My name, as you might guess, is Astrid. I was born three months premature on June 27, 1986 in Rotterdam (Netherlands). My prematurity left me with Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP), from which I'm blind. On this site you can learn more about blindness and prematurity.
I live in a small town in the Netherlands called Apeldoorn with my parents and my younger sister named Sigrid (she's 16). We have a Norwegian wildcat named Inspector Morse (Morse for short), who's about three years old and is VERY cute.
I'm a student at a public high school called Gymnasium Apeldoorn. I just finished 11th grade (5th form as we call it) and am starting my senior year in the last week of August with a collection of subjects, called Culture & Society, which includes languages, history, geography, philosophy, economics (as an optional course) and all the subjects everyone has to take. My favourite subjects are history, English and philosophy. I'm going to major in English once I go to university, but am not yet sure where.
My main hobby/interest is the Internet; I sort of hang around online 24/7. I enjoy E-mailing and am a member of various mailing lists. I also like chatting on IRC Channels, keeping online journals and searching for info on the net.
I also like writing. I used to be a creative writer, writing mainly somewhat autobiographical stories and poems. However, now I mostly write articles. They're also autobiographical, but they're nonfictional.
My main interests include news, recent history and politics. I like to hear the news from both the conventional sources like CNN and the BBC and the alternative media like Indymedia. I also like discussing news and political issues with others. I'm a member of the Socialist Party. Other interests of mine include disability issues (mainly education), onomastics (study of names), linguistics, classical (mainly British and American) literature and the topics relating to calendars, times and dates. My absolutely favourite mathematical task is therefore calendar calculation *LOL*.
Where it comes to sports, I'm not really a sportswoman. I do go to fitness twice a week and like that pretty much. I also enjoy swimming and horseback riding, but don't do that toooften. I pretty much hate competitive sports.
Well, I hope you now know a little bit about me and enjoy my site!
Astrid
