First Day of Spring

As of this morning I can officially say I survived the European Winter. I bought some tulips at the Bloemen Markt (main flower market) to congratulate myself for having kept all my fingers. To be fair, it’s still only 1 degree outside but just saying the word Spring makes me warm.

The past two weeks have been fairly quiet due partly to the fact that I had to curb expenditure after my London splurge, but mostly because it’s been the lead up to exams. Who would have thought that an exchange would entail actual study? I want my money back! But don’t worry, I’ve been doing plenty of procrastinating, general fluffing about the city a little bit of study and a little bit more of dressing like a pineapple....

Yup. Here I am in all my fruit salad glory with Raf, Jess and Renee, (all Gevleweg girls) before we took off to a 'Carnaval’ party. I’m simultaneously proud and ashamed to admit that I bought nothing new for that dress up outfit. And yes, that is a pot plant in my hair. Werk.

[Necklaces courtesy of Bitsch Kitsch London, Lizzie and my talented, 6-year old god-son James.]

Speaking of 6-year-olds, I also managed to sneak in an excursion to NEMO- which sadly doesn’t refer to everyone’s favourite clown fish- but is the Dutch equivalent of Science Works. Human sized bubble blowing, building dams with bean bags and lights shows appealed to the child in me...so...all of me. 

Here’s my friend Kent- the King of the colour rays.

No exam period would be complete without procrasti-baking. These are some homemade cinnamon doughnuts which my housemate Jess decided to whip up. I helped...by eating them aaaallllllll.

And this is procrasti-baking taken to the next level because it’s procrasti-baking after the procrasti-life drawing classes I’ve recently taken up. Yea you heard me. I’m an artiste now.

Once again I take no credit for the baked goods. This cake is the work of Kate (pictured) and Imogen.

Keepng on the culinary track, here I am canal side with Sarah at this cool little dive called Hill Street Blues. It’s a coffeeshop in the Oudestaat but I’ve been going there for the vanilla milkshakes and because you can draw on the walls. Like I said, I’m an artiste.

Now this might seem like your average inner-city canal (which it is. I drive over about nine of these bad boys every morning on my way to class) but what makes this one special is that it gets locked every night from 6pm until 8am the next morning. It gets locked with huge iron gates which nobody could climb over, therefore making it a really stupid place for an unsuspecting person to lock up their bicycle on their way to coffee. So don’t do that because then you will have to walk home and it will snow on you. And then you will have to walk back to retrieve it the next morning and it will snow on you some more. #lifelessons
Apologies for the poor photo composition. My hands were trembling with cold and rage when I trekked back the next morning to collect Roderick (my bike). On a more successful note this is me at the Bloemen Markt. I went after I did my Cyberpunk presentation today. Cause you know, flowers...first day of spring...no more oral presentations.

The whole Pride Flag of flowers is going on behind me. I bought some tulips and felt too Dutch to bare and I rode home with them in the front basket of my bicycle.

And here are my tulip friends looking pretty back at home. Oh! I also restored that cabinet this week. Some schmuck had thrown it out by the bins so (being my father’s daughter) I went to scope it out. It was in perfect condition, maybe a little dirty so with the kind help of Pip I carried up to my (top floor) container, gave it a lick of aggressively blue paint and voila! now I have somewhere to store my Microwave and my tulips (both essentials). Three hours of study time successfully burned.

I have one more essay to write this week but then I’m off to Belgium for Easter. (Don’t think it’s a coincidence that I’m headed to the chocolate capital of the world to get my easter eggs.) So I’ll be sure to write all about it once I’m home again and my blood sugar levels stabilise. x