"Busy like a bee, actually. Bee-like"

For the last couple of months I've been blogging less and less. Actually that's not entirely true, as I'm blogging for Filmhoek.nl as well. But I've been blogging here less and less. It's not something I want to give up, because here I can write anything I want and talk about anything I can think of. And I love doing it. So I'm not gonna stop, I'm just saying that it's gonna happen like twice a month instead of three to four times a month.

In case you'd like to know why I've been so busy:
If you're a Dutchie by any chance (or you understand Dutch) you can always keep up with my latest movie reviews on www.filmhoek.nl (we're also on facebook and twitter) as well as the blogs I write for them. The cool thing about this is that I get to go to press viewings, which I absolutely LOVE! Lately we've also started a site for television news, for which I'll also be blogging and hopefully reviewing some of my favorite shows as well.

When I'm not writing for them, I'll be writing (three to four times a year) for the Dutch magazine Integrand - a magazine for students to prepare them for the business world out there. Here I won't just write reviews but sometimes I'll simply be writing articles about a theme/topic related to the issue.

Lately I've also been very busy tweeting. Not just my own tweets (though you can find me @Aivy88 if you like), but also for a movie website that focuses on teens who are either interested in movies or interested in making them theirselves. We share movie reviews from these inspired teens as well as background information about a movie that we feel deserves some extra attention. I'm kinda proud because I advised (more like stalked, but hey... it's me) them to do the same for Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing which just hit the theatres over here (YAY). I also just started tweeting again for this Film Festival which starts in the beginning of April and I can't wait for it! The only non-movie related tweets are the ones I do for my job.

Then there's the political party I'm a member of. As the elections are coming up in two months we are working on some pretty nice activities, while there are also a lot of new rules and new board members. So I'm pretty busy with figuring all of that out as well ;-).

Busy like a bee

Time flies when you're having fun. And also when you're working a lot ;-). I just had my two week holiday, while volunteering for the Dutch Film Festival. It's always so much fun; writing and interviewing people, seeing it all in print. We have a great team every year and I hope to be a part of many more to come. After the festival we had the first PINK! (the youth party for the animals) activity this season (organised by me I mean) en then I went right back to work that evening. Night shifts! For some reason I just couldn't get the rythym back so it was a lot of tired days and not enough sleep. But with colleagues like mine I made it through, haha. 

Next to my paid job and working for PINK! I was also lucky enough to see La vie d'Adèle for the website I'm writing for: Filmhoek.nl. I don't even know if I've mentioned it before, but I write movie reviews and blogs for this website and I'm so very proud of it. We haven't even been online for a year and it's such a fast growing website. We try to get the latest news first - in Holland that is - and I'm glad to be able to write again about my passion. Watching the winner of Cannes during the press viewing and putting my thoughts down about it, I remembered how much I love it. I don't know how many readers of my blog can read/understand Dutch, but if you're interested you can find it here ;-)

Of course I'm also busy with the new series season. Because of the film festival I wasn't able to keep up, but I'm almost back on track with all the shows I watch. Arrow, Revenge and Once Upon a Time are all so great. But I really would love to mention two new shows I'm watching: The Crazy Ones, with one of my favorite actresses of all time: Sarah Michelle Gellar. Her chemistry with Robin Williams is truly amazing and I really enjoy watching it. It's great to have our 'Buffy' on tv again! The other show is Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. It's Joss's new show, which he created with brother Jed and Jed's wife Maurissa. I've only seen two episodes so far and I have to say that I'm not quite sure what I think of it... The dialogue is good, but it just feels a little messy. I'm always a fan of the 'nerds/geeks/computer wizzes/genius' in his shows, but now there are three of them. So I'm hoping the next episodes will be better. It might just be me though... I'm not a fan of shows with guns and military and of course that's exactly what you get with agents :P.

One other thing I'm currently very busy with is the preperations for HalloWhedon 5. Only nine days away!!!!! GAAAAAAAH I'm so excited, I can't think straight :P. I'm trying to find costumes, find out what else I need to bring and mostly: UBEREXCITED (and sometimes even emotional) about seeing my friends again. I haven't seen them in a year and it's gonna be a weekend full of hugs, parties and amazing fun :D :D :D. 

Remembering this summer with music

I just realized that I don't think I've mentioned music in my blogs, while it is in fact a very big part of my life. I love listening to music. I wake up to the radio and when I'm traveling or something I usually play the music on my phone. While cleaning or doing other chores I also listen to a lot of music. It can make you feel sad, or happy. Give you energy or make you feel like you're in some kind of movie or video. And I do think I'm not just speaking for myself here. So I hope you know what I mean. At my summer job (today was my last day!), the radio is on all the time and these songs will play a big part in remembering this summer. That's why today's blog will focus on some of the songs that I loved to listen to while working, just so I won't forget. 

Two of the songs that I have yet to learn the lyrics of are 'Blow Me (One Last Kiss)' by Pink and 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' by Taylor Swift (see video's). The thing is, that when you hear songs on the radio, you miss out on the - sometimes - great music vids. Now, personally, I don't love the Pink one, but I do love it when they are made the way that can be seen in Taylor's video.

 

However, I really got energy out of some other songs, like 'Call Me Maybe' by Carly Rae Jepsen and her 'Alway's a Good Time' or 'Next to Me' by Emeli Sandé. And I really love the first vid, because whenever I see it, it just makes me happy. It's sweet, innocent, and sure a little teenagery, but that's totally fine! Do you know those moments where you are so frickin' tired that you just don't have any energy left and slouch and stuff? Well, Carly's song really could give me that final boost to get through the final hours of my work day ;-). Just like Nicki Minaj's 'Spaceships' (a very cool vid, but at times also kinda disturbing) and Rihanna's "Where Have You Been?' There's probably a couple of other songs (like 'Scream', 'We Are Young' and '50 Ways to Say Goodbye'), but I think these were played the most and definitely could be seen as the songs that helped me get through the bad/hard days of the job :p.

The funny thing is that years ago on my first summerjob I had the same thing. There was one song that the radio just kept playing and playing and playing... and playing. I got so sick of it, that it could even make me mad sometimes. But now, when I hear this song, I just have happy memories of it. This was 'Come Along' by Titiyo.

I guess that's all I wanted to share with you, in this improptu blog that just came up in my head. Having had my last day, whenever I hear these songs they will always remind me of the summer of 2012 ;-).

Graduated :D !

So it's finally official. I graduated in february, but I now have my diploma :). It's one of the reasons why I haven't blogged as much the last couple of weeks. Other than my graduation I've also been busy with the Viva Las Vega's Food Festival and, well... work. It's not a great job and just a summer job, but at least it pays some bills. It's very hard work and I have to get up early for it, so by the time I get home I'm exhausted. But now that I'm officialy graduated, who knows, I might have better luck finding a job I actually studied for.

Celebrating

In all the job searching and other work, as well as having my parents, sisters and my sisters fiancé over for lunch, I completely forgot how big this actually is. I knew there would be a small ceremony with a couple of other graduates and of course some professors would be there, but I've been so busy that I totally forgot to be nervous. My luck was actually that I didn't have to defend my thesis. Also, I had been graduated on paper since February, so I didn't make it into a very big deal. My family coming over for lunch was a bigger deal at the moment, because we have workers in our house who are building an extra room. My job was to clean everything for my family as well as making sure I had enough room for everyone. And it totally worked out. I had to borrow an extra chair, but other than that it was a lot of fun. It was also my Dad's birthday, so I gave him my presents during lunch. I think sharing this day with family and friends is really the way it should be. They were there for me during all my hard work and problems and cramm sessions (?). After lunch we went to the city (we had some time to kill) and shopped a little. Then we went to where the graduation ceremony was being held. There we would meet one of my best friends and my uncle, who both got me flowers :). We catched up and took some pictures. Oh, and did I mention it was a beautiful day? It really was wonderful! Of course in all my distraction I forgot that I was supposed to wear something fancy. With it being a sunny and warm day and my family coming over, I was wearing short jeans and a top. Not exactly graduation clothing and it's probably the only thing I would change about that day if I could :P.

Kind words

The ceremony began with a nice introduction by one of my professors. The ceremony was also in small groups, so we could bring our family and friends. Our group consisted of four other graduates and I was fourth (it's a last name thing... what else?). I was actually a little bit surprised that I wasn't last. One by one we were being called up there. First the mentor (or if he/she couldn't make it, one of the professors present) would read/give a speech he/she wrote for the graduate which told something about that persons character, studies and of course thesis. In some cases also something extra: one of the graduates also found a job, another one got a boyfriend out of her internship - always fun. During this speech the graduate had to sit in a chair, while of course family or friends would walk around taking pictures. After the speech was finished we had to go from one chair to another and sign our diploma - another picture moment, shake hands and we got a bag with a present, a list of our grades and something to keep our diploma safe.  

My turn: I really love my family and they even cheered for me when my name was called out (it made me think of one of those moments in Gilmore Girls, haha). Unfortunatly my own mentor couldn't be there, but he did write a laudatum which I was kinda nervous about. You never know what someone is going to say about you. His really was a treat! He talked about good qualities, my internship (me working overtime) and my interest, such as social media and fan culture. He even brought up my being a fan of Buffy. And once again my family (especially my sisters I believe) couldn't keep quiet and said something like 'she still is'. Anyway, my fandom also is what brought my attention to the subject of my thesis and that's why he mentioned it. It was a really funny, entertaining and personal speech, which added to my happiness of the day. One thing that totally made me blush is that he called me a 'doctor'. It just sounds so cool! As of that moment I am now a Master of the Arts, Film and Television Studies :D. 

After everyone got their diploma, the professor also spoke to the guests, because he knows how much support they must have given the graduates and he is so right about that. They deserve some credit too!

Afterwards I went to the professors, because I really liked to have the written speech. I also spoke to him about Buffy. Years ago he was my professor and I mentioned that I am a massive Buffyfan. He then told me that he didn't 'get' it or the fans, so now I wanted to talk about it again. He said that he still didn't get it, though he's warming up to it. He even told me that he used one episode 'the one in which they don't talk' ('Hush') in one of his classes. I really love that and I even told him something like 'well, there you go. Wisdom comes with age'. Yep, it was pretty awesome.

Cocktails

After the ceremony we went to the 'reception area' and I was congratulated by everyone officially and I got my flowers. Afterwards we walked my friend to the bus stop and me and my family went to Hemingway's to get a drink and celebrate. First I ordered tea cos my uncle was buying, but I did feel like celebrating so... My uncle bought me my first cocktail :P. And I wasn't the only one. My sister, her fiancé and my uncle all had a cocktail. I really liked it. It's something extra to remember this day by. We did have to drink fast though, because we had reservations for dinner. We went to this asian/tapas place and it was absolutely delicious. They had lots of little 'tapas' to choose from, like meat, fish and/or veggie so there was something for everyone. At dinner I also wanted to thank everyone, because I care a lot about my family and it was amazing that they were all there. It was a Friday afternoon, so they had to take the day off and that hasn't always been easy in the past. Of course, when I said this to my family, I got comments from them about 'how much I must have been drinken' or 'how easily I get drunk'. Well, what are families for right?

Now the real world can begin

Well, sort of. Like I said, I've been looking for a job for months. I kinda have been living in the real world since then, worrying about finding a job to pay the bills and maybe even save something so I can go on a nice vacation or something. Part of me still wants to be a kid and have nothing to worry about, but silly things. Part of me actually loves looking forward to having a job and my own life where I am totally self sufficient. For months I have been sitting at home writing letters and it's good to have summer job now so I can be active again, useful. But of course I much rather have a (dream) job, writing about films and such. Let's hope I'll get there soon enough ;-). At least this day - my graduation day - was a wonderful one I got to enjoy without thinking about all this stuff and just celebrating with the people I love.