One year...

*All this sticks to me...
Some days sweet like honey
Some days tart like marmite*
~Nizlopi~

It's already been one year ago that I was getting on the plane back to Dutchland after an amazing 11 months with you guys... Can't believe it's been that long, time flies but sometimes it feels like it was only yesterday I left you all behind though. What a year it's been!! Many highs but also many lows. It's a lot harder being a returnee than being an exchange student, I can tell you that :) Still miss you all heaps.

But anyway, same date, new year, and again it's the end of something big. As of today, I've officially survived my first year of uni!! Last night I had my last exam, so now I'm on 2 months of summer holidays :D And oh, the weather measures up to its task right away :) I'm loving it!!

So the last two weeks have been absolutely crazy with uni stuff. Always seems like they want to cram every assignment and exam into those last few weeks of the year... My last-minute planning strategies often catch up with me in those weeks, haha.

Maybe the fact that I had taken the week before more or less off had something to do with it too :) The beginning of the week went from a beautiful summer weekend into a humid 30 degrees (like those days when even thinking costs too much energy, I prefer the dry 40 you get sometimes :)) and I was just so through with uni at that point!! So I decided it was much better to have another shot at getting a tan, recharge my batteries, finally finish my huge Australia photo-album and watch some of the World Cup than go to uni :) It was just what I needed :)

Talking about the World Cup, I've even surprised myself at how much I've gotten into it!! I absolutely love it :) Too bad both Holland and Australia are out by now (totally unfair, especially Australia, they so deserved to go through... Stupid referee giving penalties for Italian schwalbes...) Watching my two countries play, I turned into quite the soccer fanatic, it must have been a funny sight :) Especially when you realise I'm not into sports at all usually!! It was just great though. The Dutchies actually weren't playing all that well, but the Ozzies got me on the edge of my seat every single game. How awesome was the game against Croatia!! Loved it loved it loved it :)

Another thing that I loved big time was a gig by Nizlopi I went to with my friend Alex :) Don't think many of you guys have ever heard of Nizlopi, but it's these two guys from somewhere in England making awesomely funky music with just vocals, an acoustic guitar, bass and human beatbox. And they were playing in Utrecht last week, so of course I had to go see them. It felt like flying, seriously!! It was so good :) They started out in the middle of the crowd, both barefoot, just beautiful :) It was only a small venue, so it was quite an intimate gig, and they just played the crowd and eveybody went along with them. They even got two random people from the crowd up on stage to rap with them, it was awesome!! Such energy, such love :) Me and Alex were blown away :)

After that, it's just been uni, uni, uni... It's always one or two weeks per term that I actually make long days and really do some work, and the past one and a half week was just that for me... So glad it's holidays now :) Time to relax and time to work and make some money again... Starting next week, I'm going to be the new fruit & veg girl at our local grocery store!! Exciting times :) Looking forward to it.

Anyway, hope you guys are all well, not too freezing. Sending summer warmth and lots of love to you. -x- Carine