Snow Fun in Parc LaFontaine

Today was gorgeous!!

Dutch Bureaucracy....(is it the same everywhere?)

I'm trying to pay off a chunk of my Dutch college debt.....this is how hard it is to get them to accept my money....

Battle of Bureacracy day 27:
IBG: "we cannot complete your request for your payment of your college debt without a Dutch tax declaration."
Anouk: "But I haven't lived there since 2005...".
IBG: "we cannot complete your request...."
Anouk: "I hate you. I hate you"

Battle of Bureaucracy day 27.5:
Dutch Tax Office:"We could make an exception and send you a form that states you don't have a Dutch tax declaration, but we need your address."
Anouk: "Okay, here's my address.."
DTO: "No ma'am, for that you need to download form 2.8.2 from the website and send it by regular mail. No, we... really don't accept email or fax address changes."
Anouk: "But this process is so slow that by the time I've gotten you to put my address into your computer the IBG will consider the forms I sent them to be expired."
DTO: "Yes ma'am, you will need to fill out and send their forms again."
Anouk: "I hate you. I hate you."

La Premiere Neige!

Olive loved it!

Death of a Squirrel

Somewhere, it must have been a book or blog, yesterday I read a line that said "and why don't you ever see baby squirrels?" I guess because we're not supposed to see them, as they are safely nestled in their tree holes until they're adolescents and can come out to play.

So a few months ago, it was already autumn, I was surprised to see a baby squirrel squirreling around between a group of adults. Olive immediately took off to chase the squirrels and all ran away except for the little baby. Since Olive seems to know squirrels are not supposed to behave like that, she just stood next to it looking weirded out.

I ran up and only then saw the poor little thing was covered in flies, and its eyes were closed. It was moving around blindly; a rather desperate sight. Another woman's dog ran to the squirrel, but I told the woman this squirrel was sick and we needed to keep the dogs away. I asked her what to do; we couldn't just leave it like this...

Before I knew it, the woman had grabbed a stick and pounded on the sickly baby squirrel. I was horrified, but glad, because it had to be put out of its misery. The woman grabbed the limp body with a paper by its tail and threw it in the trash, said "Alors, c'est la vie" (that's life) and walked off.

I still stood there, looked in the bin one last time to say the little squirrel goodbye, and couldn't believe it was still moving a little. It was moving. Not post-mortum twitches, but actually still alive. I immediately panicked because now it was sick AND beaten up AND in a bin... I had to put it to an end. I think I stood there for about 15 minutes, trying to bring myself to finish it, but I couldn't. I walked away instead. I still feel horrible about it....

The Cultural Differences of Getting Smashed

This quote from David Sedaris' book When you Are Engulfed In Flames, hits the nail on the head when it comes to one of the many cultural differences between North America and Europe:

"Turn down a drink in the United States, and people get the message without your having to explain. "Oh" they say, ashamed of themselves for presuming otherwise. "Right. I should probably...quit too." In Europe, though, you're not an alcoholic unless you're living half-naked on the street, drinking antifreeze from a cast-off shoe. Anything shy of this is just "fun-loving", or "rascally". Cover your glass in France or Germany - even worse, in England - and in the voice of someone who has been personally affronted, your host will ask why you're not drinking.

"Oh, I just don't feel like it this morning."

"Why not?"

"I guess I'm not in the mood?"

"Well, this'll put you in the mood. Here. Drink up."

"No, really, I'm OK."

"Just taste it"

"Actually I'm sort of...well, I sort of have a problem with it."

"Then how about half a glass?"

I recognize my experiences in this writing in so many ways. I don't have a problem with alcohol at all, but I'm a lightweight, and don't like red wine. It's just striking how many times I've had to apologize to a host for not wanting to drink (anymore). Almost as if it's something to be ashamed of.."yeah sorry, no I really can't have any more red wine. I don't handle it very well. I get sick. No, no vodka either, thank you, I shouldn't mix. Really, a soda would be great. No, no I'm fine, really, I'm not depressed/feeling left-out/sick, I just need to work tomorrow. No, it's not you or your party...I'm so sorry. Okay...one more then, if you insist."

When I was much younger and still studying in Amsterdam, the same social "rules" also applied to drugs.

"Hey Anouk, do you want to smoke a joint after class?"

"No thanks, I kinda gave up on weed."

"Haha, you??? No way!"

"Well it's not that weird, I don't react to it in a fun way anymore."

"Oooh come on...what have you grown old?"

"No, but...no I just don't want to smoke, thanks. But I'll come with you guys and hang out! You can smoke, I'm not bothered by it."

"Right. And then I smoke and you just sit there. And it will be weird. I thought you were my friend!"

Europeans really have perfected the art of social blackmail when it comes to alcohol and (in Holland, at least) drugs.

My Interview with CosmoGirl!

Woohoo. This is the last interview I did for Need for Speed Nitro. I am super stoked to be on the site of CosmoGirl. I think it's a great magazine for young women (not-so secretly I still love to read it, next to the regular Cosmo), as it has a positive "attitude".

Here is the interview I did:

http://www.cosmogirl.com/lifeadvice/born-to-lead/anouk-bachman-dec09

Again the same photo! Haha, I guess I don't have many decent photos of myself so this one works at least ok. I like the interview text too, and its geared towards an audience of young women that currently might not know anything about games or the gamesindustry.

I guess this closes off the NFS Nitro chapter for me, production- and pr-wise....It was the first game I officially worked on, and I learned so much from it. Now it's time to move onto the next project; which I cannot talk about.....yet ;)

P.s.: I just noticed the interview was posted under "life advice" and "born to lead". This made me chuckle and blush at the same time. How cool is that? If you need any life advice, be sure to hit me up ;) joke joke

Twitter

Finally: I've given in to this Twitter thing. You can see my "tweets" on the right side of this blog. Informing "the world" of your status is remarkably addictive. Then again, we live in an age of individual narcissism and how better to celebrate this than blogging, facebook-ing, and tweeting!

The only thing missing is an Iphone or BlackBerry. I still have a prepaid phone that regularly runs out of credit which has led to many an antisocial week....It's easy to hold out on that one though, because of the costs.

We'll see how long the "sorry I'm out of credit" freedom lasts...