Jesus, King of kings!

Merry Christmas everyone. Lets not forget what Christmas is really about.

New logo NHL University/Nieuwe logo NHL Hogeschool

The NHL University made plans to move to a new location some years ago. They are going to move house in December. So the NHL University must have thought, "Hey, a new location means a new start. We need a new corporate style." During the summer the school gave a sneak preview of the new flag on their site. They got to be kidding us, was my first thought, because it looked so cheap.

De Noordelijke Hogeschool Leeuwarden kwam onlangs met een nieuw logo. Ze heten nu dus officieel NHL Hogeschool ... Je moet er schijnbaar voor gestudeerd hebben om tot deze prachtnaam te komen.*lichte sarcasme* En de vlag? Men mocht het ding tijdens de zomervakantie al aanschouwen op hun website. Ik dacht eerst, "Dat menen ze niet."

The presentation of the new logo came with a boring speech.

Ze meenden het dus wel. En bij een nieuw logo hoort natuurlijk een presentatie. Mijnnhl.nl noemde het een flitsende presentatie. In studententaal dus zeer lang en saai. Dani'el trok het al na 3 minuten niet meer., de buurman zat na 5 minuten te twitteren en na een kwartier ging zijn bewustzijn op slaapmodus. Wouter en ik hadden honger, heel erg honger.

Apparently they were serious. School made a fancy exposition of the new corporate style. Rector Willem Smink opened the exposition by cutting off some balloons.

Als voorproefje hoe de huisstijl van de NHL Hogeschool is, is er een tentoonstelling in de Tem-hal van de Tesselschadestraat. Deze werd doormiddel van een aantal ballonen los te knippen geopend door de baas rector Willem Smink. Hij schijnt meer te bloggen dan ik. Oh ja joh? Ja.

Chowing down time with Wouter/En toen begon het snaaien met Wouter

and break dancing/en het breek dansen.

Jack Spijkerman was ook van de partij.^^

I bet the campaign of the introduction of the new corporate style cost the NHL University a big bag of money. Now I'm going to show NHL a cheaper alternative. I took a balloon (with permission) and made my own photo session.

Ik durf te wedden dat de campagne voor de introductie van de nieuwe huisstijl enorm veel heeft gekost. In dit berichtje laat ik de NHL zien dat er een goedkopere alternatief mogelijk was. Mijn fotosessie met de ballon.:)

The future of the steam engine at the NHL is unsure. School has not enough money to move it to the new location. Here I'm paying tribute to the old lady.:)

De toekomst van de stoommachine op de NHL is onzeker. De NHL heeft niet genoeg geld voor de verhuizing voor het enorme ding. Hier breng ik een ode aan haar.

On our way to the new location we passed by Stenden University, our competitor. Op weg naar de nieuwe locatie kwamen we langs Stenden Hogeschool, onze concurrentie.

Alternative slogan: Stenden University looks so small from up here (hope the bird won't kill me :/)/Alternatieve slogan: NHL Hogeschol steekt boven Stenden uit.=)

To the future/Op naar de toekomst.

Doing some arty pose/Even een artistieke foto.

Check the new site at www.nhl.nl. Anyway if I took some pictures without permission. I'm poor, I can't afford a lawyer. So please don't sue me.

Bekijk de nieuwe site op www.nhl.nl.Ik kan trouwens geen advocaat betalen dus sleep mij niet voor de rechter voor het gebruiken van jullie beeldmateriaal.

Final pictures of my Paris trip 2009.

Picture source: Centre Pompidou

As always I was standing in the wrong queue at the Centre Pompidou. They didn't put a sign that the queue was for people who purchased an online ticket. Made the same mistake at the statue of liberty.-___- Back then I was standing in the queue for the stairs, I thought it was the one for the elevator. Great, I'm not fond of open stairs cause I'm afraid of hights. So we had to walk back to the end of the queue on the right.

Waiting on the wrong side

Inside the Centre Pompidou. Looking down at the people still waiting outside. Mwoahahahaha.xD

What the heck? Wait, I don't want to know.

FYI: Enterance is for free for all people under 18 and all Europeans under 25 wit ID.

Price for adults is around 12 Euros.

Hôtel du ville (city hall of Paris). I accidentally walked in a strike (at the back).:D

Point zéro (from this point all the distances from Paris were measured).

Matthew 21:12. :/

The fish ate the pope.

Took a picture of Japanese people taking a picture of me.

Yes, the pedestrian at the left didn't get fined for ignoring the red light.

At the Le pont du Carrousel bridge. The street lantern was happy to meet us.

I saw some locks attached to the bridge. They are left there by lovers promising each other on valentine's day to stay with each other forever.

Paris, je déteste (Paris, I don't like).

Sunday started with a French breakfast and doing my usual thing at hotel bedrooms. Why do you think I'm so athletic.=)

Hotel Bed jumping (http://www.bedjump.com/)

Even though I wrote bad about Paris the last time, I did have a nice time with my family. Especially when we were eating and were in the metro.=) Day 2 was a bit of a downer. The weather was bad so we did the touristy thing. At least it wasn't that mind killing like We took a stroll in the Tuileries and Carrousel gardens in front of the Louvre palace.

Musée du Louvre

On our way to the Centre Pompidou I saw a homeless lady struggling with the zipper of her sweater. I never write about my work at the soup kitchen, in the city where I study, because some people who visit the soup kitchen might read this blog and I'm not allowed to write about what visitors confide in me during my shift. But sometimes people get or ask my attention when I'm just taking a stroll in a random city. This time it was Carmen. I didn't want my mom to drag me away when I started to pay attention to this lady cause she might have gotten worried about me getting attacked. And I don't want people to see what I do for Jesus so others can't call me hypocrite.=) So I told my family to go to the Centre Pompidou and that I will catch up with them later. The converstation with Carmen started when I tried to close her jacket but the zipper was really rotten like she told me in French. I told her that I didn't want her to get a cold (it was raining and the wind was ice cold). So we talked about her past, the good and the bad things and why she doesn't trust people. I told her that someone loves her very much and she knew who I meant. I was sad to tell her I had to finish the conservation so my family wouldn't worry. I blessed her and told her that everything will be alright.

Paris, j'adore.

Two weeks ago I was in Paris with my parents and siblings. The weather was very bad as you can see in the following video. Normally I don't speak English like that. I was doing my bad French accent.

On the way to Paris the bus driver told us the city of Liège (Belgium) has a metro network but it's never been used for public transport.*Bummer*

I don't really like Paris, it's really touristy. The last time I was there some guy even molested me. My mom of course had to visit the places that make Asian women happy. The Louis Vuitton store and China town. After we put our bags in our hotel rooms we went straight to the Champs-Élysées for my mother to drool. The Parisian store doesn't trust paper money so they only accept Credit Cards and Louis Vuitton member cards. Mom forget hers so we couldn't buy her a new pet. Pitty though, mom said they were cheaper than in Germany.

Went to Sephora to get some personal care products but they didn't have the products I wanted. Still I had to make a picture of this huge bottle of J'adore eau de parfum from Dior (my signature smell). Unfortunately a woman walked by when my sister took a picture of me.

-___-

It was just insanse. The bottle can last like 30 years and the price was € 624,40.

Second destination of day 1 was China town so we took the metro to Porte d'Ivry station.

Woohoo, le metro!

Seriously. Why?

My goal was to ride the metro and to eat the famous Báhn mì (not bakmi), Vietnamese baguette. My brother just kept on telling me how he loves it since he visited China town in Paris for the first time. And I have to say, I heart it too.^^ I'm Dutch so I also heart mayonaise and guess what they contain mayonaise. Yum, yum, me so like it.=) I ate one with sliced vietnamese saucage and ham. You can get them with different kinds of meat, even vegetarian. I'm going to try to make them when I'm back in Leeuwarden.

On our way to the hotel I wondered how you should pronounce Daumesnil. I thought it was something German.xD

So my mom's manager gave us a direction to the hotel and it just said, 'Walk out the metro station and walk to the hotel.' Well, no Novotel nearby so we checked the map at the station and we couldn't figure out where it was.

Great we were lost

I was kind of grumpy and tired of asking in French for direction so my mom found a nice man who walked us to the hotel. He showed us his house which looked like a pineapple. I thought it looked like an upside down grape hyacinth.

Eventually I took a bath and went to my parent's room to eat some snacks and watch tv together with my brother. We tried to understand what the news reader was saying in French ... never mind.-___-

How to pursue happiness.

Two years ago I discovered I was living in a world with rules created by other people. I felt like I was dead inside. For the third time I was told by someone, I (thought) I loved, the love was gone. My finances were crap. My career planning was a mess and my inner child was seriously injured. I stopped talking to people, stopped eating and stopped contacting family. And just that because a guy didn't want you anymore? Nah, I think I was already on a verge of a nervous breakdown and that was the straw that broke the camel's back (In Dutch: de druppel die de emmer deed overlopen). I can go on and on about what I did wrong but I rather choose for the happy ending.:) How did I manage to find my inner child again? Simple, I chose happiness. Happiness is a choice. YOU are the one who allows people to talk you down. YOU are the one who allows others to treat you bad. YOU are the one who makes good but also bad decisions. But you can't always succeed. We also need to fail so we can learn from our mistakes. So we can learn when to say no to situations which can hurt us and embrace the little things we enjoy to celebrate life.^^

This is an old blogpost I once wrote on my old blog but to remind myself what my goals are I will repost it again. Normally I don't reread my posts because they might be too silly, boring or embarrassing. But to my own opinion this was one of my best posts I ever wrote because it was inspired by a man I admired for years, Professor Arnold Heertje. There are four men I really admire who are not related to me. Professor Heertje is the only one who is still alive and not celestial.XD

A while ago I went to a lecture of Professor Heertje, former economics professor at the university of Amsterdam, on his book 'Echte economie' (real economy). When I was still a puppy I read some of his articles, I admired his point of view on social economic problems in our society. So it was kind of a dream come true to meet him. He even took time to talk to me, I was in heaven for a few minutes.^^ I haven't read his book yet (cause I'm waiting till it's my turn to borrow the book at the library cause I'm a cheap bastard ^^) but we share the same passion for economics. The thing is that the economy we know it became too financial. Of course you need money to realise your dreams in life but don't see them as short term projects. Actually you should think about how your finacial plans are going to affect you grand children. I know this sounds geeky but some years ago I was saving for my kid's college fund. No, I'm not that kind of woman who desperately wants kids. If God doesn't want me to have kids that would be actually awesome. I have enough kids at school to take care of. I even wanted to save for my future pet's medical bills. Yes, that's even more insane IMO.XD

Professor Heertje said the economy shouldn't destroy our heritage and culture. At the beginning I thought the Frisians were a bunch of hill billies with a weird dialect but now I kind of love the Frisians and am proud to say I'm an import Frisian.XD I even want to learn the language (yes, it's an official language). There is a we-feeling you don't find a lot in The Netherlands, even not in the world. Ow and don't forget my other three cultures, Dutch and Vietnamese.^^

Education is the key point to our economy. You should never stop learning. He says education has become so crap because teachers aren't well educated in their subject. He picked out the second grade teacher chemistry education .... Great, I'm studying that. He said the students only have one chemistry book and 6 books about how to handle your pupils when they fall asleep (that's my joke, I kind of forgot what he said). Teachers became some kind of sex ed specialists. I'm not but my pupils think I am. Bunch of little pervs! He said teachers have burn-outs because they lost their passion in their subjects. They focus too much on maintaining discipline in the class. I never had real discipline problems in my class cause you really shouldn't piss me off cause I already silenced some kids. No I didn't kill them. I just talked to them after class. Yes, it would really be a problem if you can't maintain discipline in your class. What if you can't controle the kids? What can you achieve with your teacher's degree then? Not much. Well, he has a point their. I do have a lot of passion for my subject and if I get deaf and can't hear the children I can't always work in a lab or in business.

He also talked about greedy managers, destroying our society and economics. Managers only think about profit and negotiating behind closed doors. Professor Heertje pleads for an integrated decision-making. Involve the consumer or the product in the process to minimize future problems. He gave a solution and especially for eduction:

Overview ---> Insight ---> Courage

First overview the situation. Overview means knowing what you don't know cause things you already know you don't have to focus on at the first place. Insight, use the knowledge. Courage, feel the courage to change the situation. Even though we are in deep trouble there's still a way out. I thought this was really good. I can use this solution for my Christian life, study, love life, family life and social life. Overview, insight and courage is the same as believe, hope and love. Love is the most important of all as the corps officer once said, love will concur all. Rock on, rock on.XD

During the break I had a conversation with a college teacher. She doesn't teach at my school but she agreed with professor Heertje that the quality of the exams are bad. Because managers tell her to lower the norms for tough exams so more students pass the exams and graduate. I think schools get €10.000,- per graduated student. So you can understand why schools are lowering the norms. I think that's unfair cause I had very tough exams in the past. Well, who knows maybe we get more stupid in the future. Of course pupils can get information on the internet. Kids go well-informed into the class but does it mean they can process the information. Science is something you have learn to understand. Some need more time than the other, it's not totally hocus pocus.

At the end I went to professor Heertje. I said, "This is not a joke but I'm studying teacher's education chemistry second grade but have a lot of passion for my subject." He asked me if I had good teachers at my school. I don't agree with my teachers a lot but they know a lot about their subject and yes, I see their eyes twinkle when they talk about their subject so there's nothing wrong with the teachers. I never said I won't do my first grade in teaching but I was planning to do that for fun when I'm in my 40ies cause I want to focus on children with learning disabilities and maybe want to teach at a school with kids with mental problems. I like to do games with my cousin Ilja. She's mentally disabled and she gets epileptic attacks sometimes so I know how to act in those situations. I've worked a lot with kids with an ADHD and dyslexia. You need a lot of patient but I really love to work with those kids cause everyone thinks those kids are stupid and have no future. It really makes me angry when I hear people say that. I like to motivate these kind of kids. And I really makes me smile when I see these kids get more self esteem and smile. I really want to become a good teacher.=)

Mama has a new passport.

Looks like I just used crack before that picture was taken. I hate those new rules for ID pictures. You're not allowed to smile and they use a flashlight like I'm at the dentist which would even make coloured people look like they are going to vomit any moment. Fortunately the picture is in black and white. In colour I would have demanded for a new picture.:)

Hmm, I'm thinking of going to Berlin.:) To ride the metro and drink German beer.

For people who don't know me that well. I like metros or like the americans and Scottish call it the subway or underground in England.

Brussels Metro 2006

I wish I could marry one cause they are never too late and everyone's friend, most of the time clean and very modern and progressive.=)

No, I'm not rich. I might get a ride from Rotterdam to Berlin for free and hitchhike back to The Netherlands.

But first I need to concentrate on the first week of my next quartester at school and then it's metro geeking in PARIS and Queen's Day!

Paris Metro 2008

Wie niet rijk is moet slim zijn.

De meest wijze les die ik op de HEAO geleerd heb, is de bedrijfseconomische regel:

Als een bedrijf financieel ongezond is dan moet het of meer omzet maken of besparen. Ik probeer van allebei wat te doen. Een tijdje terug was ik op zoek naar restitutiekaartjes van Veolia. Dagkaartjes voor Zuid-Limburg die ze normaal voor € 4,20 verkopen, werden voor € 1,- op Markplaats aangeboden. Aangezien ik toch 1 keer per maand naar de kerk van Maastricht ga, had ik er wel een aantal nodig. In plaat daar van las ik iets over Meereiskaartjes van de NS. Deze kreeg je een tijd terug gratis bij een boekenbon. Deze zijn geldig in alle treinen in Nederland maar in combinatie met een geldig NS verboersbewijs en als je met iemand met een voordeelurenkaart reist mag er niet meer meereizen dan jij. Aangezien niet in de regels staat dat je constant met dezelfde persoon moet reizen en ik wel geen schande ken, had ik er 8 gekocht voor 36 Euro per stuk (dus € 4,50 per stuk). Hiermee kan ik voor 1 dag door heel Nederland reizen. Een enkeltje naar mijn ouders kost € 22,50, wat dus betekent dat ik 18 Euro per keer bespaar. Met dit weekend heb ik mijn investering al terugverdiend.
Het is een leuke manier om in contact te komen met mensen in de trein. Meestal verveel ik me dood in de trein. Door het gewieg van de trein kan ik niet rustig lezen, slapen is te vermoeiend dus op een gegeven moment sla ik wel eens een lege fles drinken tegen mijn hoofd uit verveling. Dus het was wel leuk om iemand te ontmoeten die in het zelfde dorp opgroeide zoals ik. Ze woont nu in Nijmegen en werkt voor het Radboud ziekenhuis en was in Leeuwarden om vooronderzoek te doen naar patiënten met de ziekte van Parkinson. Verder sprak ik een jonge basisschooldocente die naar net naar Leeuwarden was verhuisd met haar vriend. Werk is schaars in Leeuwarden zo ook voor afgestuurde Pabo studenten. Verder heb ik ervaringen over Vietnam en Vietnamees eten uitgewisseld met een dame uit Eindhoven die net terug kwam van een etentje met een vriendin in Utrecht. Op weg naar Landgraaf sprak ik een vader die net terug kwam van Den Helder om een vliegtuigsimulator van de marine te repareren. Geen idee of mensen bij de marine een vliegtuig kunnen vliegen, maar schijnt iets met de helikopter op het vliegtuigdek te maken te hebben. Met hem had ik het over het middelbare onderwijs en zijn kinderen. Zijn zoon scheen leerproblemen te hebben maar hij was enorm trots op hem. Soms vraag ik mij af waar zulke betrokken ouders gebleven zijn. Riefa een vriendin van mij heeft 10 Friese reepkoeken van mij besteld. Ze staat er niet echt om te springen want ze zei dat ik ze kon doorverkopen of aan de meeuwen mocht voeren. Ik heb er 2 aan mijn medereizigers gegeven.:) Dat vonden ze wel lauw.
Deze maand doe ik mee aan de February Food Challenge van krystalatwork op Give me back my five bucks. Ik heb al sinds 3 maanden een budget van € 100,- voor eten. Niet veel mensen weten dit niet maar dit was een jaar terug 50 Euro per maand. Ik heb vaak problemen met mijn stoelgang waardoor ik vaak bang was om te eten of geen lust had om te eten. Dit was natuurlijk niet gezond. Binnenkort als mijn verzekering wat beter geregeld is, ga ik een bezoekje aan de dokter brengen om onderzoek te laten doen. Sinds een aantal weken drink ik bijna elke dag Yakult. Sindsdien heb ik minder last van diarree. Elke week moet ik op de site van krystalatwork een berichtje achter laten met mijn tussenstand. Tot nu toe ben ik over mijn budget gegaan. We zullen zien.

De vorige maanden heb ik mij niet bezig gehouden met mijn uitgaven die waren enorm hoog. Ik had dan ook wat achterstallige betalingen. Gelukkig heb ik mijn computer kunnen repareren maar op 1 een of ander manier heb ik problemen met de resolutie en heb ik kleuren van een commodore 64.0_o Ja, ik heb de instellingen geprobeerd bij het configuratiescherm. Ik denk dat ik maar beter online moet zoeken voor drivers.-__- Maar ik kan weer gewoon internetten maar teksten typen kan ik nog niet want Abiword wil zichzelf niet uitpakken op de computer. Nee, ik ga nog niet een nieuwe kopen. Ik mag pas over 16 maanden een nieuwe van mijzelf kopen, dan moet officieel de wereldwijde recessie voorbij zijn.

Staying alive

Happy Chinese New year. My roommate is very exhilarated cause his last name is Ox.=) Since my last post it has been crappy in my life. Talking about karma, karma is a very nasty lady. Two weeks ago I had a sleep over at Michelle's but that didn't go the way we've planned it. I staid at her place for a week. Well, her window got damaged three times. Someone on this planet must be very bored.-__- Michelle's neighbour, we misinterpreted her name Rita Eenedieva (which we Dutch would read like, some kind of diva), got injured so I practiced first aid on her. The next day I was covered in glass. Great.-__- Don't worry, I'm fine. Just have been a bit confused for 10 days. Must have been a sign from the big dude to put my ducks on a row. Well one ducky isn't that tidy, so I did some decluttering. I threw away a bag of damaged clothes. I'm going to donate another bag of clothes and I did a lot of laundry. I'm preparing myself for my potential job at the the thrift store of the new Salvation army building (I signed myself in. I'm not persuing a job but who knows, maybe they will need me).:D

The plumber came by to check the central heater. It was about time he came by cause the walls next to the window has mold.o_0 So the problem is, the pipe next to the expansion tank oxidated so it's leaking and the switch on the heater in my room got stuck. He couldn't fix it so he called the office to tell the problem so they can search for a mechanic to fix it for me. So what else can I say? *Immer schön fröchlich sein, immer schön fröchlich sein.*

Last sunday I celebrated new year's eve with friends. My plan was to cook vegetarian cause my colleague from the island J was coming over. I bought a lot of tofu (In my opinion fish is not vegetarian so I didn't have a lot of choice) and tried to make vegetarian spring roles. After frying the tofu was still way too wet and the rice noodles were over done. J is a bit sensivtive so she can't watch horror movies. The guys were teasing her with 'Pitch black'.-__- She almost started to cry so the guys felt a bit sorry and my neigbhour wanted to put on a happy animation. She didn't like animation so she asked for a romantic movie. I'm kind of sick of Amelie right now, seen it so many times so Reinder and I declined. We watched Donnie Darko. J's reaction at the end. I'm feeling depressed now.-__- After the movie we talked a bit till 3.30 a.m. J was too scared to cycle home. I suggested that one of the guys would chaperone her but eventually she slept at my neighbour's house. The next day she came by to ask if I wanted to have breakfast with her, I was like what the ...? I'm still asleep and my neighbour was also not in a talking mood. So she went home and tonight she's going to make dinner for me. Vegetarian of course. It's kind of a private farewell party, she's going to move out of town for a new job. I will miss her.:(

What comes around, goes around.

Some while ago I posted a post about hitchhiking and in the post there was a picture with me posing in front of a car from a guy who offered Majka and me a ride from Utrecht to Weert (NL). A month ago I watched the news and he was on it. He won a price for the best business man with a small company of the year 2008. I was very happy for him cause he really deserves it. He's one of the nicest persons I've met in my

life. He offered Majka and me food and drinks all the time and we had very nice conversations. We declined cause we had our own drinks. We did accept a role of mentos (I'm a sucker for pink mentos -__-).

Een maand terug zat ik het nieuws te kijken met Garfield in de houdgreep. Ineens zag ik een bekende. Herinner je die bericht over liften nog? Daarin stond een foto waar ik voor een bestelbusje stond met als ondertiteling dat ik reclame zat te maken voor het bedrijf van diegene die mij en Majka een lift heeft gegeven. Mijn charmes hebben zeker geholpen. Hij is de vakman van 2008 geworden.:D Hij heeft het verdiend, hij is zo aardig. We hadden een prettig gesprek met hem en hij bood ons de hele tijd eten aan. Voordat hij ons achterliet op een plek waar liften onmogelijk leek, bood hij ons een rol mentos aan voor het geval we langs moesten wachten (en lang wachten deden we). Oma, als u dit leest, ik neem niet van iedereen snoepjes aan. Alleen deze ene keer.;)

vakman van het jaar 2008 from Werkspot on Vimeo.

Een aardige schilder nodig?

Schildersbedrijf Dari

Tromplaan 9

6004 EL Weert

tel: 06-51041455

http://www.schildersbedrijfdari.nl/

Congratulations/Gefeliciteerd Mo. :)