Artistic Weekend

Reading: Travel Book - Maluku.
Listening to: Act a Fool - Ludacris.
Learning: Dutch grammar.
Playing: The Sims.

Music

These past few weeks have been awesome. It's the Dutch cultural month sort of.. (or is it in September?) Oh whatever.. Well the Dutch course where I'm registered at, Erasmus Huis, has been hosting some cool jazz concerts these past 3 weeks. Starting with Eric Vloeimans, a trumpet player, with his two funny very very talented partners in cello and guitar 3 weekends ago; then Sun Yingdi, the winner of the 7th International Franz Liszt Piano Competition last week; and also some local language competition held last Saturday. For the latest, my lerares, Mv. Anneke, was very much "persuading" me to join two of three contests they held; Taalquiz (Language Quiz) and Zangwedstrijd (Singing Contest). I'm absolutely not the contestant material for the other contest, translation. Hehe.. Anyway.. I was not sure about both, I didn't even sign the application form that I was joining! But I came anyway, not knowing what to expect for the quiz, what it would be like, what questions would be asked, etc. etc.

Taalquiz

I met Tina there.. she was a rival in the taalquiz.. and she told me she and her group had prepared well, reading Dutch grammars and basic knowledge. SO... I went like, Oh-oh.. I'm gonna embarass myself there. I didn't prepare a thing!

Well friends, be careful with what you expect/think/say, cause it may happen. Monique, Dimas and I were absolutely the losers in the Taalquiz! Hahaha... The lowest score of all, shit.. Ok, our self-defense is: How the hell would we know if we would be asked such questions:
1. What does KLM stand for? (I read Royal Dutch Airlines in its every advertisement, shouldn't it be RDA?)
2. Who was the husband of Queen Wilhelmina? (We answered Klaus, the German prince, but of course we were wrong. He was the husband of Queen Beatrix)
3. Make the passive statement of this sentence (bla bla). And we WILL be taught passive voice grammar next week!
4. What is the capital city of North Holland? (For this one I almost answered it correct (Haarlem), but my teammate was quicker answering it... Groningen.. hehehe)
5. What does VOC stand for? (well.. Dimas was right, luckily.. Monique and I were quite surprised, but then we remembered that he owned a travel agency, no wonder he knew deep history. :P)
etc. etc.
If I knew it was about general knowledge of Holland, I would find as much info on the internet long before the quiz! :P But that was ok.. it was pretty fun. Besides, I couldn't really concentrate on the questions since one of the juries is absolutely adorable!!! I forgot his name, but I guess he's the Chinese blood, living in the Netherlands his whole life.

Zangwedstrijd

I got a CD of five Dutch songs, one of which I should choose for the singing competition, two weeks before. But lazy me always postponed to memorize the song I chose, Denk aan Mij (Think about me) by Marco Borsato. Only three days before I realised that I could not sing the song, though the mood was perfect with mine, cause the lyric is too long! I changed my mind to pick Leun op Mij (Lean on me) instead since it's shorter and pretty repetitive. STILL, I couldn't remember the lyrics!

When it was time to be on the stage and sing, I asked the juries if I could bring the text of the lyric, which was successfully denied by them (hihi.. still worth trying). So I did my best. I forgot three damn lines of the lyrics so I went like nanananana.... but I guess my vocal wasn't too bad. CAUSE THEY FORTUNATELY PICKED ME AS THE FIRST WINNER!!!!! Awwwwww!!!! Made me smile a lot at that time.. It wasn't really a fair competition, though.. I got only 5 other rivals.. hehe.. but it gave me SOMETHING anyway, so I won't start being so modest. I won a CD of compilation of Dutch songs, a T-shirt (everyone got it), a Dutch-Dutch dictionary (my first real Dutch dictionary after so long learning the language), a winner certificate signed by the Consulate and a ticket to Jakarta for the final in September.

Ok.. now.. why didn't anybody tell me that it was a SERIOUS cultural competition? I would have prepared more if I knew it was!
...
..
.
Maybe. Hihihi..


Photography

I've planned to have a photo session with my friends, Vitria, Shierly and Mariza since two weeks ago. But we just had the opportunity last Saturday. So they picked me up after the contest (it was held in the same building where Shierly works), and off we went to Shierly's apartment, after spending forever in Hero to buy some food for the weekend.

We were all tired, and me especially. So I postponed baking the brownies I promised Shierly to Sunday. Instead, we were just lazying and joking around. At 7, however, we started the photo session. Shierly and Vitria were a bit upset cause Veve was not there to do their makeup, so they had to do their best to ruin their face. Hehehe.. No, joking.. you looked fine, gals.

Here are some of the pictures:


Gorgeous Vitria.


The Adventurous Sexy Shierly. She sure looks much prettier in her early pregnancy. I think she's expecting a baby girl.

The funny thing is after all the photos and laughs (a lot of laughs, really.. Shierly was almost all the time trying to seduce Vitria, that it ruined the photos (blurry) cause either they moved, or I moved), Shierly felt it was such a waste if we didn't go clubbing after all the hard attempt on putting the makeup. So we did go with Arief, the four of us, to Desperados. The absence of Veve surely made that pregnant lady go crazy. We forbid her to drink alcohol, of course but still.. :D But since she was bribing us with the "I'll pay for everything" statement, we, the normal greedy people, agreed simultaneously. Hahaha...

On Sunday, Mariza came over with a roasted chicken (YAY, WE HAD FOOD!!!), and Emy, as well, to teach Shierly Japanese, so I got two more models (had to force Emy a bit, though. I told her I'd kick her out if she didn't want to be the model. hehe.. like I owned the apartment!!!).. After eating oh-so-much-food with the brownies as the desert, we started the photo session after midday! :D:D:D Mariza was playing hard (pretending that she changed her mind and just wanted to watch TV) and I felt like knocking her head. :P


Mariza.. She's actually not a shy person, and usually she is not shy in front of the camera. But she acted like it at that time. Bikin gemes ae. :))


Emy. She's soooooo skinny.. So I think this is the best picture to show her unique shape.

Anyone else would like to be my model? :D I'm not a pro. But I'm trying to learn.. with a borrowed camera. :P Until I can get my own someday.

Links to similar posts:
Gender by Shierly.
Am I Afraid of Men by Vitria.