I still owe you all an update of Lisa’s and Bram’s visit here (before I forget everything that has happened)

They arrived on a Wednesday and it was so much fun to see them again! Of course they were tired, they had to get up early in the morning so we didn’t do much that day. We walked through the city a bit and went out for dinner. They also told me that they had a birthday present for me (my birthday is 13th July btw :p haha) and it was a week to the highlands! So cool and sweet of them!
Thursday I had to get up early for school. I had some lecture but it turned out it was very short and I was back before they were awake. Lisa is always the first one that’s awake, then I get up with my sleepy head and somewhere later that day we see Bram, he’s always the last one but we’re used to that :p I can’t remember what else we did that day. Maybe we rented some movies that night?
Friday we went to the international museum. I also had a meeting with a teacher at school but we figured that the museum wouldn’t take too long. Once inside it turned out to be huge, with so many stuff that I only had the change to see 1,5 floors. The museum is free so that doesn’t matter. Lisa and I thought there was too much to see there. Instead of 5 old spear points you had millions! The meeting at school was useful and when I came back we went for a drink in the famous Bobby pub. There is some legend about a guy that died and his dog sat every day on his grave, something like that.
No idea what we’ve done on Saturday and Sunday so maybe it’s better I just talk about events instead of every day that passed ghehe.

Arthur's Seat
There’s a big mountain in the city of Edinburgh, it’s incredible to see. And there are some paths to climb it. We chose a path that was the most steep one I ever walked and of course I couldn’t catch up with Lisa and Bram after a few meters hahaha. That’s one thing I found out during their visit here, I’m in bad shape. I just took it easy and enjoyed the scenery very often (to catch some breath in secret of course :p ) After a while I really became tired and the bad night of sleep before didn’t help much too. We reached the top and the view was amazing! It was also very windy!!! The way down we took the long route and we came back safe.

Portobello beach
Ohyeah, there was this nice idea to go to the beach. That day however was freezing like hell! We took a bus we weren’t sure off. Got off very near to the beach and whop there it was. A not so big sandy beach, but still very nice. We walked all the way until there was no beach left anymore, picking up shells and other stuff. There was a row of wooden poles going from the beach into the sea. Of course Lisa, brave as she always is, climbed up and walked towards the sea on them. A big wave came rolling towards the beach, creating a fountain of water by each pole it hit and there stood Lisa with no place to go. You could see those fountains of water coming closer and closer and whoosh, lisa was wet, hahaha. Poor girl, it was so windy and incredibly cold!
When we reached the end of the beach they wanted to go further and climb the rocks. I was freezing however and got my long coat on and I can’t climb with that one. Bram gave me his camera so I could take pictures of them from the road above. After the first picture the camera was empty -_-‘ so I walked and waited until Bram and Lisa were finished. Took a long time though and I really started to feel sick. We walked back to a cafe to warm ourselves up again. After a while I was ok again. We went back with a bag full of shells and there is little crabby on my desk now ^_^

ZOO
The zoo was bigger than I expected. They also had some animals I never had seen in real life (like koala’s and ehm...). It was a beautiful day, in fact all the days were sunny and beautiful...and cold. We saw some horny rhino’s (hah a joke, but really..they were horny, you know like hot...for each other.....and they were two boy rhinos 0_o ), a penguin parade, a frustrated tiger, and many more.
It’s a nice zoo, everything looks good and I wanna go back and take a penguin home. Oh and in the end I didn’t get to see the koalas so I have to go back anyway.

Highlands
During the week I got more and more appointments for school so in the end we decided to make our holiday shorter. We went a weekend, from Friday till Monday to Balloch. I also had a meeting Friday morning so we agreed to meet each other at the station, however once again I was finished in 15 minutes (was important to be there though). Found out that I forgot my mobile when I tried to call Lisa and Bram and went back home to get it.
We had booked a bed and breakfast in Balloch. It was 2 hours with the train and we arrived in the evening. We walked around for a bit, talked with the nice lady from tourist information, and went out for dinner at the Tullies.
The next day we took a path around the castle of Balloch, went with a boat on the lake, got something to drink and walked all the way too Luss the nearest town. We experimented with the route (meaning Lisa wanted to climb over fences and do off road walking haha). After two hours non stop walking (it gets dark at 5 so we had to hurry a bit) I got tired and cranky. We walked another hour in the dark and got to Luss where we walked into the first restaurant we saw. I was exhausted! Luckily we took the bus back. First we all thought we had missed the bus and the next one would come in two hours or something, but then he turned around and we got safely home. Went to bed straight away.
The next day we took a bus to Balmaha to see the millennium forest. The bus driver was crazy! High speed over a curvy road with a lot of bumbs :s The plan of the day was starting with a nice walk through the forest and then I would go back to work on my paper for school while Lisa and Bram would continue and climb the high mountain. After a while we decided once again to take a short cut and found out that we were suddenly near the top of the big hill so I figured what the hell, I’m already this far so I’ll go on. On the way we found a dead sheep (totally decomposed and clean bones) so cool! Bram took the skull with him to Holland.
I don’t remember how long it took us to climb there, but it was pretty steep and incredibly beautiful! On the top I discovered we were above the clouds! That was so weird to see, it looked like we were in an air plane. Lisa said that if you’re skydiving the world kinda looks like this. After a while I felt uncomfortable and wanted to go down. Bram figured we could go a different way down but that was horrifying steep for someone with fear of heights! So I panicked and wanted to go down but had the feeling I couldn’t and was trapped. Everything was too high for me and I was scared. Lisa calmed me down by acting like it wasn’t a big deal and distracted me with telling stories. Together we climbed down while Bram was looking for the best path for us to take. After a while we were safe on normal ground and had a lunch and dinner in Balmaha. What an adventure! The last day we had to get up early and leave the bed and breakfast. Luckily we could store our luggage in the car of one of the tourist information ladies. We took the bus again to Balmaha and wandered around in the millennium forest. We climbed a smaller hill and I thought there would be an easy way down on the other side. On the top of the hill it turned out we had to go the same way back, scary! Bram was first and a bit ahead of Lisa and me. Lisa was in front of me and I managed to slip and slide to the end of the road, towards the deep hole. Luckily Lisa grabbed me and stopped me from falling. We both were silent for a moment and then she laughed, I looked at her and laughed too. We hurted our knees though, and Lisa had to help me down once again because I got scared, haha. We went back to Balloch, bought a cake for the tourist ladies and went back home with the train. Dirty and tired we arrived in Edinburgh.

When I dropped Bram and Lisa at the airport I felt sick. As soon as I got home I went straight to bed and slept the entire day, only to wake up for some food and went back to sleep again. In two days I had to finish my Research Proposal and prepare a pitch though! The next day I had to cancel the pitch because I still felt sick and worked on my paper. Now I finished that one in time, printed it out and handed it in. Finally I could relax and be sick.



A holiday video w00t! Featuring the horny rhinos, brave Lisa, highlands, morning face Nicole Arthur's seat and helpful Bram. Most of the time you hear me in the background squeaking like a retarded monkey XD

- I got money from school to create my animation! How cool is that!
- Thanx for all the cards and packages! I’m trying to catch up with sending postcards but due to Christmas mail it’s going to take a long time anyway.
- My graduation animation is going to be on television! On a local channel in Breda and around, at a program called KleurenteleviZie. Every second Thursday night of the month at 0:30am, 1:30am en 2:30am. I think my animation is shown on next Thursday or otherwise the next month.
- I’m coming back to Holland from 28th of December till 7th of January.
- It’s already dark here at 4 o’clock
- Joy is moving out of the flat. She found a big place on her own closer to school, lucky girl!

Click to view full size! This apeared in Skrien a dutch movie magazine. Too bad it's in Dutch. The auto translation says:

Hiya,
I had a great time this week. Everything was about Halloween, they really like to celebrate it here in Scotland (Halloween or samhuinn, the celtic new year.).
Yubing and I went to a big second hand shop at grassmarket to find an outfit for Halloween. At some point we had the idea that I would dress up as a Chinese girl and Yubing as a Dutch girl. It was easy to find chinese clothes but Dutch clothes were very difficult. We only could find wooden shoes but they were very expensive :( In the end I bought a kimono and a petticoat for 20 pound.
The next day I was sick. I had a horrible night with no sleep and a fever. The next morning my stomach was really upset. Didn’t do much that day.


Yubing invited me for a Halloween party Thursday. I did feel a lot better that day so I dressed up as a geisha and went to Yubing. Yubing had bought some random clothes and in the end she looked like those famous mongolian horse riders, it was so cool. The other flatmates didn’t dress up because they had no time (and Halloween was the next day so they really didn’t have to). We went to the club where the party was but it was closed! The invitation said 8 o’clock and we were already fifteen minutes late :s They opened the club however and for a long time we were the only guests. We got a free drink and after a while it was crowded. Almost everyone dressed up. There was a costume contest (a zombie nurse won) there was karaoke and a dj. It was a nice night with a lot of fun!

The next day was really Halloween. We discovered that there would be a parade later that evening at the royal mile. Yubing went with her flatmates, Joy went with her schoolmates and Julia and I went together. With a hot wine in the hand and a camera in the other we enjoyed the parade. It was a big company of actors dressed up as devils and more characters I didn’t know off (I think they were some characters from a myth). After the parade they went to a stage and performed a play about something, it was really hard to understand but something with a king winter and he killed the other king and lots of devils.





After the play we went home for another party. The neighbours invited us for their Halloween party. So Joy, a friend of Joy, Julia and me went to them with a bottle of wine. It was really busy and everyone had a nice costume! The boys had transformed the flat, every room was black and had cobwebs with spiders, some ghosts on the ceiling, there was a corpse in the bad next to the toilet and so on. We ended up drinking our own present for them (all the other food and drinks were already gone) and got drunk. It was nice though because our beds were just a few meters away, haha. I don’t know how late we went home but the party was still going one when I was sleeping.

The next morning Julia and I went to a dr Sketchy class. It’s a life drawing class with burlesque models in a bar. Very nice! One of the models gave a little show and after that the two models took poses for 10 or 15 minutes. After each pose the hostes walked through the audience and picked some drawings out to show them to eveyone. It’s not neccesary to be a good artist, it’s not serious and fun is the most important thing. If they liked your drawing you’d get a drink. It was so much fun although we had a hangover haha. I’m sure I’ll go next time, it’s a good thing to practise my life drawings again.
Sunday was my cleaning day. I cleaned my room and the bathroom did some homework and now I’m going to watch some dvd’s. Next week I’m planning to go every day to school because it’s going to be a busy period for me. I have to give a presentation of my work next week and hand in a written piece of 2000 words in a few weeks. But Bram and Lisa are visiting me soon so I want to finish it earlier so I have more time with them :)

Hello everyone! I started working on my animation project for this year. Check www.improvelilly.blogspot.com. A lot of things need to be done and you really could help me a lot by giving me some feedback once in a while. Just let me know what you think. Thanx!

I'm quite busy now with a lot of things. I've had some lectures at school now and I still had to arrange some things. This week was pretty though but I'm so happy that Maart comes to visit me this Sunday! I miss him a lot.

Well I'm back to work.

I had to get up early for the first time since I’ve been to Schotland. The three weeks before I had created an awefull rhythm of going to bed at 3am and getting up at 1pm. So the first schoolday was though for me hehe. I timed my walk to school the day before and it’s 15 minutes so I knew how much time I had.
That Monday I was in time but I didn’t know where to go :s There were some people with the same problem however and together we found the lecture room.We had to listen to a fire safety talk. It turns out that if there’s a fire in school we’re pretty much screwed if you don’t know what to do. Looks like they’re more affaid of a fire than anywhere else. However it’s kinda understandable if you hear the story about a university that’s already burned down for three times now. The story goes now that the building has a voodoo curse hehe. Anyways back to my first schoolday :p We also had to watch a security video from the 80’s hahaha. A guy with one huge earring told us how a day in his life as a thief looks like. It supposed to be an instruction video how you can look after your stuff however it learned us more about how to steal stuff XD

Tuesday was my matriculation and there was a long que and I didn’t really know how it worked -_-‘ When it was my turn I told them my name and the woman said ‘aaah you are Nicole Volbeda!’ and then turned to someone else ‘she got that award from school you know’ :s I was so confused, I didn’t hear anything about that award after the phonecall of the principal. There was a hall and they’d made different offices there for everyone to sign up. I just sat down somewhere and checked the form that was given to me. And from here on there was no system anymore :s Everyone stood up random when they thought it was their turn. Some offices further I found out what my tuition fee was and that I did got an award from school. Got my student card, a lot of info for international students and when I was finished I went home quick, confused and tired.

Wednesday was a tour through Edinburgh and although I knew the city fine by now I went anyways (to make some friends). I met a Student from Spain and one from Sweden. It was fun and I was glad I went to the tour. That day was also my first dancelesson. I’m glad I’m taking dancelessons again, I love to dance.

Thursday was my day off and I felt sick that day :p I’ve got almost the Scottisch cold (but I’m feeling fine now).

Friday was a lecture for all MA students. I sat alone behind the teachers and a woman turned to me and asked; Nicole Volbeda? (Everyone seems to know me somehow :s Although that isn’t very difficult being the only one with pink hair.) She told me that there were some animation students sitting a few rows behind me and that I should join them. So I did haha. She was really nice and it seems that she knows almost everyone at the academy. After the lecture my classmates showed me the studio. It looks like an attic and it’s a nice place to work. Everyone have their own desk. I'll put some photos online. After that I went to the international student party with free wine and food *yay*. Also did meet some new people there.
That evening I went with my flatmate Julia to another party. After getting lost we finaly found it and a Dutch person opened the door! Finaly that’s the first one I meet here. I couldn’t talk Dutch though :s that was weird. I’m so used to English now. After that party I moved on to the next one at school. That one was empty though and we descided with a group that we would go out in the city. But after walking for a long time I was tired and I had to get up early Saturday so I went home.

Saturday was my Tribal dance workshop (early!) It was a lot of fun and I signed up for more lessons. The rest of the weekend was lazy *yay*.

Random things:
- I'm so happy with my all stars dvd's! My flatmates are curious about the series and it's too bad that the dvd has no subtitles option.
- I'm lazy lately although I do a lot of preparation work for my project.
- At the moment I still haven't got a schedule for school. I think everyone is very busy and I'm going to school anyway.
- Thanx mum and dad and sis for the card :p

For some reason I can't visit any blogspot site on my laptop. It's really anoying and also the reason why there aren't any updates this week. I hope to fix this and if anyone might have clue what could be wrong tell me.

Thanks to:
- Marcel and Jetske for their nice card. It was the first one I got *yay*
- The whole family Backx for their special Oosterhout greeting card, ghehe.
- Lisa for the beautiful card. It's framed now :p
- Tom for the text message. Í keep forgetting to text something back -_-'

I'll tell you about my first schoolweek as soon as I can. That week was quite confusing :s

The new up to date version of my room in Edinburgh. With the bathroom and new Ikea stuff. I needed to do some editing in the movie because the white balance of my camera was freaking out :s

holyrood house fountain

Holyrood House
I’ve visited this place on a Tuesday (or a Monday? I can’t remember). There was an exhibition going on called ‘the art of Italy in the royal collection: the renaissance’. It may sound boring for some people :p but I really wanted to see it.
The exhibition wasn’t big but it contained some famous works from artists like Bellini, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Caravaggio and Titian. I was stunned by some of the portraits and most of all by the sketches. I wish I could draw and paint like that. After that I went on with a tour trough the palace. The palace is beautiful and I enjoyed walking and listening to the history of it. I have a weakness for costume drama’s and especially that of Queen Elizabeth and Mary, Queen of Scots. So I really enjoyed this visit. When I got home I was exhausted :p

Holyrood Abbey

Night out
One day (I can’t really keep track of days here :p) Joy asked Julia and me if we’d like to meet some of her friends and go out. We had dinner in a French restaurant at grasmarket. The food was nice and some people even tried escargots (yuk). We talked about strange eating habbits and most of the people were Asian so we heard some shocking stories, haha. Like eating monkey brains and other nasty parts of an animal. Even some stories about eating animals alive. That was a nice conversation while we’re eating, haha. It was fun though, really nice people (although that sounds a bit weird now :s but they are nice!)
After that we went out and tried some pubs and clubs. It was early, 9pm so everything was kinda empty. We explored cowgate and found some nice clubs and a live band. At some point we stood outside in a que to get in a irish pub. When we asked the security guy how long it would take to get inside he says’well this place is closed, I dunno why everyone is forming a line to wait, I can’t let anyone in.’ XD
For the rest of the night we played pool and soccer. There was also a punching bag that could meassure your strenght. Everyone tried it once but me. I hate those things and I know I can’t punch. However after some persuasion of everyone I hit that stupid thing and my score was somehow good, almost high hahaha. So yeah, just to let you know :p I can punch. That night we were home at 1am.
The next day our new flatmate visited us. We were all tired and wasted from the night before and they waked us up with the doorbell. I guess we could do a lot better for a first impression XD I was walking around like a zombie, just a few minutes awake. But she took the room she had come to see and now we are complete. Four people in the flat.

Freshers week
There’s a festival going on this week. It’s for all the new students at the University and although my school doesn’t participate in this event I did (in secret). I still don’t know if it’s allowed for non University students but they didn’t check me so I gues it’s their own fault. It’s a bit complicated because (I guess) my school is at university level although it’s called College of Art and didn’t show up in the list for freshers (new students) of university’s. Anyway, you have to buy a freshers pack online if you want to attend the festival. It contains a agenda, student servival guide, a lot of info booklets, and a week guide of the festival. Julia wanted to buy one online for me too but we found out that she bought the last one! So we went to the shop a few blocks away where you can pick up the freshers packs (it’s so retarded that you have to buy it online first with online payment and then pick it up in a store :s) and because they were sold out online they did it from now on in the shop, so I could buy my pack there.
The first night of the festival I convinced my flatmates we should play wii in the pub (that was one of the events you could choose from). Walking there we thought that there would be long lines for the wii’s and that everyone is younger then we are. Once we’d arrived we thought we were at the wrong place, there was nobody! We had the wii all for ourselves! After playing for a few hours we left to go to a party for students. This time there was a huge que with a waiting time of three hours! Joy also heard from one off the staff members that her gold card (which she payed a lot of money for together with her freshers pack) was no more in use because they found out it was rubbish last year, waah. Julia and I went on to a pub to get a drink. It was fun until some boys were anoying us and we went home.
Monday I went to a Ceilidh workshop with Julia. It was a workship of three hours! Totaly exhausting because youre jumping all the time. I really haven’t got any fatigue. It was fun though. Seeing some new people and get some exercise. Although I don’t like it to dance with a partner. I haven’t got the patience for that. After two hours Julia and I left the class tired. I had an one hour break before I would be attending a bellydance workshop with Joy. Bellydancing was fun too although the room was to small for all the students that showed up so we had to dance shoulder to shoulder. I knew the moves already but it was fun doing some bellydance again. Signed up for weekly classes and I finaly found a tribal style bellydance workshop!
After that we joined a que for a cabaret performance of two guys. It was taking so long and we heard that the comedians hadn’t arrived yet. Once we finaly could go in and got to sit, I was so tired of dancing. The comedians were fun, there was one guy from Finland sitting in the audience that tried to hackle the comedian (not part of the show). The comedians did a lot of improv and the last one didn’t want to stop. So he kept talking and asking some questions to the audience although his time was up for a long time. After that we collapsed at home and went to sleep.
Today I have a LOT of aching muscles. It’s even so bad that when I sit for a while I can’t stand up. I have to walk on my toes. I’m feeling a bit sick too. However I made Burrito’s (or Enchiladas I dunno) for everyone. Although I improvised they liked it!

Joy and Julia Wii gaming

Whoppa and that are my stories! Hope you liked it :p There’s a Ghost tour comming up tomorrow and my school starts next week. Until then stay entertained with this wonderful game!

Magic Pen Collect the flags with the red ball to complete each level.

Play this free game now!!

My parents are sad because I'm living so far away (NOT!)

[UPDATE]
Today I went to visit Ikea instead of the palace. The weather was rainy so I didn’t feel like walking all day :p Ikea was fun! There’s so much nice cheap stuff and again I went a bit crazy. I’ve bought 2 throws, 2 photoframes, a lot of candles, a laundry basket, a sweet small lamp, and a matras cover (I keep thinking I’m forgetting someting). It was quite a adventure going to Ikea haha. Julia has a small mini and she had to drive left. However she was doing great! I couldn’t imagine me driving left, but hey I’m scared of driving anyway :p We both looked very careful and found our way easy to Ikea.
We came home a bit late for dinner. After unpacking our stuff I called home to tell them about my day. Julia made some pizza and used the oven for the first time. Suddenly there was a big black cloud and it smelled really aweful! I had to hang up and open a window because I couldn’t breathe anymore in the kitchen. And then suddenly the fire alarms went off! What a horrible sound! Our ceilings are very high so we had to grab a pole quick and push some button to switch them off. One fire alarm hasn’t survived.
So that was quite a busy day *sigh*

Ohyeah! woohoo! [insert lots of dancing kirby's]
Just wanna scream that I've recieved a scholarship from Edinburgh College of Art! This means no more money problems! I don't have to search for a job during my study! woohoo!

Well I'm going to shop now! Buy myself some nice gifts to celebrate. I'll write about my new room and moving in here tonight....no really!

[update later that evening] Well dunno if someone's reading my blog -_-' however the update of my new room is coming an other day. I've bought a lot of stuff today though. I even had to come back home because I couldn't carry it anymore. I've got; the 4th part of twilight, some unimportant beauty and health stuff, an aquarelbox with paper, wool and knitting needles, a green bowl, socks, some desk stuff like a stapler and more.

At last an update! I’ve put my story in chapters to make it better to read.

Lowlands
My parents gave me a ticket to Lowlands. Lowlands is a ‘music/theatre/and a lot more’ festival of three days. It was my little holiday of this summer. I went with Lisa, Marielle and Hanneke on Friday. The plan was leaving early ( 6am) so we could get a good spot for our tents. So after some lugage stress I went early to bed that Thursday to get a good rest. Suddenly at 2am I heard some loud music comming from the neighbours. It went on and on and it was driving Maart and me crazy. We knocked on their door and complained, and they didn’t listen. That night I’ve gotten 2 hours of sleep...-_-‘So I felt a bit rubbish that day. The journey to Lowlands was fine. We had to wait putting our tents up because the field wasn’t open (for people that know Lowlands, we were on camp 7). We managed to get a good spot and there was actually some space between us and our neighbours.
I’ve seen many bands and I really don’t know their names anymore. The best acts were (my humble opinion :p) asakussa jinta, some weird 8bit computer guy from Sweden and de jeugd van tegenwoordig. I’ve seen a lot more though.
At the end of the festival I felt dirty, tired and satisfied.

A fight
So yeah, the neighbours that appeared earlier in the story...Well they’re playing loud(!) music. That’s not a problem if it wasn’t like every day from 4am till 7am. I think the average was like 2 nights of no music in a week. First we explained them we could hear it really good through the walls, second we’ve complained, third we let the neighbours come over and let them listen how loud it was and it all didn’t help. When we complained at their door once again they were not home :s some drunken guys of the neighbourhood had a party in their house and left the door open. That was it, we called the police. They recieved a warning.
The last night in our house (before we moved out) the music was really getting bad. Lots of drunken people on the street, loud music. I was so tired, I didn’t got much sleep that week. In the end at 7am Maart was yelling at them and I was crying on the phone calling the police hahaha. I’m glad I don’t live there anymore. It’s ok to play loud music once in a while however not every day at inhumane times.

Farewell party
So last Thursday was my big birthday/graduation/farewell party. The whole house was empty because we were moving out. Maart did so much for the party, he put big pillows on the ground to sit on, created a huge low table and had taken care of the music. My mother provided all the drinks and food, hehe. And I was buisy with other things than my party actually.
So many people showed up and thank you all guys for the nice presents! I was feeling a bit weird. Happy because it was a party :p and sad knowing I won’t be seeing my friends after this. However I’ll be on msn and if you want to add me its: me_and_ul@hotmail.com (yeah I know, there’s a typing error in my email but I’m too lazy to correct it).

Short news:
- We let our birds free (because nobody wanted to take care of them, not even an animal shelter) and got yelled at by people of the animal shelter :s no kidding.
- My tattoo is scheduled for later.
- I have found my felt pieces and finished my squid bag!
- The big moving to Edinburgh story is coming soon (somewhere this week).

I’ve got the results of my blood exam today. Some people thought it was a good idea to check my blood and I don’t blame them :p I’m often sick and when I’m in Scotland there’s nobody making soup, nice cool beds and hugging me *boohoo* I wonder why I’m feeling unhealthy. Maybe it has something to do with my lifestyle? I eat pizza for breakfast, I love liqueur, don’t like vegetables and candy is my favourite snack...
Oh and my blood was fine. It was red and liquid like blood’s supposed to be. I still regret seeing that, I wasn’t feeling well seeing my own blood (and that’s a understatement) XD However I promise to take care of myself in Scotland. Three meals every day, vegetables and fruit and all that stuff.

Woohoo! I have a ticket for Lowlands! Thank you Lisa! Looks like I’m going to a festival after all ^_^ It’s the only vacation I’m going to have this year. Looking forward to the noise and three days no shower muha! Listening to the bands now to see which ones I’m going to harass. I’ll take some photos :p

Short news
-I can’t finish my squid bag, argh! I lost my felt pieces for making the eyes and stuff. Maybe it’ll show up when we’re moving out...
- ...Maart and I are moving out of our house...He isn’t allowed to stay alone in this big house and he has already found a new home.
- I hate this lame summer weather!
- The big farewell party is planned and invitations are on their way. It’s actually not allowed to give partys in our house but everyone else in the street seems to ignore that so puh! Two days later I’m on plane to Scotland, muhaha they can’t catch me.
- I’m a bit busy these days with two lame deadlines and arranging stuff.
- I’m going to cook a nice fish with potatoes and cauliflower,beans and bacon. How healthy is that!

Bye!Watching this a lot now (bobobo bo-bobobo or something like that) It's absolutely weird, fast and he fights with his nose hair....no really it's cool.

I’m back in Holland again and I already miss Edinburgh. I guess that’s a good thing because I’m going to live there for a year ^_^ Here is the story from start;

When the plane tickets were booked the major stress began. I’d arranged some viewings and that turned out to be a bit more difficult than I thought it would be. Most of the people didn’t reply or the rooms weren’t available anymore. Some butterflies appeared in my stomach and they soon turned into hurricanes. I was so nervous for the flight I couldn’t eat. I have flown when I was little before and one really bad flight developed into a foby. I’ve tried it once again and it wasn’t a succes. There was no chance I would step into an airplane alone this time, so my mum went with me to Edinburgh. Although that didn’t made my foby for flying any less. It turned so bad I went to the doctor for some tranquillizers. I also rememberd I got a book for my birthday called ‘how to treat your flight fear’ so I started reading and it helped me so much! I learned a lot about airplanes and flying and that helped me to reduce my fear, though I was still scared.

The night before I went to Edinburgh I had managed to arrange 6 viewings. I took one pil for sleeping and when I woke up I didn’t feel any stress (because of the pil). I took two more, just to be sure, and I felt so peacefull like I was in a Zen state or something, haha. My mother said it looked like I was drunk and high. Once in the plane I didn’t feel scared although I couldn’t control my shivering :s
We were in the air for about 10 minutes and then the captain anounced that we had to go back to the airport. A bird had flown into the engine while we took off and there wasn’t a mechanic in Edinburgh that could fix that. So we had to turn and fix it in Weeze (Germany). He told that it happens sometimes and I thought it was funny (completely high XD). I was already sleeping when we landed and they were fixing the engine.

Once arrived in Edinburgh we went to our hotel. It was located in a huge building excavation in the city hehe. For the next three days we visited the viewings, the campus and my new school. August is a festival month in Edinburgh so the city was full of people. The Fringe festival had just started and the streets were filled with students/theatre/dance/comic groups giving a sneak preview of their shows shown later that night and handed out flyers.
The viewings went fine. The people were very nice and welcome. It was sometimes a bit difficult though because most of the people didn’t gave me a housenumber and didn’t call me back when I left a message. I’ve seen 4 rooms out of 6 and I have a beautiful room now! It’s a huge room in a nice grand building with large windows and high ceilings (some people might remember the house in Tilburg where Maarten en I lived in, and it looks a bit like that only better taken care of ^_^ ) There are three other girls living there, I haven’t met them yet. The living room and the kitchen is shared and we have two bathrooms for 4 girls. The house is located at the meadows (a huge park full with relaxing students), about a 15 minute walk to school. My room is furnished, big, has internet and I can make free international calls ^_^ The closet doors are mirrors so I can practise my dance moves too XD Unfortunately I haven’t got a photo of the room.
My school is nice too. The outside is a big red modern building and inside it looks more classical with greek statues and pillars. There was an expo going on so I couln’t check everything, most of the doors were locked. The city itself is lovely! It looks so medieval, and I’m in love with the old part of the town.

Now I’m back home and have to do a lot of stuff. The hardest part is missing my boyfriend. Those four days were long without him. I’m glad I have internet and free international calls there.
I will be moving in September the 1st. My dad is coming with me because I’m still afraid of flying (I feel like such a baby :p) however if he can’t make it I’m looking for a good friend to support me. I promise I won’t hurt you ^_^

The view a bit closer

My new school

The castle of Edinburgh

Fawlty Towers! (the woman wouldn't go away grrr)

Another church

A black church

Nice old city

Tired of walking

Lovely old graveyard. There was actually a market going on between the tombstones :s

At last a first entry! Beware of all the useless information and bad spelling! I still need to instal an English spelling check.

There is so much going on at the moment, where shall I start? Let’s begin this blog with my graduation, yeah, that’s nice. It’s the end of my happy careless student life and the beginning of my serious stressful (thank you hirvine :p) animation career.....I hope.
My graduation was busy, hectic and stressful. The lack of sunlight and proper care for myself had an effect on me. I sat behind my computer animating all day long and in the end I felt nothing was done. It was addicting though, seeing the movements I had made and finishing one shot at a time. Due to the short time, and yes it’s my own fault I lack planning skills, some parts weren’t finished as they should be. Some scenes need to be redone, I forgot the color one scene (that’s fixed now) and most of my sounds came from a sound database. So this animation is still under construction and therefore I will not send it to festivals. There is one festival though that asked me for my animation and that is the lovely butffestival (B-movie, Underground en Trash Film). If you’re really into that stuff, like me, go and visit!

After my graduation I wasn’t used to all the free time. I created a new project; arrange everything for Scotland. I’m accapted at the Edinburgh College of Art and I’m going to study a Master in Animation there. This means I will be gone for a year, but no worries, I’ll keep everyone up to date using this blog.
My quest for a room hasn’t succeeded yet therefore I’m going this Sunday (3th of August) to Edinburgh for the first time! I’m so excited. There’s also a festival going on there. I will be back Wednesday (6th of August).

My birthday was fun (it was the 13th of July and I don’t mind if you forgot it, I’m bad at remembering birthdays too) and I got the best present ever! The next time you see me I will be having a tattoo, muha! I’m feeling tough already haha. It’s not a big deal though, they’re small stars in a brown color at random places on my body. Like little freckles...in a star shape....stary freckles....freckely stars, you know the idea. It’s a gift from Maarten, my boyfriend. I also got a very pink photocamera that can take photos underwater (ohhellyeah, how awesome is that!) and a beautiful big moonstone ring and bracelet.
There will be a party celebrating my graduation/birthday/leaving Holland (I need moneys, studying abroad isn’t cheap :p). Invitations are coming. There’s a party in Oosterhout for my family and a party in Breda for my friends and then I will leave you alone for a year.

A pretty big first entry, I’m so proud. Well I end this with some useless information.

Short news of the ever so amazing life of Nicole
- I’m working on a giant squid bag (in the colors pink and blue ofcourse). The tentacles are the shoulder straps and his mouth is the opening of the bag. The proces of creating it was a big pain in the ass but it’s almost finished now. Photos are online soon. I’ll make more for money.
- I’m busy finishing an animation for droomwevers. They had a child poem and needed some animation with it. It’s on youtube soon!
- I’m reading books again! Yeah, I’m not kidding. I developt a huge laziness and reading books is part of it. Addicted to the Twilight series at the moment ^_^ I couldn’t put the book down and before I knew it was 5:00AM. I just started the third book.