terug van weggeweest

Reading week is already over and we are on the homestretch. The next pitstop is the summer, and I am not quite ready for that one yet.
Spend a few days in Ottawa and a few days in Owen Sound this past week. And experienced almost every type of weather on the way back to Hamilton this past Sunday. I was wow-ed by the amount of snow there was back home, and had a super fantastic time in Ottawa. the last part just makes me anxious to finish school … and move. maybe? It was also the first time I tried skating in a while, on the Rideau Canal, and even if I was not very good, it was the ultimate Canadian experience for a Dutch(wo)man. + think beaver tails. Talking about Canadian – Dutch experiences: I thought this article was pretty cool:
across the pond
with the current exam schedule for this semester: it looks like I will be here until the bitter end; the 25th. a more detailed update to come later

week theme song: nowhere with you - joel plaskett (as a tribute to my sisters :-) )

looking from the outside in: or inside out?

at least north america could do two things right: milk & cereal (the real thing) and ice hockey. even though the latter never fails to drive me crazy on some front.

counting down to reading week and done midterms for a (short) while: in the meantime hoping for some creative energy to get this paper done ... ok go, here it goes again ;-)

learning to run up the stairs with a full glass of water without spilling. it is a learning process, and i apologize to the housemates for wet socks ... right now i am simply intrigued by the sounds of icecubes in a glass of water, while enjoying a lifehouse marathon, and wondering how i can become more productive, why google hates me, and how many calories i lose from running up and down the stairs when answering the phone ... so many thoughts, yet so few apply to this paper i should be working on. love it. for now.

song: chris daughtry - it's not over (i think the only reason he is good because he did not win american idol ... he is so much better off now)

necessity and sufficiency?

"Hij maakt zoet wat bitter is" (He makes sweet that which is bitter) - a.f. troost. alluding to the story of the isrealites in the desert who complained about their thirst, not asking (nor even thinking about asking) God for help. but the gracious God that He is, made the water at Mara sweet. so also He provides us, despite our complaints, with even more than we c(w)ould ask for: the living water [Exodus 15] how can we ever be thankful enough for such grace, or even the 'simplest' daily blessings?

by Thor! from a Photoblog

it was absolutely gorgeous outside today. i was also pretty restless - something that was easily attacked by vigoursly cleaning the kitchen this afternoon. then i 'rewarded' myself with a new episode of supernatural, and got some study time in. now i am pondering religious intolerance in europe and the ottoman empire and thinking of running for some strange reason. pretty sad situation for a friday night. no excuses.

"and where the answers won't come around i blame myself for being me again"
song: di-rect ft. wibi soejardi - blind for you (if only for the piano play)

not my kind of pie

==wishing for a snow day ... if only to gain some perspective, and focus==

what is a crusting sleeve? whatever happened to putting stuff in the mircowave and pressing start?

i ought not to be worried. i think i am not worried. but i am fooling myself thinking that. because in actuality i am. it makes me think of this disney computer game we got for free with some sort of cereal: it is with these lion king character timon and pumba? i am not sure what they are called (and i am too lazy to google it) but anyways, there is this point in the game where you have to get across the river by jumping logs, and the character goes "decisions, decisions ..." now i wish i could say that i can't really identify with disney characters, but i can. i can't decide. i mean, from buying shoes, to ordering dinner, to guessing on M/C tests, to what to do this summer, to what to do with my life. ugh. and then i'd like to think it would be nice to have all the answers ... but then i am sure that would not make me much happier either. and then it comes down to trust and faith, which is never easy. interestingly i am probably the 6 billionth person to think this today, and many more billionth in history. i guess sometimes it just helps to articulate stuff. interesting trend is that this thought only comes up after i want to kick myself ... after writing some sort of test or midterm. talk about confidence eh?

i was looking for a picture to break up all this text for a bit: and came across this pic that i "stole" -> it is from the war museum ... and speaks to me like this: "toughen up, G, toughen up"
in the meantime there are many little things that make life so good. like wearing a clean sweater washed with my new laundry soap. i am smelling gorgeous ... even if i am the only person thinking so. hey, there is something about vanilla that just soothes the soul: think here coffee with french vanilla cream as well. i am also feeling a little lost, as i signed up to clean the kictchen rather than the bathroom for this week ... interesting how that throws me off eh? in the meantime i will try not to worry about the playoff status of my favourite hockey team. i realize that i may have made some enemies in the house with my obsessive cheering and loud bashing of this "other team," but i just want the world (or small blog audience) to know that i feel privileged to cheer for the greatest team in the league and that no matter how big the suck/rock factor is in the season: i am still loving it! [wow] ... so mushy ... maybe i really did fall in love or am thinking slightly incoherent because of the amount of coffee i have consumed in a short span of time. [wow] i better stop rambling before i regret something ... thankfully there is always the edit function .. if only everything in life had an edit function. except for maybe not.

so indecisive!
(note: descision trees are not an option, and never the solution)

song: DJ Tiesto - Just Be AND Just Keep Dreaming

a world of difference

back at school again.
frouke, gertine and myself braved the bad weather to come down to hamilton, so i could go back to class tomorrow. now, in itself i would have rather stayed, but exams and assignments dictate otherwise. church was cancelled for the afternoon which signals the extent of the bad weather, and as expected for the first 50km we could see less than a meter in front of us, and the rest was just an endless array of whiteness. but of course, as we come south there is next to no snow, and i have relearned the definition of winter ... and we dont have it in hamilton. except for cold of course .. which now is where it should be: outside of our walls.

and ... this time a real good drumroll please ... the heat is back! a whopping 21C. which makes me very happy, after a humbling experience, i wont be taking heat for granted again. plus i got the battery for the computer fixed, so this week will be much better than last if only for warmth and limited computer problems. i am also very excited for my laundry soap. i realize i must sound pretty crazy like it, but it is vanilla and waterlily, and it smells soooo good!! little things in life.

too bad ottawa lost to toronto in a shootout this weekend though. which has been nicely rubbed into my face this weekend by my so-called friends. i did for a moment think it was not really fair to put the pressure on my favourite J-man to win the game, but then again it was just a game. and shootouts in my opinion are not really a game ... more like an expensive way to flip a coin. either way, congrats to those who care.

song: "Ik ben boer Harms en kom uut Drent' en ik hou van disco Ik weet het is nie te geleuven moar het is zo Als ik die disco heur dan tril ik op mien benen ..." - nothing beats these kind of songs

home sweet home

i am thinking that i might even know what he (sjakie) feels like, out there in the cold .....

what i thought was a white winter in hamilton, is pretty sad in comparison to the snow overload here in owen sound ... it is so beautiful! even if it means that with the expected snow i might not be able to drive back on sunday .... to be honest though i am not very excited to have to think of the realities of schoolwork and heating problems? I will have to pass on the family trip to harrison park because i have quite a bit of work to do, and i figure that way i can take my little brother to hockey practice tonight ... even if that means i have to miss out on HNiC. i think that that would be a good thing ... for my nails anyways.

happy birthday to oma!

song: racoon - love you more

how low can you go

currently 8C and the winnie the pooh meter has given up 6 degress ago. wow! i think i might choose Mills library over being home today ... the landlord is coming, but not until the weekend --- luckily i will be going home before then

9 pm update: i bet that if i cried right now my tears would come out frozen ... like hail i guess. but i think i figured out what is wrong with the heater, now if only we had the tools, read screwdrivers here, to fix it. and some knowledge of electricity and gas would be useful too ... but knowing my luck i would blow up the house before i even figured out what was really going on ... so maybe i will just keep to the books .. or owner's manual in this case.