Graduated!!

Well, last Thursday was my graduation! Finally! :D I've got my papers! 
Last Sunday Sue decided to fly over as well, so she was here from Tuesday afternoon till Thursday evening. Which was absolutely amazing! :D
I was pretty nervous because that also meant she was going to meet my parents! All of them, because not just my mom, but also my dad and Dick were going to show up for it! But all was fine. All I don't think my dad said much at all to her, but that's probably his usual struggle with the English language.


While every body inside had to listen to a welcome story we had to line up in alphabetical order outside. Then we got to go in and we had to sit on the first two rows. Then there was a couple of teachers doing some stories. One was on video and very funny. Then we had to take the oath. Which was like three powerpoint sheets long! We all had to read out the sheets at the same time. After that we had to turn around and each individually got asked: "What do you say to this?" and then we had to answer with "Yes, I promise" or "Yes, I promise or so God mighty help me". For that we looked at the entire audience, who were representing society in there.

Then there was a teacher who said a little something about every one of us personally. I thought that that really added to it! What he said about me was this: I started the study as a quiet and shy girl. Then, from quite close by, he saw me grow to a nurse which was taken into account by the entire department from an academical hospital. With that he hinted at the fact that I finished all my internships in the third year so well. During that time he was my internship coach, so he literally saw me grow during that time.


After that we all got called to the front one by one to sign the papers and get the badge. During that there was a sheet on the beamer with a picture and bit about the person. With me they went on about my project. The subject for that was about the internal transfer on the ward. I didn't think this was going very well, because the forms were too long, and therefore not used. They pitched in on that about the fact that I'm a quiet girl, a girl about little words, and that everything should be to the point. Then they ended it with the line: "Let's hope for her that they'll appreciate working to the point in Great Britain". So they had put that in too! Which I thought was really awesome!

After the graduation ceremony was done there was some time to sit around, congratulate and get congratulated and have a drink and a snack. And I finally had some time to spend with the people I invited to be there with me :) One colleague showed up as well, she brought a huge bouquet of flowers and a card. From my dad I got a bouquet of flowers as well, from my grandparent some money and from my mom an awesome necklace and bracelet. But the best gifts I got were that everybody was there to be witness of and celebrate with me this very important event :) 

Very random..

Well, this week was a very random week in which quite a bit happened! First of all, was the party at my parents last Friday. I got a very nice bouquet of roses from my mother for my graduating. As you can see I took a picture, so she could see how pretty they were. But so can you all :) 
I've also heard that day that my dad is actually showing up for my graduation, but he won't be staying for dinner because there's another graduation he's got to visit... Which is pretty annoying and sad..


Then when I arrived at the metro station Monday morning, I found my bike missing it's pedals. Yes... It's PEDALS!! Oh, and the gear that is attached to the pedals. Which kinda looks like the pictures... On the first one you can see that the right side pedal is missing and the gear it's supposed to be attached to is missing as well... And on the second one you can see that the left side pedal is missing.. 
And here I thought I had such an old bike already anyways... Apparently not. Or it might have something to do that in some peoples eyes the brand is rather good... But well, I was not happy as you can imagine..
So.. Then I wasn't only 15 minutes late for work because I had to use a tram to get there, I also had no bike to work with/on.
Luckily I could borrow a bike at work to use for the time that I needed one, but I didn't feel very comfortable using that for a long time though.


So then I didn't have much more left to do then to look into buying a new bike.. So I browsed some second hand websites and some bike shops for second hand bikes as well. But for the budget I had it seemed impossible to get a second hand bike.. At first I didn't really want to spend much more then €100,00 since I still am not so very sure that I'll get paid this month yet.. But I couldn't find a second hand bike anywhere for that price.. I could however find a simple new bike for €145,00 which seemed a fair price. Mind you, I did want a very simple bike this time, since on the last one the gears and brakes had started breaking and the lights also didn't work anymore. So I ended up buying that bike, and so far I'm quite happy with it. I'll still go back to the station to get my seat of the old one, just because it's pretty much brand new, barely half a year old. So it would be a waste to let it get to waste at the station... Still, time for a picture of the new bike!

So, that was a bit of an annoying and frustrating start of the week. But that was not all that happened. I pulled out our first fresh vegetable from a balcony tub for plants. It was a carrot. And while it may be bite size the second one I got was a bit bigger already, so there's hoping for the third one. Which is still in there at the moment. And let's not forget it's a balcony tub, so they won't have that much room to grow. With all that in mind I think this first experiment to grow carrots on the balcony was quite a success :)



My work is going pretty good at the moment. I've finally received my contract this week and sent it back signed. It also included a changed contract already for July and onwards where my level, pay and hours will go up :)
Although I still don't know if I'll get paid this month, which is a quite frustrating thing.. I mean if I just knew I didn't get anything, I would be able to plan for that as well..

Passed!!

I passed the last test I had today. Which means I will now officially be graduating on the 7th of July!!
At first I thought I would be able to do this relatively easy, but I got so nervous that I forgot a whole lot of stuff. Which was a bit sad and frustrating, but I passed! :D
Now I'm finally going to be able to properly relax for a bit and have a fun day tomorrow at my parents! :)

Almost done

Well, I'm so close to being done with my study now it's unfunny! :D All I've got left is my final conversation this Thursday. Which I think I should pass proper anyway, since it's nothing new. They'll try to ask me the most difficult questions ever, but it's all about myself and what I want and what I can do, which is luckily not something you can or have to study for :) All my other grades are in now as well, so this Thursday I will know if I'll be getting my papers indeed on July 7th!!


About the house in Shrewsbury that I contacted about a couple of weeks back, we still haven't heard anything back from the letting agency, but the house is still on the website..


My new job is really cool. I started to do my own patients this week, and it's so much more fun then what I did before. Simply because I'm allowed to actually do more stuff then wash people :D


I also got a new monitor this week, because we thought the old one was part of the reason of Dan's tinnitus. One of the other reasons seems to be loud music from our delightful neighbours, possibly caffeine in Coke and Pepsi and possibly his pc. But the monitor is pretty! :D It's a fancy 24" screen from Samsung. The fancy design like they do their lcd tv's as well :)

Finally back in control

Well, I do believe I'm finally back in control of my own time :) The project has been sent to the woman we're working for for a review. I've actually got a better feeling with this new project then I had with the old one. Sadly the one girl was still quite annoying and saying stuff like "Well it doesn't matter if we don't pass anyways because I'm not getting my papers this year anyway" Which is quite a demotivational when you are trying to get your papers this year! 


The coachingsproject is going quite well as well. The girl was very happy with the help I've been able to give her and she got her goal, so that's a good thing. I did run into some difficulties with that as well though, as the theory book was absolutely impossible to get since it's back at the printers for a reprint... So pretty much no shop sells it, it was all the selling of back stock and apparently there wasn't a lot of that :( Luckily I had some other books and most of the theory was said in the lessons too, which made it that I only had to get the page numbers and could still use it in the essay. But still an annoyance that the school didn't provide another book that could be used instead..


I've also caught up with my schoolwork quite fine I think, I've been writing the essay about the coachingsproject after every conversation I had and that made the project nice an quick to finish. Tomorrow it needs to be handed in and I've got it done already yesterday! So all I have to do tomorrow is quickly read through it one more time, then email it and print another one to be handed in on paper and send that by mail :) 
Then I can start on the last big essay for my big fasetest. That is going to be proofing that I'm functioning on the right level and that I'm worth my papers. I'm pretty nervous for the conversation, but the essay will be a good start for it. We've also finally had a lesson and a training for it, so we actually know what they expect of us now :D That is a real help and has saved me a lot of stress the past week for sure!


I've also reacted on a house in Shrewsbury. Not to say that we take it, but just to ask the estate agent what the extra costs like deposits are and alike. Oh, and what they chances are they still have this place or something similar in the next couple of months, because we actually really love this place! If it was possible I'd probably ask Sue to view it and see if it's really as good as it seems and see into taking it. But alas, we've not got an extra £ 450 a month spare. 


Dan's tinnitus is staying pretty the same. He's noticing it less during the day when he doesn't have a headache, but at night it's still annoying when he's trying to sleep. He's also using a lot less painkillers compared to last week, so that's a good thing at the very least. Last Monday he had a hearing test, but that was all fine. The GP said again that there's nothing she can give for it, and that we've got to contact her if he's getting nauseous in the morning or when it gets worse. 


The knitting is going good by the way. I'm about half way done with the right shoulder part of the back piece. Then all I've got left is the left shoulder piece and then I'm done with the back. I bought a crochet-hook to be able to properly do the pattern. That took a little getting used to, but now it's going quite fine and a lot quicker too. 


And of course last Friday was Dan's birthday. On Wednesday my mom and sister had already come by for it. They got him a necklace for the ring he got of Nan. We went to buy that on the Wednesday which was a lot of fun. In the morning I had also made brownies, this time with an extra bar of chocolate in it in little pieces. Which was a huge success!
I got Dan two games: Portal 2 and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, which still has to arrive from Play.com. I also got him a new mouse, since the old one was starting to break. 
He got a card of aunty Kathleen, one of Margaret, Alan and Steven and one of Sue and Tom. The card of Sue and Tom also contained money for a gift which we went up to the center of Amsterdam for. With the money he got of Sue and Tom he got some funky glasses shaped like toxic waste barrels, space invader ice-cube mold, a comic book and two movies.