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?

Holidays!

Hi everyone!

I didn't post anything for a very, very long time. The main reason: exams! But I had my last exam on Friday and I now have a 3 1/2 month holiday until I start university half way through September (If I get the grades, that is). I have quite a few plans for this summer, starting with Speech Day tomorrow (a 'closing off' event with the whole class, with speeches from teachers and students) and prom on Friday. I will also be going on some trips: in July I will spend 5 days in Prague with Eline, and in August I will spend 7 days in Agios Nikolaos on Crete (Greece) with Kim. For the rest I will be doing to usual things: meeting up with friends, shopping, reading, and going on a few day trips to the zoo and attraction parks. And of course I will mainly RELAX, because that's something I haven't done a lot in the last 2 years!

Today I handed in my books at school and then went for lunch at Bagels and Beans with Sara and Abena. Do you know Bagels and Beans? They have amazing bagels - I had one with salmon and cream cheese, absolutely delicous :)
After that I went shopping with Abena, and just on time I found a dress for Speech Day! I will show you the dress and a couple other things I bought.

 The dress I bought for Speech Day. First I was thinking of wearing a black dress, simply because I have nothing else. But that dress is really wintery so I am glad I found this! Will wear it with simple black pumps I think, don't have anything else and couldn't find anything else today either.
The theme for Speech Day is Harry Potter, but as you can see I am not dressing for the theme. I think a lot of people aren't, because it is a really hard theme to dress for unless you want to look like a school girl with a skirt and tie.

I bought this dress at H&M for 19,95 euros (so cheap!).

Our Senior Prom this Friday is a masquerade so the main goal of our shopping spree was buying a mask. This is the mask I bought. Probably won't wear it very long though, because I have glasses and without them I can't recognise people very easily. I bought it at a 'party shop' for about 4 euros.
I already bought my prom dress last summer in Hamburg, maybe I'll post pictures of it after prom.

And last but not least some products from The Body Shop!
Left: Body Butter Duo - Floral Acai. I already wanted this for a long time, it smells lovely! I never bought it because I found it too expensive (17 euros) but I thought I deserved it now because I survived my exams.
Middle - Coconut Body Butter (small). My big coconut body butter is almost finished, but I didn't want to buy another big one, because I was already buying the duo one, so decided to buy a small one which we also be useful to take on holidays. I think it was 5 euros, but I am not exactly sure.
Right - Peppermint Cooling Foot Spray (small). Saw this in the rack with mini products and decided to buy it, it is a spray which refreshes and revives tired feet. Very useful after prom, and for taking on holidays because it is so small. This also costed about 5 euros.

Are you also doing exams this year? If you are in the Dutch system and you are in the middle of your exams: good luck!

Loes

Busy

picture from weheartit.com

One more week, and then school starts again. Today I already went to school, to talk about my Extended Essay with my supervisor. I'm such a nerd right? As you all know, school means homework, and homework means little time to do fun things. This year I will be in the last year of IB, meaning I have exams in May. So, it'll be a busy year with lots of homework and studying to do. This means that I, unfortunately, won't be able to blog as much as I did these holidays. But I will try to post something at least once a week! And if I have more time, I will of course post more often.

I hope that you, my dear followers, can accept that I won't have as much time to blog when school starts again and that you'll keep reading my blog and posting comments. And I promise that you can look forward to that one post a week, because I will try to make it a good, interesting post every week! And remember: followers and comments always motivate me to go on! :)

Loes