ziekenhaus

my new dutch word of the day: ziekenhaus. which means hospital. I haven't blogged for the last few days as we were in the hospital.F's mom is in ICU, after complications on a gall bladder operation. His sisters from France and Germany are also here. She has always been nice to me, and we came to see her last weekend and she was happy and well. I hope she gets well very soon.

on a happy note: rotterdam film festival has started and i'm raya yesterday. I hanged out with raymond red and the rest of the other filmmakers. adolfo will be here later.

call me the handyman

We bought some more stuff from Ikea and we are expecting our flat to be filled and to be more homey in the next few days. Some of the stuff already started arriving; and since F is at work, and I am still at home since work for me will officially start next week, I've decided to play handyman/carpenter for the small furniture stuff that I can already assemble myself.
Look here. This is what our center table looks like out of the box, It contains everything, screws and nuts, nails and an illustrated instruction book. Its like an adult jigsaw puzzle!



And now, its finished! I am so proud of myself! I did this all by myself. Now we have a brand new center table for the living room.

Immigration

Today I do a bunch a things to finalize my immigration stuff here in the Netherlands. We went to Ikea again yesterday to buy a closet, shelf and coffee table. but we cycled and it was -3C! Freezing for a Filipina like me.


But the snow (even fake snow) is very cool.

My childhood dream come true!

I am so excited. Since I was a kid, I always dreamed of having a bike of my own. Every Christmas I asked my parents to buy me one, but they never did. Our neighborhood is not a good place for biking but I never really understood it when I was a kid and I thought my parents were just mean! But now, after 29 years, I have my own bike, and even a Dutch bike at that!


But bikes here are expensive, this is the cheapest one I got for 170 euros and it could go up as high as 1500 euros! So we went biking around in the snow yesterday. What I need now is a lock, a front basket /side bags and a little bell and off we go! I hope my brothers finally learn how to bike, so they could go around with me when they visit me here.

I woke up this morning to find it snowing! It's a different experience, to be in a country where it snows. We have a nice view from our terrace.



Then we made breakfast in our new dining table and chairs which we assembled and made ourselves out of the box from Ikea. I feel so proud of our new dining area! We had soft-boiled eggs, bacon and sausage for breakfast. No rice nor bread. Don't miss tapsilog...yet! And we have a nice big window view while having breakfast. It's a dutch thing, big windows everywhere! I can see what our neighbors in the other building--and I guess it means they can see us as well.

Flat!

Here's a 360 view of our flat.

i'm starting to like it here. We bought a new bed, dining table and chairs in Ikea. I didn't know that we ourselves will be assembling it. its a lot of work--being a carpenter! but fun! It reminded me of making lego toys when i was younger, or building your own adult jigsaw puzzle, complete with instructions and tools. But it was a success, we make a good team here and assembling it was good. Now I'm starting to feel very homey and domesticated, we have a built-in oven and we are making lechong macao! Yum! I am starting to stay away from rice--for now.

we went furniture shopping in ikea today since our flat is so empty. its my first time to go there. its so huge! i can spend the whole day there, just shopping around and spending lots of money. I feel so grown-up now; buying things for the new flat. We'll have a new bed and a dining table later. Finally, it will be good to have a decent bed to sleep in and a decent table to eat in. For now, we sit and eat on the floor and sleep on the floor.

Day 1

I'm already here in breda and its really cold-- today its wet and grey. i still cant get used to the cold weather and wearing all these layers and coats.i'm happily suprised to see our new flat. `its big, with 2 bedrooms and 2 toilets, a full kitchen with dishwasher! yey im not washing dishes anymore. The flat has big windows everywhere, its typically dutch, and since we are on the 6th floor, there is a nice view of the whole town. And I can see what my neighbors are doing! haha!

Here's a picture of our flat, empty but will be filled with furniture soon. take note of the large windows and nice view of the town.

I went to the town hall to register and happy everything is very efficient and fast here, unlike the government agencies in manila.
later im off to walk around and familiarize myself with the streets--so i dont get lost. Wish me luck!

New Year, New Life, New World, New Experiences

So now I am at the airport lounge of NAIA, waiting for my flight to Amsterdam. It has been a surreal and happy 2009 and now I am off to start a new life and adventure in 2010.

Let me recap my 2010:
1. Our films, Independencia and Manila got into Cannes Film Festival. Can you believe that, 2 films! :)
2. I was travelling a lot because of the films--Russia, Korea, Europe, Thailand, Greece..I finally racked up enough miles to get a Platinum miles card!
3. Independencia winning 4 awards in Thailand and Chile
4. Me getting engaged! and In Cannes of all places.
5. Working with renowned director, John Sayles and producer Maggie Renzi; its an honor, even if working for only a short period in pre-production.
6. It was also a very sad year for us, for losing our lovely, lovely friends, Alexis and Nika, who are still dearly missed.
7. My 2 brothers finally working!
7. And now getting a job in the Netherlands and finally getting to be with this person that i love.

I'm happy and also scared for this new adventure.But I still very very feel blessed that things are working out! Wow! :-) :-) :-)

I'm happy.



A picture with my 2 reel leading men, Piolo and Sid in the red carpet in Cannes Film Festival, for the premiere of our films. Yes, I am such a lucky girl.