Winter in Leiden

Leiden by night

Lately I've been practising with night photography, but none of the pictures was good enough to share- but i think these are not too bad...

I just like to walk around at night, especially when the weather is calm and you can see all the reflections in the water

Isn't Leiden beautiful...?

Marloes!:)

I'd like to introduce you, my lovely friend: Marloes. Two months ago I didn't know her yet, but now she's becoming one of my best friends. Perhaps this is due to the fact that I see her pretty much every day since she is my classmate in Utrecht:) We are hoping that they let us go to South Africa together:) Marloes also lives in Leiden and yesterday she'd invited me over for dinner.

We had cheese fondue!! I can't even remember the last time I had cheese fondue- but it was great (as you can see;)!

Marloes is not only a great friend, she's also a gifted painter. Here she's doing the last bit on two paintings she made for an order. Yes- she does take orders, so if you want to contact her, let me know:)

Alfreda, Rebecca and Cora

Rebecca and me are lifting Alfreda- she's so short compared to us!:) I already know Alfreda for a couple of years, she's from Kenia but doing her PhD here- and she's done soon! She's been coming and going over the years- but this will be her last time that she's in Leiden for an extended period of time. She invited me for the ceremony where she is going to defend her PhD dissertastion entitled: "Indigenous Knowledge, belief and Practise of Wild Plants among the Meru of Kenya- past and Present Human- Plant relations in East Africa" Im really excited for her! Today she dressed up, especially because I asked her to do so! Doesn't she look wonderful in herAfrican clothes?!

Rebecca and Alfreda

me and Alfreda

My two wonderful and great friends: Rebecca and Cora!

Roses!

Emma gave me these beautiful roses for my birthday! I got alot of great presents, I just have great friends! It's nice to realize that you have real friends who care for you. Of course I didn't need my birthday to get to know that- but it made me realize it once again. Thanks to all my friends- for being my friend!

My 25th Birthday!

Last Sunday was my actual birthday, but I celebrated it on Thursday. Here it's me with my good friends Elke & Simon (who had their 1st wedding anniversary on my birthday!)

My room isn't that big- but everyone fitted:) It's Hennie, Elise, Cora, Vicky and Emma

Harm-Jan, Joanne and Hendrikjan

Jan-Willem... home and left again!

Jan-Willem was home for two weeks! He'd been away for 3 months, so it was nice to see him again! He has been all over the world, well all over the Atlantic and Caribbean Sea.

Liesanne, his girlfriend, had her fall break- so that was great! I stayed with my parents for a couple of days as well and we had fun!

He left last Thursday again, this time he's going North- to Tornio in Finland. Hopefully he makes it back- the water there is frozen for 6 months a year...:) Hopefully he'll be back the beginning of January so that I can say goodbye to him before I leave for 4 months. Otherwise we won't see each other for 6 months, quite long!

Romeo & Julia

Last week Marloes and I went to Amsterdam to see the wonderful ballet: Romeo & Julia. We had cheap student tickets and wonderful places with a great view!

This is Marloes, my new friend and classmate in Utrecht. She's really great and I'm glad she's doing the teaching programme as well and that I got to know her! She also lives in Leiden and we do alot of things together. So strange to think that two months ago, I didn't even know her!

Going to the ballet is great, but dressing up for it makes it even more fun!:)

The beauty of October...

Some time with my parents!

Graduation!!

Last tuesday finally the day had come- exactly a year after I came back from Mexico- that I graduated!! There was an offical ceremony on one of the old buildings in Leiden. My parents, all grandparents, an uncle and aunt and a great-uncle and aunt and some friends came to share this happy moment. But... there was soooo much traffic that all the Zeeland people didn't make it in time. Luckily the person who would graduate after me could go first and then we had to wait couple more minutes till everyone was there. My mom just arrived and is looking if my grandparents are coming yet- I was sort of stressed:)

Relieved that everyone is there!

The moment... after 5,5 years of study, work and fun... my diploma!!

I still can't believe it's really over- I am not studying anthropology and development sociology anymore- I am an anthropologist and development sociologist now!!

graduation 2

It really has my name on it! And it says in Latin, Dutch and English that from now on I may call myself 'Master of Arts'

After the ceremony we went for lunch at a nice place in down-town Leiden. It was really nice to share this important moment in my life with friends and family!

Listening to Emma's interesting stories;-)

It doesn't look like me- I know- but it really is me, all dressed up for the occasion:)