An update about the past week(s)

I’ve been quite busy since the holidays, maybe not in the first week back to school, but a lot has happened in the second week though.

The first week back to school was fun and it was good to be back in the class. We did 2 trips out of school again, with Ross. Not spying on people this time, but one day when we had a lesson with a ‘food’ theme, we did a competition in Sainsbury’s, the couple who could find all the items on the shopping list Ross gave us, won the competition and would get a ‘prize’. The items on the list were typical British products, like Marmite, Horlicks, mushy peas, rice pudding, custard etc. I teamed up with a German guy, and we won the competition, basically because he was very fast.
The next day we went out of class again, today’s theme revolved around anatomy and we went to the Royal Academy of Surgeons, and its Hunterian Museum, which was a scientific freak show of disfigured skeletons, fetuses in jars and weird diseases. But it was interesting, and that’s what it’s all about.

On the weekend, me and Linda went to the BBC Radio6 protest, because as you might have heard, they’re going to stop BBC Radio 6. I’m not going to pretend I’m a frequent radio listener, let alone Radio 6, but it’s still a shame on behalf of music. We stood in the rain for 2 hours, and chanted and sung when we were supposed to, even though we couldn’t hear half of the things the protest conductors said, and we were distracted by the unnerving statue above the doors of the Broadcasting House:

Come on, you have to agree this looks like an act of gruesome pedophilic rape…

When the protest was finished, we left the place with a feeling of unity in the community and decided our hard work and devotion was to be rewarded with chocolate goodness at the Chocolate Festival at the Southbank Centre. When I read the words Chocolate Festival, I instantly think of a lot of free chocolate, and chocolate rivers and statues and sculptures. Let’s say I’d have visions of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory; this was not the case however, it was like 10 stands of chocolatiers selling their overpriced chocolate stuff, not even giving away things for free(Yes, I am Dutch indeed). Then again, being Dutchies, we couldn’t resist the sight of pancakes, and we also tried luscious marshmallows and strawberries covered in chocolate sauce, which was like eating a bit of heaven.

Last week, on Wednesday, my teacher suddenly mentioned that the day after would be his last day in Kaplan. Everyone was quite shocked by this, including me. To be honest, after the shock I was quite upset, because Ross is one of the best teachers I’ve ever had in my life, and I don’t think anyone in the school is as competent for a Higher Advanced/Proficiency class as he was. He didn’t just teach English, he also made the lessons into… a sort of sociological debate and we often did little acting things as well. He just made it challenging, because he questioned your arguments, he had strict time limits on the writings & improvising plays and he moved very fast and smoothly through the lesson material. With him gone, it feels like there’s not much left in the school for me, with him it at least felt like I would always have a bit of a challenge and I really enjoyed the lessons. Some classmates said they missed a bit of human warmth, because he didn’t really do small talk and was quite reserved, but if you’re in his class for a while, you understand that he’s not that how-was-your-weekend-kind of a person at all, and probably doesn’t want to make an effort, as most of the students leave after 2 weeks. After a while in his class though, you sort off understand his humor, the way he conducts the lessons and what he expects from you, which is interesting.
So yeah, after 3 months in his class, it’s a bit upsetting for me, it’s silly, but over the past months I’ve had different teachers in the schools in both Oxford and London, and I’ve really started to notice how important it is to have a good teacher, it makes a great difference in your progress and especially the way you enjoy the class, sometimes even whether you show up in class at all.
I don’t want to judge too early, so I hope my new teacher will be OK, but I somehow have the feeling he can’t measure up to Ross.

On Wednesday afternoon I helped Robert out, who was moving flats and needed a hand with his luggage. From now on I’m going to think twice before I promise a friend to help out, because I had a sore neck following days… Anyhow, he’s happy with his new room and about the fact that he can take the quiet Overground train to work, instead of the Underground, so that’s cool.

Thursday was film club time again, ‘horror theme’ this time, if I weren’t so devoted to film club, I wouldn’t have come, because I absolutely hate horror films and would never voluntarily watch one, unless it’s a classic or a very relevant film. It’s not just because I don’t like being or feeling scared, but also because horror films usually are just utterly ridiculous. I can see that for a lot of people it serves a great entertainment purpose, but other than that it’s just complete rubbish to me, the dialogues are silly, the acting isn’t particularly high standard and the plots are completely inconceivable. They usually just make me laugh out loud, and go ‘Yeahhhhh right…’.
If I watch a film, I often watch it for entertainment of course, but I want some artistic value as well, I want a good or interesting story and/or dialogue, relevant acting and preferably good imagery. To me, the horror somehow fails as an artistic genre within film, because of its inconceivability. If a film is scary, yet realistic, it’s usually a thriller, rather than a ‘horror’. Anyhow, that’s just what I think, feel free to prove me wrong, I’m willing to reconsider my position.

After film club I met up with Robert again and we went to The Drums instore at Rough Trade, seeing them for free sort of made up with that one time I missed half of their gig at the Brixton Academy, after oversleeping. They were pretty good live, though I had mixed feeling about it. It sounded very different live than from their recordings, but I’m not sure if it’s for the better or the worse, the singer seemed like yet another Ian Curtis imitator, not only because of his singing, but also because of his wicked dancemoves. The guitarists seemed a bit autistic, one of them not even noticing he knocked over his microphone stand.

On Friday I went on a short day trip to Brighton, with my housemate Lucie. It was great, Brighton is an awesome city; the beach, the pier, the colourful houses, the fact that it reminded me of San Francisco and the North Laines. We walked a bit on the beach, then visited the Pier, which consists of a little theme park with arcades and a lot of candyshops. Then it started to rain so we started looking for some place dry, we ended up in a café at the Laines, and we sat in a lower area in the café on cushions on the floor. We had some good entertainment that afternoon; 2 women and a man came to sit in the lower area as well, but one of the women slipped on the step and hit her head against the ceiling, resulting into a cut in her head that started bleeding excessively. The guy took of his shirt and pushed it on the wound, whereas the other woman was squeamish and started sweating and panicking. Eventually the ambulance was called, and one of the ambulance guys asked: ‘What happened’, one of her acquaintances explained: ‘She slipped on that step over there and hit her head against the ceiling’. The ambulance guy: ‘Ah over there, where it says “Please mind your head”?’
After the drama was over, it wasn’t as bad as it looked at first, me and Lucie left, because it had stopped raining. We walked around the Laines a bit more and visited the Royal Pavilion, something I wouldn’t recommend, it’s a tacky palace, and very expensive for what you get. Then we went to the Northern Laines, which is basically Camden in Brighton. Then we made our way back to the trainstation, as we were both very tired.

On Saturday, Mandy, Desi, Hidde and Mandy came over for a day, which was great fun. I was very happy to see them and I really missed this, just nonsense humor and conversations, making crisps hats, throwing each others food in a pile of horse shit, making fun of the tramp sitting behind us in a café and making fun of people in Hyde Park. Nosing around on Brick Lane and playing in the Rough Trade photobooth.

Liverpool & Manchester # 2

Read #1 here

In the early morning I, and the rest of the room, were awakened by my some Asian roommate, who decided to repack all of his bags very thoroughly, during the course of one hour. Now that, was really annoying.

Around 10 I check out at the Hatters Hostel and make my way to Liverpool Lime Street Station. After a 45 minute train trip, I arrive at Manchester Picadilly Station. I try to find my way to the Hatters Hostel, through this – apparently – busier city. It also appears to be larger and more vibrant than Liverpool. Just as I have the feeling I’m starting to get lost, I find out I’m actually on the correct street. I make my way to the hostel, which seems to be housed in an even more worn down building than the one in Liverpool, like some sort of squat. I am greeted by a nice bearded Mancunian who informs me the room will be ready in 2 hours. He asks me what I want to visit, I say I’d like to visit some museums and maybe some of the Smiths landmarks. He then prints a guide and has trouble stapling the papers together, eventually half destroying my ‘the Smiths guide to Manchester’–guide. Then I’m off to explore Manchester a bit, as I can't go to my room yet.

My first impressions were that Manchester looks a bit like Rotterdam (or maybe any other big Dutch city, but I’m most familiar with Rotterdam), most likely because of the public transport system: trams. Hadn’t seen that before in England. Again, this probably proves that Manchester is larger than Liverpool.
There are more people out and about in the commercial area that is Manchester Picadilly. The people still seem very (working class) British, some chavvy and orange faced as well. Yet, Manchester also seems more racially diverse than Liverpool.

After some wandering around, I decide it’s time to check out my room. ‘You’re back’, bearded Macunian receptionist notes. I was slightly disappointed to find out I was on the second floor, ‘the Badly Drawn Boy + The Charlatans floor’, rather than on the first floor ‘the Morrissey floor’.
I am in a 10-bed female dorm this time, you can’t choose your own bed and the bathroom/toilets are not connected to the room.
After ‘settling’ in the room and making a vague plan of what I wanted to see/do, I decided to go out again, armed with my camera this time. I made my way to the Northern Quarter, which, I had read, was supposed to be a trendy hipster area for young people. It all seemed deserted, worn down buildings and dodgy people. Found a few nice second hand shops, though. I wanted to find ‘Big Pink Records’, which was supposed to be a cool recordshop, but it seemed to have disappeared. One stop on the The Smiths guide, some Moz mosaic wall near Afflecks Place, seemed to be invisible as well. Nosed around in a vinyl recordshop, and thought about giving trying to find the Kraak Gallery another go. I did and found some signs with arrows, but they led me to deserted alleyways, so I gave up.
I went back to the centre and wandered up north, browsing through interesting looking shops.
Next stop is the Urbis Art Centre, which, sth I already feared, was closed for business. After walking around the Manchester Cathedral I decide it’s pubtime, after all, today is Saint Patrick’s Day. I go to the Printworks, a large covered restaurant area. I eat fish & chips and drink a Guinness and then move on to another pub in different part of town.

I end up getting free Guinness from Norwegian guys, who invite me to sit at their table; I join them, not being sure what their intentions are, as one of them is extremely drunk. They also give me 10 pounds, because ‘you’re a student, we work’, something I reluctantly accept after they insist on me taking it and trying to shove it in my pocket. After a while, the drunk guy starts making clear that he is attracted to me, and the others agree when he states that I am beautiful. To me, all of them look post-mid-thirties, even though the drunk one says he’s 25, and I’m not interested anyway, so I politely try to make clear that I’m not impressed. I get a bunch of phone numbers ‘for going out tomorrow’ and one of them gives me a half kiss on the mouth before he leaves….. Shouldn’t have accepted that Guinness.

After a good sleep that night (beer makes me fall asleep instantly. And pee as well, as I wake up with a full blatter 3 hours later), a shower and some of the 24 hour-breakfast (consisting of toast and… toast) I go into town again. First stop is the Manchester Art Gallery, where some interesting art work is to be seen. Of course the Gallery is suddenly occupied by retards, children on school trips and art students on excursion; instant headache material.

Next stop is the Cornerhouse, an arts centre with a café, cinema, bookstore and a small art gallery. The Art Gallery features an exhibition with David Mackintosh work, but I wasn’t very impressed by it.
After a coffee I go on my way to try to find the Salford Lads Club. I walk past the Ritz, where the Smiths played their first live show. After a long search, interrupted by a visit to a Science Museum, I was very close, I could feel it, but somehow I couldn’t exactly find it.... I ended up on some weird industry area next to busy motorway. At this point I was also incredibly tired and hungry. Adding the shite weather: I got frustrated and started walking back to the centre.
I visited the People’s History Museum, a great museum featuring a display of pictures of protesters being arrested during demonstrations and they had a lot of old political campaign material etc. Afterwards I went to the John Ryland Library. The interior is strange compared to the exterior of the building, it’s a very modern building housing a very old library, the interior of the library itself reminds me of Oxford, and the buildings there.

Afterwards I go back to the hostel, and lie down on the bed for a while and have my Sainsbury’s pasta dinner. Then I started a conversation with the roommate who had been in the room the whole time since I came back. She turned out to be an Italian girl living in Glasgow and she was following her favourite band around the country, apparently she was some superfan who was in love with the singer blah blah. Expensive hobby… well, definitely more expensive than my concert-hobby, I don’t have to stay in a hostel every night and take trains all over England.
I go to some bars at Matthew Street, have a chat with some bartender and am soon bored with sitting on my own in pubs, resulting into me going back to the hostel and falling asleep again.

The next morning I have to check out at 10, but my train leaves at about 3, so in order to kill time I go shopping a bit more. I go inside Afflecks Place, which is basically like the Brick Lane Sunday Vintage Market, but still amazing, great building, like a maze where can get lost between the alternative and vintage shops. I find some more great shops, which I hadn’t found on the days before, among them another record store, vintage clothes stores and a camera shop.

On the way back to London on the train, I felt a sense happiness dawning on me, just having had nice adventure on my own, and then sitting on that train, watching the foggy British countryside which reminded me off the Adolphe Valette paintings I had seen the day before at the Manchester Art Gallery pass by, while reading ’31 Songs’ by Nick Hornby and listening to music. It was just one of those moments of pure happiness, having a feeling of complete contentment and satisfaction.

So, all in all I like both cities, they have a lot in common, but are also quite different. They seem great places to live, though I slightly prefer Manchester, and still, both are not as vibrant and fascinating as London. But I guess that’s just from the perspective of a Londoner.
If you ever find yourself in Manchester; I highly recommend the Manchester Art Gallery, Afflecks Place and the People’s History Museum and for Liverpool are the Albert Dock and Tate Liverpool must sees.

Holidays!

Hurrah, I have a two week holiday from school now. Not that I needed one so bad, because this whole year is like a holiday to me, but it's still nice, especially considering the weather is finally starting to get nice and sunny. If only it were less cold :(

At first I was planning on a trip to Liverpool & Manchester, but I didn't think I could afford, so maybe some daytrip to Brighton and/or Cambridge would be better. This morning I talked to my parents and they said they want to offer the trip to Liverpool & Manchester as an early birthday gift. Honestly, my parents are too kind. I wanted to turn it down, because we already decided my Lowlands ticket was going to be my present, and in the first place; I had already said I didn't want a birthday gift, because this year in England is expensive enough as it is.
However, they insisted on me going to Liverpool, now I have the chance. So Liverpool and Manchester are on for week after next week, I guess!

Other plans I have are finally doing some photography (have some projects/areas in mind already) and visiting some places I should've visited months ago (how can someone live in London for almost 4 months without having visited Hyde Park and the British Museum yet?)

Wednesday I went to see the Antlers at Union Chapel, still an actual church, turned out to be the perfect location for them. It was the best gig I've been to this year (so far).



Yesterday I finally went to see 'A Single Man', which was amazing. The film looks so gorgeous, you can see a lot of thought has been put into every little detail of the film, as it looks perfect. Great acting by Colin Firth as well, ofcourse.
Afterwards I had few hours to kill, as I was supposed to meet Robert in Camden for some drinks in the pub at around 9, so I browsed through a bookshop in Notting Hill, had a coffee at Liverpool Street Station, took a bus to Camden and had another coffee. Robert came straight out of work, so he needed some dinner from Sainsbury's. We ended up buying beer, and when we went to the pub, we just ordered a beer each, and when our glass was empty, we sneakily filled it up with beer from the cans, hoping the bar staff wouldn't notice....


Oh and you know you've lived in London too long when you try to open door the front door of your house with your Oyster Card....... happened to me this week.

CAN WE ALL PLEASE JUST CALM THE FUCK DOWN?

Ok, this could become a long post, as I haven't updated in about a month. Have been busy as usual, with school, gigs, 'being social' and film club.

I'm starting to feel quite lonely in school, as most my friends have left the school... Ashley is back in Korea, Robert and Richard are both finished with school (still in London though, Robert is working and Richard trying to find a job). In a few weeks all the people I've started with in January will have left.... Seems like I'm the only one who's going to be with Ross in the class for the rest of the year.

Speaking of Ross, last friday we experienced some more of his unconventional teaching methods. He said to us: ok, you're all going to different coffeeshops, you're going to order something, sit down and spy on someone and write down how you think this person lives, who he or she is etc.
It's the weirdest lesson I ever had.
And this week we were discussing language death and the possibility of a universal language, then he said: I'm going to talk to Ilse, she's going along with this and reply in Dutch, and we're going to see if we understand each other. So he started talking to me in something that seemed like a very bad version of Dutch, or some made up language with the occasional Dutch word thrown in... it left me in a state of utter confusion. Afterwards he revealed it was Afrikaans (which in some ways is very close to Dutch), he learned it when he lived in South-Africa for two years, when his father was working there. Funny how you can sometimes find out interesting things about him, as he seems overall a quite closed and reserved person.

Three weeks ago I was suprised by a teacher with the question whether I wanted to take over Film Club for the following two weeks, as he himself would be gone to do some work experience. Ofcourse I said yes, I felt honoured and was excited in the beginning. I felt trusted with a sort of responsibility, as it would entail buying the dvds, making the quiz, picking up the projector/laptop and setting it up. However, it didn't go very well, due to poor attendance (6 in the first week, 2 in the week after), the teacher having failed to tell anyone about me taking over (which means: projector/laptop + room 5 being taken over by a teacher) and technical problems (after room 5 being taken over I was put in a room with a tv which had no remote control, asked the teachers to find me some remote controls, they gave me a couple... without batteries, and in the second week I couldn't log in on the laptop..).

Concertwise I've seen, since I last posted; Surfer Blood, Jon Gomm, Air Waves, Pulled Apart By Horses, Beach House, Midlake, The Drums, The Maccabees, Bombay Bicycle Club, The Big Pink, Japandroids, Los Campesinos! and U.S. Girls.
Especially Los Campesinos! was great again, I saw them for the 4th time and it's still nowhere near boring.

I've missed some good stuff in Holland apparently. 'The Dutch Cabinet fell', due to disagreements concerning the Dutch military in Uruzgan [Afghanistan]. I'm too tired to explain the Dutch political system, so I won't bother.
Unfortunately, I will just about miss the general elections spectacle, as I'm still in London around that time. Victory could become Geert Wilders', the right-wing leader of the 'Party of Freedom', who compares the Qur'an (which he states 'should be burned') to Mein Kampf and wants to introduce a tax on wearing headscarves.

What I did notice in one of the videos concerning this issue I saw (didn't follow the whole thing that well) was the following; the use of the verb 'de zwarte piet krijgen'? What's up with that? Have I lived outside the Netherlands too long to recognize this use of the word zwarte piet? Since when is it a verb? Isn't it a little early on to speak of zwarte pieten anyway? + political journalism via pinning pictures of politicians on a tree is lame.


Another thing going on, in the Dutch music world, was the whole Lowlands hoax around it being sold out within a week (something never happens, always takes a few months), resulting into it actually selling out for real, as everyone starting buying their tickets. We can only assume the hoax was a marketing strategy?
Luckily I bought my ticket the day after it went on sale, and now most of my friends have their tickets as well, so it should be cool. Looking forward to it again! (probably the only thing worth looking forward to when it comes to going back 'home' in Holland)


From next week on, I have a two week holiday. Not sure what I'm going to do, have a couple of gigs planned and initially wanted to go on a trip to Liverpool & Manchester. That's probably not going to happen, as I don't have much money. I'm thinking about doing some daytrips, like Cambridge and/or Brighton and maybe do some photography projects and visit some museums...

Who needs matresses anyway?

I didn't go to any gigs this week, by which I've sort off compensated the overkill on gigs from last week (6 in total, a personal record). Especially the gig on sunday was quite fun, I saw Los Campesinos! live for the third time, at Rough Trade East. I just love them so much... and the new album is amazing, after the instore it had to be signed by Gareth Campesinos ofcourse.



Linda had a mug with her that said: 'Go green: fuck a vegetarian', and this had to be signed by Gareth as well, and suprisingly enough he didn't seem to find it rather peculiar.... or maybe he did, but didn't show it, haha.

When I moved here I was hoping to make a lot of English friends, but I didn't (yet)... maybe because I'm usually not someone who just goes up to people and talk to them... and studying in an international school doesn't exactly help either. But last friday after the Let's Wrestle instore at Flashback Records (where they handed out free beer, yes you heard that correct, FREE BEER. IN. RECORD STORE. now that's what I call service) some people invited me to join them for a beer in the pub, which was really nice. The next day I met them again, as we all happened to be going to the Real Estate gig at the Lexington.

Mandy was in London with her school this week, we saw each other on Wednesday and it was insane. We met up in Camden and walked around there and in the centre for a bit, had a pint in a pub in Soho and then all the good fun started when she and her friends managed to smuggle me into their hostel (you had to show you pass everywhere). We spend the whole night creeping around in the hostel and drinking in the bar. One guy was completely off his head (probably after taking some pills) and thought he was on Ibiza.
Their teachers must be the most crazy ones in the world, one of them went out of the hostel at 3 or something, trying to find a store because he wanted more booze. A while later someone went outside and found him downing a bottle of vodka.
At 3 am I found myself eating microwave-paella with some people I didn't know (and who were extremely drunk or high, or both). At 5 am we (the die hards; mandy, roxy and me) decided to go to sleep finally, I ended up crashing on the floor in their room, provided with a little bed made from sheets by Roxy. The slightly less fun part: 3 hours later I showed up at school, looking utterly disgusting and smelling horrible.

In film club this week we watched My Beautiful Laundrette, featuring a young Daniel Day Lewis, who resembled a young Morrissey, he looked gorgeous:


Yesterday I had another party-night. A swedish girl from school was throwing a party at her appartment. Beforehand I went to Robert and Richard's appartment, Richard showed me his newly invented dancemoves and his feminine/vain side: he uses (pink!) hair straighteners.... The party was fun, everyone was sort off drunk. Nothing got broken, though. Atleast... as far as I know.
I was planning on going home that night, but when I looked at the time at some point, I saw it was already 3 am... So again, I crashed on the floor, this time at Robert and Richard's appartment. This floor was less comfortable, as it was a wooden floor (or 'tree floor' as Richard calls it) and I had to use my coat as a blanket.

So that is basically the lesson I learned this week; carpet floors are more comfortable to sleep on than wooden floors.

Update!

So... finally an update on what shenanigans I've been getting myself into over the past weeks.
Obviously I've kept myself busy almost everyday after school; i've 'joined' the film club, took part in a mock IELTS examination, went out pubbing and had lunch with some friends a couple of times, went to some free gigs, and one great party (last weekend). On top of that I drink too much alcohol, eat unhealthy food and spend way too much money. I still haven't found a job, but that's probably mainly because I didn't make any real effort to find one, yet.
London is still amazing, but living here makes you quite tired, partly because of the commuting for me, I think. The snow in London made place for good old English rain and it's still cold, well that's obvious in winter isn't it?
The school is slightly more challenging, we actually get homework now and then, but still easy peasy.

I've made some great friends in school. I went to the pub with 2 swedish and 1 korean friend, I hadn't laughed so much in ages, one of the swedish guys struggles with his English and is extremely deadpan, it's absolutely hilarious, just to make conversation he will ask you these odd questions that make you go 'What?', for example: 'what do you think of the sound of the ambulances?' or 'do you like mr bean?', the best part is that the other swedish guy pisses himself laughing everytime the deadpan opens his mouth.

One day I had quite an unfortunate day of travel, I left the house at normal time, and it took me TWO BLOODY HOURS to get to school. The tube stopped at every station for about 10 minutes, because there was a train ahead of us, or the doors didn't work or something, eventually I was 45 minutes late for school, so I didn't even bother going up to the classroom to ask if I could still join the first lesson, because they just wouldn't let you in and there's no point if you missed half the lesson.

I took a mock IELTS exam, which went rather well. I had a total score of 7.5 (maximum is 9.0), which means I could go to any university I want, as you mostly need 6.0 or 6.5 to enter a British University. I was particularly suprised about my speaking, for which I scored 8.0, amazing. I was advised not to study for, nor actually take the IELTS exam, as it's not challenging enough and obviously too easy. In addition, it's only valid for 2 years. I've decided to do the CPE exam (Cambridge Profiency English) instead. This would mean I have to buy the books myself and study for it autonomously, as the school doesn't provide any classes for these exams. I'm willing to do it though, because this will be the only opportunity to challenge myself doing something more difficult, and at the end of the year I'd like to come home with something useful. The CPE cerfiticate never expires, and is recognized internationally as proof of your level of English. I still have to find out if it's valid for University as well.

Another day I went to a bar in Soho with a teacher and some people from school, was quite fun. The swedish guys showed up a while later and we went to some other pubs as well. The unfortunate part was that when I went home afterwards, I fell asleep on the tube (yes I was maybe slightly tipsy, as well as I was very tired from the long day) and woke up two stations after I was supposed to get off.... with no tube going back... Luckily I found like one last nightbus that went to Kingsbury.
Like I said, London makes you quite tired, especially if you have long days were you wake up at 5 or 6 am and are home at 9 pm or later, not that school lasts so long, just meeting with friends, and I can't exactly quickly go home and go back to the centre.

A teacher at school set up an after school 'film club', which I think is a great concept, as I wanted to set one up in the school when I was in Oxford, but it never came to it. You pay 50p, and the guy buys some dvds at a cheap store, then we enjoy a film on a thursday afternoon in a classroom, and afterwards 'discuss' it and do a quiz, so you can win (one of the) dvds that were options for watching. The second time we did film club we started this quiz thing, and it was quite awkward, I assumed the questions were going to be about the film we saw, but actually the questions were just random; we watched Up The Junction, not such a great British film from the 60s about class differences and abortion, and the questions were as followed:
'How many people did Jason kill in total in all of the Friday the 13th films?'
'How many different outfits did Carrie Bradshaw wear in the movie Sex and the City?'
..........
But nonetheless, it's a good way to spend a thursday afternoon.


In the last 3 days I went to 3 gigs, which resulted in me only having slept a total of about 17 hours over the last 3 nights, so I'm going to catch up on some sleep now......


'I'm out'

My first week of school.

I survived my first week of school in London, and in hindsight it has been quite an enjoyable one.

On the second day of school some burglars came into the school at broad daylight [via scaffolding/roofs/window into the study centre] and nicked some computers. Not laptops, but proper big computers. Ironic bit is that I was in class in the room next door, we heard some noise, but probably all thought it was the construction people who are working in the school. The problem with those language schools as well is that anyone can walk in and out, cause the students change all the time, in Oxford they've had problems too, with trespassers coming into the cafeteria and nicking wallets.


Apparently, in this school homework is a rarity, which is annoying, because this way we have to do writings and stuff in 20 minutes time on the computers in school. Like 2 days ago we had 20 minutes to make a powerpoint presentation, complete with pictures, information, graphics, and afterwards we had to present it.
We also did a report, in a way I was not used to, we got all the information in correct sentences, we just had to put it in order and type it out. In Oxford we had to make up our own information, by doing a survey during our lunch time, then make the report ourselves, and later do a second draft as well. All this has been usefull though, because when I got my (corrected) report sent back this week it said: 'this is the best report in the class - well done'. Thank you Charles for your frantic love of homework.

I've kept myself busy after school as well; I visited the great National Portrait Gallery, including the 'From the Beatles to Bowie: the 60s exposed' exhibition, which featured some nice pictures by David Bailey.
I also went to the Houses of Parliament with a friend, and briefly attended some debates in the House of Commons and the House of Lords. It was difficult to follow as these things usually are, especially if you don't know what the issue is about. I feel very sad I couldn't go to the first Prime Minister's Question Time of the year:

British politics is fuckin brilliant, it's pure comedy gold. Maybe I should go back some other time.

I saw 'hottest band for 2010' Delphic live (for free! thanks Linda, for letting me be your +1), didn't really listen to it properly before, but it was actually quite good live.
Yesterday I visited Portobello Market, great stuff there up in Notting Hill, bought a lovely dress, and I'm surely going back up there sometime.

That's it for the schoolweek, this weekend I'm trapped in Kingsbury, as they've decided to close all the nearest subway stations. Not that I was really planning on doing anything, I'm too tired to be bothered going out.

My shit year so far...

It's been a shitty year (literally and metaphorically) so far. I came back to London the 30th of december. I became ill on New Years Eve, so couldn't really enjoy the Mumford & Sons NYE party much (they were great though). Crashed at a friends house in Camden [I just realized that over the past 3 weeks, I've slept in 5 different beds, which is nearly a record] and continued to be ill for the next couple a days, spending most of my time on the toilet.
And ofcourse when I came home the first of January, my student oyster card had arrived... just after I had put 10 pounds on my other oyster card. great.

I was feeling a bit better on Sunday, so I decided to go to the centre. Unfortanutely I was shown another bright side of the beauty that is British public transport... First I had to wait about half an hour at Kenton station before a subway arrived, which is ridiculously long, especially in tube terms. Then the tube didn't go between Stonebridge Park and Queens Park, so everyone had to go on a 'replacement service' bus to Queens Park. After 10 minutes, the bus broke down. Everyone had to get off and go on another bus. A replacement bus for the replacement bus, oh the irony.
After half an hour we finally got to Queens Park. At first there weren't any tubes going from there aswell, and we were supposed to take an Overground train to Euston. I waited 20 minutes in the freezing cold for that damn train, and when everyone got on, some London Underground people came in and said the tubes were going after all, so again; everyone got off and got on the tube...
Only then I realized I'd have to go trough this hell all over again if I wanted to go back home. On the way back, the tubes did go to Queens Park straight away, however, not without stopping several times without actually being at a tube station. There was also some psycho on the tube, who thought it would be fun to smoke some cigarettes inside the carriage.
Then, from the bus at Queens Park untill outside Kenton station I was followed around by some Paki psycho, who kept on smiling at me and following me. Seriously, why do these fuckin lunatics always come after me?

Yesterday was my first day of school in London. I had set my alarm clock to 05.30, but woke up at 07.15... the exact time I was supposed to leave the house for school. So back to no shower, no breakfast, just straight to school.
Half of the people in my General English class were absent, as eventually only 7 of the supposedly 14 people were in class. My teacher, Ross, is a pretty uptight guy, with a Welsh accent and he doesn't look students in the eye, which at first made me believe he was blind. The class was rather boring, and it reminded me of my Business English lessons in Oxford, because the 'job interview roleplaying' seemed rather familiar.
The IELTS elective class was quite low level, but the teacher was pretty cool. Proper facial hair and all. Find him a bit awkward though.
After school I went for lunch with some nice Korean girls and later on we went to a pub with a shitload of other 'new' students. I had a hard time trying to convince a 19 year old Brazilian that the drinking age in Britain is 18 and not 21, and I had the most awful pint of fake Guinness ever.

So that's it for the new year so far. Let's hope it gets better.

Goodbye England (covered in snow)

I'm back in the Netherlands for a few days :) Me and my family arrived in Rotterdam yesterday morning. It's a bit odd to be back, nothing feels like home anymore. There's also so much snow here, way more than in London atleast, as you can see:






It's good to be back in my old room though, sleeping peacefully in a non-squeking, soft bed for the first time in 3 months was quite enjoyable. Spent yesterday afternoon listening to the new Los Campesinos! album 'Romance Is Boring' (out next year) I love it already, it's great, especially the songs 'Romance Is Boring', 'The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future' and 'Straight In At 101'. Some great lyrics again (from Straight In At 101):

I think we need more post-coital
And less post-rock
Feels like the build up takes forever
But you never get me off

[...]


I phoned my friends and family
To gather round the television
The talking heads count down the most heart-wrenching breakups of all time
Imagine the great sense of waste
The indignity, the embarrassment
When not a single one of that whole century
Was mine


On another note, I started wondering whether I should think about getting a new or an extra book case, since it's completely full now. (yes I could stack everything up, but thats just not usefull, and I love alphabetizing - dont now whether thats even a word - my books and dvds [yes I might have an OCD when it comes to that, SO WHAT]). Evidence of the state of utter boredom I've been in since I came home:








And as for my parents' pre-Christmas break in London; it was OK. After 4 days with them in a room I'm really glad I now can sit on my own in my old room the whole day. (They really took over my room by the way, why the fuck is there a miniature christmas tree in my room? and what is that old computer of theirs suddenly doing here?)
I was supposed to meet my parents on sunday night at the hotel, near Victoria station, but at first their flight was delayed, so I was sitting there in the hotel lobby, waiting for a few hours. Then they texted that the flight was cancelled because of a blizzard, and they had to take a plane the next morning, so I checked myself in and just stayed on my own in the hotel room.
Over the few days I just showed them around the city a bit, drank beer at their expenses and had the chance to do some photography, as I was allowed to be a tourist for a few days ;) Just visited the regular tourists attractions; Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, London Eye, Trafalgar Square by night, Oxford Street, Picadilly Circus by night, the National Gallery, Tower Bridge, St Pauls and the Arsenal Stadium.
Pictures will follow at some point, I'm not saying when, since I still haven't worked on all those other pictures from November untill my move to London.

I also managed to waste an evening travelling to Pure Groove Records. I wanted to see Comanechi, which according to the Pure Groove website, would start at 9 pm. So I dumped my parents at the hotel and went all the way to Pure Groove. There were not many people, but the band was walking around there, so I thought, mmm kay, they'll probably start in a minute and I sat down with a paper. Then I started noticing that it seemed the guy from the band was clearing the stage, rather than putting up the equipment, so that's when I started having doubts on whether they might have already played or not.... Next minute, a girl and a boy came in, and then I heard the boy saying to the girl: 'We've missed them, they've played already', or something along those lines, and he sat down opposite me, while the girl went to the toilet. So he started asking if they were any good, and I confessed that it seemed I missed them aswell. We had a bit of a chat and he thought I was from South-Africa, which might be a clue for me to work on my accent -.-

On the topic of Pure Groove Records; I found some videos from the Slow Club instore on youtube. And to put you all in the Christmas spirit: this is the last song they played, off stage, in the middle of the store (you can see [a silhouet of] me behind Charles, right from the pillar):

My first week in London

I'm already thinking about New Years resolutions, and two of them are:
- putting more effort into this blog
- try to keep a diary of my life in London
So this a first attempt to kill those two birds in one stone.

I already tried keeping a diary in Oxford, but I failed and only wrote some stuff on several days (never posted any of it), so hopefully I'll have more success this time.


So... I already finished my first week in London, damn, how time is passing quick.
When I came here last saturday I didn't really know what to feel, about my situation, my hostfamily, my 'new' life, so the only thing felt was 'lost' and a bit confused. Now I feel much more at home.
My hostfamily, house and especially my room are quite nice. I found it hard to 'judge' the family, as I realized I was so used to my comfortable situation in Oxford and the family there - i could basically do whatever i wanted and had a sortoff friendship relationship with the mother -, that I couldn't put things in perspective anymore. I found it really hard not to compare them to my hostfamily in Oxford, and they would in no way measure up to them. Nonetheless, they are nice people and I could've ended up at worse places.

My house is in a nice street in Kenton/Kingsbury about an hour from the centre, in zone 4, past Wembley stadium. It's quite far from the centre,which is a bit dissapointing, but hopefully I can adapt to that... (and if I don't I'll have to move) The nearest tube station (Kingsbury) is a 15 minute walk and there are 2 other tube stations in the area. Unfortunately Kingsbury station is closed on the weekend, due to improvement work (2012 Olympics, etc), so if I want to go out on the weekend I have to take the bus to Kenton station. The tubes also stop going between 12 and 1, so if I go out or to gigs or something, I should really keep that in mind... no all night parties, I'm afraid.
My room is quite big and I finally have a desk (and an uncomfy chair though), which is nice. Here's some pictures [as you can see I alreay managed to make quite a mess]:



I live with 5 people in the house now, the hostparents, hostbrother and sister (16 and 22-year olds) and another student, a Swiss girl called Lucie. She goes to the same school, has been here 2 months and is leaving in April. I haven't seen the hostsister and the other student much though, as I've been out most of the week.

I've spend most of the week exploring London, collecting luggage, buying concert tickets, going to some instores and taking care of some bureaucratic (school) stuff.

On monday I visited the school, it took me hours to find it, as it was not actually in Covent Garden (where I made the terrible mistake of taking the stairs at the station - about 200 steps - and nearly had a heart attack when I reached the top), but across the street from the Holborn station. Note to self: never rely on your intuition only, always take a map as back up. The school seemed quite nice. I've been trying to apply for a student oyster card, which took some effort (i've been sent back and forth to tube stations, post offices etc), but at the end of the week I managed to get the answer: 'you'll receive your student oyster card in 2 or 3 weeks'.
I also sorted out something with the director of studies about what i'll be doing in London. I'll start in higher advanced/profiency class at the Covent Garden school and take IELTS-elective classes. When there's space in the IELTS class at Leicester Square, I'll transfer to that school. And for the time left, I'll just have to wait and see what the options are going to be. Was a bit dissapointed though, when I didn't hear back from my tutor in Oxford, as he promised.

I've been to a friends house in London to pick up some luggage and later back to Oxford to pick up more luggage there and say goodbye to the hostfamily. When I came back from Oxford in the evening, it had started snowing and I had to pull my suitcase through 8 centimetres of snow, which was not very fun.
It has been very cold since I arrived in London, well it is winter after all, and it has also been snowing a bit. Not much snow in the centre though, probably good as else it might cause problems with the tube.



I've also been exploring Camden, East London and Brick Lane, the spots where all the 'London hipsters' hang out. Found some really cool stores and markets and had some nice conversations, one with an old stinking guy in a vintage camera store, about analogue photography and also one in an Episode store in Camden, where I found out - after noticing a picture of the Dutch crownprince behind the counter - Episode is actually a Dutch company. Strolling around in London makes me feel really good, I feel very much at home in the city itself, too bad I don't live closer to the centre. I also love tubing already: I mean what is more enjoyable than watching a 4 year old girl doing a pole dance act? Or watching a man next to you play tetris on his mobile phone? Also managed to trick a group of Brabanders (dutch people from the south of the country) into a state of confusion, by saying they were going the wrong way/were on the wrong tube line. It was funny. Evil, but funny.

Buying concert tickets turned out to be a real pain in the arse, atleast without a credit card. I can't buy tickets online, so have to go by all the box offices, and some gigs don't do box office sales, which is fuckin great -.- It gets even worse when newbies fuck up your ticket/don't provide you enought information and you have to go back all the way to sort it out. This week I spent almost 200 pounds on concert tickets for the next year, so I should really stop for now...

I saw Slow Club at Pure Groove Records on the 15th (PGR are having some sort of christmas festival instores) and 3 days later I saw Bombay Bicycle Club (acoustic). BBC was quite short, since they were afraid to miss their gig at Koko, but it was OK. Slow Club was awesome and Charles from the band came up with a funny quote: 'Yesterday I had a ginger ale and it was called 'ginger tosser'... It had a picture of Mick Hucknall on it...'.

So, what's next, with the first week London gone? Well, tonight I'm meeting up with my parents & brother at a hotel in Victoria. They're going to be here for a 4-day holiday, which should be quite nice :) The 24th we're flying back to the Netherlands for Christmas. I'm looking forward to meeting my friends again. And I get a chance to dump all my bought stuff and sleep in my own bed for a few nights...
The 30th I'm flying back to London, so I can spend New Years in London. Before my school starts I also want to do some photography in London, I'll have a few days for that I think, since my school starts the 4th.

I'll be back on my blog, in the Netherlands in a couple of days. (i'll do another disposable camera post today. should also really catch up on my digital photography work from oxford, still have to work on pictures from november 0.0)