Putting things back in perspective

Yesterday was difficult for me. It saw me miss out on something that I was really looking forward to (well several things really) because I wasn't well. In my ill haze I couldn't help but feel angry with myself, after all it was as though my own body was letting me down...again. Yesterday it felt like, after everything that has happened recently, this was the final straw, the end of the world.

Today, after a sleep and without being in so much discomfort everything does seem a lot better. My head is still spinning and my lungs ache something chronic but other than that I feel all but better and I can look at yesterday a lot more objectively.

It wasn't the end of the world. Yes, I won't get to look around the university but if I get an interview I will have a chance to get a feel of it so it doesn't matter all that much.

KLM are going to let us reschedule the flights, albeit for a small admin fee. When I was taken ill at the airport I expected it to be 400 pounds gone. We will be able to use these flights to rebook if I get an interview or just to look around Amsterdam.

Annelies and I will get to meet up some other time. She's been lovely over this period too and, to be fair, that kind of human compassion is what makes this world so special. 

I got to go through areas of the airport normal people never get to see. I also went through immigration without actually having been abroad which was a bizarre little experience! These are all new experiences, and experiences a lot of people don't have.

And, last but not least, I ended up spending so much time in the airport that I got to listen to a load of announcements in Dutch and I understood them. Hello proof that my Dutch understanding is improving even if the reproduction isn't ;-)

Somehow, what happened yesterday doesn't seem so bad after all!

Incidentally, this is my 100th blog post

And life keeps on moving on

So it's apparently 2014 now. Who'd have thought it! Nothing's really changed which is no surprise after all true change is a steady process as opposed to a split moment. 

This morning, however, I did get something a bit new for the new year and that would be this beautiful little whistle to replace the one that my dad has nicked off of me (and not paid for, I may hasten to add!) It feels really strange to be playing high whistle again after two months of just low whistle. Just working out the right breath pressure and finger spacings again is a challenge. We're getting on quite well so far though.

New addition to the Havanah home orchestra.

Other than that it's continuing to attempt to improve my life! I'm working especially hard on the Dutch at the moment because, for some reason, the wind has got into my sails. I'm determined to have at least some conversational fluency by the end of my gap year and I'm immensely lucky in that I have a couple of friends who I know would be more than willing to help me with that should I throw myself at them!

Of course, the whole Amsterdam university application continues to hang over my head. I've heard absolutely nothing from them so far, which isn't the end of the world, but want to get myself ready for an interview. Although I am not confident that I will even get an interview I do want to be sure that if I do I have prepared myself the best I can so better to start early, right? I'll be going out for an open day in a couple of weeks too. Flying to Amsterdam and back in one day seems pretty daunting but I have to remind myself that it can't be as bad as the time I went to Glasgow and back to Devon by coach in one day (well in reality it ended up as 48 hours of being awake and traveling).

Whatever happens this year, I've got one thing arranged!

It's also about the time that I'm getting really ready to go off and travel. I am hoping to work my way from Budapest via Austria, Germany,  to Castlefest in the Netherlands. This had been my plan for a little while but I've been putting off arranging it because I'm not so sure that I want to do it alone. It's not that I mind being alone but I would rather have some kind of companion for this kind of trip. I'm going to start doing some arranging, however, and then see if anyone cares to join me.

Castlefest Opening Concert (preview)

 As with all recent posts, I wrote this a few days ago with scheduling to post today.

So today is the opening concert of Castlefest. All things being well I will have set up my tent and will be listening to some amazing music from Pater Moeskroen, Rapalje, and Scrum as we speak!

Pater Moeskroen

This song translates to "Whiskey is the Devil". Doesn't stop them from drinking it though!

Pater Moeskroen produces some darn good fun music, which is thoroughly enjoyable.

The band themselves are a six piece who have, according to their website, and my Dutch, eighteen albums and five DVDs to their name so far. Although I haven’t followed this group I have listened to their videos on youtube and am very excited to see them live.

Rapalje

They look like they’re enjoying this so much that it’s contagious!

Now this is a band that I have listened to a fair bit, and own a few CDs by. The first time I saw a video of them performing live, with Aimee, we spent a fair time deciding if they were actually drunk up simply pretending. We weren’t convinced that anyone could play that well drunk…. Or sober. In short, we were impressed.

This is the band I’m most excited to see tonight!

The original video that Aimee and I watched some time ago.

Scrum

Well, I couldn’t leave the alcohol theme just yet could I?

Scrum are another fast paced, enjoyable band. It seems that this evening has been constructed to get people ready for the weekend! Mind you, with them playing at quarter to eleven, p.m., I wonder how anyone will get any sleep.

I’m pleased that they’re playing actually because they are a band that sings in English. By this time of night my Dutch understanding will be dead so it’s nice to have an 'easy' language to wind up with!

With this theme in all the music it will be a miracle if anyone 

wakes up without a hangover tomorrow!

The Netherlands

Although I am visiting the Netherlands for a very specific reason I am also really excited that I am visiting a new country, somewhere that I have never been but that I have wanted to go. It's a shame that I won't get to look around more but there's always time!

My mother visited the Netherlands with her parents when she was a bit younger than I am now and has always wanted to take me there. From what I can gather her main memories come from the red light district and the bulb fields which probably says something about my mother! Mind you, she did end up getting stuck in a strip club in Yugoslavia when she visited there with her parents but I digress...

Obvious touristy desires aside, what is it that makes me want to visit the Netherlands?

Well, I guess the main reason has got to be the people. I have a few friends who are Dutch and it would be lovely to see them. Of course, this trip I've not really got time to do this but next time! I've also spent quite a bit of time with Dutch people as whenever I've been doing my international stuff I always seem to gravitate towards the Dutch groups. They're probably the only people who don't hate the English. Anyway, although I'm not stupid enough to judge people in general by my limited experience I have wanted to visit their country too. The cultural behaviours have always seemed quite comfortable for me.

The language. I really like the sound of Dutch. Call me crazy but I like it. For the last few years I have been saying that I would learn Dutch when I had a free moment because with my English and German background it seemed more than possible. Going to Castlefest I decided to try Dutch and see if I couldn't speak it a bit out there. I think I was overly optimistic because the 'g' sound has scared me a bit as I can't replicate it quite right and nor can I hear how I am going wrong. I'm not giving up though. I will learn Dutch.

And, strange as it may sound, performing arts. A lot of the musical theatre actresses I admire are Dutch and, for some reason, they have a really strong female performing artist output. I actually looked at studying musical theatre in the Netherlands (and at doing a course in circus performance but my mother would have killed me) and that thought has never really left my mind.

I also really rather like tulips...

Fighting with Dutch

About a month ago I said that I was going to learn (some) Dutch in time for Castlefest. I had wanted to learn Dutch for quite some time and it seemed a great excuse to attempt it. Dutch also seemed possible to attempt as I'd been able to understand bits through my previous German and English knowledge, and with practice, I'd learned to understand even more.

The second part of a medley from '3 Musketiers', the first song in it being the 

first thing I ever heard in Dutch. See, musicals do really run my life.

However, when attempting to speak the language I quickly became disheartened. This is the worst thing that can happen with a language. I am a big believer in the fact that, if you want to learn a language because you love it then it will happen. If you don't love that language then you are going to be hitting your head against a brick wall.

My main problem came from the fact that the 'different' sounds in Dutch were sounds that I hadn't really encountered before and, learning alone, it's hard to work out if you are doing it right or even good enough. The main problem I had was with the 'g' sound, and I don't think I'm alone with this. I can listen to it a million times but, when trying to say it, I sound like either a furious cat or a slowly deflating balloon. Neither sound is particularly conducive to making friends in the language! 

It didn't take me too long to realise that I was probably just rushing myself. By using my trip as an excuse I had also given myself a deadline and this is not the way I work. The deadline made it even worse when I encountered an issue and made everything a lot harder. Suddenly, learning Dutch, something I had wanted to do, turned into a chore that I simply wanted to avoid. Whoops.

So now I'm going to focus on doing what I do best... I'm going to watch musicals (in Dutch) and maybe try and pick up some words. I'm going to re-find my enjoyment, keep going, and see what I can do.

On the bright side, it gives me an excuse to go to the Netherlands again next year to practice.

And because you can never have too much Pia in one post!

Mijn leven is van mij (Ich gehör nur mir), from Elisabeth.

"You need to write a list"

If I had a pound for every time my mother said this to me then I would be a very rich woman.

During exam revision mother would constantly say that I needed to write a list of the things I still needed to revise. The fact that I had made a revision timetable back in January was beside the point. It wasn't in list form.

So you can guess my horror when today I suggested that I needed to write a list. I think I'm turning into my mother who, darling as she is, does have a minor list obsession.

The problem is, I am good enough at procrastinating on my own and I don't need the help of lists. Heck I am procrastinating writing the list by writing this blog about writing the list. On the plus side, since I am a nomad at the moment, I can probably classify the list as necessary for me to be able to get things organised in time for The Festival at the end of the month.

Of course, me being me, packing is the least of my worries. I'm busy thinking about embroidery and scrap-booking and the like. My red and purple bunting is finished now and I just have the same length of green and cream bunting to do. The flag is nearly finished and I just need to sew on one bead because it fell off and finish embroidering about an inch.

As for the scrap-book, I need to make some paper to take with me because I am not taking the scrap-book itself for all the tea in China. Actually, I adore tea so that might be an incentive... 

The long and short of this post being that I am not going to be online much at the moment as I have a tonne to do. Of course, that could mean that I'll be online all the time because we've already ascertained that I'm a major procrastinator!

Oh, and I'm meant to be learning Dtuch. Yeah.

How would you go about learning a language?

I have no idea how such a ‘lazy day’ could be so exhausting but there we have it! I spent the day with Lloyd, a friend of mine from college, enjoying the sunshine alongside the quay, looking in knick-knack shops, playing board games…

Anyway, during the day a question came up, and a question that I often get asked “How do you learn langauges?” Well, I wish I knew. The thing is that I am widely considered a ‘language nerd’ which is something I would protest that I am not. I can think of many people who are a lot more capable with languages than I am. I guess that, by language nerd, they simply mean that I enjoy languages and possibly that I’ve learned them in a slightly unconventional way. I learned German through sitting with a dictionary and translating things. It happened. It was an accident. I’ve had French classes for about 12 years yet I still struggle.

That said, I have found some useful things to help in the language learning process (other than one, they are all quite general);

• Byki – this is a piece of flashcard software. I get the express version when learning a new language because it’s incredibly useful with the pronunciation. It’s also possible to play the words and phrases slowly and to be tested on your spelling of the phrases. I have never used to paid for version but that’s more because my learning style isn’t structured than because there are flaws in the program.
• LanguagePod101 – This comes in various languages and is basically a free podcast. I used this when learning Japanese to compliment my GCSE classes in school. It was more useful than my school classes and particularly if you’re wanting to learn over a longer period and at a slower pace. It might be a bit too slow for some people. The added features that you get through paying for a subscription are fantastic and, especially for a language like Japanese with a different alphabet, I would think about getting them. You get a free trial of the premium features so you can decide for yourself.
• Heardutchhere.net – This is a website focused around learning Dutch. I don’t think the lessons are that good as they don’t work as my brain does. That said, the recordings of words, lists of vocabulary, and general information is invaluable.
• Mnemnosyne – this is another flashcard program in which you create your own lists. It tailors your revision session to fit previous progress and I find it really useful for vocab learning. Actully, I use it for a lot of subjects and reasons.
• Interpals – This is a website with an aim of finding penpals. You can also find language exchange partners. I have been a member of this site since 2007, I think, and, although you get the odd perv, it’s a wonderful place to share culture and to practice languages. You’re not going to learn if you don’t practice after all!

As for my Dutch learning… it’s not going so well. I can, more often than not, memorise the word but my pronunciation is not good. I can’t get the ‘g’ sound… I either sound extremely angry or like a slowly deflating balloon. On the plus side, no matter how much I may struggle with languages I still managed to conquer the world today, beating Lloyd in the board game Risk!

Embarking on a language learning adventure!

Although, technically, my gap year has already begun, in my mind it doesn’t start until the beginning of August when I’m off to Castlefest in the Netherlands with my mother and one of my best friends, Aimee.

However, there are a fair few weeks before that and, in my normal style, I have decided to be productive and have decided to use my up and coming trip as an excuse to do something that I have wanted to do for a while now. This leads us nicely to the question:

“How much Dutch do we think I can learn in one month? Do we think that aiming for fluency is a bit optimistic?!”

I posted this question on facebook this morning (the second question being a joke, before anyone mentions it) and had some lovely replies from people which is quite nice. They wouldn’t have stopped me anyway!

However, it’s a long time since I’ve started learning a language from scratch and it’s a funny place to be. French took me ten years of lessons to be anything like competent, Japanese took three months until I could converse in it, German happened by accident, and lets ignore Hungarian for now, shall we? The bonus with Dutch is that I find I can understand a fair amount because of the similarities to German and to English but it’s still a daunting task.

But if you know me at all you will know that daunting tasks are my favourite!