Birthday, Stormtroopers and the Lakeside District

Hidiho Folks!

Weinig tijd om het hele verhaal te lezen, maar toch nieuwschierig? Kijk dan naar de fotos's via onderstaande link:

Short in time, but curious to what I'm doing? Please just check the picturesby clicking on the link below:

http://joeri-in-londen.reismee.nl/fotos/116054/birthday-stormtroopers-and-the-lakeside-district/

First of all I'd like to thank you all for your birthday greetings, cards, e-cards, Facebook messages, phonecalls etc. This year was very different for me and I can imagion it was weird for you as well. Therefor Iwant to thank you all for your extra efford to congratulate me, and if you have forgotten so, I can't really blame you (I have forgotten a couple this year as well, haha).

Saying that, It wont be long before I will return back to my roots. For those who werent aware of it yet; I'll be coming back on the 16th of June. Because of that this will probably one of my latest written blogs.

Greenpeace event:

At the beginning of april I've been helping out on a greenpeace event in Camden Town. Just a summary: The campaign is to create awarenes of the greenwashing abilities of Volkswagon.The companyis the biggest car producer in the EU and wants to become the biggest of the world in a couple of years. Because the company is so big, it has a huge influence on decisions which are being made in politics. They are lobying against the new climate targets of the EU. It is a big contradiction because they have the abillity and the resources to reach the targets easely, so this campaign is to put public pressure on the company to sign up for those new EU targets.

Besides bringing the message out it was a lot of fun! As you can see I've been wearing a stormtrooper costume. This was during eastern weekend, and I truly felt like a celebrity during those days. The ammount of pictures taken of me was spectacular! The reaction of people was amazing and I've never felt so good and confident about doing something good in this world.

Lakeside District

At last, but definitaly not the least, Pablo had arranged a secret trip to the lakeside district. A beautifull area which was for me the most beautyfull thing in the world that I've seen so far. We have been cycling and walking for three days and I was the best. I cant describe it in words so please just take a look at the pictures!

Pictures: http://joeri-in-londen.reismee.nl/fotos/116054/birthday-stormtroopers-and-the-lakeside-district/

Cathing up with my Sister, Brother in Law and nephew was also part of my last months expierences, we've had a very nice weekend and it made me aware of how much I miss everyone in the Netherlands (or else where).

Thank you all for reading and following my blog! I Think their will be comming another album of pictures, but I'm not sure about itbecause I'll be very busy during the last weeks of my stay in London.

Greetings, Joeri!!!

new Room, NEW Adres, new Area, new Goals, new and last Term

Hi everyone,

You might not have expected it, but it's really happening. I found the perfect mood to write a new blog. This one will be about moving toour new roomandabout what I'm aiming to achieve in the upcomming months.

Searchingfor a new room:

Monday the 12th we moved to our new room in the area called Limehouse. Before moving in we had the exciting task to obviously find this place. Pablo had expierence with it, but I took the task to me tospend alsmost 12 hours a day in doing research to a perfect place. Well i can tell: nothing is more fun finding a new room in London. We've seen it all: a family with a babywho had a spare room, council flats where the laundry is hanging in the corridors (tokkie-flats) and a brandnew, luxurous, high-minimalistic, super-stylish appartment, with aroom for just 800 pounds (which was obviouslyon the edge for us)but that price was excluding sexual services and cleaning in underpants... DO I HAVE TO TELL MORE TO SKETCH A PERFECT IMAGE??? So, if you are bored... here is a perfect new hobby for you: go and look for rooms in London.

Beside these 'funny' expierences, we managed to find an appropriate room, our new adres is:

340 Rhodeswell Road, E14 7UF, London, United Kingdom

New Goals:

Pablo has recieved for his birthday a book from Macha & Shirley: 'Dutch in three months'. So you can imagine what happened next: Yes i had to order the 'Spanish in three months'. We both hope to make advantage of learning this language by and through eachother. Don't worry I'm also still studying in EF to improve my English language abilities! So I might come back later this year and be fluent in three langauges (hmm.. bit to much EGO).

Another goal for the upcomming months is to use my Englishlanguage abilities in a more professional way. Therefor I'm joining a local Greenpeace group and will help them out where they need volunteers for events. I started doing this in Januari and I've been since then to 3 of their meetings. In the beginning of April I will start helping them as a volunteir during a couple of events for the '40 years of Greenpeace' campaign. I'm quiet thrilled about it and I hope soon I'll be able to tell you guys that these community isnt as dull as some of you might think! I hope to convince you, so I will keep you up to date about events I have helped out in. If you're interested, here is the link where you can find more about the group: http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/groups/london-islington

That's all for now, I'll be in Holland from the 24th of March untill the 1st of April!

Dont forget to take a look at my pictures of; The Isle of Wight, and the rest of my pictures of the new room!

Greetings Joeri

Meeting the host famely, roommate and my introduction program at EF!

NEDERLANDSE VERTALING KOMT MORGEN!

Hello everyone at this next episode of my trip!!!

After the many possitive reaction on my blog im happy to write once a week about my dailly life here! This time I will write about the start of my course at EF.

On thursdaynightI headed to my hostfamely, quiet nervousI arrived there! When I came in the other guy who is going to study at EF was just arrived before me! Well what can I say about it. the house is very spacious, the students have there own place to store grocery and we have also a separated bathroom and toillet. The famelyconsists of 5, father (Gary) Mother (Amanda) and three sonswich are inbetween the age of 15 and 20.At the moment only me and my italian roommate are here as guests, from next week on there will be 4! I am very happy with the accomodation and sharing a room with someone isnt a problem (yet) at all... ! Altough... haha you never know (AC Milano supporter).

On friday was the first day of school, we had a walk, some registraton work etc. etc. etc.! It was nice to meet the people who I had met on the Webpage of the school. The cool thing was the Boattrip over the thames... and the weather (the hole week actually) is outstandingly beautifull! If someone ever dears to say that its always rains in london... I had the best weather here compared with the rest of my last three months.

It's cool that i have the privillige that i know the city, so i can guide people a bit arround! On saterday we had a photochallenge (these photos you can see in the photo part of the website), it was very funny to make these ridiculous picture with a group of 6 people from different nationalities. The best picture was the party picture n front of buckingham palace...

Saterday eve we went to 'the Ministry sound' for a good party... many people from EF were there, nice to get to know them. But its really not my kind of thing.... 5 pounds for a beer... employees who are rude, cheap slutty girls... dont know! I prefer 'brick lane'!

Tomorrow (monday) is going to be my first day of school! I'm really excited about it... My schedule s very good. See below: a monday mornig of, thursday morning and friday morning as well!

A last thing is that I'm going to cycle 20 minutes to the station to save up 70 pounds a month! I think thats really worth it!

So thats all I can remember of this week.... Next week will probably be about my FREE TRIP to oxford (i get free trips because the school is under construction)!

Greetings from London!

Joeri

Pablo\'s place (Brick Lane), Cycle Tour, Open house London

Vertaling in het Nederlands onderaan.

Pablo's place and Brick Lane,

As most of you might know, the first week I'll be staying at Pablo's place! He is living next to 'the City' witch is the part of london where the big money is! Brick lane is just next to it and is a very interesting area for me... I love it to be honest! It's all surrounded by vintage shops filled up with easy going (and GOOD LOOKING) people! Wow... This place, pablo's house, is really going to be my favourite spot during the weekends.

Cycle Tour,

On saterdayI went cycling together with Pablo trough the North-East of London! We cycled along one of those rivers wich was very nice! It shows quiet good that this city is very green! One of the many big parks. We crossed the Olympic Building Site as wel. Looks Impressive. Impressive is the biggest shopping mall of Europe as well. It's called Westfields and has been build for the locals but as part of the Olympics. This weekend was one of the first weekends that it was opened so you can imagion how crowded it was. We will go back there once its totally finished and when its opened up a bit longer (see pictures).

During the cycle tour i had my first real United Kindom shitty weather! To be Honest... its just like Holland haha!

Open House London,

Thats the name of an event wich is once a year here. It means that non-publicplaces are opened up for free to visitors! A good way to get to know London a bit better. So we went pn sunday to some local places where a normal tourist would never go to! But something special was the house of the mayor of 'the City' (dont be confused, this is not the house of the mayor of london, The City is a part of london where the big money is. It has is own mayor).

A cool thing is that a flatmate of Pablo, is dutch and he knows A LOT of London! So he has been a great tourguide this day. Something we didnt know is that London has a lot of clubs and pubs on top of roofs, so we've been on some (and we will in the future).

Just to let you know! Im a happy person at the moment and im fine haha... Tomorrow i will meet some dutch students who are going to study in London as well. My next Blog will be about meeting my hosts and the first days of school!

Take a look at my pictures!

Greetings,

Joeri

Nederlands:

Pablo'shuis enBrick Lane,

Zoals de meeste waarschijnlijk wel weten verblijf ik de eerste week in Pablo's kamer! Hij woont naast het district 'the City' wat een gedeelte vanLonden is waar hetgrootte geld verdient wordt. Brick lane ligt net buiten dat gebied, deze straat is erg interessant. voor mij... Ik vindt het een super gedeelte van London.Deze straat is gevuld met Vintagewinkelsen Pubs en super relaxedte (knappe)mensen. Wow, pablo's verblijf wordt waarschijnlijk mijn favouriete hotspot gedurende de weekenden.

Fietstocht,

Op zaterdagheb ik samen met Pablo gefietst door Noord-Oost London. We hebben langs een erg leuk riviertje gefietst, en dit liet goed zoen hoe groen London eigenlijk wel niet is. Tijdens deze route kwamen we ook langs de bouwput voor de Olympische spelen. Dit is erg indrukwekkend om te zien. Wat ook indrukwekkend is is de shoppingmall westfields. Deze is speciaal gebouwt voor de olympische spelen maar zal zeker goed dienst doen voor alle Londenaren. Dit was het eerste weekend dat de mall was geopend, je kan je voorstellen dat het druk was! En dat was het ook, kijk maarnaar de fotos. We gaan er terug naartoe wanneer het wat rustiger is!

Gedurende de fietstocht heb ik mijn eerste engelse weer op mijn dak gehad. Het was niet het beste weer , maar van een beetje regen smelt ik niet, het is vergelijkbaar met Nederland.

Open House London,

Dat is de naam van eenjaarlijks evenement in london. Het houd in dat niet-publieke gebouwen geopend zijn voor bezoekers. Een erg goede manier omLondon op een iets betere manier te leren kennen.Op de zondagzijn we naar een aantal van deze gebouwen geweest, meeste vandeze plekken zijn plaatsen waar je ls een normale tourist nooit zou komen. Erg indrukwekkend om dat mee te maken. Hoogtepunt was het huis van de burgemeester van 'the City'. (raak niet in de war, dit is niet het huis van de burgemeester van london, The City is een gedeelte van London waar het grote geld verdient wordt. Dit gedeelte heeft zijn eigen burgemeester)

Erg tof is het dat Pablo een Nederlande huisgenoot heeft de ENORM veel weet van London! Hij is een fantastische gids geweest. Zo wees hij ons erop dat londen een hoop pubs en clubs heeft op het dak! We zijn op enkele geweest en we zullen hier in de toekomst wat vaker gebruik van maken!

Allerlaatst! Ik ben erg vrolijk gestemd over mijn komst naar London, het gaat erg goed! Deze week zal ik wat toekomstig medeklasgenoten bezoeken. Mijn volgende Blog zal gaan ovver het ontmoeten van mijn gastgezien en de eerste dagen op school!

Neem een kijkje op mijn fotopagina!

Groeten,

Joeri