Vanina W.

being a postgrad student in oxford is pretty cool, i can tell you. :) a whole new life, a whole new set of wonderful friends, and a very pretty city. i’ve only been here three months and already i know it will always have a special place in my heart. shame my course is so damn demanding… :)

didn’t see much because of the rain, but loved the city centre. and drank far too much vodka. revolutions is the place to go. :) other than that, i remember the beautiful view at night from the hills.

with a newly found boyfriend, walked around his hometown and learnt about who he is and where he grew up, and that’s always beautiful.

here i am, a grad student at oxford university. the intensity of it all is amazing – in terms of studying, social life, partying… it’s great. exhausting but great.

sigli is a small town, it’s not beautiful nor interesting, but i have spent over six months here to work for an NGO dealing with post-tsunami reconstruction, which is in itself an interesting job to do.

the people are lovely, most of the time, and it has its interests – who can say they’ve lived in a 20,000 people town in deep aceh, huh? but i guess apart from that there isn’t much to say…

the countryside around sigli can be beautiful, and maybe that’s the only thing i could recommend it for – small villages with traditional acehnese houses, fish ponds and palm trees, the occasional river (tangse sub-district, which is indeed lovely), it can be worth seeing.

i will be here starting september 2006 to do my postgrad in development studies. i have heard so much about it, and i know it will be the perfect learning environment – plus wicked student life… aaah. the joys of being a student.

i will be at wolfson college.

or better, how it will change my life. :)

i’ve been a lot of times since i was a child, and soon i will move there to attend oxford university – and you know what, i can’t wait. i remember it as beautiful, old and picturesque. and hopefully, it will be a lot of fun as well.

my mum has to go there every month, so a couple of years back i went with her; i just remember walking, walking on my own, taking hundreds of pictures of little wonderful corners, shops and buildings, a scarf around my neck, wandering.

i loved it, which was bizarre considering how many people hate it (including my mum!). i wouldn’t mind living there one day, it’s one of the very few cities in europe i would actually live in.

paris is beautiful, beautiful architecture, beautiful sights all over, the land of fantastic photographs. i introduced a friend to paris a while back, for the first time, and seeing the amazement in her eyes made me understand how i should try and love this city where i spent 7 years of my life more.

it’s just too beautiful to miss.

my sort of ‘true home’ is here; the house my parents have had for 30 odd years and that i’ve seen every summer of my life since i was in my mum’s belly. :)

i love it to bits; perugia is an amazing city, and there’s so many more. and the countryside… well, what can i say, i grew up there, so i’ve got to love it (even though my mum’s gardening has a lot to do with it).

i used to hate going there as a teenager, because i would spend my summers alone; now i take friends from all over europe with me and we drink wine, swim in the pool in the middle of the night, play scrabble and listen to music, and it’s just great.

i think my best birthday (my 21st) was probably the one i spent in my house with some of my best friends.

i miss it, you know…