My Life as Lisa: Follow me!

No, this is not an advert for twitter. Actually, this is not meant as an advert at all, it is purely an expression of the highest excitement possible. And I am a person that can get reaaaaally excited, so beware!

I am planning a movie. Of course, I have always been a huge fan of whatever CameRA does, but now finally inspiration struck me to complete my own masterpiece (hopefully). I will film our very own Doctor Who Episode! It seemed a bit of a silly idea at first, a whim of the moment, not a real plan. However, the idea haunted me so much (case of inception?) that I could not get rid off it anymore. And after I figured out how to solve some technical problems that would be inevitably linked with this project I thought: Why not? and could not be stopped by any human creature alive.

Anyhow, it was also clear to me that no matter how fantastic I find this idea, a movie is an enormous project. Such a project with RA students that never have time to even help out their closest friends for 10 minutes? How would that ever be possible? Furthermore, it is a Doctor Who Episode, we need a complete soundtrack re-recorded or composed not to violate any copyrights. Yeeeeah, sure, Lisa, dream on. Is what I thought.

I also thought asking never hurt anybody, so I did, expecting to get a. an awful lot of rejections b. no email at all.

Dear reader, you have to understand: As amazing as RA students are, they just do not reply to their emails. Don’t ask me why it is too hard to send a short one-sentence-notice about something very important, but apparently it is for 80% of our oh-so-busy-students (yes, I know we are busy, but so am I, don’t use this as an argument!). So, I wrote this enthusiastic email about how much I want to film this Dr. Who episode and who was willing to help with basically anything. Before I clicked on “send” I asked a friend: Do you think I will get any replies to this? He said: Don’t count on it, please don’t be so sad if not.

1 minute later my mailbox informed me with a little bleep that there was an email. And another one. And another one. And another one! I felt a bit like Harry Potter jumping around all these letters from Hogwarts. So many emails! Replies to me asking a huge favour from people, to give me a lot of their time, a lot of their energy…and they were all willing! Those who would not help out even replied as well, congratulating me to the idea and wishing me good luck with the project.

If you see someone singing and dancing through Eleanor, it will be me. I am so happy. All this support that I had never expected but secretly hoped for so much! All this enthusiasm, I am so, so, so glad!

Also, I hereby want to utter a warning:
Be careful. Aliens will invade Middelburg soon. You have three months time to evacuate, or prepare to meet a Timelord and his companion. Watch out for a blue telephone box.

Lisa Theresa is a theatre&media studies student, minoring in Statistics merely for the sake of insanity. She is a second year at Roosevelt Academy and apart from work in other committees head of the Campus News Project  (www.ra-campusnews.webs.com).

My Life as Lisa: Campus News

I cannot end this semester without saying anything about Campus News.
Ever since the committee CameRA, of which I am a proud member, mentioned that this project needs an adoptive parent, I have been working on plans, schedules, scripts and interview questions for it. Campus News, I was convinced, should happen, be, and develop into a really cool little video show that people look forward to every two weeks. I even made my parents buy me a camera to do the required filming – it was certainly not the happiest day of their life when they passed the cashier, but I hope the result makes them a bit proud and happy of their investment.

As the semester ends, so does the first season of Campus News…I call it the first season because there will be another two seasons, for sure. I will not give up on this project as long as I am still a student at RA! I truly hope that when I graduate, I have found an amazing team and someone capable and enthusiastic to take over the project and hopefully the tradition that we have built up until then. Campus News started with an episode about intRAweek, celebrated Valentine’s Day, explored the horrors of Midtermweek, rejoiced life in spring, followed the elections and tried to catch some bunnies. Moreover, there is an awfully long episode about the movie ‘The Successor’, but I particularly like it. I don’t know how I feel about all these viewers being so happy about the introduction of this certain episode (go and check it out if you haven’t seen it yet), but I scripted it, so I try not to take it personally and take it as a compliment.

At the moment I am collecting comments and suggestions for the episodes to come in the next semesters in the Campus News Box in Eleanor. I hope you all have somewhat enjoyed it and in the next semester it will be even more awesome! The first season was a jump into the cold water (quite successfully though, luckily), the second season can only mean even more fun and entertainment to come.

Lastly I want to say that Campus News is more than happy about any new members (just contact me!) and your input! The box will still be up for the last week, so this is your chance! If you miss it, I am sure you will figure out how to find me anyways.

Lisa Theresa is a theatre&media studies student, minoring in Statistics merely for the sake of insanity. She is a second year at Roosevelt Academy and apart from work in other committees head of the Campus News Project  (www.ra-campusnews.webs.com).

My Life as Lisa: Extra Work

If you pass my door you might hear uncontrolled, hysterical laughter. Excuse me if I am loosing my mind, but I have to do extra work. Yes, my dear readers, you have read correctly: Extra work.

Until now Roosevelt Academy was quite alright, survivable, only for one reason…because we knew at least that the teachers understood us. That they worked themselves to near-death-experiences just as much as we do. I do not want to say they stopped working, because they most certainly have not, but at the moment I have to do such a lot that I am loosing my faith in “seeing a light at the end of the tunnel”. Actually my agenda says for the 20^th, the last day of the semester: YAY YOU HAVE SURVIVED!....well, have you?

The thing is, I am taking a few courses at the moment, for which all the end-of-term-evaluations should have the result “it is a good course, but one assignment/essay/presentation/exam less at the end of the semester would do”.

A teacher even assured my course that one of the various tasks will be scrapped because it is actually not doable…next semester.

So I do still have to survive these admittedly almost impossible courses….and do extra work! The last semesters I knew that if I worked myself crazy, it would be rewarded. This semester I have to do extra work to earn the grade I deserve.

Professors, give us a break! Only because we are young does not mean we can perform supernatural amounts of work. We might be young now, but if this goes on like it is now for the next year, we will age faster and all look like this soon:

I don’t know if anyone cares for my opinion, but I don’t think it is a particularly enjoyable sight. Please, just be so sensitive as to give us time to use Anti-Aging Cremes.

Lisa Theresa is a theatre&media studies student, minoring in Statistics merely for the sake of insanity. She is a second year at Roosevelt Academy and apart from work in other committees head of the Campus News Project  (www.ra-campusnews.webs.com).

My Life as Lisa: and then I woke up married to an ugly pineapple

Have you ever watched Ice Age? Monster, Inc.? A Bug’s Life? The Hunchback of Notre Dame? Ratatouille? Tarzan? Finding Nemo? Mulan? Okay, I think you get the point…Though, may I mention one more? HOP – you might not have heard of that one yet, but it seems like one of the cutest movies that exists. Why am I listing those endless movies? People that know me better will probably not very surprised; I am a film-student and all I do all day long is listing movies, plots, actors, characters, music and so on and so on all the time. People that know me will probably have shut down their listening-modus already at the beginning of the this paragraph, merely for self-defense purposes. I promise though to everyone who has read this so far, the conclusion of this list will be worth it.

I was going to meet Peter De Séve, the man who created the characters for all those above mentioned movies. He also draws the covers for the New Yorker, a highly prestigious and sophisticated magazine. Believe me, those covers are brilliant. There is so much detail in them! If you feel like procrastination, why don’t you visit Peter’s website and look at all the amazing things he did?        

You might wonder whether I was nervous. I will make the answer to this very simple: Hell yes! Nervous, excited but most of all incredibly happy. After the first ever email of him, I was so happy and excited that I jumped against a shelf. You can imagine in which state I was in at that moment, on the train towards Utrecht.

When I arrived, it took a while for me to find the university where the lecture would take place and strolled around there. Oh and there on the other side of the street was Peter De Séve. I made my way towards the door of….wait, what?

There on the other side of the street was Peter De Séve. Alone. No Groupies jumping on him. How could that be? After recovering from at least two heart attacks, I summoned all of my strength and went towards him. He immediately treated me like an old friend. I got three kisses on the cheek (“That is how you do it in the Netherlands, right?”) and we went inside for the technical check up. The rest of the day I was by his side, I felt like a real V.I.P.

I like to think that people wondered who that girl by his side was all the time. Most likely they did not but I like the idea. And, you can be sure, I like-liked the day!

Sadly, it was over much too soon. Okay, actually there was nothing to be sad about after all; even though it was unfortunate that this day would ever come to an end, there is absolutely nothing to complain about. I can certainly say I left to Middelburg with a big smile on my face.

P.S.: His lecture was amazing, if you want to see a bit of it, you can check out the bunnies! episode of campus news that can be found on youtube/the website.

 Lisa Theresa is a theatre&media studies student, minoring in Statistics merely for the sake of insanity. She is a second year at Roosevelt Academy and apart from work in other committees head of the Campus News Project  (www.ra-campusnews.webs.com).

My Life as Lisa: Get involved and vote!

The Election GA is coming up – and there is still space to walk and breathe in the corridors of our university buildings. A year ago we were literally buried with campaign posters. It was so crazy, we got anti-election-poster-posters, photographed the insanity and got sweet but firm warnings in newsletters to please keep at least one tree of the rain forest alive.

What the reason for this was, I do not know. I don’t think it is a lack of passion and interest in the candidates (luckily). Maybe there was something especially stimulating in the air last year (literally: the amount of weddings and engagements also seems significantly higher than in 2011).

However, this calmed down attitude had a great influence on me and made me actually go to the pre-election night. The quality of the speeches positively surprised me and my heart is genuinely set on fire for some candidates. I will not blur out my preferences now because I do not find that very fair – but I want to wish all candidates the best of luck and I am curious what the elections on Tuesday will bring.

Are you still undecided who to vote for? Recap on the candidates with the Campus News Election Special for Spring 2011:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNSTvLo0Q30

Lisa Theresa is a 2nd year Theatre&Media Student, minoring in Statistics merely for the sake of insanity. Currently she is wondering of who will win the elections and pondering on who to vote for.

My Life As Lisa: Welcome Spring, the world says Hello!

Roosevelt Academy united. All students are forming one powerful unity.
Together we are strong. Recently, the RA students assembled to an influential entity, affecting a nationwide decision. You might now wonder: What was it that this excellent university achieved?

Did they win important sports tournaments?

Did they participate in life-changing research?

Did they convince politicians to free Tibet?

I am afraid the answer is “no“. Probably due to the otherwise intellectually challenging activities (or maybe that is just a lame excuse), we succumbed to triviality and put all our energy into a slightly less sophisticated goal than those mentioned above. We, with joined forces, brought the Ben&Jerry’s Free Cone Day to Middelburg on April 12^th. For days and days, students have been voting and promoting Middelburg on facebook. Which again proves the uniting power of Ben&Jerry’s ice cream. It simply is a temptation too hard to resist – for anyone. And not just girls that lately lived through a bad breakup, that is mostly just a good excuse to eat the whole bucket of B&J’s ice. A guilty pleasure we all secretly want to commit but don’t, so we don’t get fat and are therefore broken up with and need to stuff ourselves to drown the sorrow. It’s a vicious circle.

On top of all this, it rounds off our sunshiny days perfectly. It gives us a reason to slow down, stroll across the market square in the wonderful spring air and let our noses be tickled by the sun – at least the amount of time the free Ben&Jerry’s takes to melt deliciously on our tongues.

Enjoy!
Lisa

P.S. For more spring inducing and flowery stuff, check out the latest Campus News Episode (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hyfuKgwA_s

My name is Lisa Theresa, I'm a Theatre&Media Studies Student, minoring in Statistics merely for the sake of insanity. I am a second year at Roosevelt Academy and apart from work in other committees head of the Campus News Project (www.ra-campusnews.webs.com).

My Life as Lisa: I’ve been looking for Freedom

For the first time in roughly two months I get up early with a smile on my face (instead of cursing the day) and welcome the sun into my room. The breakfast I buy at the Agrimarkt on the way to the station where I take the train to Antwerp. I don't have a certain plan or goal: I just want to stroll around in the sunshine and enjoy life. Preferably while shopping – hey, I am only human (and female), too. Unfortunately my dear (male) companion ends up exhausted after an hour of me running through different shops, squeaking from joy about every handbag, shoe or jewellery item that I can get into my hands (and put down again with a sad sigh – hey, I am only a poor student, too). I end up staying till 22.30 p.m., allowing myself to have a cool Guinness at the Irish Pub. When I take the train home, I wonder what the next day will bring. The clue about this: I don't know yet and I don't care, it will be amazing anyway.

Those were my two days of ultimate freedom. Two days - makes a weekend. And a luxury RA students usually cannot have. I took this freedom anyway and at this point I can literally feel my teachers and fellow students shaking their heads. But it was Spring BREAK and the week after unleashed-from-hell-midterm-week. I deserved it!!!! I deserved it. I ....didn't I? Here comes the ugly truth about my university. Yes, I deserved it. We all deserve it after working our fingers bloody from typing endless essays, sleep depriviation of 7 weeks (= our semester so far) and a worrying lack of private life. We cannot have it, though. We need to be available 24/7 for all sorts of groupwork crises and assignment related nervous breakdowns from all sides. Even on vacation.

Still I took those days off. Why? Because...well....mere whimsy. Because I can. Because I am cool like that. What a rebel I am, hah! The sun is shining. I can meet my friends again. I see my parents, finally eat good food and actually have the time to catch up on all those TV series I am so crazy about. Flowers are blossoming: spring is on its way. Life is good. Don't get me wrong, I love RA: We are all mad here. Some say you can only survive if you are as mad as a hatter (luckily I am, too, Johnny!). Life at RA is crazy but beautiful (hey, we also have sun and flowers and sometimes TV session here, too). There is this scene in Mona Lisa Smile when the teacher is completely perplexed when all the students have read the entire textbook for the course already. Ever since I can remember I have wanted this. And it is soooo RA.

I love being a student. Therefore I need(ed) those two days off and I know deep inside you all grant me them, even if there is a stench of jealousy. Because now my batteries are reloaded for another 8 weeks of gorgeous insanity. Now I can put all my energy, heart and passion into my studies again. I am ready for the rest of the semester, which, honestly, sometimes can seem a bit scary. But all I can say to this is:

 Bring it on. Challenge accepted!

My name is Lisa Theresa, I'm a Theatre&Media Studies Student, minoring in Statistics merely for the sake of insanity. I am a second year at Roosevelt Academy and apart from work in other committees head of the Campus News Project (www.ra-campusnews.webs.com).

Lisa: You want a piece of me

...or not. But you'll get a minimum of ten pieces of me anyway. Let's try to properly introduce myself. After all I want you to return to this blog, and this seems more likely if you know who-the-heck is writing this:

Know thyself, the Oracle of Delphi said, so they did in The Matrix, and now I do this for the Roosevelt Academy student blog, so finally I gave in and tried, hoping that there would be a lot more to me than there is to me.
I am glittery, inquisitive, whimsical, a film-admirer and literature-lover, cute, young-at-heart while actually still not so old in age, lavish, silly, sometimes I’m funny, shiny, pretty darn hot (in my vivid imagination), cheerful, sunny, joyful, only a little depressed when I’m sad,
I surrender to the strawberry ice-cream, eloquently nonsensical, so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying – or maybe just quoting Oscar Wilde too often, nocturnal, I like strawberries, penguins and soap bubbles but not at the same time,  trallalla, formidable, rainbows are more awesome in London and Paris, Smiley Fries make me grin and Disneyland makes me sing, hanging out in the fancy bars with the boys who can play guitar, toodeloo, cosmopolitan, I want everything I’ve ever seen in the movies, curious and curiouser, James McAvoy’s second wife-to-be, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, rare limited edition, oh shucks!, I am not what you think I am – I am GOLDEN: simply me, Lisa Theresa.

Here we go. This is My Life as Lisa and from now on you will be updated live from Middelburg about it. Back to the studio!

My name is Lisa Theresa Kölle, I'm a Theatre&Media Studies Student, minoring in Statistics merely for the sake of insanity. I am a second year at Roosevelt Academy and apart from work in other committees head of the Campus News Project (www.ra-campusnews.webs.com).