30 March 2008

I'm back! And off again...

I'm sorry I didn't post earlier! There was just too much homework to do (and my PE teacher's decided it's time for another six week period of writing training schedules, damn her).
Anyway, Oslo was great, the Netherlands was great, the airports were not so great. We were planning a trip to Xanten as well but that had to be called off because the rest of the family thought the weather wasn't good enough.
No Romans for me, in other words. I had to settle for the Dom Church of Utrecht, which is interesting enough to be sure (plus it's built right on top of Roman Traiectum).
Het Pandhof, the herb garden of the church. It's a bit more colourful in summer :)

I've got more pics but I'll have to post them when I get back. Tonight I'm off to Oslo again, this time for the finals of the physics olympiad (but I'm not going to stress now, I can't go to the international finals anyway since I already qualified for the international chemistry finals). I'll read up on all the posts I've missed when I get back as well!

15 March 2008

Budapest!

I qualified for the International Chemistry Olympiad! Second place in the Norwegian finals!

Had a great week. Lots of nerds; but everybody was nerdy in a cool way :)

And Amsterdam Uni, apparently, has decided to mess up my application even further. I got a letter saying I have to take an entrance exam in English. Wtf for two reasons. 1) I signed up for a TOEFL like it said on their website (which should be good enough), and 2) their exam is a colloquium doctum thingy and you have to be 21 to take those.

9 March 2008

Typical

I was biking to school on Friday - probably the last time this year that I'll bike on ice and snow. I've biked on old ice and new ice, wet ice and dry ice, frozen slush with bike tracks and ice so smooth you can hardly see it. There have been moments when I wondered if I'd wake up in hospital, but I've always managed. Until Friday. There was a thin layer of fresh snow with ice underneath where my bicycle decided to throw me off - and of course there was gravel where I landed (this was downhill, so I flew a couple of feet). I've got a lovely bruise on my forehead, my knee is bright purple and the palm of my hand has been ripped open. Nothing serious, but it is rather annoying that it should happen the last time I bike on ice (characters' revenge maybe?)
And, typically, the purple on my knee is exactly the shade I need for a painting (I spent half an hour mixing paints at art school and I still couldn't get the right shade).

Anyway, I'm leaving tomorrow for the chemistry finals. I'll be back on Friday, though only for a few hours - then I'm off to the Netherlands to take my Dutch exams.

I still need to pack but the muse won't let me. So I'm rewriting the first chapter of NaNo06. I'm terribly sorry, Geravan, but I'm going to have to break your arm.

See you in a week or two!