Grá Dílseacht Cairdeas

Of Harry Potter and Edward Cullen

2009-04-12T16:26:00.000-04:00

It was a year ago this month that I read Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse, all over the span of one weekend. One weekend. I spent that entire weekend cooped up inside, rejecting the prospect of going to the movies with friends, just so I can read read read read and read. I'm pretty sure I didn't properly eat that weekend either. It's safe to say the Twilight books had me mystified. I was obsessed. But with reason. Edward Cullen: moody, mysterious, virgin vampire? Be still my beating heart! It was at that same time that the movie was being filmed and I kept following it religiously. Fansites offered clips and pictures of the set and with the stars. Honestly, obsessed.

The movie came out, I was hugely disappointed (except for that kickass baseball scene while Muse plays on the soundtrack, and the last scene with Bella and Edward dancing under a gazebo while Iron and Wine's Flightless Bird, American Mouth played in the background).

However, even before the movie came out, my obsession with Twilight had dwindled considerably.

And now, a year later, it seems that EVERYONE is obsessed with Twilight. The movie converted an onslaught of new readers. I know a handful of people who are all about Twilight right now. And it's kind of annoying me, to be perfectly honest. People are claiming it the best book ever. And a comparison to Harry Potter was thrown in the mix.

First of all, the moment I started reading Twilight, I immediately concluded that Stephenie Meyer wasn't that great of an author. While enjoyable, Twilight isn't a magnificent prose or anything akin to 'genius literature'. But the minute I heard the J.K Rowling comparison I almost lost it.

I was never a fan of the Harry Potter series. I watched most of the movies (my brother loves them) but never read the books (until now). But I knew that Stephenie Meyer's Twilight saga could never come up to par with J.K. Rowling's Hogwarts universe. No way. No how.

And now, as I've started on the Harry Potter series, and I'm on the fourth book, I stand by my previous statement.

How can they even utter J.K. Rowling in the same sentence as Stephenie Meyer? I'm not bashing Mrs. Meyer (not really, no) because I do respect her for writing such a famous series. But HONESTLY? Twilight's cliched. It is. Stephenie's just gone and twisted aspects of it so that it doesn't seem like your everyday cliche. Vampires and werevolves? Done and overdone.

But what Rowling did was create a completely different universe. You watch (or rather, read) how the protagonist grows up in each book. Seven freaking books, people! The Twilight series only expands over a period of two-three years (except for the last chapter of Breaking Dawn, I believe. I'm not sure. I haven't finished it yet. Don't have the strength to finish that terribly cliched last book) Okay, poor arguments.

But, Stephen King said it waaay better:

"The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can't write worth a darn. She's not very good,"

But my point is, Twilight, while enjoyable, is overrated. If people think this is proper literature, I fear for the fate of the world.

D'oh!

2009-04-10T15:17:00.003-04:00

I've completely disregarded this blog for the past eight months. It's hard to believe that so much time has already passed. Because it sure as heck doesn't feel like eight months.

A whole lot has happened since my last blog post. I moved to the Netherlands (the second hardest day of my life.), started college, had to get used to the weather around here (gimme a break, I've lived on an island where the weather consisted of sunny and scorching days a majority of the time!), living on my own, doing laundry and on my own, and making sure I eat properly (momma's task prior to moving here, sad to say).

It's been a heck of a ride, and despite a momentary lapse of judgement back in January when I was adamant on staying on Aruba (after having gone for the christmas holidays), I am really liking life here. Despite the horrible weather, I am really warming up to life here

2008-07-15T15:08:00.002-04:00

With sixteen days to go before I'm off to Nijmegen, I've decided that today was the day - after postponing said "day" too many times to mention - that I start really cleaning up my room. With cleaning up my room, I refer to putting everything I'm not taking with me to the Netherlands away in boxes, and throwing away what I deem unworthy.

I started about an hour ago, throwing everything in my closet and on every surface of my room on my bed. My bed's pilled with everything from CD's to clothes to DVD's to hairbrushes and hair ironing straighteners to body splashes from Bath and Body Works, to Qtips to makeup. Don't get me started on the floor or the lone chair I have in my room.

But just as I'm about to start with the whole "this will go, this will stay, this will go into the trash" procedure, I ended up just staring at the clutter on my bed, on my floor and on the white chair. I just don't know where to friggin' start.

I've already moved my stereo to the living room (I offered it to my mother since it'll be gathering dust in my room for the next six months, or whenever I return to Aruba and actually use it.) But I can't place everything else again.

It's extremely nerve-racking to be sitting here in my old room and packing up my entire life. The fact that I'm only allowed to take 30 kg worth of stuff with me, probably in just ONE suitcase, doesn't make it any easier. I'm notorious for packing unnecessary essentials, and overpacking, and I can only imagine the dilemma I'll be in once I actually start packing up that suitcase.

My mother would have to ship the rest of my stuff over as soon as I'm settled in.

Oh, and now comes the next dilemma.

As of yet, I am still homeless. I'm on a list to get a room in a student flat in Nijmgen - either in Hoogeveldt or Vossenveld - but I have yet to hear a single word from SSHN, the housing organisation of Nijmegen.

I'm trying not to think about it too much, since a friend of mine has offered me her room for the meantime while she's on vacation in China, but it still keeps me up at night wondering.

Well,

Might as well start picking up in here. It looks like a tornado of the strongest category tore through my room.

Going dutch soon enough

2008-06-05T15:32:00.003-04:00

Time is ticking by. Fast.

With, if my calculations are correct, fifty-six days left until I'm Amsterdam bound (that is if the departure date for the beursalen is still slated for July 31), my time here on Aruba is running out. Just yesterday I heard from my school in the form of a letter and a bunch of forms I have to fill in. It's still hard to believe that I'm leaving. I mean, I'm finding it hard to believe. Maybe it's because I can't imagine myself in Nijmegen in less than two months, let alone living on my own and starting school in a country I've never been to.

I've been preparing everything in the last few weeks. My room is slowly becoming bare; everything that I might not use for now being stored away in boxes, while what I might need but am not taking with me this time are being put away in plastic containers on top of my dresser.

Another thing I'm preparing myself for; speaking Dutch 24/7. I've been speaking dutch ever since the first grade, but over the years my dutch fluency has diminished considerably. Right now, I'm embarrassed to say that I can hardly speak Dutch - simple convo, sure. But I quickly find myself reaching for a dictionary whenever I can't find a word.

In an attempt to improve my Dutch, today I've started watching Sesam Straat (that's Sesame Street in dutch). Besides laughing at how they pronounce Grover and the theme song being completely different, I marveled at the fact that the dutch Big Bird was BLUE.

I've never been one to watch Sesame Street, not even as a kid, but...isn't Big Bird YELLOW?

Or is it just an attempt by those who run the dutch version of the show to be unique?

Because seriously, a BLUE Big Bird?

2008-05-06T20:01:00.003-04:00

I've decided that since Twilight (the movie) is seven months away from being released to theaters I'm going to reread the whole Twilight series again. At least, I'll start with Twilight (the first book).

It'll help ease the excitement over the first teaser (or...as the official website claims, "a sneak peak" before the first official trailer is released on Friday...or whatever.) And excited I was when I logged into myspace and saw the advertisement for Twlight Trailer. I believe it was Robert Pattinson's intense stare that garnered my complete attention.

But ohhh the trailer! There are no words!

A friend of mine just called me, to congratulate me on passing my driver's test, and to invite me to go watch Iron Man with them. I declined. Why? Well, despite the movie grossing an estimated 100 million over its opening weekend (REALLY MAN?) I had no interest whatsoever in this movie.

Secondly, I've made a vow that I was going to reread Twilight tonight. And dammit, I'll keep that promise.

Moving on.

It's official. I passed my driver's test and in three weeks time I'll have my driver's license in my hands.

Meh, short blog.

whatevs.

2008-04-23T02:11:00.003-04:00

It seems that the only time I write in here (or, I guess, as it is usually preferred, "blog") is after midnight.

Once again I find myself sitting on my bed, the rest of my family already deep in REM stage of sleep, with my laptop on my lap and my fingers typing away what is sure to be typical mumbo jumbo.

It's been a dull couple of days. I passed my driver's test - well, the oral part of it (you know with the questions on traffic regulations and traffic signs). I would've done the driving part of the exam if it weren't for the sole reason of Indexering.

God damn, I'm REALLY starting to hate that word and all the shit behind it.

From what I understand (mind you, the whole topic confuses me) indexering is basically a raise in pay for some workers that the government promised these workers. And because they still haven't seen a cent in pay raise (or something...I still don't know what the heck it's really about....I believe it has something to do with pensions too)these people have gone on strike. It's teachers, firemen, airport workers, and police officers who are the ones demanding what they were promised.

Apparently, police officers have the right to demonstrate (along with a throng of people camped out daily in front of Parlamento (which I guess is the equivalent to a city hall...or something) from 12 to 6.

And lucky me, I had my exam at 1.30.

So, while I did well on the oral portion of the exam (oh..that sounds unbelievably dirty), I couldn't go out and drive, and thus hopefully pass the test, and in conclusion officially pass my driver's test.

And GRRR that has me pissed.

With no end to this indexering problem in sight (at least until the current wonderful government caves in and give these people what they've been promised and rightfully deserve), I suppose it would take a loooong time until I get that damn license in my hand (not counting the 3 to 4 weeks it takes to manufacture that damn license; it has to go to the Netherlands and back here)

I suppose driving without a licence might be a bit...reckless. Only because if something does happened, I'd be the one who's screwed.

Dammit, this is unfair on sooo many levels.

Okay, enough bitching about my lack of a driver's license.

On to another topic...

Oh fuck that.

I'm tired. It's nearing 2.30 AM, and I dutifully promised myself that I would start waking up at a decent hour (instead of pouring out of bed after noon...)

I can see that not happening tomorrow though.

God damn that euro

2008-04-10T16:14:00.002-04:00

I am supposed to be prepping for my driver's exam (which is in about ten days) but what I find myself doing is staring out the window as one of my dog chases an iguana around the backyard. Exciting stuff, really.

Boring day around here. Thankfully, unlike the past few days, today the weather's been sufferable. I woke up in a haste because after pressing the snooze button on my alarm clock, I had fallen asleep again. To avoid horrendous traffic on my way to take my brother to school, I always make sure I leave the house at seven, or preferably at 6.55. So when I realized it was already 7.02 and I had yet to friggin' pee, let alone get dressed, I practically sprang from my bed and sprinted towards the bathroom to brush my teeth and wash my face. I think it was 7.10 when we left the house, and miraculously, there wasn't any traffic.

Must be the unions strike that's going on - among the strike, the teacher's union.

Meh, this strike thing is starting to work on my nerves.

I agree that these people deserve what they had been promised - a pay raise, and god knows what else, I really don't know much about the topic - but dear lord. These teachers who are demonstrating...they do know that the education of students are put on hold why they strut around the court house screaming wonderfully put together rhymes about Indexering.

It's 4.24 and I'm soooooooooo sleepy. Four days of going to bed at around 3 AM and waking up at 6.30 (with the exception of today, of course) just plain sucks!

Oh, the euro just went from 2.82 to 2.85. Wonderful. By the time I leave for Holland, it'll be 3.00. It'll cost my mom 3000 florins to get me a 1000 euros. bloody fabulous.

I'm off to study.

Try to study.

Procrastinating is such an unfair burden.

The countdown has begun

2008-04-05T01:04:00.003-04:00

It's Saturday morning, 1.05 AM here in Aruba.

It's been a heck of a long time since I've babbled on this here journal/blog-whatever you favorably call this. And it's not because my social life hit an all-time either; for some reason, I completely forgot about this blog, and, I've been avoiding every form of writing.

The past three weeks especially I've hardly even been on the computer (compared to the 24/7-attached-to-the-desk-staring-at-computer-screen trance I've been under for the past nine months or so) thanks to the remigration of my cousins from San Antonio to sunny ol Aruba. With them around, I actually have something to do (i.e. hang out with them, rounds of playstation 2 to go around between the four of us, etc).

Time seems to be slipping away from me. It's hard to believe that in about three months (to be accurate, 31 July) there's a charter plane (KLM) leaving Aruba with god-knows how many Beursalen heading to Schiphol (that's Amsterdam's Airport).

Before I found out the (tentative, not official) date that the beursalen (to those who don't know what the fuck "beursalen" are, let me quickly explain as best as I can: in dutch, beurs means scholarship. To us in Aruba, it basically means students who have finished secondary school and move to the Netherlands (or any other countries in the Aruban region, the US included) to study, with the financial loan of the Aruban government and the Netherlands (IBG)) are to leave, I was actually taking this move to the Netherlands rather well, all things considered. One of the factors for my relaxed exterior was that my cousin (whose boyfriend is currently in Rotterdam, studying) brought my hopes way up into freaking space when she told me she was considering going to Holland, too, to study. The same city as I will be in. Of course, the moment she uttered the words "Me" and "Nijmegen" in a sentence I absolutely flipped. Her boyfriend was already considering transferring from his school in Rotterdam to the school we will be attending (Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen), and the two of them practically filled my head with all these plans. Oh, we were going to rent out a house so the three of could live comfortably and securely together without having to worry about those awful student flats (I deem them horrible, despite not even knowing what the heck they exactly consist of, for the sole fact that sharing bathrooms with strangers disgusts me. I blame, and thank, my mother for my hygiene OCD.) She had been talking about this ever since December, when she and her family came down from San Antonio for the holidays.

Now that they're back in Aruba (for good, too) she suddenly got cold feet and completely changed her mind about moving to Nijmegen. She states several arguments for staying, among them; not wanting to leave her parents behind, not wanting to leave her sister (especially since they've become incredibly close these past few months), not wanting to put her parents in financial difficulties (the Euro is anything but stable and keeps on climbing. 1 Euro = 2.82 florins right now.)

Her boyfriend, not wanting to be that far away from her - Aruba and the Netherlands aren't exactly neighbors - has decided to re-migrate. So now, after been so overjoyed that I'd have my best friend with me in a far away, completely foreign country, I was pretty flabbergasted when she told me that she has nixed any plans to go to the Netherlands.

And A DAY (I kid you not, it was only a fucking day) when she had this conversation with me, and after talking about how unbelievably calm I had been about the soon-approaching move to Nijmegen, which I told her that the reason I was so calm was because the date for departure wasn't known yet, I found out that the Beursalen are leaving on July 31st.

Now, that hit me like a freaking brick wall (not that I have any experience crashing into brick walls or anything...I might be clumsy to a fault, but I'm not that accident prone.)

So now, April 5th 2008 there are still....

(leaves the keyboard, approached her calender and starts counting the months and days left until July 31st)

three months and 26 days left. (that is if I counted mistake-free.)

Those three months and twenty-six days will fly by, I know it will.

The night I found out about the date, I could not get a good night's sleep. I was absolutely FREAKED.

There was a bunch of things going through my mind, all at once too.

First of all, let's settle my phobia of leaving Aruba.

Growing up on a tiny island where everything is constantly the same, where people are warm and welcoming, where the weather is warm and actually tolerated, where my entire family (my father's and mother's) reside and then suddenly, after twenty years of being close to familiarity, I'm suddenly going head on into a different world, a different culture, a different atmosphere.

The Netherlands is a world away from Aruba - in more ways than one.

I won't be seeing the same faces, the same places, the same anything once there. And while one might argue that it's a risk everyone should take at least once in their life - leave familiarity behind and opt for something new and refreshing - the first step is always the hardest.

Confronted by a completely different atmosphere, weather, god, even LANGUAGE. (I've been speaking dutch since first grade elementary school, but I'm still not completely fluent....I'm ashamed about that.)

Living on my own in a tiny dorm room, doing my own laundry, cooking for myself, all the things that being completely on your own demand.

All in all, I'll have complete independence. But the yearning for independence is bittersweet; I want my independence, but I'm afraid of all the territories and responsibilities that are tied with it.

Absolutely horrified.

I have myself to blame for that fear; I've let my mom baby me for far too long.

And now, suddenly thrust into a world where you have to rely on your own to do everything is pretty fucking scary.

And at that moment, when I found out the date, all those things came crashing into my head. The calm exterior I held quickly vanished and I found myself constantly thinking "holy nacho cheese, I really am leaving in a few months"

I made a promise to myself when I graduated last July - I was going to Nijmegen no matter what.

Aruba didn't hold anything for me - academic wise. Aruba's sole university has four faculties; Law, Economics, Horeca, and a new one they still haven't introduced (and where I had hoped I would find something to keep me here) the faculty of Arts&Science.

Unfortunately, they still haven't announced anything yet about the courses and degrees that faculty would offer.

Bummer for me.

So yeah, I am going to give Nijmegen (and Holland) a try. It will be hard - the majority (by a friggin' large margin) of Aruban students in Holland get homesick in the first few weeks - but I'll give it a shot.

I have a friend living down there already, and I'm sure I can rely on her.

So yeah.

Three months and twenty-six days.

eating right for my blood type.

2008-01-16T20:24:00.000-04:00

My mother has - for the past four years or so - been somewhat of a health freak. Especially over the past year or so. She's been practically obsessed with eating healthy and staying healthy, losing weight and all that that implies. In her mid to late forties, I dubbed this health obsession she's been going through as her own personal mid-life crisis. She insists that it's just about staying healthy. Whatever. I've been living with The Health Nazi for years now, I've come to embrace all the wacky health food choices, diets and what not. And now, her latest dabble into eating healthy is that of 'Eat right for your blood type'. I listened to her patiently, taking everything she said about it, gradually accepting it, thinking to myself 'hey, maybe this book she's reading is saying something right.'

Being that my mother, my brother and I are all the same blood types - O positive - she bought the book on that specific blood group. And when she started discussing to me one day all that the book describes as poison for our specific blood type, I almost told her that she can go ahead and burn that bloody book.

First of all, apparently those who actually go ahead and follow what the book depicts, are sure to find that they can't eat ANYTHING.

The book says that if your blood type is O, stick to high protein and low carbohydrates. That Type Os "thrive on animal protein"

To depict what we should and shouldn't eat, they're divided into groups of Highly beneficial (as the book describes it, foods that act like medicine), Avoid (foods that are poison for our body) or Neutral ("food that acts like a food", honestly, I didn't know that food would act in any other matter besides that of being food). It's suggested that we choose highly beneficial foods over neutral foods, but we are "free" to enjoy neutral foods because they do not cause any harm.

In the category of Meats and Poultry it is highly beneficial that we eat Beef, buffalo, Heart/sweetbreads (WHAT?), Lamb (nu-uh), Liver, Mutton (what the fuck is that!?), Veal, Venison.

Now, besides Beef, I will not eat any other of those meets. I'm not even a huge fan of meat. Liver, my mom orders me to eat it because she says its good for me.

Neutral includes chicken (yay!), duck, goat, goose, Guinea Hen, Ostrich (pff!) Rabbit, Turkey, Squirrel...

I'm reading it from the book as I write this...and at Squirrel, I literally stopped, blinked, read again, blinked again and thought WHO THE HELL EATS SQUIRREL!?

Foods in the meat and poultry category that we should avoid are Bacon, ham, pork, quail, turtle.

Now, again. Jesus. Friggin. Christ. TURTLE!?

Now, in the meat + poultry section, I can live with what the book suggests I avoid and what I should definitely include in my daily diet. I'm not a fan of bacon, ham or pork. I can live with what that.

In the seafood category, they say all seafood types are highly beneficial for us Type O's because seafood is the second most concentrated animal protein. And here I thought it was the first.

But, here's the problem. I don't like seafood. The one food type that is highly suggested and it's the one I rather not consume. I can eat fish, sure. I Looooooooove Tuna....but for the rest of the sea-creatures that are edible, I won't even bat an eye in their direction.

Next up, Eggs and Dairy.

The first thing the book says is that Type O's should restrict the use of dairy products. There goes my daily food ingestion. None are highly beneficial. Neutral's include butter, egg, mozzarella.

Avoided should be American cheese, buttermilk (there go my pancakes), ice cream (kill me while you're at it), milk, Parmesan, among others.

When it comes to nuts and seeds, I should avoid peanut, peanut butter, pistachio (oh, my favorite type of cake! GOD!).

In the beans portion, one of them that I should avoid (and I would willingly do so) is lentil beans. The book has one in its favor. One.

Now, before I go to the next category of food...let's just get something straight, I probably eat bread twice a day. In the morning for breakfast, and at night as dinner. (Keep in mind, over here in Aruba, most of us don't eat a hot meal as dinner. That's reserved lunch. Dinner is usually something more light.)

Grains, breads and pasta.

Before I start listing what I will be deprived from if my mom does continue with her 'eating right for our blood type' regime, I should say that I've recently become enamored with pasta. It is yummy, and damn it, it's yummy.

This book now tells me that I shoud avoid Corn (CORN!!!!! Goodbye Doritos) Cornflakes (my brother's favorite food), cream of wheat, granola, popcorn (!!!!!), Wheat (bran, and a whole bunch of different types of wheat).

Sigh.

In the vegetable portion, I'm only saying that in the highly beneficial part, the only vegetable I deem edible are broccoli, lettuce (thank.god), onion, spinach, red pepper. The others I don't even know what they are, or won't eat them. I am a very picky eater.

Apparently, mushrooms are baaaaaaad for me.

Beverages:

Highly beneficial: green tea. Seltzer water. what the heck is seltzer water?

Neutral: red wine.

Wow, an excuse to start drinking at home?

Avoid: liquor, coffee, soda, tea (black regular/decaf), white wine.

Okay, first of all, Coffee. I'm not a fan of it, so I definitely won't miss it. Good riddance.

But tea! I actually enjoy it! dammit!

Soda. That's just cruel.

Liquor: well, there goes my social life.

All in all, by following what the book instructs as highly beneficial foods and foods to avoid because they are poison, I'm basically deprived of the types of food that I actually consume. I'm a very picky eater, and most of what I should not eat is exactly the type of food that I only eat.

If my mom goes through with this, I'll be sticking to jello. They did not mention Jello once as something I should avoid (that is if I didn't miss its mention)

December

2007-12-01T18:01:00.000-04:00

It's here. The one month of the year I find most enjoyable and tolerable. The one month where I probably won't be lazying around the house, desperately trying to find something to do because December, no matter what, there is always something to be done. Whether it's hanging around with friends or relatives, or cleaning up the house for Christmas and New Years, or helping my mom around in the boutique (December being probably the most busy time of the year for my mom's business).

It's already the second day of the month, and only 29 days to go before we bid 2007 adieu and welcome 2008 with open arms (much like we welcome each New Year).

It's been awhile since I've been fully invested in the Christmas spirit. Once upon a time, I rejoiced at the thought of decorating the house or my mom's boutique with Christmas decorations, or decorating the tree on my very own (ambitious of me, I know, seeing how big the Christmas trees of years past were and the difficult chore it was to put on those forsaken Christmas lights). But for some unexplainable reason, over the past three years my Christmas spirit has been MIA. It's not like I don't like Christmas - I do - but the urge to decorate the house, buy a Christmas tree, hasn't overcome me.

It's kind of weird. But this year, suddenly I feel a bit more...joyous...about the holiday season. Maybe it's because this is my last year celebrating Christmas and New Years as an Aruban citizen, because come July of oh-eight, I'll be starting a new chapter in my life in the Netherlands. Not to say that I won't spend Christmas 2008 in Aruba or open 2009 in Aruba either, because I will, I will not be spending the holidays in Nijmegen, alone and freezing while I could be here among my friends and family in warm weather. People have said that it's best for a first-year student to spend her first Christmas and New Years abroad instead of coming home; if you can survive that, you can survive anything. To them I say Screw.That. Though there might be a chance that I change my mind, but right now, and I'm pretty sure in a few months when I'm actually living in Nijmegen, I'd have my ticket for a December trip to Aruba already booked and paid for.

Changing topics:

I've been watching CNN international constantly lately. It's become addictive. Unlike CNN (the national one broadcasted in the US) this one is actually worth watching. News from around the world constantly, great in-depth stories. Last night I watched two specials hosted by Christiane Amanpour, one about the AIDS epidemic in Africa - something like that, I didn't watch it in its entirety because I fell asleep - and one on Russia, the hour-long segment called Czar Putin. Watching that segment on Russia I've come to realize how ignorant and out-of-date I've been about the world outside of Aruba. I've always tried to stay in the loop with news, but I've been straying a bit as of late, not bothering to read a newspaper or browse through time.com. Imagine my surprise when Amanpour discusses the internal problems going on in Russia. Accusations of freedom of speech being disregarded, a national channel being closed down because of it's liberal views and it's harsh criticism on Putin's reign. The murder of 200 or so journalists, who coincidentally happened to have been advocates against President Putin.

And all this time I thought peace and democracy was reigning in Russia - no dark sides.

Coincidentally, today happens to be Russia's parliamentary elections, with Putin's party expected to win by 'a landslide'.

And halfway across the world from Russia, there's the referendum going on in Venezuela. Hugo Chavez's overly exaggerated power trip has become a wee bit much for me to handle, and I'm honestly sick and tired of the man. The image of him on tv, holding onto that miniature book - the Venezuelan Constitution? - is enough to make me want to knock myself out with a shoe. Though there are people who believe that his changes will help Venezuelans, some believe that the changes will practically deprive them of freedom of speech and general human rights.

I've read about the reforms and he what changes he wants to make, such as cutting the average working hour from eight to six hours - hey, who wouldn't want that? - but his general notion of extending the presidential term from six to seven years is absurd, and even worse, letting him seek re-election.

Narcissistic megalomaniac on an ego-trip. ugh.

I know that Venezuela's population consists of a majority of people beneath the middle class category - who also happen to be Chavez supporters - and some of his acts in the name of helping these people I do consider helpful and beneficial, but the other reforms he's about to make are just preposterous. Handpicking leaders of his country, communal property reforms, control over the central bank, and whatever else this ego-maniac has in the works for Venezuela, just reek of socialistic principles.

While people say that it will be a very close call, I have a sinking feeling that Chavez will result victorious in this referendum. Not because he has a vast majority of supporters, but because I honestly believe this man will stop at nothing to gain that totalitarian power. And to obtain that, he'd probably tip towards sabotaging the votes or fraud even.

I don't know. Maybe I'm being a bit far-fetched, but I do know that there are a whole bunch of people who really do not believe in Chavez' ideologies, and are against him. But in the long run, I see Chavez staying on as President of Venezuela for a long time. Maybe even, as he puts it, until 2050, or until Venezuelans keep voting for him.

I have a feeling though that if everything goes as he plans it, in the long run, this will come and bite the Venezuelans who voted for him in the first place.

Mother Nature; as unpredictable as ever

2007-11-26T14:35:00.000-04:00

The weather won't make up its mind.

One minute the sky screams out IT IS GOING TO RAIN!, the next minute, the sun is out, shinning and being all shinny and shit.

Ugh.

I'm sleep deprived. I need my sleep. I am falling asleep as I write this but because I'm in charge of my mom's shop for the next 2 hours (or so), I am forced to stay wide awake.

Gah.

Under my umbrella, ella-ella-ella

2007-11-26T12:27:00.000-04:00

Aruba woke up with a torrential down pour this morning. And for once in about 2 months, I was actually awake too.

6.30 AM. My radio/alarm clock starts blasting out Incubus' 'Wish You Were Here' and it's my cue to wake up. But, as usual, I reach for the stereo's remote and press on the little minus button indicating that the volume be lowered. Voila. Five more minutes of rest. After all, I didn't fall asleep until around 3.45 AM. Less than 3 hours of sleep isn't exactly what I considere an appropriate amount of rest. Nonetheless, when the familiar tinkling started falling on the roof, I cracked an eye open and took a look outside. During this time of the year, the sun usually rises a bit later than usual, and despite that, it was actually pretty dark outside. Ominous gray skies galore.

Within seconds, the little drizzle morphed into a full fledged downpour. Ten more minutes of that. And it stopped.

Sun comes out. That looks to be the only rain we'd be getting today (after a weekend of random rain and weird weather).

Flash forwards about an hour and a half later. My mom and I are downtown at Directie Onderwijs, handing in some important papers for my student loan. From the middle of mainstreet, the weather looks alright. A bit windy - cool wind - but nothing out of the ordinary. A drive to Ontvanger, and looky looky, more gray skies galore. Within seconds that my mom finds a parking spot, it starts raining again. A minute later, woosh, it's coming down without mercy.

Ten minutes later. it stopped.

Fine. So, my mom took about 30 minutes, and we speed of to her doctor's because she has an appointment at 10 (and it's 9.55 as we're leaving the parking lot). As we're arriving at the Doctor's office, it starts raining, not even a little drizzle-indicating-rain warning (although the dark gray clouds were warning enough), it just starts raining cats and dogs. And this time, it didn't last for a louzy ten minutes. More like an hour.

Ah, what a day. and its only 12.40 pm. The day is still young. Though, the chance of rain might be slim to none, since the sun is out once again, blazing its devil rays.

Blah.

A useless blog entry. But whatever. I don't care. This is my cure to boredom' writing nonsensical blogs, knowing full well that hardly anyone reads this.

toodles.

Keyla.

P.S. Tomorrow I officially become a member of the 'patito cyclus', as Lidia smartly puts it. :)

For those who don't understand gibberish, it means that tomorrow it's my birthday and that I'll be 20.

I feel old.

Bidding Euro '08 an unexpected farewell

2007-11-23T19:51:00.000-04:00

I am crushed. Words cannot explain how crushed I am.

Okay okay, maybe I'm exaggerating just a wee bit.

Reading the newspaper today (I can't remember the last time before today that I read the newspaper), my eyes fall on a picture of David Beckham with the caption saying something along the lines of England not qualifying for Euro 2008. My reaction? Of course, shocked. I mean, England might not be THE best team, but they are definitely one of the strongest.

And I was REALLY looking forwards to Euro next summer. Rooting for England. Screaming my heart out whenever Beckham, Crouch, Gerrard or Owen made a goal or anything squeal worthy.
Who the heck am I going to root for now? The fate of the Netherlands is still not known (they have a game apparently December 2nd, and from what I understood, that game will make their Euro-aspirations known). Then there's Portugal. Meh, whatever. Not as attached to any of those teams as England.

McClaren got fired as a result of the disqualification for Euro. Poor guy. But whatever.

Gah.

This sucks.

Introductions

2007-11-22T19:19:00.000-04:00

Greetings to those I bother giving the url of this blog, and who bother to actually press on the link and take a quick peek at whatever nonsense I have to say (or write...)

I kept a blog semi-religiously on my msn-space about a year ago. Mostly nonsensical mumbo jumbo about whatever tiny little detail that goes through my head at that moment, or one occurrence that might have peeked my interest and that I deemed worthy of a good ol'e blabbering and bitching about.

I'm a simple girl with a simple life. What exciting messes could I be getting myself into?

But with crazy friends, nutty relatives and a future move ahead of me (Nijmegen bound, baby), fun blog material awaits!

So until a further post (he, it could even be a few hours from now), I bid to no one in particular a heartfelt adieu

K