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 ;-)

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!

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!