdog Millionnaire, went to bed late, and RELAXED!

Only 25 days till the summer break!

732 pages later...

...I finally finished it.

[pause for applause]

Disclaimer

You may not hear from me for a while. At least not until mid June. Because I am trying to write at least 70 pages about Linguistics and Education for my Master Thesis while at the same time:

(1) finish reading the last 400 pages (out of 700) from James Joyce's Ulysses;
(2) writing a total of 10,000 words on said novel;
(3) tutoring freelance on Mondays;
(4) tutoring for the Studiekring on Tuesdays and Wednesdays;
(5) giving exam training on Saturdays and Sundays;
(6) grading high school Literature papers;
(7) having some kind of social life.

Bear with me...

Just a Little Thought on Trees

I've been meaning to write a little piece about trees. I hadn't done so thus far because I thought it was kind of weird to write about trees, but Jochem said to go for it. They are just so pretty this year! The spring weather here in the Netherlands has been great so far and very much unlike the previous years. There is a lot of sun, but not a heat wave, and hardly any rain or cloudiness, and even when it is not as sunny, it is not very cold. There's just a lot of wind, but I can safely say that's a sacrifice we're all willing to make. But when I bike to work, after getting through some of the busiest roads in the city without (1) being run over and (2) killing someone for being so stupid, I bike through this lovely little street which has the most beautiful trees with the freshest looking leaves on them. It makes me so happy! :) Just like the big tree in the back yard of our neighbor; I'm pretty sure everyone in the neighborhood hates that thing but I love it. We always have a pretty, Renoir-like shade in our rooms. I just love how it's been winter and the trees have been bare for months and all of a sudden, out of nowhere it seems, the trees are green again. It makes me think that I could never live somewhere where the seasons don't change every year. But then again: what do I know? I just wrote a blog about trees.