Brugge, Belgium

Around five, six, weeks ago, I travelled to Brussels, by train, where I was supposed to meet Veerle (my 'African' friend from school). We enjoyed ourselves in the capital of Belgium that day till we had to take the last train towards Brugge, where she and her parents live. Brugge's whole centre is UNESCO heritage, and there are lots of café's, bars and pubs, so I stayed for a couple of days :) It was a kind of cold, but I enjoyed some home-cooked Belgium meals, some movies, lots of Belgium specials, Veerle's (/everybody's) company and Brugge itself. So, thanks guys!




Manneken Pis, in Brussels

The royal palace, with Belgim flag, in Brussels

Brussels

Brugge (from now on)

Tourists in all kinds and sizes

Brugge, as seen from the tower Belfort (366 steps up)

Mhmm. They came up with a couple of hundred Belgium special beers. Hot waffles with sugar. Chips. And Belgium chocolate, mixed in this pancake on at least three different ways!

Right now I'm at my parents place, where I did spend my Christmas days, and the ones around them. Soon I'll be in the train to Delft, where I need to get some things done, pack some other things, and than I'll get into a bus for the whole night to.... London!! I don't need to work this whole week, and Veerle arrived there yesterday, so we're gonna have some more fun in the United Kingdom. Till Sunday.

By the way, is spend with a 't' or a 'd' ?

Maastricht, kringweekend 2.3

Finally the pictures of that weekend with my biblestudy group. Nr. 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 were shot by me, myself and I.

Pure enjoyment, this beautiful lady

Each cross is there to remember one fallen soldier

Waiting for the bus

Maastricht, and 7 of us

Our present (as found at the attic of my house, 2 minutes before we left) with the poem, for the ladies, to thank them for their hospitality. It had something to do with knights, hills, horses etc.

New personal record

Wauw.
I was pretty tired the last few weeks, and last night (1.00 am) I decided to nót set an alarm. This 'morning' when I opened my eyes, thinking, 'Ok, now I feel like I've slept enough', reaching for my phone to check the time, I barely believed it: 14.40...
I checked the time earlier, that was when one of my roommate's, Henrik, was going through my clothes laying on the floor, in search of the key of his bike, around 8.45 am. But between that moment in time, and about an hour ago, there's nothing but a heavenly black hole...

Hi there.

No work today. Just studying, (so) I found some time to edit the pictures in the post about Belgium. They're bigger now.
Last week I visited Veerle in Bruge, Belgium, for some days. Together we discovered Brussels, and she showed me all the good things of her city Bruge. As always, pictures are on their way. And now I am on my way to a wet and windy football practice.

Terschelling

Mum and dad eating a krentenbol, hiding against the wind

Pure mystical craziness. How life and living, nature and surviving, works

One brother, with his girlfriend, one sister and two parents.

(Finally some pictures which I shot myself, with my parents' camera.)

Ai ai ai...

Found out more than a week ago, but I barely dare to tell...
I failed.
BIG time.

Shame on me.

Good eyes needed

Everybody

Combining a lecture with some fresh air

Cleaning up

The dam

Inside

Down at the foot

Typical Belgian view

A game, (some) discussion going on

4.45 am, it seems to be a battlefield

This was all in Belgium, with Moot2, C.S.R.
Good weekend, I'm leaving for work; doing the dishes for endless hours. Mhhmmm. Soaky hands.

P.S. We won today's footballmatch with 9-0, and I scored two of them :)

Trips down South and up North

Three weekends ago my biblestudy group (six guys, two girls), myself included, left home for a weekend to discover Maastricht and the Dutch Mountains :) (remember the highest one is 300 meters...) We invited ourselves into a christian studenthouse, where we baked pancakes, and eggs in the morning, listened to music, played games and got some sleep. Friday night we drank beers in town, Saturday afternoon, after a lazy morning, we walked through the colourfull (whahaha)hills. We also visited the Netherlands American Cemetry and Memorial in Margraten, which is there since WWII. At night we were invited at some party, and after another lazy morning we had a good look at Maastricht by day, followed by a service in a church at the end of the afternoon. More (caramel and cashewnut) pancakes, more dishes, more games and more sleep.

Most of us took the first train Monday morning early (5.22), because students get to travel here for free ór during the weekend ór during the week. After some dozy time I splitted from the rest of the group, by keeping on going to the North, towards Harlingen, to take the boat to the island of Terschelling, where my parents were renting a caravan for a week. The last two years we went to Texel, one of the other little Dutch islands, also full with dunes, some little towns, 'wad', beaches, forests and wind. Because I messed up some things with boat tickets etcetera, and because the boat trip took two (!) full hours, I finally touched the ground at 5 pm, where my dad rented a bike for me. Luvely; a good, long breakfast, bike and walk the whoooole nice and windy day, laugh, be quiet, think, not think at all, talk and be quiet again. And than the warmth of a little caravan, tea, a good meal, reading/studying, music and my parents presence. Thanks.

And last weekend we went to Baelen, in the eastern part of Belgium, with what should be about a quarter of C.S.R.; Moot2 (eight biblestudy groups together). It was about the same story as the weekend in Maastricht, with the only difference us being a bigger group.
Mhmmm, special Belgium beers, Old Amsterdam (the cheese), noisy games, a walk through the woods around a big quiet lake, four hours of sleep each night, a walk down + through the dam (one door wasn't locked), worship sessions accompanied by guitar, good jokes, even better conversations, a very warm welcome in a little church where the service was in German, fall colours, an outside-lecture ("because it is possible") and selfmade candles. Kortom, it was fabulous and completely brilliant, a weekend to remember, and more memories to cherish.


And how do I fill up the rest of my time? Well, next to my job at the hospital, I found another job at a little restaurant here in Delft. From now on, I can work both during the day ánd during the night, if I want to. Need to pay the bank. Need to pay my parents. Need to save some money. Want to buy new football shoes, my old ones are falling apart. Want to buy a camera so I can talk to you through pictures again. (There are pictures on the way about these three trips, I just need to get them from other people and/or the internet.)

And I'm still having friends, and footballteams, and family :) And all the things at C.S.R. And a sportscard. And books. And roommates. And a life. And a guitar. So, don't worry, I'm keeping on going, enjoying life and all things it is bringing!

Bad smell

It was a sunny Saturday two weeks ago. In a polder close to Delft.

Official activity was 'boerengolfen' (= farmer golfing), with some studymates. 'Side'-activities were closely related to mud, ditches, fighting, stinky water, sun, beer and hugging some black and white ladies.

Later that day, my teammates from football didn't want me in their car, because the smell hanging around me...

"Ik ben vandaag zo vrolijk, zo vrolijk, zo vrolijk. Ik ben behoorlijk vrolijk, zo vrolijk was ik nooit."

Saturday night I realised I should've been grumpy. At leást grumpy.
But I wasn't. Not at all, actually. Not a single cell in my body.

That morning, when I was trying to leave for a football match, I realised my bike had been stolen during the night...

- I will miss you, my loyal and brave little golden bike, with the old pink peeking through the paint. Thank you for serving me all those years, appreciate it very much. I do hope your new owner will be good for you-

Anyway, it's a complete mistery. Which human being, with brains, would want to have my bike?? It was a complete wreck, a rusty disaster on two wheels. Lately, when I was using my bike, people started to turn their heads. And I think you can say residents of any Dutch city are used to quite something, talking about bikes...
To make things worse, we, at that time, number 1 of the competition, needlessly lost 3-1 from the number two... But I was still happy when the game was over. The trick's probably that sunny fall weather. Or that double lp full of music of Herman van Veen I bought last week, for one euro.

Ooohhh. That sunny fall weather. Persistent for almost two weeks now. It made me bike to, plus through, The Hague, and on through the dunes, to Leiden, yesterday. Crispy leafs crunching under my tires.
Hé, kleine meid op je kinderfiets...

The only thing. Loads and lots, lots (!) of people. At some points they scared me in some way.
It made me long for Canada, where I would have my own forest ; )
Do not get me wrong, I enjoyed being where I was, extremely hard. It's just, some moments the people in this world, myself included, are dissapointing.

Mhmm. Looks like a kind of depressed end of this post. But I'm not, I asure you:
Vandaag ben ik zo vrolijk. Zo vrolijk. Zo vrolijk. Ik ben behoorlijk vrolijk, zo vrolijk was ik nooit! Ik was wel vaker vrolijk, heel vrolijk, heel vrolijk, maar zo behoorlijk vrolijk, was ik tot nog toe nooit.

Question for the reader...

What is the best thing you éver did?

Dutch adventure

Last night, around midnight, I jumped into a train in Breda, the signs told me it would soon set off towards Rotterdam. The train left earlier than it was supposed to and when it did the thought 'maybe something is wrong' popped into my mind. But the thing was moving anyway, and I ended up in Roosendaal, at the Belgium border, hearing that the first train to Rotterdam was leaving around 6 am. What a joke.
Some nice guy from the railway allowed me to sleep in an empty train (which was illegal as he told me and if somebody caught me or kicked me out, I never met him). He advised my to move to first class and he came back to bring me a cup of hot chocolate. It was fun to have my private train, but it felt like sleeping/dozing in public and the benches were small. The train was leaving at 5.20, which made me move back up my feet to second class again. I stood at my frontdoor when the clocks struck seven.

Mhmm. Hot chocolate. The only thing that could've improved it, was making it a large one, from Tim Hortons. Extra sugar.

What's new?

• got a happy-making phone call this morning; I got a job at the local hospital, but I'll still be searching for some extra job(s) and a fulltimish one once I'm finally holding that freakin' diploma
• soccer is tha bomb
• my brother and his, now, wife, got married in Leiden last Friday. I have to admit it was a full, enjoyable, busy and beautiful day, I'll get you some pictures as soon as I can. They should be in Tunesia at this moment
• I cleaned my room ánd the hallway of our house (which is seriously falling apart) this morning
• since Monday it is fall here, I feel the wind blowing through my room sometimes, it's cold outside and some days it just doesn't stop raining (which is nice on soccernights)
• I'm off to Utrecht late afternoon, drewling at some backpackers-and-all-kinds-of-travel-organisations-getting-together-kind-of-thing
• tomorrow 2nd match of the competition, 1st was won with 4-1
• bible study subject of this first half year is Elijah
• Excuse me for not posting so long

The sun is shining

Ej.
Okay.
So.
Mhmm.
That came unexpected.
I made it.
The whole graduation case is over :)

Today I had my presentation, in front of a handful of collegue students, two teachers and my mum. Afterwards I heard the judgement of those two teachers, about my presentation, my report, handed in two weeks ago, and about the article. They actually thougth it was all good enough for a (n almost) bachelor.
When Veerle and I were in our beds last night we talked a bit. We were truly convinced we would have to rewrite both, at least a bit... And now this!!
Don't cheer to fast, still have that exam to do. The worst option would be the end of October, but I'm gonna try real hard to arrange something else sooner.

So:
The sun is shining...
And no one's gonna stop me now!
(At least not today; also soccer practice tonight...)

By the way, tomorrow morning I have a meeting with the student coordinator of the master Nature and Forest Conservation, at Wageningen University. I (kind of) know for sure I want to do this. Two years, but Wageningen is very international, so I don't have to stay in my (first) home country the whole time.
But lectures are starting this coming Monday, while I'm still not a bachelor.
This year, or next year, that's the question. I'll keep you updated.

Title

Last days I was working on a little assingment I needed to write about all practicles in the past years plus my recent graduation-thing, and they're asking me to give an answer to the question if I'll keep on studying for my master degree or if I'll start working... With motivation. Grapjassen.
If only I would know the answer to thát question...

I've been busy with my graduation report till last Wednesday, a night of Malawian fun at my place with Veerle, Leonie en Joeri followed. Then from Thursday till Saturday night I've been working at a Christian festival called Flevo. The government actually paid me, through some organisation, to make people aware of the fact there are milleniumgoals. (I hope you ever heard about them?! Lots and lots of people had no clue what I was talking about). So I got into the festival for free and at night, and even also during the day, I had more then enough time to enjoy a lot of great live music, some sun and a relaxing atmosphere. There were some bands I'd never heard about, but I wont forget them soon; Christafari (christian reggae; completely fantastic feast), Over the Rhine (good voice and very enjoyable tunes) and The Gentlemen, from the UK (decent rock/punk with good lyrics).

And this week 2000 fresh students are walking and biking around in this little city I call mine. All (even slightly) student related organisations, associations and other ations open up their doors. At C.S.R., my student association, for tonight, we have a lecture, some live music, a bbq and some drinks. Tonight I have all the time of the world, because today was the day of two other deadlines (an article and that little assignment)...

There's still one exam, a report and a presentation about the project in Malawi to go (and probably correct the graduation report + article)...

Recognition

Working for graduation many hours. Drowning in loud music. Future-things. Confusion. Thinkings. Recognition.

Everything is open

Nothing is set in stone

Rivers turn to Ocean

Oceans tide you home

Home is where your heart is

But your heart had to roam

Drifting over bridges

Never to return

Watching bridges burn

You're driftwood floating underwater

Breaking into pieces, pieces, pieces

Just driftwood hollow and of no use

waterfalls will find you, bind you, grind you

Nobody is an island

Everyone has to go

Drifting under bridges

Never with the flow

Drifting now forever

And forever more

Until you reach your shore

You're driftwood floating underwater

Travis

I'm a weirdo.

What the hell am I doing here?

I don't belong here.

Radiohead

Is there a place I can go

Is there a light to get me there

If I've forgotten what to say

It's because all words are dust
Snow Patrol

There’s certainly uncertainty in all our eyes
Five for Fighting

I will not fail I will not silently give in
Take a chance take it twice catch your dream
Suceed in life become a star
And lose yourself in fantasies

I will burn and I’ll learn
From the thorns in my eyes I’ll rewind, and I’ll find
My own way to the sky
Saybia

I could close my eyes it’s still there

Close my mind be alone

I could close my heart and not care

But gravity has got a hold on us all

Jack Johnson

Last night I woke

Lost, scared and soaked in sweat

I lay in bed still falling from a rooftop

I'm still trying to get closer to who I am

Enchant me with the courage to believe

And grant me all the wisdom that I need

I'm still trying to get closer to who I am

Who am I?

Enchant me with the courage to believe

And grant all the wisdom that I need grant me

All the wisdom that I need enchant me

With the courage to be free
Saybia

Time exists but just on your wrist so don't panic

Moments lasts and lifetimes are lost in a day

So wind your watches down please

'Cos there is no time to lose

Travis

When I consider your heavens,

the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

which you have set in place,

what is man that you are mindful of him,

the son of man that you care for him?
Psalm 8

Give me a chance to hold on

Give me a chance to hold on

Give me a chance to hold on

Just give me something to hold onto
Snow Patrol

Where do we go, nobody knows

Don't ever say you're on your way down when

God gave you style and gave you grace

And put a smile upon your face

Coldplay

But you are a shield around me, O LORD;

you bestow glory on me and lift up my head
Psalm 3

True?

"Growing up is, after all, nothing else then realising that your unique, incredible experiences are shared by everyone."

Do you believe this is true?

Home

Arrived back home in the Netherlands again, Sunday morning. Only one night in an airplane flying from Nairobi to London, and another hour to Brussels was enough to bring me back into what feels like the other world. So far, I still fit in here surprisingly well.
But it was weird to drive home; everybody in his/her own shiney, fancy and luxurious car. A speed of 120 km/h was easily reached on the perfectly gliding roads. No people walking along the road. And its green, wet and windy here, makes me feel like its fall already. Another thing; everything and everybody is so clean; the streets, the houses and their gardens, shops, the super market, the people plus clothes they wear. Everything. Clean and wealthy, that's what it is here.

Enjoyed drinking milk (drank milk only two times while I was in Africa, almost puked once), eating yoghurt, cheese and meat that's no chicken or goat. Enjoyed a real toilet, where there's toilet paper :) Enjoyed a bed at home, with fresh sheets, smelling better than anything else in the world.
And of course I am enjoying decent music with guitars, bass guitars and other essential stuff, most of the time I'm awake.

Anyway, although without my pictures I dont really want to 'talk' about the last part of our travels, I still feel like I have to tell you more about my last one and a half week.


We picked Leonie's boyfriend, Ruben, from the airport around seven in the morning Wednesday two weeks ago. All five of us left at six in the morning for a two-day safari to Masaï-Mara the next day, after another (I would almost say boring) day in Nairobi. If you're looking for some BAD roads, I know where to find them! Our minibus driver needed to use the whole road, and parts of the land left and right of the road to keep us moving for most of the time.
The landscape in (crowded) Masaï-Mara was gordious, with very long grass and beautiful colours. The big migration hadn't arrived yet and together with the tall grass, we drove around without seeing anything for quite some times. But there was still enough we spotted; many (!) elephants, 2 rhino, ostriches, topi, hartebeests, wildebeests, giraffes, lions, tomson and grants gazelle, vultures, eagles and zebras. Masaï-Mara is a reserve, and no National Park, so the Masaï were living around.
Arrived back in Nairobi on Friday, where we spend another free night in some beds of the safari bureau. The whole Saturday was spend travelling in a big bus from Nairobi to Mombasa. All other people in the bus thought we were crazy, taking the back seats voluntarily. But with our heads almost through the roof sometimes, we could at least sit all together. Had birthday cake for breakfast in a little park in Mombasa, place of little glue sniffers. The rest of the day we had a good look around in the second largest city(/town) of Kenya, with a rich history and still being one of the largest harbours along the East African coast. Visited Fort Jesus; very bloody and violent history.
Veerle, Bram and I travelled North, to Watamu, Monday morning, for some last cheap days filled with sun, the white beach, beautiful sealife and clear water. Visited Gede Ruins in the afternoon. Spend my next three days in and along the water, my only companion my diving glasses. Wow! Green anemone, red starfish, white sand, yellow/black fishes, sea cucumbers, black sea eagles and corals. Whieu, and the waves; now I understand why my mum was always scared when we enjoyed big waves. I was swirreled around as if I was nothing, weighed nothing. Mighty!
Back to Mombasa Thursday, and to the police station late at night. 'Quickly' picking up some police reports the next day (the guy still needed to start when we arrived in his office) and after worths it was back in the big bus again. Ten long hours to get back into the capital; bad roads, traffic, pole pole (no hurry). And than, early Saturday morning, we dropped the two boys at Nairobi Airport. The rest of the day was left for us, the three girls again (the way it's supposed to be :); some internet, some shopping, some walking around, some souvenirs and the very last Tusker...

AAAARRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Dear f@#$%^&$%^#@#ng thief,

Thanks for making me realize how important my camera and the pictures I take are to me.
Every time I'm reaching for my camera, I have to bite my lip, realizing it's not where it belongs; in my pocket. I feel like there's a limp amputated. Feel like screaming. Feel like running till I'm exhausted, till I drop down with cramps. Feel like hitting or kicking something (or someone) once for each of the more than 600 pictures I lost, for good.
I know that in a way you've been nice; you were there in our room, you could have taken everything, while you only took my camera and all pictures from the last seven weeks. I'm lucky to be healthy, to still have my ticket and passport. Lucky I'm getting into a plane tonight, holding my family again tomorrow.
And that if problems like these are my biggest in life, I shouldn't complain, but still. Still the camera wasn't working properly anyway, so you're not going to be able to use it anyway. Next time please take the camera, take my money, take it all, but PLEASE leave the memory cards on my bed...

Ohhh. I would do everything to get them back. But its not going to be possible.

Promised images

Part of the huge crater

The two other visitors in the little tea house

The combination of rain season, black and white cows and the fresh green products growing on these fertile soils, show a different Africa

Lady cleaning fish at Lake Victoria

Carwash open tonight!