Dates are set

Here’s the deal;

July 19th Zach leaves for Brussels. The flight will depart from Atlanta, so he can leave his car there. On the 20th of July, he’ll land in Zaventem at 8 in the morning.

August 6th, Zach and me (and Abby) leave together for Atlanta, where we’ll be able to quickly travel to Nashville in our own car so Abby can pee, drink or eat at ease, and we can do the same. We opted for Atlanta because it’s the only direct flight we can get from Brussels. That way Abby will only have to deal with one flight, one take-off, one landing, one check-in, one customs, … (And, to be honest, the same goes for us.)

The lady at the desk of the travel agency mentioned a ‘soft bag’ being needed for in cabin pet travel, though I don’t remember finding this information on Delta’s website. After calling Delta Airlines though, it became clear that it is the agency who determines which bag you’re allowed to use. Once the agency mentions a soft bag on your ticket, you have to stick to this because it’s in the contract you sign with the agency. Had I known, I would’ve gone against her, but she made it sound like it was the airline who had demands with regards to this. So be wary of this kind of confusion, because now I have to go buy a soft bag…

This is the customer support service phone number of Delta Airlines in Belgium:

+32 (0)70 300 872

For this airline, the criteria for taking your pet with you are:

• Pet must be comfortable (being able to stand up, turn around, lay down, …) in its kennel and still fit under the seat in front of you.
• Pet must stay in kennel AT ALL TIMES while on Delta Airlines boarding area (boarding, deplaning, lounge area, on board the craft).
• Pet must be 10 weeks old or older.
• Pet counts as one piece of carry-on luggage.
• Cats can’t be snub-nosed (suffocation risk).
• Pay €200 EUR at check-in (fee for international travel).

For Tennessee, importing your cat involves:

• Rabies vaccination (min. 10 days old and up to date).
• Apparent good health.
• Microchip.

Fuck yeah.

Must be doing something right; Clem got nominated for a Dutch nursing award! IN REAL LIFE!

The Academic Medical Center of Amsterdam (AMC), awards the “Anna Reynvaan Prize” every year. Students, registered nurses, midwives, … can participate, and the emphasis lies mostly in the use of scientific and evidence based knowledge in practice.

Anna Reynvaan

Anna Reynvaan is considered the first nurse who actually attempted to professionalize nursing. At the brink of the 1900s, she estimated that a nurse required a diploma, and needed to be educated so as to create uniformity in care. Of course, she was also very much a product of her environment, and stubbornly held on to beliefs that don’t fit the nursing profile anymore. She believed that a nurse should always be a woman of better economic status, because her values simply couldn’t be maturely shaped if she was poor. Nevertheless, it was thanks to her efforts, among others, that nursing developed to a profession.

The award that Clem is competing for, is called the Anna Reynvaan Student Prize. The point is to make a report about how she, as a nursing student, overcame difficulties or health problems in practice, by using scientific literature or interventions which are evidence based. And apparently, she did well, because she is among the three nominees for this award!
On May 30th, she’s invited to Amsterdam (again!!), to present her intervention and the findings of this application of science.

It’s pretty nerve wrecking, because the University of Amsterdam is huge. Automatically, my mind wanders and I imagine the crowd I’ll be speaking for. But, there’s nothing to lose, so no reason to be stressing out. So why am I hyperventilating?

Because clutches make me feel like the lady I never was

Oh my lawd..

The new clutch purse craze rubbed off on me as if I’d always been prone to fashion. The truth is, I haven’t. It was only when I was about 22 or 23 that I started to develop an actual taste. I had it, obviously, but it never occurred to me to actually show it. Life was meant to be led in perpetual jeans and the call of the nightlife overruled all sense of style.

But the little clutch purse is very elegant,  and now these things do hit me. For a while, I looked around in stores, but none of them really spoke to me. I’m one of those people who type “diy” in Google Images and look for inspiration (who the fuck needs Pinterest?). This morning, I bumped into the perfect two ‘do-it-yourself’ clutch purses, and I decided to mix the two into one bag:

From Elm Street Life

From Say Yes to Hoboken

Luckily, I live in one of those crazy households where old fabric lingers around in cupboards nobody ever looks into. A week ago I found some really nice, sturdy fabric in there, and figured I’d have to use it for something.The result:

Here’s a photo tutorial of how I made the bag:

Here’s what you’ll need. Never mind that dark red thing, I didn’t end up using it.

I used one of my mom’s magazines to get the right size.

Cut two rectangles a bit longer than the width of the bag, and one small rectangle for the tube around the bow.

You’ll need two big rectangles of each fabric; outside and inside (size of a magazine + fold-over).

For the bow: sew the rectangles on both sides and turn it over.

Do the same for the tiny tube.

Pull that over the big rectangles, and there’s your bow!

Pin it up before sewing the outside bag, this should be the result.

The inside bag done, I fumbled it inside the big outside bag with the bow.

To attach the zipper to the outside bag I had to sew by hand. I hate doing this, it’s dreadful. But it was the only way it could be done nicely.

The end :-)

Todavía estoy aprendiendo español

Sooo I’ve been watching a whole bunch of Monita y Martin, in hopes of learning or picking up some Spanish. Oh my god they talk so fast. Like seriously, who can keep up with that? Also, I’ve been catching myself saying VALE VALE VALE a lot, all because of the show.

I’m starting to think that I need to get more involved in this language learning process though, English came to me easily because I really did watch 4 to 6 hours of American television a day. But I don’t watch that much Spanish, so it might be a good idea to actually pick up a book or something and commit to this.

Also, Spanish chatrooms, that might help.

Happy birthday Zach!

My lovely fiance turned 29 today. Don’t make age jokes (even though it’s tempting).

It blows monkeyballs that we’re apart for this, it’s always nice sharing a day like a birthday with your favorite person. I have to work at my internship too, so I can’t even be around much to talk on Skype. Unfortunately, this is what our relationship consists of at the moment.

Some days are harder than others, but days like these are definitely not the easiest.

Then again, in the twenties, people kept loving each other for years, while boyfriend was away fighting in the trenches and girlfriend was back home hoping he would come home at all. So, allegedly, we’re the lucky ones.

kekeke

I found this randomer on the internet!? What are the odds :)

Ahahaha

Could have been true.. Pretty happy it’s not.

I love you :)