28 February 2006

Bad Essay, Printing Troubles at Work, Homework


And here’s finally another update from me.
This weekend I have been working on my essay on ‘bilingualism’. I am very much worried about it, since I feel like I did a really bad job. The level of writing is just very low. The style is more appropriate for secondary school than for the university. I noticed this when I was writing, but I couldn’t get rid of it. I also had to start really late with writing, because I had spend most of the time gathering information. I do have lots of information, but I think it’s been too much, so that I lost what I needed to find. I also had many difficulties with forming a thesis-statement. Tomorrow night we’re going to do a peer-review, we’re going to comment on each others’ work and then I have to hand it in a few days later. It only is too bad that it’s actually for a mark.
Today at work I was finally awake; I worked with my nice colleague, so the circumstances were great. The only bad thing was that our mini-lab, our printing machine had many troubles. The pictures weren’t coming out, they were stacking on one another inside the machine, so we had to dive into the dirty chemicals to get them out. Till it got so bad in the afternoon that I decided to stop printing, at least the films which weren’t due for today and that they’ll have to do them tomorrow. The mechanic is coming tomorrow morning, so hopefully he’ll be able to fix the problem. I left him a note in which I explained the problems I encountered today. The mechanic and I know each other’s first names and he even knew at what time our shop opens in the morning. I think he’s been with us too many times.
I think I might have to get up real early tomorrow morning to finish my homework. I’ll finish my essay first, convert it to MLA style and then do all the other homework I haven’t done yet.
By the way, we went to Clingendael yesterday where I took this picture. I thought I needed at least one winter-like picture this year, and it was the only one which succeeded. And my bf is already in bed. He had a sore throat today, I even prepared dinner and fruit for him, which I normally never do. I even have to prepare his lunch for tomorrow. And now, off to bed.

23 February 2006

Long day, Library, Class with Pope, Drink

Ah, I’m finally back home after a long day. I had to work this morning till one in the afternoon. Then I went to Leiden to study in the library. I didn’t feel like going to The Hague for just a couple of hours, because that would take too much time. I had to go to class in the evening anyway.
I still haven’t found quite the information I was looking for. Well, I do have some good information, but I don’t know what to write my essay about. I can’t come up with a good thesis-statement. I’m gonna think about it this weekend, and then write it, because I have to hand it in on Tuesday.
My classes tonight weren’t all that great, also because I hadn’t prepared all that well. Even if I had prepared, I don’t think Alexander Pope is really my thing. I’m not that much into political poetry. Just give me some nice love-poem or a nice play with lots of corpses at the end ;-)
After classes we went for a drink together with some classmates. Even the teacher joined in. I didn’t have too much fun, but that’s mainly because I am very tired. And tomorrow I have to work all day, and as usual I’m not looking forward to it.

22 February 2006

Long long day

Today was a really long day for me. Nothing really special, but it feels like a long day.
I started with Pilates as usual and after that I went home and took a shower and had lunch. Then I went to the centre of The Hague to the Swatch store to buy a new band for my watch. I bought the same band as I had before, since it was the only one that really fitted with the clock. From the Swatch store I walked to the ‘Royal Library’ where some books on bilingualism were waiting for me. I read through those books and took one home. I also made the general outline for my essay, but I’m not yet completely satisfied with it. I’ll have to think about it tomorrow. And then I went to Leiden where I had dinner and my classes. The classes weren’t really interesting. They were pretty boring actually. Even Philology wasn’t as cool as last week, maybe also because I was a bit tired. But we survived, and I’m home, and I’m going to bed very soon and work tomorrow.

21 February 2006

Work, TV Night with Olympics and ANTM, fresh or not so fresh computer


Wow, I’m pretty tired atm. I woke up pretty early because my bf had to leave for work early, and I couldn’t sleep when he had left. I had wanted to sleep for about an hour, but that didn’t work.
I was a bit anxious when I went to work today, because I wanted to know how my colleague’s job interview had been. Well, my colleague wasn’t there, but not because he had quit, but because he was very ill. I wasn’t too happy with that, because that meant I had to work with the owners. It wasn’t too bad, because the owner brought her children with her which she was babysitting. I really love those kids, so that lightened up my day a bit.
Tonight I didn’t do anything. I should have read some literature by Alexander Pope, but all I wanted to do was watch TV. I watched some Olympics games, some skiing and some ‘ice-dancing’. I didn’t even know that was a separate Olympic sport, but even I can learn new things.
After that I watched ‘America’s Next Top Model’. I still really love that show. It’s my favourite show of the week.
This weekend I formatted and reinstalled my computer. That was a whole lot of work, and I’m still not satisfied. I have done something stupid and because of that action there’s still some spyware on my computer. So, I’ll have to go through this process again. Luckily I made an image-file of my computer when it was still clean, so I have to put that image file back and just reinstall all the software. I just didn’t feel like doing that tonight. I’ll just do that some other time this week.

16 February 2006

Rejected, Quiet Day at Work, Classes

I didn’t get the job I applied for. The rejection letter was in my mailbox today. I’m pretty upset about it. Not that I won’t be working for this company, since I was having some doubts about it anyway, but being rejected twice isn’t fun, especially since it’s on two different levels. I mean, the one job was for an assistant-manager position, which was evidently too high for me, but now they asked a regular sales-person. At least, that’s the level they asked in the job vacancy advertisement. I just don’t know what kind of jobs to apply for anymore, and I do need the money quickly.
It was an awful day at work. It was really very quiet and I even did some homework during the day, because we really didn’t have any work. I didn’t like that, way too quiet for me.
The classes were OK. The first class on Oroonoko was a bit boring in the beginning, but during the second half the teacher kind of got into the mood of things, so then it was getting interesting. The second class was very interesting. I was afraid I hadn’t prepared well enough (since I did it today at work), but it was sufficient. We discussed two articles concerning ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ by Jonathan Swift. I was even able to make some smart remarks, so that’s always nice.
This weekend I’ll just stay at home and do all my homework, unlike last week when I didn’t do that much during the weekend. I’m looking forward to it already…

14 February 2006

Pilates, Job Interview, Classes

Phew, I’m back home and I can almost go to bed. This morning I started with my regular Pilates lesson. It went OK. I told my teacher I might have to leave early because of my job interview, but it wasn’t necessary. Well, I could have left earlier, but I didn’t and I still made everything in time. The lesson went OK. My teacher said she really saw some improvement in me, that my back was straighter and my breathing more relaxed. I’m happy with this.
After that I had my job interview. I rushed and ran to make it in time, but I was about 10 minutes early, so that was very good. I don’t know how the interview went. I tried my best and I told them pretty much everything I wanted to tell them. I don’t know if I would fit in the company. I’ll have to dress really nicely and wear skirts all the time. The function in itself still sounds really good. But there are other candidates as well, so I don’t know if they’ll pick me. They’ll let me know within a week, so I’ll just have to wait.
Tonight I had classes again. We had another teacher for the Philology class and he was really cool. He talked with lots of intonation and made it sound really exciting. The subject was very interesting as well, but a boring teacher can really devastate such a topic. The lecture was about the origins of the English language and of certain words, and the relationship with Sanskrit. After Philology I had Language Lab and after that I had Language Acquisition. We started with a ‘surprise-quiz’ of Vocab, but we had already been e-mailed that we would have this quiz this week. I had prepared it, but I didn’t make it too well. I hope I’ll have a 6.
And tomorrow another day at work…

Work, Job Interview, Valentine

Today I worked again all day. It wasn’t too great. My colleague told the owner of the shop he has a job interview next Thursday and that’s why he needs the day off. Now that he has told that, I have decided to tell them as well that I am trying to find another job, if they ask me about it. I cannot keep my mouth shut and pretend to be lovely and nice, while applying for every job available behind their backs. Well, that’s kind of exaggerated, but you know what I mean.
I’m becoming really nervous for the job interview I’ll have tomorrow. I’m not sure what I’m gonna say, I don’t know if I can convince them to hire me, I feel like they won’t hire me, and basically I’m just very nervous. I’m sure it’ll go fine, just need to think on it for a while.
And tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. I really sold a lot of Valentine cards today. All those people who buy them too late…

12 February 2006

Beach, HomeWork, AoMTT, Rome


As you can read on Icewatcher’s blog, I went to walk on the beach this morning with my mother-in-law and we went to drink a cup of coffee and a pastry. I had to get up really early, at least for a Sunday morning, and the weather wasn’t too great either. That’s not to say it was cold and wet and raining and I was pretty happy when we got to the hotel where we were to have some coffee and pastry. There it was warm and we could melt a little. The only this is that this place is really posh. I wasn’t dressed for posh, I was dressed for walking on the beach. I was wearing my big walking shoes and a regular sweater and jeans. I didn’t feel too comfortable compared to the other visitors. The bus on the way to the beach went past the bookstore where I have a job interview next Tuesday. Now I know which bus stop I need to have. It’s only 3 minutes by bus! I am really happy with that. If I get my bike fixed, I can just go by bike.
Today I finished my Vocab homework, although it’s not all I have to do. I still need to do my Philology homework and I need to summarize two articles for next Thursday. I’ll just see when I’ll do that…
Tonight I played the new expansion I have to Age of Mythology, The Titans. It’s a pretty good expansion, couple of nice extras. I also watched one of my favourite TV-series of the moment, Rome. I really love the way they have put that show together. And tomorrow, guess what, I have to go to work.

11 February 2006


Here a short update by me on Saturday. Last Thursday I had my first Literature classes of this semester. What I kind of had forgotten was that while studying Psychology I never really had to think for myself, I just had to accept what others were telling me. And now, we were studying the poem ‘Absalom and Achitophel’ by Dryden, I had to think for myself what I thought of it and what it meant. I didn’t read the whole poem, so I wasn’t able to understand everything, but I was just reminded of this. After class I got a ride back to The Hague and the three of us, me and two classmates, went to an Irish pub for a drink. That was really cool, me and two native speakers. I was really enjoying it.
Yesterday I slept in and then suddenly my bf was back home, while I expected him to be at work till in the afternoon. You can read all about it at his blog: http://icewatcher.blogspot.com After that I went to the centre of The Hague to buy a new blouse for my job interview next Tuesday. I did buy a nice one.
Today I went to the hair dresser this morning and I am looking nice and blond right now. Tonight I have read the story of ‘Oroonoko’. It is part of my homework for Literature for next week, and I liked the story so much I read it in one evening. I even skipped my episode of Idols for it. Now I have some time left for my other homework I didn’t do today. Here’s a link to the Wikipedia entry on ‘Oroonoko’: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oroonoko

08 February 2006

Job Interview, First Classes, Strange Call


Today I got the phone call! I was called by the bookstore where I have applied. Luckily it was a quiet moment at work and I was able to answer the call. They asked me some preliminary questions, just to see if they would scare me off or that I would still be interested. They did scare me a bit, but I didn’t tell them that of course. They just said that the job is full-time (she said that like 5 times) and that I will have my own department which will be my responsibility. If the department doesn’t go well, I will be accounted for that as well, so I’m accountable for the profits of this department. I said that I didn’t mind that and that I’m still very interested. I have an appointment for next Tuesday afternoon. I’m very glad they called me and invited me. I was afraid they wouldn’t…
Yesterday I had my first classes of the second semester. It was not too exciting. The Philology class might be interesting, but it could turn out to be a bit boring as well. Language Lab will be fine, although I miss my former teacher. I wish we could have him back. And Language Acquisition will be just boring. I will only have to listen to presentations of others during the classes, and all the work will have to be done at home. That’s not very new, but the lessons will not be very interesting. Tomorrow I’ll have my first Literature classes. I don’t think that’ll be exciting, just very much like the first semester.
And yesterday I got some strange phone-calls. I was in class when I have been called 7 times on my mobile phone. This was really strange, since I didn’t know the number who called, and the person called on a number not many people have. So today he called again. The first time this person said: “Can you receive me this afternoon?” I just said: “Who is this?” And then the man hung up. The second time he already hung up when I had just said my name and the 3rd time he asked me where Sandra was or whether I knew who she was. I told him I didn’t know any Sandra’s and he ended up apologizing for calling me on my telephone so many times while it was the wrong number. Strange people…

04 February 2006

Bad Work, Homework, AOM

Here is just another short update. Thursday was another very bad day at work. It was like all the customers were nagging and everything was wrong. I was very tired and I got to the point where I almost started to cry, while that never happens to me at work.
And then Friday I had to work again. I really didn’t feel like it, but I needed the money. Oh, and I posted the letter to the bookstore. So I hope I will be invited to the job-interview.
Today I stayed at home. My bf did the big groceries and I went with him for the last things at the local supermarket two streets away. I did my Philology homework today. That was pretty interesting. Philology is about the history of the English language. I had to look at the ‘thou’ vs ‘you’ history and I had to compare different versions of the ‘Our Father’ prayer. I also had to look at a page from Romeo and Juliet of Shakespeare, at the first page of the original folio edition. That was pretty interesting. Tomorrow I’ll have to do the vocab exercises and study Literature.
I also bought Age of Mythology and I’m enjoying it. I just finished playing, and I won! I think this is the first time I have won by destroying my enemy. I am very proud of myself.

02 February 2006

Update, New Job Application

Here’s a short update on me: I am tired (but what’s new), I worked all day, I’ll have to work again tomorrow and I’m going to apply to a new job.
Well, work was nothing special today. It wasn’t too busy, but we had stuff to do, and the turnover was all right, though moderate.
Then, at work, I decided to check the website of several bookstores here in The Hague to see if they have any job vacancies. And one of them did…The bookstore closest to my house (about 5 mins by bus) has a job opening for a fulltime sales-advisor. It looked really great, because they want someone to help people in finding the right books, keeping the department up to date, and clean. The department they need people for is mainly fiction, so I really like that. I qualify for like everything they wanted in their new employee. They needed someone who is quiet, who can work alone and together, who can work with the computer, who’s older than 22 (I’m 23) and I even have the right diplomas. I just wrote my application letter and I will send it tomorrow by snail-mail together with my resume. I hope they’ll respond quickly!

01 February 2006

Pilates, Shopping, Chatting


Today was a pretty long day. My bf got up early to go to work. I could have slept for another hour, but I couldn’t fall asleep anymore. I read in the ‘Da Vinci Code’ and I got up when my alarm went off. What an experience not having to hurry. Usually I have to eat real fast and run off to be in time, but now I could just take it easy. I went to Pilates. It was the last lesson of the 6 classes, so we practiced with the ball again. I didn’t feel like going to Pilates, and the lesson didn’t go too well. There was one exercise which I couldn’t do, just because I couldn’t, and I was pretty upset about it.
Afterwards I went to the centre of The Hague (after having taken a shower and lunch) to exchange the gifts my mum had given me. She had bought me 2 sweaters, but I already had them, although one in another colour, but they were also too small. I just picked 2 completely different sweaters. But, unfortunately, I also went to some other stores, and I bought the game ‘Age of Mythology’ and the ‘Spongebob Squarepants Movie’. Both were on a discount, so it wasn’t that bad. I also bought a sweater and a shirt for my bf and another sweater for me, all with 70 % discount. Then I did my groceries and went home. I played the game a little, washed the dishes, did a laundry, fixed my dinner and read in my book. And then Kathy C. came online and we have chatted all of the evening together. We talked about SHP, my upcoming courses and lots of other stuff. We had a great time together.
Off to bed now, gotta work tomorrow again.

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