Such a shame to have your birthday on the 23rd of December!

.... or that's what people tell me. But really, it's not that bad!
- People never forget my birthday, so
- I get just as many presents as everybody else
- I know there's 364 days from Christmas to my birthday, but I live with it

There's just one thing. I asked for edible presents this time, and having started eating everything at once I'm full to point of nausea. I don't think I'll feel like eating much tomorrow on Christmas Eve, and that's a shame because my mom has been cooking a very nice meal. So in a way, she pays the price for having me on the 23rd.

It's been a nice day, with over eating, having the girls over and playing table tennis, talking to family and friends, and making nice music at church. I can't ask for more.

Eureka!

Finally the bits and pieces of my reading to "teaching composition" are coming together in my head, and I'm lookin forward to start writing my paper on it tomorrow. I have to do 25 pages for the 2 of january. 25 pages in 21 days - shouldn't be a problem to me... but still, tomorrow is not a moment too soon to start!

I went tangoing for the first time in ages (like, three weeks or so) tonight, and I had a blast! Actually, I only had two sets of dances, but I managed to
1. be invited to dance with a stranger
2. meet a stranger who was a good dancer (same stranger)
3. meet friends who had noticed I was missing last weekend
4. see a fantastic show from our local tango heroes
5. dance with a tall guy
6. get a compliment for my dancing
7. had some nice eye contact

So all in all, I couldn't possibly have had more of an ego boost, had I stayed another two hours. So I left at 10.45, after two sets of dances and watching the show.

Got to sleep now, my boyfriend will be asking me to accompany him to breakfeast in about six hours and 25 minutes... yikes!

I just discovered a - to me - unknown instrument - the hang drum. Check it out, here with a bass clarinet. Browse through related videos to see nice, loong hang solos.

...and to think, in December!

For once, I was in bed by 10.30, and I looked forward to the eight hours of sleep I need. Then a mosquito flew down and bit me on my knuckle. Being pretty consumed with getting revenge I didn't get into bed before 45 mins later. I had to work the rests of the mosquito back out of the curtain after I slammed it into it...
Stupid mosquito.
Here are my fingers. Guess which one has been bitten.

By the way: there is some good news!

Highlights of the week both came on tuesday:

I went to see a fantastic concert with a Danish chamber choir (Mogens Dahl Kammerkor), of which I was not familiar until then. They were so good that we dared not shuffle about in our seats for the entire concert, as we would during any mediocre performance.

Also, I managed to say something smart in my "Teaching Composition" class, and the lecturer pointed my point out to everyone. It was great and unexpected!

Daily life... news = no news

I've had a wonderfull weekend: An old friend came over, and we hadn't seen eachother for a little too long, and it was great to meet up again. We had a nice tart (my first home made one) with tomatoes, and then we went out for a dance, which was great fun. We came back all sweaty and with wiggly legs.

Also, I was pleased to have my boyfriend at home (and not on camp with the boy scouts) this weekend. We spent most of sunday together. I nursed him when he was hungover, we took a nice walk, ate nice food, saw a group of people for a Christmas-dorm-decoration session, we cleaned my kitchen and kissed a lot. It was great! He makes me so happy.

Now I've got to go to the reading room. Unfortunately, the guy I usually go with on mondays had to work, so I've got to make it on my own, and as you can see, I'm still at home three hours after breakfeast. *sigh*

Last week we had a meeting in my hall, and I was nagging because people don't fulfill their cooking duties. Everyone has to cook twice a month, but when I remind them that they "have to" they get really annoyed, as they hate the feeling of compulsion. What they really like, though, is eating my food when I cook for them... *sigh*
I'm really annoyed that we cant make this food thing work.

At least I can go eat in my boyfriends hall - and we had pancakes there yesterday, yummi!

Here's a bit of drumming:

I promise to not share too many stories on this matter

... but I went out to see a show, and in the intermission I went to the ladies' to pee. And I didn't notice untill I was already peeing that the toilet was opposite a very tall window with no curtains. There I was, looking through the window into the building on the other side of the street, about 15 feet away. On top of that, the toilet was placed ridiculously far from the toilet paper, so I had to reach so far for it that I almost fell off... At least the building opposite me didn't seem to have any human life inside.
But who knows?
Some old pervert could've been watching from one of the windows!

Anyway, I'm gonna go quit my job as a substitute teacher, much to my regret, but there's no other way for me to write the paper I need to get started on in connection with my course on teaching composition.

I've been away for the weekend to visit my in laws and it was great fun. I have two brothers and a sister in law, so it's a big family compared to what I'm used to. I spent a great deal of the time tickling my boyfriends syblings and wrestling with them.

How about a four year hangover?

We just reelected the old government, and it's the bad guys!
*SIGH*
Now we're stuck with them for another four years!

At least the kids at school were allright today:

I can actually make 8th grade sit still! I just wrote some multiplication problems on the board, and it turned out that they couldn't multiply simple numbers! In 8th grade!
I think they realised that they need to know, and fast, and that that was why they actually shup up and did as they were told (pretty much).

Teaching P.E. in kindergarden (5&6year olds) went ok, apart from the fact that I still don't have the routine in comforting them, when they start crying (every five minutes)... I tried teaching them some judo, but they weren't very good at it. At least I got smarter at that age group.

The 9th graders were an absolute nightmare. Some of them didn't even make a name tag (within 45 mins). Brats. I hope I gained some respect by being grumpy *sigh*.

Hate being grumpy.

I should've seen my dad today, but he changed our dinner date to a lunch date, and I was at work at lunchtime.... I didn't even have time to call him and pass on the offer.

The 8th graders need a new math teacher, so I offered to take them. This is a big responsibility, as they have to take O-levels in the summer of 2009. The school will try to find someone who's actually educated to teach maths, but if they don't I might get it! I need to think two years ahead before I accept this position.... my man and I might be going away in spring 2009 as a part of his PhD, but that's still to be planned.

Election time

I'm truly exited about today's election in Denmark. We might be getting a new, red government (if we're lucky).

Still my life goes on, I enjoy my three jobs
1. conducting my amateur choir
2. singing at church
3. being a substitute teacher

And still, I haven't been studying enough, and it is just about to come back and hit me in the face, hard.

I just put a lot of nice music on my iPod, so I'll be tapping my foot to Prince, MJ, Erykah Badu, Depeche Mode and the Beatles while trying to study.

Election and what I'm up to

We have an election for the Danish parliament coming up in 11 days, and it's quite exiting, since the good (red) guys and the bad (blue) guys are coming out quite even in the polls (is that the way to put it?).

The politicians seem to have an ongoing competition to say the following most times a day: "this election will purify the atmosphere". I just hope it doesn't end up with being the blue guys in control, as it has been for the previous six years.

Anyway, enough about politics.

I had a bad case of diarrhoea this wednesday, and even though I didn't have it yesterday at all I spent the whole day recovering. But now I'm back in shape, I started the day with my swimming lesson. I wasn't very good at what we were supposed to learn, but at least the coach called me sweetie, so that made my day...

My boyfriend is still great. He doesn't do as much boy scout stuff as he has been doing a month ago, and I stopped singing in a choir on thursdays, so we get to see eachother a lot, which is nice.

A few weeks ago I tried to persuade him to move out of the dorm with me, but without luck. He pointed out that my being fed up with the dorm was just a symbol of me being fed up with my poor studying skills, and he was right. I don't really get anything done these days. Time flies by without me noticing... but at least I don't waste all my time on the internet anymore. I don't have internet in my room anymore, couldn't manage it....

Anyway, back to work.

Whopee! Getting back in the game! (of choir singing)

I just had a rehersal yesterday with a choir, it was great! They asked me to assist on a trip to Serbia in October. I got a whole stack of music to learn, but I'm a fast learner so it'll be cool. I'm quite exited to get back into singing.


Boyfriendwise:
We've been trying to see eachother every day, even on the busy days, where our time together is after my bedtime at 11 pm. Turns out, I get quite cranky at that hour, so I start bossing him about if he's not in my bed or on his way at that time, which is quite spoiling for the romantic atmosphere between us. So I think we need to get used to not seeing eachother for an entire day (!), if we can only meet that late at night.

I guess if we didn't live together we wouldn't be this lazy (or obsessive) just hanging out whenever we find 20 minutes available. I think I might need to imagine we don't live together in order to not bother him with my bad mood after 11...

Life: Acquired!

I started doing P.E. tuesday and thursday morning at 07, and swimming on fridays. It's great to get som excercise again and to get up early. I still need to learn to get to bed before 11 pm, though. Excercise before breakfeast also means that I'm halfway through the struggle before my brain awakens and realises what's actually going on. A clear advantage.

My boyfriend has started work on his ph.d. and he's working as if he's already in the final phase, he leaves a 7.45 in the morning and comes back 10/11 hours later. I'm trying to teach him to work less, but it will take me some time.

By the way, he called me yesterday and said "by the way, I won't make it home before the day after tomorrow" ... but hey, then I might actually get some studying done in the evening!


My beloved dorm

My courses in Rhetorics

I've just begun following lectures again, and it's two courses at the institute of rhetorics, the last two courses in my minor before I have to write my masters in Musicology. They're called
Rhetoric and practical philosophy
and
Teaching Composition (in writing)

I took the Composition one before, but failed to write the 25 page paper to finish the course formally. Didn't read much the last time I followed it, and what I read I didn't understand very well.

So here I go again.
Luckily, it's the same teacher and exactly the same list of sources to be read, and it seems that the bells of understanding are starting to ring the second time around. Of course, that only goes for the texts I have actually read.

Last week, at the first lecture in "teaching composition" I felt really depressed about being back. The majority of the class are Rhetoric Majors, so they have about four more years of immersion into the subject than I. So I feel a bit "behind" the average student in the class.

Today was more encouraging. It turns out that there are quite a few teachers from our equivalent of high schools with years and years of experience with teaching. They make a fine counterpart to the rhetoricans, practical versus theoretical. And now I'm not the only one not understanding the customs of rhetoricans.

And I actually understood every word of what was going on!

(that goes for the 80% of the time where I was actually paying attention. Good thing is, I was inspired into distraction, so I was taking notes to my thoughts when I was mentally absent to the class)

Horray! I hope it goes on this way.

More will follow about my other course.

Trying to get a life

My boyfriend and I have a small issue: I need to get a life and we need to sort out how much or how little to see eachother. One accomplishment will certainly help the other.

I just spent 32 hours (divided into five shifts) pulling rubbish out of the mud at the Roskilde Festival. My pay was the ticket for next year's festival (worth about £130). In a way, it was great to have a reason to get out of bed early, but also pretty uninspiring to collect rubbish.

I ordered an Ipod, so I could hear music while working, but it hasn't come through the mail untill today... typical!

Now that I'm done working for the festival I can look forward to another two weeks of getting up early with my boyfriend for no reason whatever, then pop right back into bed or vegetate in front of my laptop untill the time where I would usually get up, if I didn't have him.

At least I have my first rehearsal with my amateur choir next monday, I can spend about a day preparing for that.

... but then what!!

I planned to try and find a job as a substitute teacher, and I know realise that while I have been working at the festival, I raised my demands for my future job so much that I'm not likely to find anything. This has caused me to loose my drive for even looking.

This is silly. And also another classic example of how life seems to be one long battle against your own thoughts.

So one of these days, I'm gonna go look, and I'll force myself to take something that matches only some of my wishes. (I'd like to teach less than eight hours a week, I'd like to avoid travelling too far to teach, I'd like to teach the subjects in which I am actually qualified - music and English)

But while I still have loads of time (untill the term starts in two weeks) I can attemt to drown my beloved in kisses and adoration. Unfortunately, he started his PhD today, so I can only do my thing on him after 6 pm... *sigh*

I need to get a life... maybe the Danish equivalent of Tesco has some in the "ready meals" section.

Horray!

My boyfriend is now an engineer! He defended his thesis and got very high marks!

I now have my own choir, and this time I get paid! I'm going to conduct every monday for two hours.

I have work next week, and the salary is the Roskilde Festival ticket for 2008.

Now I'm going to Vigsø, Denmark for a wedding. Should be a nice, long trip. But I do consider weddings to be the best parties.

Let's toast to the institute of musicology in Copenhagen. I just sent them an email and received the answer:

"the secretary is away on holiday untill monday the 23rd of july"

July! This is august!

The list

Downs:

- that one of my friends is getting married in two weeks. Is it already time for our generation to get serious about it? Surely, we're not THAT old...
- taking control of something no longer considered influential
- un-avoidable post-RoskildeFestival cold

Halfway/Up- or downcoming:

- getting up at 07 no matter what time you got to bed (the day is much longer when you don't sleep in, but zzzzzZZZzzz what a loooong day!)
- plants overgrowing my window - very exotic, but still demanding maintenance

Ups:

- reliving my childhood
o - by going through the old photo albums
o - by meeting up with my French little brother, who looks exactly like me, just 16 years younger
- expecting a visitor from London
- the coinciding occurance of wanting to tidy up and actually getting it done
- inventing "the shelf for used, but not completely dirty, sweaty clothes" after living by my self for six years

4 days to go

Martine is coming on wednesday! I'm so exited!

My time flies in the sexed up company of my boyfriend. *sigh* He's currently considering doing a PhD... *sigh*

The weather is still strange. Not summer. The sun is shining from a clear sky, but it's cold outside...

Smart boyfriend casting peals for swine

I just spent two days away from everything with my beloved. It was great not to feel guilty about taking his precious time with my random flirting and babbling. He has really lightened up after handing in that thesis. It's like getting my boyfriend back. I had forgotten how cheerful he can be.

It's interesting chatting to that guy, cause he's both bright and has a strong opinion on many issues. Being myself pretty unaware of many political and philosophical subjects I can't help but learn a lot from him. I also become inspired. I want him to share his thoughts with the world, because they are smart thoughts. But he's perfectionistic, and wants them to make perfect sense and be put in exactly the right words before he shares them widely, e.g. in a paper or a magazine, as I have encouraged him to do.

It annoys me lightly that boyfriend wont share his thoughts with the world in the pace I want him to. But if he wont share, then I will. I wish I could explain in a few sentences what we talked about, but I'll have to introduce him first, then. This won't be as short as I hoped.

My perfectionist boyfriend is now an engineer in chemistry, and he specializes in catalysis. It's something like making two materials react with eachother using a third material (the catalyst). A good catalyst starts a fight and then get's out of the way, so to say.

The perfectionist's thesis then, was about how you can transform a by-product from the production of biodiesel into a product that can be poured right back into the biodiesel. In short, he's come up with an idea that makes the production of biodiesel even more green.

Ah, I'm already tired of making sense. I'll tell you the rest later.

I'm starting with the man in the mirror

I love my boyfriend.

After having sulked for some time after getting back my boyfriend told me to stop wining and get on with life.

I'm afraid he's right. A sign that I havn't yet done enough to get my life back on track is the facts that I

- have way too much time, and I'm not spending it properly

- choose to spend much of my time demanding my BF's undivided attention (and I think he's had enough of this, by now)

So time to get busy. I applied for a job today. It's only 6-8 hrs a week, but that will be fine to have on the side, once I start studying like mad after summer holidays.

I have to get back into playing and singing music as well. I used to do jazz jams, choir singing and conducting, take singing lessons and rehearse for these lessons. I've got to get back into it. I really miss music.

Sweet summer holidays, here I come

I just found out that the paper I was meant to write for the 30th of June was expected to be 25 pages, not 15. So change of plans, I'll write it next semester, meaning that this is the beginning of my summer holiday!

Horray!

I miss my friends from London, and I'm concerned that I'll forget my English. So I hope to skype with you guys!

Boyfriend is still incredibly busy, but he should be done within a week or so. I can't wait.

I still can't be bothered with judo, but I've started running a bit in the mornings.

... you guys wouldn't believe the amount of cake the serve here, at the dorm. I had three kinds of cake yesterday.

Da**it, clairvoyant grandma!

I've been a bit moody since I got back. The first few days I was so relieved to be back (and to be out of that crazy flat in Brixton) that I thought I felt like having a long, hard crying session over it. But that feeling has gone away, and I felt better.

But then, all of a sudden, I get an email from my grandmother saying (roughly):

"Bla bla bla bla,
bla bla blablabla.
Yadda yadda yadda bla?
Bla blaaa blaa yadda yadda...
But the reason I'm really writing is that I sense that you are not happy. I hope I am wrong.
Best regards,
Grandma."

I havent spoken to her for a week, or to my mother for a few days. My latest blog post in Danish was on politics, and as far as I can see, it doesn't reveal any mood swings at all. So how does grandma know something like that? I guess she just knows me very, very well. Even better than myself, this time.

It seems like my need to cry, long and hard has resurfaced after she has poked me right where it hurts. And here I thought I was doing better... thanks, grandma!

Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome!

Blog purpose: procrastination & to keep my English skills up to date

What should I be doing: studying

What am I: horny

What is boyfriend: too busy

Weather: hot & humid

Weather Lacks: a gentle breeze

Birds outside window: should stop squeaking/screaming (as they have been since 4 am). This is a residential area, not an Idols show.

Lunch: Starters - Ice Cream, Main Course - Pizza

Exercise: can't be arsed

How it is being back: Strange and at the same time a relief. My following blog posts will elaborate on this.