Was it worth it?

Hola todos,

After a week long of testing, I decided I should treat myself to a manicure. A friend of mine got acryl nails and it sounded like something I wanted to try too. Hehe :)

I got a nice amount of money long due from my ex-employer so I didn't have to feel guilty at all...

The manicure guy was really nice... but spoke barely any Dutch haha. It took him an hour and a half to get my nails done. He put all sorts of powders and polishes on my nails and gosh! at some point I said; could we please take a break?! hahaha. Couldn't sit still any longer :)

Anyway, the result is really nice. My nails are French manicured, and it will stay on for 3 to 4 weeks. You can go back to redo it, for another 27euros (this was 35 by the way) or you can take them off for 10 euros... mmm..... Still thinking about what I wanna do hehe =]

The only thing is, I can't put any pressure on the tips of my nails. That really hurts :(

and I can't pick up any small or thin things, including money, hair clips and paper.

Was it worth it? Or is it too much trouble? I'll talk about it again next week hehe :)

if your claws are out, you might as well paint them. ;-)

Love,Rachelle

No more midterms :)!

Dear all,

Yayy! I'm so happy! No more midterms :) And it's finally weekend...

I think my midterms went well, except Dutch. A lot of people got a bad grade...including me :/

Hopefully my other grades will be better! I'm eager to get my results! Because in the end, it's all about the grades.

But seriously, after I got home on Friday, I was flippin' tired and had a headache.

Didn't get the chance to take a picture of someone wearing sweatpants unfortunately... I was so close lol! :P

I'm guessing the next few weeks will be quiet, so more time for other things beside school! :)

Running, babysitting, hanging out, etc. That would be sooooo nice.

By the way, I'm posting new items on my web shop soon so please stay tuned!

Love,Rachelle

Something I noticed...

Dear lovely readers,

A quick update today.

My Dutch midterm went well!

Just got home and ready to put my head in them books again :/

I have three tests tomorrow which I really need to study for...

Since we don't follow any lessons during midterms-week, nobody really cares about their looks. I see people wearing sweatpants, make-upless faces, hair tied up and unbrushed, people with glasses instead of their contacts.... What's going on?!

(I'll try to post a picture of someone wearing sweatpants as soon as I get the chance, hehe!)

Hug, Rachelle

Relax, take it easy.

Dear nerdssss, 8-)

My midterms started today! Some students refere to it as hell, I will just call it a nerdy week. The tests that we get are just as hard as the ones you get during the year, so I don't see the point in stressing out. Some people, however, look like this is the last day of their lives.... Really, I should've taken my camera with me today. Those faces...haha. Halarious. But guys, come on. You have the chance to retake some midterms, I bet you wouldn't be stressing out if you had studied during the weekend instead of going to a soccer game, hung out with ya boyfriend, or visited yo grannies. It's (in most cases) your own fault. It's the truth, I'm just being realistic here.

For English, I had to prepare a subject free of choice; so I chose Thanksgiving. The teacher and I had a nice chat about this celebration, talked about Christmas and Sinterklaas and I told a little about myself. Oh wait, I also had to read a 30sentence-fragment to him. What a joy! :-D

After lunch, I had my history test. Even if you don't know an answer, fill something in! Some teachers really are that stupid. I was laughing to myself during the test, thinking about the person that is going to grade my midterm 'oh that sounds poetic, must be the right answer! -check-' haha, oh boy.

And, last and surely least!!!, cultural arts. That is the most laughable subject evah. It's about theaterish things, mostly everything to do with acting. All I heard of was that we had to read all six chapters, but apparently, thank you havo-students, we also had to expand on the show that we saw. And according to them, the test counts for 50% of your final grade. Okay, honestly I didn't believe that but somewhere in the back of my head an alarm bell rang. And yes, when we got the test it actually said 50% but I'm assuming it is 1% like our teacher told us...

Good luck studying! (:

<3, Rachelle

Midterms how-to

click on the picture to zoom in!

Let's goooo!

Dear all,

It's the weekend before my midterms-week. This whole week I've been concentrating on my homework; last midterm-week I had a quiet week and enough time to study. Now I didn't... I had this feeling eleven midterms would be A LOT, but exactly it's okay with me. I'm the kind of student that studies for 4-5 subjects each day, instead of just the ones for the following day. So I'm sure I know everything well enough :-) *nerd alert*. And my tests don't seem to be really hard. I hope they're not... :/

Well, I'm gonna keep my head in the books again.

It could happen that I won't write any new blogs for a couple of days, it could not.

Everybody with midterms this week; good luck to you all! Keep up the good work :D!

Love,Rachelle

Lost in Amsterdam.

Dear all,

Lost in Amsterdam?! How could a Dutch person ever be lost in her own country? Well people, let me explain.

Yesterday, I was on a trip to Amsterdam with a couple of classmates and some random people from other classes that I didn't know (yet). It was voluntary, this trip. But, the things that we would do and visit that day would count as points for CKV ('cultural arts'). The only thing we really have to do for this class is visit museums, theaters, movies, etc. and write a report about it. It was free so I decided to go to Amsterdam instead of school.

Together with 19 other students and 2 CulturalArts teachers, we took the train to A'dam. The first thing we did when we arrived was have a tour with a guide through the city. She showed us a lot of historical places and explained about several things that happened in the past, how life was for nuns, for shelterless kids, for rich people, etc.

Yea, you know what I'm thinking. booooooooring. We walked for an hour and a half, I was so done with it!

We had to walk all the way to the Van Gogh museum from the point where the tour ended. Apparently we arrived way too late so we only had 30 minutes to look around the museum. Which was kinda a good thing haha... I hate museums. And Van Gogh isn't that amazing either, sorry. haha :) He wasn't even famous until years after his death....

At 1, we had a break for 1 and a half hour. The four of us realized it would be better if we first walked to the next destination before we'd have lunch. We were planning on getting there in 10 minutes.... apparently we needed to go to the OTHER side of Amsterdam! Nobody had told us anything. We were so pissed. Lost...yes that's the word. To brighten up the freakin' walk, we asked several passing people in English if they knew how to get to Waterlooplein. Haha, so I put on my American accent and so did the other girls :) some stupid ladies were talking to each other in Dutch like; 'no Tina, it's the other way I'm sure!' Hahaha. I was just looking at them like I didn't understand. What a joy! The walk was 45 minutes by the way...

Exhausted and mad, we arrived at the MacDonald's, had our lunch and went to the MusicTheater a block away. We had a tour in the theater itself, but also 'behind the scenes' stuff. The lady who toured us didn't speak that loud so I have no idea what she told us. Yea, it was pretty boring once again.

Thank goodness for the best part of that day; the workshop! Together with another school, we had to act out scenes and sing and introduce ourselves to each other. It was pretty fun. I'm not that into acting, but the people who really know me know I love to fake a cry once in a while haha. It was fun! Especially because the guy who led us was British and he didn't understand any Dutch. The perfect opportunity for me to hear and speak some 'real' English again! :)

The workshop lasted about 2 hours. Afterwards, three girls and me went to get pizza across from the theater building. We had a nice time! :)

We walked around town a bit, got some ice cream and watched the opera. Gosh it was boring! I mean, opera. They constantly sing everything. Even the word 'yes'. Yeeeeeeeeees. And the story didn't contain a story, if ya know what I'm saying. It was about a fox and a hunter. They fell in love. He shot the fox?! I'm not quite sure what happened, haha. All I know is, it took too long, I was tired and I wanted to go home after the teachers made this day such a bad organised one!

So, finally the opera was finished. The applause lasted about.... 10-15 minutes?! We decided to run out to get our jackets and get ready to hit to the stationnnn. But, the rest of the group held us up -sigh-. I wanted to go home! Locking arms with another girl who could barely walk, we strolled to the metro station and were there just in time. The teacher made a bad move by saying 'are you sure you can stroll down to the train in 6 minutes with feet like that?'. Oh, we were mad. We made it to the train 20 minutes early and we had to wait in the cold. Talking about submitting complaints about the teachers because they took off, without letting us know, to get something hot to drink?! Riiiiight.

Okay, so confusing long sunny but somehow fun day?

I love Amsterdam, not if you have to rush to see everything.

Love,Rachelle

Keeping you posted...

Dear readers,

So Rachelle has come up with a new project. What am I getting myself into? Yea, that's something I don't know yet.

What I'm planning on doing this, and next week is spamming you with my midterms-week. I'll tell you all about what I study, what music I listen to to relax during this stressful week, what I'm drinking, etc. Really, everything! Pictures of course also!

So, are you prepared? At least I am.


1: before it all begins
Okay. so next week's midterms-week. We have this four times a year and this is my first year, second time this year. In the first three years of our high school in Holland, we just have tests. These, unfortunately, count as exam grades.

Last midterms-week, I had six tests. Now I have eleven, including a math do-over. Here's the list of my tests:
monday: english, history, art
tuesday: dutch
wednesday: management&organisation, spanish, literature
thursday: math
friday: science, economics, math do-over

Surprisingly, I'm not stressed or nervous at all! I just laugh at my books sometimes to brighten up the studying haha. Yes. No I was kidding of course. ;-)

This weekend I had already looked over history, economics and Management&Organisation. I was planning on studying some other tests today. Never got to it and right now it's 5.38 pm. toooo late to start anything new, right?

Side note: we don't have to go to any classes next week! you just come to school to do the tests and go back home to study for the next one. :-D

Last time, I was constantly drinking coffee and other bad caffeine-containing crap. I kicked the habit and this midterms-week I will only drink tea and soda's. That last one isn't that healthy either. Oh well. Gotta have some fun in life:)

Anyway, that was it for now. Keeping you posted on any new developments... hehehe


Love alwaysssssss,Rachelle

Wake up everybody

Dear readers,

Hope you all had a great new year's eve! Nobody lost any fingers lighting fireworks? Okay, good! I think a lot of us want to start this year off fresh, with new plans, sports, friends, fun things in general... Too bad there's always school. Year in, year out.

I know my first week's been pretty hectic so far, so here are some tips to help you stay awake, alert and ready to ace those tests :-D

-drink tea ; keeps ya eyes open. 4-6 cups a day will help reduce stress hormone levels.

-take a walk ; a five-minute walk will help freshen up your mind

-let the music play; there are people who just can't concentrate with music on (*raises hand*) and there are some who can. Stop all schoolwork, put on a song or two, sing a long, pause your iTunes, and get back to work.

-flirt ; uhm yes no kidding. It gets the heart and brain working full speed! It's energizing :)

-2 and no more! ; you can't keep your head in the game after 2 hours. Just quite, do something else, go eat, sleep, whatever! Two is enough!

-freeeeze! take a cold shower. It wakes you up, believe me haha. If you're chicken and think you'll die, try putting the shower on 'cold' the last two minutes you're enjoying the rain.

-BRIGHT COLORS! yes, wearing bright colors and fun patterns makes you feel happy and peppy.

- Peanut butter....lemon time?! smell a lemon. I'm serious! citrus scents stimulate alertness ; the Vitamin C inside = miracle worker.

Good luck to you, sleepy people :) <3

Love,Rachelle