Dear readers,

It’s been awhile since I last wrote. I’ve been really busy and the exams are just around the corner (3 weeks left). To be honest, I’m starting to become a bundle of nerves.

2 weeks ago I visited home which was lovely! Even our little dog ‘Puck’ seemed to have missed me, although that’s what it looked like since she didn’t shiver when I opened the door.

During my first weekend back, I celebrated Halloween because that seems to be a thing here. People started to dress up days before the actual day took place. And with people I mean us. Halloween took place on a Wednesday and although partying is not excluded from my to do list, it somehow seemed better to not have a massive hangover on Thursday. So we went out on Saturday! And I must say, I’m lucky to have friends who turned out to be great make-up artists. So I finally got the chance to experience what looking scary feels like. It was amazing! Because we didn’t want to let go of the Halloween feeling we visited a criminal court case with school a couple of days later.

Having studied the English court system, I thought that I understood it quite properly but I soon found out that the court system in England with its jury is unpredictable. I found it quite an achievement that nobody from my course really agreed with the verdict: not-guilty. I even got the idea that Cambridge was aiming for the title of “Biggest drug dealing city.” But unfortunately for the English, Amsterdam will always be number one and for some reasons we are quite well-known for our green-stuff. “Where do you come from?.. “the Netherlands duhh..” “ooooo I’ve been there; I’ve been to Amsterdam” Rara why do people go there? But it was an educative experience to sit in the public and to try to put yourself in all kind of different positions to see the defendant. I loved the part when the jury told him “not-guilty” and he screamed the F word in combination with you b*tch. I would have known how to handle this lovely guy when I was in their position, although I might get frightened myself. No one wants to be persecuted by a street vendor.

Last weekend I visited London again. Seems to be the place to be since I’ve been there like 4 times in 2 months. So I thought let’s try something new. So instead of visiting a pub we set off to a gin tonic festival. It was a lovely experience and I think that I was not the only one that was enjoying the gin as the room was almost empty at 10 o’clock. British people and alcohol……..

Next weekend I’m going to do some tourist stuff, such as punting and visiting King’s college. The punting guys will be happy to have finally convinced me to go punting since they’ve been using many creative methods to pursue me. Sometimes time doesn’t change people, apparently I still look Dutch or I look like a tourist, to be honest I don’t want to be associated with one as there is nothing more annoying than a group of tourists following a flag, not knowing on which side of the road to walk or how to make room for people who actually walk on the right side of the road (=left).

Lots of love,

Nina