English debate

Today I had my final debate for my English course. I prepared most of our arguments, lined them all up, and made a structure in it. Unfortunately, my 2 team members used most of it before I got the chance to speak. They were chatting so rapidly as I have never experienced during the whole course and I ran out of the options discussed on forhand and even worse: I ran out of time. Therefore, I hardly spoke during the debate, as I tend to be polite and let the other finish first. I got a 7 and I am SO not satisfied with it. I want a resit. Better: I need a resit to maintain my 8 for the course. With a 7, I will also pass the course with a 7.

I have never been a nerd or someone wanting to be the best at university or in school. I never tried to get a 9 or 10. If with little work I could get a 7 or 8, I was satisfied, but now I am doing a course I am really good at, so I want that bloody 8. I have been in the top 2 of my group whole semester and I want to end there. With a 7, I am just mediocre. Last year, I got an 8,5 for my debate, so this is a personal failure for me. Might seem trivial, but it bugs me...

Present

I forgot to tell that a few weeks ago I suddenly got a package by mail. Strange shape in an envelope and coming from the Czech Republic. Lucie told me that she wanted to send me something for my birthday and she send me something lovely. I got a very nice pair of cufflinks for my shirts from her. Now I am deeply in debt with her, since I still haven't visited her in Prague and didn't buy her a birthday present. How to make it up?

Exam month

June is my exam month: 9 freaking written exams and 1 oral is my destiny. I will suffer, I will die, but I will prevail. (I hope at least). God, I'm looking forward to the 28th, when it's all over.

Backaches

My back hurts, like hell actually. After training yesterday it started and it hasn't stopped. I could hardly put on my socks this morning and am having difficulties with sitting and walking. I lie most of the time, but the problem with that is, that I still have to do so much. Not the best time to be in agony... :-)

Small flu

Yesterday evening I got very cold, took a hot shower and went to bed. This morning I got up and still not feeling well. I slept a lot today and did hardly anything. Took an asperine and am feeling a bit better, but had a lot of emails to write, so now I am done and will go to bed.

Wireless internet

I installed a wireless network this afternoon with the great help of Marcel. I have only little knowledge about networks etc, so I asked for his help and together we beated the shitty modem, the online helpdesk live from India (great invention by the way) and the IP. I can now sit anywhere in my studio and have internet without a cable. Will try it with my laptop outside one of these days. Need some better weather for that first though... :-)

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

A lot was written about the controversy and uproar about Hirsi Ali. Our national media, but also the international media covered the case from every angle and enjoyed every new detail. I have been browsing some blogs and found an article of Douglas Murray that hurt me. I am Dutch and I am proud of it.
Yes, we are the country under whose flag the first slaveship sailed to the US. We are the country, from whose language comes the all-known word "apartheid". But we are also the country that (by percentage of population and sometimes real) donates the most money to peacekeeping missions, the UN, aid around the world, participates in virtually every peacekeeping mission around the world and effort to restore the peace, harbors more refugees than any EU country. The Netherlands is tolerant and liberal towards all religions, sex, soft drugs, euthanasia, abortion and all other things that can cause commotion. We have been a strong and appreciated member of the international community for years and we intend to stay that for a long time.

The underlying problem with Hirsi Ali is the current battle over the leadership of the Liberal Party (VVD) of which both Hirsi Ali and Minister of Integration Verdonk are a member. Verdonk is a candidate for the post of leader of the party and saw this case as an opportunity to gain some more votes. Unfortunately she was badly advised or took this wrong decision herself, without consulting the cabinet. Our prime-minister tried to fix this and she is (more or less) on a leach now, needing approval before she says or does anything. The damage control asked from embassies is nothing new and not really special. The international media blew this case up way too big and especially the Americans can't stop showing off with the arrival of Hirsi Ali. They tend to forget that black people in the US still have the worst jobs, are less paid, were suppressed for decades. Besides that can you don't really speak about "freedom" when you see the images of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, the Abu Graib prison, the homeless and orphaned children in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nothing to be proud of I would say. First fix your own problems, then look at others'.

I am proud of my country and always will be.

Writing Assignments

Just finished writing two 400 word writing assignments for my English course. One was due last week, but since it said "week 15/16" I thought this week was possible as well. The other was due 2 weeks ago and I handed that one in, but my portfolio with assignments mysteriously disappeared... Now it could have been my fellow students envying me for my marks, or my teacher herself, for being angry with me, because I am always a terrible smartass during class and anti-Frisian... :-) So I had to write a new one and since I had no clue what to write about, I picked something that annoyed me during my work at the embassy in Tirana.

Friends?

Can a man be a friend to a woman or not? Doesn't he always want something more? Can there be a real platonic, equal relationship between a man and a woman? I've discussed this with some of my friends several times and the answer is non-conclusive. We simply don't know. At some point during your friendship something else emerges, something you don't want, something you want to prevent. Men always want to be friends with beautiful women. Why? Go figure. Ask yourself: can you truly say that you never imagined how a female friend of yours would like like naked? Or how it would be to be with her?

Was browsing some blogs and came across a nice post between 2 friends, trying to meet and the difficulties they encounter. Check it out.

Clothes

Just finished foulding my laundry and made a small inventory of all my clothes. It is shocking...

• 26 sweaters
• 9 poloshirts
• 8 spencers
• 39 T-shirts
• 16 longsleeve shirts
• 13 shirts for my suits
• 26 shortsleeve shirts
• 19 pairs of pants
• 5 suits
• 3 formal jackets
• 1 tux

I won't mention the numerous pairs of socks, coats, watches and other crap I have. My cupboard is full and it's a 4 door one... God, did I turn into a woman?

New/old TV

My parents took the TV of my grandfather, which was relatively new and big. Now they had their TV extra, so I got theirs. Mine I got when I was 16, so it's more than 10 years old. It still works fine, but it is very small and has no teletext. So I went home yesterday, installed my parents' new TV, fixed their computer, had dinner and was brought home by my parents with my new TV. Had some difficulties to fit it in my cupboard, as it is a little wider than my cupboard. So the sides of my new TV are a bit hidden behind the sides of the cupoboards, but it fits and I have a widescreen now. I only forgot the remote at my parents'...

Work and sleep

Got up at 5am yesterday and took the tain of 6.15 to Baarn. Had a ride from Baarn to Heerlen and back. I was so tired in the train back from Bilthoven that I kept falling asleep on the shoulder of the person next to me. Every time I touched the shoulder, I suddenly woke up again. Very annoying.

Work tomorrow

Tomorrow a long day working for the Boston Consultancy Group. Getting up at 5, taking the train at 6.15 to Baarn, then go to Heerlen to DSM for a meeting and afterwards go to Bilthoven. I will be home late...

Neighbour

Just saw my neighbour from across the little square walking around half naked in her apartment and putting on some different clothes. I should look outside more often. :-)

Silly Leander

Silly me. I forward the post of last week´s debate to my English teacher. Not the brightest thing to do, as she of course checked out my whole blog (though she was there "only" for 22 minutes, so whole is a bit too much). I posted more about the English course and she of course read that. Silly me. :-) Well, I just checked (yes, there is a search option for my blog Petra!) all the posts containing anything about it, but it can't be that bad. I do consider now that I also should check the Dutch version, as I have no clue what I wrote there. :-) As I tend to be open and frank about all that is happening and all I think, it could have been confronting, but I saw that I was rather mild. Do have to figure out a way to block her from now on, although, well, the course is almost over. I can't fail it, so who cares. Enjoy reading! :-)

Status

When I am working as private driver, I am usually better treated than the person I am transporting. This by the secretaries, receptionists, housekeepers, waiters etc. They usually tend to see me as an equal and not like the status my client has. This has certain advantages, as they will do more effort for me and I get treated better. :-) For example today: I got soup from a receptionist while waiting, where the normal employees only get tea or coffee. The housekeeper of the Golden Tulip hotel I had to drop my client off, brought me to the bus stop in a golfbuggy as it was rather far to walk. There are still nice people on this world!

Narnia

Watched the Chronicles of Narnia last night and I was disappointed. The movie has some good scenes, but I found it most of the time highly annoying. It is really a Disney movie and very well suitable for children, but not for a 27 year old. The complaining kids get on my nerves and spoiled a big part of the movie for me. I am not a fan of Harry Potter, but I have to say that I would prefer him, if I had to choose. (The story of Narnia is not bad at all though)

Debate

Last Wednesday we had a debate again with the English course I am taking. This time my team had to attack the other team's article and statement. Since they hardly prepared the debate, were repeating themselves all the time and brought up strange and unlogic arguments, I was convinced that my team would win. I was stunned when the whole audience voted for the other team. We got the best personal critiques, but we lost the debate. Still can't believe it and wonder what we did wrong... Think the audience was bribed.

Last drunk post

Ok, last Wednesday was a bit strange or abnormal for me (and my friends as well). We just had dinner as we more often have on Wednesdays and we went shopping to get some drinks. Bert saw suddenly that the grocery store had rose wine on discount and bought a bottle. We went home, had a coffee, and tried to watch the movie Zulu, but my DVDplayer refused to play it after some 20 minutes. We switched to Gone with the Wind (on explicit request of Bert) and started with the rose. Arnoud en Bert had the bigger wineglasses and I only a small one, so 1 bottle was immediately emptied in the 3 glasses (go figure…). The movie was too boring and we put on March or Die. I always have a bottle of white wine lying cold, so we opened that and as well poured it in the 3 glasses right away. After an hour Bert got too bored of the movie, since nothing was happening and we stopped it. By that time the bottle of Czech Slivovitch (only 3 shots) was emptied by Bert and Arnoud. I didn’t even get the chance to drink of it, since Bert emptied my glass. So the bottle of Ukrainian vodka came up and we mixed that with Coke light. We called it Woco and after we emptied 1 bottle we started with some other very poor quality vodka I still had. You can imagine that Bert, Arnoud, and I (since I am not a drinker at all) were getting very happy and laughing. Bert could hardly stand on his feet and still wanted to cycle home, but after a few attempts to get up, he gave that idea up. That was more or less the time that he asked for a bucket and started throwing up. Arnoud grabbed the bottle of Martini and didn’t need a glass for that… Bert managed to stumble to my bed and fell asleep there. Then Arnoud had as well enough and needed a bucket too. He managed to fell on the couch and after a very, very long time talking about a girl he fell asleep as well. I praise myself lucky that I managed to throw away some glasses of Martini in the sink and had the small glass for the wine. I was the one who had to clean up, go figure if I had been in that state as well… As the door of my balcony was open, I lie down on the table as the floor was too cold. Neither was very comfortable though, so I had 3 or 4 hrs of sleep. The other 2 woke up very early as well and we had an early breakfast at the university. I am still trying to get the smell out of my room… :-)

Bert need sex

Bert says he is not drunk and he needs sex. Guess we are too funny now..

Drunk

We are drunk. Bert, Arnoud and I have drank too much. We went to McDonalds first, tried to watch Gone with the Wind, Zulu and March and Die. We didn't succeed to finish one of them. Now we drank 1 bottle of Wodka, one bottle of Slivovitch. one bottle of white one, one bottle of rose and half a bottle of Martini. Bert can't get up anymore and Arny anfd I have difficulties too. I am even surprised I can type this. :) God, I am dizzy. We need some sleep now.... :)