Stuff and nonsense...

It was only last year that I was about to leave for another one of my big overseas adventures. This year it seems like it’s everyone else who’s leaving for big overseas adventures of their own. There’s a big difference being the one leaving or being the one left behind. In the next four months, seven of my friends are going overseas for at least two months, most of them for about six months. In other words, quite a few goodbye parties… One of them was almost two weeks ago for Roos, who left early last week. And next week I have another two goodbye parties to go to, one of my housemate Maaike, the other of my friend Jelmer. I’m not used to being the one left behind. I’m always the one leaving. The first half of 2009 will be strange I think, with all these people off globe-trotting. Maybe I should go somewhere too, haha.

Anyway, so we’re already more than halfway through January!! 2009 actually had a very cold start over here. I think it was -8 or something on New Years Eve!! The entire first two weeks of the new year were cold actually, with the coldest temperature I experienced being -15 degrees. Yes. Minus fifteen. The good thing about all that freezing cold weather was that after a couple of days like that you could actually ice-skate on the lakes and canals!! First time in 12 years that you could go ice-skating under blue skies instead of being confined to ice-skating rinks, so I was very excited :) My ice-skating skills had definitely decreased though, haha, but it was fun to go out there on the ice. My long-forgotten ice-skating muscles were not so amused unfortunately, especially not over the two days following my ice-skating adventures. Walking up and down stairs was definitely not recommended… By now stairs are no longer a problem though and it’s back to normal temperatures again – for this time of year anyway. It’s five degrees above zero…

My thesis is taking up a lot of my time at the moment. Final presentation next week and so much to do before that. After the presentation I have another week or so to finish actually writing it all down properly. I’ll be glad when it’s all done and handed in and I’m not stuck behind my computer so much anymore. Plus I’m all up for getting out of the house more again and have more time for fun and distraction :)

Talking about fun and distraction: I had three of my Melbourne friends visit me here in Utrecht last week!! I was very very excited to see Kaye, Chloe and Verity on this side of the world for a change and catch up with them and have them stay at my place for one night. It was so weird but so awesome to have them and my housemates all sit around the same table for dinner that night :) A little slice of my Dutch life mixed and shared with a little slice of my Aussie life… Very cool :) And I’ve never seen three people more excited about having a real kitchen to cook dinner in. Or about sleeping on those dodgy camping mattresses, just because they don’t have a giant dip in them like most mattresses in hostels do. Or about our washing machine and dryer - or actually the clean, dry, nice-smelling clothes that resulted from those luxuries, haha. Oh, the backpacker life must be tough… But anyway, I absolutely loved spending a little time with those three lovely girls before they had to go jump on a train again to their next destination and I had to go back to working on my thesis.

Anyway, it’s kind of late by now and there’s still a whole lot of thesis-writing waiting for me in the morning. So I’m going to love you and leave you, hoping you’re all well and enjoying whatever’s keeping you busy. Don’t hesitate to leave a comment and tell me all about it, coz I always love hearing from all of you :)
Love Carine


PS. Bye bye Bush, welcome Obama :) Let’s hope he can live up to the high expectations people have of him. That his presidency really does mark a turning point in history, not just because of the colour of his skin, but because of his actions, his decisions and his leadership. It’s only the beginning…