Language isn't just words. It's communication, It's culture. It expresses the way people look at the world. The way of how things are said, expressions, politeness or directness in a language. It's so much more than just words. And so fascinating. 

Next to spoken language there is also sign language. In school I got the opportunity to do a course Dutch Supported with Signs. It's not signlanguage, but dutch sentence and grammar structure in which the most important words are supported with signs. The signs used are from Dutch Sign Language.

Turns out every country has their own signlanguage.

I've had 8 classes and learned approximately 30 – 50 signs per class. At the end of the course we had to hand our books and DVD with words back in.. Now I need to find an opportunity to practice and expand the basics.
Anybody willing to help me with that?

We also learned about a whole different culture. There are jokes in sign that don't make sense in speech. 
One of the coolest things I saw was songs being translated into sign. Here is an interpretation by Mirjam Stolk, who specializes (amongst other things) in translating songs. 

≈  

NmG is a post from :) Dieuwke's adventures....

The rest of the week:
Sunday:         in the morning 10 minutes and in the evening another 20 mins together with F, R and T.
Monday:        succeeded
Tuesday:       succeeded
Wednesday:   succeeded
Thursday:      didn't manage to sit and meditate. cycled mindfully instead
Friday:          succeeded
Saturday:      nope
Sunday:         succeeded

Even though I didn't succeed every day it made me feel good. A bit more relaxed and grounded.. On some days this lasted for only 5 minutes as I had to run to catch the train quickly after, on other days it stayed a bit longer. 
Continueing this for the next week.  :)

Happy Thoughts
                            Insightful Moments 
                                                            Wisdom
                                                                             Sunny Smiley Days

10 minutes is a post from :) Dieuwke's adventures....

End of November I started a new internship. Pretty soon I knew the dates of my holidays. And then didn't do anything with that information. Then suddenly it was two weeks before my holiday started. And still hadn't booked a holiday. And with the snow calling, without friends with the opportunity to go on a spontanious last-minute wintersports trip I turned to couchsurfing. Searching the snow-groups, posting a message in one of them to find some friendly strangers to go snowboarding with there was one post of a guy living in a remote village in the Queyras mountains. Where there was a lot of snow recently. So here you have the beginning of the plan.

Still, without luck, trying to get some people from here to travel together with a car. So the next logical option is to go hitchhiking. Question is how to and if I should take my snowboard. Packed my bagpack with nothing more than my snowboardboots, goggles, gloves, hat, 6 clean shirts, toiletries, some food and a road map of Europe. Whoop! less than 10 kg  

On the road it starts pretty well, One care, second car, and suddenly I'm standing in the centre of Brussels.. Ay. :S Getting in the centre is easy, getting out is a different story, but after a 40 min walk and another hours wait before a car finally stops for me I'm on my way again. Now going eastwards and later westward through Belgium.. Hmmm. Dropped at an infamous tankstation where I, in only 30 minutes, saw 5 scarcely dressed women pass the truckers looking for work.. Hmmm. Not the best place to be. Luckily somebody brings me to a better spot quickly after that. And from there I spent the next hours in a Dutch truck drinking coffee and having interesting conversation. The reason I love hitch-hiking! A while later I'm standing in the dark (8 pm orso) at a toll station in France, still a few hours away from my hosts place in Lyon. A cute customs officer there asks where I'm headed and then gets on his walkie-talkie. 5 minutes later his colleague stops a car headed in the right direction and they agree to take me. I felt a bit sorry for them being pulled of by customs officers. Where they turn off the highway it's only still 100 kms to go, so one truck, and then a sportscar that drops me in front of the door. The sportscar going like a racecar through the small, curvy streets of Lyon.. Pfff. End of day one! extremely tired and met by a superb host who waited till 1 am for me to arrive!

The next day I continue towards the Queyras. Much smoother and faster than the day before. Discussing life and travel with an 80 year old. (This guy was soo cool, and he owns a nice little B&B just out of Briancon. + 33 (0) 492201846 www.lebacha.com) The closer I get to L'echalp the easier it gets. Until no car passes me without stopping to take me a bit further. 

I arrive, and somehow I forgot to note down the number of my host. The first hotel I walk in, to ask if anybody knows the guy I immediatly meet him! Wow, this is the beginning of an awesome few days!

Some sleep, meeting Kristell (the other couchsurfer staying there) after her day of snowboarding, preparing dinner in Didiers kitchen while he is still at work. When he gets back it's time for cheese, wine, dinner, more wine and more cheese. Accompanied by getting to know each other and interesting conversations! Wow! Finally we fall asleep.

In the morning we wake up reasonably early for a day of snowboarding in Abries. Didier has a day off so he can join us. A quick espresso at the bottom of the slope and off we go. D knows everybody there, so at each lift we stop for a chat. Snow on the slopes is good, and on the northside the powder is still awesome!  

The snowboarding, talking, good food, wine and cheese continues for the next days. The village at the end of the road! Peaceful and Quiet. 

On the way back home I stop for the night in Dijon in a squat. Continuing the next day, passing 3 borders and satisfied with an awesome week arrive back home.

Here is the week in Pics pics pics Enjoy

D has a nice camping in L'Echalp with loads of walks and beautiful nature around. I'm planning to go back this summer. If you like the idea, you're invited to join!

Dieuwke wants to go snowboarding is a post from :) Dieuwke's adventures....

The past week I tried getting up just a bit earlier to start the day with meditation, even if it's just a few minutes. But haven't managed in the morning yet. Once i'm in the train I kind of manage for a few minutes and it's nice to find my focus back. For the next week I'm going to take it more serious (hence the blog so you can check up on my actually doing the meditation).

What I would really like to do is get up an hour earlier, do yoga for 40 minutes and meditate for 20. And then expand that. But that aim is way too high for me at the moment, so I'll cut it down and start with little steps. See how it's going and possibly expand from there on.

So, for the next week I will spend 10 minutes each morning meditating.

Who wants to join me for the social support?  Next week an update.

10 minutes a day is a post from :) Dieuwke's adventures....

Very interesting. And this could definetly be a place i would like to work for a while.. Not right now, nor next year.. but in a few years time I think this could be something for me.

Patch Adams is a post from :) Dieuwke's adventures....

Total since last count                                        27.815 km

2009
September
Utrecht – Ossenzijl – Utrecht                                  220 km

2010
February
Heeg – Amsterdam                                               130 km
Pisa – Firenze                                                         80 km
Eindhoven airport – Utrecht                                     85 km
March
Tiel – Utrecht                                                         45 km
April
Utrecht – Heeg                                                      130 km
May
Heeg – Utrecht                                                       130 km
Utrecht – Berlin – Utrecht                                       1330 km
August
Utrecht – Heeg – Utrecht                                         260 km
September 
Utrecht – Harlingen                                                170 km
Harlingen – Heeg                                                     40 km 

Total                                                               30.435 km

Only a bit over 3000 kms last year… But I reached the 30.000 km Mile point! Whooo… Ready for the next 30.000

How far (part 3) is a post from :) Dieuwke's adventures....

The last two weeks of my stay in Ghana my energy levels were low. I had some weird kind of muscle pain in my neck and back. And got diagnosed with pneumonia, followed by normal fever. 
With the first complaints I went to a lab to test for malaria and typhoid, nothing to be found, so on to the hospital where I got a beautiful folder and loads of medicine (some nice strong antibiotics, anti-malarial tablets and some painkillers)

After the antibiotics I was slowly feeling a bit better, but after a week.. High fevers and feeling worse again.. So on to a doctor in Accra. She tested for malaria again, and couldn't find it. Advice, stay calm, rest, eat lots of fruit. This just looks like ordinary fever. Great! 

Slowly I was able to be up for half of the day, so energy was rising again and I was happy. Thinking I'd go home, sleep two days and be back on my feet again. Sadly that wasn't the case. 

We arrived back on Friday and over the weekend I started feeling worse and worse again. Still went to the introduction of my new internship on mondaymorning.. but needed the rest of the day to rest after only 4 hours of being out.. Daytrip for tuesday was a visit to the GP. She said I might also have a bladder infection. Ha, nice.. one thing after the next. That afternoon I had fever as high as 39.5, the GP told to call when I had fever over 38…
So I called and she sent me to the hospital. An evening spent at emergency. Getting there wasn't easy… Why do I only have 3 friends that own a car.. haha. They took about 6 tubes of blood and sent it off for testing. Found nothing of course, so back home for another feverish night.

Wednesday on to Rotterdam to the havenziekenhuis. They took another 8 orso tubes of blood and another malaria test. Then sent me home with the only result; no malaria. 

My arms looked like those of a junky, and the scales in the hospital told me I lost like 6 kg… Aaarrgghhh…        
nothing to see anymore now, and normal eating put my weight back up

Thursday morning I woke up, fever free!!!
Next few nights I keep waking up between 4 and 5, sweating like a pig, even in the back of my knees. Yikes. slowly the sweating gets less.. and I am BACK –> I hope

Next week, call with the hospital to talk about the results of all those tubes of blood. Now keeping my fingers crossed they found nothing bad and all is well  

39.5 is a post from :) Dieuwke's adventures....

Here the last pictures of the last three weeks in Ghana

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=590142&id=531340220&l=5006cc5e29

Back home is a post from :) Dieuwke's adventures....

Spending a few hours in the airport, getting a tour of the whole airport. last dinner, of red red with plaintain, with our bestest friends. 

Then sleepless night, watching 3 movies. Looking over cloudy Europe. Frankfurt airport. another airplane. –> Schiphol! 

Back in Cold and (that's strange) Sunny Netherlands.   Parents pick me up, bring me home.  Time to unpack, organize… but first a few hours sleep… 

Aaahhhh Home… 

[Please, when can I go back to the tropic climate again...]

It’s cold ooo is a post from :) Dieuwke's adventures....

And I have put waaay more than 200 pics online last week.. That's why, here the links to the pictures on Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=579817&id=531340220&l=d224afc6ca

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=577477&id=531340220&l=a7b5565600

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=535705&id=531340220&l=c7c0628b3

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=535704&id=531340220&l=5d5b21ed59

I hope these links work… 

Coming up, the pictures of our trip to Mole.. 

pics pics pics is a post from :) Dieuwke's adventures....