20 days!

Yes, you read it right: only 20 more days until take-off! So far time has been flying by and on the 10th of May I'll be doing the same!

I thought it was about time to give you another update on the process so far, so here it is!

Tonight my dad had a Skype-conversation with Amanda (Tom is currently in Toronto so he wasn't available) to talk things through about when we would be arriving in London, and so on, and so on. I don't exactly know what else they discussed.
At some point they had me come into the room as well to join the conversation because Amanda wanted to know what I usually eat for breakfast.
She actually turned out nicer than I had anticipated (in the emails she was a bit... short of words is perhaps the way to put it). So that's good!
Amanda and Tom would like us to bring a 'good-sized chunk' (I think that's how she said it :P) of Old Amsterdam (which is a cheese). Apparently it is possible to carry cheese with you for two-three days without refrigerating it. This remains a riddle to me, but if my dad says it's possible I'll just believe him (a girl's got to be able to believe her dad, right?).
But, considering I'm from the cheese-country ánd they want us to bring cheese with us, I bought this goodie for them that I found the other day. Matches the Dutch cheese, don't you think?

Think they'll appreciate it?
Well, either way, I do think it's fun to give and it looks nice (and Dutch :P).

So after the talk with Amanda our plans regarding our ROADTRIP have changed a little bit. This is what our three days will probably be like:
- Thursday 10 May: arrive at Edingburgh airport, rent a car, drive to Dundee, visit uni, take a stroll through the city, drive to Stirling to sleep at an accommodation at the campus of the uni!
- Friday 11 May: wake up lazily and take a stroll through the city, back to the uni for the tour/visit, grab things and start driving in our rental and off to London! on our way to London, we'll probably spend the night in York (my dad says it's a great and very picturesque city, and as I mentioned before, I'll just believe him if he says so).
- Saturday 12 May: continue our ROADTRIP to London, drop off the car, do something, get to Tom and Amanda, chill and relax and then in the evening my dad'll have to go back into the city to catch a plane.

So. That'll be three crazy fun days.
Our initial plan was to start driving towards London on Satuday and arrive on Sunday, but Tom won't be there that weekend and Amanda is busy that Sunday so they'd rather have us come on Saturday. Which is fine too. Means I'll have an extra day in London! Maybe I'll meet Vera so we can buy a birthday-present for Charissa (:

I don't think there's much else left to say, so in that case:

I'll keep you posted,

Why this blog?

Hello there!

I am Christa and at this night and in this hour, I decided to start blogging.
You're asking me why?
Well, in May 2012 I'll be going abroad to have a work experience. And I wanted to keep track of everything I will be doing when on that work experience and on the road to it, for myself and anyone else who wants to read about it.
This work experience is a part of the internationalization process that I agreed to be part of when I chose for bilingual education. Also, it is obligatory in order to take (and hopefully pass) my English A-level IB exam!

The work experience is like a two weeks internship and is ought to be in an English-speaking environment. I have to find a placement and a host family myself and I have until February 1st to do so!

The city I desire to go to: London!
I just loooove London! I've been there now three times, but when you add it all up, it was only for five days in total. So I just can't wait to spend TWO FULL WEEKS in LONDON <3

As for the work experience itself: the first thing that popped into my mind was a work experience at a book publisher. You see, I just love love love books and I also kinda love writing, so it would only be right for me to have this work experience at a book publisher!

Right now, three companies/people (out of the 18 people I mailed!) replied my emails and they sounded pretty much positive.

The first one to answer me was someone from Hackney Pirates (which isn't actually a book publisher, but more of a charity organization, I think)! That was last Tuesday. Of course, I was all happy and smiley, because she was the first one to answer me since I started emailing people in August!
The woman was actually quite positive, but she did want to call me first, and that phone call is probably going to take place somewhere in the upcoming week.

But then, totally unexpected, on Wednesday I received an answer from the publishing house of the Royal College of Nursing, which I had been able to contact because my dad has a friend who came up with this option. But they only offered one week...

THEN, I received another  reply, also on Wednesday, and this one was from Michael O'Mara Books! I had actually tried to call MOM on Monday (because in October I'd received a reply which said I should email again in November which was when they'd start scheduling work experiences, but they hadn't replied after a week, so I thought I'd give them a call), but no one answered. And BAM, Wednesday I received an email. It was from a different person though, because apparently they had some change in staff.
I actually think the email I received was a little (or actually quite much) vague. So I guess I'll have to send another reply to get some clarification, if they don't answer the other reply I sent.

And here we are now. I'm really excited to see where this all is heading and I can't wait to find out where I'll actually have my work experience in May, because right now, I have no idea where I'll end up.

I'll keep you posted,

PS. today I finally bought my OWN suitcase to travel with me :D I'm so happy ^^