Long Car Ride to Florida.

My friends and I went to Florida for Spring Break, but we drove. It was about 16 hours, 1110 miles long drive from Holland to Jacksonville. For us it was better to drive because we needed a car in Florida, so we could visit different places. On the other hand, the ride was very long. In …

Are We Living in a Nationalistic Era?

A lot of you know that this week the Republican and Democratic primaries took place in Michigan. From the Democratic side, Sanders won, and Trump won it from the Republican side. Definitely, this post is not to discuss politics, but to show an interesting connection between United States of America, France, and Germany. I am …

Woah, We’re Half Way There. Woah, Livin’ on a Prayer.

There are less than 70 weeks of classes left of my time at Hope. That’s the timeline facing any current sophomore that is graduating in four years. We’re almost halfway there. And it’s kind of scary. There are a lot of things that I have no idea about that I need to figure out over the …

What Helps You Fall Asleep?

Continuing on the topic of my previous article about the right amount of sleep a night, my senior year I had a significant sleeping issue. I was getting about 3-5 hours of a sleep a night because I could not fall asleep at 10 p.m. or 11 p.m., so I would stay awake until 2 …

Critical Issue: Life After Hope

What are you going to be when you grow up? This question never seems to disappear. When you are little it is easy to pick an answer: teacher, zookeeper, astronaut, astronaut that teaches people about zoo animals in space. However, in college things change. That question takes on a new kind of weight. Tonight Hope’s annual Critical …

A Blog Post Dedicated to Food

One of my favorite things about living in a cottage with my sorority sisters is that there is always someone in the kitchen cooking. I feel like I spend most of my time in or around the kitchen for that reason alone. The kitchen is my safe space, a place where I am free to …

A Thought on Lazy Nights

Happy Thursday, Readers! I hope that your days are going well and you are getting ready for an awesome weekend. How was the Hope/Calvin game? Heard Hope won – no surprise. Do you all want to know what I did yesterday? I did absolutely nothing. I made dinner, did homework, and laid in my bed …

St. Nicholas Day in the Czech Republic

December 5 is the day that children in the Czech Republic are nervous, excited and scared. Like in Netherlands, the tradition in the Czech Republic is formed from three major figures, Svatý Mikuláš (St. Nicholas), Čert (Devil) and Anděl (Angel). On December 5, the trio of Svatý Mikuláš, Čert, and Anděl are going from house to house and …

The Anatomy of the Desk: Stressed vs. Unstressed

Lately I’ve been noticing certain specifics in my life and wondering: If I were in a novel, would this be symbolic? Would this be metaphorical, or hold some kind of connotation other than the literal? Maybe this is just a crazy English major problem, but it’s been on my mind. One of the biggest areas …

Different Christmas Traditions Around the Globe

Since Christmas is just around the corner, here are some examples of Christmas different traditions and stories from countries around the world. Serbia – Two Sundays before December 25th, children tie up their mother. To get “free”, she has to give presents to the children. Exactly one Sunday after mother is tied up, this happens to …