Top 300!

My flatmates may have been wondering why I was locking myself in my room the past few days, but I just couldn't say anything, since I was working on a top secret project. Last year I promised it would be the last time that I made a top 300 of my all-time favourite music, but I just couldn't resist the temptation in November this year. Since it's impossible to post the list in a clear and understandable manner on my weblog, I used a different website.

You can check out the list here.

Enjoy. :)

New place to live + a little experiment to make you feel better

Finally it's going to happen: I'm gonna move out of my cheap flat in Rajská Zahrada and into a great flat in a majestic building in the center of Prague. This will be my new home:



I will be living on the fifth floor, which is nice, because over there you won't hear much of the sounds of the city and we have a very luxorious elevator, in which you would just like to stay as long as possible. Maybe in the first week I will just play lift-boy for a few hours, just to go up and down in that wonderful elevator. :)
Anyway. I will move on 2 January 2011, and I will have 2 flatmates: a French expat and an American student. I already met both of them, and they're both very nice people, so I can't wait to move in. The room itself is also very large and I have a double bed, which means I will have no problems hosting any kind of guests. Which is a good thing, because it's always nice to have guests. :)

Something different now. I noticed that I am feeling really happy the past few days, seemingly for no reason. Of course it's nice that I am enjoying life here, but I'm wondering why I feel so good. Maybe it is all due to my strategy to avoid the Winter Blues. Want to know this strategy? It's very simple. Every morning when I'm on the subway, I close my eyes for a few minutes and stare into the light above me. So to find out more about this, I would like to encourage all of you who are living in a big city with a good subway system to try this out for one week and let me know the results. And for those of you who don't have the privilege to live in such a city: staring into a light bulb for five minutes each day will also do.

Just be sure to close your eyes first.

Back in Holland

Hi all!

So the long weekend in Holland went over quite quickly and now I'm back in Prague. And actually today is the first day that I would want to go back to Holland permanently. It was so good to see everybody again and to always have somebody around to talk to when you need to share something. But probably such a feeling is quite normal on the first evening after you leave your family and will not be home for the at least 6 months.

Of course the fact that I have this feeling a bit tonight means that I had a great time in Holland. It was so nice to see everybody again and to live my "old" life again for a few days. And of course my last night in Holland, the reason why I went back this early, was also great: the concert of Scouting For Girls at Tivoli. The whole evening was amazing! I was amazed by the support act called Handsome Poets. If you don't know them, you should really check out their song Dance (The war is over) on YouTube. And of course I really enjoyed the enthousiasm with which lead singer Roy of SFG played his keyboard (can't believe it wasn't broken at the end of the night) and the pure passion with which he sang his songs too. Seeing him perform again was almost like meeting an old friend and it gave all of the people that were there such a unique feeling. Unfortunately the feeling was ruined a bit at the end of the night by the Dutch railways, because there were no trains going to and from Utrecht. Again a problem with the Dutch railways. That was one of the things from home that I didn't miss the past three months. Maybe life in Czech Republic is not so bad after all.

Winter in Prague

Winter has arrived in Prague. The city is covered by a thick layer of fresh white snow and the temperature is well below zero every day. And in fact I'm already getting used to the cold weather. Today I went outside and thought it was quite a lovely day, even though the temperature was -7 degrees. Which means I'm adapting pretty well to the climate in Czech Republic. :) Although I must admit that the prospect of having this kind of weather for the next 4 months still is a bit frightening. But well, there are ways to escape the cold of course. :D More about that will follow later.

Anyway. What I was going to write about. The Christmas atmosphere is taking over Prague. There are already lights everywhere, Christmas songs on the radio, Christmas trees in the city and also real Christmas markets. Today I visited one. The market was great, a lot of nice stuff is being sold there and in fact I also tried some kind of food that seems to be a Czech specialty. It tasted very good, but I don't know the name of it, so I will describe here how it is made, and hopefully somebody can tell me the name. :)

So. It is made out of dough, that is put in a fryer for around one minute. Then there is some red sauce on it, that seems to say: "sorry, sorry, sorry, I really didn't mean to, but I'm a bit spicy, can you please forgive me?" and finally there is some grated Czech cheese on top of it, that actually has no taste, but makes the snack complete.
I'm really curious what this was, so if you're Czech and know what I'm talking about, please enlighten me! Děkuji in advance.

Have a good weekend.

A tribute to Leslie Nielsen

The man who is in my opinion the funniest actor ever is no longer among us.
Yesterday, Leslie Nielsen died at the age of 84. Let's take a minute to enjoy his best moments one more time.



R.I.P., Mr. Nielsen. You were not just a master in your genre. You actually WERE a genre yourself. We will miss you.

Day trip to Kutná Hora

Winter is rapidly approaching here in Czech Republic. That's why I decided I'd better go on another trip before it gets too cold to do that. The destination this time was Kutná Hora: a small town around 60 kilometers away from Prague. I got up early this morning so I could arrive there before noon. It had been snowing a bit the night before, which was promising for the quality of my pictures.

Kutná Hora must be a very touristic place in the summer, considering the fact that even at this time of year there were quite a few Americans (recognizable by their incredibly American accent while trying to pronounce Czech words) and Asians wandering around. And I must say, it is quite a nice place. The cathedral is amazing, although it's hard to capture it in all its glory on a photo taken from the ground. This is my sad attempt:



Also the square in the center is very beautiful:



This is the square where I had lunch in a pizzeria that was recommended to me by a friend who had been to the exact same place a few years ago. The pizza was quite ok, a bit too little tomato sauce for my taste, but the ingredients were very fresh. The hair that I found stuck in the cheese ruined it a bit though.

So early in the afternoon I had seen pretty much all I wanted to see, so I just started walking around a bit through the less poetic places of Kutná Hora. After concluding this was a bit boring, I remembered the so-called "bone church" one of my colleagues had told me about one day earlier. I was able to find it without much trouble and went inside. The entrance was already very unusual:



It turns out that the area around this church was very popular to be buried in a few centuries ago. The cemetary was over 3000m2. However, the town decided they needed more ground and removed most of the graves of the cemetary. They found it a bit irrespectful to just throw away all those bones, so therefore they hired an artist to make art with the bones. And the following two pictures show how creative you can be with old skeletons:




So after having walked some more through the suburbs of Kutná Hora, where I accidentally stumbled on a big Christmas market, it was time to go home. There was no direct connection for two hours though, so I just went on a train in the right direction and got off in Kolín. Instead of waiting 30 minutes at a boring train station, I went to explore this town. I found out that Kolín is not so special, but it has a nice shopping mall that is large enough to make one forget the time and miss the train to Prague. Luckily the connection between Kolín and Prague is, for Czech standards, excellent, so I got home safely in the end, after yet another great trip within Czech Republic. :)

Weekend in Olomouc!

I had been looking forward to my first real trip within Czech Republic for weeks already. This weekend the moment was finally there. The initial plan for the first day was to meet some guy from Couchsurfing on Saturday afternoon and to visit the city together and go out together afterwards. However, plans can change.

Friday late in the afternoon I received a message from him that unfortunately he could not host me this weekend and that he also had little time to show me around, because his floor was under water. That was kinda last minute. But as a Couchsurfer you need to be flexible. And so I was. I immediately went searching for other people I could meet on Saturday, and eventually I got in touch with a girl named Nela, who invited me to meet her in the city and I could also spend the night at her place. The only "problem" was that there were already two Polish Couchsurfers staying at her place as well. So on Saturday I went into the city with Nela, Anna and Tomek (the two Polish people) and we had a good time, visiting all places in the dark and drinking beer at something that was neither a restaurant nor a bar. And we spent the evening at home talking, making crazy pictures and eating Polish candy. :)

On Sunday I met my penpal Mája. She was a really nice and talkative girl and she showed me all the poetic and romantic places Olomouc had to offer. We went to visit the cathedral, the park, a tower with a marvellous view on the city and the surrounding countryside and we also ate in a cute traditional Moravian restaurant, where the menu was written in the local dialect. The food there was very good, and in fact was able to order my meal in Czech! Or at least I was able to say the number, name of the meal and "prosím" (please) after it. And we saw the magnificient fluteman too! He really exists! Anyway, as you can read I really had a great time on Sunday and at the end of the day I already started to feel at home in Olomouc and was a bit sad I had to go home to Prague again.

After a long travel of over 3 hours I finally got home, but I was still full of energy after such an amazing weekend. I really want to thank all the people who made my weekend so good, you guys are awesome!

So here are some photos of my trip:









The full selection of the pictures of weekend can be found on Facebook.

Coming back to Holland

Hi guys!

This time I have news for you. Not about me finding a new room (I'm still searching for the ideal place to live in, there is no real reason for me to move to a place that is not significantly better than where I live now), but about the fact that I will be coming back to Holland in December! My favourite band, Scouting For Girls, is coming to play in Utrecht on the 14th of December, and the chances of those three wonderful guys ever performing a similar concert in Czech Republic are very slim, so I have to be there!! So I will be arriving back in Holland at Friday the 10th December, and will fly back 5 days later. I expect to be quite busy during my days in Holland, but if anyone that I haven't made agreements with yet is really missing me a lot they can always send me a message and maybe we can meet some time. :)

I'm sorry for my followers that I don't write a lot any more on this page about my experiences here any more. Everything here has just become normal a bit for me. :) Maybe some time I will write a blog about the differences between Czech Republic and Holland. At the moment I just don't feel so inspired to write a lot of things here. Since I have regular internet access now, it's easier for me to tell my experiences directly to my friends via msn or e-mail. However, I will try to write one blog post at least every 2 weeks. Don't expect anything from me next weekend though, since I will be going to visit a friend in Olomouc that weekend. And if you don't know where that is, just google it. :)

Take care!

A new update!

Hi all!

It’s been quite some time since I wrote my last update on how things are going here. I guess that’s a good sign. I’ve just been too busy to think about what I should write here. And besides that, not every activity I do is worth writing a blog about. But since I know some people really want to know what I am up to here in Prague, I wrote a new update for you guys again today. :)

Some things have changed since the last update. For example, now I have internet at home. Still, it’s not wireless, but that problem will be solved soon. Besides that, I went to visit my potential new home near metro station IP Pavlova, but I’m still undecided about whether I want to live there. The room costs more than twice as much as my current room, but the room itself is not much better than the one I currently have. Only the location is perfect (15 minutes by foot to city center and 15 minutes by metro to work) and the kitchen is a bit larger than my current one. But moving there would have to mean that I would have to leave my current flatmates and replace them by some Erasmus-students and non-AIESEC’ers. Tough decision. I’ll let you guys know what my final decision will be.

Also, to write something about activities too, I’ve just came back from playing soccer again. After choosing teams, I ended up as the goalkeeper of a team with only Czech-speaking players. Communicating was quite hard, I only understood the words dobry (after I made a good save) and golman (when they were talking to me). But it was quite a good game, and I had a good time.

So tonight it will be burrito-time for me. Finally I will use the burrito-kit I have had laying around for a few weeks now. I hope they will taste just as good as the burritos I am used to at home, when my mom makes them. And I hope they will provide a good foundation for a great night out afterwards with my awesome friends Carlito and Paulito! :)

Okay, that’s it for now. Take care and see you next time!

L.

My first AIESEC Conference

During the past weekend I experienced my first AIESEC conference ever. And I must say, it was quite good. The conference was held in Seč, a small village around 100kms from Prague. I followed the special trainees program: while the other AIESEC-ers spent their days mostly listening to presentations, our schedule was a nice mixture of games (first time in months I played soccer again, so great!) and the some interesting presentation sessions.

So we arrived Friday evening. After a short introduction there was a party, with free beer, but the “installation” didn’t work, so there was no beer that night. As a compensation there was some free wine, but the wine was so bad that drinking too much it would guarantee a massive headache the next day. So I stayed sober that night.
The next day started with a game (during which I discovered that I have an unexpected talent for rope-skipping) and later we had some discussions. The day program was nice, unlike our lunch, which was like a traditional Czech meal I guess. Dinner was better, although I had to finish my meal all alone in that large dining room, because I arrived late. Luckily my lazy roommate was even later, so we could eat together. :)
In the evening there was a party, which was great. I watched the beer drinking-battle and talked to some very nice Czech (and Slovak, there are lots of Slovaks in AIESEC Prague) people. I really enjoyed myself at that party, even though I usually didn’t participate in all the special AIESEC-dances. That’s a really crazy thing about AIESEC. Every time we met in the conference room, we had to do a crazy dance altogether before the session started. But I think I have to get used to that. :)

On Sunday, well, what can I say.. Everybody was tired, so we didn’t really do that much. We had some nice quiet talks with all the trainees and visited the lake that was nearby, where we could lay down in the unexpected October-sun. After that we had the closing session and then it was time to go home.

So now I’m in Prague again, home sweet home. The conference is behind me, but at least I took with me some “veri” good memories!

Getting lost in Prague

By daytime it’s very hard to get lost in Prague. You just walk for at most 15 minutes, find a metro station, get on the metro, and suddenly you’re not lost any more. At night it’s a lot easier to get lost though.

It all started in a bar. I was out with some other trainees and Czech AIESEC-members, but the music was terrible, so at around 2:15 I decided it was time for me to go home. I would have to take the tram, since the first metro would leave at 5 in the morning. So I went outside to search for a tram that would take me to Lehovec, the nearest stop to my flat. This was not too hard, just follow the tram tracks and eventually you will find a stop where the right tram line will stop.

So after 45 minutes of semi-sleeping in the tram I arrived at Lehovec. I asked somebody for Rajská Zahrada and the guy just pointed in one direction and told me I needed to “go around”. I had no idea what he meant, so I just walked in the direction he had told me to and randomly turned left somewhere. I asked some more people for the way and eventually I ended up at a gas station, where the woman behind the counter did not speak English or German, but was willing to help. She had nothing else to do anyway. So she opened the door for me, showed me the map of Prague, but Rajská Zahrada was not on the map. Then she just used her hands to show me where I needed to go. Finally I found tram tracks again and walked to the nearest tram stop. It was the last stop before Lehovec. I had walked in a circle. So I got on the tram to Lehovec again.

Then I remembered something my Estonian camp leader Kadi (from the voluntary work camp I did last summer) had said to me: “When you’re lost in the woods, just follow your instinct. It will always guide you home.” I know Prague is not really comparable to the woods, but I decided to follow her advice. It worked: with a small detour through a communist neighborhood I walked home in about 10 minutes. It was already 3:55 in the morning at that time. A quick calculation told me that it had taken me more than 1.5 hours to get home. The conclusion of this night out: I really need to move to a place closer to the city center. I hope to have more news on that subject soon. :)

A present for somebody unknown...

Hi there!

This weekend my parents came over from Holland, to bring me some of my stuff and to go sightseeing in Prague. So now I have my good old friend Hoed the hat back and also a shitload of clothes. In fact, they brought too much clothes for me, so I actually gave them some things back just because otherwise I would have too much stuff here to take with me when I move to another place. It’s just a pity it was raining pretty much all weekend. But we had a good time visiting all the beautiful places Prague has to offer and we found two very nice restaurants, where I will certainly go back to in the future.

So this weekend I also came up with an idea, to motivate you guys to come visit me in Prague soon. I will buy a special present now, and the first person who comes to visit me here in Prague will get that special present. This can be a souvenir, something funny or something completely unexpected. I still have to buy it, so I don’t know yet what it will be. :) However, there are two conditions for getting this present:
- You must be one of my penpals first, so we must have exchanged some mails in the past
- The reason that you come to Prague must be to visit me (so random Couchsurfers are excluded)

It may be a bit of a crazy idea, but I just like the thought of buying a present not knowing who will be the receiver. :) Just let me know if you’re interested in this special present and I’ll keep you updated.

Have a good week everyone!

L.

Enjoying my time in Prague

Hi all!

Since my blog may have been a bit too long the last time, this time I will try to make it a bit more readable to you guys. So I’ll just quickly summarize my activities of the past few days, and after that I’ll say what I wanted to say. So. The last few days were not so much typically Czech (except for the lunch I had on Friday). I just worked, went shopping in Černy Most and went out two times with my flatmates and the two German girls that were staying over. And one of those times was after my Welcome Party, which was great! Except for the fact that they didn’t have water in Andĕl at that time. Man, am I glad that I don’t live there. I’d rather have three weeks without internet than one weekend without water.

For the rest of this post I will talk more about how I feel here. To be short: I feel great here. This totally is the challenge that I was looking for. I really enjoy my working life, it’s just a shame that I am not allowed to do any work yet. Anyway, it’s really cool to walk to the business park where Accenture is located between all those business men in fancy clothes. A few days ago I realized that I’m one of them now. So cool. :) Also I’m having a lot of fun with my co-workers. How funny is it when your colleague wanted to add a young Romanian girl to his Office Communicator (the internal msn within Accenture) and instead adds a middle-aged Australian woman, because he didn’t know her name? And it’s even funnier when you find out that he already arranged a date with that older woman for that same night. Events like this, combined with a lot of meaningless conversations between the work and trainings, make my working days a lot better. But my colleagues already told that we should enjoy our introduction period while it lasts, because the workload after that will be very heavy. So for all those people that got jealous after reading this: soon I’ll be working my ass off, then it will be over with all the fun at work. :)

Now for the subject you all came to this blog for. My salsa lesson. Well, it didn’t go through this week. I was there, but my dance partner didn’t show up and since the lesson had already started, I couldn’t find another partner. So next time I go there I’ll be sure to bring my own date, that prevents this kind of situations. The only problem now will be how to find a date. But maybe I can just pick up some random girl from the metro, or use one of the people that contact me with a Couchsurfing request (yes, of course you can stay at my place, under one condition…), I don’t know, but I hereby promise that I will go salsa dancing one day!

Na shledanou!

Update

*This message was brought to you by the wireless internet connection at the McDonald's in Chodov Shopping Center*

Ok, so far the sponsor message, now here’s a new update for my blog. I had my first weekend and my first working days, and so far I am really enjoying my time here. I was expecting to have some tough moments, but so far I haven't had any. Let's hope it will remain that way. So I hear you thinking. What the hell has Laurens been up to the past few days? Well, here's a description. :)

On Friday night there was a nice end-of-the-working-week-party at Andĕl, the flat where a lot of other trainees live. We had some drinks together and celebrated our Trainee Coordinator’s birthday. Unfortunately the birthday-boy passed out around midnight (a mix of beer through a straw, too little sleep the past few days and a cold), but that didn’t spoil the fun for the rest of us. :)

The next day I went with Tim into the city, to play tourist for one day. I may live here now, but I think I’m still allowed to act as a true tourist during my first weekend right? Anyway, Prague really is a very beautiful city, lots of old buildings with nice architecture, nice shops and also the famous Charles bridge. That was quite a nice bridge, although it was also a biiiit crowded. I can imagine why this place is number 3 in the worldwide list of best places to get your pocket picked. But I still have all my stuff (I was prepared and didn’t bring too much with me) and I had a nice time today.

After I got home, I had an opportunity to enjoy the view from my balcony, while consuming some special kind of ice cream people in Czech Republic seem to like a lot. It was a great moment. I’d wish I could share the view with all of you, but my internet is still not working properly, so that’s not gonna work. :)

On Sunday I hadn’t anything planned, but one of the “friends” of Juan Carlos, who stayed over tonight even though JC himself was sleeping somewhere else, invited us (Tim and me) to come to a Couchsurfing-meeting somewhere in a park. The location was quite hard to find (even for three people that were living in Prague, a bit strange for a meeting that is intended to be for foreigners that sleep here only a few nights), but in the end we got there and had a nice afternoon.
So Monday was my first working day. Well, only the name included work, because the day itself consisted of just presentations about the company in general and the duties and rights of the employer and employee. Luckily for me there was a Belgian colleague named Jonathan who would also be working for the same client as I will, so we could talk a bit during breaks. At the end of the day we were introduced to the whole Dutch team and also showed what would be our working place. Then we had to wait for 2 hours, because our supervisors wanted to have a drink with us, but had an important meeting first. But well, that gave us the chance to go outside, browse the internet a bit and talk with our future colleagues. Jonathan and I will both be working in the same “street of desks” (don’t know how to call it, but I’m sure you’ll know what I mean) together with three girls, and basing myself on the 30 minutes that we were sat close to them, I’m sure we’re going to have a lot of fun during work. Soon I will get to experience some real office humor. I can’t wait!

The next day the trainings continued, the only difference being that today (and tomorrow) it’s not called Introduction any more but Induction. I didn’t notice any difference. So in the evening, my flatmate Juan Carlos invited me to come to salsa-lessons in the evening. I had never done that before, but for me it was a great opportunity to meet some new people, so I went with him. Unfortunately we were too late to join the lesson, but I could watch most of it. After the lesson had ended, I talked with some other people working at Accenture that were there and I agreed with a Dutch colleague that she would participate in the salsa lesson of next week. I wonder how that will go. But a very nice Slovak girl already introduced me to some basic moves and I will maybe get some salsa lessons at home from JC, so it’s going to be fine. Want to know how this story continues with Laurens and his salsa-lessons? Just keep reading this blog, and you will find out the answer.

So today, the 15th of September, it's my birthday. So far I have nothing special planned yet, but tonight there will be a movie night at Andĕl, so I won't be alone on my birthday. And to all of you that congratulate(d) me through Facebook, Hyves, e-mail, e-card and/or sms: thank you. I hope you understand I can't react to all messages right now. I have to get back to Induction Training soon. :)

Opatruj se, or, for non-Czech people: take care!

First update from Prague

I arrived in Prague at night. From the air it is absolutely an amazing city. It’s huge, and the lights are so beautiful from above. Almost all in the same color, and in different shapes as well. I think I even saw a couple of lights shaped like a Christmas tree. After the landing, I had to wait very long for my luggage to arrive. I felt a bit ashamed, because I knew someone from the local AIESEC committee was waiting for me. But finally I got my bag and went outside to meet Martin, who will be my so-called buddy during my stay in Prague. He would take me to my house in Rajská Zahrada (to my Czech readers: please forgive me if I do any accents wrong on this blog). However, Rajská was on the total other side of Prague than the airport and it took us over 1 hour to get there by public transportation. So it was already quite late when we arrived. However, I could still meet two of the other trainees living in the house: a Dutch guy working for the same company as I will and a Russian girl. They both were very nice, but they couldnt talk for too long, since they had to work the next morning, so I went to my room after a short talk.

So here I am now, lying on my bed in my new home. It’s my first night in Prague and I already feel at home here. My room is nice and big, although I do have to share it with one Mexican guy who is not here at the moment, since he “uses a different clock than normal people”. The only thing missing from my new home is internet. There seems to be something wrong with our provider. That’s quite unfortunate, since I am a bit of an internet addict. But I will make the most of it, and maybe it’s good that I don’t have internet right now, because that gives me the opportunity to meet some people here in Prague. And it will be easier to force myself to go to bed early, because I have to get up at 7 in the morning from next week.
Another positive thing about this room is that we have an air mattress, so it’s possible to invite someone over. That was an unexpected surprise, since at first I expected my room to be so small that I could barely store all my stuff in it. But at the moment the air mattress is serving as a curtain. That’s a bit new to me, a bedroom with no curtains. But it should not really be a big problem, because I have to get up early anyway. :)

Tomorrow I will go into the city to arrange the last few things I need to do (get a subscription for public transportation here, get a Czech bank account, etc.) and then it will be weekend. Since my Dutch housemate who arrived here two weeks ago also hasn’t explored the city yet, we will go do that together. However, the first thing we will do in the weekend will be a trip to the shopping center in Cerný Most. People say they have a free wireless internet connection there. Heaven. That will undoubtedly be our favorite part of the day.

PS. In case you were wondering how I posted this blog: I wrote most of it last night, stored it on my USB-stick and now I am at the other trainee flat, where they do have internet, so I can post it online. You have to be a bit creative if you want to keep a blog updated without an internet connection at home. :)

Moving to Prague!

Hi all,

As most of you may know, I will be moving to Prague very soon since I have been offered a job at Accenture in that city. My job requires me to stay at least 18 months, which is a long time, but I am pretty excited already about the prospect of moving to such a great city and staying in "the heart of Europe" for such a long time will allow me to travel a lot through Eastern Europe, since a lot of countries are very near to my new home. Sure as hell I'm going to miss my Dutch friends and family a lot, but this is just a great opportunity for me. And of course everybody is welcome to come visit me. I've heard Prague is an amazingly beautiful city and soon I can be your personal tour guide there. Just let me know when you are coming. ;)

So at the moment I have a lot of things on my mind. I really need to arrange a lot before I can leave. Luckily Accenture will arrange my flight ticket to Prague, so I don't need to worry about that. Although I do start to worry a little bit, since I haven't heard from the woman yet that is supposed to arrange my flight. And I'm already leaving Holland next week! But well, as my favourite quote in Dutch says: alles komt goed. Everything will be ok.

I hope now all those avid readers of this blog understand that at the moment I'm a bit too busy to write creative blog posts. Sorry for that! But I will compensate all of you with great blog posts about my adventures in Czech Republic in the near future! You have my word on that.

How it really went...

A few days ago my favourite soccerclub, Vitesse, got bought by a rich Georgian businessman. In the media there are a lot of rumours that it was in fact Roman Abramovich, the owner of the English topclub Chelsea, that was behind this takeover. Several media have tried to find out whether this is true, but failed to find any information. Fortunately for you I have a very good source that told me the real story behind the takeover of Vitesse. Exclusively for you as a reader of my weblog I wrote this story down.

It's a warm Thursday night in July and Roman Abramovich is drinking a good glass of expensive Italian wine when suddenly a shifty-looking man enters the room. He walks up to his boss and stands still just in front of the chair in which Roman is sitting. He waves his arms nervously.
"Mr. Abramovich, I have a newz for you."
"Nikolai, my friend! How's it going?"
"Very well sir. But it is about a Vitesse, that soccer club in Holland you were interezted in."
"What is it?"
"Well, you see, my sources, they zay the club is for a sale."
"Ah, I see. How much would that cost me?"
"They zay it's a four million euros, sir."
Abramovich laughs.
"Is that all?"
Abramovich points to the couch beside him.
"Sit down, my dear friend"
Nikolai sits down and Abramovich bends over to his dear friend, while keeping his hands folded in the shape of a pyramid.
"Very well. You know I have a very busy schedule, don't you? Yes. You must understand. My time is precious. Daria is complaining she rarely sees me any more. So I need someone to buy that club for me. The money is not a problem, but I just can't do all the negotations myself. You understand?"
"Of course sir. I thought about that. You know that buzinezz man from Georgia? Merab Jordania? He still owes us some money. He eh... he says he has been a professional football player once, in Soviet Union. He might be your man."
"Well why don't you invite him over, so we can... eh... talk."

One day later another assistent from Mr. Abramovich, Boris, calls Mr. Abramovich on his cell phone. Abramovich, who is just enjoying a cocktail on the deck of his yacht, answers the phone.
"Hello sir."
"Boris, privet! How have you been?"
"Very well sir. I just wanted to tell you that Mr. Jordania has been picked up last night and is on his way to Moscow now. You will see him tonight at 8, at the usual meeting place."
"Excellent, Boris, excellent..."

That night.
Mr. Abramovich walks into a large room, surprisingly empty. At the back of the room there is a white couch. Three men are sitting on this couch: a small man in his late forties is being flanked by two big bald men in dark suits. The middle man looks a bit anxious. Mr. Abramovich snaps his fingers and the two men disappear.
"Merab, my old friend, how have you been?"
"Fine thank you," is the concise response.
"Come on, Merab, a little bit more enthousiasm would be appreciated! I am here to make you an offer you can't refuse."
Merab looks a bit relieved when hearing the tone of his old friend's voice, but is still a bit hesitating.
"What do you mean?"
"I have a job for you. And when you do this job, I will take care of all of your debts. And if you do your job, you can even gain from this."
"What I need to do?"
"Listen carefully. There is a soccer club in The Netherlands called Vitesse Arnhem."
"Never heard of it."
Abramovich talks on, without paying any attention to the words Merab murmurs.
"...That club is high on my priority list. I want to own that club, but I can't go to The Netherlands myself. So I need you to go to Holland to negotiate with the main shareholder of that football club: some clown called Maasbert Schouten. I want you to buy that football club for me. You can be president, bring your own players in, I don't care, money is not a problem. All I want is a good satellite club for Chelsea. And if you're smart, you can just say you want to make Vitesse big again. They always like to hear that in Arnhem. Just say something stupid like you want Vitesse to become champion in three seasons and that clown Schouten will be happy to sell the club to you. The only thing is that you have to look serious and you have to move to Arnhem with your family. But of course I'll pay for your house and everything. Do we have a deal?"
Merab, still looking concerned and very serious, remains silent for a few moments. In the end he says:
"What other alternatives do I have to pay off my debt?"
Mr. Abramovich laughs.
"You have a good sense of humour, my friend. I already arranged a meeting with that clown Schouten tomorrow. Be there."
Mr. Abramovich snaps his fingers again and the two men in the dark suits appear out of nowhere and take Merab away.

One month later he is sitting next to that clown Maasbert Schouten, wearing a yellow-black tie and a suit that was borrowed from a Vitesse board member that was on holiday. He presents himself as the new owner of Vitesse and says Vitesse will play Champions League soon. Mr. Abramovich watches the press conference from the deck of his yaught, drinking some champagne.
"Cheers," he says to the tv, before he switches it off and turns to his beautiful Daria.

Overview of my penpals' origin

Hi all!

I thought it might be interesting to make a list of all people I ever met online and see with who I would want to get back in touch. After having made this list, I remembered that a lot of (Dutch) people always ask me what kind of people I have as penpals. So to have a place to refer all those people to, I wrote down a list of all people I ever met online and exchanged more than 2 messages with. You can find a list of the countries where all those people were from below. As you will see, I mostly get in touch with people from Eastern-Europe. I can't help that. I just love Eastern Europe and the people living there, so I must keep on contacting them to remain happy. :)

Here's the list.

Europe:
Azerbaijan
Croatia (2x)
England (4x)
Estonia (3x)
Finland
Germany (2x)
Hungary (2x)
Lithuania (3x)
Luxembourg
Poland (4x)
Portugal
Serbia
Slovenia (3x)
Sweden (3x)
Wales

Africa:
Ethiopia
Seychelles
South Africa

North America:
El Salvador
Mexico
Saint Lucia
USA (3x)

Asia:
China
Indonesia (2x)
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
South Korea
Turkmenistan

To make this blog more interactive, I decided to let you choose where my next penpal will be from. So please send your suggestion and the reason why I should find a penpal in that particular country to my new e-mailaddress llaurens@live.nl, or write it in a reaction to this blog post if you can. Then maybe YOU will be responsible for me meeting another great penpal and then I will be thankful to you for the rest of my life! Sounds good, doesn't it? So send your suggestion to me now! I look forward to hearing from you. :)

New music recommendations!

So now it's time for... some music! For today I set myself as a goal to inform you all about my music taste. As I got the feeling that just posting a list of music recommendations was not a very effective way to make you guys listen to my music, so this time I will do it in a different way. In this blog post I will discuss a few of my favourite artists, tell a little something about them to make you more curious and give some recommendations on what tracks you should listen to. Just read these descriptions and decide for yourself which bands/singers you want to give a try.

Scouting For Girls

What other band should I start with than my all-time favourite Scouting For Girls? Ok, I have talked about them before on this blog, but in my defense, they do have a new album. And what an album! They have a totally new sound, which should be appealing to a bigger audience. As a result, the first single of the album, "This ain't a love song", became a hit all over Europe. Also their second single "Famous" has the potential to become quite popular. These are not the only good tracks of the album however. Most songs sound a bit different from what the true SFG-fans are used to, but they are great songs and if you're into positive and danceable music, you should give them a try! I have not heard from a single person that they didn't like Scouting For Girls (although maybe they just say they like it because they don't want to break my enthusiasm), so really, try it.

You should listen to: "Little miss naughty", "1+1", "Gotta keep smiling" and to all other songs these wonderful guys have ever made.

Go:Audio

This band had been in my last.fm-recommendations for quite a long time before I actually started listening to their music. The first thing I noticed while listening to the first song was the (male) singer with earring in the video of "She left me". The intro was quite catchy though, so I kept on listening and I still don't regret doing that! Not all of their songs are as good as their best songs, but there are some more songs that are certainly worth listening. All of the songs below also have a great intro by the way, that seems to be their specialty.

You should listen to: "She left me", "Made up stories" and "Drive to the city".

Little Man Tate

I discovered this band while I was shopping in Tilburg. I heard a great song on the radio, and HAD TO know who it was. I asked the salesman, but he didn't know. So I stored part of the lyrics in my phone, and googled it right when I got home. About the music itself: I think these guys have a bit of a 60s-sound and you can also hear the British accent. Me like that very much. :D A pity the band split up already. Be sure to check out the videos too, they're pretty good in my humble opinion.
You should listen to: "This must be love", "Hey little sweetie" and "Sexy in Latin".

Alexander Rybak

I suppose most of you guys remember him only as that cute guy from Norway that won the Eurovision song contest with that happy song. I can hear you thinking. What happened to him? Well, I can tell you, he's still singing. And most songs have the typical Fairytale-sound, so if you liked that sound, check out his other songs!

You should listen to: "Funny little world", "Roll with the wind" and, for the curious people among you, "Fela igjen", a song in Norwegian made by Alexander together with hiphop formation Opptur. It's quite good, and you can find a subtitled version on YouTube.

All Time Low

I had been following this band on Youtube for a while, when suddenly a Dutch tv station surprised me by playing one of their songs and actually kept on playing it for quite some time. So for those of you that watch TMF a lot, these guys are a bit familiar. But even for you there must be some songs by them that you don't know yet. For those of you that have never heard of these guys, I can tell you that they're a four-piece pop-punk band from the USA that make quite good music. If you sometimes feel like a punk-rocker, check out these guys.

You should listen to: "Weightless", "Dear Maria, count me in" and "Damned if I do ya (damned if I don't)"

The Pigeon Detectives

This is certainly not a recommendation that everybody will like, but I had to mention them. The Pigeon Detectives is an indie-rockband from England that has a special sound that I can't really put into words. I guess the only way to find out what I mean is to listen to these guys. :)

You should listen to: "Take her back", "I'm not sorry", "Romantic type" and if you're the kind of person that is very self-confident you should also listen to "Everybody wants me".

That's all for now. I hope you enjoyed reading about (and listening to) these artists as much as I did writing about them. Let me know if you found some new music because of it, that's always nice to hear. :)

Have a good day!

Living the dream

I was very surprised when my old friend A. from the Dominican Republic wrote me an e-mail one month ago, inviting me over to his place in Santo Domingo. Of course I said yes immediately, and I was even more excited when he told me I could bring a friend if I wanted. So this morning I left for two weeks in the Caribbean sun, together with my good friend S., who I found willing to come with me to this tropical island. Who would say no to such a great opportunity?

When our plane arrived we were amazed by the beauty of the country. Also Santo Domingo is an amazing place: it has a very nice beach and also a beautiful inner city. But we had little time to see that now. We had our suitcases and wanted to get to A.'s place as soon as possible. We took a taxi to the address that I had written down. You wouldn't believe what happened next. We were taken to a very rich neighbourhood and when the taxi stopped, I was absolutely stunned. This house was not just a house, it was more like a mansion! A white mansion at the sea-side, with a very green garden surrounding it. I asked the driver one more time whether this was the right address, but he insisted it was. Could my friend really afford to live here? We walked his drive-way and rang the doorbell. After one minute the door was opened by my old friend, who welcomed me to his country with a big hug. I told him how amazed we were by his mansion. He just laughed, and said "Life is good my friend, life is good." He took me straight through his living room to the balcony, where we had the most amazing seaview. He told us to sit down on the loungers and went away. We were quite tired from the long travel and lay down. It felt so good, laying down in the sun and we closed our eyes.

We had almost fallen asleep when A. came back. He had made us cocktails! What a nice gesture! Unfortunately he had to go now, but he told us to make ourselves comfortable, so we lay down again. It was already quite late now and the sun was already going down, so we watched the sunset together, sipping from our cocktails. It was a truly astonishing view: the palmtrees, the ocean, the orange sky above it, a lonely couple taking a romantic walk on the beach... I wished this moment would last forever.

I looked at S., who was sitting next to me. She hadn't said a single word for almost 10 minutes now. She must have been really amazed by the beauty of this sunset. She looked back at me. The orange light, shining on her face, made her more beautiful than ever. I asked if she wanted to sit closer to me, and she immediately jumped up to come sit on my lounger. We were sitting really close to eachother now. I put my arm around her while watching the sunset together, which made the moment feel even better. She looked me in the eyes now. I'm not sure about it, but I think I saw her blushing. This moment felt so right, and slowly our faces came closer to eachother. When our lips first met, it was a bit of an awkward moment, but soon we got the spirit of the moment again and we kissed.

This was another moment that never should have ended, but unfortunately for me it was time to wake up, and my alarm clock disturbed this wonderful dream... Right now I can only hope that one day this dream will come true. My first thought of the day: I should really contact my old friend in Santo Domingo again.

The final days

Day 13

The work for today consisted of cleaning a dirty wooden floor. Not such interesting work, but the day got more interesting in the evening because it was Italian night. This meant that Italian girl Anna was going to make us all some delicious fresh pizzas! They tasted really good and I was a very happy boy. The only problem was that I always wanted more pizza, but felt a certain shame when I would reach for that last piece of pizza. So I made up a plan. I was going to do all the dishes, all alone. First I did all empty plates, then the cutlery and after that I sneaked back into the dining room to get the plate with the last piece of pizza on it, took it with me to the kitchen when nobody was watching and then... heaven in the kitchen. Hmm, what was that pizza delicious! Anna, if you read this, know that you are always welcome to come visit me in Holland if you make me some more of those pizzas. :)

Day 14

Today was the last working day, but the work itself was not that interesting. First we had to carry some tables to a barn outside and after that we had to clean a large hall. But again, in the evening it got more interesting. It was Spanish-Latvian night, which consisted of a video about Latvia, two quizzes and some Spanish music. It was really nice.
After that we went outside to sit in the hot tub, which was heated by the burning of some wood. The water was really hot, but it was a really good experience. In the end we sat there, with small breaks of running into the cold river to cool down, till just before 4 in the morning. At that time Anna, Ieva and I decided it was a great moment to walk to the cold lake and swim. Another really great experience! It certainly was a special night.

Day 15

In the morning of today we didn't do much, because a lot of people wanted to sleep late. But during the day we went on a bicycle trip and we went to a lake in the forest to have a nice BBQ. After that we went to another lake to swim in.
In the evening it was time for Spanish carnaval. The photos will follow later, but I can tell you now that it was great to see everybody being dressed up in a funny way. At midnight also Kadi came by to bring a homemade strawberry cake, which was really nice. Then we did a small game, in which everybody had to write down on a piece of paper a personal message to all other participants. Thanks to everybody for the nice comments. :)
The night ended at half past three with an amazing play, performed by Elena and Ondine. Another great night!

Day 16

Today is already my last day in Sänna. We said goodbye to all the people that were staying in Sänna and the "temps" went together to Tartu. We were given a ride by the mother of one of the local volunteers, which was very nice. I went into Tartu for a few hours with my friends, but at half past 2 it was time to say goodbye to everyone. Now the camp has really ended. On the bus ride to Tallinn, I thought of all the good memories. Here's a list of all the things I will never forget:

- The incredible amount of mosquitos in Sänna
- All the great fresh food
- Having porets for breakfast
- The fact that Estonian people eat cold pink soup
- Ondine's unconditional love for cute little cat Pesu
- Cute little cat Pesu
- Elena's great imitation of a drunk David Copperfield
- Pekka's stories about the army
- Pekka's great working shirt of the second week
- The taste of dried meat
- Waking up with the song "On the road again"
- The squeaking sound Ieva made while saying "Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God"
- The nice conversations with Anna
- Kadi's positive energy
- Watching soccer games together with the guys
- My working shirt of handball club Örebro
- The sound of the letter õ

One more thing I will never forget is the beauty of Tallinn. Going back there felt like going home. I had not booked a hostel yet, but I had a list of hostels. However, I forgot to draw a map, because I knew how to find the street where I wanted to be. But after having walked in the hot sun for one hour, I found out that there would have also been a shortcut, that would have taken me to my first hostel in about 15 minutes... Anyway, I found myself a hostel, took a hot shower, which gave a really weird special feeling on the mosquito bites on my legs, and got ready for the night. The big night. The night in which Holland could become World Champion for the first time. I watched the game, under the pleasure of a nice Dutch beer, at a big screen on the main square of Tallinn. It was so nice to hear the crowd cheer for Holland so much! I even stood next to a group of girls with Dutch flags painted on their cheeks the first half! The game was really exciting, and went into extra time. Since I saw some people leave, I decided to move forward a bit to go sit closer to the screen. This lead to me almost getting into a fight with some Russian guy, who thought I was sitting on his place. In the end his girlfriend had to drag him away.
Then another memorable moment. In the 107th minute of the game, the transmission on the big screen ended. For two minutes everybody was waiting for the images to come back, but it didn't. So together with a big group, we ran to the city center. It must have been really funny to see for the people that were sitting in a park that was on the way between the square and the city center. In the end I missed 8 minutes of the final, including the red card for Heitinga, but was just in time to see the winning goal by Iniesta. Of course it wasn't a good moment, but I could live with the result. Holland didn't deserve to win this final.

Day 17: a day full of setbacks

After another short night because of a snorring guy opposite to me who got up at 5 in the morning to spend some time packing his bag I woke up in Estonia for the last time. I had breakfast at a bakery close to my hostel and after that I went souvenir-hunting. After that I went to the closest tram stop and got on the tram in the direction of the airport.
I knew I had to either stop at the stop Autobussijaam, or one of the stops after that. But when I got close to that stop, suddenly everybody started to help me in Estonian. I understood the word "järgmine" (next), so I thought they meant I had to get out at the tram stop there. I said "airport" to them, and then they started talking about a bus I should take, but I didn't understand much of that. So in the end I got off at the main bus station and decided to walk to the airport. That went ok, but it turned out that I could have stayed on the tram for at least one more stop... Anyway, I got to the airport, exchanged my money while being screwed by a bad exchange rate. Also I was 1 EEK (=6 eurocent) short to exchange all my money, so I was left with 6.90 EEK. I wanted to go to the kiosk at the airport to get some refreshment, but the cheapest ice-cream was 7 EEK, and the woman behind the counter refused to sell me that product for 6.90 EEK, which is less than 1 eurocent too little. So I was 1 eurocent short of a refreshment. But when I set myself a goal, I become unstoppable. So I decided to drop off my luggage at the airport and started walking again to the nearest supermarket, where it would be possible to buy some icecream with the money I had left. But when I arrived at the supermarket, I couldn't find my Estonian money any more! I must have left it somewhere at the airport. I got very angry with myself, but of course that didn't help. I never found the money back. I just hope that I didn't leave it at the store of that lady that wouldn't sell me that nice icecream. Conclusion: no refreshment for Laurens at the airport. The few coins I had left, I gave to charity.

I had to spend more than 1 hour waiting for my plane to leave, but I made myself useful with my laptop and the free wifi at the airport. I applied for another internship in Prague from the airport, in 10 days I will know whether I will get it or not. Let's hope for the best. My battery died quite soon however, and then I had to wait. The plane to Helsinki left 30 minutes late, which caused me some stress since I didn't have much time in Helsinki to catch my flight to Amsterdam. When I arrived in Helsinki, I was in such a hurry that I left my book (from the library) in the plane. "Luckily" the plane to Amsterdam had a delay, so I had the time to ask the personnel at the airport about what to do about it and got some instructions. I hope I will get it back.
The plane to Amsterdam also had a delay of around 30 minutes. At around 6 I arrived in Amsterdam, just to find out that my luggage decided to extend its holiday by another night in Helsinki... Apparently the delay of my flight from Tallinn to Helsinki meant that there was no time to get my luggage into the plane to Amsterdam, because there was another girl at the airport who also came from Tallinn and didn't find her luggage. So we filled in a form and hoped for the best.

So the last day of my travel was not really a good one, but I did enjoy my stay in Estonia so much. So I would like to say one word to everybody that contributed to making my stay so good:

Aitäh!

The blog goes on...

Hi guys! I'm sorry it took me so long to write another update, but I just didn't feel like writing the past few days. :) So I left you at the weekend. Let's start there.

Day 8
Today it's Saturday so we don't have to work. Instead, we will use some of the bicycles to cycle to Rõuge, where there was going to be some kind of festival. Rõuge itself is only a very small place (less than 500 inhabitants), but it was still quite crowded when the first activity started: a boat race with all kinds of home-made boats:


Really crazy. So before and after that we had swum in the lake and at the end of the afternoon we were joined by some drunk locals, who wanted to share their Estonian vodka and longdrinks with us. Probably just to get Ieva drunk, because one of those guys (the ugliest one) kept on yelling "I love you", probably the only line he knew in English. Anyway, we had a good time there and some of us may have gotten a bit drunk, which made the cycle home more fun. But not for me, since I had left my sweater at home. It was quite cold (but still quite ok actually), but I was very happy that Elena was willing to cycle home a bit faster than the rest of the group.

Day 9

Today we did not do so much. We went for a swim in a lake nearby, talked a bit and that would be about it. Only in the evening we did a quiz about Estonia and watched a movie about the singing revolution in Estonia. This is hard to explain in a few lines to a non-Estonian, so I won't even try, but at least now I understand the culture and traditions of Estonia better.

Day 10

Today we had to work again, and Pekka and me were going to the treehouses to cover the empty spaces next to the wooden floor. So we were busy all day with the saws and hammers. Really hard work, considering the fact that the weather was still good today and it may well have been the hottest day so far. But it was very satisfying to see the difference afterwards: the treehouses were really ready to use now. Here's a picture of the view out of one of the treehouses:

Amazing, isn't it? A really inspirational place!

When we came back to the manor, a new volunteer had arrived. Her name was Anna and she was from Italy. She worked as a long term volunteer in another part of Estonia and was invited by the organisation to come help us for this week, to replace the two Spanish girls. Always nice to have extra help and more people to talk to.
So in the evening we watched a movie called Paha maa. As you may see from the title, the movie was Finnish. It was a really great movie. Also we decided that after today's Finnish night, it would be Dutch night the next day. Very convenient, because that day was also the day was also the day of the semi-final of Holland against Uruguay.

Day 11

So today we worked in the carpentry workshop again, where the guys had to paint the ceiling of two smaller rooms. This was quite complicated, since one of the rooms was far from empty. But like a true athlete I used every muscle in my body to make sure every bit of the ceiling got painted without having to remove too much objects from the room. Camp leader Kadi took a picture of me doing that, but I don't have that picture yet, so maybe you will see it later.

In the evening I did a quiz about Holland, which was fun. After the quiz, I played some Dutch music (including Wij houden van oranje and Viva Hollandia) to get in the mood for the soccer game. So we continued the Dutch night watching the first half of the soccer, and this time even some of the girls stayed to watch, which lead to some interesting questions like how they would make sure the grass looked the way it looked, with those stripes. None of us knew the answer, so if you do, please make a comment here and enlighten us. The second half it was only Hendrik, Pekka and me again, but we really enjoyed the great game of soccer! And I enjoyed the great result of course, I still cannot believe we are in the final. And I also can't wait to watch the final in a crowded bar in Tallinn next Sunday. Or maybe I will go to the main square. We'll see how it goes.

Day 12

Not that many special things have happened today. Maybe the fact that Pekka and I moved to another place to sleep is worth mentioning, but it's not really interesting to you guys as a reader. Why did we move? Well, tomorrow some more guests are coming to stay here, and we had to make room for those people. Not really interesting. So in the evening we had French night, which started with a quiz/game about France and ended with a French movie, which was stopped halfway because the subtitles stopped working. Maybe tomorrow we'll find a way to watch the ending. I wasn't that sorry for the subtitles going missing, because it allowed us to watch the last 15 minutes of the other semi-final between Germany and Spain. So now I know we will have to beat Spain in the final. It will be tough, but I think we have a chance of beating them. Will the 11th of July be one of the days in my life that I will never forget? It could be, it could be...

Part 2: The first days in Sänna

Day 4

My first morning in Sänna started off quite well, as Ieva and Elena made a delicious breakfast. After eating, we were supposed to do some games to get to know eachother, but since the camp leaders were still hoping that the two Spanish girls would show up, we moved these games to the afternoon and started working immediately. We were lead to a large room, which was looking quite old and ugly. We were supposed to paint the walls in some kind of beige.

This was what we did in the morning and after a delicious lunch (the food was very good all week!) we went outside to do those games in the high grass. The games were fun: telling eachother stories about one’s name, trying to recognize eachother’s hands with closed eyes and walking through the grass with your eyes closed, while being lead by a fellow group member. However, the bare legs in the high grass (we started with those games after we had a quick swim in the lake nearby) were not such a good idea. Especially with my eyes closed, I was a very easy prey for all the insects that were interested in my blood. I would feel that for sure the next day.

In the evening we played some volleyball with the locals, which was nice.

Day 5

The most important news of today was that I made a new best friend for life: four year-old Elisabeth, the daughter of one of the artists living at the manor. After I was finished with work, I was a little too nice to her and after that she decided to come bring me some fresh strawberries. I thanked her and lay down on my bed with my eyes closed, because I wanted to rest now. I was hoping she would leave now. I was wrong. She kept on bringing me toys, and if I didn’t open my eyes fast enough, she would push them into my face until I responded. We played for some time, until Ondine came by. I tried to convince the little kid that Ondine was much more fun to play with, but she wasn’t interested, she only wanted me. By then I knew I was never going to be able to rest in the hour before dinner, so I gave in. I ended up playing ball with her, on the large Estonian swing and was even introduced to her parents. At dinner time she also didn’t want to let me go. So I dragged her to the kitchen, while she kept screaming “ota” (=wait!) where I put her on the seat opposite to me and we enjoyed dinner together. What a lovely day.

In the evening Ernest, an American artist that clearly smoked too much marihuana in his younger years, gave us an art workshop. To me it was a bit disappointing, because Ernest looks like a really inspirational person, but the workshop was only so-so. However, I enjoyed myself for the two hours it took.

While I was in the shower that night, I counted how many mosquito bites I had. I found out I had at least 34 bites. Southern-Estonia is such a nice place…

Day 6

Not much to write about today. We painted, had a BBQ at Hendrik & Kadi’s place (the two camp leaders, a married couple that lives near the manor) and Pekka and I actively participated in the bicycle workshop in the evening, where we learned how to replace an inner tire of a bike. Very interesting

Day 7

Today was the first day we did something else than painting! In the morning we painted, but during lunch Hendrik asked Pekka and me whether we were tired of the painting yet and were interested in another small job. Of course we were! So the job existed of removing old stones from the theatre in the manor and throwing them out. Quite a tough job (it was the first time the work made me sweat), but it was nice to do something else than painting for a while.

In the late afternoon, I arranged with Hendrik that we would have a tv to watch the game of Holland against Brazil. We really enjoyed the great game, and I told the guys that were watching (the girls were still painting (A)) some facts about the Dutch national team.

After the game was finished, I ate the cake I made in the afternoon using Ieva’s instructions and was amazed. I could actually make a very well-tasting cake! I never knew I had such a talent! But maybe it was just the recipe that was very good. Anyway, I really enjoyed dinner today. :)

My trip to Estonia: part 1

As most of you may know, I will be doing volunteer work in Sänna, Estonia this summer. I left Holland on the 26^th of June and flew over Helsinki to Tallinn, where I would spend a few days before going to Sänna, where I would stay for two weeks to renovate an old manor that is being used to host artists from all over the world. Since I have internet here in Sänna, I will be able to keep you guys updated on my adventures by means of this weblog. So here is my story about the first days of my trip.

Day 1

The adventure started when my plane landed at Tallinn Airport. My Estonian penpal Laura would come to pick me up from the airport. I had never met her before, but in the small arrivals-hall it was very easy to find eachother. In advance we had already agreed to walk to the nearby supermarket together, which was not at all necessary after the delicious cheeseburger I got from FinnAir, but I still bought myself a nice pizza-snack there. What better way would there be to start your journey? After having done that, we rushed (as far as one can rush with a suitcase behind him) to the tram. That tram would take us to Rahvusraamatukogu, the national library of Estonia, where I met Jens: my Belgian Couchsurfing host.

After saying goodbye to Laura, I went to Jens’ place to drop off my luggage. To be honest, I was amazed by the state his house was in: it was old, wooden and very messy. Luckily his appartment looked normal from the inside, as do most interiors of crappy houses.

After dropping off my luggage, we went to the city, did a small tour of Tallinn (I was doing the grand tour the next day) and went to an Irish Pub, where we watched the World Cup game between USAGhana until the end. Because of the time difference and the extra time that was needed to find a winner, the game finished only shortly before midnight, so we didn’t stay long after that. We went home and where I was a bit afraid at first of a long, light and sleepless night (it will never get as dark at night as I’m used to in Estonia at this time of year), I was really tired and fell asleep quite soon.

Day 2

The next morning I met Laura again, who was going to be my tourguide for the day. During the tour, she took me everywhere: we saw the old town, some great viewing points, the large shopping center, sat down for two hours in the park of Kadriorg (where I burnt the entire left side but not the right side of my face according to Laura), went to some kind of palace and back to the old town again, where we sat down again to have a drink, because we were quite tired. But at least I had seen almost everything of Tallinn in just one day!

At half past six I met Jens again, who was still full of energy after a long boring day of studying for his drivers’ license. He wanted to take me for a walk on the beach just outside Tallinn. That sounded like a good idea, so I agreed on that. The walk was quite nice, it’s really nice to walk on the beach, being able to see the towers of a beautiful city like Tallinn on the other side of the water. However, the walk was more than just a short walk near the seaside. We walked all the way to the town of Viimsi, the richest town of Estonia according to Jens. And indeed, the houses and the views on Tallinn were beautiful, but my feet were killing me now! Luckily for me Jens had to work the next day, so at around 10 we both decided enough is enough and took the bus home. When we got home, I discovered a blister of the size of a small toe on my left foot. Always nice when you have another day of walking planned for the next day…

Day 3

Monday was the day that I would go to Sänna, but since my bus to Voru (where I would be picked up) left only at 16:00, I would still have to find something to keep me busy for the day. So I decided to also meet my other Estonian penpal Mariam, who took me to Kopli, the worst and most dangerous area of Tallinn, where a lot of Russians live. It was really amazing to see all those old abandoned houses there and even though it was safe by daytime, I could really see that this would be a dangerous area at night.

After our trip to Kopli, we had lunch in the park and then Mariam took me to her place, because she wanted to make me cake. The cakes she made (broccoli-paprika-salmon and chocolate) were delicious, although the first cake was a bit too wet. This lead to an interesting situation, during which she tried to get out all the water of the cake. This was quite a comical situation, because I was filming her every move with my camera, resulting in a very interesting video, which may or may not appear on YouTube someday.

Just before 16:00, we left for the main bus station. There I was supposed to meet my 4 other group members, but the 2 Spanish girls didn’t show up. I will not say there is a causal link between the fact that they were Spanish and the fact that they didn’t show up, but it is interesting that last year someone of the same nationality didn’t show up for the volunteer work in Serbia. Anyway, together with Pekka from Finland and Ondine from France I took the bus to Voru, where I met one local guy from Sänna of who I didn’t get the name yet and Elena from Spain. She no speak English so much, she said, but she was understandable most of the times. With 110 km/h we drove over small countryside roads, which sounds more dangerous than it actually is, because there is absolutely no traffic here. At around nine we arrived at the Sänna Culture Manor, where we met the other long-term volunteer Ieva from Latvia and the one of the camp leaders. That night we talked and had some drinks together with all the mosquitos that live in Sänna. This would be a normal first night of a workcamp in Southern Estonia I guess.

So today I also did a lot of interesting things, including swimming in a very cold lake, but you will hear more of that next time. For now I will say to you: head aega (goodbye in Estonian), and näeme hiljem (see you later)!

Bilthoven Bitches

They are easy to recognize
An expensive, flashy ring on their finger
A pearl necklace around their neck
These forests seem to be their playground
These castles seem to be their home
They can't help being like this
It is their nature
They act strong, independent, self-assured
But why does their heart have to be so cold?
They look at me
Like I am some other species
Like I don't belong in such a place
A haughtiness that finds its origin in their childhood
When it was their daddy who told:
You are a priviliged little girl
And I will give you anything you want
There is only one condition
You must stay forever in this land
The young girls listened
They grew up,
Became women
Conquered the world
But they never want to mingle with the normal people
Because deep inside
They will always remain daddy's little girl

The tale about the boy and his new passport

It all started like a fairytale… Once upon a time there was a guy named Lurens, who needed a new passport for his trip to a beautiful little country called Estopia. There was only one problem: he did not own a picture of himself yet that meet all the requirements. Soon he found out that there was a cabin at the train station where he could get his picture taken. So full of good mood Lurens went the train station and after taking three photos, the machine urged him to select one out of these three photos. However, since his head looked weird in all three photos, Lurens wasn’t sure which one to pick. In the end, after careful consideration, he randomly selected one photo to become his official photo, and armed with his freshly made pictures he rushed to the city hall, to get in line for a new passport. Luckily for him the city hall in Tilburg had a nice and cosy waiting room, where all the people would sit that were waiting on a civil servant to serve them. He even found a newspaper that reported about a certain upcoming World Championship, so he didn’t even notice that he had to wait for half an hour. Then, all of a sudden, a big screen announced that it was his turn to go to the counter.
Full of excitement Lurens walked to the counter. It was the nearest one to the waiting room, how convenient! He showed the friendly-looking woman behind the counter his old passport and his beautiful new photos and sat down. The woman scanned the old passport and looked at her computer for a few seconds. When she opened her mouth again, she said: “The computer says that you still have an old ID-card, I’m gonna need that one.”
Lurens replied: “Yes, but that ID-card expired three years ago, why would I bring that with me when I get a new passport?”
The woman said: “Because those are the rules, I need all old passports and ID-cards before I can give you a new one.”
Lurens replied: “Isn’t there anything you can do for me right now? My old ID-card is at home, in Houten, so if I need to go get that, this would mean I would have to travel all the way back to Houten tonight and then come back to Tilburg tomorrow morning!”
The woman, who started to look a lot less friendly now, said: “I’m sorry, I can’t help you, the rules are the rules.”
And Lurens left the community center.

So the fairytale didn’t end well for our hero Lurens, because of the civil servant who wanted to stick to the rules. Now this blog is not going to be to complain about how government officials always want to stick to the rules. I consider myself to be a liberal, so if these people want to live and act in such a way, they should be allowed to do so. No, my main problem are these rules themselves. Why would it be necessary for a person to bring all of his old ID-cards and passports when applying for a new passport? As long as a person can identify himself, why would you need him to bring all of his old ID-documents? To see how that person evolved over time? Ridiculous! And would this rule imply that in 50 years from now I would have to bring a whole backpack of old ID-documents when applying for a new passport? I would love to see the face of the civil servant when I throw all those documents on his desk, wishing him good luck with all those documents. Another problem I have with this rule is that nobody told me in advance that I would have to bring all of my expired ID-cards. The least a government can do is explain properly which documents a citizen needs to bring when applying for a new passport.

So yesterday night Lurens went back to his home in Houten to get his old ID-card, and while I am writing this weblog he is on the train back to Tilburg. Lurens may be the hero in his own fairytale, but even he has to stick to the rules. Whether I like it or not.