Escaping the bubble

Before setting out. Photo stolen from Leonoor.

As one of my classes has called a reading week this week, I had no class today (which was bliss) and a group of us used the chance to get out of the bubble and explore town a bit.

We caught the tram in and grabbed some really tasty pasta for lunch. The portions were huge, the food really tasty, the company even better... except I didn't eat my companions. Anyway, moving swiftly on...

Rubbish photo but it was so tasty!!

We also had a moment looking at the library. I'm not sure if I'm going to join, myself, as you have to pay a fee to take books out and I just don't think I will get enough use out of it but it's a really sweet little place. Best of all, on the seventh floor there's a café with a balcony which has a glorious view of the city. There's a real feeling of freedom being up that high.

Moving on from the library, we went in search of vintage and second hand stores and my goodness, there are some beautiful clothing shops in the town. On the bright side, I don't think I'll ever find any of them again... if I do I could spend so much money so easily. Very proud that I didn't spend my month's allowance in one day! Once you get off of the tourist route this is such a lovely little city but you just have to work hard to get away from the artificial façade.

Human statue :-D

The evening was equally enjoyable with pizza take out and general chilling. All in all, a really fun day! Now I just have to work through the pile of reading that I've got to fight my way through for tomorrow... not so fun ;-) 

Socialising, studying, and a new phone number.

You have no idea how hard it was for me to break from recently established routine this week with the bike post thing. Anyway, no worries, we're back to the Sunday Summary for today at least ;-)

I guess, although I posted a status about it on Facebook, I should probably mention the choir audition. Wendy messaged me on Monday evening to say that choir was meeting in about an hour and did I want to join her and go. I had no idea there was any audition element and agreed, spending the next hour in utter terror. When we arrived and found out that there was an audition element Wendy stopped me from running away, something for which I am grateful! Neither of us had prepared a song and I ended up attempting something I hardly knew so I knew there was no chance of me getting in (and I didn't but that's not the point). However, the range exercises went really, really well and the fact that I managed to do this is such a big deal. It's baby steps but I am getting over a phobia that has been around since I was about eleven. A year ago I would never have dreamed I would have managed to actually audition for a choir. So happy.

Tuesday has already been chronicled in the bike riding post so no need to go over that again!!

So, onto Wednesday and the impromptu pot-luck dinner and 'girlie night'. Randomly suggested at some point during the day, and quickly adopted as a great idea, Leonoor, Sonja, Laura, Dania and myself all met up for dinner. I had nothing out of the freezer due to the short notice of the whole thing and therefore hosted which was really fun as I got to lurk at home and eat other people's food!

Laura, me, Ms. Camera Shy after dinner :-)

For those of you who aren't at AUC, this little group is the group that is in basically all my classes so we naturally get to spend a lot of time together. Add to that the fact that they're great people and you can see why the evening was so lovely. It was also nice to spend time outside of class getting to know each other a bit better and, most importantly, to just chill a bit.

As for the rest of the week, well, it's been mainly dominated by essay writing which isn't so much fun but I guess it is what I'm here for! Also been feeling a bit crappy health wise but eh, I'm doing better than normal so can't really complain!

The other bit of 'important' news is that I finally have a working Dutch phone number. I'm, obviously, not posting it here but drop me a facebook message and I'll send it to you happily. For all the people with my English number: I will keep that number and use it when I'm in the UK so don't delete it - just don't expect me to check it when I'm out of the country! I'll also say about the new number in a facebook status in a couple of days but have been 'statusing' more than normal over the past week so will wait a couple of days ;-)

I swear, there is no logic to riding something with two wheels!

So, finally, after many weeks of deliberating (*), Dania and I agreed to attempt to learn to cycle on the evening of the twenty-third of September two-thousand and fourteen.

Luckily on leaving my room and attempting to unlock my bike I encountered Robbert, one of my neighbours. Seeing my feeble attempts to free my bicycle from various locks, he obviously decided that I was not fit to be set free on his country and agreed to assume the role of 'cycle teacher'. Seriously, I am so, so grateful to him, no doubt as is Dania, because we would have been in a right mess without his assistance and support! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Of course, as the Dutch person, Robbert was the cycling expert and was keen to impart all of his years of knowledge. First lesson: how to untangle your shoe lace when it gets trapped in the bike chain!

It was Dania who freed it in the end with her awesome logic.
She also took this photo :-)

I must say that, all joking aside, I was impressed with how well Robbert managed to break down how to ride a bike as trying to explain how to do something when you have been doing it for as long as you remember... well, that's not easy! I'm also really impressed with Dania who managed to improve so, so much.

As for me, I managed to ride in a wobbly corner-less line. I apparently can't say it was a straight line because of the wobbly nature but all the same! It was also a great improvement from my first attempt at riding this bike (which my mother has named Fiona, by the way). This time, I didn't peddle once... straight into a wall.

So the bike riding adventure has well and truly begun for Dania and I. We're certainly not ready to be let lose on Amsterdam yet but give us a few more practices, and a babysitter, and it just might happen!

(*) Okay, it was about two weeks but that doesn't sound half as dramatic!

One month on!

As it seems that I have taken to writing weekly summaries on a Sunday (it's not planned) it just happens, I expected this to be another boring post full of nothingness with which to numb the minds of the poor souls who actually read this. Well, it probably is going to be that still, don't get your hopes up too much!

However, just as I sat down to write I noticed the date. It's the 21st. That means that it's exactly one month since I moved here. I've been living in the Netherlands for one whole month. It does not feel like that long at all. It's really, really weird!

However, saying that, last week was a really good week for me as it all started to feel a lot more settled. My sleep pattern has started to return to normal (I'd been waking at least four times each night and unable to sleep beyond about 6:30) and things have started to feel more in control and generally chilled. It's only as things settle down that you realise how much of a strain life has been but then I think that's to be expected when you're living on your own for the first time, moving to a foreign country, every piece of admin is going wrong, and you're starting at a new university. Certainly, for the first time, last week things started to feel more normal and more like home. So maybe it's not so strange that a month has passed!

So, a brief summary of last week:
Wednesday evening was a pup quiz at the university café. It was a nice evening. Went up with Wendy and then joined with a couple of older students and Julika to form a team for the night. I am so out of practice with pub quizing though, worrying as I used to go to the pub and compete each week, and was totally useless! Would certainly go up again all the same as it's a nice evening out... and I need to get back in practice!

Friday saw me hand in my first paper. Thursday saw my computer delete my first paper (and the back up file) in a complete blip. You can guess that it was finished in a bit of a flap but it wasn't too big a deal. Not the best thing I've ever written but, for a first attempt at a university paper, I'm not too disappointed.

Friday was also the day of the AUC Lustrum celebration marking five years of the university. I went for a little while with some friends and hung around, chatted, and ate really nice pistachio ice cream. I didn't stay all that long though because I was tired and didn't really find my way round what was going on.

I did manage to get my father a bottle for his collection ;-)

And then yesterday was another lovely afternoon and evening with Maria. After she rescued me when I got totally lost trying to find the market where she works we spent some time having a drink with her father and some colleagues which was lovely and then went back to hers for dinner. She even taught me how to use the buses and showed me that, in fact, my supermarket troubles stem from me going to a weird supermarket. Seriously, the one near her flat is so, so easy!

Did I mention Maria's pet chicks?

All in all, a wonderful week. Really looking forward to seeing what next week has in store! Now I should probably return to my two other papers that are, annoyingly, not writing themselves in my absence!

A rant on the situation with Scotland

I will start this blog post by saying that you can guess the topic from the title. I am not entering into a political debate, nor do I intend to, and have stopped this post from going onto facebook to make it less visible. This is a personal post about my feelings about situations surrounding a political situation and not a political post... if you can't cope with that then please don't read any further.

As I'm aware that enough of the people who read my blog are friends from outside of the UK I will briefly explain. Today is the day of a referendum that is taking place in Scotland to determine if Scotland will leave the UK.

I had decided to keep silent on the whole subject because it's something that's close to a lot of people's hearts and, while I may have an opinion, it isn't really my issue to fight over.

However, today I discovered something that really did make me unhappy. One of my relatives, who is Scottish, has had their house graffitied by some idiot who feels that is the correct way to treat a human being who has a different opinion/connections to England. 

From what I have heard, this isn't a one off, and most likely is going both ways. I've not done my research and press is always biased anyway. However, having something like this happen to someone who you have a connection to is really infuriating.

Now I will admit something that I haven't told many people:

On the day I received my acceptance at AUC I was up in Scotland, in the area I love and I had visited every summer as a child, near to where my family live. The day after, I went to Glasgow for an open day, still undecided about where I would ultimately chose and already holding a place at Glasgow. During the course of that day, I was shouted at by two groups of people at the university for being English. I decided at this point that Amsterdam was the better choice for me.

Are these people the majority? No. They just shout the loudest. Most of Scotland, no matter what they will vote today, if they vote today, will be civil about matters. However, it's got to the point where I am so annoyed that I can't pretend the loud people who turn a political matter into a personal one don't exist. 

Come tomorrow we will have a result of this vote. Whatever that result may be we all, Englishmen and Scotsmen, remain individuals and remain humans. People need to remember to treat those around them as individuals and humans. 

Fight to change a system, fight to change something you disagree with, but attacking and intimidating another living soul being different, having different opinions, or for any reason really, is just below the belt. This goes for any situation as far as I’m concerned.

Now go out and hug people.

In which technology gets the better of the Chadburn family (etc)

It's six P.M. on a Thursday and I've just settled down to dinner after a long day of arguing with the housing association and electrician visits. Naturally, my dad chooses this moment to phone me. He's decided, despite the fact that this is the man who managed to break two computers in the space of  a year that, in my absence, he will assemble the desktop at home.

Luckily, the answer to his question is quite simple. The mouse and keyboard won't plug in because they are the wrong mouse and keyboard. He has to go and buy a new one to fit that computer. Peace again.

I'm going to be honest and say, that after he got back I did spend the entire night on the phone to him. That man has a complete inability to read what is on a computer screen and to take the logical choice and also fails to follow instructions. That said, after about three hours on the phone he finally got the thing set up and I left him with the instruction to let it update. I waited for the inevitable call for help.

Surprisingly, it didn't come and the next I hear on the subject is:

I'm actually amazed he managed to get into his email account... especially since I'm pretty sure I changed the password on it a couple of months back...

Of course, that's not all that's been going on with a continuation of classes and a heck of a lot of work to be done outside of class. That is what I expected though, if a little heavier than I expected, and so I'm not complaining. It's nice to be stretched again. 

Admittedly, the highlight of my weekend was this evening with an impromptu invitation from Wendy to join her for dinner. It was great to get out and socialise after all the strain of the past week! Having eaten and conversed for some time we were eventually drawn into working on a large puzzle that Wendy had started. You can see why I get on with her so well ;-)

She was waaay better at this than me, I hasten to add!

Anyway, having just got in from her flat, the long walk of about 30 paces from my own... I am ready to drink tea and sleep, looking forward to the week ahead!

Entering the second week!

It's really funny the things that you miss when you're away from home. I quite expected to find myself a quivering wreck frequently through not being around my family (and friends). However, while I miss people, and I'm finding life a lot easier than I expected, I've found that it's the practical little things that make me miss home.

I miss the food that I know. I miss cooking for people. I miss getting the train to college as the walk here doesn't give you the same social experience. I miss having a bath because I only have a (painfully hot) shower. I miss saving bits of carrot for my canary, when cooking. Perhaps these things are the things that really have impact because the lack of people you love is just too big a concept for the brain to hack. Either way, homesickness is certainly present but in a different form to how I expected it!

To that ends, things like cooking a Sunday Roast with Maria the other day really matter. I mean, it was probably one of the worst roast dinners I've ever made but it was just wonderful because it was a moment of 'home'. There's an amazing comfort derived from those kind of things.

Attempts to combine study and relaxation ;-)

Something that has really stuck me about this course is the sheer workload and pace at which the 

classes are moving. Last week, on Thursday, I completed my first piece of work that contributes to the final grade, a group presentation which ended up with a significantly smaller group than planned. This happened in the second class and class number one had been an introduction. It really does feel like I'm preparing for class or doing assignments in every waking moment although I know that's not true. All the same, you know you're procrastinating when you update your 'about' page on the blog. Pleased I got round to it, even if I should have been doing something else, as the other page was annoying me no end!

Overall, there have been some huge lifestyle changes over the last couple of weeks and it's really rather strange. I'm enjoying the challenges but they are challenges for sure! I'm really happy that I'm starting to get to know some lovely people, and meeting new people almost every day, and that is a really good sign!

Oh, and those of you who've known me and my bad immune system for years, and have been wondering how I've managed to not catch 'Freshers Flu' will be pleased to know that I haven't been replaced by some alien... I'm coming down with a cold >.<

Two days down!

So, I have now experienced my first few classes... hurrah. Some look interesting (like the one that focuses on the history of early art and is so exciting), some look less appealing (I have to watch horror films for one and I'm a complete coward!). All in all, however, it's been a good start to the week, and, indeed, to university.

I must admit that I'm being hyper organised at the moment with doing reading as soon as it's set and

so on. For those of you who don't know me, this isn't normal. I just know that if I start of really organised there's a chance of me managing to keep up some façade of control until at least half way through the course! Anyway, this has meant that I'm actually quite surprised by how sudden the work load has started. Some of the reading is actually quite heavy stuff for people who haven't started the course properly and I really pity those who are tackling it in something that is not their native tongue. In addition, there are some assignments that are due rather early like a presentation which counts towards the final grade which I am giving, with my group, on Friday before we've even had a real class... bit strange.

How I'm surviving Week One. By Week 16 this will be replaced by gin, no doubt

The other thing that I've been finding really difficult for the second time in my life is my vision problem (the first time being when I had to leave French because of discrimination and formal proceedings happened). The teachers views have kinda ranged from you'll just have to manage to disorganised but nice. The art history teacher, for example, basically said that she had taught a student with 15% vision before and, although she tweeks slides in advance so there may be some little issues, she'll print them off and we'll find some way to manage... just remind her. She was lovely and 100% human about it. Some of the others have treated it a bit lightly, I think. Banning laptops in your class is one thing but when one of your students is disabled and needs to use one for some reason then you either work to find an alternative or you make an exception. See, the thing is, because my vision doesn't generally impact on my academic life, some people just view it as a silly quirk. Just because you can't see how it impacts doesn't mean it doesn't. Just because I don't have 15% vision doesn't mean that I don't have my own needs. This turned into more of a rant than I intended but it's kinda unfair that in two out of four classes I am actually worried that I'm going to be at a disadvantage because of something the uni knew about before they accepted me. It'll get sorted no doubt but really, more stress?

Whoops. Rant over now, you're safe!

I can no longer moan about my empty shelves.

So, the books have finally arrived, except one which was out of stock so I'm not too worried about that. I'm really pleased because I'll get to have a dip in and out of these as I want, and, of course, as I need. It's great not to have to search out the lucky one who already has the book (thanks to the lovely Dania for helping me out with one of the books the other day). That said, there's a lovely community spirit with people helping one another here. For example, when my books arrived today, along with two other parcels, I was asked to take some parcels for others. One gentleman from a higher year, who I don't think was even picking up post, kindly offered to help and indeed did help me carry this bundle. We'd never met before but all the same he said that if I needed help I could contact him. Now, I probably never will because I'm not one for asking for help at the best of times but that's a heart-warming human experience. It's almost as though the shared 'AUC family title' allows people to ignore the social boundaries that say "don't talk to strangers it's weird" and both give and receive help.

Oh, and I got a parcel from home today containing underwear which was kinda a joke gift because I'm always short on socks. In my defence, back home, my family steals my socks but anyway. It also contained a beautiful little owl card and I must admit I did cry just a bit. I love it here but I miss the people back home.

Owls and glitter, could this card be any better?

Castlefest review: Sunday

For introduction post and Thursday round-up click here, for Friday click here, and for Saturday click here.

Time, or rather lack of it, has meant that this final part of the Castlefest review 'series' comes about a month after it actually occurred. As such, this section will be even more rubbish than normal but it's unfair on the great bands of the Sunday not to give them a moment. In addition, Sunday was very much a day of three bands for me, Rastaban, Rapalje, and Finvarra so I've already written about them at some point!

I arrived slightly late to Rastaban's set even with my determined powerwalk... the shuttle bus needs to arrive in earlier, for sure! I really don't know what to say without repeating things I've written in previous reviews. This band never ever disappoint. Even though I was alone and therefore way too shy to dance, and using my camera as an excuse not to, the vibes of this band just get into you and they really do ask for the audience to become involved. Seriously, I cannot stress enough, if you haven't already got this band's album, give it a go and even more importantly, get to one of their shows if at all possible.

Talking about using my camera as a shy-shield... I actually got some of my favourite photos from Rastaban's set. The energy onstage, combined with favourable lighting, really lent itself to some lovely images. Of course, more importantly, it lends itself to the creation of an all round immersive performance. 

Having ranted on about their performance (as usual) I should give a moment to the important bit: the music. The set list for this show was great and there were a fair few of my favourite pieces as well as a couple (if I remember correctly) of newer pieces which herald a continuation of the high quality output of this band. Waiting for CD number two ;-)

I was able to meet the band briefly after the show which was a good way to round things off, I think! Really nice people and they also kindly signed my scrapbook painting for me.

After that there was only one other band I planned to see. Okay, I had planned to see a few more on the Sunday but by this stage the fact that I had been surviving on coca-cola was starting to catch up with me! So onto one of my complete favourite bands both because of their music and the fact that they're such nice people: Rapalje.

Having last seen them at Glastonbury, on a tiny stage, with a tiny audience, it was really, really strange to see them on a festival stage with a huge crowd once again. Although the band is the same the whole atmosphere of the show changes, as with any performance, so it was actually a little strange in a sense.

Something that's really nice about Rapalje is that my mother is a huge fan too. Seriously, their set was the thing she was looking forward to all weekend (although I'm converting her to a couple of other groups too!). It's great to be able to share the music and the experience of seeing the group live with her and to have that interest in common. I was really pleased that they played Loch Lomond, which is haunting, as my mother hadn't heard it live before, and also brought out the flaming bagpipes, again, because that was the first time mother saw them. I know I'm not really talking much about the band (I've done that before) but it's because, for me, it's not just the music but the people I'm lucky enough to share it with!

The other thing about Rapalje, that I mentioned briefly, is that they are really, really nice people. Meeting them after the show - what can I say, I had another painting to be signed - they are delightful. We spent quite a long time talking to William, in particular, and to David which was lovely. However, the fact is the four of them are down to earth, talented people and yeah, a wonderful show, as always.

After Rapalje we explored the site a bit more and stumbled across another one of Finvarra's sets. Not going to go into detail as I've already written about them but I guess the fact that I originally intended to watch half their set and ended up watching two of them say says a lot about them as a band!

So that is the short, delayed, and badly written, summary of my festival!

I have a lot more  photos on my facebook page and the bonus is that you don't have to read my ramblings there ;-)