I’ve been nominated for the Liebster Award twice this week! A big thank you to Tatu from wonderlandbytatu and to the Olga from europeanmama! – Please check out their wonderful blogs!

The rules

Well, the rules indicated by Tatu and Olga are slightly different,I’ll try to combine them.

• Post 11 random facts about yourself.
• Answer the questions posed by your nominator.
• Pass the award on to eleven new recipients (make sure that the blogs you choose have 200 or less followers).
• Pose eleven new questions to your bloggers.
• Post a copy of the badge on your blog (type “Liebster Award” into Google images; you’ll find plenty to choose from).
• You are NOT allowed to nominate the blog who nominated you!

And here we go:

11 random facts about myself:

1. I once dreamed to open an international bookstore-café.

2. I love good movies.

3. I love dogs.

4. I do yoga regularly.

5. I need to write, when I don’t I feel miserable.

6. I don’t like to go skiing. I was probably traumatized when I was young (too cold…).

7. Whenever I can, I prefer to travel by train rather than plane.

8. I love my bakfiets and I’m a bit sad that I don’t have as many opportunities to use it with my kids in the „bak“ (box) like a few years ago…

9. I bake home made pizza every week.

10. I get nervous if it’s too noisy around me (yes, children included…).

11. I love to walk on the Dutch beach!

Answer the 11 questions (well, that would be 22 for me…)

From Tatu:

1) If you could spend half a day with a famous person, who would you choose and why?

Jon Kabat-Zinn, because he practices mindfulness meditation as a technique to help people cope with stress, anxiety, pain and illness. I admire the way he and his Mind and Life institute organize dialogues between the Dalai Lama and the Western scientists.

2) Favourite food?

Oh, I love food! It’s difficult to pick one: maybe the lasagna-moussaka-chocolatecake-fruit salad (not mixed, please) 😉

3) What do you despise?

Intolerance and prejudices.

4) Truth or Dare?

Truth.

5) Are you a TV or a books person?

I’m more a book person, but I like good movies, so I would define myself as a „book-good-movie“ person.

6) Best day of your life & why?

A few weeks after my girls were born I had to spend a few days with one of them at the hospital. When we finally got back home, released and grateful that she didn’t have any serious illness, we all sat together very quietly and I realized what my life would be from now on. – It was a very peaceful and sunny day.

7) All time favourite movie?

Love actually (or Midnight in Paris, Les Intouchables, The Artist, Pulp Fiction, The Name of the Rose…)

8) Sea or mountain?

Sea.

9) Favourite destination & why?

This depends on my mood: right now (due to the persisting cold weather): any place where it’s warm! Maybe a Greek Island…

10) Homemade or storebought?

Homemade!

11) If you could change one thing about you, what would it be?

My age 😉

From Olga:

1) Do you enjoy blogging?

Yes, a lot! I need to write and what I missed while writing scientific articles, was the almost immediate feedback. I love my blogger-community and am glad that I found it!

2) What do you do to relax?

There are several things I do, depending on my mood: go power walking, play with my kids, reading, writing, cooking, dancing or sleep.

3) Do you have a parenting philosophy?  How would you describe it?

I like the Love&Logic  http://www.loveandlogic.com/ style. My philosophy: „Encourage your children to think about what they do, how they do it and why.“

4) Finish this sentence: when my children drive me crazy, I…

leave the room, take a few deep breaths and come back. If this is not possible, I raise my voice and tell them that I would like to leave the room…–  usually they drive me crazy when the Db are very high…

5) If you could live wherever you wanted to, where would you live?

In Paris.

6) Do you enjoy doing housework?

Not always. – I don’t like to tidy up the mess of others, but for the rest I’m fine. I would really appreciate if someone could finally invent the „washing-drying-ironing and putting-back-in-the-drawers machine“…

7) What do you wish you had more of?

Time and energy.

8) What is your favourite book and why?

This is the most difficult question for me, as I don’t have only one favourite book but about 30.

9) Can you cook?

Yes, I love cooking and baking!

10) What’s your favourite part of the day?

Before having children the evening was „my“ moment. Now I would say the morning, when the children are at school and I have time to do my things.

11) Do you watch TV series? If so, which ones?

I like West Wings, Bones, Numb3rs, Being Erica, Friends…

My nominated blogs are:

1) Jenny’s amazing blog about Mindful Leadership and Intercultural Communication

2) The very passionate blog about languages called Loving Language

3) The 2 languages 2 worlds blog from Brian, Elisabeth, Nidhi and Swathi

4) Mae’s language lounge, a blog of a passionate poliglot

5) Marian van Bakel’s blog mainly about expatriation and intercultural communication (but much more) from a scientific perspective

6) Francisco Olivares’ blog Linguaphile apprentice where he would like to share free resources about language acquisition and contents with linguaphiles and English learners

7) The shared blog of Multicultural mothering, where women share advice and stories about mothering.

8) Tessa’s very inspiring and helpful blog, Help! I’m a stay at home mum, where she talks about the challenges of stay-at-home-mums and gives helps them to find their new role and identity and feel comfortable about the changes.

9) Dona’s very inspiring blog  Home is where your Mom is.

10) Tim’s passionate blog about being expat: Help! I’m an expat.

11) Jaclyn’s blog Kinda Crunchy, about her life with a newborn boy.

And here are my 11 questions:

1) What makes you happy?

2) What language would you wish to learn and why?

3) Why did you start blogging?

4) What is your favourite film or series and why?

5) What is your favourite book and why?

6) Which nationality would you choose, if you could and why?

7) Do you like to cook?

8) What is your favourite food?

9) Morning or evening?

10) Mountain or beach?

11) What is your favourite means of transportation?