tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86912412383804565602024-02-19T03:20:40.311+01:00McBlochThe amazing adventures of Nicole VolbedaNicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05417023912271326523noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691241238380456560.post-1895027979956393762011-03-28T17:36:00.001+02:002012-01-03T17:00:43.664+01:00The EndI moved back to Holland and this blog has come to an end. However to keep in touch you can check my new blog: <a href="http://nvolbeda.blogspot.com/">n.volbeda.blogspot.com</a><br />
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Thank you all for your support during my year abroad!Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05417023912271326523noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691241238380456560.post-34188422594760114212009-05-31T19:32:00.004+02:002009-05-31T19:45:34.527+02:00Helloooooo Blog<div><br /><div><br /><div>Hi people, long time no message. A lot has happened so this update will be of epic length. I wanted to write it yesterday but I needed my diary to remember the past and I couldn’t find it anywhere. Rushed to school and my teacher found it. So now the adventures start again:<br /><br />Parental visit<br />My parents and little sister visited me for a few days. It was a lot of fun and finally I ate some good food again. My cooking is not that bad but sometimes I don’t know what to cook anymore. It’s always pasta, nachos, some strange curry and it then starts over again unless I’ve got a package from Holland with nice Dutch food. We shopped, ate, drank and they visited some tourist attractions I already had seen a few times. We also climbed Arthur’s Seat on a very sunny day, really beautiful! I was really happy they came to visit me.<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342044370754599922" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRwNABausQWV9xNMG5N1v9yGdutknYIBa8DmH4PaEs5F1tJXZK82nU-SUm4wPWArMPLn7GV7PSWLht42HaOhJmCuj5WeetwuOuQHJAygCybdbpW0zIaDL0Cp5z7XQ-7gKU9SxEANFdgHw/s320/P3170018.JPG" border="0" /><br />Producer<br />A guy named Oscar van Heek emailed me asking if we could meet. He explained that he is a producer and a teacher at the Napier Film University and that my scriptwriter Jonathan had done a presentation about my animation Lilly. He showed Oscar some drawings I had made and Oscar wanted to talk about my project with me. We would meet in a cinema café (how appropriate). I was a bit nervous and it almost felt like a blind date :s I had never seen him before.<br />He was very friendly and asked where I was from. I told him I was Dutch and he told me he was Dutch too! He moved to the UK when he was young but he still visits Holland sometimes. So we did the rest of the conversation in Dutch, I was so happy.<br />He told me they were busy making a series and when he saw my drawings of Lilly he said that was the style they were looking for. His project is still in development and I’m not sure how much I can tell so I’ll leave it like this. Maybe to be continued….<br /><br />Extra shooting day<br />After loading the footage for my animation Patricia and me discovered there was dirt on the lens so all our footage was not usable. So we planned to do it over. I had to order a second cake and when I wanted to pick it up in the morning before starting filming, the cake shop was closed! On the door they said they would be open at 10 but they opened much later. I got a second cake for the same discount which is really nice of them. It looks a bit different then the first one but that didn’t matter because we had to do everything over.<br />At the apartment for our shoot I discovered I forgot the reference for Lilly, the stuffed panda I use to see the size of Lilly in the shots. Patricia forgot some cables to upload the footage to my laptop because this time we wanted to make sure nothing would go wrong. So we decided to go back to fetch all the stuff in our apartments and start shooting. In the end we had quite a big delay. This time the filming went much smoother however because we knew what we had to do. We checked almost every shot on my laptop and at a certain point we saw the dust was back again! We could see that on the inside of the lens were some tiny specks, grrr. After a while Patricia discovered we could screw the lenses off and clean everything but that was also a difficult task. Every time it would dry up with spots but in the end we managed to get it clean and resume filming.<br />When I got home I felt so sick and stayed home for a few days.<br /><br />Easter<br />I didn’t do anything special for Easter besides work work work. I got a lot of trouble with my drawing arm so I have to be careful.<br />One night I was drawing and wanted to light a candle to make it more comfy. When I looked out the window I saw huge flames coming from the building on the opposite of ours. I was like…OMG! and went to the kitchen where Rachel and her friend were. I said “look out the window!” and they were shocked too. Rachel called the fire department, her friend bolted out the door to rescue the people, I tried to put my shoes on and showed the street on a map to Rachel. Julia came in to look what all the fuzz was about. She looked and said “Nooo, I think it’s a bonfire”. I went out anyway to see what was going on. I walked closer until I could look over a wall into the garden and saw it was indeed a bonfire. Rachel’s friend came around the corner to me and told she had ran to the flat and knocked on the door and told the people of the building to go out because there was a huge fire. Everyone was confused and explained her it was a controlled fire. We walked back together and there was a huge fire truck in front of our door. We went to the firemen and told what was going on and that we were very sorry. He wasn’t mad at us and said we did the right thing.<br />We went inside and we heard from Rachel that the firemen first thought there was a fire at our place and banged on the door really loud, all the other people in our building were a bit shocked and the firemen rushed into our flat to see that nothing was going on. Rachel showed him what we saw out the window and he understood that we thought there was a fire. So they went away and we all laughed about it.<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342045543097865666" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji9PVL1Rj4LIeaTnMLoFM7FaT62dhB7prSZitz1PjMFdIqP6VnYXIhyGpoLyl17HdaZRCtM75fqaqajGWJbc_lPxQUuMP7UrVm_y6-7r_L94NTtsCkIIkcmh2NJMUxtb-QgFIQpr56-Vo/s320/P5310098.JPG" border="0" /><br />Studio visits<br />Our teacher Madevi had studio visits arranged for us in Edinburgh, to get a good look in animation studios and different ways of working. First we went to the Red Kite Studios. That was a quite big studio and everyone explained what their role was. After that we went to an animators couple that were freelancers. They work in their beautiful apartment (most of the apartments in Edinburgh are beautiful). They had a interesting project going on where they let the audience decide how the story goes and it’s supported entirely on funds.<br />Our last visit was at Madevi’s studio. She has her own animation company and her studio is in a huge old office building (I’ve been to the 5th floor, dunno how many more there are) which was used as a training building for cops and now all the offices are available as art studios. You can still see holes and rubber bullets in the walls. It’s really nice to be in one building with so many different artists. I believe the first two floors are used as galleries for the artists to display their work. We also met a VJ in an office close to Madevi’s. Her name was Mettje Hunneman and she was also Dutch! So we talked a bit and she invited us for her monthly screenings. After that we went home and I was so tired.<br />I don’t know which way I would like to work, they all seem to have their disadvantages and good points. It would be nice to try them all once in my life. Madevi is sort of our career adviser and we’ve had a couple of workshops how to make things happen in the future. So I have a plan for the future now but I’m a bit careful with telling it because I want to sort things out first. When I’m more confident about stuff I’m happy to tell you all :p<br /><br />Trip to Holland<br />I flew alone back to Holland to spend a week at home and a few days at the Animation Festival in Stuttgart. I got really nervous a few days before the flight. I think it’s because the last time was so stressful as it was the first time flying alone and the airplane was broken and stuff. So a few days before my flight I couldn’t eat and sleep well. The flight was in the evening and I had a class first that day. I was so nervous that it was hard to concentrate and I had to take some of the calming pills. Jeremy accompanied me to the airport because if I would go alone I would think and think and get more stressed. We walked together from school to the bus and once we were in the bus everything was ok! We chatted a lot and I felt more excited than anxious. I was so happy Jeremy dropped me of there. On the airport my parents and Maarten called me a couple of times to make sure I was ok. Everything went smooth, I got my priority boarding and the flight was ok.<br />Maarten and my parents were there to pick me up. I got a lot of muscle ache of the stress and a huge hunger when I got home.<br />That weekend I was invited by Maarten’s parents to eat lobster. We went to a restaurant, they show the lobsters and you eat them. I never had them before and it was a strange experience. It’s a lot of work to get the meat out but it is yummy! It was a lot of fun!<br />The next day we went to 013 to see Elle Bandita live. I’ve seen her two years ago at Breda Barst and it was so awesome! She has a real nice Rotterdamse attitude and her music sounds good. This time she had a band and a new album. We stood at front and I was dancing like a crazy monkey. At some point she was talking and a guy from the audience was shouting something like “play on, no talk, your mother blabla”. She found it really annoying and asked him to shut up and leave the room. But he didn’t so she stepped off the stage into the audience and they pushed each other. In the end he did leave and she went on with her show.<br />Then Maarten and I had a little vacation at the Animation Festival in Stuttgart for a few days.<br />I also went together with Lisa to Nijmegen. She’s currently living at her parents near Germany and a trip with the train is a lot of money so we decided to meet each other in the middle, in Nijmegen. I bought a nice dress, we’ve met a guy who was a hamster breeder with his hamster called turboscheetje, and we sat outside in the sun with wine. It was a very fun day!<br />The other days I visited family and people.<br /><br />Stuttgart<br />Stuttgart was cool as always. The first day was rainy. We were at the same hotel as last time with school and Maarten and I got our own room (top floor and only a glass elevator on the outside of the building, hello fear of heights). It was nice to see old teachers, some of my old classmates and the people of my internship. I mostly visited the stuff about children animation. A day looks like this at the festival; you get up at 8 in the morning to get some breakfast in the hotel, then the first screenings would start at 2 or 3 o‘clock. We watched stuff until 6 or 7 and took a break to eat something and then you would go on till 1 or 2 o’clock in the evening. I saw a few nice things but I wasn’t amazed by an animation like I usually had in the past few times I went.<br />For the rest there was an annoying drunk guy that pissed everyone off, a great animation party, 2 days of hot sunny weather, the most amazing Chinese take away I’ve ever had, a hilarious move by Christoffel in the cinema where we couldn’t stop laughing anymore.<br /><br />So those are all the updates. The last couple of weeks I’ve worked because there were so many deadlines. I had a lot of presentations, but they all went well. Last Thursday there was an animation day where I’ve learned a lot! I also have a mentor now. His name is Frank Gresham and he’s from America but currently he’s director of the animation Dennis and Gnasher at the Red Kite Studios (Dennis de Bengel for the Dutch people). We’ve had our first meeting and it was very useful. It was supposed to be one hour but in the end we’ve talked for 2,5 hours.<br /><br />In short news:<br />- The last couple of days were very hot and sunny so I’m working on a healthy tan and read a lot in the meadows.<br />- I’m really busy and forget all the time to send postcards and to reply to people, sorry for that!<br />- There are 2 new girls in the flat. They’re staying her for the summer.<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342044377535806338" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2P68U7xzQla992AX20tJQ97BFieP48UPt5yKh6KN4QQMqnc6v59yNHCd8V4qr-T-f4VZ5lZlXEUiZCfNG6Dpe2X_wslHiPaRCFDlDmqCjPtIVErceVTVd8OHkgzsIbchp7J-esC1z_ho/s320/P5310113.JPG" border="0" /></div></div></div>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05417023912271326523noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691241238380456560.post-62884949877480898632009-03-18T16:58:00.004+01:002009-03-18T17:38:57.208+01:00Repo<object height="295" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/MzgpU25C6fg&hl=nl&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/MzgpU25C6fg&hl=nl&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object><br /><br />There was a Repo Tour in the U.K and last Wednesday it came to Edinburgh. <a href="http://www.repo-opera.com/">Repo The Genetic Opera</a> is a film with quite a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repo!_The_Genetic_Opera">big story</a>. I won’t bother you with a lot of details but in short it’s a movie I’m really excited with but it’s hard to get a hold on it. Thanks to one of the animation students I could buy a ticket in advance because there would be only one screening in the cinema.<br /><br />The director <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1135423/">Darren Lynn Bousman </a>and screenwriter + playing grave robber in the movie <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0954023/">Terrance Zdunich</a> were there too. The screening was sold out when I got there so I was glad I bought a ticket in advance. When I wanted to go in two guys asked me if they could interview me for the radio. I told them that my English was not so good but they said that at least I was honest so I figured what the heck, I’ll try. I answered some short questions about Repo and gave my opinion about the whole problem of distribution of the movie and stuff. They thanked me and told me it would be on the BBC1 radio tomorrow.<br />The cinema was packed and the Darren Lyns Bousman and Terrance Zdunich introduced the movie. They said we could do whatever we want during the movie; singing along, acting out in front of the screen, yelling Booo it doesn’t matter as long as you are enjoying it.<br />So I watched the movie for another time (I had already bought the DVD when It came out in America). After that there was a Question and Answer with them. A lot of fun and jokes and very inspiring for me. They told everyone they would stick around as long as necessary to sign everything and maybe get a beer together. It looked like everyone was leaving but I wanted their autographs. Too bad I forgot my DVD so I bought a card of the movie with my last cabmoney. I went to them and I was the first asking for their autographs (very shy :p) They asked me if I liked the movie and stuff. Terrance Zdunich suddenly said to me “you’re awesome” and I got a huge red head and he wanted to shake my hand haha. I left after that.<br /><br />While I was walking home I felt bad that I had the chance to talk to them but I didn’t do anything except for standing there like a big shy red lobster. During the screening they insisted that the public isn’t quiet anymore and we need to tell our opinions so the weird and not so big productions have their change in the cinema too. At home I wrote an email telling them what I wanted to tell and send it to them but I knew that everyone would send them mail everyday…<br /><br />However the day after I got a reply from them hahaha. It said this:<br /><br />You rock!<br /><br />And we remember you!<br /><br />Next time don't be shy<br /><br />we love you@<br /><br />dlb<br /><br />I thought that was kinda cool haha. They actually made time for their fans. That whole adventure was quite an experience and inspiration for me and I’m happy.<br /><br /><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 600px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 391px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://www.dreadcentral.com/img/news/oct07/repo8big.jpg" border="0" />Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05417023912271326523noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691241238380456560.post-57634082642895411012009-03-03T18:30:00.002+01:002009-03-03T19:52:57.394+01:00ShootingHey guys,<br /><br />I’m extremely busy from now on. I started shooting and like always that involves a lot of chaos and stress :p You can read the whole story on <a href="http://www.improvelilly.blogspot.com/">http://www.improvelilly.blogspot.com/</a><br />It’s good stress though! We’re all very excited to work on this project and so far it goes great. Sorry I forget so many things lately!<br /><br />Hug for you all!<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309016140039618642" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7UeT9SELizoqjFmzlIYDjRIkOaQ8eLo_FEylxPfL5CV3NHabczcag19rbW-qqGrx6Efmf-23PXFucYSuUOboC9xNlPkH7vnzKLPM5LDV4VFBdjeoeNMaMBFXw1ctE4ek2fl7QvWF5mXs/s320/P3010150.JPG" border="0" />Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05417023912271326523noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691241238380456560.post-69552435110975065842009-02-16T21:33:00.006+01:002009-02-16T21:55:24.537+01:00randomnessFinally a new post! I’ve been so busy lately I neglected everyone. Sorry about that!<br /><br />School<br />Everything is going great! I attend a lot of lectures even though they’re not mend for me to follow. I’m also working hard on my animation. I’m lucky I have a team of people that really like my project and work hard for it too. My producer Patricia arranged the equipment, location and all small stuff I forget :p My scriptwriter is working on the episodes and the four I’ve got now are really good. Too bad I can’t manage to make them all and I have to choose which episodes will be made.<br />I also have to write a critical study of my practice. The main topic of that will be how far I can stretch the limits in children animation. What’s allowed to show children and what isn’t. This week I have to hand in a draft of 3000 words.<br />I’ve been asked again if I want to take part in a photo shoot next week. This time in daylight and I’ll probably get the photo’s of the first shoot somewhere this week. I really need to die my hair again though -_-‘<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303500684089235442" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhKogavzblFIZKX2M_bY0m-cNZDz5i_-ZG2WWhP_PO7x7cum017tmjqWAy2nDVSkpf7EnbS6T4lKRdKz2u1lTBLEgkqRgGtFHP-GjvYuZgU-iZyfJLvEO_V-rqm1KZmercGNZiL_kTwXY/s320/P2090105.JPG" border="0" />Film festival<br />Yubing and I went to Glasgow last Saturday. There is a film festival going on and Yubing won a free ticket. I went with her to see Glasgow for the first time and to watch some movies. I find Glasgow a very good city to shop and it looks modern which I don't like that much. We were there at 10 in the morning to shop first. I’ve bought finally the bag I was looking for; a red leather baggy bag with particular handles, and a cute children book about phobias.<br />Yubing went off to see the program of her free ticket and I went to a program with movies made by kids from 9 till 21 years old. It was so creative, funny and nice to watch (and it was free too :p). I really had a great time. After that I walked through the city because Yubing wasn’t finished. We met each other again at some network party of film people/students. I was so tired and wanted to go home but every time we took a few steps there was someone else wanting to talk and have contact details. Everyone was so eager to network! I find it always difficult to do but this time I didn’t have to do anything.<br />I was back home at 8, hungry, tired but satisfied.<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303500718800355186" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsMMuDUxJ6mvmpXo69yNHb2gUlOFFueSc_S45nhVDKsaKBAvI-klYWD-T1PiVAtwUxzfLoKM5RRbjHI804j-EqseqALq6-4S8hKxjuSTxS7m6PTOclRMko4wiSguHv7jO-8BOaaJ4nhyU/s320/P2090112.JPG" border="0" />Random news<br />- I’ve been to dr. Sketchy again. It was so much fun.<br />- It snowed at some random days. Yubing and me tried to make the biggest snowman in the meadows but in the end we couldn’t lift the ball on top of the other :s<br />- I’ve been to some parties mainly from Joy, my ‘ex flat mate’ (we call each other that) It was so much fun and I’ve met some great new people.<br />- Thank you Marcel and Jetske for the nice card<br />- Thanks for the postcard Tante Jo en tante Wil.<br />- Thanx auntie Ineke and uncle Ad for the cute valentines present<br />- Thanks again mum for the package. Now I can eat good food and knit again hahaha.<br />- I’m coming back for a short visit to Holland in the beginning of May.<br />- You can read more about my project here: <a href="http://www.improvelilly.blogspot.com/">http://www.improvelilly.blogspot.com/</a><br />- I have new glasses ^_^<br /><br /><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303500696837342242" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhiEXp8pyvASOeepvXdzq9t-taYobKxMlfj83BE7HQJ3GPOoRIEL9WmdulbRW6bHHEkh5_WEN5ltVkXAJ5lUa32AeGh6GCnSuzPLgbOiozxW7M1Va4ysDxXTm0XptMvCCpaK2GC-3N0UY/s320/P2160128.JPG" border="0" /><br /><p align="center"><em>A cute valentines apple!</em></p>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05417023912271326523noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691241238380456560.post-3894438673647146262009-01-27T14:05:00.003+01:002009-01-27T14:15:27.758+01:00R.I.P<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6OpmD2UzyyCK0H_Akj3P-sPSqrP8lVukUwjOg75C2TtVf-91c9UnYVhsaXaBDkSg3MBWPp4uF1mc-WHrDf6SiwgMab-Leo_TqcnvF2svDHI35wwI87bAqGofuHWv3MGsn3DJBDLVxJhY/s1600-h/P1090005.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5295960543867684498" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6OpmD2UzyyCK0H_Akj3P-sPSqrP8lVukUwjOg75C2TtVf-91c9UnYVhsaXaBDkSg3MBWPp4uF1mc-WHrDf6SiwgMab-Leo_TqcnvF2svDHI35wwI87bAqGofuHWv3MGsn3DJBDLVxJhY/s320/P1090005.JPG" border="0" /></a> My sweet plant Artur grew beautiful flowers. Unfortunately he grew one too many and got out of balance. At 02:00 am he crashed into the ground and snapped his stalk. I woke up by the noise unable to save him. I really miss my flower :(Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05417023912271326523noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691241238380456560.post-23168374640427148292009-01-24T00:16:00.002+01:002009-01-24T00:19:46.428+01:00Photoshoot<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKZwf7ve2s-STSMVz2CIiC-37tWl1oELUfQQBna91Y3LMOXC2d-JR76cA-OR1P0B7PiHkyyQmNuyLZkkzoAG_LzTWt-khKygBbtaJCzXdwtS1Bb18HfVxcBrU_DK72vHDRZcAPoieCTSY/s1600-h/photoshoot_3.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294632594305786354" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKZwf7ve2s-STSMVz2CIiC-37tWl1oELUfQQBna91Y3LMOXC2d-JR76cA-OR1P0B7PiHkyyQmNuyLZkkzoAG_LzTWt-khKygBbtaJCzXdwtS1Bb18HfVxcBrU_DK72vHDRZcAPoieCTSY/s400/photoshoot_3.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5l3rbEkwAXTIUo8euXtYOvCPOrtRi7hS5BA0a32ECqYxcMbxbxJSCbg-3vUnz1WqQM-Xnxmhzf8X3Q1nxNiaDKJyiDygWPSVgIzZRUJAJD8fGz1opDIdubLOzGmmZOV09Bm3N8KdT_jQ/s1600-h/photoshoot_2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294632589005594386" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5l3rbEkwAXTIUo8euXtYOvCPOrtRi7hS5BA0a32ECqYxcMbxbxJSCbg-3vUnz1WqQM-Xnxmhzf8X3Q1nxNiaDKJyiDygWPSVgIzZRUJAJD8fGz1opDIdubLOzGmmZOV09Bm3N8KdT_jQ/s400/photoshoot_2.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPm_xRKjCvklnsMmKsD0XQcu6T312UrgjT8MCfsJIY8rvIHGS_KqcOIYaZ95-uq9L-cYgDfYHiTn2AFgqi5tHxX_lOtla4xwKScYUcKMkpIdhK02fJdkrZ6mzyYJXBVsLmEjHsnfs-l2g/s1600-h/photoshoot_1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294632581192972226" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPm_xRKjCvklnsMmKsD0XQcu6T312UrgjT8MCfsJIY8rvIHGS_KqcOIYaZ95-uq9L-cYgDfYHiTn2AFgqi5tHxX_lOtla4xwKScYUcKMkpIdhK02fJdkrZ6mzyYJXBVsLmEjHsnfs-l2g/s400/photoshoot_1.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="center">Photos are made by Sylwia Kowalczyk. I'll get more in a few weeks.</div></div></div>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05417023912271326523noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691241238380456560.post-59211681846263366522009-01-17T16:22:00.005+01:002009-01-20T17:55:40.028+01:00Random news<strong>Photo shoot</strong><br />I had to go back to school last Monday. It was cool to see all my friends again and I even enjoyed the lectures for once. A girl came up to me during the break and asked me if I wanted to be her model for her photo shoot. She gave me her business card and showed me some of her work. I liked it a lot so I agreed and we made an appointment for Wednesday. She’s doing the MA course as well and has a business with her boyfriend, also an professional photographer.<br />I couldn’t wear any black clothes and I could decide what I wanted to do for makeup. So I only did some powder for the flash and nothing more, I’m not so good in makeup hehe. They made photos with one of those ancient cameras where you have to be under a cloth to make a photo. They told me it’s the best quality and they can blow up the image really big (I don’t know if they were planning to do that with my photo :s). They also told that every photo costs 5 pound 0_0 and I think they’ve made 10 photos with it and some with a huge digital camera. I was surrounded by lights, reflectors and had to look over my shoulder into the camera lol (it was a portrait photo shoot). It was so much fun and I’ve learned some stuff about lightening now ^_^ I get the photos in two weeks.<br /><br /><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 350px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 355px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://snapper.je/graphics/old_camera.jpg" border="0" /><strong>Project</strong><br />My project is going great! I’m so happy with my screenwriter. He’s the one writing the scenes after I’ve told him what I want. He understands the whole feeling of my animation and the scripts that he writes are so cool. It’s good to have someone that knows how to write dialogues. So far I’ve received 3 scripts/episodes. I’m adapting them to storyboards and after that I’ll make the animatics so me and my camera girl can start shooting.<br />I’m happy, my teachers are happy and soon we will get a boot camp of theory we asked them to learn us.<br /><br /><strong>Mala<br /></strong>I haven’t send my graduation animation to any festivals because I wasn’t happy with it anymore. Some scenes need to be redone and stuff and that’s all going to happen next year. But somehow it got picked up by some people and they’re asking me if I want to send in Mala to their festivals. Kinda cool although I consider it not finished yet. It’s screened at:<br />-BUTFFesitval<br />- TeleviZie<br />- Cultuurnacht (coming soon)<br />- IFFB (coming soon)<br /><br /><strong>Short news</strong><br />-I’ve got my research proposal back (the one where I was sick, didn’t understand what I had to do and was almost too late to hand it in because everything was chaotic and unclear!). I’ve got al B’s for it and I’m not sure how to convert it but I think that’s graded as an 8 in Holland. So I’m happy, yay!<br />-The weather is so nice here. It’s almost like spring! But that also means no snow -_-‘<br />-I washed my clothes together with a matchbox somehow (I’ve never seen it before and I wonder where it came from :s) and now my clothes stink like hell, literally...they smell like sulphur.Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05417023912271326523noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691241238380456560.post-28088417802907144442009-01-09T18:27:00.007+01:002009-01-10T22:21:20.316+01:00Happy Holidays<strong>Christmas<br /></strong>Maarten visited me in Scotland the 17th. It was so nice to see him again! The weather wasn’t that good but we shopped, visited winter wonderland, climbed Arthur Seat, saw The day the earth stood still in the cinema. Julia’s boyfriend was also visiting and they decided to make a trip to the highlands for Christmas. They asked us to come with them but we were both poor and had no money.<br />But we had the flat for the two of us and that was also nice. On Christmas day we took it easy, we walked in the park and began making dinner at 4. We made al sort of tapas and it took a long time to prepare them. It was fun though and we watched the Dr. Who Christmas special while eating dinner. After that we suddenly realized we totally forgot the presents! So we did that a bit late. I’ve got an Edinburgh travel guide and music box, a book about taxidermy & dead animals, a horror comic book, underpants with glitters and cupcakes, and lip gloss. So cool!<br />On Boxing Day we did nothing special, I’ve made some homework and we prepared for the flight back to Holland. I was again a bit nervous. But it went very smooth together with Maarten. In the plane I wasn’t afraid anymore, I didn’t even shake!<br />My parents were waiting for me at the airport in Germany and it was so nice to see them again. Big hugs and kisses and my dad even lifted me of the ground with my suitcase still dangling in my hand, haha! We stepped in the car and the first thing we got was a ‘friet speciaal’ (those are French fries with mayonnaise, spiced ketchup and onions). I was so longing for that!<br />That evening we had another Christmas. My parents waited for me hehe and again I got a lot of presents; make up, wool, ink pen, art book, writing paper, chocolate, drawing book, socks, and a lot of clothes.<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289349066616050562" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs-GitYADE5jwFzOKeGilJXEEASbwUy3d-LUSONUsIajaGhKvMbCmV-t3Ew1dUcZ_Pa7ZqhtwSA23viOeIvghVN38Tpin8mBav46thUx7hpFCHl2oqh388wKkRBRsU34f-dgzob4NHU5Y/s320/PC250471.JPG" border="0" /><strong>New Years Eve<br /></strong>First the plan was to celebrate New Year’s Eve with the family. But Maarten joined with a friend and Manon also had a boyfriend and in the end we were with more people. We’ve had a nice big Greek dinner and played Xbox games and poker and soon it was 12 twelve o’clock. My dad had the nice traditional firework tree but it wasn’t as loud as normal. But the other firework was beautiful! We went also to my uncle and aunt, they live a couple of street away. It was nice to see them again. We’ve stayed there for a while watching the big smoky fire my uncle had made. Once back we played poker till 6 with my dad and went to bed.<br /><br /><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289349990190987378" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAtVTSzpa6FA8IPf2XA9fdUbofTR6v6EmgvLPMDBSm9-2QygSvd9OU3IQVWqOc-BA32g3sTSOB3LCtZ15pJCG7XVLd6F0yYlC-8NEC1_zdgGpBKHvDPDEZ6kYzE2dHl8Q3iRXbGVdPW3Y/s320/P1010536.JPG" border="0" /><strong>Flight back</strong><br />I had to go back alone to Edinburgh. Nobody had the time or money to support me during my flight and I wanted to try it alone. Because last time went so well. I was scared though but I know the airport (it’s very small). I was early and waited to board the plane. After a while people were already standing in line and that made me nervous so I went to join them. I’ve a priority ticket and that means that you can board first. That’s convenient for me because I can choose first where to sit and I want a place in front.<br />So after standing 30 minutes we finally could board the plane. I was the first yay! We had to wait outside until the people were done with checking the airplane. It took longer and longer and more people were coming to have a look. After a while we had to go inside again, but the people standing in the back saw their change to cut in the line. So it was pushing to get inside and because I was first, I was also the last one inside and got squished against the glass doors. People around me were angry and panicking and that made me scared too so I called my dad. He told me to wait there. After some more time (I can’t keep track of time because I’m a bit fuzzy of the fear pills) the airport people said the flight was canceled and we had to wait for a new airplane. I wanted to call my dad again but I was out of call credit. With my last 50 eurocent I found a paid phone and told my dad the news. They would wait on the airport until I was in the air.<br />After a while they announced it was boarding time again and I went to stand in line. But now they didn’t use the priority cards anymore! I was again in panic because all those people in front of me and afraid I couldn’t sit in the front. While walking to the airplane I saw my parents outside waving to me. In the airplane I noticed that the front seats where still empty and in the end I had a seat in front, yay. The flight itself was less stressful. I was a bit shaky and had stomach pain but I had everything under control. Maybe someday I’ll be cured of my flight fear!<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289349060474446626" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioKbiPOGiif6LUtTMqqC9B-beVLL5kfpykbmKD1qUQ08pMQthSZfpEFJ3KV_8gmqrIVWbi-A6uUrXjb-Prr294mAHpF3_S7LeagJrR9nJGmHQA4JOG9PSBad8j79tEfjPTIPjL2DYpCRo/s320/P1060557.JPG" border="0" /><strong>School<br /></strong>Not much happened with my own animation project because of the holidays and the visits. But I’ve made an animation for a documentary about Alzheimer. I had to animate shriveling brain, pretty awesome! It was a last minute project but so much fun!<br /><br /><object height="295" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9tRAPuhDwrE&hl=nl&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><br /><br /><br /><br /><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9tRAPuhDwrE&hl=nl&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object></p><p>Animation for the documentary of Daniel Jewell</p>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05417023912271326523noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691241238380456560.post-43029496406577402152008-12-11T01:01:00.008+01:002008-12-12T16:23:29.153+01:00Bram en LisaI still owe you all an update of Lisa’s and Bram’s visit here (before I forget everything that has happened)<br /><br /><div><embed style="WIDTH: 426px; HEIGHT: 320px" name="flashticker" align="middle" src="http://widget-86.slide.com/widgets/slideticker.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" quality="high" scale="noscale" salign="l" wmode="transparent" flashvars="cy=hy&il=1&channel=3530822107859777926&site=widget-86.slide.com"></embed> <div style="WIDTH: 426px; TEXT-ALIGN: left"><a href="http://www.slide.com/pivot?cy=hy&at=un&id=3530822107859777926&map=1" target="_blank"><img src="http://widget-86.slide.com/p1/3530822107859777926/hy_t000_v000_s0un_f00/images/xslide1.gif" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://www.slide.com/pivot?cy=hy&at=un&id=3530822107859777926&map=2" target="_blank"><img src="http://widget-86.slide.com/p2/3530822107859777926/hy_t000_v000_s0un_f00/images/xslide2.gif" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://www.slide.com/pivot?cy=hy&at=un&id=3530822107859777926&map=F" target="_blank"><img src="http://widget-86.slide.com/p4/3530822107859777926/hy_t000_v000_s0un_f00/images/xslide42.gif" border="0" /></a></div></div><br /><br />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!<br />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?<br />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 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greyfriars_Bobby">Bobby pub</a>. There is some legend about a guy that died and his dog sat every day on his grave, something like that.<br />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.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.armin-grewe.com/holiday/scotland2003winter/edinburgh-arthurs-seat.jpg">Arthur's Seat<br /></a>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.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.oldukphotos.com/graphics/Scotland%20Photos/Edinburghshire,%20Portobello%20Beach%201900">Portobello beach</a><br />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!<br />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 ^_^<br /><br />ZOO<br />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.<br />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.<br /><br />Highlands<br />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 <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&saddr=edinburgh&daddr=56.002221,-4.590912&hl=nl&geocode=&mra=dme&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=10&sll=55.997613,-4.342346&sspn=0.389364,1.752319&ie=UTF8&ll=55.997613,-3.896027&spn=0.389364,1.752319&z=10">Balloch</a>. 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.<br />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.<br />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 <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&saddr=Luss&daddr=56.002701,-4.58353&hl=nl&geocode=&mra=dme&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=13&sll=55.995213,-4.568939&sspn=0.048674,0.21904&ie=UTF8&ll=56.055169,-4.542847&spn=0.194393,0.87616&z=11">Luss</a> 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.<br />The next day we took a bus to <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&saddr=Balmaha&daddr=Tullichewan+Rd&hl=nl&geocode=%3BFVqIVgMdqA66_w&mra=ls&sll=56.055169,-4.412384&sspn=0.194393,0.615234&ie=UTF8&ll=56.043856,-4.574089&spn=0.097225,0.43808&z=12">Balmaha</a> 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.<br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/J2ViMbqA2oo&hl=nl&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/J2ViMbqA2oo&hl=nl&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />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<br /><br />- I got money from school to create my animation! How cool is that!<br />- 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.<br />- My graduation animation is going to be on television! On a local channel in Breda and around, at a program called <a href="http://www.kleurentelevizie.nl/">KleurenteleviZie</a>. 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.<br />- I’m coming back to Holland from 28th of December till 7th of January.<br />- It’s already dark here at 4 o’clock<br />- Joy is moving out of the flat. She found a big place on her own closer to school, lucky girl!Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05417023912271326523noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691241238380456560.post-41302554391664683822008-11-16T23:33:00.006+01:002008-11-16T23:53:24.122+01:00My first review<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPm9rcWsnFXB3xek3JlaSBadtN079E0MSEpAFDu8Kmz0FsbEPUj2NvT7doSpiGD80ZzF-U0GKgcVm-WP5CekYxxI97Yo4RTK_tbwBP1PzMrs_k7h2WnrWy8qbpvzImqdvCvcBpSinZxSU/s1600-h/skrien-sint-joost.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269391937513645362" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 50px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPm9rcWsnFXB3xek3JlaSBadtN079E0MSEpAFDu8Kmz0FsbEPUj2NvT7doSpiGD80ZzF-U0GKgcVm-WP5CekYxxI97Yo4RTK_tbwBP1PzMrs_k7h2WnrWy8qbpvzImqdvCvcBpSinZxSU/s200/skrien-sint-joost.jpg" border="0" /></a> Click to view full size! This apeared in Skrien a dutch movie magazine. Too bad it's in Dutch. The auto translation says:<br /><div><br /><div><em></em></div><div><em>There is one splendid animation in a further quite considerable graduation year of St. Joost. It's called Mala and it has a good combination of picture, sound and music. In comic book style Nicole Volbeda shows silhouettes, hands thus details. Nevertheless you know exactly what happens there. That stealing an apple could end somehow sinister for example. Beside this really artistic animation St. Joost has more animation and even more documentary.</em></div></div>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05417023912271326523noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691241238380456560.post-11388869695663555242008-11-08T00:05:00.010+01:002008-11-09T22:33:43.340+01:00HalloweenHiya,<br />I had a great time this week. Everything was about Halloween, they really like to celebrate it here in Scotland (Halloween or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhuinn">samhuinn</a>, the celtic new year.).<br />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.<br />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.<br><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266061038743768306" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEtV4MXc1PkxW1IXFw56Fgy8SocGsARmJBEk2FxjkBwDT2d6TOPk7GptyutfpAfMmzXfPKEgG4yeiXMm8YP7kMT4eYZQ-zaxTBD80ce9nHDzflsmvL7Ifm5iUs_ywscZE7CE20RQFeM3A/s320/IMG_5495.JPG" border="0" /><br>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!<br><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266061043559334290" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNX3HdXN8zcKBC2nU9MGAncY7vLMUo4sMyX2I9yED7CA1yvopEH6O-dConJGmSkhQxzbDiYoh59onTOBRsA0F5i_Tiy65bihrilELx9CGZH9aI6a_29Iqoi6agK3W9-P7iaQ8T2N6SuJg/s320/IMG_5541.JPG" border="0" /><br>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.<br /><br><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gILxx9V2RzQ&hl=nl&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gILxx9V2RzQ&hl=nl&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br><br />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.<br><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266057809988317202" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1zP6jU_IxapnjbS_iNK8euerV9aujICbiljODzle8UPcwle3XKR2DQHeihmztJmBXRpzeu0RDmFv3E01oJjI4hLOwa8VxvrCIPc6InWpQ82UBeKH-T-eWzsGiQpLdxXKBwSKItp25yVo/s320/n554534250_1508083_4957.jpg" border="0" /><br>The next morning Julia and I went to a dr Sketchy class. It’s a life drawing class with <a href="http://www.burlesquechic.com.au/images/burlesquePics/burlesque.jpg">burlesque</a> 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.<br />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 :)<br><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266062813122913810" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1cgfqTrKP7rK683CJ_6gOZDS2RW3jPhXa0m-6oyG8b25qkaLNDA806h0CtW1IBBuBlEYZzPz_LVITDLQObDl4gaEZ-a5ssKcnrAtVaidZTUsniccV0kYfUaYTVXZkqgRd6jDWiR4vpec/s320/n554534250_1508078_3191.jpg" border="0" /><br>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05417023912271326523noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691241238380456560.post-32671677096187774002008-10-24T17:40:00.004+02:002008-10-24T17:58:14.216+02:00Maarten visits Me<div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPMLMMIyEHfGeBZM_h9Wm7RiXZriR95b-k0aU7qpeg_uv20ZL_Fna8ueZOBwfXXWtKzSy7OQxUHU-Mes0otwffqY8rH-aXgBnC46kKY0o7odV54gyjyN7J267mjGSwRw1CBeEbsT1IV-A/s1600-h/PA160025.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5260749237673638018" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPMLMMIyEHfGeBZM_h9Wm7RiXZriR95b-k0aU7qpeg_uv20ZL_Fna8ueZOBwfXXWtKzSy7OQxUHU-Mes0otwffqY8rH-aXgBnC46kKY0o7odV54gyjyN7J267mjGSwRw1CBeEbsT1IV-A/s400/PA160025.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div>Hello everyone,<br />Time for an update! It’s been a while. The last few days my boyfriend Maarten was here. It was so nice and it felt a bit like a holiday for me. I picked him up from the airport and we were both so happy, haha. It was so early we hurried home to rest, we both had only a few hours of sleep. After meeting my flatmates we took a quick nap because it was also the birthday of my flatmate Kim and we would go out that night.<br />Kim asked us to meet in a cocktail bar with her friends. The bar was nice (good cocktails!) and even for a Sunday evening it was very full. Later that week I noticed that every night is a night to go out, not like in Holland where Thursday of Friday night is THE night to go out, here is it every night. After the cocktail bar we huried to another night club. While waitingin the que Maart noticed that they were checking everyone’s ID and he left his in the flat. So he couldn’t go inside and Maarten and me left to go home. On the way home we discoverd a nice delicacies shop selling a lot of different beers and some dutch food like stroopwafels and peperkoek. That made me happy. I often feel happy now when I see or hear something dutch haha.<br />The next days we went shopping. I didn’t buy anything but Maart was happy because he found some cheap games for his new xbox hahaha. Wednesday we both made a Dutch dinner for everyone, boerenkool met rookworst. Yubing helped us and she made the dessert which was jelly of turtleshell powder. It’s quite nice, it tastes kinda like herb tea. People liked boerenkool and especially the rookworst.<br />The next day we tried visiting the zoo but when we arrived there was a loooong que! We guessed that the children have vacation now and if we wanted to go inside we had to wait for hours. So we left and went back to the city and visited the castle instead. It was so much fun! We laughed a lot and had a great time there.<br />We spent the last days working for school. Maart had a lot to do and we hadn’t got any time to visit the zoo again so we are going the next time (the zoo is open every day of the year!). We also went out for dinner a lot of times.<br />The day he had to leave was horrible. It was very early and saying goodbye was hard. After a few hours I got a text message that he was already home, haha so the distant isn’t that big really. He will visit me in December again *yay*!<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5260749246477805778" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjksg-tqnnEveZwzEQVuEtZVmgugKH00O080KgVw-mkILnVVL0YHZD2nwAXjr1rW_RBTeimqYqCdF77rSUoCVtUCN6dBdXSip5QJUpX6A72pCmcGHwVZEGea4hI5U2-APzrwfemTo0KbqI/s400/PA160030.JPG" border="0" /><br />School is nice now. I had a long talk with my teachers yesterday about my project. They had a lot of usefull comments and now I have a lot to do again haha. They also told us that they know Michael Dudok de Wit (a famous dutch animator and one of my favourites) and that they are thinking of asking him to help us or let him give a lecture. I really hope so! I’m also reading a few books about children and television and child psychology for my project. It’s very interesting. I also had a lecture about animpro, an animator program. So finaly everything is starting (although I started already).<br /><br />Today I’ve cleaned my room, did a huge laundry, made some brownies with nuts and went shopping for groceries in the storm. I feel good now :p It’s storming for a few days now and it’s really horrible. The wind is blowing so hard, you see big tree branches lying on the ground and sometimes you can’t breath because the wind is blowing so hard. But nobody seems to mind, in Holland the trains and busses wouldn’t leave with this weather. Here however they are still working on those big building cranes haha crazy!<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5260749257304773874" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNxAORG2Nnpq8Kw0r9jCYMDJ9VofK-JC3SfTr4JTm-7-1NrP2HrcFqC5RPTskunRBLxSFkKfg_YcXyifBvwxn8Ki9RJ3-OJPvzX1aeo0U412PlBFkykvdb3kgfpenVBjewvFvSzzlUS_c/s400/PA160032.JPG" border="0" /><br />I’ll end this with some short comments<br />-Jetske, we (maarten and me) send you a card. I hope it will arrive and I wish you lots of strength!<br />-I’m wearing my glasses full time now. My lenses were hurting my eyes.<br />-Thank you Ineke for my Dutch package hahaha. That was really nice and everything is already finished.<br />-I’m looking forward to the visit of Bram and Lisa!<br />-Thanx Manon for your letter haha. I’m also too busy to write back :p </div></div></div>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05417023912271326523noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691241238380456560.post-40925998073064785272008-10-09T13:04:00.002+02:002008-10-09T13:10:37.527+02:00MA projectHello everyone! I started working on my animation project for this year. Check <a href="http://www.improvelilly.blogspot.com/">www.improvelilly.blogspot.com</a>. 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!<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Well I'm back to work.Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05417023912271326523noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691241238380456560.post-30971051384843425782008-10-04T17:46:00.003+02:002008-11-07T23:58:47.292+01:00First SchoolweekI 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.<br />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<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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).<br /><br />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.<br />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.<br /><br />Saturday was my <a href="http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=HGWsSxrXc5Q&feature=related">Tribal dance </a>workshop (early!) It was a lot of fun and I signed up for more lessons. The rest of the weekend was lazy *yay*.<br /><br />Random things:<br />- 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.<br />- I'm lazy lately although I do a lot of preparation work for my project.<br />- 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.<br />- Thanx mum and dad and sis for the card :pNicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05417023912271326523noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691241238380456560.post-76184001071060246722008-09-29T21:11:00.002+02:002008-09-29T21:19:00.391+02:00Update ProblemFor 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.<br /><br />Thanks to:<br />- Marcel and Jetske for their nice card. It was the first one I got *yay*<br />- The whole family Backx for their special Oosterhout greeting card, ghehe.<br />- Lisa for the beautiful card. It's framed now :p<br />- Tom for the text message. Í keep forgetting to text something back -_-'<br /><br />I'll tell you about my first schoolweek as soon as I can. That week was quite confusing :sNicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05417023912271326523noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691241238380456560.post-33989163039625563762008-09-21T19:17:00.004+02:002008-09-21T19:21:12.794+02:00Video Update<object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yH-JH2Fb3Uo"><br /> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yH-JH2Fb3Uo" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"></embed> </object><br /><em>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</em>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05417023912271326523noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691241238380456560.post-43168704279769649202008-09-17T00:07:00.012+02:002008-09-17T00:53:53.737+02:00Busy Bee<div align="left">This week was a busy one! After working some days behind the computer I decided that it's a waste of time to stay inside during the free days I still have left. My adventures:<br /><br /></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5246753891954421634" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfqcDeq8oJyaxC9hjma1bvD85KHiTc_QFavHgsGEqQ5e9aoia9VHoOE2QaCDHXXIWWGsL0MnZOveHOI-VY_9GyOrbiUITeQf3KjTCs3TiKGeJ2Ix-e_YlhpKnyrEBI3iurpc4gxSkW95U/s320/P9100019.JPG" border="0" /> <p align="center"><em>holyrood house fountain</em></p><p align="left"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holyrood_House"><strong>Holyrood House<br /></strong></a>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.<br />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<br /></p><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5246753887938692658" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhifUA6tS-OQ5WwagR7WIto3j0liR4TlULTnrMt2XbM6YTXLpK4cf9BOcai5Cj4i09cBaPgvJNE533N5cZP1aENUpstIa1Sh0Uh6TRCHyx43hKqtV_5BEYZ-LTB0NtXLYHVxOtK9j9nxmA/s320/P9100026.JPG" border="0" /></p><p align="center"><em>Holyrood Abbey</em></p><p><strong>Night out<br /></strong>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!)<br />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<br />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.<br />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.<br /></p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5246750255954295554" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3YYq1KPy72A9756Llk9nHoeHs75WZfBc8dVPEz6EYhsgbUS3CCVzBCB5bYT7gUFSOf61dzX9tT6uaKvJFTEK2_srZif3C_Th9nxVgkBUnZ8YAmHfiznU7Dxxp_1w9O_YzaY1_Y_kfhF0/s320/P9150021.JPG" border="0" /><br /><div align="center"><em>All my flatmates. From left to right: Joy, Julia, Kim and me.</em></div><br /><strong>Freshers week<br /></strong>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.<br />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.<br />Monday I went to a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQlu2Ti5arE">Ceilidh</a> 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!<br />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.<br />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!<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5246750250699803586" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4W2boNhUG0XaBP1HJ10nCc5J93vubmlbU6XM-tYzBqcEExXsBOVDQ573TAJfF6Qr63qtAIXGCTGyv0IR9AYcCx2ZC4oCELF5I1rlw_v-BBvuOanYiSWrfZtvcfOTDZCtqlZkZkFPODlA/s320/P9130019.JPG" border="0" /> <p align="center"> <em>Joy and Julia Wii gaming</em><br /><br /></p><p align="left">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!<br /></p><p align="left"><table style="BORDER-RIGHT: #ccc 1px solid; BORDER-TOP: #ccc 1px solid; BACKGROUND: #fff; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; WIDTH: 244px; BORDER-BOTTOM: #ccc 1px solid" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><br /><tbody><tr><td style="PADDING-RIGHT: 10px; PADDING-LEFT: 10px; FONT-SIZE: 11px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 5px; COLOR: #000; PADDING-TOP: 5px; FONT-FAMILY: verdana"><a style="DISPLAY: block; TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.miniclip.com/games/magic-pen/en/"><img style="BORDER-RIGHT: 0px; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 5px; BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px" height="59" alt="Games at Miniclip.com - Magic Pen" src="http://e.miniclip.com/images/icons/magicpensmallicon.jpg" width="70" align="left" /><br /><strong style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; COLOR: #000; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; TEXT-DECORATION: underline">Magic Pen</strong> <p style="CLEAR: none; MARGIN: 0px; COLOR: #000; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Collect the flags with the red ball to complete each level.</p></a></td></tr><br /><tr><td style="PADDING-RIGHT: 10px; BORDER-TOP: #ccc 1px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 10px; FONT-SIZE: 11px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 5px; PADDING-TOP: 5px; FONT-FAMILY: verdana"><a title="Games at Miniclip.com" href="http://www.miniclip.com/games/magic-pen/en/">Play this free game now!!</a></td></tr><br /></tbody></table></p>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05417023912271326523noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691241238380456560.post-73229788248345180822008-09-09T22:19:00.008+02:002008-09-09T22:37:07.672+02:00Moving to Edinburgh<div align="left"><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/T0QJeMJr3ZA&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/T0QJeMJr3ZA&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><em>A short video tour through my new home. I've bought a lot more stuff so I'll update this video with a more recent one showing all the lovely stuff I have in my room, hehe.<br /><br /></em></div><div align="left">After a terrible sad farewell to Maarten I was on a plane towards Edinburgh. Thanks to the doctor the flight went fine. The only thing is that the pills make me so extremely sleepy I couldn’t do much that day.<br />The first night we booked an extra room in a hotel for me because I couldn’t sleep in my new room yet. They only had a double room left so I slept in a huge beautiful room. I can’t remember much of that day (I think because of the medicine I took) but we’ve walked through the city and in the end we saw a big firework show at the castle. It was quite special, the firework was timed with the live orchestra in the park. Together it was a beautiful experience and my first day in Edinburgh!</div><div align="left"><br />My parents and me visited the castle, the master show at my new school, and of course my new room. They helped me to clean it and went shopping with me for new stuff (thanx guys!). I also meet Joy and Julia, two of the other girls renting it. They’re really sweet and fun.<br />My first night totally alone wasn’t bad. I was so tired of walking all day that I had no problem sleeping. The second day I stayed inside to get to know the flat, to clean my room some more and to rest. The next day I went shopping. It was a hot day and I’d bought so much stuff I had to go back home because I couldn’t carry any more things. The only thing that’s different from the Netherlands during shopping is that everybody waits in a line. For example; if there are three cash registers in Holland there are three lines, one for every cash register. So you have to guess which one is quick (and I always pick the wrong line). In Scotland (and I guess the UK) there is one big line for all three of them. If it’s your turn you walk to the cash register that’s free. And they do it everywhere this way, even in the supermarkets.<br /></div><div align="left">Oh and the supermarkets, that’s also quite different. The street next to were I live has about 4 supermarkets. One that’s open 24/7, a good thing but there’s not much to buy. One that sells only frozen food, so you have a supermarket with only freezers. Kinda weird to see. One supermarket that we also know in Holland; the Lidl. All the stuff they sell is in cans or packed, there’s nothing fresh :s All the supermarkets have like a huge selection of microwave meals! And there’s finaly a supermarket that has actual fruit and vegetables! And good meat! I’ve cooked two times now. It’s difficult to cook for one person. I always make more than I can eat. The other times I’ve made a lazy microwave dinner XD<br /></div><div align="left"><br />The rest of my days I stayed home to work on the Droomwevers animation that I still had to finish. After three days of hard work that was done. I’m still waiting for their answer. (got their answer now and they would like some changes to be made if I have some time -_-‘ ).<br />Today it was a sunny and hot day so I went shopping for clothes. They have so many clothing stores! Though I couldn’t find much. I’ve bought a new trouser, a sweet tshirt and a warm sweater. Tomorrow I’m going to visit the palace I guess. And Julia, my flatmate, has a car and suggested we should go to Ikea some time. I can’t wait ^^<br /></div><div align="left">I’ve got mail from my school and my matriculation starts 22th of September (if I’m correct). It’s an introduction week and I guess I hear there when my actual MA would start. So exciting! I hope it’s fun. I’m really feeling at home here in Edinburgh. I have a great time and haven’t been sad (though I miss Maarten much). I think it’s going to work out just fine and I’ll be having a great time here.<br /><br /></div><p align="center"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5244119757068808690" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDfwB5AbAguVDjyTYtC0WCSXtrl4-yzK4S6pSJMt1U36OZoBDpRkaoCk5V1MUsRnYWqM9I4F_ATln-IoozqmFKUdGccGveVP6rQ4tYy6hgRcgpOvuAx2X0uNnRlm-QJmZcoXp_C8mvVPs/s320/P9020011.JPG" border="0" /><em>My parents are sad because I'm living so far away (NOT!)</em></p><p>[UPDATE]<br />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.<br />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.<br />So that was quite a busy day *sigh*</p>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05417023912271326523noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691241238380456560.post-5504790787093975402008-09-04T13:40:00.003+02:002008-09-05T02:08:51.228+02:00I'm so lucky!Ohyeah! woohoo! [insert lots of dancing kirby's]<br />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!<br /><br />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!<br /><br />[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.Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05417023912271326523noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691241238380456560.post-86058265310357598072008-09-03T00:26:00.008+02:002008-09-03T14:53:01.139+02:00Update FrenzyAt last an update! I’ve put my story in chapters to make it better to read.<br /><br />Lowlands<br />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.<br />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.<br />At the end of the festival I felt dirty, tired and satisfied.<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5241554557164470562" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuJDxyi0xcBkJ92M6-a0A5f2r9xnc9rY0aZLvMthmmAxHMghVEnDfhJrZzpYyYkCZ7vPsUyOFkWIB3JetcXiHhHfPYaf3She3waABMy5lB5w5ovSsCNYNSLerDJdckc-W1i54asAqHsIY/s320/n578286360_1197594_2475.jpg" border="0" /> A fight<br />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.<br />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.<br /><br />Farewell party<br />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.<br />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: <a href="mailto:me_and_ul@hotmail.com">me_and_ul@hotmail.com</a> (yeah I know, there’s a typing error in my email but I’m too lazy to correct it).<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5241555333089478898" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl_3NNg3L4sE1KgiCJTsniDNb4MBf7djbbVN8Yv3gYlKBj3HLgK4YGbH7zUA12ri24BPcjxaf2cX8zmenZz28jXUfFqg3gH4pMGgF84PGCrWBi-VYUY0BzKQ_aJltk6fNmvTQw53bb_PI/s320/P8290712.JPG" border="0" /> Short news:<br />- 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.<br />- My tattoo is scheduled for later.<br />- I have found my felt pieces and finished my squid bag!<br />- The big moving to Edinburgh story is coming soon (somewhere this week).<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5241556006591213794" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" height="241" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjevdQmuoQ24nUR9706Z4umDJxcO-HBj4ZQAT7cjAuOYDuGiyiadMgmq-XlwyJE4Lw6ewDuyhDU7NGFVnL8UbVyu1Lr5VtKqtkVryYJ4qh6MPHjCrGi85X99XK9Zgz_X2rk6H42PfID54k/s320/P8220588.JPG" width="319" border="0" />Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05417023912271326523noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691241238380456560.post-25834304069059514822008-08-11T17:49:00.004+02:002008-08-12T11:00:32.210+02:00My blood is fine, thank youI’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...<br />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.<br /><br />Woohoo! I have a ticket for <a href="http://www.lowlands.nl/">Lowlands!</a> 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<br /><br /><strong>Short news</strong><br />-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...<br />- ...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.<br />- I hate this lame summer weather!<br />- 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.<br />- I’m a bit busy these days with two lame deadlines and arranging stuff.<br />- I’m going to cook a nice fish with potatoes and cauliflower,beans and bacon. How healthy is that!<br /><br />Bye!<img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN_tSf5MzyqyU5KpkYiZUebzVyoUDhEpMtE7iuKHKet-Qiwo_UYw-QaOJttCdsazpOSrVJl1u7-maBef4GbNTxUdY9NdG8JopHawXqCDYdXp9cp9FdA1KNpKb8Ii18aNzWFC_sipLVYog/s1600/Bobobo-Bo.jpg" border="0" /><em>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.</em>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05417023912271326523noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691241238380456560.post-32954145745942214652008-08-07T22:44:00.005+02:002008-08-07T23:11:58.307+02:00First time in EdinburghI’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;<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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<br />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.<br /><br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br /><br />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.<br />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 ^_^<br /><div align="center"><br /><em>The view</em></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5231881291918165682" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWExV25WXzXHeADkSksWW-dqlEOl72BDPgfKhTc9X2UkiJsTi6FrZhwwbRsPe8Nn12imSFho05dXULzCT5yFSsMZdtopS79Z4Ma0D45tbAZ0VZc0LDqadfX4cv-e-eXdvGU_RC7NjmqsY/s320/P8030532.JPG" border="0" /> <p align="center"><em> The view a bit closer<br /></em></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt1qR8r5HCBpeTurkeKBYGzBfC1h07DgiQbt-H6iDpuh2r7VqsnHHWKpXx79uq9mJYAqP4SoOVwqyETS-gnv_RQiex3UC4NSwxsR_4k2BhTly_ZyFFIH5blg-yCbe_wcbr-bXCcG8bT50/s1600-h/P8030531.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5231881287195660290" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt1qR8r5HCBpeTurkeKBYGzBfC1h07DgiQbt-H6iDpuh2r7VqsnHHWKpXx79uq9mJYAqP4SoOVwqyETS-gnv_RQiex3UC4NSwxsR_4k2BhTly_ZyFFIH5blg-yCbe_wcbr-bXCcG8bT50/s320/P8030531.JPG" border="0" /> <p align="center"></a><em> My new school<br /></em></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAK6_ws2qG7-GhOl5TISM7dXPb9Mj6jb2doG4jL1GrNpWZiTnnLYIVCI6ulAIzoWwL0Fp_f5m2lwSc7cHXpIuvIiE4EjOavfWfSdLCyVzefwL852pMMyOml3HFhyh4OxHYghA7FDeitaA/s1600-h/P8040536.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5231881295231656754" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAK6_ws2qG7-GhOl5TISM7dXPb9Mj6jb2doG4jL1GrNpWZiTnnLYIVCI6ulAIzoWwL0Fp_f5m2lwSc7cHXpIuvIiE4EjOavfWfSdLCyVzefwL852pMMyOml3HFhyh4OxHYghA7FDeitaA/s320/P8040536.JPG" border="0" /> <p align="center"></a><em>The castle of Edinburgh</em><br /></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPcu13gDQykp4CFyPFVdGlVmBsu0lR0kqbTSHhalUemJmQCtDzMsb3UlnV0qd7a2xic1nRQbyaiNGNweFIgUly63anlUD3WdZjYjASQVf8PpPLzAZdBDmQFjOmgP7XxWsCph8lnaXknv4/s1600-h/P8040538.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5231881300106947874" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPcu13gDQykp4CFyPFVdGlVmBsu0lR0kqbTSHhalUemJmQCtDzMsb3UlnV0qd7a2xic1nRQbyaiNGNweFIgUly63anlUD3WdZjYjASQVf8PpPLzAZdBDmQFjOmgP7XxWsCph8lnaXknv4/s320/P8040538.JPG" border="0" /> <p align="center"></a><em>Fawlty Towers! (the woman wouldn't go away grrr)<br /></em></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7tP2a3gqk0Z7sATILuZFTtHauROJfaE_Aqpz9227rgNEIoToefn7_sMMvUW-l4rfHYiUo-QvPfYz_bDBLViqEFSJ980VvJeNHp0cWq5EKHYpMxOlwf_VW_bpYJ70A59dPNgb3MzjP59k/s1600-h/P8040542.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5231883009225895394" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7tP2a3gqk0Z7sATILuZFTtHauROJfaE_Aqpz9227rgNEIoToefn7_sMMvUW-l4rfHYiUo-QvPfYz_bDBLViqEFSJ980VvJeNHp0cWq5EKHYpMxOlwf_VW_bpYJ70A59dPNgb3MzjP59k/s320/P8040542.JPG" border="0" /> <p align="center"></a><em>Another church<br /></em></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq5ZlGVcX6T9osv9_Sq5fDfpVRq7drAGzN8MoB_FdSbmJz0AeBldzwloBvTACHbNXYTkI0qTHFXbwPel4SFVnPXFD1kbhxiWx32Rxi4q76WM5MuxYMtFjrxTDFXcOr-keLi3X6D39O9CI/s1600-h/P8040544.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5231883015561257794" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq5ZlGVcX6T9osv9_Sq5fDfpVRq7drAGzN8MoB_FdSbmJz0AeBldzwloBvTACHbNXYTkI0qTHFXbwPel4SFVnPXFD1kbhxiWx32Rxi4q76WM5MuxYMtFjrxTDFXcOr-keLi3X6D39O9CI/s320/P8040544.JPG" border="0" /> <p align="center"></a><em>A black church</em><br /></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSWOaAvLZ2cOXq4jldIfeLcY_VXuU6qcmD9x0FFYGawSk8iFBIK3fTiuYBDEVPKAn313uJfQEoyQMcqtGaPkFeBGiRUvo94bQRAH5HTPqwVwmeZlCQqyoJbAcCh4mY47H1BqhTX1UiiuQ/s1600-h/P8050555.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5231883022549732754" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSWOaAvLZ2cOXq4jldIfeLcY_VXuU6qcmD9x0FFYGawSk8iFBIK3fTiuYBDEVPKAn313uJfQEoyQMcqtGaPkFeBGiRUvo94bQRAH5HTPqwVwmeZlCQqyoJbAcCh4mY47H1BqhTX1UiiuQ/s320/P8050555.JPG" border="0" /> <p align="center"></a><em>Nice old city</em><br /></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM8BELg9GCII8oacQAJxG9B6kAtA1ji9eaY_FxJwKr6Bafw8uaj9AlY-lU3MhmwxWtlKk3k1oM58YJFPbXzXm01X755w1pfwlj7AzBkm3W5VWd002JtWpf_CS_KbLw7ZyZFJinb6x32tI/s1600-h/P8050557.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5231883021986802834" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM8BELg9GCII8oacQAJxG9B6kAtA1ji9eaY_FxJwKr6Bafw8uaj9AlY-lU3MhmwxWtlKk3k1oM58YJFPbXzXm01X755w1pfwlj7AzBkm3W5VWd002JtWpf_CS_KbLw7ZyZFJinb6x32tI/s320/P8050557.JPG" border="0" /> <p align="center"></a><em>Tired of walking<br /></em></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3oxYR8a4Rq7IrJdZy2_LnHp8RnFDiyQuAOFtkWMNpz67goBpGJyP2JYgNjQ6AhmVSOaPLZ6tmncJU9AvgTw0yjshAqOyMIgyGjwswV6qAKoMs6H27H7__7M1FxK3d_AFRwN0fy_9UKNU/s1600-h/P8050560.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5231883865897598178" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3oxYR8a4Rq7IrJdZy2_LnHp8RnFDiyQuAOFtkWMNpz67goBpGJyP2JYgNjQ6AhmVSOaPLZ6tmncJU9AvgTw0yjshAqOyMIgyGjwswV6qAKoMs6H27H7__7M1FxK3d_AFRwN0fy_9UKNU/s320/P8050560.JPG" border="0" /> <p align="center"></a> <em>Lovely old graveyard. There was actually a market going on between the tombstones :s<br /></em></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4x0rfOLF7ti7XeAM43dlVEP_wWAZ7x_OSJuHnajxBKFEc0_qU177OUDv1ZCudMLaf5grriNJqVfAI46a586jSTjrFXL0LdhIt6thisWiJvdZV5MOblFcMuLp9fq4GQ1bt74A8i-Z9-oc/s1600-h/P8050563.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5231883871566524578" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4x0rfOLF7ti7XeAM43dlVEP_wWAZ7x_OSJuHnajxBKFEc0_qU177OUDv1ZCudMLaf5grriNJqVfAI46a586jSTjrFXL0LdhIt6thisWiJvdZV5MOblFcMuLp9fq4GQ1bt74A8i-Z9-oc/s320/P8050563.JPG" border="0" /></a>Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05417023912271326523noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8691241238380456560.post-4928001875699014392008-07-14T21:41:00.003+02:002008-08-01T22:01:02.816+02:00Not a testAt last a first entry! Beware of all the useless information and bad spelling! I still need to instal an English spelling check.<br /><br />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.<br />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 <a href="http://www.butff.nl/">butffestival</a> (B-movie, Underground en Trash Film). If you’re really into that stuff, like me, go and visit!<br /><br />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 <a href="http://www.eca.ac.uk/home">Edinburgh College of Art </a>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.<br />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).<br /><br />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.<br />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.<br /><br />A pretty big first entry, I’m so proud. Well I end this with some useless information.<br /><br /><strong>Short news of the ever so amazing life of Nicole</strong><br />- 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.<br />- I’m busy finishing an animation for droomwevers. They had a child poem and needed some animation with it. It’s on youtube soon!<br />- 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.Nicolehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05417023912271326523noreply@blogger.com5