lol omg, I love Donovan.

DRIVIN' IN M'CAR CAR, DRIVIN IN MUH CAR
ENGINE GOES BBRRRMM BRRRRM
ENGINE GOES BRRRRM BRRRRM

lol Donovan, you are so lame and yet so amazing.

I'm visiting home right now (which is also why Donovan is playing and not MJ, but I love Donovan so it's all good) and having a really great time! The weather is really amazing, which is doubly convenient at the moment because my parents' house HAS A GARDEN. I love our house in Leiden, but it is sorely lacking in the garden department.







PARADISE.

I took a walk with my dad in the morning (predictably we spent half of the time we were out in a bookstore, lmao) and had a really great lunch in the garden, and I've just been chillin' out here since. IT IS SO GREAT, I'm finally getting into the proper summer spirit now that my exam is over and I don't have to worry about studying anymore.



MY LUNCH INCLUDED A FRUIT TART, DID YOURS? (I hope it did!)

lol I love how my dad spoils me when I come home. ♥ When he knows that I'm coming to visit there's usually a slice of cake or something waiting for me when I arrive, and he'll buy all kinds of amazing stuff like fancy cheese and sliced mortadella and raisin and nut bread from the organic store nearby, and then be like "oh they're yours, don't forget to take them back with you!" And he's always so happy to see me again, it makes me want to visit every other day, lol. Basically I love visiting home! It's a shame my mum isn't here now, but she is chillin with her buddhists so at least she's having a good time too.

I'll be visiting my aunt's later and having dinner with her so all in all today is an A+ summery family day. I APPROVE OF TODAY SO HARD.

Also also random topic change, my dad just showed me this video:



and not only do I LOVE IT FOREVER, I also love how there's a chorus of screaming girls in the background! If it had been the Beatles or whatever there would have been a million close-ups of the screaming crazy girls in the video, but apparently when girls screamed for a girl band the camera people were all "... let's just pretend this never happened. Zoom in on the tame fans, ZOOM IN ON THE TAME FANS!" lmao.

Okay I think that will be all from me for today, lol. I just wanted to be all YAY on the internet for a minute because I've been kind of peeved over having to stay home all summer and now I am no longer peeved! I thought that was worth documenting, haha.

Omg, you guys. You guys. Omg. I HAVE THE BEST HOUSEMATE IN THE WHOLE ENTIRE WHIRL.

She'd told me she planned to go shopping today, and I told her I'd come with but I overslept like crazy, so by the time I got downstairs she had already gone downtown. I was secretly kind of relieved because I always fail at stopping myself from buying clothes when I really need my money for food, and I've already spent all of my non-grocery money for this month (a month starts on the 17th for me money-wise though, so it's not ENTIRELY as bad as it sounds :x).

And then Renée got back home, and she was all "Oh I saw something at H&M that I thought you'd really like, but then I remembered that you're broke so I bought it for you!" So I thought "omg I'm getting a necklace or something :O" or, you know, something similar from the 'oh I'll just buy this small cute thing for someone on a whim' price category.

BUT IT WAS A SKIRT.

A GLORIOUS, GLORIOUS SKIRT. THAT MY HOUSEMATE BOUGHT ME. BECAUSE SHE IS THE BEST HOUSEMATE EVER.



IT IS SO QT I LOVE IT. AND HER. AND IT.

(Plz excuse my haggard face and hair though! I'd feel weird cropping my face out of photos so I don't, but today was a hot mess couch potato pyjama day and it kinda shows D:)

rofl this is like the fifth time that I've posted something along the lines of OMG RENÉE SWEETEST EVER, I guess that proves my point!

So many awesome things going on! IL my life right now.

Firstly of course MY BROTHER PASSED HIS FINAL EXAMS HELL YEAH \o/ he did so well, I am v. v. proud! I want to buy him a gift since I have money again (I spent the last two weeks basically without it, no lie) but I don't know what he waaaaaants D: Possibly I have located the most difficult person in world history to buy presents for. He never wants anything, HOW CAN HE NEVER WANT ANYTHING? Idk idk. I will find him something though, I am determined!

Besides this I have been doing a tiny bit of studying and a lot of hanging around with friends, which is the way I feel things should be since I am at heart a lazy bum. I went to see my housemate Jonathan play Rosalind in an A+ hilarious version of As You Like It, watched Top Hat and a couple of... um, interesting Jason Isaacs films with electricwitch (man Jason Isaacs you know I love you A LOT but I just, I mean, what the fuck), spent time with my family for father's day, and just got back from inspecting fantoom's new crib which IS AMAZING and which I would basically move into asap if it was... not already someone's crib. Also a friend notified me that Regina Spektor is playing a gig in Amsterdam in July so we will be going to see her play next month!! I AM EXCITED.

Idk idk I think my point is that life is rly nice right now? Yay \o/

Also I am the laziest person in the world so I have already shooped three whole pictures of my room into something resembling acceptable quality, and this is them:







More to follow when I am not lazy! I love my room so you're gonna have to put up with a big-ass picspam at some point, guys.

It is rly late though so I'm off to bed now, since tomorrow I am to visit my nan and watch Bollywood films with her HELL YES. It's been too long since I've watched any!

FLDA;SGLJASHDFA HOLY CRAP YOU GUYS

I ALREADY KNEW I'D PASSED MY ROMAN LAW EXAM

BUT GUESS WHAT


TURNS OUT THAT I PASSED IT IN A WAY WHERE I SCORED A 9/10.

A;'XFG;SDFSHGADG HOLY CRAP. IF YOU NEED ME I'LL BE OVER HERE. ON THE FLOOR. DEAD.

OH ALSO I BOUGHT THE MOST BEAUTIFUL COAT IN THE WORLD, AGAINST MY BETTER JUDGMENT BECAUSE I HAVE SPENT TOO MUCH RECENTLY ALREADY:



LOL I BOUGHT IT YESTERDAY AND THEN WENT TO BED AND DREAMED THAT I HAD LIKE €5 LEFT ON MY BANK ACCOUNT. LOL SUBCONSCIOUS I'LL GET THERE SOON DON'T WORRY

BUT YES BASICALLY MY LIFE WINS RIGHT NOW :D :D :D

I feel like I haven't properly updated in forever! Possibly this is true, I don't really remember because my brain is kind of shuffled at the moment, ha. Anyway yes, have a list-type breakdown of the things I haven't updated about yet!

Positive happenings:
+ I GOT MY ROOM KEY HELL YES. Still no contract, but I've been assured that will also arrive at some point haha.
+ a_suitcase is amazing and she made me a welcome package!! Omg you guys it has MIDSOMER MURDERS DVDS. And recipes! (This is good because I can't even cook potatoes, no lie.) Also tea and Lush soap and assorted lovely foodstuffs and an ADORABLE CARD and omg. Basically my point is: a_suitcase wins the prize for SWEETEST HOUSEMATE EVER.
+ I got my boots and they fit! American sizing is a strange and terrible thing which I will never understand, so this is a relief.
+ I met up with a friend from England today who was in Amsterdam in between flights (to Dubai of all places, wut da hale) which was fun!
+ Also: LOOK WHAT I FOUND IN AMSTERDAM FOR A TENNER:



UM HELL YES. First off, LOOK AT THOSE TITLES HAAA and secondly THAT IS €0,50 PER FILM, WAT. Also included are titles like Sex Madness (1938), She Shoulda' Said No! (1949)... well, you get the point. And also, oddly, Die Freudlose Gasse (yes, the one by Pabst with my bb Asta!). It's like... 19 sleazy exploitation/delinquency scare films and... a social commentary by Pabst? Lol.

Sadly less pleasant things also happened:
- Our entire house is being repainted/recarpeted/re-other-thinged on the inside, which means that from 8 am - 4 pm we have a bunch of painters stumbling around, making TONS of noise and getting dust everyfuckingwhere. You can't touch anything without white dust smears appearing on your hands or clothes and also did I mention how all the old locks in our house are being replaced so that I can't comfortably shower or pee between 8 am - 4 pm because there are four strange men in my house AND NO LOCKS ON THE BATHROOM DOORS?
- Side-effect of the painters making enough noise to wake the dead, starting at 8 am? Yeah, I apparently taught myself to sleep through that. And since they make more noise than my alarm clock, GUESS WHAT I ALSO DON'T HEAR IN THE MORNING. I haven't been able to wake up in time for a single class since the painters got here D:
- Also due to all the construction happening on my ceiling I am not sleeping in my own room, but all my stuff is still in there, only covered in plastic sheets and taped off and completely impossible for me to reach. IN A SITUATION IN WHICH I AM BUSY TRYING TO MOVE OUT, THIS IS NOT VERY PRACTICAL.
- The Asta Nielsen program is over :( :( I mean my wallet needed a break and all (or what's left of it more like; I have like €10 left in the bank oh lawd) but I WANT MORE ASTA! Whatever, this totally counts as sad.
- The Dutch postal system has decided to start charging €12,50 for every parcel received from outside of the European Union as of January this year, without any kind of prior warning or whatever, and to also a) lower the value a package from outside the EU is allowed to have without the addressee paying import tax, from €40 to like €25 or some shit, AND b) make the shipping costs the addressee paid count towards the value of the package. Because of all this bullshit, I not only paid €12,50, but €10 in import taxes on top of that, for a pair of boots which only cost me €20, purely because the shipping fee was high. So BASICALLY what I am trying to communicate here is that the higher echelons of the Dutch postal system are comprised largely if not entirely of motherfuckers. Now plz excuse me while I choke a bitch because they made me pay more to receive my boots than the boots themselves actually fucking cost, and all this ENTIRELY without warning. Ughghghghh.
- I have a really fucking important resit on March 9 and I don't know where I'm going to find the time to study rasjdg;asdlgkj
- Last but not least: I just managed to deposit a scaldingly hot cup of tea in my lap, half on my leg (ow ow ow) and half on my previously-white dress. I hope the stains come out D:

Okaaaay I am done being a debbie downer! Awesome! Tomorrow I am going to meet up with a friend to discuss our summer holiday plans and Friday is my parents' anniversary and Saturday I'm going to pick out paint for my room with a_suitcase, so my life is pretty good!

Ahh these last few days have been good!

On Saturday I went shopping for boring useful things and then to the Erwin Olaf exhibit at the local photo museum, both with a friend who moved to Australia and is here for the holidays. It was the last day of the exhibition and I'd almost forgotten it was on and that I'd wanted to see it until my friend was all RAHAKLGSGH YOU HAVE TO SEE IT IT IS GOOD and I was all OMG I FORGOT so then we went together. Conclusion: it was good!

When I get back from Stockholm I'm buying a poster with this photo on it:


DEAR GOD I WANT TO BE THIS GIRL OKAY PLEASE MAKE THIS HAPPEN ASAP

Then yesterday I went to see my bb Asta's Hamlet which was SO AWESOME, aah. The live music was really good and the film was really good and my bb Asta was REALLY GOOD and also did I mention that the place where we saw the film looked like this:











Can you tell this is my favourite cinema? We actually saw the film in the big auditorium ohhh it was great.

AND finally, today I ran a thousand million five hundred last minute oh-god-need-to-do-this-before-Stockholm errands and then went to Leiden to meet a_suitcase who is awesome and fun and also MY NEW HOUSEMATE?! I have a room in Leiden guys hell yes!

Fortunately for me I am not done being busy yet:
# I leave for Stockholm tomorrow, where my boyfriend and I will be going "OH THIS IS COLD BUT KIND OF AWESOME" until Thursday.
# Thursday I am probably going shopping with some classmates, fresh off the airplane back from Stockholm. Why I do this to myself I do not know.
# Friday I leave for some backwoods place in NL for dispute weekend.
# Saturday I leave the weekend for a couple of hours to celebrate my boyfriend's birthday with him in Amsterdam.
# Sunday the weekend ends and I go to Amsterdam with the boyfriend yet again, to reunite with my beloved Asta Nielsen festival.
# Monday evening I get on the ferry and head Londonwards with the English study association (including some classmates/friends of mine \o/)
# Friday I come back I think? And then Saturday I leave to spend the weekend in some weird bungalow park type place somewhere in NL with friends.

AND THEN finally January is done and so are my wild adventures of not being home. Upon which I will promptly not be home again because I will be MOVING TO LEIDEN!

Um. That is, if I'm still alive by then. WISH ME LUCK YOU GUYS because I don't know how I'm going to keep my energy up and my bank account not empty until February D:

Sooo yes. I will be mostly-absent from here until February I guess. That seems weirdly long!

Omg you guys, people have been so nice to me this weeeeek

Well okay this week = yesterday and today, but whatever, it still counts.

Yesterday was the Day After Nano obviously, and since my parents are always long asleep by midnight I had sent them an email to tell them that I'd won. Then yesterday morning when I woke up, my dad had bought flowers and cake and left them outside my door for me! I melted basically. And then today I was coming home from my student society, and I left early on purpose because my bike is in shambles and I needed to make it back to The Hague in time to catch the last tram. I just missed it and I was all pissed off, because public transport doesn't cost me anything but walking was not an option (hello one hour of walking through creepy streets alone) and taxis are EXPENSIVE. I took a taxi anyway and was all pissy walking up to it because I was thinking "grmbl coming out of my savings harumph," but the cab driver was really nice and chatted with me and then he gave me a discount on the cab fare! The meter said €11, and I gave him a 20 and told him to make it €12,50, but then he gave me a tenner back and was all "No no don't worry, it's ttly fine, just promise me you'll get home safely and don't slip, there's ice on the road!"

PEOPLE ARE SO NICE TO ME INTERNETS


Also I am a little drunk, but only a little. Not so's you'd notice! Except the maudlin post about how people are nice to me, but whatever, IT NEEDED TO BE SAID.