Trip to LONDON!

Still being very tired from lack of sleep and a busy schedule during the last four days, I decided to write down my experience. For the record, I've been to London with school for four days (Tuesday until Friday.)

Why London? In fourth grade the school organises city trips. London is one of the three (Berlin, Paris and London.) These are big cities relatively nearby and because I don't have German and French as extra language, I went to London.

It was a fantastic trip, very well organised I have to say. This next to the fact that we had a lot of free time, which gave me much time to go shopping and discover London my own. I spent my five hours of free time on Oxford Street with a group of friends, bought a new bag and a shirt and then went back to Leicester square where we had to meet the group again. My intension was to go to Harrods too, but we failed to have enough time left from our free hours. So, that will be on my list when I visit London next time.
London is a huge city. We walked many miles every day, although we used the underground/tube/metro a lot, to get to see all of the main points of London like the Big Ben, Tower Bridge and Tower of London. But also a few museums like the Natural History and the science museum. Those two were way too big for us to see in the few hours we had for it. So, I'll come back for that too.

The nights we spent in a Hostel near Shepherd's Bush. I can really recommend that hostel to everyone who wants to discover London, because it is located very near to a underground station, so you can be in the center of London in like fifteen minutes. The people working there were just friendly but especially the other guests were very nice, funny and sociable from all over the world.

Anyways, the nights were vivacious. In the meaning that we barely slept and had a lot of fun. In three nights I slept, and I think I can speak for most of them, for only about fourteen hours in comparison to the usual twenty-four hours. With during the last night only two hours which was compared to some others (who were up all night)very much.
 Yet, this didn't stop us from having lots of fun and have funny moments all over the place.

In short, I had a memorable time in a beautiful city.

Fair Trade

Yesterday it was the international day of Fair Trade. That, and the fact that I really love the chocolate from Tony's Chocolonely (Dutch chocolate company that has the fair trade label,) made me decide to held a presentation about it. 

 

Fair Trade is about Fair trading. So, giving the amount of money that should be given to farmers or producers of organic commodities. This to give these (poor) farmers a healthy standard of living.

Fair trade is a development model. That means that it will never be finished, it isn't meant to get finished.

Most Fair Trade companies operate in third world countries. These producers need ‘our’ help the most, because those countries are more dependent from the weather and more vulnerable for corruption. To help those producers into the big trading circle some companies designed fair trade.

Fair trade offers producers a better deal and improved terms of trade. This allows them the opportunity to improve their lives and plan for their future. Fair trade offers consumers a way to reduce poverty through their every day shopping.

Why would a companies start being fair trade? Because, if you think about it, it is much more expensive, so you can expect less profit (people don’t want to pay more for product of generic quality.) So to get people to buy more expensive stuff like fair trade, the company has to make the product more interesting or in this case it makes the consumer feel better about themselves. Fair trade is becoming a premium brand.

I think Fair trade is a good concept and sometimes it can really help producers, but other times it is too vulnerable for corruption. Companies may not seem as trustful as they claim to be. Or they misuse the system for fancy propaganda. The companies get supervised. But that supervision will have it’s limits too. The good use of the word Fair trade seems questionable. 

Still, we should probably continue because it does good work. 

Aardvarks

All about Aardvarks 
 Orycteropus afer

Aardvarks are just really ugly an pretty unknown so I thought why not write about this special animal on the other hand these animals became, strange enough, my favorite animals. Another reason to found out more about them.
Aardvarks live in almost all parts of Africa Southern from the Sahara.They live in dry savanna's to rain forests.  Altough they have many features that are pig-ish like the snout, and their name suggests that they are like pigs they are in no way related.  

In this picture (on the left) is a description of there main features. They've got strong claws to dig burrows. They are as long as average humans and have a sticky tongue to help extract termites (their favorite food) from termiteshills.  They are omnivore,  can be 50 to 80 kg and live about 23 years.
There claws are spades formed to dig.


Aardvarks are nocturnal. They spend the hot African  afternoon holed up in their cool underground burrows.

Aardvarks are mammals and female aardvarks give birth every year to one newborn. This newborn will stay with mama for 6 months and then move out digging its own burrow.

Aardvarks have to deal with two big challenges: There predators like lions hyena's and leopards but also hunans hunting them for their meat and teeth believed to prevent humans from illness.
The second problem is their decreasing habitat because of roads, agriculture or other human needs.

...



bronnen:

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/aardvark/

http://www.awf.org/wildlife-conservation/aardvark



Review: Scapinoballet Rotterdam; the great bean.

The Great Bean, a dance act that you will remember for a while...     

A few weeks ago I went to the theatre in Dordrecht in het Energiehuis. A cultural centre with (music)theatres and classrooms for people to practice their art (music lessons, dance lessons, painting lessons and what so ever.) Anyways, I went to the performance of The Great Bean. A performance by dance acts (Scapino Ballet.) The performance was devided in three pieces. The first was about growing older, the second was about appearing (I believe) and the third was the actual Great Bean about the early twenties. The first two performances lasted both about twenty minutes, the third was somewhat longer, about forthy five minutes. I'll tell you all about the third act:

The twenties, time of celebration after a period of war. People started to dance on happy songs and the haute couture transformed into twirling skirts above the ankles. It was a happy time. It was also the time of the fast raising entertainment branche. Films were made, bands got formed and fancy dance styles emerged. For one of the main characters in this play the world changes to fast. The creepiest clown I have ever seen. His part in entertainment is hard to keep up with. He struggles.

Although he wasn't successful in his time, here he is the star of the show. 

Sun and palm trees with sunglasses, please?

Imagine, you've got all the money in the world (metaphorically speaking), what would you do?

I think most people would include a plan for a huge, wealthy and luxurious holiday. In short; your dream vacation. to me a picture of palm trees is included although its not the only thing. 
I would love to travel around the world seeing whatever I want to. But not all in one time. I would spread it over a long time (such as my lifetime.) But the first place I would go now is probably Africa. To be precise: South Africa. I would incredibly like that because my stepbrother, who I am really admiring (he kind-off has the same interests as me), will probably soon be leaving this country to get settled there. 
He got married  two winters ago with his African wife. My stepdad and mam were there and told me all those beautiful stories about the flora and fauna but also about the people there. Those stories were intriguing to me. So when I get all the money I need, I'll go to my stepbrother with my stepdad and mom. She at least promised that next time they go to S. Africa I'll be allowed to go with them.      

But where did those palm trees go? I am sure that there are palm trees in South Africa but that's not what I meant. The idea written above is one very social dream holiday. But I've also thought of a more selfish vaca. 
Like... The Maldive or so or the island my friend is planning to buy (if she is grown-up and rich) or just an island somewhere with a tropical climate and a bright/clear sea around it. But it has to have at least a restaurant a beach bar and small wooden or bamboo-ish houses with huge doors that open to a terrace with a beautiful view to open sea. O! and maybe also some accommodations like hiking paths and a beach ball field so that when I want to do something social I at least can meet some humans. But who I'll take with me? I don't know.

'I want one bottle of Sun and palm trees with sunglasses, please?'

Weekend to Flanders

Today it's Fleur's 16 B-day!!! I had to mention it. Mine is still far, far away. Anyways, two weekends ago I went with the youth orchestra I play in on a weekend. 

We went to Belgium just across the border in a really small town called Boekhoute. We stayed in the castle which was kind off in the middle of the little village. We went there directly after school on Friday and stayed there until Sunday after we gave our parent a little concert. The weekend is to get to know each other better and of coarse to practice more. And that we did! We practiced I think like 12 hours in only two times 24 hours and that while most of us only slept like 10 hours in, again, two days. I think such a weekend is always good for team spirit. 

The first night some of us just sat together talking and singing which most of us are terrible at, including me. The second night we played a game with almost the entire orchestra, called werewolves. A game about not trusting each other because there are werewolves who kill civilians at night. You have to find out who the werewolves are? It was really nice to play and I even got matched with my crush.

Time for ordinary homework (for school) there was no so the following Monday I was sent to the principal and had to explain why I hadn't made my homework.

That was bothersome but worth it!       

My Christmas 2013

I'm sitting on the couch surrounded by my two dogs. (They are scared by firewowork so they follow you everywhere, and that while it's not even Newyears eve.) It is Christmas Holiday for me, but christmasday is already over. I went to my ant where we, my uncle and grandmother eat a delicious (and a very filling) diner. We always devide the menu in 3 parts so that each part of the family gets one part of the menu. This year it was our turn to make desert. I chose to make Tiramisupie. A delicious recipe from ah.nl. 

My little nephew is in his 'stupid' fase so he says 'stupid' ('stom' in dutch) to everything and everyone. That's how he sent me and my other nephew away while we were playing in his room. He's probably going to be a boss from a big company when he's older.

The next day I went to my dad to celebrate Christmas again. After we wrote poems for eachother, which was really hard because I had no inspiration, my sistsers boyfriend came. We started the evening with a diner and then went on unpacking the presents under the christmas tree and reading out our funny self written poems to eachother. It was a very nice evening.

Now it's Saterday and I am sitting on the couch writing this down. Tonight, I go to the cinema with my mom.