this will be the busiest week of my life

Last weekend I went away with Claudia (one of my best friends) for her birthday and I took her as a surprise to the West Midlands Safari Park. It was a really nice day, we spent about an hour and a half driving around wild animals and we pet quite a few of them (although the tigers looked very soft and cute, it was a sad moment when we had to keep our windows and doors shut for that part haha). It was really nice spending some quality time with her as we get on like a house on fire, but we both have very busy lives. Afterwards we drove to a nice hotel nearby and just spent the night chatting with a couple we'd met there and having some dinner, using the swimming pool etc.

 

On sunday morning there was meant to be a pentecost church service at a park in leamington, where all the churches of leamington would have a service outside, however the weather didn't let us so we went to a big church nearby and about a thousand people turned up which was amazing. It was such a good feeling to know that there are so many Christians in this town. 

Last week I had 2 maths exams, which both didn't go extremely well, but I think I passed at least, but I guess I'll see the results in August, there's no point in worrying about that now anymore. I also got 3 more this week which for 2 of them I think will be okay, however Biology on Wednesday, will be the most horrible one I think. I'm just glad that I've already been accepted into university (HBO) otherwise this could have been a problem.

On Tuesday I went to Holland for the day to have a look at my uni, as it was having an open day. I grabbed a flight at 6.50am and arrived in the city where my uni is at, Breda, at 10.30am. Jitske met me there at 11am as she offered to come with me. We had a few hours to kill, therefore we just went to explore it. There are many nice cafes with outside seating and as the weather was beautiful we had some lunch at one of them. The city is a good size, not too big, not too small, very clean and has a nice park as well, so I'm looking forward to living there.

The uni is about a 15 minute walk from the station, which is good as i'll be using that a lot! When I arrived I went over to the 'international tourism management' section and started talking to a teacher who did ITTI. As my course is split into two sections from the second year onwards, I needed to know a bit more about both. ITTI (International tourism and travel industry) deepens your knowledge about the practices of the international tour operating, the travel industry, emerging markets and dealing with culutral backgrounds of holiday makers. As I was talking to him I got really interested into this specialisation and thought THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO DO, definitely not ITMC (international tourism mangement and consultancy). He made it sound like something that I'd love to do and I probably would. However, then an international student from ITMC came over and chatted to me. ITMC focuses on analyising international tourism destinations. He started speaking about that specialisation and that's when I got confused. As that sounded amazing too! I could have done this uni course in 3 years as a fast track course, because of my qualifications, however I would then need to know which specialisation I'd want to do. Therefore, definitely after that day, I've decided to just go for the ordinary 4 year course, as I have no clue yet haha!

After the open day, I had to say my final goodbyes to Jitske until I see her in August and went back to the station to catch the train back to the airport. On the platform I saw a boy standing there looking through the same booklet as I was, about the course at the NHTV uni. So I struck up a conversation with him, and we ended up talking for the entire train trip, so at least I'll know one person who'll be doing my course!

On Friday night, Luc, Judith and I had our leaving party. Loads of people, somewhere around the 120, came and it was a really nice night. It was hard obviously as I couldn't say hi to everyone and didn't get to say bye to everyone either, but my goodbyes to my close friends are all happening this week.

This week is going to be crazy. I've got 3 exams, am working twice, am meeting about 7 people for either a sleepover or a long goodbye and am going to Southampton  for 2 days where one of my best friends (steph mann) lives. Meanwhile I also need to prepare my room for the move, and need to pack my bag. It's going to be absolutely crazy but needs to be done as I just can't leave without seeing these people. I hope I can update you one more time before I leave!

10 DAYS!