One month later...

It's amazing how much can happen in the world in just one month. Last time I wrote an update, the Middle East and North-Africa protests were only just beginning. Mubarak was still Egypt's leader and Khadaffi nor Saleh nor any of the other leaders had had much challenge to their power just yet. Christchurch's cathedral still had its spire and the last devastating tsunami most people could remember dated back to Boxing Day 2004. And yet here we are, just over a month later, and the political and physical landscape looks completely different in so many places around the world. Unfortunately not all in a good way. It feels like a very historically important time to be alive, even though I'm glad I'm not right in the center of any of it but can look at it all unfolding from a safe distance on my TV screen. Still, it's incredible how many lives have been profoundly changed or have been lost within the space of one month. My heart goes out to them.

I'm glad to say my life in the past month has been a lot less turbulent. My thesis is still my main time-consumer, as can be expected. I spent a week at my parents' place in February because the four walls of my 10m2 room were starting to feel like they were coming at me and the view behind my computer screen was starting to feel like too much of the same. The change of scenery worked, as by the end of that one week at my parents I finally had the results chapter of my thesis finished. A big relief :) Since then I've been trying to reacquaint myself with the literature and getting the theory behind it all on paper properly this time. I'm still moving at a slower pace than I had hoped, but at least I'm steadily moving forward. I'll be glad when it's all done.

I did however have a week 'off' in between everything not too long ago. My friend Kim was going back to Australia earlier than planned, so she came over to see me in Utrecht on Monday before she was off the week after. I went up to Groningen two days later for her goodbye dinner, which was at an 'all you can eat' Chinese buffet. Really nice food with lovely people, and by the end of the night our pants felt a little too tight and our stomachs like they were about to explode! And then we still had to bike home... Let me tell you, any physical activity with that much food in your stomach feels like too much! Needless to say, we didn't need much food the next day, haha. I had a lovely lazy day with Kim on Thursday, until I left late in the afternoon to meet up with my high school friends in Groningen for the night. It was nice as always to hang out with those guys again :) And the times we're together with the 4 of us is rare, so this was just really cool. We went bowling, and I sucked compared to the guys, although I did manage to get a strike once! But I absolutely ruled the bowling we did on the Wii later on when we were back at Yves' place, haha. So I think I'm sticking to virtual bowling next time :) A quiet weekend followed once I got back to Utrecht on the Friday, which was just fine by me. It felt like I had been away a full week somehow, and those two and a half days in Groningen plus a quiet weekend were just what I needed to break the study a bit. Monday morning I went to the airport to give Kim one last hug before she was leaving on a jetplane again. Long goodbyes are never fun, but it was good to see her off. (I know you'll be back just for the cheese and stroopwafels though, Kim ;))

Since then it's been thesis again, until this weekend, where I got a new haircut, watched the Dutch win a lot of medals at the world cup speed skating, watched the massive devastation in Japan with growing shock and amazement and celebrated my sister's birthday! In other words, another lovely lazy weekend for me before thesis starts again tomorrow :) I hope you all had a lovely (long) weekend this weekend too, and as always, I love hearing from you all and what you've been up to, so leave a note! Let's see what the next month will bring, and hope things in the world are a little better... My love to all of you.
xx