Saturday, May 26, 2007

The Lord Bless You and Keep You

This is one of the songs that our school's choir will sing in our wedding service. They'll sing it a little slower, though. I think this version is a little fast.
Long live YouTube!

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

It's over!

This is a little video of me, singing Van Jonge Leu en Oale Groond (what do you think, Janneke?). It's the leader theme to a popular tv series here in the Netherlands.

I'm pretty proud of my exam. I passed, my grade was 6.5 out of 10. That doesn't seem very high (5.5 is passing) but that's ok. I agreed with the comments the jury made. After I "messed up" (ie played some wrong notes) I got a little tense and found it hard to relax and let the music flow. And that could be heard. But the jury also said that they could hear I had made a lot of progress in four years. When I started the conservatory I was terrified to play in front of musical people, and the slightest wrong note could make me panic (not exaggerated!). Now, I started a piano piece but noticed it was a little too dark. So I stopped and asked the light technician to give me some more light, and then started over. And that went well!
Considering the fact that three months ago I still slept about sixteen hours a day, I'm pretty darn proud of myself. And I'm so glad this is over!! Now all I have to worry about (college wise) is my thesis and 2 small assignments and then June 29 will be my graduation date!

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Very close

Monday the 21st is the date of my final practical exam. I've been very worried and stressed about it, but now I'm pretty confident. Monday night we had the dress rehearsal and last night was the last walk through. It didn't go very well yet, but that's why they were rehearsal. The teacher that guides me told me he was confident and he thought it was a good exam. My piano teacher told me she had never heard me play like I did in four years, and she had never expected me to come this far! Boy was I flattered... And I know I'll pass, otherwise my teacher would have told me to cancel the exam.
Even though I've had sleepless nights and worries, today was a stress free day. M and I worked in the garden. I planted tomatoes, peppers and zinnias that I had sown eight weeks ago. I sowed radishes, lettuce, carrots, beets, leeks and planted potatoes. I've noticed before that working in the garden soothes me. I think I'll be ok. It's only an exam, it's not the end of the world...
(And those of you that have been following me closely know that it's a big step for me to say this!)

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Green

You Are Mint Green

Balanced and calm, you have mastered the philosophy of living well.
Your friends seek you out for support, and you are able to bring stability to chaotic situations.
You're very open and cheerful - and you feel like you have a lot of freedom in life.
Your future may hold any number of exciting things, and you're ready for all of them!

Little update

Because M was paged by the fire department, and other than the depressingly awful Euro-vision Song contest there's nothing good on TV, here's a small update on the life of Nicolien...

- I'm counting down to my practical exam. Monday 21 May at 19:00 (OK, 7 PM) my final musical exam will take place. I'm horribly nervous and practicing every day. The day after tomorrow I have my last regular rehearsal and Wednesday will be the dress rehearsal. Thank goodness we'll have 2 days off because of Ascension Day, so I'll have some time to relax (or totally stress out) before the big day.

- June 1st is the due date of my thesis. I only have 20 pages so far (need about 3 times that amount) and I'm not satisfied at all so far, so there's loads of work to be done. But when? Oh, that's right, I had a long weekend to relax. I guess I'll have to use that. And the nine days after my practical exam as well.

- I mailed out our wedding invitations today. That was 110 envelopes that had to be addressed, as well as 110 cards that had to be folded. Why did we choose such a complicated invitation? Because it was pretty. We have the second meeting with the minister on Tuesday.

- I took 2 days off school this week because of the stress level in my mind and body. I could tell I was getting unusually tired again and anything could make me cry. That's why I went to my assistant principal and told him how I felt. When he asked me how he could help, I told him 2 days of sleep would do me good. So he gave me 2 days off! Too nice for words. I did sleep, but I also worked for my exam. It was some good catch-up time.

Well, so much for playing catch-up with you. Lots of other interesting things happened, but I don't feel like typing too much. It's time for a glass of white wine and some chips (I know that's not a sophisticated combination but it does taste good). If I don't write a lot the coming weeks, the above post must have explained why.