I know i have not been posting anything on this blog for ages and i never really started blogging that much. As it is my birthday today I just though it would be nice to just post something. This year has been amazing in many ways, but probably also the most challenging so far in my short (in my own view, long) life. Lots have changed, I had some awesome moments and much sorrow.
I am not sure if i will write a lot more here or not, have not given it that much though yet because its been out of my mind for a while. However I do have another page if your interested in looking at my pictures. The page is: http://elenahoebeke.tumblr.com/
This is a project in dance i have been working on! Enjoy
xx, the older and wiser
Elena
Pictures from post above
From the start
Ok here is an LONG updated entry about my life the last one and and the first half of my holiday.
Enjoy and I hope your able to read it all!
It all started in Amsterdam where Christoph and his friends where. The plan was to celebrate an unforgettable new year there before heading over to Malaysia. I love Amsterdam and have from I been a kid. The city I so lively, cosy, special and most of all there are tons of friendly open people there. The guys had already decided that camping outside the city was a good idea since sleeping at a hotel or hostel would be a lot of money. The only thing they didn’t take an account for was that it was not a normal winter in Holland that week, no it was extremely cold! 8 degrees bellow is pretty hard core specially when our sleeping bags where already shipped to NZ… But somehow the others and I managed but I have to say it was a not pleasant feeling waking up feeling you’re a frozen ice statue, but alcohol can perform wonders!
At new years we where at Leiden’s plats in the middle of the town. I who was in a extreme mode for picture taking decided to pretend I was a photographer for an magazine and walked around taking tons and tons of pictures of funny people. But unfortanly for me I was so smart that I forgot that time was ticking and the magic hour of 12 a clock came and went…well well..i guess I will experience more magic 12 a clock moments. It was a great night over all I became best friends with a toilet cleaning lady with glitter in her hair. We found a Dutch karaoke bar where all the guys where being checked up by 50+ aged women….
The next morning was not such a pleasure going to the airport at 12a clock with minimum sleep and a nice hangover but the plane was there and we did not crash.. We ended up in the Asian metropolis Kuala Lumpur. The air totally steamy and warm something totally different then cold Amsterdam. Our hotel turned out to be really nice and we where right by the main food street in town. We spent 3 days in KL with sighting going to the petrol towers, Batu caves and also shopping! Shopping is great in KL, well actually there is almost to MUCH to shop there and we got a bit overwhelmed. Malaysian people are are enormlsly friendly the first night we where there a family next to us shared their food with us, tried to talk in a funky English and wrote down places we should go and cab drivers plus told us around 30 things we should eat. Even if we tried hard we did not get much of their constant talking…but nice was it anyways ..
3 days in KL is definitely enough of a huge city if you cant shop till you drop and your not Bill Gates so we headed up into the Jungle in a super VIP plus bus with the biggest bus seats I seen in my life. And believe it not super VIP Plus is not only for fancy people it cost us 12 Euros (100 kr) the jungle witch is also called Cameron highlands was stunning, clean cooler air and green as far as you could see. We walked 15 km in the jungle and up to an tea plantation the day we where there. You cant imagine how good it was with fresh tea in the end. Stupid as I was sunscreen was not my biggest priority and I ended up like a boiled shrimp but the trip was worth it! I even saw a snake and felt like Tarzan, Christoph was Jane of course. In the evening I was so brave that I eat jelly fish with I can not recommend to anyone…
From Cameron Highlands we went to Georgetown with was yet another huge city, just stayed one night and went with boat to the holiday island Langkawi, south in Malaysia. The island is pretty big but just one street for all the backpacker accommodations we stayed in a really funky room with special decoration for 3 nights fortuneless for Chris witch managed to hit his hand in the fan the first 5 min he was there and could not swim or use his hand properly the next 10 days. Second day we rented a scooter and went around the whole island. There is lots to see but we did not have time for everything and the shooters there are so fast compared to the slowmo European once… We also finally had our first days on the beach and in the sea witch where amazing!
Ok I will end now cause I getting crossed eyes from writing but I will write about our jury trough south Thailand when I get the chance soon!
Enjoy the looong pice of blogg!
I am here!
Ok so i been in Auckland now for a week but still my beloved laptop has not arrived. A lovely mr Newman from UPS promised me that it would be there on Tuesday so i am crossing my fingers!! Then there be lots of blogging from the holiday and also what i am doing… + there will be tons of pictures! 
My plan this weekend is to:
- go apartment hunting (like i done this previous week, we seen 8 apt so far)
- Seafood festival on saturday
- Car marked on sunday (we need a car fast!)
Monday which is a public holiday here in NZ we will go to an awesome festival. Its called lanewayfestival and we will see one of my favorite bands The XX and also Florence and the Machine is going to be there! CANT WAIT!
The weather here is beautiful with about 30 degrees everyday and sunshine!
ok got to go a dude is showing us his car!! sweet
Ready for depature!
So, its less than 24 hours before i am leaving for Amsterdam. I know its just one hour drive from where i am now but still it means no more family, no mac book, no more warm and comfy bed, no private toilet where you can sit for a looong time pretending to be a philosopher and living in a backpack for almost a month. Should i complain?! NO… but still it feels weird, i have not quite understood the meaning of being away for 2 years yet. I guess someday soon it will hit me hard in the face and smack me to the ground! Hopefully not more than 5 minutes..hehe and then i will understand how lucky I am,that I have this opportunity to travel and live on the other side of the world get back up on my feet and do the chickendance!
OK so there is just one more thing to say! Good bye Europe ( not till the 1st but saying it now)
Hello Kiwi land!!
XX Elena living in a backpack!
Ps. I will blog from the trip down.. but i dont know if i can upload pictures and stuff like that! I will promise that they will come when I am finally down there and settled!
Adios… And have a great New years eve! and an even better start of 2010!
The orgin of the Wolf whistle!?
Well this must be a stupid thing to blog about, but I’m looking for the origin of certain whistle tones. That is, how did the two note ascending and descending whistle (“wolf whistle”) become the sound of appreciation for a female and also another male these days? I been trying to search on the internet but the only thing i found was that during the Roman time they did so as well;
“Unfortunately the evidence for the existence of the notorious wolf-whistle, communicating sexual interest mainly by males of the human species, is very scant for the Greek and Roman past. It consists of only one episode in Plautus’ Mercator (403-408). Here the father Demipho says to his son Charinus with reference to the beautiful slavegirl they both secretly love and whom the son pretends to have bought for his mother: “I can’t permit it. She is hardly the proper sort of person to attend your mother.” Char.: “Why not?” Dem.: “Because it would cause scandal if such a beauty were the attendant of a wife and mother; when she passes through the streets all the men would look at her, leer, nod and wink and whistle (sibilent).”
Well yes maybe someone else has an answer to my question!? Here is at least a video of how to make the notorious whistle sound! good luck..
Music that remind´s me of these past months
Great in the car!
My life wrapped up
6 days till departure… Feels strange to look at the two boxes and two backpacks, thinking about that inside them is everything i am bringing to NZ. It mostly contains cloths and books, feels strange that somehow that´s my life wrapped up inside and the stuff that i will start my “new” life with in Kiwi land..Its not much at all! It makes me stressed to know how many things i need to get down there but luckily I have a month before uni starts.
Well today is the last day of Christmas and i will spend it with my fathers side of the family! It should be lots of fun and lots of noise i guess 13 people and a small dog all together in my grandparents living room is always quite an excitement..hehe.
Alright have a wonderful day and everyone in Norway enjoy the huge amount of snow! (there is snow here to acutally but not really anything to brag about!)
XX
The plan:
Well so i am bored everyone is eating till their bellies are bursting while i am in Holland sipping on a glass of wine and eating gouda! its yummy but i am not really in a christmas spirit yet like the rest.. tomorrow is my day then we will be at least 12 people at my Uncle and Aunt eating beautiful food hehee.. great!
So well yes the plan for me and my boyfriend the next month, lined up:
First relaxing with my family in Holland- where i am right now!
Then New Years in Amsterdam, i guess it will be great but cold specially if we be spending it outside!
Amsterdam
Next morning at 15.00 jumping on a plane to Cairo pretty hang over i guess.. hopefully i sleep! From Cairo a plane straight to Kuala Lumpur where we will be spending in an already booked hotel enjoying the Malaysian city life and gigantic buildings.
Kuala Lumpur skyline
From there we will travel with bus or train towards the south in Malaysia i guess some stops will be Cameron Hights and historical cities or a jungle or two. The end destination for Malaysia will be Lankawi where we will pas over to Thailand with boat. In total we will be around 10 days in both Malaysia and Thailand.
Lankawi
In Thailand we will travel with boats mostly and go island hopping all the way up to Phuket where the plain leaves from the 21st of January. We will i guess (not decided yet) visit the Phi Phi islands but also smaller and less crowded islands on our way upwards.
Phi Phi islands
Then from Phuket we go down to KL again for 8 hours (maybe the last shopping mission) and then down to Auckland, New Zealand. We arrive there the 22nd of January and someone from Auckland Uni will pick us up and give us some information witch is nice since I have no clue what to expect! I just know that we already booked our self an apartment for a month before we find something on our own we will be living in something called UniLodge and it looks like this on the pic bellow, we hope! (pluss a bigger bed!)
UniLodge apartment
Then we have one month finding a private flat and a good area to live in… so if someone has tips please please tell me i be really happy!! This month we also have to find everything we need like blankets, pots, furniture etc. Cause the only stuff we will be bringing are 3 boxes with cloths each! its crazy!! ahh… i feel like a gypsy at the moment! And it will be so good to finally arrive and get things sorted out. Like getting a bank, phone, uni, car, flat and really feel that i am settling a bit and that i will not be moving around for at least two years! GREAT!
But i miss Norway for sure, also all my friends and family it be strange to once more find a group of people to hang out with and build up networks it feels like i just did so last year in Vienna. But heyy i am lucky that i have the chance to travel and experience all this stuff so i am not complaining!
Alrighty! That was it for now, its weird to blog again! But hopefully i get used to it soon!
Merry Christmas once again to everyone!
Music that makes me smile
This is good holiday music!
Enjoy!! Hope everyone celebrating and being with their families tonight have a wonderful time and that you been nice so santa comes with gifts!
