maandag 8 juni 2009
Wow, time flies. It's already the end of June. I've had my last lectures and almost all my exams. I found out this morning that I didn't pass Spanish, so I have to do the re-sit next week. If I pass the re-sit I will get my propedeuse. In the Dutch higher education system you get your propedeuse if you've passed all the exams of the first year(as a sort of first years diploma), and I've almost got mine! It all depends on the Spanish exam, but still I passed all the others so I have to admit that I'm actually quite proud on all the credits I received. I'm especially proud on the project I produced this period together with my project group. We worked hard on it and when we handed it in we were very proud. In the end after the presentation we got a 9,4 for our project! Which is my highest grade this year. It's nice to end the year with a bang.
This year has gone by so quickly, I can't believe it. I've met a lot of interesting new people this year at school. Not only at school but also at my work. Both work and school were fun! Although there were times when work and school weren't the best combination this year. Especially during the exams. For some reasons I always had to work till late when I also had exams. The combination of working till 2 am and having an exam at 9 am is not really successful. But it was certainly not boring.
There were several highlights this year. Berlin, the International Week but also the normal lectures. Berlin was so much fun. It was nice to go abroad with everyone from school. Everyone bonded with each other during that week. We got to know each other even more during the activities. I hope that the next trip will be just as successful as the trip to Berlin. The only problem is that I don't have any money at the moment for a trip because I spend it all on my summer holiday. But that is a minor detail.
These last two periods I spend a lot of time writing these blogs. It was more challenging than I imagined. Especially since my English is still far from perfect. It was challenging to keep on writing about interesting subjects. But I did my best to come up with a variety of interesting subjects.
It's odd to realize that the year is almost over, just one re-sit next week. But this summer is going to be fun as well. I'm leaving for Cambodia the 17th of July. Together with a friend of mine I'm going to travel around Cambodia for a month. We start in Siem Reap and we end in the south at Shianoukville.
I unfortunately have to announce that during this summer I'm going to quit blogging. Maybe I'm going to continue blogging next year and will tell you everything about the journey to Cambodia and maybe not. But this is a nice cliff hanger for you guys to return to my blog maybe next year.
dinsdag 2 juni 2009
Every year the Dutch festival season opens with Pinkpop and ends with Lowlands. In between there are lots of other festivals. Alternative festivals, Jazz festivals etc. You name it and it's there. The music festivals have quite an intersting history, especially the first festival of Woodstock. (who doesn't know that name?)
Woodstock was a festival that took place at the end of the sixties and was a much bigger succes than expected. Nearly half a million people traveled to this festival, although the organization counted at 200.000. With the presence of artists like The Who, Jimi Hendrixx and love, peace & drugs from the hippies the festival has become legendary.
My personal favorites among the festivals are Rock Werchter, Lowlands and Pinkpop(although I've never been to Pinkpop, I did watched it a lot of times on TV and those little Pinkpop hats are simply awesome). Rock Werchter because of the amazing line up every year. Lowlands and Pinkpop because of the atmosphere. The atmosphere at the festival is always great. A lot of beer, music and hanging out with friends.
This year I was watching a interview with Brian Molko the vocalist of Placebo, he had a nice definition for festivals: "A festival is kind of like a big beer picnic for everyone. Everybody's sort of wasted. You're kind of the soundtrack of a beer picnic." It describes the atmosphere terrific although it's from an artists perspective.
A lot of people don't go to festivals because of the toilets and the lack of showers. But the atmosphere makes up for all the Dixie toilets and small tents without effort. You just need to develop a skill to search the cleanest toilet.
Also a lot of people who are going to this kind of festival often tend to be a little bit eccentric and alternative, which intimidates some people but I think that's also charm of the festivals. It doens't matter what you look like, or what kind of music you like. It's a chance for people to break free from their normal rhythms.
(You never get bored either, you can entertain yourself for hours by watching other people)
The only thing I don' t like about festivals is the extremely expensive food. Junk food is even cheaper than 'normal food'. An example, Once I wanted to buy a apple at a festival. The apple was one euro.. Crazy! In the supermarket it's possible to get 12 apples for 2 euro.
But that's really the only thing I don't like about festivals.
(camping at lowlands)
Interesting facts about festivals:
-The name Pinkpop is a combination of the Dutch word 'Pinksteren' which means Pentecost and pop.
-Pinkpop is always in the weekend of Pentecost. Since it's so early in the season, the wheather isn't always that nice, which leads to mud fights.
-This year was the 40th anniversary of Pinkpop.
-Which makes Pinkpop the eldest yearly returning festival of the world.
-Lowlands is a literal translation of Nederland, the dutch word for the Netherlands.
-Rock Werchter already received four times the award for best festival from the International Live Music Conference.
-Sziget, a festival in Hungary, is taking place from the 10th until 17th of August. Which makes it lasts for seven days. You need quite the stamina while visiting that festival.
-Parkpop is a free festival in The Hague. Free is always interesting for students.
zondag 24 mei 2009
A few years ago when I was looking for a book to read during my holidays I came across a book written by Floortje Dessing. She is an Dutch television host, presenting programs about traveling. In this book she wrote about 25 routes around the world you can not miss. But the subject of the book doesn't really matter, (except that it's about traveling). The thing I want to talk about are the sites she's mentioning at the end of her book. And believe me they are amazing.
For example http://www.thebluefish.com/. Unfortunately the site is redecorating at the moment, but when I visited it some time ago it had a lot of exceptional packages for their customers. Some of them were:
A week as James Bond, with excursions like sleeping in the suites used for the movies, enemy evading speed boat training (a chase could easily be arranged)and a top-secret transport to Zhukovsky Air Base for flight training exercise in military jet (ranging from MIG 21 to the latest SU-30). Meanwhile you're traveling all around Europe. Or if you want something else you can also propose you're girlfriend during a Broadway show. All actors are part of the plot of course.
The description the blue fish is giving of themselves is also quite unusual. "Bluefish Concierge is not a gopher service, an old boy’s network or a snobby bunch of party crashing showoffs. Please don’t call us to pick up your dry cleaning; that is simply not what we do. Instead, we offer the highest level of personalized travel, transportation and entertainment-related services to corporate executives, celebrities, professional athletes and other discerning individuals interested in living life to its fullest."
Or http://vocationvacations.com/, another extraordinary company. If you keep dreaming of a job as a dude rancher, wrestling commentator, make-up artist, wedding coordinator or an animal therapist this is the company for you. You name it and it's possible. Three days of one-on-one mentorship in your dream job. It's not cheap but you do get the chance to see what your dream job is like!
My favorite among the sites in the book is http://www.unusualhotelsoftheworld.com/ .
The site is about * surprise* unusual hotels! And when I say unusual I mean unusual. For example a lighthouse , an underwater hotel, a tree house ,a church or a hotel in the shape of a dog. In Sweden it's even possible to stay in a Silver mine, a 155 meter underground! My favorite is the lighthouse, especially because I read somewhere that they would bring breakfast to you in the mornings. I think it's amazing to wake up with a stunning view of the sea and some croissants.
"Holiday fast approaching and need urgent inspiration? Need to be on a plane like yesterday? Just fill in the form below and our panic specialists will contact you and ease the stress. Deep breaths. Help is at hand. " This is what happens when you hit the panic button at the site of http://www.blacktomato.co.uk/ .It's an English tour operator with a hip and modern website. They won several awards for being best/innovative travel website. Certainly interesting to check it out. They're also offering a lot of special packages.
I have to admit that none of these options are cheap. But you have to admit that they are unusual and amazing. At least I wish that I had the money to book a trip with them.
maandag 18 mei 2009
A few lectures ago we were discussing branding during services marketing. What do customers expect from a certain brand and how loyal are they to that specific brand. You can divide customers into a loyalty ladder:
Mission to Marzipan
Jamaican me crazy
Karamel Sutra
maandag 11 mei 2009
A few weeks ago there was an international week at InHolland. It actually came like a surprise because no one had seen it coming. But it was a pleasant surprise! It was a nice break from the normal lectures, with new fresh subjects. During the international week there were several guest lecturers giving lectures. There were lecturers from Egypt, Belgium, England, China, Australia, Poland, Finland and I think I'm still forgetting some other countries. Each of them gave several lectures through out the week.
At the beginning of the week there was a grand opening, with artists and music. There was also a possibility to participate in an interactive networking event. From the organization you got a card with a certain color and you had to find two other people with the same color to earn a free lunch. I thought that the event was really well organized and set up in a creative way.
Of course students need an incentive so that's why the free lunch was added.
Because I didn't had a lot of time that week I was only able to visit 5 guest lectures. The lectures I visited were about ecotourism, verbal and non verbal communication, marketing across cultures, a comment on global advertising and a lecture about the macro economy of China. I thought that the lectures about ecotourism and the macro economy of China were the most interesting for me. The content of the lectures of marketing across cultures and verbal and non verbal communicating was quite the same as the content of our own lectures. That's why they weren't as interesting as the other lectures. A comment on global advertising was also interesting but quite general.
The lecture about the macro economy of China was really interesting although economy is not my favorite subject. I thought it was especially interesting because the lecturer made use of a translator. A funny thing was that during the lecture you could see when he was about to tell a joke. First he started laughing than the translator. After her translation we finally got the joke. The lecture was also given from a Chinese perspective which is interesting because most of the time you only hear things about China from a western perspective.
The lecture about eco tourism was also really interesting because I would like to work in that field in the future. The lecturer told us a lot about researches she did concerning ecotourism in Australia. The lecture made things more clear to me, like that people will always harm the environment and that ecotourism is not the solution to save the environment but a way to find a balance between tourism and saving the environment.
Sheila Peake mentioned during the lecture that there is a lot of attention in Australia for ecotourism. It made me more enthusiastic to maybe study abroad at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia. But when I visited the Study Bazaar and asked about it she said that they only exchange one student per year with Inholland. That’s a shame because that’s makes it a lot harder to get an exchange place. But it's still the first year, there is still a lot of time to look for places to study abroad.
Because of my work I didn't got the opportunity to visit more lectures. I would have loved to visit the other guest lectures as well but there will be a next year. The other students were generally also really enthusiastic about the guest lectures! (half of them because they could earn an ICA point with it and the other half because they really thought it was interesting). Generally I think that the whole international week was a success and I would love to see this event return next year, and maybe even longer?
maandag 4 mei 2009
A few weeks ago I was running some errands together with my mom when she suddenly told me that they were invited again to go sailing. My parents have already been invited five times before, and they really enjoyed the weekend sailing. I always wanted to come long since the ship they're sailing with is really awesome, but I always had to work during the weekends so that was impossible. But this time I was free to go, since I'm not working in the weekends any more. I asked one friend to come along and this weekend we were set to go!
When I was little and we used to go sailing in the summer I always saw these huge ships in different harbors. They had two masts sometimes even three, numerous sails and a lot of people on them. For me there was always some invincible attraction. And now I was going to sail with one of them, finally!
The ship that we went sailing with is called the Moeke Zorn. Moeke Zorn is a clipper (a type of
ship) has two masts and is about 26 meters long. Another nice interesting thing is that most of the ships have a typical dutch name. Those typical dutch names just fit exactly with the ships. It would be really ridiculous to give such a ship a fancy name like Thrillseeker or Zinderella. The Moeke Zorn is even named after an old Dutch lady (I don't think she's alive anymore) and her picture hangs inside the cabin of the ship. Most of those ships are over a hundred years old.
We already left Friday evening to go to Enkhuizen, to be able to depart as soon as possible Saturday morning. We installed ourselves in our huts and got acquainted with everyone who was going to sail along. The son of the owner (the person who invited us to go along) was going to be the captain and a young guy was going to be 'de maat'. This last guy is a sort of assistant to the captain. While the captain is steering he is managing the sails together with the help of the passengers. All the people who came along were invited by the owners of the ship. The owners invite every year friends to come along sailing during a spring weekend.
Saturday morning we left Enkhuizen and we set sail for Medemblik. We crossed the IJsselmeer and arrived after a sunny day at the end of the afternoon in Medemblik. 'De maat' said that it was also called Mädchenblik because of the girls, (Mädchen is german for girls). I forgot to mention it before but there are always a lot of german groups at the ships, really A LOT.
When we arrived we explored Medemblik, which is a lovely village with pittoresque houses. After that we started cooking. The kitchen inside the ship is really excellent considering it's within a boat. A lot of kitchens within normal houses can't compare to that kitchen. The owner of the Moeke Zorn who came along was a terrific cook and with assistance of me and my friend we made a terrific pasta with salad. I really have to try out that recept another time.
The next morning we got up early again and after a solid breakfast we left shore on our way back to Enkhuizen. The weather wasn't as good as the first day, but the sailing was terrific. The force of the wind was about 4/5 using the scale of Beaufort. A little turbulent weather with a bit of rain, although it was cold it felt really good. To stay warm there was a nice hot soup as a lunch.
Around 3 o clock we arrived at the harbor already and we had to say goodbye. The weekend was terrific and it was great to sail with such a ship. When is the next weekend?
zondag 26 april 2009
Well as you may remember in my last blog, I said that I maybe would quit with writing this weekly blog. Which is clearly not the case since you're reading this. I know that there has been a little pause.(okay maybe a little bit of a big pause in my updates) But now they're supposed to be back on track! It has been almost a month ago since I updated it over here, so time for a new one!
Today I visited "de poffertjeskraam" in Laren. I thought it was a great idea to inform everyone about poffertjes since they're typical Dutch. Poffertjes are very similar to pancakes. The only difference is that they're really small and that they're always sweet. To bake poffertjes there are special pans. There is a special trick while baking the poffertjes. You have to turn them halfway and skilled cooks can be very quick in turning the poffertjes while baking. Really fascinating to see and impossible to do it that fast if you haven't done it before.
There are special establishments specialised in baking poffertjes. In Dutch they are called "poffertjeskraam". One famous poffertjeskraam is situated nearby my birthplace. It's called poffertjeskraam de Haan, but everyone calls it the poffertjeskraam of Laren (Laren is where it's situated). The poffertjeskraam is situated in the middle of the village and exists already for over a hundred years! The poffertjeskraam is the eldest of the still existing other poffertjeskramen.
I have to confess that I had actually never been there before (which shocked my friends who all come there at least once a year). So it was all new for me. I was really impressed with the service of the waiters and how they handled orders. They waiters were nice and when they took your order they shouted it through the poffertjeskraam. They don't write down the things you ordered but they just leave your plates and cups at the table and count everything when you want to pay your bill. Then they calculate without a calculator the price you have to pay. I was really impressed and surprised that no orders got mixed up and that the waiters were that skilled in calculating.
The interior of the poffertjeskraam within is also really beautiful. The poffertjeskraam is a temporary establishment, so it's only at the centre of Laren during the spring and summer. They build it up every spring and break it down at the end of the summer. The thing is that there are also trees at the spot of the poffertjeskraam. They simply solve this by making a hole in the roof . There is a magnificent Dutch proverb for that: "Waarom moeilijk doen als het makkelijk kan". Which translates to, "why should you make a lot of effort when it's possible to do it in an easier way?". I have to say it was quite odd to suddenly see a tree inside the poffertjeskraam. Within the establishment there are several small corners to privatly eat with your friends, family or anyone you want to eat poffertjes with. There are also long tables in the middle at which you can eat with more people and outside there is a little terrace to also sit on.
The baking of the poffertjes takes place right in front of your nose. I'ts wonderful to see the baking live! Next to the poffertjes they also serve waffles. For the waffles they still use a oven they bought in 1890. (Talking about a nice investment a hundred years ago!)
After I ate my portion of poffertjes and one waffle, I was quite satiated and happy about visiting the poffertjeskraam. And then we had to pay..
To my surprise the bill wasn't that shocking. For one portion you pay 2, 75. Most of the time you take two portions, which makes 5,50. It's my humble opinion that such a price is fair for the quality and experience you get. So if your near Laren in the spring or summertime you should really visit this lovely establishment! Highly recommendable!
references and pictures used from the site of poffertjeskraam de Haan: http://www.poffertjeskraamlaren.nl/index.php
