Postcrossing

Today I found out about postcrossing. Postcrossing is all about sending and receiving postcards to and from strangers living all over the world. After getting an account on www.postcrossing.com, you can request an address. You then get a random address from a postcrosser somewhere in the world. In my case it was a 30 year old woman from France. By looking at their profile you can see what type of card they'd like to get. Since the woman likes cooking I chose a card with a cupcake on the front. You then write something on the card (don't forget the postcard ID!) and send it. Once the receiver registered your card, a postcrosser somewhere in the world will get your address and you will get a card from them.

Isn't it amazing? I love getting cards, and it's even more amazing to get cards from all over the world :]

Start postcrossing too on: www.postcrossing.com

It's been a long time...

...since I last posted something on my blog!

I think you might have noticed. I didn't write a post for so long for several reasons: I spent a week with my best friends Eline and Annabell. And from the 31st of July until the 13th of August I was on holidays. I spent 2 weeks with my parents and brother on the island of Albarella in the delta of the Po, just south of Venice, Italy.

It was a nice holiday, but it didn't end in a very nice way. We actually booked until the 15th of August, but we had some bad luck on Friday the 13th. When we came back from a short trip to the town Rosolina, we wanted to turn into our street but discovered this was full of water. My dad, brother and I thought it was quite funny, but my mom didn't like it and stayed in the car while we walked to the house through the water. Luckily the water was only up to our terrace and our house was dry! Eventually my mom also came and we had lunch as normally while we watched the water went down. We were very relieved that it was nearly over. But then it started to rain really hard again. The water came higher and higher and when it came up to our terrace and it was still raining we decided to bring our stuff upstairs. Not much later the water started coming into our house. My dad called the information point and they said they would send a technician. We never saw any technician. After about an hour we saw a firefighter outside, but he just talked to our neighbours and disappeared again. We started our journey back home when the water had been in our house for at least 2 hours. As we left the island we saw the first firefighters coming with their equipment to take away the water. Very Italian...

I wasn't happy to leave 2 days early, but it was practically impossible to stay in the house. There was 5 - 10 cm of water on the bottom floor, we didn't have any electricity and couldn't flush the toilet. Even when the water is gone there will still be a smell in the house.

Goal met!

I haven't blogged for quite a long time again... it's just way to warm to sit behind the computer. With this weather I spend my time outside, sunbathing or reading.

In the meantime I have reached one of my goals from my 101 in 1001 list! It's goal number 28: Give my brother a Green Day related birthday present. My brothers birthday was on the 20th of June and I looked up a nice picture of Green Day and had it printed out as a poster. It turned out really nice and my brother was happy with it!

I have also made progress with some other goals. For example with goal 4. Read 50 books. I have finished 2 books. It's not much I know, but at least it's a start. Also, I am moving closer to completing goal 57. Finish part 1 (0 - 5 km) of Start to Run. I have 3 lessons left, so if all goes well I will be completing that goal in 1 1/2 weeks from now!

Holidays!

Finally my summer holidays have started! Well.. officially my last day is the 2nd of July. But I only have to come to school 3 times between now and then, to get my grades, bring back my books and on the last day for the closing ceremony. Today I had my last 2 tests, Business and Math. Math went suprisingly well, and Business went quite well too. In the afternoon I went to Leiden with some friends. Ofcourse we went to Starbucks! I had a Java Chip Frappucino, I wanted to try that coffee-based for so long (I had it without coffee last year, when I had my first Starbucks ever in Hamburg) but everytime I asked they didn't have it. Now they had it so I tried it, and it was delicious. After that we did some shopping, I didn't buy anything though.

Tomorrow evening I'm going to a party of a girl from my class who is leaving to finish her school at boarding school in Denmark. I don't know if the party will be fun since most people in my class are party animals that like to get drunk and I'm not into that sort of stuff. But I think that shouldn't really matter. A friend of mine that's also going also doesn't drink much, so I think I'll survive.

This post is probably boring you to death so I'm going to stop here. I will try to post some more interesting stuff in the summer holidays. That reminds me, I should take pictures of our 'new' living room and post them here! I love our sofa, because it's a lot bigger than the one we had before. The other things also turned out very nice. But I'll show you pictures later!

Sun!

Finally the summer has come to Holland! In the last few days the weather has been great, it's really sunny and warm. Maybe even a little too warm if you sit in the sun. But I'm loving it! I spent the whole of yesterday outside because we had sportsday, which I usually don't like but it was okay because the weather was so nice. Today I also spent a lot of time outside, and tomorrow I probably will again!

But I can't enjoy the weather too much, because I also have homework to do. I have to work hard for school for 2 1/2 more weeks, because then the term and the testweek are finally over! I can't believe the summer holidays are so close, and yet so far because there's still A LOT of work to do... I'll be so happy once all the projects and tests are done and I can relax until the end of August. Then I will be starting DP1, starting the last 2 years of my IB. I will work hard those last 2 years, because I want to graduate with really good grades so I have the option of going to a university like Oxford or Cambridge. At the moment I wouldn't pick such a university because the language courses they give seem much to literature-based for me. But I want to keep my options open and I know I can get a very good diploma!

101 in 1001

Have you ever heared of the Day Zero Project? I think it's a great challenge! You set yourself 101 goals that you want to meet by the end of 1001 days. I have tried to start this a few times before, but now I seriously want to try hard to reach my goals. The first time I tried, I forgot about the list later. But now you can make an account on www.dayzeroproject.com and make a list of your goals there. You can also write notes with the goals and click on a little tick next to them to say you are in progress of reaching the goal or you actually reached the goal.

I will try to blog about my progress regularly! Ofcourse I won't stop blogging about other things, but I think that if I have an 'audience' it's easier to get through the 1001 days. You can find my goals on www.dayzeroproject.com/user/Loeszie. You can also follow my progress there. But I will post my goals here as well.

I actually started last Monday, so I still have 997 days left.

So the starting date was: 24.05.2010
And I hope I will have reached most of my goals by: 19.02.2013

These are my goals:

1. Get my IB Diploma
2. Kiss in the rain
3. Take part in NaNoWriMo
4. Read 50 books
5. Visit Paris
6. Take a picture with Tokio Hotel
7. Swim with dolphins
8. Organize a suprise party for someone
9. Watch the sun go down in the sea
10. Visit 5 cities I've never been to
11. Get my first boyfriend
12. Get a 7 (out of 7) on my report for English
13. Identify 50 things that make me happy
14. Go on a rollercoaster with a looping
15. Visit Hamburg again
16. Be in the audience of a television show
17. Make a list of 25 things I like about myself
18. Dance in the rain
19. Visit the USA
20. Buy a new lens for my camera
21. Start studying at university
22. Make an inspirational scrapbook
23. Make at least 5 new friends
24. Donate at least 10 Euros to charity
25. Finish a book in a day
26. Cook an entire meal by myself
27. Take a picture of something different every day for a month
28. Give my brother a Green Day related birthday present
29. Take another photography workshop/class
30. Go on a holiday without parents
31. Have a picnic
32. Organize an amazing party for my 18th birthday
33. Bake cupcakes/muffins at least 5 times
34. Document a day in the life of Loes in photos
35. Make churros
36. Lose 5 kg
37. Post 1 article on my blog every day for a month
38. Organize a fundraiser for charity
39. Dye (part of) my hair in an abnormal (bright) colour
40. Make a list of all the compliments that make me really happy including who I got them from
41. Polish all my fingernails in a different colour (that means 10 different colours!)
42. Get a totally different new haircut
43. Swim in the sea at night
44. Get at least 2 people to also make a 101 in 1001 list
45. Graduate with at least 38 points
46. Make at least 2 photo albums
47. Hug a famous person
48. Give a random present to one of my close friends at least 2 times
49. Go on a date with a boy
50. Get a job
51. Be able to run 5 km in 25 minutes or less
52. Have a candelight dinner with a boy
53. Expand my English vocabulary by 100 words
54. See the Northern Lights
55. Make and finish at least 3 things from cutoutandkeep.net or instructables.com
56. Finish Wreck this Journal
57. Finish part 1 (0-5 km) of Start to Run
58. Be able to have a conversation with someone in Spanish
59. Read at least 3 books in German
60. Sell things I don't use anymore at a flea market
61. Print out this list and keep it in my room
62. Start learning a new language
63. Buy another pair of shoes with heels
64. Make a snow angel
65. Create a playlist of 101 songs that make me happy
66. Sleep outside at night
67. Complete the 5000 question survey
68. Get taken/asked on stage at a concert
69. Donate money at the 'Glazen Huis' of 3fm when it is in Leiden in 2011
70. Make ice cream
71. Attend an award show (for example Viva Comet or the EMA's)
72. Donate 100,000 grains of rice at freerice.com
73. Read a Spanish book
74. Let my hair grow out so I have my natural colour again
75. Try on (and if they are nice buy) Dr. Martens shoes
76. Back up the things on my computer at least 5 times
77. Have 1500 songs in my Itunes
78. Go to Pinkpop
79. Go to at least 5 concerts
80. Go to at least 5 festivals
81. Have another high tea with friends
82. Go see at least 5 movies at the cinema
83. Meet up with Yolanda, Yascha and Kim (at the same time)
84. Don't eat any candy (this includes chocolate) for a week
85. Bake a birthday cake for someone
86. Visit Spain for a holiday
87. Send at least 50 cards and/or letters to friends 
88. Take pictures in a photo booth
89. Complete a 1000 piece puzzle
90. Go see at least 2 plays or musicals
91. Try 5 new tea flavours
92. Drink at least 4 glasses of water every day for a month
93. Visit London again
94. Get a new Ipod with at least 16 GB
95. Spend a whole day in my PJ's when I'm not ill
96. Do a photo shoot with at least 1 friend
97. Go to a concert of a band I've never seen live
98. Take a picture of a particular place every season
99. Join in a 5 km run
100. Post something on my blog at least 101 times
101. Learn to ice skate

I know some of these goals are completely random, but that's how I am. They are just things I'd like to have done in those 1001 days, and I believe most of them will enrich my life in one way or another.

Quote

"Without you there's no reason for my story, and when I'm with you I can always act the same <3"

Anarbor