The Sun also shines in the Netherlands!!

Yes, you read properly, I promise it is TRUE, and to verify I just added some pictures we have taken today while we were having coffee in a terrace. Unbelievable eh?

Also I wanted to post some pictures from last Wednesday, it was Queen's day, for those of you that do not know about it, in summary, it' s all about wearing orange and being drunk. The other day Matt got me some complements for the celebration.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do!!!

-Marika

How British is British?

So, those of you who know me, may also know that my father is British. Luckily he also had enough foresight to register my birth with the British Consulate in Boston 28 years ago. Prior to 1982 all children of British citizens, even those abroad, were automatically citizens of the UK as well, and my birth certificate makes it very easy to prove that. It has come in quite handy, living over here in Europe, to have a British passport in addition to my American one. It gets you into many places an American passport won't. It is even good enough to convince the Dutch government that I deserve to pay the (greatly reduced) EU tuition at my university instead of the 7x higher Overseas tuition.

So, it's good to be British, right? Well, it turns out I'm not THAT British. I've been applying for PhD programs, and one of my top choices is Imperial College in London. I began emailing with one of the professors there who had a paid studentship working on a project that was very well aligned with my interests. All was going well until he discovered that in order to receive Home tuition (and not Overseas tuition) rates in the UK, being a British citizen is not enough. You apparently also have to satisfy residency requirements going back 3 years... which I don't. :( This has been incredibly frustrating and disappointing, as I was very excited to move to London and study at one of the top-rated Universities in the world. Now, however, it seems that it will be far too expensive (14,000 Pounds/year vs 3,000 Pounds/year) for me to attend.

Seems odd that I'm British enough for the Dutch government, but not for the British government, eh? Anyway, just wanted to rant and get that out there for everyone!

-Matt

Officially moved

We have a new blog!!!! I just transfered our posts here yesterday and its ready to go!!! :) I like more the new one, since the other one was a MySpace site that no matter what you do it will always look ugly, I believe that's part of the concept. Also our audience has potentially increased, from the 3 friends on MySpace to the whole Internet :D Anyway, HI everybody. Welcome to Iberoamerican@!!!


ps: I take back my comment from the first blog, apparently ( I came to know later ) Matt also likes the whole blog idea.

-Marika

Tortilla de patatas

Yesterday we went to a barbeque and we decided to make some tortillas to bring along. The results were pretty impressive. It is just the 3rd time we make them and see the picture.... They looked sooooo yummy and they were!!!!!

Everybody likes tortilla de patatas, it's amazing I still haven't found anybody that doesn't like them and it is also pretty simple to make!

That made me think, what is the secret of the success of this Spanish dish? And then I came up with this idea, I think everybody likes it because it looks like a Sun all yellowy and roundy, and that brings positive thoughts to people, that has to be the secret. :D

Last week we were in the Gym and the professor asked me where I was from, as soon as a said Spain he said "ohhh the Sun" and involuntarily a big smile came to his face :). The Sun is one of those wonderful things that puts a smile on all the human beings, and so I think the tortilla does also :P

-Marika

Blogging

So, as I was making a movement the other day, I was thinking about this new blog. I was thinking about how many people like the *idea* of blogging, but not the actual mundane details of sitting down on a regular basis and spewing their random thoughts out onto the blog. Then I was wondering how many people start a blog, post once (maybe twice ;), and then never touch it again? What percentage of blogs are actually *active*, and what percentage are abandoned? If you look at blogger and myspace and other blogging sites, there are a plethora of would-be bloggers. I tried to set up a blogger account once, and my preferred name (snoopdobb) was taken! Also, snoopdobbydobb was taken as well. I found this strange, because on no other website that I've ever been to has someone else used my name, yet on blogger *2* people had!Wierd, eh? Anyway, I guess this is little more than a thinly-veiled attempt to not allow this blog to fizzle before it starts, and an attempt to spew some random thoughts at the 2.3 readers we have. Enjoy!

-Matt

My first post!

I've been wanting to blog for years, but I'm always too lazy. First of all because I don't want a shitty blog (like this one) but one with a nice background and some customized cool stuff that I could program and modify myself. Also because I don't like the starting process, I like when the things are done, I wish I already had one, one of those with many posts that random people read in the office as soon as they turn on their computer and have their coffee.
But it is still not the case and I think it is not going to be for a while.

Another thing that pushes back the starting process is the language. I've always wanted to have it in several languages, so all of my friends could understand it, but that would be a lot of work :( And actually I like more to write in Spanish since I think I'm so much better (not that I am very good), but better than in English. But for now since I'm posting on myspace, I will do it in English, so at least my only 3 friends here can follow it :P

So, that is it for now, just a starting point for my blog!!!!!!! I hope I'm going to do this every so often and eventually I'm gonna have all those interesting posts that I have always wanted to have :) I also hope that "you" are going to enjoy reading it.
BTW, this blog is not only mine, it's also my boyfriends but something is telling me that he is not going to bother to write anything here. First of all because he thinks this is silly :P

-Marika