I'm taking a break from the internet this weekend to go to the beach a few days.
Marieke, T., J. & I had booked this little 'holiday' a quite some ago, so the great weather is a nice surprise. Of course, being students we booked the cheapest B&B we could find... I hope this doesn't mean we have to sleep on the ground or something....

Anyway; I think it's good for me to be offline a few days. I've been taking things from the internet concerning my fandom (Cyclops-hate, Wolverine-leak) and other things (people at autism communities)way too personal. Chill the hell out, wolvster!

See you in a couple of days!

Last friday hundreds of mysterious lights floated in the sky above Kampen. They came from somewhere in the south-east (Zwolle most likely) and they floated on the wind to the west. It was a curious sight and we (my family) still don't know what they were and what kind of occasion would lead to letting up so many little lights.
Initially only I spotted them, but when I went outside to check them a little better some kid from my neighbourhood, Marc, was outside watching them as well. (funny detail Marc is very autistic, kinda cool only the two of us noticed at first, lol). Marc was screaming 'satellites! satellites!!' and I was pointing and waving to my parents so they could see them as well.
It took for over an hour for the last one to disappear. Saturday G. my boss at the shelter told me she'd seen them as well and took some pictures (pictures are awfully bad, so no use in posting).
Unfortunately we still don't know what the hell they were, even google doesn't have the answer *shocked*!
My best guess is they're lightballoons in honor of the Chinese New Year.

By lack of my own videos (still have to upload them...):
Me and Giorgio:



And me and Aster:



Yesterday BJ, Ger, Frank, PH, Justin & I booked our holiday in France. Daniel and Esther (PH's girlfriend) will come as well. We're going to Bretagne (Brittany) the west coast, for the beach, long walks, nice towns and pretty nature. We hired a house with an enormous garden and four bedrooms with adjacent bathrooms (oh the luxury!).

I'm back! I already took a quick look at my Flist and I came to the conclusion that I really need to cut back on my communities.

Anyway. Dublin was amazing! I love it!
The best things about Dublin are the Irish and the fact that everything is within walking distance. It is by no means the metropole that London is, which makes it nice and cozy.

( Read more... )

Yay! Leaving for Dublin in a few minutes!

See you next week!

Today I went to the 'Apenheul' (= +/- monkeyworld) with a group of (special needs/ below average iq) kids. They study animal caretaking so they went on a tour there. It was really exhausting, but fun. A woman my mom knows invited me to join the class she teaches because she heard I love animals. They will likely go to the Dolfinarium (= +/- Sea World) as well and I might come with them then too.
The rest of the evening I spent traveling back to Nijmegen, catching up with some corridor mates and research some things about Dublin. I'm really looking forward to it and I've already made some sort of 'to do'-list for when we're there.
I also just found out that unfortunately no buses go from the airport to our hotel, so we have to take a taxi, fortunately however the buses go directly from our hotel to the center.

I wish the site for the Dublincity Comic Con was a bit more forthcoming with information though (yet I don't really know what more information I need...), it seems they haven't updated for a while now.

Yay! BJ and I booked both our hotel and our flight to Dublin!
We're staying for 6 days (thursday-wednesday), so we can see some of the city besides the Comiccon.

Tomorrow BJ, PH, Ger, Frank, Justin & I will go on vacation! Woot!
I SO need a break from the morons at Van Dijk. I'm really looking forward to it.

I'm also looking forward to the hughjackman.nl meeting the day after we return. Yay! Fun stuff right ahead!

See you later!

Berlin was busy and chaotic and certainly not the kind of place I would feel happy going to. Nevertheless I had a seriously great time mostly thanks to Stephan, Anne & Loes who seem to understand me pretty well.
Some highlights of the trip were;
-The Reichstag; a truly magnificent building, it just oozes power. Very impressive.
-The Jüdisches Museum; The way it's built with all the symbolism was literally unnerving. Our very enthusiastic guide, Olaf, made it a real cool experience.
-The comicbookstore. Of course.
-The third lecture at the Max Planck Institute about the neuropsychology of autism; very interesting.
-The group; the folks I was there with were so awesome :D

Two things that kinda sucked were:
- The Holocaust memorial; It's probably very impressive when it's foggy, dark and silent, but in the bright sunlight with people sunbathing on the concrete... it just doesn't do anything. The museum underneath is good though.
- Checkpoint Charlie; what a farce this is. Geez.

Berlin in general is a 'hip' city. The so called 'Zeitgeist' is bordering on wannabe cool. No one in Berlin is just average, everyone is extra-vagant or extreme (extreme punk, hippie, skater, gothic) or tourist. At every corner you'll find a store with recycled goods/bright pink/fake gold/etc. which seems to be the current craze.

I enjoyed the trip, but I could never live in Berlin. It's too chaotic for me. Modern buildings right next to ancient historical buildings... it just doesn't work for me.

I'm back :)

Deadtired, but still alive. Berlin was pretty cool!!

Will read back on your entries later. :)

Tomorrow the train will leave at 07.00, meaning I have to be at the trainstation at 6.45 *dies*.

We're going to Berlin on a study trip with Homunculus. We'll be there 4 days, which seems great, but I'm having mixed feelings. Oh well, it'll turn out cool I'm sure.

See you next week probably.

Be cool, eat your greens and I'll be back before ya know it :)