A new week, a new blog

Hi Everyone (Zac/Anne) It's great to see you are back on my blog! :D Thanks for the feedback from last week. If you are new on my blog feel free to join it and give me some feedback ;-) just mail me @ 453927@inholland.nl. In my feedback I was asked to explain my blog name (Quik silva). If you now me you might have noticed I wear a lot of Quiksilver clothes, I have wanted to surf for a long time. One day my dad bought me a pair of Quiksilver board shorts (long swimming trunks surfer's wear) and ever since I have been mostly wearing Quiksilver clothes. My surname is Silva and Quiksilva has kind of been my internet name, so there you go.

Last week I told you my blog would be about college and my private life. So last week being about college this week I will be sharing with you how I spend my time outside college. Obviously most of my time is spent @ or for school, project work, lectures, project work, blogging, etc.

When I get home on Mondays and Thursdays I straight away have dinner (do you finish college that late?), no I start work @ 5 on these days. So after a long day at school I take home the bus, have dinner and go to work. I work at a local supermarket called Deen (www.deen.nl) the work isn’t much fun, but I get along great with my colleges and this gets me trough the evening. At nine we close and go home. On Thursdays I get to leave at 8.30 because I have to training at 9.

On Tuesdays, Wednesday and Thursdays I spend my time training for water polo, On Tuesday and Thursday I train from 9 to 10, and on Wednesdays from 7 until 8. The late trainings are tough! I train with the men, and we are trained by an international reverie. On Wednesdays I train with my own team (the <19s). Our coach trains us, but my teammates don’t swim half as fast as the old men.

On Friday evening I am off! :D Sometimes I start work at 6 on Saturday mornings to earn a little extra cash, if that is the case it’s an early night for me. If I’m off on Saturday I sometimes play poker with some mates or I go out with my girlfriend Nienke.

The last time I played. I got to heads up (the finale) but I only had €8,85 and my opponent had €51,15. So I had to double up to make a chance! The first hand I got was 66, I put all my chips in the middle (all-in) and tested my luck. My opponent called and we had to show our cards. He revealed two sevens, and it didn’t look good for me. :-( The flop and turn weren’t of any importance. I feared the worst and got up to leave the table. Then the final card was shown… a 6! This gave me three of a kind and won me the hand. I went on and won the game :D.

(A small explanation for the people that don’t know about poker Texas hold’em http://www.pkr.com/poker-school/how-to-play-poker.cfm)

Saturday evening I play water polo matches. I always play for my own team of course, and sometimes I am asked to play for the men’s team 1,2 or 3 (1 being the best). Last Saturday I played for the 3rd team (I must explain these are the guys that see training as an excuse to get out off to house to go and drink beer with their team mates, which is fair enough, and why they never win.) But together with 3 other teammates of mine we won the match (most likely the first one ever!) the score was 5-9 (I scored 4 ^^).

Sunday morning I volunteered to train the youth of the club (the <14s), I get up @ 7.30 have a small breakfast and then cycle to the swimming pool. Most of them are good swimmers, unfortunately not all of them, but that’s where I come in. during the afternoon I usually relax, make some work for school, go visit my best friend Cesar or girlfriend Nienke, or watch some TV.

I have recently discovered a series that is called scrubs, It has been going for a while now but I hadn’t seen it before 1 ½ months or so ago. It’s about a beginning doctor and his friend (check http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0285403/ for more info) I also like watching Top gear with my dad. It’s a car programme presented by 3 idiots that do different challenges that have to do with cars, like for instance building an amfibious car and crossing the channel.

That’s all folks!

See you next week

Daniel Silva

My first blog

Hey everyone! Welcome to my first blog ever. My name is Daniel Silva, I’m 17 years old and I am a first year student at Inholland university in Diemen. I am studying TRM (Tourism and recreation Management). In this blog I will write about my experiences at college and a bit about my personal life.

I have unusual routes. My mom is Dutch, and my dad is from Gibraltar. I was born in Amsterdam and lived there until 2000, when I moved to Purmerend (a small town north of Amsterdam). In Purmerend I finished my primary school and went to secondary School. And after finishing that last year I ended up at Inholland. I’m Dutch, but then why am I doing an English study? Well, my dad being from Gibraltar I was raised speaking both Dutch and English, so I decided to give myself an advantage in the future work field by doing the English version of the study.

Sailing into my new life!:

Before the school year started I went on a three day introduction tour. The tour started at school where we were expected to be at 1 o clock. I met up with an old friend, who was a fellow secondary school student that would also be studying at Inholland. When we arrived we had to go in school to receive some information about the introduction. I met up with new students that would follow the same course as me, my friend went her own way from here. At 4 o clock everyone got on busses and we were off. We went to a small famous fishing village Volendam. In Volendam 26 sailing ships were waiting for us to take us out sailing. It was an impressive sight. I found my boat and met up with the people I would be sharing the boat with. Everyone on my boat was Dutch and was also following the tourism course, Most would follow the Dutch course, and some would be following the English course like me. Being with Dutch students made me feel quite comfortable, but I remember finding it a shame that there weren’t any international students. The group consisted of 4 guys including me and an older student who was there to supervise (Amar) and me. All the other students were girls! :-) that evening we went out for dinner in Volendam and later that evening there was a great club that we went to. The next morning after breakfast we left port and headed to Amsterdam! I bonded with my fellow students while sailing and made some friends. In Amsterdam we had to play a trading game trying to trade a pen for something that was worth more, to then trade that for something that was even more valuable. As a group we decided the introduction was about bonding and getting to know each other and we decided it was more fun to go into Amsterdam together and explore the city. That evening we went out to Panama (a club in Amsterdam) and had a great night. After a late night we had to leave the boat early, we all cleared up the boat and packed our bags and returned home exhausted.

My first day:

After a fun introduction week my first real day at college, my new study, my new life had arrived! My first lesson was an introduction into the project. I had loads of questions and was quite nervous; what would my classmates be like? Was school difficult? What was the project all about?! I was welcomed By Feico and Jennifer, my consultant and tutor for the project. The teachers were very friendly and explained all about the project, and then divided us into groups, my group had 6 members. The assignment was to present our chosen country on a holiday fair held at school to promote our destination to all the visitors. I was looking forward to the project and wanted to get started straight away. But I had had other lessons to attend. The rest of the day went well, I must admit though, I struggled to stay concentrated as the lectures were 1,5 hours, and I wasn’t used to that. In period 1 these were my lectures: Spanish, English, Management, Successful team, Project based teaching and learning, Research techniques and Introduction to tourism. Before, between or after these lectures I would have meetings with my project group with our consultant and tutor to talk about the process of the project, I felt this was good, because in that way when you didn’t understand you could ask about it, and the tutor and consultant would clarify it for you.

So, I finished my first post ever! I shared my experience of the beginning of the school year and my first day, I hope you enjoyed reading, and you will hear from me next week.

Take care,

;-) Daniel Silva