Oh yes, we're going to try this again. I can almost hear you think "A monthly thing, are you really going down that road again?" and no, I'm not making any promises this time. However, I thought it'd be nice to talk about the past week on every Monday of the new month, just so that I can look back one each month at the end of the year, instead of only remembering the most prominent events. So yes, Monthly Monday. Let's go!
Is it just me, or has January passed in just the blink of an eye? The first 31 days of the year, the month of endless promise and sky-high anticipation, gone. The weather has been mild, almost spring-like. The holidays were a lovely welcome and I spent them relaxing and hanging out with friends, which I personally find the best thing to do when finally having some spare time. Then uni started again and the madness came with it. Deadlines, presentations, exams.. everything happened in January. To keep this post a bit more organized I will make some subheadings, per big subject in my life: University, Sports, Friends, and the monthly favourites.
University
As mentioned above, shit went down this January. With 3 article deadlines, 2 exams and 3 presentations, the pressure was prominently present. Not that I did not know about this, but somehow my brain had managed to cover these deadlines with a lot of other thoughts, making me very much unprepared and stressed at the beginning of this month. I pulled through though, and even though I wasn't feeling the whole studying till late at night thing, I managed to finish everything before deadline, and the exams went pretty good as well, yay me! I have now officially made the last exam of my bachelor-degree, which is insane. Only thinking about next year and all the possibilities makes me anxious. Because I'm not even close to answering the standard birthday question; I haven't got a clue about what I want to be when I grow up. I want to help the world, do something for the greater good. Increase the health of the world and decrease the world-suck, basically. But how I am going to achieve that, and what I'm going to do for the rest of my life? shoot me.
A highlight of this month has definitely been the trip to Geneva with one of my minors. To experience the "Global Health" and health governance in real life, we went to see the World Health Organisation, UNAIDS and the Red Cross federation. I don't think I've ever been this impressed with an organisation before, I genuinely was awestruck by the WHO. To top this amazing experience, I had the amazing opportunity to present in front of one of the WHO Ebola experts, about the treatment options for Ebola. It was nerve-wrecking, but so awesome. I don't think I will ever forget this, and the expert was so nice and interested in our research, I couldn't stop smiling for the rest of the day.
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| Nice to see how dramatic I looked when talking about the lack of medication for Ebola, haha! |
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| View from the WHO building |
This month has been the exploration of new ways to work out for me, since I did something weird with my calf during a track practice, meaning that I was out of the running for most of January. I'm now slowly but steadily picking it up again, but in the meantime I tried some new sports, which were pretty great.
The first one was Bikram Yoga, a form of yoga that is done in a heated room, with the temperature of around 40C. It felt like going on holiday and doing some exercises, it's amazing. You sweat like a horse, but it feels so good to be warm all over and to stretch all your muscles. Especially during the colder days, it was great to go there and get out completely warmed up and loose. Downside of this fairy tale story: it's awfully expensive. We got to do an introduction period of two weeks, but after this the fee gets too high for my student loan..
The other thing I tried is fitness. Or, more precisely, going on a cross trainer and feeling miserable for an hour. My calf injury called for new ways to run, and a cross trainer allows you to make the running motion, without having the impact of the asphalt on your legs. In other words: you look like a fucking puppet, and are left with aching muscles that never ache after a normal run. Not really something I wish to do for the coming month, that's for sure!
Apart from these exotic sporting escapades, I've mostly felt miserable that I wasn't allowed to run and didn't see my friends as frequent as I wanted. Let's hope February will bring more happiness on this department!
Friends
I don't know why I put this subject in, but it might be nice to do a quick recap of my social encounters? I'm very happy with my friends, and this month only showed this even more. Went to the cinema with the lads on the first of january (to starwars nonetheless. I really felt like one of the guys. Except from the fact that I didn't know shit about starwars..), had some lovely dinner dates with my roommate and with friends (including pizza on all occasions..), and late night whatsapp chats with all the friends I can't see in real life that easy (Groningen, America, you name it). Some "romantic" feelings as well, but let's leave those for next month, shall we? ;)
Monthly Favourites
So, on to the new things of this month! These will include mostly materialistic things and series and movies, since I'm a materialistic girl like that (and I don't think you'd like to read about me finding a new favourite sleeping position or shortcut to university..)
For series, I have three "new" shows I've been loving. Even though I loved the series,this will not be another love letter to "Making a Murderer" because you already know all about this Netflix original, I hope. No, the shows I've been loving are Bomb Girls, Brooklyn 99 and Helix. All not very recent I believe, but really awesome, funny and exciting. Bomb girls follows a group of ladies that work at the bomb factory during WWII, It feels a bit like watching downton abbey, with strong female characters, feminism and as an added bonus, bombs.
Brooklyn 99 is a different show altogether, being a sketch like comedy show about the NYPD. Hilarious in a not-depreciating way, which is really refreshing. No lame female or homosexual jokes, but just general stupidity and human clumsiness. Ah-mazing.
And then there's Helix. This show speaks to me on a more academic level as well, next to it just being awesome and thrilling. It's about the CDC going to investigate a viral outbreak in a deserted research facility. When one of the infected escapes all hell breaks loose and the research leader is not as ethically correct as he's pretending to be. If you're not that into gruesome patients with black saliva and wounds, this might not be the show for you, but if you're into pathogens and outbreaks and dark characters, you should definitely check it out!
For books, I've got one massive recommendation: Rainbow Rowell. I have reread one of my favourites of this author this month, Attachments, and damn I love this woman so much. She knows how to lift my spirits and her writing is so easy and entertaining, it really is a joy to read her novels. Landline is another favourite of mine. Even though I love all her books, the adult ones are definitely the best. They will restore your faith in books and love and life in general. They are the best.
Another thing I've been loving is the radio option from spotify. Especially when studying (or writing a blog post) it's so relaxing not to worry about your playlist. I really enjoy listening to dance lately, especially when revising, and the radio station picks the perfect tracks. Just a great way of generating your personal playlist without having to actively search for new tunes! Also, the new Sia and Pablo Nouvelle albums are great if you're looking for upbeat pop-dance tracks!
Okay. I think this is enough for today. Gotta head out to a meeting in a bit and I should probably get some emails out before that. In retrospect, January has been pretty good. Now it's off to February the month of rainy winter days and the month I will finally enter my twenties.. Exciting days!
Stay true to who you are, see you soon
Janeri xxx
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