FASHION & LIFE STYLE

Showing posts with label study. Show all posts
Showing posts with label study. Show all posts

11/01/2015

PERSONAL | Final Countdown to Taiwan



Here's an update on my plans to go to Taiwan for 6 months. You can read more about why I'm leaving the Netherlands here. Now first thing's first. My plan to study abroad was really last minute. Usually people plan these things at least a year ahead. But as always I like to do things last minute.. And I arranged everything within approximately 2 months? And it's not like I've been on it full time, But it's definitely possible if you want to study abroad last minute. If you have enough saved up or have your parents (partly) support you financially.

I'll be taking classes at the Mandarin Training Center, which is like a special school for learning Mandarin provided by the National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU). I chose this school because it's one of the most well known ones and I've read some reviews about the courses. Not all reviews were positive but it's a risk you'll always be taking when you're studying abroad.  So after I applied for this school I needed to wait a month to receive the admission letter from the school through the post mail. A month, that means that I only had a month left to arrange all the other stuff because without this original letter I can not apply for my visa. And if I cannot apply for my visa, it's pretty much useless if I buy a planeticket and accommodation already and cannot enter the country. 


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9/06/2015

PERSONAL | Real Talk



I thought I share with you a piece of my mind right now, what I've been going through and 'partly' the reason why I'm not so often blogging anymore. And maybe something people can relate to.


There's one point in your life that you either have already dealt with or probably going to in the (near) future (or maybe not for the lucky ones). I call it the quarter-life-crisis. I'm dealing with it right now. After I graduated from my bachelor's degree, I started thinking about what I wanted to do next. Usually you continue with the master's right after you graduate from you bachelors. At that point I started to question everything. I felt like I'm doing these things because it's what the rules are and what people expect me to do, but not something I know I want.
Something I can use to reach my goals.

But what are my goals? What do I want to achieve in my life? What's my passion?
I've been struggling with this my whole life maybe not as 'deep' as that but it's in the little things when I need to make decisions in my life, not life decisions but small stuff like what to choose from the menu or what shoes to wear. I've always been the hesitater. And it's become so far that I start doubting myself in everything I do. Another thing is that I like to do pretty much everything from sewing and designing clothes to setting up my own foodtruck. Combine both things and you get a hot mess alright. What you get is me telling 'I want to be an illustrator' one day and 'I want to design furniture' the other, without doing something really about it. Not going after it is probably the worst thing I can do, cause you definitely fail if you don't even try. But I still want to find something that I truly feel passionate about.

So how do I extinguish 'liking to do something' to 'following my passion' ? I've been reading this book by Po Bronson called "What should I do with my life?" (yeah how more accurate can it be?), it's a book full of stories about people who have faced the same question. One story stuck with me. Noah has been struggling with finding what he's passionate about. He had ten jobs in 8 years spread over six cities in four different states. He believes that everyone has a unique gift to give the world, so what's his? Where is his passion at? He asked this question to the author and the next thing the author said is something I find inspirational and something I can hold on to.

"Some people are born into their passions. Some never get them and don't care. But I think if you're really struggling to find it, it's almost certainly for a reason. I think the depth of your struggling, is the sign there's something there. Something in you that's trying to get out."

It's okay to not have everything figured out yet, but it's something I need to keep looking for. Try something else, do something new, meet new and interesting people.
So what now? I almost don't dare to say it, because then it's official and something I really have to go after. Okay, here it goes. I'm leaving for Taipei. As in Taiwan, as in a different continent, as in a different culture, as in a different language for at least three months (probably six months). For some it may be nothing really, but for me it's scary as hell. I've never really lived alone and never been far from my family and friends, so doing this is a big step for me and I believe that it will do me good. I'm planning to study Mandarin there beginning from December, but I'll have to be there mid November already. So a lot of stuff to arrange beforehand and I hope everything will go as planned. I'll still be posting here about fashion but I'll include my journey to Taiwan as well.



Have anyone of you struggled with this as well? And how did you deal with it?



x J.



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6/16/2014

Personal | Pretbord! for HEMA









As I've already said in a previous post. I got nominated for the HEMA design competition, I can win a sum of money and on top of that it can be produced! In order to win, I need votes! So what's my design about?

PRETBORD (in Dutch it means funplate)
A plate for kids to eat their meal with veggies in a fun and creative way.
The mother can slice up the ingredients and the child can create their own artwork. Because the child engages with the food, they will become familiar with it and will most likely eat the food sooner.

You can vote for me here:
http://hemaontwerpwedstrijd.nl

The voting ends 13 July

Don't forget to confirm the vote on your mail!
Thank you so much and wish my luck!
J.

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6/11/2014

Personal | competing in HEMAontwerpwedstrijd 2014








Hey guys, I thought I'd give you a quick look in what I've been up to lately. And I think it's pretty awesome! A few months back, I was pretty busy with a project for uni and I'm glad to say that it pretty much paid off because I did get a decent grade. But the project was also a competition held by a Dutch company HEMA. Their annual "HEMAontwerpwedtrijd" which in English would be HEMA design competition specially for Design-related schools. This year the theme was 'Cooking and dining'. So as I went to the event for the winner announcement, I didn't get to win the competition but I was shocked and happy that I got nominated for the 'publieksprijs', the price for the public, which I'm one of the 20 contestants out of 370 designed products. The winner for this part gets an award and a great sum of money! The winner must get the most votes for their design. The voting opens 16th of June. So mark that day in your agenda to vote! :) You can vote for someone else if you find his/her product more appealing.. But I doubt that, mines the best! haha joke, getting cocky there. 


I will give you a sneak peek of my design in this post and will be explaining it more and where you can vote in a future post.

sitting between the winners and other contestants who made it so far
 J.




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4/12/2014

ootd | Some library essentials




H&M cropped sweater, Primark blouse, Bershka jeans, Chuck taylors.

As I've mentioned in the previous post already, it's still exam week! So I'm basically living in the library at the moment. What am I wearing? A simple but comfortable outfit. Here's a list of essentials when going to the library, not to mention to not forget to bring your books with you.


My library fashion essentials:
1. wear a vest or bring an extra sweater which you can easily take on and off. It tends to get colder after sitting a while. 
2. wear pants that are stretchy or loose fitting.
3. wear flat shoes or sneakers, the sound of heels can be annoying when it's über quiet.
4. bring a hair elastic with you, so your hair won't get in your face while you try to concentrate on your books.
5. wear natural makeup so it won't smear on your face when you wipe the sweat off your forehead from studying hard.

6. don't wear rings or bracelets, it will get in the way when you're trying to take some notes.
A watch is okay though.


Do you have some other essentials that you like to share?


And if you're on the same boat as me, good luck and let's kick some asses!

J.



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4/11/2014

ootd | Examination week



H&M long vest, Unknown shirt, H&M waxed jeans


Some of you might be in the same place as me at the moment, in examination week, test week, whatever you want to call it. It certainly has one thing in common, stress. I'm writing this post now while on my mini study break at my uni's library. Thank god for opening till 2am, so I won't feel that guilty writing this.

So this is my outfit of the day.. before I went to the library though! I had to run some errands in the city and changed my shoes at home first, before heading to the library. So it's fully library-proof.



J.






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