Shady Lady

I’ve kind of got the rowing bug right now. Partly because it’s Chris’ fault, and partly because I wanted to try something new that I knew I would stick to.

So, thank you Chris (but only partly).

has been so stressful, from preparing a presentation to the big boss of the laboratory, to present tomorrow morning in front of the whole lab group, to finishing up writing a review to another big boss, due this friday. Gah!.

I just want to hit the gym. So bad! I’m looking forward to friday afternoon.

I’ve recently came to realize that working (a.k.a. writing my final project thesis) while listening to movies’ soundtracks is the best combination possible, because I can’t really focus while listening to people talk, even if it’s in a foreign language, and I can’t really focus listening to music with lyrics either, so I’ve been listening to the soundtracks of Midnight in Paris, which is full of upbeat songs that remind me of those long summer days, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, with so many good spanish songs, Good Bye Lenin and Amélie, both by the great Yann Tiersen, who needs no introduction.

On a side note: I miss those beautiful *cheesy comment coming up* romantic sunsets in Arrifana. Yeah, I’m probably falling for someone.

I could spend a day telling you all about the changes you have to go through when doing an exchange programme, but for now I’m sticking with the things I miss the most.

• House chores are damn boring and time consuming
• Cooking isn’t as enjoyable as it used to, and I love to cook
• Going to the beach, though this depends on where you are staying
• Comfortable bed, and furniture since we’re at it
• Reasonably priced food, but again it depends on where you are staying, but I say most of the times there’s an inflation of prices
• Clean toilets, fuck why is it so hard to have a decent clean bathroom?

Next chapter, and trust me, it will be a long one, ‘Things Erasmus students do’. Jesus, there’s just so much you can do when you don’t have anyone to answer to.

aka Queen’s Day.

I had never taken part in anything like this before. Since I’m currently studying abroad in The Netherlands, the thought of celebrating this holiday seemed just right: lots of people, lots of beer, lots of music - any student’s dream.

Choosing which city we were going was easy. Everyone told us Utrecht was one of the best places to be on the night before Queen’s day, and Amsterdam was almost impossible given the amount of people that would be in the city. We arrived in Utrecht on the 29th, put our things in the room we were staying and left for the center. Well, we were actually in the center already. 

The weather was great, given that we are talking about The Netherlands, where 10ºC is considered hot, and the environment was even better. Long story short, we had a blast, and lots of embarassing pictures to helps us remember the night.

On the next day, the actual Queen’s day, the party continued, and so did we, but still had time to explore the city, which can be described as a small version of Amsterdam.

After a sleepless night, and beeing up for almost 48 hours, home was the next stop.