New beginnings

It's 2014. A new year has begun. A time for reflection on the year that has been and a time for new plans and ideas for the year ahead. And I've started off with some big changes! As some of you already know, I have finally moved out of my 10m2 room and into a bigger place. I now have two rooms to myself - one of 10m2 and one of 17m2 - and share the bathroom, kitchen and toilet with two other girls. It's been so nice these past couple of days to wake up in a double bed (even if for now I still only have a single-bed doona, haha) and then be able to walk into a separate living room with plenty of room for a couch, an awesomely comfy chair and a dining table! I knew I was tired of having so little space and no room for a couch before I moved, but still I'm surprised to find out how much I really needed this change. It's so good for me =)

The big move to the other side of Utrecht started just over a week ago, with the first boxes moved on Sunday, and then all the rest of my stuff in two busloads last Wednesday.It's amazing how much stuff can come out of one tiny room, haha. Thanks to the awesome help of Coen, Mirjam and Li-Shi, it was all moved to my new place within 3,5 hours and with only mildly sore muscles the next day though. Three days later, my parents and I got up early to make our way from Hengelo to Utrecht with another busload of stuff, such as my newly bought IKEA bed, my parents' old couch, their old dining table and that awesomely comfy chair they had kept for me. Thanks to the added help of my sister Renske and her boyfriend Paul, I was able to have my first night in my new bed in my new house with all the furniture in its right place and only some of the boxes left to be unpacked. Awesome =) By now all the boxes are unpacked and most things have found a place, although there are still a few bags left here and there, and I haven't really been able to eat at my dining table because of all the little bits and pieces left on there. All in good time though...

Monday saw another big change for me. About two weeks ago I stumbled across a new project for two days a week, aimed at young highly educated jobseekers to obtain relevant work experience. It's with this organisation called 'De Baak', a well-renowned organisation for training and workshops in leadership, entrepreneurship and (career) coaching. Their aim is to be 100% energy neutral as an organisation by 2020. So they've asked us - a group of seven young people divided into two teams - to come up with a creative and innovative idea that helps them reach that goal. And all that within 3 months! In exchange, we get access to their facilities and their network, we get coaching by a professional career coach and by the end we'll get a recommendation on LinkedIn. So not only will it be an interesting and challenging experience, it's also a great addition to my CV. I say a win-win situation =) So I applied, and last Monday was the kick-off event for it. That was very cool. It's an interesting and inspiring organisation and it was nice to meet the other participants and find out what exactly lays ahead of us in the next three months. It'll be intense, but I already know it will be worth it. I'm excited about it anyway =) Something new to jump into and be challenged by and inspired by and learn from. All the things I've been missing over the past few months, really. Plus, there are new things coming out of this already! I got an invitation to participate in this thinktank about the new 'participation society' for instance. But as that's still a bit vague, I'll leave that for another time...

Other than that, everything is more or less the same! There's always work, friends and family in the mix of my day-to-day life... And I guess adding above two major events to that mix is more than enough for now =) I'm looking forward to what the next few months and the rest of 2014 will bring. I'm sure it'll have its ups and downs, just like 2013 did. But here's to a year of more ups, less downs and a whole lot of wonderful new beginnings. Much love to you all.
xx


PS. Photos will be added later. I seem to have misplaced my external harddrive with my recent photos on it in the post-moving-day chaos and it's too much past my bedtime to go searching now... Stay tuned!