"Up In the Air"

Do you know the difference between being “tired” and being “exhausted”? Because it was, until these past couple of weeks, that I really found out the difference between those two ‘conditions’. And right now, at this exact moment, I am exhausted! Pressing my ‘turbo button’ was needed to do all the things I had to do. And even though it’s not completely over, I can now say that it is ‘almost completely over’.

On top of all those things to do, this week I had one of those nights when you cannot stick your eyes together, because you start to ‘react’ to things that will soon come up (also known as “being a ‘little bit’ anxious”). In my case I started ‘reacting’ to the whole India situation; so one of these past nights, I found myself thinking at 2:00am: “What’s wrong with me? …In 2 months I’m going to India! Why!?”

[Yes. It is not the first time that this happens though. The first and last time this happened, as far as I can recall, was four years ago when I was about to leave home to go to Barcelona. But, it just happens a moment; then it’s gone…]

But luckily, today I had the chance to (rather than going all the way to… India), just crossing The Netherlands from Venlo to Amsterdam for having a brief ‘preview’ of the big adventure that is about to come; by meeting my future company supervisor who was here for some conferences.

I must say, that if I was looking forward to going to India before, now this feeling has increased. I see that a lot of learning is coming up, and I’ll have the chance to be working on a very nice project… but, I will be maybe getting into details later in the blog, because today this post is really meant for something else:   

Today is one of my last days in Venlo (I’m coming back in a year of course). But I’ve been remembering the first weeks I set foot here; and if you want me to be honest, what immediately came to my mind when I first arrived here was: “What have I done?”

You know, suddenly I found myself in a: town, quiet, with way too tall people (making me feel way too short!), 97% of my days listening to “bla, bla, bla” (because I didn’t, understand anything), it was way too cold…
I swear that by then I could have named like 200 things that went ‘wrong’ with this place in a matter of seconds!

And if you want me to be even more honest, I was all set and ready to run out of here! I applied to a university in Madrid, got accepted to Marketing as well. 

But in the end: I decide to stay. 

  
And if you ask me now: “Did I make the right choice?”   
I would say: “100% yes. I would definitely do it again”!

Because if I would’ve ‘ran away’ I would’ve missed some quite great ‘adventures’: From a road trip through Lithuania (a country I never imagined going to), or going to Venice and accidentally ending up in Milan; to just simply staying in Venlo and by a little bit passed midnight accidentally stealing a bike  
[don’t even ask how “you can accidentally steal a bike”… (Apparently it happens!)], or living in a house where you learn everything you have to know in case the 'zombie apocalypse' happens... or ‘being a bear’ for once in my life thanks to my Dutch neighbors!
(Come on! it is far better than being a 'pink bunny' or something like that!)

Yes. I’m glad I stayed… Because the 200 things that at first I thought went “wrong” with this place, were then outshined by the 1,000 things that ended up going very well afterwards.

And of course nothing would’ve been ‘very well’ if it wasn’t for the people with which I shared all the adventures (from the crazy ones, to the ‘regular’ ones).

So to both, the ones that are leaving for good and the ones that I will be seeing again next year: I’ll miss you, good luck this/these next year(s), take care… but of course keep having fun. (!)

As for me […and everyone else that is ready to “Follow me”!] it is time to go to the next destination: Home, GUATEMALA.

The mission to be accomplished goes as follows:

30 hour trip   
[this is unusual, normally it would be 24 hours, but this time my plane leaves early, so I’ll “sleep” at the airport (never do that by the way… it's terrible!)].

Destination no. 1 - Dusseldorf: The ones who make you think: “At what time exactly do I start getting punched in the face?” 
No offense, but from all the airports I’ve been to, Dusseldorf scores 10 (out of 10) in having one of the ‘least nice people’ I’ve ever ran into. The best-worse customer service ever! For some reason they don’t talk to you, instead, they sort of ‘bark’ at you!

    
Destination no. 2 – London: The ones with which I need another set of ears…
Generally, I have to accept that I have quite a hard time understanding the British accent.

    
Destination no. 3 – Miami: The paranoid ones.
Because once you land in US territory, even if it’s in ‘sunny Miami’, you get to have your 15 seconds of being a stripper. Shoes off, socks off, shirt off, pants off, arm off, everything goes off!

    
Final Destination no. 4 – Guatemala: The (¿?) ones. 

What’s there to say… à “WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE!”

Ok readers, it is time for me to sleep, because it is pretty late already. I’ve got “panda” eyes (like some might say) and a retake tomorrow (which actually doesn’t look so promising).

I will be writing again after having crossed ‘the pond’.

Good luck to all of those who still have to do retakes, as well as those who have to correct them! :')

ARRIVEDERCI Venlo! 

Today’s Topic = T-shirt Teacher

It seems as if the 24 hours of “LOCKDOWN” (previous blog post) extended to 360 hours, as I haven’t ‘blogged’ since the 3^rd of June.

I apologize for that, but if you want me to be honest, my creativity level decreased to a “negative figure”, as a consequence of filling up (… or at least attempting to fill up) my brain with ‘exam contents’.

Apparently, results (of exams, projects, etc.) show that I have a super power which gives me the ability to fail multiple subjects; even those which I often consider as easy.

Nothing I can complain about, because it simply consists of a “cause-effect” situation (for example):

Cause: Study a total of 4 hours for an exam that covers the topics of 4 months.  
Effect: FAIL.

Cause: Watching The Netherlands play football [or in their case not play football, because apparently they also have a super power that gives them the ability to lose every match (lucky them, they still get their 20 million € salaries…)], when I should be studying for an exam which is said to be that 80% of students fail in the first try.  
Effect: FAIL.   

But, no worries. Nothing that can’t be handled!

…I am starting to notice that I’m a little bit ‘off topic’ here, because up till now I’ve told you about everything except what should be “Today’s Topic’.

As I don’t want to bore you, dear reader, with exams and what is for many people “stress-related topics”; today I will share with you one of my ‘secret hobbies’: Making T-shirts.
(It is not about making them, in the sense of the fabric and stuff, but… you’ll see).

By the end of this blog post you will know, at least the basics, of how to make your own t-shirt. Today is your lucky day.    
It may sound difficult, but it’s as easy as… it is for the Dutch team to lose a match! (Ok, sorry Dutch readers, I’ll stop being mean now…):

Step 1 – Blank

Just like with a lot of things, you start with a blank piece of paper in front of you (or a blank screen in case you are a “Photoshoper”). So just draw.

Step 2 – Scan + Retouch

In case you drew up the design, you scan it, pass it to your laptop/computer and make some retouches like color, contrast, light, etc. (the retouch is just if you want to or find it necessary, of course). 

 
Step 3 – Print

For this you need a paper called “transfer paper” and of course a printer. The type of paper you use will depend on the t-shirt’s color, as well as the printer/inks you have.

Step 4 – Magic Machine

You need something to pass the drawing from the transfer paper to your t-shirt, so this is when the ‘magic machine’ (AKA “transfer heat press machine”) does its ‘thing’.

And just as its name “heat press” states, in order to transfer the design into the t-shirt, it basically works by putting a high amount of pressure and heat over the t-shirt.

[Concerning the price of this machine, it is not as expensive as it may look. Last year, it cost me around 3 months of dishwashing (correction: ‘Professional dishwashing’ PLEASE!) in one of Venlo’s restaurant. So it is 100% ‘doable’.

Step 5 – Just ‘peel’ and seal the deal

The last step: You carefully peel the transfer paper and… “Voilà” you got your one of a kind t-shirt! (You can have fun with it).

Have in mind that this is the simple way of making t-shirts and within this way there are many variations-options to choose from. There’s also another way called “screen printing” (if you’re wearing a t-shirt now it is probably made with this process), but it requires much more space/money/tools.
As it usually happens, both ways have their pros, cons and limitations.

This was a brief explanation, so if you are interested any further, you can find every detail online. 

Hopefully you enjoyed this post and learned something new.

Now, it is time for me to stop writing and start being responsible (for real this time!), and give myself a last push for doing everything I have to do during my remaining days in Venlo. 

Hasta la próxima.

LOCKDOWN