Lol. It was actually my tattoo that got retouched. I’m excited to see what the result will be. I’m also kind of scared to sit in certain positions, because of the healing. I don’t want it to screw up again so I have to get retouched again! Haha. Naw. I actually like getting tattooed. Sure, it’s not all that amazing when you’re tired and hungry and kind of uncomfy, but I find pain soothing and when the whole "argh it hurts, argh now it tickles, argh" is over, you get to enjoy that different pain. I can’t describe it. And obviously when it’s done, you’re so happy. You have the most awesome thing on your skin! I think tattoos are great and I’m totally not done with them yet. Although right now I might wait a little while to get a new one due to a] this healing b] no funding. Haha, I’m so broke right now.

But yes, now parts of my tattoo are redone, it was only an outline and some of the lines weren’t as think or clear as others. I don’t really know why that happened, but hopefully it’s worked out now. Mhmmm I like it. Actually I think tattoos look really nice when they’re fresh, when the skin is still a little bit swollen and the design stands out.

I don’t think I ever told about the artist. Lionel from Out Of Step. He’s French and basically all sorts of amazing. I love his style, I love his personality, I basically think he’s an awesome person. The way he works is you make an appointment, you sit down and talk about what you want and he gets to the drawing. You go over the drawing, see if it’s how you want it, if it works well on your body etc. Then he gets to tattooing your design and nobody else will have the same design. Also, you can’t ask him to draw something and have someone else tattoo it. But seriously, I don’t see why you would want to do that. He’s truly an amazing artist and if you respect him and want his work on you, then you should have him do it. He’s very nice, he respects you and your wishes.. and he’s French. Obviously that’s one of my weaknesses. If you speak French to me I generally start to like you. Naturally, if you yell at me or curse, in French, then I don’t really like you. But yes, I speak French to him and I love it, because I love the language and I embrace every possibility to speak French. Also, my tattoo is an ode to my mother, who was French. To have it done in a special, unique way, on a nice date [that was by coincidence but I won't ever forget it] is awesome, but to have it done by a French guy while I’m speaking French.. I just know my mom would have approved.

As you can see I am very happy with my tattoo, and I don’t think I will ever regret having it. Every day I’m still happy with it. I believe that’s the way it should be with tattoos. I don’t get one just like that, I thoroughly think them through and I want them to be special, I want to be able to enjoy them for as long as I live. That’s also why I went for retouching, because I want my tattoo to be perfect. Or as nearly perfect as it can be, heh. By the way, Lionel has a MySpace too, for those that are interested. It’s http://www.myspace.com/outofsteptattoo.

And time for copypasta again..

15:50

Okay, this is the most lame and stupid day ever. Travel-wise [school-wise I had fun, so that's alright]. Listen to the horrors of the Dutch and Belgian train systems.

1; I overslept this morning so I had twenty minutes to get dressed and catch the train. It took me five minutes to get ready, five minutes to get to the train station. This left me ten minutes, but I also had to pay for tickets and so I ran to the station anyway. My glass bottle which was in a plastic bag, dropped on the street and broke [because the plastic bag had broken] and there went my breakfast :[

2: I was in such a hurry and bummer about my breakfast that I got the wrong ticket. I bought one with discount, whereas one can't have any discount before 09:00. I was like "whatever" because buying a new ticket would cost me too much time and would be a waste of money. I figured, as there is always a control duder in the morning, that the control duder would say "okay, pay the discount" so I would pay the regular price. But no, he had to make a fuss and I paid more than I would have, had I not bought the wrong ticket. It even pissed me off more because he said that if he hadn't been controlling at the doors, I would have had to pay 35 euros [the ticket I bought was 5,40 and normally it's 9,00 so I would have ended up paying 40 for something that normally is 9, which is very lame] but okay, he made me pay 7 euros. 5,40 + 7 = 12,40 so I was kind of pissed about that, plus the fact that we took off late. [Taking off late means I didn't have to hurry means I shouldn't have stressed means I should've been able to buy the right ticket] GRRRRR.

3: The control duder took all my change and so I couldn’t buy something from the bar duder. I just wanted some hot chocolate :[

In the end a man was nice enough to change my bill into smaller change and so I could have my hot chocolate, which was obviously way overpriced and not as good as normal breakfast :'[

4: On the way back, things were catastrophic. What am I saying. They are STILL catastrophic. Let me recap. I was free at 12:00ish and figured I wouldn't make it to catch the 12:13 train. I decided to opt for the 13:13 train [so I would be home at 15:35ish] because I don’t really know what time the other train is [I think around half past, but not every hour, so yeah] and I could then walk in an alright tempo, get something to eat, get to know another route. I was right on time for the 13;13 train. But the train wasn’t. At 13:15 they said the train would have 6 minutes delay, so it would arrive at 13:18. At 13:20 they said it had 15 minutes delay so it would arrive at 13:28. And so I had waited half an hour at the station in Gent.

5: The train arrived at Antwerpen at 14:05. Normally the train to Amsterdam would leave at 14:33. But there was some sort of technical problem and we would have to take a slow train at 14:18 to go to Roosendaal, then switch trains to Amsterdam there. The train arrived, but then in the train they said it wouldn’t stop at Roosendaal, it would only go to Essen and then go back to Brussels. [Nobody knows why] And so we all got out in Essen.

6: In Essen we had to wait twenty minutes for the train to Roosendaal, and then switch trains there. The train came at 15:19.

7: The train arrived at Roosendaal at 15:28 or so, and the next train to Rotterdam took off at 15:35. It was a slow train, that stopped at every station. This is the train I am in now. It is now 16:09. Normally it takes about half an hour to get from Roosendaal to Rotterdam. Though the Intercity would only take off at 16:00 so I decided to take the slow train. Now, I wanted to get the 13:13 train so I would be home at around 15:30 and be relaxed. Instead, I have spent about an hour waiting on platforms [which is cold and boring and annoying. Normally the total waiting time does not exceed twenty minutes] and I’m taking an hour longer than I should have. ARGH!

PS. to make it all even better, it has been raining all day :[

PS2. there better not be any technical problems tomorrow morning, because I have class at 8:30 -_-

Well, well, well. It’s 22:24, ugh, so much to do.. and now I want to sleep. Ciao!

And a very interesting day i was. Time for copypasta!

19:18

Ha, time for normal time format again. I changed the clock on Nymphadora now :]

So today was my second day of school. Very exciting :]

At 8:30 it was time for Bijloke and history of photography, or how the teacher calls it “photo-history”. Halfway through the class we went to the library where we were shown things and told things and blablaschmabla.

Then we had a “spiekuur” [I think they call it that, it's basically a free period between classes, ranging from one to three or four hours] and I went to Maarten’s home. Or kot. Hahaha. Anyway, his kot is fairly nice, the room is quite spacious and very close to school [lucky bastard!]. We sat around, drank tea, watched a film with modern dance and very nice music, and just talked. And then we also went looking for a kot for me. I found some pretty okay sounding apartments/studios, so I’ll have to look into that some more and hopefully it’ll work out.

After the spiekuur we went to the Academiestraat, for more information on this period’s project. Every year is split into periods of about five weeks and every period you’re supposed to do a project. The teacher explained a lot on the basics of photography, such as light, ISO, diaphragm, aperture, blablaschmabla. It was very interesting, and I’m really excited about the project, which is really starting tomorrow. Whoo, finally I get to take pictures! ^_^

Luckily for me the class ended early, so I had the train an hour earlier and I’m home an hour earlier! Wheee.

So. Lots of sleep for me today, I hope!

Ciao!

I am going to copypasta [heh] what I wrote during the day. Beware: it’s kind of a long read!

5:52 AM

basic rules of getting up and catching a train

one: when you think you can leave the house a little late because you already bought a ticket, you will end up in a hurry
two: when you think your bike works perfectly fine, it will find a way to delay you anyway
three: when you think there will be plenty of space to park said bike, there will not
four: when you think you can walk to the platform in a minute, it will take you at least five
five: when you think the stamp machine is up on the platform, it will be located downstairs
six: when you think the train will be at platform 4, it will magically be at platform 7
seven: when you think train employees will be somewhat helpful, they will not
eight: when you think you are fast, you finally stamped your ticket and rush up the stairs, things will be falling out of your wallet and you have to stop and pick them up
nine: when you think you will never get your ticket checked, you get checked the second you get on the train
ten: when you think you had packed everything, you will somehow have forgotten things, such as your pen, cable, phone charger

conclusion: next time, be at least fifteen minutes early!

11:19 AM

Basically, all we did in the first class was listen to what the setup of the project was, fill in several data on several papers [camera, objectives, laptop, do you want a PSCS3 license for Mac or PC?] and talk. It lasted from 8:30 till 10, and that is when the teachers decided we could go. Before that it was already just sitting around and talking. The class was scheduled to last till 12:30, hahaha.

But yep, now I’m in some food/café kind of thing, and I bought a fresh fruit salad for 2,15 [mighty expensive if you ask me, but I need vitamins and I can't sit outside cause it's raining -_-] so I give that woman 5,16 [since in Belgium they still accept 1 and 2 euro cents] and she gives me back 1 euro cent. I’m like, “What about the 3 euros?” And she looks at me “3 euros?” I’m like “I gave you 5,16 and you give me one cent!!!” And she’s like “Oh yeah. Here. Sorry.”

Pfffff no way in hell am I going to pay 5,15 for shitty fruit.

So what I should do is look for some sort of housing. Which I will, once I’m done eating my super expensive fruit salad. And when I have gone to the toilet.

But yeah.. pffff.. I brought sandwiches and stuff, and figures, there are NO benches to sit on [or hardly] and it’s raining.
I’m also pretty bummed that my Moleskine didn’t fit in my bag! Grr. So I looked at the small ones [I found out there are quite a few places here where you can buy Moleskines, and things alike] ^_^ but decided I’ll have to finish my big one first.. or get some means of financing small Moleskines. I don’t even know why I’m making such a fuss about it, I guess I have grown attached to just take out the book and draw or write. I don’t even need the Moleskine per se, just something to write on that is not lined, thin paper. So yeah.

I did manage to buy a new fountain pen [the cheap, awesomely awesome one] from HEMA cause I forgot mine [since it's on my Moleskine that doesn't fit in my bag ^_-] and now I’m happy. Wheeee.

But argh, they’re playing James Blunt now, how annoyingly lame! Grrr. And I have finished the fruit salad. And the other people here, talking, are pissing me off. So I guess this is it [I'll have to wait for a new song before I leave or else it gets stuck in my head] and I’ll write again later. Pff. I have two more classes, from 14.00-15.30 and from 15.40-17.40 – I wonder what that will be like!

Though I’m glad I get to relax right now though ^_^

I just wish Internet were free, heheheheh.

Ciao! [yay lounge music]

7:50 PM

This morning I forgot to stamp my ticket from Roosendaal-Rotterdam, oops. So now I’ll either have to stamp at Roosendaal, or figure something out. We’ll see.

What can I say about the rest of the day? It was rather rainy at first.. I visited some shops and didn’t buy anything anymore [and Gent has awesome shops so consider that a good thing]. I decided to just go to the Bijlokecampus. First, I went to the part of the building where the conservatorium is. [The music school]. I went up the stairs where photos on the wall caught my eye [most of he building is very white] and then..

[Okay whatever, the ticket control duder just controlled and didn't say anything. I got lucky, I guess.. ^_^]

..then I sat on some stairs and ate bread. I know, I was like a super loner. Like the little kid at school, who is lost in the building, has a super-huge bag and doesn’t have any friends. [But honest, I am NOT the kid that doesn't know anyone, because I do know some people from Photography already - and hey I'm only here a few days so I think I'm doing rather well, though if you're going to be early you'll be a loner. I don't really mind because I can manage very well on my own.] But whatever, because nobody saw me sitting there And I didn’t want to be in the cafeteria because I didn’t want to spend any more money!
After I ate my bread I was like, whatever, walked around to find a toilet and in the corridor where those toilets are, there are tables and chairs. For a while I had forgotten about those, I already started pondering “but WHERE do those students sit, they can’t all just go outside, or just stand, or sit on the stairs for so long?” [but hey, I saw some student sitting on a window sill.. haha] so anyway, I went to sit at a table amongst a lot of graphic design students. It’s funny how you can tell. They have a lot of papers and long, long rulers. Somehow I went from feeling like a dork, with my huge bag and tripod, to feeling somewhat glad that I didn’t have to walk with super-long rulers.

But anyway, after a while it was time to go to the classes. Today I had been sitting next to M all day [first at Atelier, where we started talking. In the morning when we had that huge break she went out to go and buy equipment - camera, laptop] and she’s very cool, ha. Very nice girl, she is going to walk around town with me tomorrow, she said. And she gave me some helpful links to finding a “kot”.

On to the content of the classes. First was anthropology. It was quite interesting, and I’m quite happy it’s not typical and boring. Though I did half fall asleep a few times, but you know me, I always fall asleep and I had to get up so damn early!!].
Then was psychology, and to be precise, psychology of perception. This was a log class but it was very interesting. I like philosophy and psychology and I obviously didn’t fall asleep ^_^

When that was over, it was time to go home. And now I’m on the train [obviously] and at Antwerp I went to the Spar Express real quick. My fingers are killing me [lack of vitamins, sleep] you know when that tiny bit of skin under your nail goes all painful? I have that now :’[

And I'm totally writing things nobody wants to read. So ciao, tonight is Numb3rs and Traveler again., and then sleep!

PS. if you read all that, thumbs up to you!

11:33 PM

Yeah, I wanted to write something now, anyway. Traveler was waaaaay nerve wrecking again! And yes, sorry about no Monday Doodle. I think I will have to make it something else for now, I totally have no time to do the whole scanning-editing thing between coming home [9:00 pm] and dinner [9:00-9:30] and watching TV. Yeahhh. Oh and I guess I’m talking in AM and PM now since my MacBook says the time in that format. Oh well. My American readers will be overjoyed. Hahaha. But hey, I’m off to bed! Ciao!

Okay, okay, okaaaaay, it’s not exactly born. It’s more like.. new in my family. And everything in my little family of precious things [such as myself and Muffin and our pets, but also my camera, blah] has a name. So guess what the name is of this small, light, white and extremely awesome MacBook?

*drumroll* .. Nymphadora. Also shortened to Tonks. You can’t tell me you haven’t read or seen or heard anything about Harry Potter, and if you are one of these people, I can tell you this: I like Tonks’ character, I like her hair, but above all I also just love the name. Yep. Nymphadora it is!

I just noticed the time on my site is off.. I don’t know. Hmm. Okay, so I wish I had lots to tell, but I don’t really have any huge news except that I have a sexy MacBook called Nymphadora now, and that I love it, and that I like PhotoBooth, and.. just everything

There are a lot of things on my to do list, concerning this site, I am slowly working on those things [the smileys and themes being on top of the list] so you might notice some changes in the coming period. I guess I’ll let you know when I’m all done or something major changes. Also am I thinking of some topics to write about, so if you have any suggestions or requests, let me know!

Hope you’re all going to have a spiffy weekend, ciao baby!

I mean, come on. What’s up with that? I’ve been slacking but at least I was a regular Monday updater. Due to the Monday Doodles. And I scanned my Doodle and all on Monday and now I didn’t update?! People might have been worried! I don’t think they were, but you know, it’s nice to think that they could have been. Well, for all of you that were anxious to hear about my first day, or those curious about the new doodle [seriously, they keep getting lamer, I need inspiration for nicer doodles] I wasn’t dead. I just came home really late and then I crashed. I watched Numb3rs, Traveler and Lost and then I went to bed. Oh, inbetween I scanned my Doodle, duh, but Muffin wouldn’t let me on the computer.

And with good reason, I may say, because I had to wake up, again, at 6 in the morning. Muhhh! I had to catch the train, both Monday and today, at 7:25. I used to live so close to school, I needed just 5 to 10 minutes to get there! Now I had to wake up at 6 because I had to be present at 10:00. That’s kind of all sorts of rediculous. But anyway. Yesterday, first we all sat with alllll the new students of the Academie [which are quite a lot] and people were talking. The head of the Department, people from Student Council, blahschmah. I kind of fell asleep during those speeches. Heh. We were free at 12:00ish but had to be at the other building, the Academiestraat [where the photography ateliers are], at 14:00 so we went for a walk and a lunch. The speech at the Academiestraat was for photography only, and we were all put in groups. I’m in group A if you’re interested. We were free at 16:00 and then I went home, what I did after that you already know!

So today I had to be there at 10:00 again, some more speeches and explanation and I was free at 12:00. Obviously I wanted to get registered but the studentensecretariaat closes at 12:00. I waited an hour, got registered and all that. Then I went to the station with my freshly gotten attest and got a train card. I must say this totally saves me a lot of money! Whooo.

That is the picture that is on the card, by the way. Haha. It was taken in a photobooth at Rotterdam Central when I got home last night. Anyway. Because I was free relatively early I decided to get off in Antwerp. I don’t know if I should write Antwerpen, Antwerp or Anvers or whatever. I think I’m going to go with Antwerpen. It’s called Antwerpen there, anyway, so yep. Antwerpen. I am looking for Mary Janes, shoes that look nicely under my outfits. It seems like these shoes are too hard to find. I walked through my favourite Antwerpian street [Kammenstraat] but to no avail. I only got some cute arm-fishnet-thingies from there. I passed by de Slegte on my way to the station, got two bargain books [I really can't resist those] and went home. Yep. I’m totally Belgium-focused right now. Seems like I’m finally worthy of my extension! [.be, for all you noobs, is Belgian]

The reason why this is funny is because it’s Belgian. "Kot" is a word for student-home, or student-room, whatever students live in. If you’re Belgian then you have a domicile, an address with your parents, and then you live in your Kot. Which is your student.. whatever you have. With everything you talk about as a new student, when you go and get registered at the school, when you get your traincard, when you talk with fellow students, they all drop the word Kot one way or the other. But for me, Kot is like, a place for animals, and it sounds like "kots" which means "vomit". Obviously, being a loud, rude Dutchie I crack up at certain Vlamish words. One of them is Kot. The other is Fuif. Heheheh. I just can’t help but laugh! I also don’t really know how to explain it. I guess it’s only funny when you’re Dutch?

The doodle is also relevant though, not only me being lame and laughing at Vlamish words and habits. I mean, I really need a place to stay! If I have to go to class at 8 or 8:30 that means I need to get the train at 5:25. Which is the earliest train. And I’m actually glad that there is no earlier train. Helloooo. So, having a Kot for myself [or Muffin and myself] in Gent would definitely give me some more sleeping time, and just make me a generally happier person. I don’t really mind being on the train but I do mind getting up too damn early. It also results in falling asleep during speeches, especially soft, Vlamish ones.

ARGH! I just saw that I have classes starting at 8:30 all week! Noooooooooooo!! Argh. Okay, I better have a Kot as soon as possible. I don’t know how long I can keep it up. The good thing is I am free for the coming days until Monday, before life-wrecking classes start. Ah, man. No social life for me, I guess.

The coming three days are going to be centered around getting life in Belgium fixed. I have the school, I can take part in the classes, I have half of my train card. Now I need the other half, a laptop, a tripod, a bag and a Kot [and I need to pay for things]. Wish me luck on the coming free days! Then life as a student really starts. Eeeep!

[Yep. I like to goof around in photobooths! Teehee!]