Nervous Breakdown on its way

Last Friday, I received my degree. I received a lovely speech by my supervisors, who were very nice and very polite about my accomplishments. I even made it to the University news, and tomorrow the local newspaper...
At night, I had my graduation and goodbye party. I got extremely drunk but it was sooo much fun. I really enjoyed it and I want to thank everyone for their presence, as well as their presents...
I had an absolutely great time. The next day, however, I did not have such a great time (just like some other people, btw). On Sunday, I started packing all my belongings and had an absolutely lovely dinner at the Boccachio restaurant with BarD's parents. That was simply gorgeous...
I spent Monday moving my stuff, even though a lot of it had been picked up by friends, who wanted to have things. The rest of my belongings went to my parents house for storage...
(I am giving a quick account, because my battery is nearly flat...)
Today I went to Amsterdam to go to the Italian Consulate in Amsterdam for some formalities. Unfortunately, the consulate closes at noon (which is not published on the website) and I got there at 10 past noon. Bastards...
Oh well, I will go again on Friday, because Thursday the consulate will be closed and tomorrow I will finish moving out of my house. It does make me feel sad to see the stripped house without furniture. And I have started to see the advantages of removal services: I HATE MOVING.
Well, I have some battery power left so I have time to post some pictures from the party:






ciao,
OJ

A day full of nothing

Today, I have been very naughty. Basically I have done virtually nothing. At least, I have accomplished nothing. I have a job to do, but have not been able to find any information on the internet about it. Also, the guy who would be able to help me wasn't here all day. I finally received an email he was at the faculty, but once I got to his room, he had already left again. Such a useless day it has been.
Tonight, Fedor will be here and we'll stop by Noorderzon (if the weather is ok). And tomorrow.... I WILL RECEIVE MY DEGREE!!! And I will also become extremely drunk at my party tomorrow night. I reckon it will be great!!!
ciao, OJ

Alice in Wonderland

Well well well, I feel like Alice in Wonderland: the impossible has become possible. The unlikely has become likely and my graduation ceremony has actually become a graduation ceremony. Apparently I did the right thing, used the right words, for the local Pharaoh to say: "I am the morning and the evening sun. If I say black is white, it shall be so" (movie quote) and as a result, I will have a ceremony to receive my Master Degree. Unfortunately, this will not be at the fancy building in the centre of town (Academiegebouw) and there will thus not be a staircase ceremony, but at the ugly, dull WSN-building on Zernike. But I do not care: I am very excited and very happy that Friday at 15.15 I will in fact really receive my Master Degree!!!
WOOHOO
ciao, OJ

Ladies and Gentlemen (with Joel Grey's accent from Cabaret, please)

I have discovered something today. Bommen Berend aka Gronings Ontzet aka Groningen Liberated Celebration has been moved...

Ok, I realise I should explain this a bit further: August 28 is the local Liberation Day in Groningen. And this turns out to be on Sunday. The powers that be have decided, however, that this is not an appropriate day for it (I think the argument is related to hangovers on Monday and not so much related to any sort of religious issue people may have) and it has thus been moved to Saturday. Now, personally I couldn't care less. I do not really intend to join in on the celebrations anyway. It is simply the principle of it which I find shocking. It's like saying: "Ladies and gentlemen, christmas has been moved to a more appropriate date: April 19". Or saying "I haven't really got time Janury 1st, could New Year be moved a few days...?". It is bloody insane. I disagree. I am not happy. I do not like it. And it means that Joost can't come to my party on Friday, because the pre-Bommen Berend is a really busy nite in the bars...

And by the way, nobody seems to know who moved Bommen Berend. Powers that be: please step forward...
OJ

Phase 1: complete

Well, I have returned to Groningen to wrap my final things up. Came back from Milano last Thursday, but decided to stay in Nijmegen for the weekend. Had some good time there, which was lovely. And of course I should try and enjoy all the time I can possibly have with Fedor still.
Today I came back to arrange some things and check my emails and all. I will probably go and work in the next three days and use all day friday to prepare for my goodbye/graduation party. I am really looking forward to it!!!
And then, I will obviously have to move still. Get my shit together and leave... Oh well, no reason to get sentimental about it: it is an opportunity. But I will kinda miss the G-town. And I will definitelly miss Fedor so much!!!! 16 days, and counting...
ciao, OJ

And we have a winner!!!!

I am now the very happy new resident of Via de Christoforis, 12... Per September 1, that is...

I decided to take the 600€-flat anyway, even though I do need to find 1800€ for the deposit somehow... Oh well, I'll manage somehow...
The flat is a shared place with 3 others. The main renter is a 31-year old Italian unemployed music technician, named Michele. He shares his room with his girlfriend, Megan, who is a 24 year old American girl going to fashion college in Milano. Finally, there is a 28-year old sort of DJ, who is from lots of places (mainly Morocco and the States, although he was born in Jakarta).

My room is about 16 m2, with 3 beds in it (good for people who want to come and visit...). It also has a lot of cupboards. The rest of the house is pretty neat and tidy. Additionally, there is a lovely terrace outside with plants and a free view... Its great!!! Finally, it is 3 minutes away from a metro station and 2 minutes away from the Corso Como, the hippest street of milan for going out right now!!! I am very very happy!!!!!!!

I was there today, drinking a bit of vino. Tomorrow I will drop a bag there and leave my first months rent...

For the rest, I will have a day off tomorrow. Nothing to do in Milano anymore for now...

WOOHOO!!!!!

cioa, OJ

progress, but goal still unachieved

So far, the appartment hunt has not yet been succesful. But I have found my new favourite source: easystanza.it Why didnt anyone tell me about that before??? Basically, it is the italian version of kamernet.nl and I have already been sending emails to loads of people. Phoned with someone in London (I definitely do not want to see the bill of calling with my Dutch mobile in Italy to London...) and that sounds ok, except that there is no-one here to show me the flat.
Another flat has emailed me just now, and I emailed back. Now I am waiting for a phonecall (or an email with a phonenumber). The first one sounds a bit better (next to uni: 520€), but the 2nd sounds more hopeful. Only issue there would be the 1800€ bond they want. Well, there should be a way to get 1800€ in a few days, shouldnt there?
The good thing is that it turned out that there was some sort of holiday yesterday, thereby making it even quieter than normal in August. Now it is not as bad as yesterday. Obviously it is still quiet and about half the shops are closed and everyone is on holiday, but it is an improvement nonetheless...
Well, I hope everything will turn out ok.
ciao, OJ

From Sunny Empty Milano

Hiya,
My friend Nina turns out to have been right all along: August is not the best time to go to Milano and do anything. The temperature is not the problem, the problem has to do with the Italian holiday-habits. The city has been abandoned. The central square is filled with tourists, but as soon as you step of that square, the streets are completely empty. Apart from MacDonalds restaurants, hardly anything is opened. Even major shops such as Zara and H&M are closed. Public transport has nearly disappeared and it is now allowed to park everywhere in the city for free (obviously, this is normally very different). Even finding an internet cafe took me 3 hours!!! My plan, to look at ads in the university hallways is obviously impossible as the University is completely closed. I did meet an elderly couple there who had a place on offer. But the price was a bit too high (850€ excl.) to afford alone. After these few minutes here on the internet, I will try calling some of the phonenumbers I have found on walls etc in the city.
Please think of me!
ciao, OJ

When the truth is found to be lies... [Jefferson Airplane]

Party: Aug 26, from 21.00 o'clock.
Recently everything seemed to be going so well, but I got to a full stop yesterday after visiting ABN AMRO-bank. I need to borrow money (to be able to eat the next 12 months), but unfortunately "ABN AMRO does not lend money to people who live in a different country". In itself, this seems fair enough, but it is very incovenient because I was pretty much counting on that money. Now I will have to find another way of borrowing the money. I have e-mailed with an Italian bank, but we all know what they are like...
Positively, however, I ran into a friend's friend who turns out to have a cousin in Milan, which could possibly provide me with another new contact overthere. This will be helpful, as I am leaving day after tomorrow to find a place to live. I also still need to find someone where I can leave some stuff for a few weeks...
Oh well, today I am first going to Nijmegen, and will fly from Eindhoven on Sunday.
Enjoy your weekends everyone!
ciao, OJ
PS: here are a few photos from Scotland:



The picture on the right is Loch Ness. Unfortunately, Nessie is just outside the picture.

Party time

I will celebrate my graduation and goodbye to the Netherlands on August 26, from about 21 o'clock at my house in Groningen. See you then!
ciao, OJ

Final rant about Faculty of Economics

Before I forget, anyone who expected to receive a postcard from Scotland, I am very sorry, but I forgot to take my addressbook and was thus not able to send any postcards. My apologies...
My final rant about the Faculty of Economics in Groningen concerns the fact that, once again, my generation of Top Master students has been fucked. The first time we got fucked due to a mix-up at the Faculty which allowed us to enter straight from the (Dutch) Doctoral programme into the Master programme. They forgot to inform us that we should first be enrolled as Bachelor students, if we wanted to receive a Bachelor degree. What happened now is that we did not get a Bachelor degree, and our CVs show a 3-year gap during which we followed some education but did not actually finish anything. After that, it turned out that, contrary to our beliefs, we were not going to receive an MPhil degree (Master of Philosophy) as is normal for 2-year Master programmes at ALL other Dutch Universities. Instead we will simply receive an MSc, which will thus be the same as a 1-year programme. Had we known this in advance, the choice of staying in Groningen may have been different. Now the final act of Malevolence has been the suggestion that someone would take care of all our graduation-related paperwork. Having informed after it multiple times, we were only told that everything would be OK... Of course, we were silly enough to believe this and the result is now that it has been difficult to receive my actual degree in time (bureaucracy, bureaucracy), but I will not have an awards ceremony: oopsy....
So now I will not have the degree I want (BSc), I will have a degree I do not want (MSc) and I will get that degree by picking it up from the information desk!!! The conclusion thus is: DO NOT STUDY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GRONINGEN. The bloody mess they create with their silly rules and their awful bureacracy is not worth it. Just go somewhere, where things have been arranged properly...
ciao, OJ
PS I am so pissed off...

Back from vacation

Yesterday, Fedor and I returned from our little UK-holiday. 4 days in Coventry, England, which was absolutely brilliant. As always, when visiting my friend Matt, this consisted mainly of eating and drinking and more eating. In other words: great fun!!! After that, we flew from Nottingham to Edinburgh to spent another 5 days in Scotland. Fedors attempt of curing my hate of tents was futile. Camping in Scotland simply sucks. Scotland is wet and cold: not very attractive conditions for camping, obviously. On the other hand, it is a beautiful country and we had a lot of fun. It was really nice to simply drive around in our little gay-blue Chevrolet Matiz, and we saw a lot of Scotland. I had to do all the driving, which was not really a problem of course, but it did get rather stressy around Edinburgh (not really my kind of ringroad).
Oh well, we had a lot of fun and that is what's important.
The best news, however, is that I have not only finished my thesis, but actually received an 8 for it. I am very very very very happy about this, as it had been a rather awful affair of finishing it in the end. I am extremely excited about it!!!
ciao, OJ
PS Photos from Scotland will follow later.