So, two weeks went over quite fast! We actually didn't do much at all and stayed at home most of the time, since I was kind of tense the whole time. But, although she is probably taller than our dog Barry, you can still tell that Nahla is still a puppy from the way she acts. So today, since it's our next to last day, I decided to take the camera outside with us one more time. It's probably going to rain tomorrow and I hadn't managed to take any interesting shots of her yet. I'm quite happy with the results though. It was a good decision to shoot in RAW, too.
Although I really like Nahla and I think she likes me too, I'm certain that we're both happy to get back home soon. And I'll definitely meet up with my friend Nele and her Aussie Fly to take more shots of her, too! The past week has been really exhausting, rather nerve-wracking, for me, so I'll treat this as a holiday. I'll keep studying, of course! And book some driving lessons to get through with that as well. Everything is ok! Isn't it?
I want to improve. I want to challenge myself, which I'm constantly doing, but I'm talking about photography here. I don't have a photogenic pet, but there are other things one can take photos of.
Here are the tasks, interpretation is everything.
Insects are super scary! And that's exactly what I thought when this beast suddenly appeared in my room. I saw it sitting there, and before it could jump at me and eat my face, I quickly placed a glass on it and closed it. There it was, this grasshopper-thing. I googled a bit and found out that it was a female Tettigonia viridissima, a great green bush cricket. But on the website, it said that the females, who are bigger than the males, grow up to 42mm. After I had measured, I knew that my new friend, and I named her Merryweather, was quite a lot bigger with 60mm. So maybe she's some kind of mutant.
So about an hour ago, I released her into our garden. She stayed for a moment, probably so I could take a last photo, then she jumped off and disappeared into the green.
What a majestic creature!
I was kind of glad when I just heard that this day was the hottest day of the year. I hope, they didn't mean so far, though.
I woke up to a computer with a broken sound card, so basically, it's a really sad day today.
But
my new friend Nhala, a Rhodesian Ridgeback, was left at my house in
preparation for "her" holiday, where she's going to spend 14 days here.
Quite much for such a baby.
On our way back from a really exhausting walk, we met Jessy, who used to
be my best friend back in primary school. It was great to meet her so
we decided to meet up again later and she took her French Bulldog Bella
with her. Bella is 9 months old, and therefore only 3 months older than
Nhala.
The dogs had a lot of fun and played all the time, although it was
really hot and Nhala was still exhausted from our first walk. But at
least she made a friend whom we're going to meet again when she's here.
We
also went to Jessy's home and I met another old friend of mine: Nika.
This tiny Pekingese was already there when I met Jessy, and she's now 15
years old. I wonder if she recognised me, I did of course!
Oh, Leen, you are so lazy!
Yes, I am. Wait - no, I'm not. Am I?
Actually, I've had so many things to do lately that I didn't really find time for blogging. Isn't that awful?
Well,
at least I've got something to do. It makes it a lot easier to only
focus on my own life, because I'm not gonna lie, people are making it
really difficult for me.
I finally finished the photos from the shooting with my dancing teacher
and his friend, they're making a hypnosis show together and needed
photos for their flyers so they asked me. It was fun!
I visited my primary school teacher and her class. It was fun and they
really seemed to like me. They were making fun of me though, because of
my height, but I learned that it doesn't necessarily mean they don't
like me or respect me. The same thing counts for my new English student
whom I'm tutoring. She's six years old and we usually just speak English
and play which might bring her closer to the language. It's a great
job! And she's always so sad when I have to leave, haha.
I had the prom I was looking forward to so much. Well, it sucked. Not
only because five people I invited cancelled, but also because there
wasn't really enough time or space to dance, my school mates annoyed me
(or some of them) and my dad left an hour early. I probably didn't even
look as great as I expected, but a professional makeup and hair styling
wouldn't have been worth it anyway. And I didn't smile on the photos
because I was so pissed off. Well, I did, but you can tell that I didn't
mean it. At least I danced with my former choir leader, which was fun.
And
the next day, my mum and her boyfriend kidnapped me and took me to
Mönchengladbach to talk about my future. Since that day, I've been
planning to start studying in Düsseldorf, just to go to Bristol at the
same time. I already wrote a cover letter and CV to apply for a job and
I'll probably have to re-write it. But at least I've got some really
friendly referees and Murray's dad offered to help me when I'm there!
And I became bestiest besties with a soldier I met in a pub here in
Paderborn and he lives in Gloucester. Lucky me!
Also, I'm
hoping to finally get my driving-licence before going to England. I'm
quite certain I'll pass the theory this time. So there's a lot happening
right now.
Not sure if this is even better or worse than the Biggie Smalls feature. But this sums up my relation to England quite well. Too many memories. The nostalgia.
Okay, I hope you get that I'm making a joke here. Because this is ridiculous(ly great).
I'll
have a photo shooting with my sister next week. Also, we're planning to
hang out more and be silly and skate although we both can't skate. But
it's okay because we're cool.
I'll take care of a dog for two
weeks. Her owner used to work with my dad so I'm really lucky here. I
hope you all know how lucky I am.
Phantasialand. Spending some days at the North Sea. Is it actually happening? Nobody knows!
And
by the way, please applaud me for being so fookin' efficient and
motivated. Because my day consists of working out, studying for driving
school, playing guitar, going outside and studying seven languages.
Every day of the week has its own language. Yes, I'm insane. Today is
Swedish day, yay!
No, the title doesn't make any sense. Why? Because I
fookin' went out to go for a fookin' walk with a fookin' 15-year old
friend to spend some fookin' time in the fookin' nature.
And I'm fookin' 18!!
So why do I need to tell you where I go and when I come back? I have no idea!
It's a walk, I don't even look at my phone to see what time it is.
Ugh.
Well,
anyway. So I went outside with Dilara again because she was worried
about me and kept asking me if I wanted to do something with her. So in
the end, I said yes. And it felt good to leave the house (apart from
getting yelled at for it). And of course, I took some photos as well.
Because I had a photoshooting the day after. And I needed to practise.
As promised, I'll tell you about the past 8 days today. My friend Muz
from England came to visit me and my family in Mönchengladbach. We
really had a lot of fun, starting with a trip to the music store in
Cologne (where I found the perfect guitar for only 75€, but didn't buy
it - the regrets!!). After Muz and my brother spent some time testing
guitars, we decided to go back to the city centre to get something to
eat. It can't be unseen - Cologne at night is just stunning. The restaurant was beautiful, too, and I'll definitely be back in summer when it isn't too cold to sit outside by the Rhine.
We also had some full English breakfast that Muz cooked for our
family. It didn't only look great, but tasted wonderful! I become hungry
just thinking about it, haha.
So last Saturday, it was the day Muz originally came to Germany for - my birthday party,
home in Paderborn. It's too bad we didn't really have time to do some
sightseeing in my beloved hometown, since there's a lot to see. At least
I could listen to him playing my guitar Susi and the party started just
some hours later. We had to wait until 3am for my best friend to join
since he had to work, but we still enjoyed the party at that time,
although we were only 7 people left and everyone was tired as fcuck. We
danced, played Twister, ate cake and my best friend's girlfriend even
played the violin for us. What a night! I love having my favourite
people around.
Of course, we also went to take some photos in the park! The weather was
shitty during the whole week, but we find some hours of sun to go
outside and enjoy. I'm not really satisfied with what I made out of it,
but it was fun at least and Sammy had fun playing model for some ball
fetching in return. I didn't really dare to take Barry off the leash,
but he seemed to like Muz, although he also appeared to be scared of him
at the same time. Weird dog, I have to say. We spent the rest of our
time studying and eating a lot of chocolate (I forgot what real food
tastes like) and earlier today, we had to say good bye at the Düsseldorf
airport. I really hope my English skills (especially the pronunciation)
improved and I'm sure that we'll see again this summer. I wanted to do
some travelling this year anyway! So exciting!
Ohh, ohh, summer is coming! Just last weekend, we had a perfect
Mother's Day and before that, a wonderful walk along the Niers with the
two dogs. They enjoyed the weather and the water, it's finally time to
get wet and dirty again!
Oops. That sounded wrong.
Additionally to that, I finally discovered places with wonderful
green-golden light, perfect for bokehs like this. Oh, what a May! I
definitely need to revisit that place the next time I come to
Mönchengladbach. And all those flowers, argh! Did I ever mention how
much I love spring and summer? It's the best thing in the world (yes,
even better than Christmas).
After that weekend, my week started with a trip to Bad Fredenburg in the
Sauerland, 1,5 hours south from Paderborn. This was my last school trip
ever and probably even the best. I definitely will never forget it!
The weather was perfect, once we arrived at our hostel, had a
rehearsal and lunch (so little time, ugh), we went outside to lie in the
sun. We also went to Lidl to buy some food, and I ended up buying a
cucumber which I later had for dinner. I love cucumbers. Does that make
me a weird person?
Anyway, we spent a lot of time singing and I
almost fell asleep during the rehearsals, but it was definitely worth
it. The concert will be at the end of June where we will sing "Just The
Way You Are" by Bruno Mars (A capella version), "Viva La Vida" by
Coldplay and a Swedish sommarpsalm. And it sounds so stupidly beautiful,
I'm so excited.
Also, this trip made me realise how much I love
our choir. We used to be about 10 members, now we're around 20 and some
of them are 3-4 years younger than me. But still, we got along so well
and felt like a big happy family. I'm glad that I'll still have the
opportunity to spend time with them and they're probably the thing I'll
miss most about school.
Yesterday, I went to the city to spend time with my best friend's
girlfriend Dilara. We still had a lot of time so we decided to go to
Borchen to walk her dogs and take lots of photos.
She has small
tiny tiny dogs (and I love taking photos of tiny tiny dogs), a Dachshund
named Yara and a mixed breed puppy called Sunny.
It was fun because I finally could take some nice shots with my new lens
and I can feel that I'm finally getting used to it. Especially the
action shots were quite nice and despite the high aperture it's also
great for taking portraits!
I was really tired after our walk, but we definitely had a lot of fun
and I think the dogs enjoyed it as well. I don't really know what to
say about it because the photos speak for themselves. Maybe I'll have
the opportunity to take more shots of these two girls someday. But at
least I know that I really suck at people photography and need to learn
more about it.
And tomorrow will be my little brother's communion
and I'll probably take my camera with me because we're going to the zoo.
So exciting! And I'm really glad to see him again. I hope you enjoy
your weekend - I am, despite the fact that I have loads of studies to do
(only finished half for today and it already took me 3 hours).
