Friday - Saturday - Sunday

I’m afraid this is going to be a very long post, so be warned!

Last Friday afternoon I had my last oral exam (European Economic and Business History) for this year. It went really well. As I already had another oral exam with this professor the week before I was a lot less nervous. I knew what to expect. It wasn’t a real question-answer exam, but more of a normal conversation, which is much better for your nerves. I received a 7.5, so that’s the fourth exam I’ve passed. The results for the fifth exam still aren’t known, but there’s a large possibility I’ve passed that one as well.

The next day – Saturday – I went to my first ‘Het Nest’-meeting. ‘Het Nest’ started out as a Harry Potter forum, but it’s transformed into more of a fantasy forum. I’m one of the moderators there and a long time member. It was a very successful meeting. It was great fun, especially because I was able to speak with several people in person and the atmosphere amongst the group was amazing. It’s a shame I didn’t get to talk to everyone, but that’s what you get when there’s a forum meeting with 17 people. So, first of all I would like to thank black tulip, Fairewendë, Inwë Carnesîr, Silveryne, Felicia, Nagini, Aredhel, Kimmelinn, Skaizag, Holly Short, Eärwen Palantír, Laura, Tannasg, Juniper, Yello and Amylion for the lovely day.

My brother (Tannasg) went with me, although he had only been a member for one day. But what better way to start at a forum then to come to a meeting? He enjoyed himself, even if I was only able to teach him the names of the people he had met and talked to afterwards on the way back home. It was the same the other way around, because my brother was know as ‘the following of Milamber’ by most of the meeters for most of the day. Learning what name belonged to what face was rather hard, but I managed it after several of Skaizag’s name rounds. We had to get up quit early to be in Utrecht on time. First we had to get to Eindhoven by bus, then to Den Bosch by train and then we had to go from Den Bosch to Utrecht by bus, because this was the one weekend they were working at the tracks… How typical. I was really glad we both have a OV (public transport) card. If we hadn’t we would have paid 24,20 euro each to get from Eindhoven to Utrecht and back plus a bus ticket to get from Bladel to Eindhoven. And they are even going to advance the prices more! Ridiculous.

The planning was to meet at the Utrecht Central train station between 10.00 and 10.30, but of course the last person only arrived at 11.00. As most of us had been waiting for over an hour at the train station, before we left we all knew the message that was repeated every five minutes by heart. [Bericht voor de reizigers naar Geldermalsen, ‘s Hertogenbosch en Vennep. Wegens werkzaamheden rijden er geen treinen naar Geldermalsen en ’s Hertogenbosch. De NS heeft bussen ingezet. Deze vertrekken vanaf het Jaarbeursplein, dat bereikbaar is via de uitgang Jaarbeurszijde. De extra reistijd bedraagt ongeveer 30 minuten. Herhaling] The shopping time was rather short and because some people who had been to Utrecht before didn’t know the way as well as they thought they did, we only went to the Elf Fantasy Shop. But just walking (or skipping) in the centre of Utrecht was fun, because you got to talk to several people. And just for the record: no, I wasn’t amongst those skipping! I gave that up years ago.

At 12.10 we arrived at a restaurant to eat pancakes. It was situated down by the canal, so the spot was really nice, but my pancake wasn’t. It was burned and it just didn’t taste well for a pancake of 7,75 euro. That truly was wasted money. And I suppose there were more people who felt the same way, ‘cause the ducks in the canal almost got thrown to death with pieces of pancake. They probably won’t have to eat for an entire week. It took a lot of time to sort out the bill, so we just about had to run (or skip) to get to the cinema in time. The movie started at 13.15 and we were inside at 13.16. We only missed some of the commercials. After the movie (HP3) we of course had to take some group pictures. Too bad Eärwen Palantír and Laura had already left, but on the other hand I don’t think the entire group would have fitted in the picture if there had been two more people. Then we went back to our original meeting point and one by one people left to catch their bus, train or family car. When I got home at 19.15 I was really tired, but it was worth it. I’m already looking forward to a next meeting!

Sunday I had to go to the birthday party of my godmother and uncle. The party started at 15.00, ended at 21.00 and was extremely boring. That side of the family just doesn’t suit me or my mother. So we just kind of talked to each other the entire time… I really despise those kind of parties where it's only about the drinking and eating. And I despise them even more when my family is involved.