Caia

I'm 18, and technically Dutch, but I've lived all over the place; three years in Bhutan, three years in the Netherlands, 7 years in Vietnam, and I'm in Belgium at the moment...so I'm more of a nomad than anything else (nope, no patriotism whatsoever...though, in all fairness, that's not exactly something the Dutch are known for anyway. )

I graduated from the International Baccalaureate this year (happy dance), and am looking forward to a gap year (half spent working, half travelling), after which I'll be moving to London to study Biology. I'm excited out of my wits to be moving there...the only living-in-a-city-the-size-of-a-small-country (and by small, I do mean larger than Luxembourg) thing I'm worried about is my non-existent sense of direction. Maybe I should get a GPS system planted into my head...aah, now there's an idea.

I'm always looking for new artists, so the list is virtually endless, but I'll give a few of my 'most listened to' :

Antony and the Johnsons, Andrew Bird, Regina Spektor,Eric Clapton, The Doors, JJ Cale, Tom Waits, The White Stripes,Spoon, Ray Lamontage, Nina Simone, Squirrel Nut Zippers, The Rolling Stones, The Shins, The Beatles, Bloc Party, Xavier Rudd, Jose Gonzalez, Jimi Hendrix, Ray Charles, Bloc Party,Iron and Wine (I've had The Shepherd's Dog on constant repeat for about a month now),Of Montreal....eeetcc

Oh, and I know it's not music, but I love listening to Eddie Izzard's stand up comedy as well. Many wise lessons to be learnt there.."Guns don't kill people, people kill people, and monkeys do too (if they have a gun)".

Anything by Haruki Murakami is absolutely amazing. The man is nothing short of a genius. I can walk around all day pretending to be a character in one of his books...not living in Japan sort of bursts my bubble though.

Most books by Terry Pratchett are simply hilarious...aaah, I do love my Discworld novels :)

Other than that, I read about a book per week, so it's hard to pick out favorites. hm, I'll have to think this one over a bit longer.

Garden State, Lost in Translation,As it is in Heaven, Coffee and Cigarettes... I can't think of any more titles at the moment, but there are plenty more. My preference generally goes out to arthouse movies.

• Green (!), Red, Orange, Brownish/cream colours work too
• Cinnamon...hmmm, cinnamon. Actually, anything that reminds me of the way christmas smells.
• Funky pins (beady felty ones for example, but nothing pink or glittery )
• vintage
• Anything with a bit of humour.
• Wooly things (scarves, socks..you name it)
• TEA (I have an entire shelf reserved especially for my (extensive) collection :) )
• organic things
• lip balm (I'm not too keen on the candy flavoured ones though...they make me want to eat my lips, and impulses like that can cause accidents :P)
• books (I may just have to burn chick lit though)
• handmade things are greatly appreciated
• funky small purses
• The Twilight Zone (The Rod Serling version)...tududududu
• animals, just about all of them, but sheep, owls, elephants, crows, and pigs in particular.
• photography (my flickr site has quite a few of my own photos up)
• strange buttons (clothing buttons)
• 1960's, 1970's
• music (cd mixes with added commentary would be great. But preferably nothing too mainstream or damn-I-think-I-may-just-have-gone-deaf-from-the-screaming type of music)
• movies (arthouse)
• Plain weird stuff generally bodes well :)

• please please please, nothing pink and fluffy
• NO Kawaii...puhlease! (Hello Kitty and I don't get along)
• I don't have my ears pierced, and I hardly ever wear any glitterly jewelry..though rope/bead/shell type of things are fine
• Gothic
• Religious material
• Fluorescent colours.
• make up (I really need to know none of it is tested on animals)
• candy, chocolate
• anything grape or strawberry tasting (yugh)