News

Hello everyone!

It's been a while since my last post. I've settled in nicely and now I feel a bit like a phoenix coming out of its ashes after a really bad flu, a cough that was close to bronchitis and hoarseness resulting from that. I can still feel some junk on my voice, but I'm sure that'll be gone soon, too. Other than that, classes are going rather well. I'm having the time of my life in the ensemble (even though I couldn't sing there this week, which was killing me *flash of being dramatic*)!! I've never been so happy singing with other people. They're simply amazing!!

I never thought I'd like America this much. I still feel that emotionally I can connect better to British people, but for now America's doing just fine. I found that some things said about them are true, yes, but some things are definitely not and a lot are never even mentioned! It's always about how they pollute the earth, they're consumers, fat etc. That might partly be true, but there's so much more to them!!! I have never been so welcomed and helped as when I first got here!! I don't think I could find that anywhere else. Also they might not always know anything about your culture or where your country is, but they're always interested in it, and in you! I think that's something that should not be overlooked. There's also nothing wrong with being proud of your country. It only seems so krass because it's such a large nation. There are people from all over the world here! They mingle and live side by side. I might also live in a very liberal state of the US, that might have smth to do with it. However I'm glad about where I live and I wouldn't have it any other way at this point.

Since there hasn't been much else going on, this is it for now. I will report again soon. 
Behave! :-)  

News from across the water

Hello my dear friends!

First of all, let me tell you that contrary to rumors I am not dead. :-) I just realized it hasn't even been two weeks since I've come to the US!!!! It feels a lot longer than that - in a positive sense of course. 

This might be a bit longer blog, so if you're out of time stop now and continue reading later or tomorrow ;). 

It was hard to leave home in the end. It had been two months of being with my parents, not having to take care of anything. They paid for it all, my mum washed my clothes etc. It was like it had been before I went to Holland, but of course that couldn't last. I knew that, but yet it was really hard to say goodbye. I remember being at the Berlin airport where my dad drove me and thinking how I could never do this! However once I got on the plane it got better. It was a pretty big one, not overly big, but still enough to enjoy the flight. I had never really been a fan of flying but now I am. I could watch movies the whole time - which I did of course. First I watched The Hunger Games and afterwards The Lucky One. The food was good, too, believe it or not! I was completely vegan fried polenta with some vegetables. Good be worse! I didn't feel sick at all!! It was great. I didn't sleep however, which was a mistake as it turned out. 

When we finally landed I couldn't believe it ... I was in the United States!!! And then it took me about 1 1/2 to get through security. Thankfully no one wanted to inspect my bags, so I walked right out of there. Unfortunately there was no one there to meet me, but I found a cab and took it to the youth hostel I had booked. Wow, was that a mistake! :-) First of all it had stairs like you wouldn't believe. All the people reading this who have ever been inside a real Dutch house know what I'm talking about. I had to carry both of my bags up those stairs (both were just above the legal limit, so both were around 24 kg ...) and that hurt. A very nice American man came and helped me, though. It was quite a run-down house. The atmosphere was very lovely and welcoming, however I could have used a single room. There were none in the hostel, unfortunately. It was 1000 degrees in the room and when you turned the airconditioner on it made the loudest noise ever! The bed was rather comfortable, though, surprisingly enough. And what always happens in hostels: you meet great people! I met some people from England and Wales, Japan, America, Canada, even Germany! Although I have to say I haven't met a lot of Germans yet. 

After 5 nights in the hostel I could finally move into my room! My roommate and her dad helped me with ... pretty much everything (Thank you sooo much for that!!!!!! in case you're reading ;)), drove to Ikea with me and built up the furniture. They're such amazing people! Really wonderful.

It took me about three more days to really feel like I had properly arrived in an emotional sense. But ever since tuesday (I remember the day exactly, because that's when I started smiling and being weird again) I'Ve been feeling rather at home and welcome. Like I belong or something. 

This week has been "orientation week", meaning checking in, getting your schedule, getting to know people etc. Very useful, actually. Now I know my way around the school, at least almost. 

In two days classes will start and I'm going to have a blast!!! Unfortunately I can't take any Songwriting classes yet, but after finishing the courses I have this semester, things will be wide open for me. I'll just have to come back for a second year, too, to really experience the whole thing. Or maybe a third, who knows! :-) But for now, starting monday I will work my a** off to achieve the best I can in all my classes. Also I've just ordered a Mandolin which I will be using frequently in coming compositions once I've learned it. 

That's it for now! I'll write a little post here and there about how I'm doing and how everything's going. Tonight (my tonight, probably your middle of the night :P) I will enjoy the many fun sides of a brand new Doctor Who episode. I love that there's such a thing as BBC America!!! And I love my roommate, for many reasons :P, but always at that moment especially for the fact that she has a TV and she brought it with her! Yay and hurray!!!!

That's it. Cheerio, me mates! 

5 days to go

Crazy to think that one week from now, I will be in Boston, probably still staying at the hostel I booked but getting to know the city and the country, also in posession of a cell phone number and a bank account. That if nothing goes wrong, but I don't think so. ;) Always stay on the positive side, that's my motto. Glass half full! 

A little summary of what's going through my mind: On the one hand I'm dead scared and nervous. I keep thinking about what's going to happen, that I'm not gonna be in Europe for 9 months and so on and so forth. I'm sure lots of people recognize that .... on the other hand I am soooooo indredibly excited about this whole thing! I could dance all the time (after lying down and being scared). This is a dream come true and I'm proud of myself for accepting it!!!! I won't ever get this chance again, so here I come! GET READY, America!! :-)))) 

Whilst being scared and excited I'm getting ready. I've been trial-packing my suitcases and the way it looks now is that two are enough. Also if I had to get a third one it would cost a lot of money and that would simply not be worth it. This way I can take a lot of things with me and not over-pay. I have for the past week been scanning books into the computer to lighten the load. I've scanned all my music sheets, in books or on paper, and now I'm scanning cook books and magazines. The only actualy books I will take are novels and such. I can't very well scan them all, that would take years. The other books are already taking quite some time. But now I've become an expert and I'm really fast. And like I said, it will spare me a lot of weight in the suitcases. 

Apart from that I've also gotten yet another vaccination, which is always fun, and I've been planning my exchange of currency, how to get to the airport and so on, all valid points to consider. I'm also spending lots of time with my dog, since I can't really talk to her while away. I'm gonna miss her a lot !!! :( I have to go my own way, though ... 

I don't know if this will be my last blog in Europe,we'll see. I will report in detail about my experiences after landing. ;) I will also record a few more songs before I leave and I'll post them on soundcloud. you just wait :-)

Good night. xx

3 weeks to go

I think I mention this in every post, but it's as true now as it ever was - TIME FLIES! I can't even comprehend it's speed! My head is spinning ... just WOW!


In those last weeks here I will take care of the few things still on the to-do list. I won't wait until the last second, but actually take care of business "too early". For example, I need to buy another suitcase. For now I plan on taking two with me, but maybe I will end up taking three. After all, I'm moving to another continent and won't have the time and energy to buy everything there. I will certainly do a few "trial packing sessions", just to see if everything fits.
I have successfully paid my tuition fee - the bank was no help at all at how to transfer money to America .... but I managed but sheer power of reading :-) it arrived already and all is well in that department. Along with the tuition also comes the health insurance and something called "comprehensive fee", which is everything not relating to classes.

What actually really surprises me - I haven't yet had any real freakout or trantrums about going to Boston! I was expecting (based on past happenings :P) at least one or two days of complete tears and asking myself if this really was the best thing to do. I had one day where I got scared and just had to lie down for a while, but I never questioned my decison to go! Which just shows to me that it was the right one. How could it not be? When will I ever get this chance again? I would have probably almost killed myself if I hadn't gone !!!

Otherwise there's not much to report at this point. I am still sooo glad about the room that I found!! My future roommate is awesome and she's very invested in already making me feel comfortable without actually being there. VERY AWESOME!!!

I will report on the weekly accomplishments I make before I leave (I hope there will be many, like saving the world from evil and fixing the ozone layer ... haha). August 27th - that's when my new life will begin!!!!!

Cheerio, mates.

Visa has been approved!

It didn't quite occur to me that there was even a bit of a chance I might not actually get a visa ... but apparently when you're going there to study, that's not very common ... sooooo, all in all, no surprise MY VISA HAS BEEN APPROVED!! I am beyond happy right now and this makes the whole thing very real. I'm starting to get very excited about it and I can't wait for it to happen!! It's not even 7 weeks until I leave. I would like to share a little bit of a recap of yesterday, which was the day I went all the way to Berlin to apply for my visa.

The whole thing started the night before, when I suddenly noticed that two things were missing from the list I had put up. One was a passport picture, the other one was an envelope that my passport would eventually be sent back to me in. I panicked a little before noticing that both of them were easy to solve. 

Then - yesterday morning I took a train at 9 AM after maybe 5 hours of sleep. I went there early to anticipate any problems on the tracks or whatever. But this time nothing happened and I was there at 11:13, when my visa appointment was at 15:00. I had enough time to go and take a passport picture and get an envelope - in the same place actually. It was called a "photo & card". The guy was slightly grumpy, but that happens a lot in Berlin, so I was not bothered by it. 

After sitting around the station for a long time I left for the embassy, which was approximately 30 minutes away from the station. Somehow I managed to arrive there 45 minutes before my appointment, which was so silly of me. I sat around under a tree for 30 minutes until deciding to just go in. I was actually admitted very quickly and they just checked my bag for anything not allowed - which I had none of, because I read the instructions beforehand. 

When I was inside it was also much faster than I thought. They had said that it might take 2-3 hours for you to get out of the embassy after having done everything. But no ... actually the only thing that was slightly exhausting was standing around, not being able to sit for quite a while. But even that was doable. I waited for about 1 hour until it was my turn. After that, it only took about 10 minutes until my visa was approved and I was out of there! The staff was incredibly friendly, not annoyed at all after having done this all day probably ... they were very helpful and understanding and all, so it was no big deal having to wait. They didn't expect you to be unfriendly, so they were open to you. 

I felt very sorry indeed for a girl just in front of me, who didn't have a document she needed for her application to be processed. She came all the way from Hamburg to have the visa done that day and then she ended up being there for nothing! how horrible is that! it was her own fault, yes, but you make mistakes in life ... I hope she'll be ok.

After having finished so quickly I took a bus back to the station because I had time and I could even take a train earlier than the one I had anticipated. I was home at around 9 PM and just very happy!!

This is the final step towards my personal American dream :-) 

There are still a few things to do. I have two more vaccinations, I have to fill in some forms for the room I'm going to rent, have a Skype conversation with my future roommate and pay the tuition bill. That is so much less, though, than just a few days ago. With the visa, most things are done now. YAY! And 6 1/2 weeks till I fly there. WHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

Over and out. Good night.

Keeping Up

A lot of news since my last post. I guess last time I was really worn out by all the things going on with how many forms to fill out and the pending move and all. I think I will go the old-fashioned way and number the news, however they do not show the importance of the news. I think they're all about the same. 

1. I officially and fully moved out of my apartment in The Hague last week. After a few long days of cleaning, throwing away and packing, my father helped me bring my stuff to Germany. He came all this way with the car (which happens to be a minivan) and we managed to put all of my stuff in it! (sans furniture of course. I left that for the next tenant) Then we took a really long drive back to Germany. We stopped at a friend's house at some point to spend the night there, because it would have taken too long and also we were stuck in traffic jams yet again. They put a serious delay in the whole thing. But we managed after all and on saturday we finally arrived in Dresden. Now there's still some stuff in the car, but it's becoming less. You can actually see out the back now. haha. All that's left to do now is adjust to the fact that I no longer live in Holland and that all of my friends are far away right now.

2. I found a place to live in Boston!! it's amazing how fast everything went, but yes, so it is! I put up this add in this thing called ProArts Connect and this lovely young lady answered. :-) I haven't signed any contracts yet, but that is one of the projects of this week. It's a great house, too! with kitchen, 2 bathrooms, a patio, living room and all :-) only not furnished, but that shouldn't be a problem. i'll just buy some stuff once I get there. SO COOL!! 

3. I have my visa interview next week. I'm now finishing all the things I need, paying a few more fees and making sure I have everything filled out and ready. And as it turns out: only one more fee to pay and then I'm done! Can't believe it ... 

4. I got my tuition bill and it's just really expensive ... I knew it was gonna be like that, but seeing the amount makes it different again. I also don't understand all the points they put on the bill, but that's why a call is in order. It's absolutely impossible to get a response from some offices through email! I guess they work better when being called. I'm okay with that. Since I'm with my parents right now, I can use the actual phone and that will make the whole thing a lot cheaper and more convenient.

Well, thassit. 

it's now 8 weeks till Boston and I'm FREAKING OUT! more of excitement this time .. haha. 

Over and out.

Finished for now!

It's all done for now! I finished the Placement Exams, I got my visa interview date, all that needs to be done before the visa interview is pay some fees and get all the forms ready, but I don't have to deal with that right now.

I'll be getting ready to move out of my place during the next week and start eating healthy again, it's beyond time :P

So, next time there might be more exciting things to tell. Stand by! :-)