Bento #30

God I’ve been so busy lately! Writing writing working working. And starting today it will be studying studying
But I HAVE to pass and I WILL! But I think I might have flunked philosophy…..
But I did get my internship! YES! Which means I get to spend two months in Asia for almost no money at all! I’m so happy♥

And tomorrow I have a job interview so perhaps I’ll get ”lucky” again. Well, of course it’s all about talent but also a bit about luck and lately I’ve been swimming in it!
This month is going to be so very busy, what with writing essays, doing research and preparing for my trip. But I will make sure to post tiny posts or perhaps even some drafts I’ve forgotten about.
In celebration for my internship I will have a dimsum brunch this saturday! Perhaps I’ll take some pictures to share with you.
Mmmm, I can’t seem to think of anything else to write. Guess that’s what happens when you’re suffering from the ”studied-too-much” syndrome.

NVM, I thought of one thing to ask: Do you think students in your country are busy with extracurricular activities (like an internship or relevant job) or don’t they think of those things at all? Just wondering!

Yearning for a nice spring!

The weather here has been just awful the last couple of weeks. I’m in need of some serious cheering up.


I made these when I was in Paris. I really love how the macarons are presented, it looks so nice and people must have put a lot of effort into it!
I miss that in my own country. But I think if all the stores here would do this it would seem like showing off haha. Funny how it’s alright for Paris but not for here, I’m such a hypocrite!
Mmm, I still have a lot of other pictures with food, cakes or cookies on them, maybe I should create a picture series?

And now that I’m talking about food: I’m in need of some new breakfast ideas! Lately I don’t fancy eating bread, yoghurt or oatmeal anymore and I have no idea what else to eat for breakfast! Today I had yesterday’s leftovers but I don’t always have leftovers. So anyone got some nice breakfast recommendations?

Bento #29

Posted a day later than I said I would but I’ve been insanely busy and will continue to be so. I’ve finally begun my course so I can do volunteers work to help people pass the naturalization exam and to teach them Dutch. It’s very fascination because while I do tutor children in German and in English I don’t use many official teaching methods, but am learning them now and it’s very interesting! I do have to say that I’m the youngest person taking the course and the oldest person is 70 years old!! What vitality that lady has, guess the saying is true: you’re as old as you act!

I’ve also applied for a summer internship in Asia and a position as German teacher’s assistant. My interviews will happen very soon and I really hope I get chosen because these are some very good opportunities for me! If I don’t get chosen then I’m going to try my hand at becoming an PR employee for a tutoring agency. I feel so ambitious!

This week I also have an exam coming up and I’m designing my new research which is about the differences in how people from different backgrounds experience exercise and what motivations they have to exercise ( or not ). Of course I already have some preconceptions on this and I’m very curious to find out if they will be true.

Last post I talked about a couple of exercises I’ve been doing at home and that I thought I’d lost weight but wasn’t sure. Today I ran into my neighbor and she asked me if I’d lost weight! Seems like I did lose some!

I’m going to create a separate post which will contain some exercises so I can find them easily and keep adding exercises to it.

Skinny Jeans

Just wanted to post something short. Don’t really feel like grabbing my cam to post my bento or whatever.

I will post a new bento in the weekend and tell you about some new home exercises I found that look really helpful. I even lost weight, although I’m not sure if it’s because of those exercises. Perhaps this weekend I will try on a new pair of jeans in a smaller size, just to see if I can

This song really cracked me up! All the ways that girl tried to get into her jeans while the guy is just bored out of his mind. Loved the way she was laying with her legs up in the air. Don’t we all just have this problem sometimes?

Finishing a bad week with a good Easter dinner.

It feels as if everything has been going wrong this week.
First, on monday I had a huge eye-opener. I was sitting in my room and heard my cat trying to open a closet. Except, after a few minutes the sound was still going on and I realized it wasn’t my cat making the noise but a burglar! So of course the first thing I did was running to the kitchen, grabbing two big frying pans and handing one of them to my mom. Boy was I filled with adrenaline! Lot’s of screaming and panicking later the guy was gone. Looking back I think it wasn’t a burglar but someone who got the wrong house number….but hello, the guy didn’t even try to explain anything, he just walked away….no manners…
So what did I realize? Time to work those arm muscles again! Which is why tomorrow I will be going to the gym at 10 in the morning! AI!

Next, Tuesday, heard that only 30% passed class…just scraped by in fact…I’m afraid I’m probably part of the 70% who failed the subject. I had an ear infection that week so studying didn’t really work, not to mention the questions were absolutely absurd! Some things we only covered once and the questions were very detailed!

So what happened on Wednesday? I had to get a new passport. Waited for two hours when finally it’s my turn and the lady behind the counter starts talking some kind of story about how she can’t give me a new passport because I haven’t got an ID….uuuh contact, I’ve got a passport so of course I don’t have an ID…you can get both but you don’t have to! Of course she didn’t understand my explanation and then told me I have to look for an old ID or pay a fine…right….makes sense….

Dumdumdum, the next day: This day was actually bad at first but turned out to be good. I had an interview that day. Showed up on time and got told it was yesterday! I was so stumped, I thought no way did I get it wrong. But the guy behind the counter kept checking his papers and asking colleagues and they all said the same thing: you messed up, it was yesterday. I felt absolutely horrible and disappointed and confused. I didn’t understand how I could have gotten something that important wrong. So I tried to call the organization and they didn’t answer their phone. Then I called some other people to look up the date on the internet. And they all told me THAT I WAS RIGHT! The interview was on thursday! So I went back to the place and the guys there told me someone else showed up asking after the same interview. But there still weren’t any interviewers. So I went home and was just about to sent one angry email when I checked their website again and saw something completely stupid: The date was last year’s! The website had a huge ad dedicated to their program underneath their most recent posts, but underneath in tiny tiny letters said: 2011! Well, duh,no wonder I didn’t see that…Make sure to clean up your website people!
I was really annoyed, all that stress…but luckily I didn’t miss the interview! YAY!

That was my crappy week and since Friday I’ve got a cold and a beginning ear infection. JOY. But today is a good day. Because I got a nice dinner for easter:
And tomorrow will also be a good day because I will get a nice dinner again! Now if only my cold would go away…I really wonder if I should go to the gym tomorrow. Exercising with a cold is absolutely horrible…but I also don’t want to postpone it! I exercised a bit on Tuesday,Wednesday and Thursday at home but it’s very different from the gym. If I don’t go then I should make sure to definitely exercise at home! Promise!

Chocolate cake en français

Back from my three day trip in Paris! The city didn’t really impress me but I hadn’t expected it too. Paris is an alright city but just doesn’t have ”it” for me. So no going back a second time for me. Maybe I just had bad luck but the food was terribly expensive( which I’d expected) and also not very good. I felt ripped off every time I ordered something and it wouldn’t taste very good. Like this 7 euro chocolate cake which was very tiny and had a very dry taste….not what I expect to get when paying 7 euro’s. And this happened over and over again. Order expensive food and feeling cheated. The only good food I did eat were cheap macarons, cake at a Japanese bakery and Korean food! How sad is that?
I also felt service in restaurant was very bad. The waiters were very slow and always looking to see if I’d finished and immediately come rushing with the bill. I kinda understand because they want to get a many customers as possible but at least ask if I’d like anything else to eat/drink before giving me my bill. It made me feel like a number…
Ooooh one waiter really topped it all. there was a couple sitting at a table in the sun and the girl wanted to sit in the shades so she and her boyfriend moved to the next table that was in the shades. There were a lot of empty tables. But the waiter got angry and started yelling at them in french, which they didn’t understand, then he put their food and drinks back on the previous table and the couple moved back but I saw that they felt uncomfortable. I was sitting next to them and my only thought was Woah! How rude….What about the saying ”Customer is king”? Maybe I just had bad luck.
Now to make sure this isn’t turning into a rant I did enjoy some things. I had a lot of sunny weather and loved the parks Paris has. There are so many of them! Some of them are just random small parks in neighbourhoods but they just have a certain amount of charm even though some parks were nothing more than patches of grass. And all the parks were gratefully used but Parisians tanning, sipping wine or studying.
I also liked all the local bakeries. It was a lot of fun to just look at whatever they sold there and compare the food with other bakeries. I tried some awesome macarons and the cheaper the better the taste! Strange huh? I tried Ladurée macarons but they just didn’t have much flavour. One of the flavours I tried was licorice, it seemed to have no taste at all! I also tried some other flavours but compared to the cheap macarons I think they were too soft and had a weak flavour. But Ladurée still seems to get a lot of customers so maybe I’m one of the few to think so.

So now I’ve visited Paris, I still want to visit London but this year it will probably be too expensive, Olympic games and all. I’ve also decided to visit Istanbul, I can’t help but notice that it’s very cheap and often on sale. So maybe I will go there in summer or winter. I absolutely love turkish delight and will definitely eat a lot of it if I ever visit.
On a different note, I’ve been thinking about getting a Facebook for this blog. It would make it easier to communicate with everyone instead of just commenting on posts. Haven’t you ever felt that WordPress needs to have some kind of messaging system so you can tell other bloggers: Today I saw this awesome movie,eat this delicious salmon, almost got hit by a bicycle and how are you doing? I do, but I’m not sure if other people feel the same so that’s why I’m asking. Lemme know and maybe we’ll be facebooking soon!

Paris syndrome

Would you believe me if i told you there’s actually an illness associated with Paris?
It’s called the Paris syndrome, it’s something tourists get when they find out their image of Paris doesn’t match at all.
It usually happens with Japanese tourists. Apparently their media shows Paris as a clean, romantic place with lot’s of size zero skinny high brand fashionable people. Another reason why people get this is when they can’t understand the language or the culture shock is too great. Japanese people are very formal while the French are more informal and tempered in moods…
People suffering from Paris syndrome usually show a couple of symptoms: hallucinations, depression, delusional, anxiety, feeling out of touch with themselves, feeling persecuted, dizziness and sweating a lot.

Luckily not many people suffer from this syndrome. Of all Japanese visitors only 12 get afflicted by it every year. But the Japanese embassy takes this syndrome very seriously, they even got a special hotline!

Amsterdam: De laatste kruimel

I’m always complaining about the lack of good bakeries in Amsterdam. Yeah sure we’ve got nice bakeries but actual bakeries selling carrotcake, cheesecake and even scones! Good scones! No way!
But we do now! And the best thing? It’s right next to my university! And everything is made fresh, so fresh you can smell it when you walk into the store.

My favorite new bakery is called ‘De laatste kruimel’, meaning the last crumble, and can be found on Langebrugsteeg 4. This is in the lane on the other side of the canal near the rokin.
This bakery is pretty small, there are only enough seat for six people and two of them have a view on the canal. The design of the store is very cute. There’s the expected cute tableware but also the drawings of cookies and cakes made by the owner herself! The shelves and the counter are made out of wooden pallets and there’s a wooden bar. Hidden away at the end of the store is a cute English table furnitured with lace. The walls are adorned with painted flowers and stocked with ingredients.

I absolutely adore their carrotcake! It’s huuuuge! And very sweet but I don’t think it’s because of granulated sugar but just the taste of the carrots. Whenever I eat it I just feel very happy. I think it’s the best carrotcake you can get in this city. I’ve tried several other places but the texture is usually very dry and the cake isn’t sweet at all. Not to mention they don’t have any cream on top! I mean come on, a carrotcake without cream!? That’s just horrible….

Tulips here, tulips there, tulips everywhere!

It is spring and the sun has been shining this week! YES! And according to the weather forecast it will continue to do so! I’m so happy now, I’m sure the weather will cheer me up. Been a bit down lately and haven’t want to do anything at all. Not even hanging out with friends or studying. Which is really annoying! But next week I’m going to Paris so it should cheer me up! Hope the weather is just as good there.




I went on a bicycle trip to see these tulips. In the area around Leiden are a lot of farms, you can just cycle pass them and see beautiful tulips for free! Meanwhile all those tourists going to Keukenhof are getting ripped off because this area is right around the corner….

Next Destination

I’m itching to travel again! But I just can’t decide what country to visit!
Preferably one in Asia. And one where the public transport is good and it’s safe for a  woman to travel on her own.
First I wanted to go to South Korea and then North Korea for one week. But then Kim Jung Il died….so now I don’t want to go there in case they start to threaten each other again. Then I was thinking of visiting Macau, Hong Kong and Singapore at once because they’re so small but still very interesting! But they are also expensive…..
Then later on I thought, why not visit Japan, the country you’ve always wanted to visit! And I know there are lot’s of things to do and visit there! But public transport is very expensive there. So then I’m afraid of not being able to visit every place I want!

Now left are Malaysia and Vietnam. But of these countries I only know the capitals. Other than that I can’t think of any other place I’d like to see there. So in all honesty it’s coming down to the countries mentioned before.

On a side note: I might go to Paris pretty soon! I’ve been looking for plane tickets so I can go for three days! Now I only need to find a place to sleep. After that I’ll buy my tickets for sure!
Can’t wait to visit Versailles, Ladurée, Jardin du Luxembourg, Musée d’Orsay, Hôtel de Ville,  the morbid catacombs,Centre Pompidou and just strolling through the city!

I found this great travel site: iwannagothere.com ! I’ts absolutely filled with nice, not so touristy places to vist! It reminds me a bit of virtualtourist.com but a little bit more modern and trendy.