Category: Miscellaneous

Het is Koningsdag

Welcome back to another Student Blogging Challenge post.

What holidays do you celebrate? Is there a holiday that your family celebrates that others may not have heard of? (Let me know in the comments!)

If you didn’t already know, I was born in Leiden, Netherlands. Ik spreek een klein beijte Nederlands. (I speak a little bit of Dutch.) And when I went back to the Netherlands in 2018, I learned about a holiday called Kings day or Koningsdag.

Koningsdag is a national holiday in the Netherlands. Celebrated on April 27th, the date marks the birth of King Willem-Alexander. Kings day celebrations include partying, wearing orange, flea markets, concerts, and more!

Here is a really short YouTube video of Kings day in Amsterdam;

Here is a poem that I wrote about Koningsdag.

It’s April twenty seventh.

It’s Kings day, there is no work.

Orange, a colour so bright.

Partying till the day becomes night.

The celebration, oh so lively!

The pubs, filled to the brim.

The canals, flooded with boats, 

With pure cheer, “long live the king!”

Here is the same poem but in Dutch:

Het is zevenentwintigste april.

Het is Koningsdag, er is geen werk.

Oranje, een kleur zo vrolijk.

Feesten tot de dag wordt nacht.

De viering, oh zo levendig!

De kroeg, gevuld naar de rand.

De grachten, overstroomd met boten.

Met pure blijheid, “lang leven het Koning!”

Well I hope that you learned something new and thank you for reading my post!

As always, Brooke.

Worm the hero

Hola 👋🏼

I have something to unveil to you.

It’s magnificent.

It’s splendid. 

It’s…..

A story.

Ok so maybe that’s a tad bit vague.

We used a random emoji generator to pick out a set of emojis to make a story out of. Mine were; 

An then I used the story spine technique to create my story outline. 

I wrote out my story but then I decided that I wanted to take an academic risk and make the story into a video. I don’t know if i will do this again in the future though because it took a lot longer than expected and has almost made me hand this in late. Here is my Emoji story PDF. 

And the moment you’ve all been waiting for. The video! 

I hope you enjoyed my story and thank you for visiting my blog!

As always, Brooke.

Music & I

Ok ask me for my favourite song. I will go through my playlists and literally list out 100 different songs that I love equally. I know all the words and the timing of every interlude. I love my music.

That being said, I don’t like all music. I have a very specific taste but it is also varied. I grew up going to the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and started playing violin and piano as a toddler. I also was introduced to alternative music and started playing the drums at age 5. And I also love jamming out to 80s tunes with my mom. 

I was fiddling around with this app called Medly where you can make your own music. Here a short tune that I made:

The instruments that I have played include the piano, violin, drums, baritone euphonium, and I am currently teaching myself the guitar. If I were to generalize my music taste I would say it is mostly alternative with my favourite bands being The Lumineers, Mumford & Sons, Train, and Imagine Dragons. I seem to have an immaculate memory for song lyrics and I love to just put on my headphones and absorb the music like a sponge. Here is a playlist of my favourite songs:

Here is an Apple Music playlist of my favourite music: 🍎🎵

Here is a similar playlist that I made but in Spotify: 🍏🎶

Well now that you know a bit about my taste in music why not take this music survey so that I can get to know you!

I hope you enjoyed todays post and thank you for reading!

As always, Brooke.

 

Beautiful British Colombia

Oh to live in such a beautiful place in the world.

 Hello there! 👋🏼

I took the photo above when I went snowboarding with my school. A mere 30 minute drive from where I live and I can be shredding down the slopes with my best friends. On a clear day you can see all the cities and possibly even spot out places you know. 

I know that I am lucky to have such easy access to beautiful mountains and I think that plays a role in my how I view the world. Sometimes it is easy to forget that not everyone has ski mountains so close to them. I learned how to ski when I was 3 and shifted to snowboarding at 8, meaning I have been doing snow sports for most of my life. Being able to casually go up to a ski mountain is a big part of my winters and I think that a lot would be different if I didn’t have that access. Growing up in such beautiful parts of the world has almost made me take for granted the beauty of the nature around me. 

Wow I really  just reflected there. Huh. Well I guess now I am going to go outside, stand in the snow, and just appreciate. Talk to y’all later!

As always, Brooke.

OTTBs galore!

Do you know what an OTTB is? OTTB stands for off the track thoroughbred. Basically a term for a thoroughbred that used to do races but has now retired from racing and is in a new career. Click here for a helpful link about what an ottb is. 

If you have read my about me page, you would know that I have a horse named Bucket. Bucket is an ottb and we got him off the track in October of 2020 and he is 5 years old. 

As the owner of a young horse, I am responsible for his training and his behaviour. Bucket is an example of what we would call a “green” horse. As you can see by the photo, Bucket is not actually the colour green but when it comes to his level of training he is quite new and inexperienced. That’s what it means when a horse is “green”.

You might know that thoroughbreds are the main breed used in horse racing like the Kentucky derby. Because thoroughbreds are bred for a high-stress and high-performance lifestyle, they are exceptionally high strung and get easily excited. But with time and effort these horses can excel at any career.

Here is a video by one of my favourite YouTubers about the basics of riding an off the track thoroughbred.

The Jockey Club is basically the go-to place for all things racehorse. Founded in 1894, The Jockey Club is a main pillar in the horse racing industry and continues to promote thoroughbreds and shed a positive light on ottb’s and their seccond careers. Here is an informational PDF about the thoroughbred industry:  thoroughly_thoroughbred

Well I hope that you enjoyed learning a little bit about what an OTTB is and hopefully I will do more horse-related posts in the future if y’all are interested.

 

As always, Brooke.