Good news!

Okay it's not really 'news' because it's not recent, but I didn't tell you yet: I passed my IB exams!!

Me with the flag - in The Netherlands it is a tradition to hang out the Dutch flag with your schoolbag when you've passed your exams and as a real Dutchie I stuck to this tradition!

On the 5th of July (more than 2 weeks ago already) it was International Baccalaureate Results Day, the day that   we finally (after 1 1/2 months of waiting) got our results. I was really nervous, because I needed certain grades to get into my first choice university (in the UK it is normal for universities to give you a conditional offer based on grades, and if you don't get these grades you don't get in) and I was really scared I didn't get these grades! But in the end it turned out I was nervous for nothing. These are my grades for each subject (grades are from 1 - 7, where 4 = satisfactory, 5 = good, 6 = very good, 7 = excellent, except for TOK and EE grades which are from A - E (if I remember correctly) where A is best; Higher Level (HL) subjects are slightly harder than Standard Level (SL) subjects and A1 languages are for native speakers, B languages are for when you are still learning the language, but I think the B course aims to make students near-native by the end of the course):

Dutch A1 HL - 7
Spanish B HL - 7
English A1 HL - 6 (pheeew really thought I was going to get a 5 and I needed the 6 for uni!)
Biology SL - 7
Geography SL - 7
Mathematics SL - 6

Theory of Knowledge (kind of Philosophy-style course): A
Extended Essay in English A1 - C

Total: 42 points (45 is the maximum, 42 from the 6 subjects and 3 bonus points from TOK and EE, I got 2 bonus points)

I am really really happy with my grades, the only grade I could possibly be 'disappointed' about is the C for my Extended Essay (my supervisor always said it was really good and I did spend quite a lot of time working on it...) - but that doesn't really matter.

This means that I'll be starting the BA Hispanic Studies and Linguistics at Queen Mary University of London in September - which means that I'll be blogging from London from then on (exciting right?!).

For now I am going to enjoy the 2 months of holiday I have left, after IB I really needed a loooong holiday - not having to think about any homework/tests/etc. is such a good feeling!

Did you also take final exams this year? How did they go?

Blog: Loes in England

Like I said before, I will keep a blog about the preparations for my life in England. I made this blog yesterday and the link is: www.loesinengeland.blogspot.com

Now it is only in Dutch, because it is mainly there to update my family and close friends (who all speak Dutch). However, you are very welcome to read along! If you'd like me to also post on the blog in English (next to Dutch) then please let me know and I will include translations :)

By the way, I'm going to see Yellowcard on 3 December! I already wanted to go but when Kim asked me to come with her yesterday I finally decided I just have to go :)

xxx Loes

Hello!

I told you at the end of the summer holidays that I would put up a post once a week, but I didn't do it. I'm sorry! I've been really busy (school, homework, university application) and also didn't have much inspiration for my blog. From now on I am going to try to push myself to post something interesting at least once a week, but you will need to help me! You can help me by telling me what type of posts you like to see, and by commenting on my posts. You can really motivate me :)

Like I said, I've been busy with my university application lately. I am applying to university in England (so excited!) and since I am applying to Oxford I had to send my application to my careers counsellor by the 30th of September and then she will put in my predicited grades and references and send it off to UCAS before the 16th of October. These are the universities and courses I am applying to:
University of Oxford - Spanish and Linguistics
King's College London - Hispanic Studies with English
Queen Mary, University of London - Hispanic Studies and Linguistics
Royal Holloway, University of London - Spanish with German
University of Reading - English Language and Literature (but I am considering to change this to English and Hispanic Studies, so that it fits in better with my personal statement)

Of course I will let you know once I get offers in from the universities! Also, I will probably start a blog (in Dutch, but if you want also in English) about my preparations for university and once I live there my life in England. Once I made this blog I will post the link here, so that people who are interested can read that blog.

So what posts would you like to see on my blog? Do you like posts about beauty, fashion, baking/cooking, photography or something totally different?

England :]

Here are some pictures I took during my holiday (which was a busy one, because I was doing a university tour) in England!

Taken from the boat from Dunkirk to Dover.

A street in St. Albans, I thought the houses were adorable!

The ruins of a Roman theatre in St. Albans.

A house by the ruins of the Roman theatre. I thought it had a kind of magical touch.

Royal Holloway, University of London in Egham (a small town close to London). What a gorgeous building!

Royal Holloway again :]

Windsor Castle. We didn't go in, because it was really expensive. But it was nice from the outside as well :]

A really long road (or whatever you want to call it) by Windsor Castle.

Lady Margaret Hall, the college I visited at Oxford. I love the gardens surrounding the building!

Corpus Christi, the college I visited at Cambridge. Again, an amazing building.

People punting on the Cam. We got lots of offers to go punting as well, but we didn't go because it was raining and we were busy with other things.

King's College London, located right next to Waterloo bridge on the Thames <3

King's College London again.

The Thames and the Big Ben.

The Big Ben again, we just finished dinner and the light of the sun was gorgeous!

The London Eye. The red box/cart/whatever made taking pictures so much more interesting :]

The London Eye and the Thames.

Enjoying the sunshine on Trafalgar Square!

In M&M World on Leicester Square, what a crazy store!











Sorry for the huge amount of photographs, but I didn't want to leave any of them out. All photographs (except for the ones with me on it) were taken by me. Please do not use them without my permission.

Which photograph do you like best? And what did you enjoy most when you last visited England?

Shoplog England

I spent the first week and a bit of my holidays in England, and of course I did the necessary shopping! I didn't spend much time shopping for clothes, because my brother (who says I've been in a clothing shop for hours when, actually, I've only been in there for 15 minutes) and dad were with me and my mum. But I still bought some nice things. Here are some pictures:

David & Goliath pyjama pants! The left one has hearts in different colours/styles and the right one has little big bens, red busses, guards and clouds (I just had to buy this one!).






 



Two David & Goliath T-shirts, with London theme of course :]

Poster of the map of the tube (ignore the books, I had to make the poster flat xD).



Bag with I <3 London, for the schoolbooks that don't fit in my normal schoolbag, and tea in little red bus tins.

 

Close-up of the tins with tea. The left one contains 'London tea' and the right one English Breakfast tea.

 

Book with high tea recipes <3
And the book 'Make The Most of Your Time on Earth' with 1000 travel experiences in many different countries.

 

These cupcake cases are so cute, I just had to buy them when I saw them :]

 

Some books to help me prepare for university and some to help me with my extended essay. From left to right: a book with poems by Federico García Lorca (including English translations!), a book with Spanish short stories (again with English translations), a book on how English became the world's language, a biography about Kazuo Ishiguro, an autobiography of Evelyn Waugh (I'm doing my extended essay on 'The Remains of the Day' by Ishiguro and 'Brideshead Revisited' by Waugh), and a book on linguistics. I think you can guess that I want to study something with language and linguistics?

I always send cards to my friends when I am on holidays, and I also always buy some for myself. This time I bought two in Oxford and one in Windsor.

 

After a lot of problems (I ordered it from Amazon.de but they sent me an e-mail twice saying that it would come 2 weeks later, and I searched for it in music stores in The Netherlands but they didn't have it anywhere) I finally got my copy of Dirty Work, All Time Low's new album! :]

Some magazines! Seventeen (an american magazine, which you've probably heard of in ANTM), National Geographic Traveler and Jamie (Oliver) magazine :]

Besides this we also bought a box of cadbury roses (amazing chocolates!), but I didn't take a picture of those. And my brother got a ferrari from my dad. Too bad for him it's a model xD

What kind of things do you buy when you go on holidays?