Blog Challenge Day 1: 15 Facts about moi

Today is the day!! Wait, what day do I hear you think? Well, the day I start my 30 day blog challenge! Today is topic one: 15 facts about me. I’ve tried to make this interesting for everybody, including people who actually know me. I found it hard to come up with 15 facts that NOBODY knows, so I did my best to come up with things not everybody knows. Enjoy the read!

1. I’m a dreamer, daydreamer to be exact. I’ve been spacing out in the middle of class, conversations, well anything really, since I was a little girl. My moment of peace is when I can just sit at home with a cup of tea while staring off into space with some music playing in the background.
2. I can’t keep plants. There’s only one plant that so far has lasted, but that even survived an attack by a cat. The rest all died and withered away, usually within the first week I got them.
3. My biggest fear is heights, but I do ride roller coasters, fun fair rides and have been at the top of the Empire State Building and the Sears Tower. As long as it’s fast and high, or when I don’t have to get up myself and can’t look straight down, I’m good, but don’t ask me to climb a ladder, walk over glass suspended in the air or  fire escape type iron grid like constructions. Scares the living daylights out of me. In 2007, I ended up needing to go to the first aid stand at Justin Timberlake’s concert, because of some scary beyond belief constructions that I didn’t notice till I was standing on it.
4. I’m super organized, perhaps over-organized. Some of you know this, some perhaps not. I color coordinate my shirts, socks, pants, etc., have lists for my music, book and DVD collection and once something is in a certain spot, I will always put it back on that spot. The pillows in my couch have to lie in just the right way, and when people move things or ‘mess things up’ I get very antsy.
5. I hate people who lie. I’m a peaceful person and it takes a lot to get me mad. However, you lie to me, I’m over and done with you.
6. I own over 70 pairs of shoes. I have EVERYTHING: boots, sneakers (high top or low top), flip flops, heels (in all degrees of high), comfy shoes, neat shoes, pretty shoes. I’m addicted to shoes. There, I said it.
7. If studying could be a hobby, it would be mine. I love to learn. The more you feed me information the more I’ll try to pick it up. It’s probably why I became a teacher. I loved school as a kid/ teenager. My main reason for switching jobs in 2009: I wasn’t learning anything anymore. I could never do that for the rest of my life!
8. I fractured my wrist, badly hurt my back AND nearly fractured my knee in the time span of 6 months when I was 9. I’m a complete klutz. I always have bumps and bruises I don’t remember getting and continuously bump into furniture, cupboard, railings and other random objects. Plus I have a tendency of falling out of canoes, of bikes, roller blades, ice skating, etc. Hence, I tend to stay away from any of these activities.
9. As much as I love music, I’m not big on movies. I’d rather read a book (or stare into space for that matter) than watch a movie. Movies are too time consuming, they screw me up emotionally and I often can’t sleep because I can’t get the movie out of my head. And that doesn’t just go for scary movies.
10. I love cooking & baking. However, I don’t get to do it too often.That’s one disadvantage of not having a boyfriend/ family. It’s really hard to cook something just for myself and not have anything left. I do invite people over from time to time and for my birthday I always grab the chance to bake some goodies as well. Just a fair warning to my future Mr. Right: be prepared to be fed!
11. I have an ancient MP3-player. Mine stems from before the IPod Video era. No kidding.  I bought it in 2005 and the best part: it still plays like I bought it yesterday! The battery went whack a while ago, but that was easily solved by scouting Ebay and ordering a brand new one, which I installed myself. I’ve been looking into getting a new one for some years now, but I just can’t find anything that is as good/ better than the one I have now. I think I’ll just wait until it fries its hard drive.
12. My least favorite chores include ironing clothes and drying dishes. That’s why I never do them.
13. I travel nearly 1.5 hours one way to work every day. For Dutch standards this is very long, mainly because the longest distance you can travel one way within our country is about 3.5 to 4 hours. I always get tons of comments from people, which I always find funny. Dutch people are so used to being able to hop onto their bikes and be at work within 10 minutes, that I sometimes think: there are plenty of places on this planet where people travel 1+ hour to get to work people! Just because we don’t do it, doesn’t mean it’s like this everywhere!
14. You can wake me up for (good) sushi and Starbucks’ Grande Skinny Non Fat Caramel Machiatto. Plus I have a major sweet tooth. I’m trying to stay away from the sweet stuff though. So far so good!
15. I love traveling. Places I still want to go to: Boston, Miami, Dublin, Scandinavia, Rome, Athens, Egypt, Japan, Australia & New Zealand. I would love to take a year off of work and book one of those world travel tickets and just go to Asia, Australia and end the trip in LA. I’m thinking of doing something like that when I’m in between jobs once I’m done with my Master’s and I have fulfilled all the demands of the grant I’m receiving. Of course that all depends on how things will go in the next couple of years. But that’s definitely something I’d like to do!

Expect a blog on my favorite song tomorrow!