Hi, I'm Nicky, a 21 year old student from the Netherlands.
Overall I am cynical, sarcastic and self-aware. I like shopping, traveling, getting to know more about other people and having a good time in company of friends. I would love to try all sushi restaurants in the world. I love getting to know more about different cultures and languages. So when I was 14 I realized that I was interested in other things and studied Latin and classic and new Greek. I graduated from high school A-levels. I now study Russian at one of the biggest universities in the Netherlands.
Russian specifically interests me because of how cool it sounds and because I like a challenge. As is probably known, Russian is not an easy language to learn but it is definitely interesting. Although the job perspective within this branch is not very bright nowadays, I like to get to know more about my passion and I'm absolutely sure that I'm doing what I love. Personally I think that that's the most important thing rather than looking from an economic perspective what would be a smart thing to do. I decided long ago that I live to be happy. Because of the kind of society that we live in, work is a necessary part of our lives and therefore has to be something interesting. Something I can keep myself content with. When I get the question "what do you do", and I answer it, the responses are often very patronizing and arrogant. Here's what the mainstream folks do and how I think about it. Along with studying subjects on Russian culture come chats with people in my country who think that Putin jokes are funny and that they know something about Russian politics. I absolutely do not want to engage in any kind of political discussion with you. My major might be politics and history, but this doesn't mean that you can imply that I want to discuss with you, and it definitely doesn't imply that I agree with Russian politics. I am not willing to give any opinion on what subject concerningHere's what I have to say to you:
Yes I already know that you've never met someone who studied Russian, no I might not have a job later but that's more because of the economic crisis rather than because of my studies so the same problem counts for you and no I do not feel like speaking Russian to you. Although I can see that you look down on me, in fact I look down on you because I am absolutely happy with what I'm doing. I will try to change the sphere now because things are getting a little out of hand. Negative reactions to my studies can make me very annoyed and a little aggressive from time to time, so let’s talk about about my biggest passion.On the weekends me and my friends look like this:
On one of those weekends I got drunk, fell of a stairs and broke my foot while I was in Russia for 3 months. I had already booked a ticket to Yekaterinburg and I was stubborn, so I went anyway. I walked around with a broken foot and did some sightseeing. It was amazing seeing the “real Russia” in contrast with those cities that look a lot like Europe. This is me with a broken food walked around -30 degree Yekaterinburg
I have grown up listening to music. There was always music around me. I started playing instruments myself when I was 11 years old. I played drums a few years, later started playing violin and guitar. Unfortunately I’ve had to deal with some darker periods in my life, but making music and writing songs gave me some kind of way to express myself while not having to put my feelings into words.
I have been a die-hard Green Day and Paramore fan since I was 10.My dad was the best: I was 10 years old and wanted to see the GreenDay concert. He took me, though the tickets were expensive for us because we didn’t have a big budget. I bought the American Idiot hand grenade shirt and wore it to the lower school, about which my mum was not very excited. From that moment on we went to concerts together very often. I have been very happy and met as well Green Day and Paramore by being a groupie and waiting at the backstage area after their shows. Having grown up with music, I cannot live one day without. Since I do now have a photo of me playing an instrument, here’s one of me in Amsterdam eating a typical Dutch ice cream called “raketje”.
The person that has been the most supportive of me all my life is my grandma. She was the sweetest, bravest and most amazing person I’ve ever met. She was my “psychologist” for all my little teenager problems and missing her is very hard. Due to personal situations, I lived at my grandma’s house for 7 years. I even called her ‘mum’ accidentally sometimes, because it felt that way. She was a very sick 80 year old woman, but nonetheless I told her to wear my nikies and take selfies.
Here are some other shocking or less shocking facts about me: I have probably spent almost €2000 on shoes in the past 5 years, I’d rather sleep on a Saturday night than go out, I pretend to be a Dutch patriot, I drink diet sodas so I can eat more chocolate and I think hippo’s are cute.