Yeah, I know, I never do this kind of stuff. Especially not snail mail themed stuff. Usually I just complain about how difficult it is to send snail mail, or rant about how weird the lady at the post office was. Not this time though. This post was actually requested by Cora from Tea Party Princess so... I'm going to be serious for once, or at least try to, and show you how I make envelopes for my snail mail.
You don't need all that much: scissors, a pencil, a ruler, glue and a piece of paper to turn into an envelope. If your heart is strong enough and you think you'll be able to live with the guilt, you can use old atlas pages or even pages from an old book that has no chance at a future anymore as paper for your envelope. It'll look cool, but it breaks my bookworm heart a little to do so. That's why I took an illustrated page from an outdated magazine as base this time.

Now you're going to need something like a template. You can make one yourself or take mine as base. Print the image, resize and that kind of stuff. Mine's usually 16,3x11,2 centimeters, but whatever floats your boat is great. Put the template on the paper, trace the outline and cut it out. Easy as that.

Now turn your paper around so you won't deface it with ugly folding lines. You do need those folding lines, but it's better to put those on the side where no one will get to see them. Time to pick up the ruler and make the ugly side of the paper look like this.

Next step: trace the folding lines with scissors. Best to keep the ruler next to the scissors so you get a straight line that actually is straight. Also reduces the chances of you almost cutting off your fingers (I speak from experience here). Probably stating the obvious here, but: trace the lines, don't actually cut then, because that'll make your soon-to-be envelope fall apart.
After tracing the lines you can start folding. It'll start looking like this:

Now put some glue on the flaps on the side. Quickly put the envelope together and TA-DA! Your envelope is ready!


One last thing: most envelopes made like this aren't practical in terms of address readability, so I usually stick a piece of white paper to the front as a label. Now your snail mail is ready to be sent. Okay, yours is. I couldn't find white paper for the label, but you get the idea!

The title of this post is actually pretty misleading. Don't worry, it's not clickbait. It's just that I didn't catch the travel bug later in life like most people. I was born with it. You know how some diseases get transferred from mom to unborn baby? That's how I got the travel bug. I was a freaking fetus in the Himalaya and Boston. I was born with it. I grew up with it. It's part of my DNA. So this post isn't really about how I caught the travel bug. It's more about how it developed with me.

The first symptoms of the travel bug showed itself immediately after I was born: Instead of just lying still on one spot like newborns are supposed to do, I decided to crawl away and explore the great big world of my parents' bed.
From there on out it went pretty fast. I went abroad within weeks and flew to southern Europe within months. I was a bad ass travelling baby.

As I grew older, my parents and I went to the USA every summer. I learnt English there and eventually Marin County, just north of San Francisco, became my second home.
Marin County was home base, but from there we discovered the US. Every summer became one enormous road trip. I kept travel journals during those road trips. I had this obsession with maps and road sings. I always had to know what was around the corner. By the time I was eight, I'd seen the West Coast from San Diego to Seattle. I'd been to Mount Rushmore and the Florida Keys. I wasn't aware of my travel bug yet though. That awareness came three years later, when I left elementary school.



My parents have showed me the world and I'll always be grateful for that. But my travel bug has gotten out of hand. As you're reading this, I'll be discovering Edinburgh. This summer I'll see Finland, Thailand (finally, after all those years!), Laos and Cambodia. That won't be the end of it though. My travel bucket list is longer than I am and I'm more than ready to start crossing things off by myself!

I've always had a thing for superheroes. When I first started writing back in 2nd grade, I wrote superhero stories. But if you were to ask me what really sparked my interest in superheroes, without a doubt I'll say: superhero movies.

Over the past couple of years I've seen quite a few superhero movies, most of them in theatres (or on airplanes, don't ask me why). So with a pretty great year in superhero movies not too far behind us and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2  coming up I thought I'd talk about my five favorite superhero movies!
Note: I'm not saying these are the very best superhero movies ever made, these are just the ones I enjoyed most. Feel free to disagree with me. The movies are listed in no particular order.

This is the movie that started the obsession. This is the movie that threw me into the Marvel fandom. This is where it all started, both for me and the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we know it now.
I've got to tell you that when my friend lent me her copy of the DVD I wasn't sure about this one at all. I'd always had a slight aversion to Iron Man because I thought he was a messed-up Transformer (I was young and ignorant, okay?). But then I watched it and my whole world changed. Robert Downey Junior simply is Iron Man, I think everyone will agree with me on that one. The way the movie subtly sets up the MCU, the way it made this (in the Netherlands) quite obscure superhero huge... I can only have respect for that. Iron Man, I bow down to your greatness!

This was the first Marvel movie I saw in theatres. I still have the ticket stub - yes, I'm that kind of person. It's been three years, but I still remember my excitement as I entered the theatre and how I left it twice as excited as before. It was the first time I saw my love Steve Rogers on the big screen. For the first time I saw how the pieces of the MCU were all connected.
I was completely in love with the story. The Winter Soldier intrigued me. There just wasn't a single thing I didn't like, except maybe Cap's neighbor/love interest, because I was a weird seventeen-year-old and felt cheated on.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier was also the movie that taught me the one fundamental truth about Marvel movies: Anything that can go BOOM, will go BOOM.

The movie I saw in theatres all by myself, because my friends were being lame about it. There was a man in the seat next to me who was a little too keen on talking to me. Anyway, that's not important.
Deadpool, where do I start? I'd bought a Deadpool comic book before I went to see the movie, so I kind of knew what was coming. The movie though... it exceeded all my expectations! I like how dirty it was. The jokes were exactly my kind of humour. Also bonus points for the Indian cab driver even though I've forgotten his name. He was awesome.
The thing I liked best though was how self-aware this movie was. No one came away unscathed. I can't wait for the next Deadpool movie. Hopefully I won't have to go see that one by myself though.

A movie that features a talking raccoon and a plant that can only say 'I am Groot'. From the moment I saw the trailer I knew I was going to like it. The contrast between the Avengers and the Guardians was huge. I've heard people say that if the Avengers are like the Beatles, the Guardians of the Galaxy are The Rolling Stones: more raw, a bit less serious and completely awesome in their own way.
And that soundtrack, oh my god, that's just great.

I only added this one to my top 5 back in December, because that was actually the first time I saw it. Yes, I know. I'm a worthless Batman fan. To be honest, I didn't expect to like it, since I managed to fall asleep during The Dark Knight. I watched this one with my ex-boyfriend though, so falling asleep wasn't exactly an option. We took like a thousand breaks and didn't have time to finish it, but I saw enough to decide I liked it more than most other superhero movies.
Bane's voice made me laugh. That doesn't sound positive, but to me it is, because I don't laugh out loud often during movies unless I really enjoy them. The difficult thing about this movie though is that I can't quite put my finger on what I liked so much about it. All I know is that I forgot all about the world around me, to the point where I was physically reacting to things happening on the screen. Reflexes, knee-jerk reactions and gasps, that kind of stuff. It's been ages since a movies captured my attention that well for such a long time and I loved every second of it.

Picking just five wasn't easy. Honorable mentions include Doctor Strange (which I haven't seen yet so I couldn't properly list it, but everyone keeps telling me how amazing it is), The Avengers: Age of Ultron (still not over the character development and general awesomeness), Hellboy (not entirely sure if it counts, but it's based on a comic and I liked it too much not to mention it) and Ant-Man (Luis still makes me laugh and any movie set in San Francisco is automatically awesome to me).

So at this moment, these are my five favorite superhero movies. Things can change quickly though. I mean, I haven't even seen the last 15 minutes of The Dark Knight Rises yet. Those 15 minutes can change everything. 2017 also has a lot in store. Twelve months from now this list may be completely different. Which superhero movies are in your top 5?

'This city has many faces,' my friend likes to say. Not just about Antwerp, she actually says it about a lot of cities.  But, as we were road tripping our way to Belgium, she mostly said it about Antwerp. It made me curious. To be honest, I'd already been curious about this city since October, when I heard a story about pizza, night clubs and general weirdness that took place on the streets of Antwerp. A much different face than the one my friend, who'd been there on a getaway with her ex, had seen. From the minute we left our tiny hometown and set course to Belgium I was wondering which face Antwerp would show me. It wasn't long before I found that out. Antwerp, to me, is one thing: Art.

"Art wasn't supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something." You've probably seen these words from the book Eleanor and Park float around the internet. I understood their meaning, but never felt it resonate within me until I visited Antwerp.
Antwerp doesn't always look nice. It's a harbour city, so it has it's rough edges. Only adds to the atmosphere though. The banks of the Schelde are among the least impressive river banks I've ever seen, yet walking along the river made me feel excited about seeing more of the city (even when my feet were sore from walking at least ten miles through the city due to the not so tactical choice in parking space).
At first I was very nervous. We only had 24 hours in this city and no idea where to start and what to do. So my friend and I did the thing any sensible millennial would do: search for coffee and wifi.
The smallest little coffee chop near the Groenplaats made me see how Instagrammable the place was. How artsy and alive.

We walked all through town that day. From south to north and back again. From the Schelde to Central Station and vice versa. All the while I felt like I was in a city of art. And not just because Central Station is pretty.
That's the classical beauty of Antwerp and you'll see it in plenty of places. What caught my eye were the tiny things. The rusty buildings on the river banks. The weirdly shaped windows of MAS (Museum Aan de Stroom), a tower which my friend and I probably climbed illegally. The street art. Everything made the city feel so much more alive than my old hometown. There's so much to see and do.

Now in case you find yourself in Antwerp and you think I'm a serious travel blogger, here's a short list of things you should and shouldn't do. Going to the tourist information might be a better idea, but I'm speaking from personal experience and that's also worth something, right?

Things you should do:

• Climb MAS without paying and see all of Antwerp
• Eat fries. I'm serious. You can't go to Belgium without eating some real Belgian fries. McDonald's won't do!
• Go to the Grote Markt after sunset. It's amazing. 

Things you shouldn't do:

• Vlog in front of a condom vending machine.
• Try to get past a group of angry-looking people waiting for their new Yeezy shoes.
• Park your car in the south, walk all the way to the north, then back to the car. Repeat three times.

The great thing about Antwerp is that you can do all these things, both the ones I recommended and the ones I don't, wekk within a day. The city is more than worth a visit and, as my friend said when we went home: 'Antwerp does have many faces. Many faces indeed.' If you go there, let me know which face the city showed you!

There are many things I'm not good at. Handling food is one of them. Eating fruit is another one. Smoothies seem to combine these two skills in a way that makes me question why I ever thought making smoothies was a good idea in the first place. Anyway, once I got the idea into my head, it had to happen. I was going to try and make some banana smoothies. Which, I soon noticed, came with this jumble of chaotic thoughts.

200ml of yogurt, a tablespoon of honey, 1,5 bananas, a little cinnamon and a little milk. Throw it into a bowl, mix it into mush and done? That's idiot-proof! Better yet, it's Envy-proof!


*Splush*
Ew. It does sound better than a banana falling onto the floor, but... ew.

Am I doing something wrong? Why is it making this weird sound? It never does that when I make something else. What is this?! MOOOOOOOOOM! HELP ME!

So the mixer's okay, which means I can absolutely destroy these bananas and mix all the yogurt and make it into the biggest smoothiest mess the world has ever seen. YASSS.

This is nice and all, but shouldn't my smoothie remain, like, in the bowl until I'm done? Seriously, there's yogurt on my freaking forehead. That's not good, is it?

Banana is great and stuff, but does this work with other fruits? How about mango? Wait, I don't like mango. It tastes like puke. No wait, that's papaya. I always get the two mixed up. Sooo... mango. Would that work?

Done. It's a bowl full of masterpiece. A bad-looking masterpiece. But it's the smoothest smoothie I've ever seen. But it looks... disgusting...
I'm gonna drink it anyway.

So this bowl of puke-like stuff is huge, the glasses in this house are small and I'm probably the clumsiest person on this planet... Should I just pour it? I'm just gonna pour it. Not this quick though! Shit! Now it looks like a war zone anyway...
This is actually pretty good. The bit that did end up in the glass, I mean. No wait, this is more than pretty good. This is fantastic. Just as good as those banana smoothies I drank all the time when I was in Costa Rica. And those had better, fresher bananas, which means... I'm the Queen of Smoothies! All hail my superior smoothie making skills!

Since I have decided to be healthy and stuff, I drink smoothies more often now. You'd think my thoughts would change after a while, but let me tell you this: my thoughts are this chaotic every single time!

Anyway, the exhibition is on the second floor of the Stadsfeestzaal, a super fancy-looking shopping mall with loads of gold and pretty staircases. Not the place you'd expect a street art exhibition to take place, but that contrast adds a little something to the experience in my opinion.
There are over 80 pieces on display, curated by Steve Lazarides. Don't worry if that name means nothing to you, the guy was Banksy's agent and honestly, that's all you need to know. It's not like it's suddenly all about him. No, this exhibition is just about art, just the way I like it: photography allowed, thought-provoking and set in a perfect atmosphere.

I arrived quite early, which was a good thing, because loads of people rushed in about ten minutes after I'd entered the first dark room of the exhibition. That probably sounds weird, me calling it a dark room, but let me explain: of course there are lights aimed at the art, but the rooms in which the art is at display are quite dark. The walls are decorated with dripping paint or completely covered in prints of art work. Pretentious as this remark may sound, I feel like this all added to the feel of being out on the street, discovering street art the way it should be discovered.


Now here's the thing about the art: it's awesome, but you probably already know that. Banksy is a phenomenon, even my mom knows his work. In a regular exhibition however, I wouldn't think about the art I'm looking at. I took art history classes in high school and every time I had to think about the meaning behind a painting it went a little like: "This painting means a lot. The artist uses [insert color] as a symbol for [insert morbid idea] and the composition shows us that [insert completely made-up life lesson]." Usually I just wrote down a load of nonsense, because a Michelango just doesn't spark my interest. I like to think about the state of the world, politics, society and how it demands us to conform to it (yes, I know I'm weird). Banksy's work is ideal for that.


Do I need to say more? The art speaks for itself. If you don't like rats it's might not be your cup of tea though, since Banksy enjoys painting rats. I could give you an in-depth analysis of his choices and all that stuff, but to me that's not important. The most important thing for me was that his art, besides making me think about our society, also managed to inspire me. Before I visited the exhibition I'd spent an hour ranting to my friend about how I don't like the way society pushes me down career paths and into certain behaviour. I don't like how we are made to follow the rules and view the world through the same lens as everyone else. Street art offers me an escape from those things. Banksy's shown me I can use it to make my voice heard. If vandalizing is a way to change the world, make it a better looking place and maybe change a few people's minds along the way, then maybe I should give it a shot.

So yeah, all the pretentious words aside, I definitely enjoyed it a lot. Still there's one thing I didn't like all that much: I took my time to see all the art, took pictures and even vlogged in the middle of the exhibition, and after all that I was still done with the entire thing within an hour. Oh, and you know those fancy picture books they usually sell in a museum? I couldn't find one at the gift shop. That made me quite sad, but I bought one when I came home, so no real problem there. Besides, small as both gift shop and exhibition may be, they'll fill you with so much creativity you'll want to pick up a spray can right away. That more than makes up for the lack of a fancy picture book, I'd say.


One last thing before I leave and let you wonder if I'm really going to vandalize my hometown because of an art exhibition: if you ever get the chance to see Banksy's work at display and you are in any way interested in street art, don't doubt, buy a ticket and GO!

In December I got the ambitious idea of sharing my geekiness by doing comic book reviews on this blog. In January I posted my first review. So far so good. Then I asked if people wanted to see reviews of certain comic books they liked. I regret asking, because that's how I ended up writing this review. Brace yourselves, ladies and gentlemen, it's going to be a heavy post...

So... The Killing Joke. Not an easy one to review. Let me just start with the basics. Remember my review on Miss Marvel? How fun and (mostly) light-hearted and bubbly that comic book was? Well, The Killing Joke is the complete opposite. It's dark gritty and focuses on one of the most memorable villains in the DC Universe (and every other universe as well if you ask me): the Joker. Yes, we do get to see Batman, but the Joker is definitely more important here.
There are multiple Joker origin stories, but The Killing Joke is the origin story to many, which makes up about half of the plot of this comic. We get a bit of an insight in his life before he became the Joker, and let me tell you this: it all explains so much. When I was a kid, the Joker seemed like an impossible caricature to me. Now that I'm an adult (okay only by law and not by maturity) I still have questions about the character, but The Killing Joke managed to answer all of them and only raised one new question. You see, just before he became the Joker, he lost everything: his job (which he gave up to become a comedian), his wife and his unborn child. That's all pretty traumatic, but seeing that he had a high function at a factory that works with chemicals I wonder why he didn't ask his job back, since there probably aren't all that many people who could fill that position. He could've prevented ending up like this by simply trying to get his job back.
So that's the Joker part of the story, which is by far the most interesting part of the book, because it also plays with our concept of sanity and insanity. Since I've been so focused on this guy, you might start to wonder where Batman sweeps in to kick the Joker's ass. Batman's plotline didn't impress me all that much. Basically the Joker shoots Batgirl and kidnaps Commissioner Gordon to a weird ass lunapark. Of course Batman chases the Joker to save Gordon. Along the way he has some deep thoughts about the destructive relationship between himself and the Joker. You can probably tell by my tone that this part didn't interest me as much as the Joker's origin story. But put these two story lines together and you've got a plot as solid as I've ever seen one!
To be honest, the story was about the last reason why I picked this comic book up though. In fact I don't think I would have read it if my mom hadn't found a Dutch copy at the local thrift shop. Yes, a Dutch copy. That's part of the reason why I felt weird reading it. All due respect to my native language, but it doesn't work very well in comic books, at least not in my opinion. And look at this. What does that even say? It looks so messed up...

Okay, moving on, because I doubt any of you guys will face that language problem, so let me move on to something I love: the art. The art of The Killing Joke isn't just art, it's Art with a capital letter A. Every line, every shadow, every detail is perfect. Sometimes the colors make a page a little monochromatic, but believe me when I say it serves a purpose. It's not just the cover that looks great (which by the way has the German word for 'joker' on it right on the lens of the camera) no, the entire book is filled with gems like this one.
If the art hadn't been simply gorgeous I don't know how much I'd have liked this book. You see, besides the Joker's origin story this comic book focuses on the fine line between being okay and being insane. It's a pretty heavy topic, but I have to say it was handled well, even thought it made me uncomfortable as eff most of the time. I guess this is also one of the reasons why The Killing Joke is actually a graphic novel and not a comic book. So sorry for calling it a comic book the entire time. Apparently comics that handle such a heavy topic are graphic novels. Another reason why it's a graphic novel is probably the symbolism that's supposed to make you use your brain a lot, of which it has plenty. Take these panels for example.
First time I read it (I've read it thrice now), I had no idea what this was supposed to be. Then I realized: Batman on one side, the Joker on the other; the line between sane and insane disappears. Apparently this is the most famous theory on these panels, but I don't think a lot of people will come to this conclusion upon first read. It took my dad and me multiple discussions to figure out if this could be it, or if we were just horribly ignorant and wrong.

All in all I'm impressed every time I read this book, but also feeling a little uneasy. It's an interesting read, beautiful as well. But would I recommend it? Well, it depends. If you want to know more about the Joker, then yes. If you're new to the comic book world, this isn't the best place to start.

Sometimes life is shit. You're failing your classes, your friends don't have time for you and you can't do anything right at home. Before you know it you're hating on everything. Before you know it you're stuck with a negative mindset. Since I'm easily sucked into these downwards spirals of negativity, I decided to start a Happy Jar to remind me of all the good and fun things in my life. One year ago I put the first happy memories in it. Now, in 2017, I'm a bit stuck in my negative mindset. It's time to open my Happy Jar and snap out of it.


I first heard of Happy Jars when I'd only just started blogging. Coincidentally I got a jar of peanut butter that Christmas, so when all the peanut butter was gone it became my Peanut Butter Happy Jar. Since I've started anew in January of 2016, I've collected this heap of memories.
I fold them all into half, then into half again. That way I never know which memory I'm going to look at when I take one out. It's great to let a happy memory take you by surprise.
I write my happy memories in Dutch, which is actually quite weird for me since I usually write in English. Because of this switch in language it'd be pointless to share some pictures, but here are the translations of a few of my favorite memories.
10 January 2016: Had cheesecake. Nuff said
1 November 2016: Got my first paycheck ever!
4 January 2017: Talked to Shubhaish on Skype :D
I usually don't write more than a few words, a few lines at the very most. I don't need more than those few words for the memories to come rushing back to me. Because of this the scraps of paper in my Happy Jar are very small. The few pieces that are bigger are these.
Some quotes stick with me, though I'm not as much of a quote person as most other bloggers. Yet sometimes a few words motivate me to no end. When that happens I try to make them look fancy. Whereas the memories bring me happiness, the quotes give me motivation.
Since December I've also been adding pictures to the mix. Pictures capture moments better than my words ever could, which is why I started adding them to my Happy Jar.
Most of the pictures are selfies Jerneja and I took when we met up in Slovenia. I've also added a picture of my high school friend and me from when we went to see Bill Bailey in Amsterdam back in September. My happiest memories always have something to do with the people I care most about.
Then there's one last thing left in my Happy Jar. They're the most recent additions: tweets. That may sound silly to some of you, I know. But sometimes when someone tweets me a compliment or quotes my tweet, I just feel so happy and appreciated. It would make no sense to keep the tweets away from my Happy Jar. They make it so much more diverse and personal.

Once I've gone through all the items in my Happy Jar, I always find myself smiling. No matter how bad my day, my week or even my month is, the memories and pictures in the jar always make me happy again. A year from now I hope I can open my Happy Jar to many many more happy memories and share them with you guys again.

Yes, you read that right, I'm officially back! For those of you who've missed me: don't worry, I won't disappear the way I did ever again! For those of you who didn't notice I was gone: I was gone, but now I'm back! Minus a boyfriend, but with a plan for the future and a lot more optimism. Now I'm getting ahead of myself though. Let me fill you in on the details of what happened, where I've been and what's going to happen on Lost in Translation from now on.