"She's had a lot going on recently and she's coming out of detox...if anything I'll get her a sandwich"

Wise words from my sister.

my back yard.

Last night was one of the craziest snow storms I've seen, partly because it happened before October was even over but mostly because trees were falling down everywhere and it is only October!

Plus, the fact that we were practically snowed in the weekend of Halloween is just absurd!  Certainly put a damper on all those slutty costumes you usually see.  The real sluts are the ones that still came out half naked even in the snow storm! Props to you girls.

I had a last minute costume that I am quite proud of because it was hilarious.  I just dressed as a Mexican. Yes, racist but let's not overlook the fact that I drew on a mustache and it was awesome.  At one point I even had a handlebar mustache.

I don't really have a whole lot to say in this update, I'm not even sure why it is I am writing this blog.  I'm not in Europe anymore, I'm not doing anything exciting...in fact quite the opposite.  My life pretty much consists of working and babysitting as much as I can.  But I am halfway there to choosing a family and moving back to Amsterdam! So there's that.

And don't worry, Mom.  A blog for the rest of my trips in Europe is still to come when the inspiration/motivation hits.

The long awaited update....

So it seems I am finally out of my granny slump and staying up past 9 pm and now it is just past 11 pm and I don't feel tired!  My mom has been bugging me that I never finished updating my blog since Lisbon and Madrid.  I just got so far behind that there seemed to be a huge chunk left out that it was overwhelming and never at the top of my list of things to do since I am now back home.

Before I get to the most recent goings on in my life...I will backtrack to where I left off.  It's been over 2 months now so the details may start to become a bit fuzzy; either because of time or maybe the alcohol had an effect :-p

I love this picture of us!!

I guess I left off with Tara coming to Amsterdam...she wasn't at my place for very long.  That part of her trip was all sort of last minute and not very well planned since she had a change in her plans.  We were in Rotterdam for probably 2 days and I got to show her around.  Caroline joined us one day because my family told me I could leave early but then she seemed kind of bummed when we were going and we invited her to tag along.  It was a lot of fun; we went for a bike ride around Delfshaven which is the older part of Rotterdam.  Caroline loves to take pictures and so she was enjoying playing photographer and it was nice to have pictures of Tara and I both. 

After showing Tara around Rotterdam, we went to Amsterdam for a night/day.  It was a super fast and rushed visit.  We ended up not having a whole bunch of time to be actually see much of Amsterdam (that's a story not meant for this blog hahaha) but she was able to see a bit.  Just means that she will have to go back for longer!!

Tara left and then I had about a week left of working before my family left for their 3 week holiday.  It was a really laid back week since the kids weren't in school anymore and I spent some time trying to pack since Trevor was coming to visit me the week that my family left and I needed to pack for our trip to Italy and pack to go home!

Trevor showed up at my door bright and early on July 24th soaking wet from the rain.  He was tired and I'm pretty sure it was 7 am so he just came in and slept for a few hours.  Honestly don't recall much of what we did that day...I don't think we did a whole lot.  We spent the week in Rotterdam and Amsterdam.  One day we went to Kinderdijk which is a little town in the Netherlands FULL of windmills.  I can't believe I hadn't been there before Trevor's visit or with anyone else.  It is such a typical Dutch place and perfect sight seeing for tourists.

We also spent a day in Delft and in Den Haag. We went out in Amsterdam on two different nights and then spent a day walking around the city.




After the week in the Netherlands we were headed to Italy!!! And sorry, but I am going to end here because I think it's time I try to sleep.  So the next update will be about my week in Italy and life since then...I promise I will write that update soon.  I have to or else I won't remember anything and I'll just have pictures to look at.

Lisbon...

Train Station Rossio

Wednesday, July 6th was my birthday!!! We also had a flight to Lisbon bright and early.  Our original plan was to stay in on Tuesday night because we had been out every night prior but of course we ended up going out with new friends.  I had to celebrate my birthday obviously!  Our day ended and started essentially at the same time...we got our bags together and rushed out the door to the metro which started running at 6 am.  We needed to catch the first train to make sure we got to the airport on time.  We looked like crazy people running through the metro, I fell up the stairs and was just all around loud and a bit drunk...meanwhile people were headed to work since it was a Wednesday.  We got to the airport and there was a huge line for check-in so I just cut everyone and asked the guy if it was too late to check in and luckily he was like well you are here right now I'll just check you in and so thankfully we were able to run to security and get on our flight just in the nick of time!

On our tour we met 2 Australian guys we ended up seeing out later that night also.  After the tour we went to get something to eat quickly and then headed to the hostel to finally check into our room.  We promptly passed out and probably looked crazy to all the people that came in and out of the hostel during the afternoon.  Later we talked to one of the guys by our beds and he said he figured we probably had some crazy night and were just going to sleep then haha...he was right at least.  

We were at our hostel by 9:30 I think and couldn't check into our room until 2 pm.  Sitting there I thought we both might pass out and never wake up again but then someone came in offering a free walking tour at 10:30 so we figured that was our best bet seeing as how we didn't know our way around at all.  It ended up being the best idea we had to go on the tour because we met our tour guide Inez who we ended up spending a lot of time the rest of the week with.  We walked around a lot of the main sights and got a lot of the history as well.  At one point we walked up one of the 5 hills in Lisbon which when they say they have big hills..they are NOT joking.  It slowly got steeper and just kept going and going until finally you got to the top and had an amazing view of the whole city.

Our hostel was really cool.  The lounge room was all covered in crazy decor and then in the computer room the entire walls were covered in graffiti and drawn on by past guests.

This one on the right was one of my favorites.

We walked down towards the water and then eventually started to make our way up...literally UP all of the hills to a big castle.  It took us forever to find the entrance to the castle.  We kept following signs and just ended up being in the general area but we just keep seeing the castle from different sides.  Eventually we found the entrance but turns out it was not the public entrance and some security guard said he would call his friend and let him know to let us pass through.  Once we got to the right side for some reason we still could not find the entrance!  But finally we did and we spent awhile walking around.  It was another really pretty view of the water and of the city.

Aussie friends!

That night we headed out with 3 guys we met in our hostel; an American, a German and an Australian.  The German was the most bizarre guy we had ever met.  He was also incredibly annoying but was traveling alone and was with the other guys.  We all eventually made it up the hill and ended up in the area called Bairro Alto which means High District.  It's where there are a bunch of restaurant/bars that people usually start the night out at.  Since it is warm and they are all pretty small I guess the thing is to buy a drink and then head out into the street so it basically ends up being a big street party since you don't have to worry about taking your drink elsewhere.  The first bar we walked into ended up being the start of the pub crawl and we saw our Aussie friends again.  Since it was my birthday and our first night out we decided to stick around and go on the pub crawl.  The guide was a friend of our tour guide earlier and she was equally as awesome.  It was a really great birthday...lots of extra drinks from the guides and a really fun crowd of people.

Tower of Belem

The next day after a late start we made our way to Belem.  Belem is about a 15 minute tram ride from Lisbon and on the water.  It had a really pretty big church, the Belem tower and the momument of discoveries.  Sadly, we got to the tower 15 minutes after the last people were allowed in so we just saw from the outside.  At this point, Tara's feet were badly blistered and mine were starting to hurt as well.  I don't know how we managed to walk so long!

That night we decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner.  The rest of the week we hardly ate anything...with all the walking and such we just either forgot or never felt too hungry.  This night we went to a Portuguese restaurant that was suggested in my travel book.  We got my favorite Portuguese meal!! Arroz de Marisco.  It was for two people and there was plenty more for probably another two people!  I wish I could have kept eating but we were both stuffed.  Tara also decided to order wine and then we ended up with the entire bottle.  After the meal the waiter also gave us 2 free glasses (little) of some Port!  It was like drinking really strong red wine with a shot of vodka added in.  But at least we got to taste some Port wine which Portugal is known for.

The best tour guides!! Inez and Maria

Our plans to stay in were yet again foiled by the fact that we drank a bottle of wine.  We headed back to the hostel and we were just going to have a glass and have a relaxing night but it was waay way cheaper to just buy a bottle of wine at the hostel bar so of course that's what I did.  Then we ended up going out and running into the pub crawl again.  Our great friends Inez and Maria were both there and they loved us so much they let us go on the pub crawl for free!

The next day we went to Sintra, a small town about 20 minutes outside of Lisbon.  The hills here were even bigger!  We took the tour bus around to all the main sights; absolutely no way we could have walked the whole thing.  The streets were really narrow and all of the houses looked old.  We spent most of our afternoon there before heading back to our hostel to get ready for dinner.

The best dessert ever!

The two tour guides definitely helped to make our trip so much better.  Without them we wouldn't have learned as much or had such a fun time.  They both work at a different hostel then we were staying at and Inez invited us to join their dinner the next night.  They were cooking a big homemade Portuguese dinner for guests of their hostel but said that it would be fine if we came since they liked us so much! :)  So after getting lost and going the complete wrong direction we finally ended up at the hostel where we hung out with Maria for a bit while Inez cooked.  She cooked a typical Portuguese dish that was rice with chicken and beans.  It was delicious!! I am not a big fan of beans but these weren't so bad and the chicken was soo good.  For dessert we had salame for dessert which was like brownies except instead of baking it was put in the fridge and cold.  It was seriously fantastic!

Palace

The next morning I had to leave to go back to Madrid where my flight to Amsterdam was from.  Tara had the day alone in Lisbon and I spent the day in Madrid.  It was the first time I have traveled alone and at times it was lonely but it was kind of nice.  I didn't have to make plans with anyone else or consider anyone else but myself.  The only downside was when I didn't know what to do or when weird Spanish men followed me.  Tara and I had missed a lot of sights the first time around so I walked A LOT.  I saw the big Palace, gardens, Cathedral, managed to walk into a Spanish wedding and a whole bunch more!  It was a nice day and then I went to a hostel I had read about that had a cool bar where everyone hung out at night.  There I met a bunch of people...an American, Australian and a Scottish guy.  We ended up with 2 other Australian girls and we played a bunch of games before finally heading out to a bar.  At some point people started to leave the group and it ended up being me and the Scottish guy when I ran into the pub crawl I had gone on a few nights earlier and saw a group of Dutch guys.  I ended up following the Dutch guys to the next bar and club and spent the night with them.  It was nice to be around Dutch people again..they are so different then the other people I have met traveling.  After being here for a year, I felt more comfortable around the Dutch guys then other people.  Plus it doesn't hurt that they are cute! :)

That night I stayed out pretty late and then got on the metro at 6 am when it started running...slept for a few hours at the airport before hopping on my flight back here.  Tara had got to Amsterdam early before me and came to my house and spent the day napping and hanging out until I got back.  We were both absolutely beat after the week away so we had a nice dinner with my family and Ineke's sister's family for Morten's birthday and then an early nights sleep before showing Tara around Rotterdam the next day!

Finally getting around to updating again..I have been meaning to for awhile but I think as I have slowed down and lacked updates, people have also stopped reading so I don't have a whole lot of motivation for it.  Although, I guess in the end this will be a nice way to look back over my year abroad (or first of many...).

The other performers

Flamenco dancer

So what is new...Tara came to visit me for about a week and a half.  I met her in Madrid on July 3rd where we stayed until July 6th/MY BIRTHDAY and then we flew to Lisbon for the rest of the week before coming back to my house.  Madrid was nice, I think there are nicer cities in Spain I would like to see but at least the weather was much nicer than here.  In fact, it was kind of unbearably hot most of the time we were walking around.  It was crazy to have a friend from home travel with me in Europe but really nice to show her what it has been like for me the past year when I would travel for a bit.  Our hostel we had our own room and bathroom which was AWESOME and way too nice for Tara's first hostel experience haha...The first night we were there was the same night as a cheap flamenco performance was going on.  A bunch of hostels have joint events they put on each night so we decided to go on that.  It was in the basement of this little hole in the wall restaurant and everyone was really close sitting on stools.  The performers had a question and answer session which was nice since I don't think any other flamenco show allows that.  Flamenco was a lot different then what I had expected but still really cool; the girls shoes were so LOUD every time she stomped the floor.

Christiano Ronaldo

After the flamenco show we headed out for dinner which was at a normal Spanish hour...11 or so I think.  We had our first meal of paella and got a pitcher of sangria!  Both were very delicious.  It was funny to be in a country where neither of us spoke much of the language...we both took French in high school so the extent of our Spanish is just what we have picked up from other friends or hearing it around.  For some reason people in Madrid seemed to rarely speak English unless they were younger and even then they didn't speak a lot of it.  We decided to wander and try to find somewhere to go out afterwards and we ended up having some Spanish guy who was promoting his bar/club bring us down some side street and in we went.  Since it was still somewhat early to be going out it was mostly just Spanish people and later on some tourists started to come in but still wasn't that great of a bar.  We started talking to a Christiano Ronaldo look alike who spoke NO english whatsoever and somehow got him to understand we wanted to go elsewhere and so he took us to another bar.  He was really nice and communicating with him was quite entertaining.  I knew more Spanish than Tara but it was still full of half sentences, stuttering and lots of hand signals from both sides.  We spent most of our night with him before meeting some other Spanish people who actually spoke English and took us to a cool club with them.

Tara in the Plaza Mayor

Us in front of the park

The next day we wandered around and walked A LOT.  We saw the Plaza Mayor, Plaza del Sol and one of the big parks and a bunch of other things along the way.  It didn't seem like Madrid had as many sights to see as other cities I have visited.  It was still a cool city and certainly Spain is much different from all the other countries I've been to.  Sometime during the day we met some other American guys in our hostel from New York and we all decided we were going to go on the pub crawl that night.  Later on we saw them again when everyone met up for the pub crawl which ended up being huge when the other hostels were added in.  Lots of hot Australian boys too of course :) Can't complain about that!  One of the guides was also American and he was cool.  We spent most of the night hanging out with the guys from our hostel who the next day we ended up going to the Prado museum and walking around with them again and then going out together also.  At midnight it was my birthday so we had birthday shots and I got to celebrate my birthday with a whole bunch of new friends in a new city!  I even somehow met a guy that went to UConn.  It was so random, he and his friends were all from Connecticut and he had on the Jim Calhoun student section shirt from the year before!  We had the brilliant idea as well to just stay out all night until our flight to Lisbon which was at 7:30 am.  The metros opened at 6 am and we just barely made it with no time to spare to our flight.  It was a stressful morning to say the least seeing as how I was a bit tipsy still and we had had no sleep whatsoever.  We both zonked out on the flight.

Still to come...Lisbon post, Tara in Rotterdam/Amsterdam and life in general.

PS TREVOR COMES IN 2 DAYS!!!!!

countdown!

11 days until Tara and I are in Madrid!
14 days until my birthday and we go to Lisbon!!
17 days until Tara is in Amsterdam with me :)
32 days until Trevor comes to Amsterdam
39 days until Trevor and I go to ITALY!
~45 days until I go homeeee

Well hallelujah I got into school and I have accepted a place at Birkbeck College (University of London) and start classes October 2nd!!! Ah I can't believe I am going to be a masters student and that I am spending another year living abroad.  I don't know when I will think to myself "hey, i miss home and i want to live in america" so until then I will keep just scooting around the world.  There are still so many places left to see and experience so we'll see where I end up.

I'm a bit nervous and unsure about moving somewhere new and starting all over yet again.  I mean it wasn't hard in the least bit for me to find good friends and adapt to living in a new culture...but it'd be nice if I had a built in network somehow like as an au pair.  I guess I will through my classmates and such but when I get there I won't have a family waiting for me to help navigate the city and culture in the beginning.  The upside is they speak english, plus they have sexy accents!

Time is FLYING by.  I can't believe how soon people are going to start going home.  My birthday is rapidly approaching too and I turn 23 aka the 2nd anniversary of my 21st birthday.  I'm going to be in Lisbon for my birthday with my best friend Tarrraaa.  Her visit is coming up soon!!! July 3rd we will be meeting each other in Madrid and then after a few days there we head to Lisbon.  Then she is coming to Amsterdam to stay for a few days before heading back.  Shortly after that my family will be leaving for their holiday and I am going to be all alone in the house.  The quiet will be nice but I'm going to need to find things to do to occupy my time.  I guess start squeezing in everything I haven't had a chance to do yet since I won't have any responsibilities aside from feeding the cats/watching the house and not dying. Then July 24th Trevor will get here!! I can't believe he actually ended up planning a trip; Im so glad he did!  It will be really fun to show one of my best guy friends around and show him what my life has been for the past year.  I miss having a big group of guys to hang out with and goof off with.  He will be here for about a week and then we will go to Italy for 6 days!  At that point, I'll have had to have packed up all of my stuff (NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO THAT AT ALL!) and I need to figure out what I'm going to do with it all for the week I am gone and then the ~2 months I am at home for before moving to London.

So, good news everyone.  I'll be coming home sometime around August 6th or maybe a few days later depending on what my friends are doing and if I feel like jumping from couch to couch for a couple days before leaving.  Then I'll be home until middle/end of September when I will then move to London!  Everyone start saving your money and making plans to come visit me there next year!  Someone should join me for St. Patrick's Day in Dublin again :)

Procrastination...procrastination...procrastination...

Tomorrow is my interview for one of the universities in London that I applied to.  Thankfully, today is a holiday and I have the day off so I can spend all day preparing for it!  Although when it comes to procrastinating I am the queen.  I can find a million other things to do instead of what needs to be done.  None of them are worthwhile either or things that I would otherwise do if I didn't have some important thing to get done.  I know I do this and yet I still can't stop myself.  Writing this blog is just another thing on a long list of stuff to do to procrastinate.

The more I think about things for next year the more I really do realize that school is what I want to do.  I keep flip flopping partly because I want to go to school, study, learn and stimulate my brain again but I also love the idea of spending another year living somewhere and exploring, meeting new people like I have spent this last year.  Although, I think after a few months I would start to go stir crazy.  I need to do something productive and feel like I am getting somewhere so I really hope this whole school bit works out in the end.  If it does, then maybe after I get my Masters I can spend some time doing something different and living in another part of the world.  After all, I'm not even 23 yet (one month to go! eek) so I shouldn't stress too much about finding a job and figuring out my life in the next few months.

In other news, Trevor is coming to visit me the last week of July and 1st week of August!! I am so excited because the 2nd week he is here I'm planning a trip to Italy!  Everyone go ahead and google Cinque Terre because it is absolutely breathtaking and full of hiking with amazing cliffs, rocky edges and beautiful water!  Then we will probably see Pisa a bit and try to spend 2 days in Florence.  I'm stressing trying to plan this trip ASAP before flight prices go up anymore and I think we will have to couch surf to save money.  Seeing as how after being here for a year and only spending money I am going to be flat broke when I get home.  Another reason why I am stressing about next year!!! I won't work at summer camp this summer so my bank account will not get the nice little cushion it's used to. BAHHH So if anyone would like do donate money to the Danielle Fund feel free to do so...or for my birthday you could all give me money to fund my wonderful trips and allow me to afford to live at home for a few weeks in August.  I wouldn't hate it!

danielle gaat naar thuis!

Grandma....broke her fingers and has a sweet tie dyed cast 

Well well well.  I have Wednesdays off so when my family went away Wednesday-Sunday it gave me 5 days free!  I ended up going home, mostly so that I could go to the Portuguese Consulate and sign papers for my Portuguese nationality.  Being home was such a weird sensation.  The flight attendant sitting across from me on the Amsterdam-Philly flight told me the first thing I would notice was how different American airports are.  She couldn't have been more right.  I had never noticed it before but all the European airports I've been in are much quieter, slower, calmer and somehow way less crowded.  Philly was just a constant stream of voices and noise and people moving much faster.  It was nice to not be the only one speed walking to where I needed to go, even though I had 5 hours to kill.  Hearing English spoken all around me was also really weird.  I am so used to only hearing English with my friends and then all the conversations around me in Dutch. The first thing I did when I landed in Philly was go straight to the Dunkin Donuts for my favorite iced coffee.  Sadly, I am no longer capable of drinking sweet, but weak, American coffee.  It was good but after a few sips I thought I might throw up. Then when I was finally at Bradley I gave my mom the biggest hug ever.  She was laughing at me about acting like I have been living on another planet; even the license plates were funny to see again.

Meghan visiting from Jersey :) and Tara

From the airport I got to drive myself home!!!!  It felt so goooooood to drive in a car again!  I hadn't driven since before I left around August 16th or something.  I was really nervous that I wasn't going to remember how to drive or that at least my reactions would be slower but I didn't miss a beat.  First thing I did when I got home was hug my cat but she ran from me :(  I guess cats don't remember you when you've been gone for 9 months but eventually she warmed up to me.

Tara, Rob and Tan...lookin good 

Add caption

Trev and Tara: WE MADE IT

It was so nice to sleep in my big comfy bed again too.  I have really missed having a big bed with a bunch of pillows and blankets.  Pretty much as soon as I got home my friends started to come over.  First was Tara and then a bit later Jon came by.  We are some yummy stuffed peppers I had asked my mom to make for me.  Later Trev came to my house and we spent the night watching ICE HOCKEY (WOOOOO) and hanging out.  I was incredibly tired the entire time I was home since the time was 6 hours back.  So my body was used to it being midnight when it was only 6 pm.  And since I was only home for 5 days I needed to push through the tiredness so that I could actually do what I needed to do and see my friends.  I spent each night out with my friends, went hiking, shopping, saw my grandparents, out for sushi and out for mexican.  It was so nice to eat Mexican food that was actually spicy again!  Then of course hiking was great...I haven't seen a mountain since I left or really been on trails in the woods either.  I miss that part of nature from home.

Queen's Day

Definition from Wikipedia:
"Koninginnedag or Queen's Day is a national holiday in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Celebrated on 30 April (the 29th if the 30th is a Sunday), Koninginnedag is Queen Beatrix's official birthday—she was born on 31 January; 30 April was the birthday of her mother and predecessor, Juliana. The holiday remains as an April observance in honour of Juliana and in the anticipation of better weather than would be encountered in January."


There is also the vrijmarkt which means free market.  It is really just a giant flea market/tag sale type thing.  I spent the weekend in Amsterdam and in Vondelpark is where all the children are for the vrijmarkt.  As we walked through there were kids singing, dancing, playing guitar, selling jewelry, popcorn, juice, painting nails, offering massages, etc.  Literally anything you could think of to sell, was being sold.  The kids were all so cute and the park was PACKED.  Everyone was dressed in orange, teenagers and older were drinking already at 9 am and some guys we saw were already very drunk.  We walked through the park for a bit and each of us ended up buying something.  My friend Kira bought some gimp key chain, I bought an orange winter hat for 2 euros, Jane bought some dog tail coat hangars for her wall (just so we could take a picture in a cut out face of the Queen) and then we bought juices, popcorn.  My favorite purchase of the day was 3 little water pistols filled with beer for 2 euros each!  Those provided endless entertainment.

Overview of museumplein!

After we passed through the park we made our way out to the streets.  All of the streets in Amsterdam were closed.  No busses, trams or cars could make their way through as the streets were just full of people all decked out in orange.  Everywhere you went there were djs, bands and music in the street.  All of the squares also had big festivals going on.  Museumplein was the biggest and we went there for a bit.  It was WAY too crowded for our liking so we ended up leaving after a bit and went to Rembrandtplein.  Even there it was super crowded, we couldn't figure out where the entrance was so we sat outside the closed off festival and listened from the outside while we sat for a bit.  


We spent most of the day wandering the streets and making friends wherever we went.  Everyone is loud, drunk and dancing in the streets.  It was a lot of fun!!  Eventually we decided food was necessary and of course with 8 of us at a restaurant we were the loudest ones.  The rest of the night we spent going from pub to pub and somehow 4 of us managed to last from 9 am (having only slept for 5 hours the night before) until 6 am again.  It was a really great weekend.  

Everyone looking really good.

Making friends wherever I go.  Obviously 2 Americans on the left. 

Vondelpark-vrijmarkt.  These girls were dressed like the Dutch flag and struck a different pose each time someone put money in their hat.

Tap dancing in Vondelpark.

lions, tigers and bears. oh my!

Well now it's been quite a long long time since I have updated.  I have a few posts saved up that I will finally get around to posting.

So since my last post there has been Queen's Day, I went home for 5 days and last weekend the Rapture that failed to occur.  But I don't feel like writing about any of those yet.  It's almost June and it seems the time is flying by.  In two short months my time as an au pair will come to an end.  It's bittersweet almost.  After going home for five days in the beginning of May, I found myself really happy to come back.  I saw Caroline when I got back and realized I really had missed the kids while I was gone!! It's strange to think that when they go on their holiday in July I won't see them for a few weeks and then I'll be gone before they get back.  (Although if things go as planned I won't be too far away!)  I am really looking forward to living on my own again and moving forward with my life and doing something that I want to do.  But I am going to miss being a part of the family and having the kids to hang around and make me laugh.  Even when I am incredibly frustrated and annoyed (like yesterday afternoon), I still can't help but feel so much love for the kids.  Caroline was driving me crazy but then I just looked at her and she gave me a goofy little smile and it was like I forgot why I was so annoyed.  I've always loved my campers but this is in a way that is totally different.  It feels more like the way a parent loves their kids because I have spent the past 9+ months living with and seeing them everyday.  I'll definitely be sad to go.

Other than thinking about the end of my time as an au pair (or at least for now???) I have been trying to figure out what to do next.  Going home is honestly the last thing I want to do.  It is like an absolute last resort (sorry guys haha) but I just can't imagine leaving here and moving back home to the same boring, monotonous routine.  Maybe it would be different if I moved to a city instead of back to Suffield but I really can't think of a city that I have a huge desire to move to in the States.  Plenty of places that I would like to visit but now that I have been here I am really adjusted to life here.  I really like the culture and openness of Dutch people.  I seem to have really come into my own here; I feel more independent and outgoing then ever.  Which is weird considering my Dad has always given me the hardest time about being shy.  I still feel shy when it comes to public speaking and the like, but I have absolutely no problem making friends wherever I go.  Dutch people also are way more blunt and honest, even if it means saying something negative.  Americans would never tell you how they felt if it meant hurting your feelings; as someone who brushes things off and doesn't really get offended/upset about things like that it seems to work for me.  You can say "hey your food tastes like shit" and just shrug it off. haha

So all I know is that I don't want to leave.  But now the problem is what can I do now?  I applied to two masters programs here but so far I didn't get into one of them.  It is probably for the best though because they are research focused and I have always doubted whether I really wanted to end up in research/academia.  I ended up applying to three masters programs in London as well and now I have an interview scheduled for June 3rd with one of the schools.  But for the same reason, I am debating if I even want to go to school there.  The programs are also research focused, London is an expensive city and so the cost of living is higher, as well is the cost of tuition.  I just feel like I don't have enough experience or qualifications for a job without getting another degree, but maybe that is the American in me talking.  Things seem to work much differently over here.  I also started to apply to jobs in Rotterdam/Amsterdam area.  There are quite a few that are English speaking jobs but a great deal also require more fluency in Dutch than I have.  In the end, I think I want to get a job and see how that goes and then maybe when I have more of an idea what I want to do then I can go back to school for a higher degree.  I think I need to just stay here and rent a room while looking for work, it's easier to find a job when I am here and settled rather than scrambling looking for a job without having a place to live or having to do this from home in August.  Honestly, part of me is even considering moving into a place straight after I'm done as an au pair and not going home.  Then I don't have to worry about moving my stuff home or being out of the country and not finding a job by September.

In the end, I am stressed out, confused and I feel out of control.  I don't know what I want to do, just what I don't want and I guess that should count for something.  Anyone want to hire me or just give me a lot of money?!

A little orange taste of things to come...

tuxedos, sunshine and germans

Timo and Morten

Vrolijk Passen!  Even though Easter is over..I hope everyone had a nice Easter.  I am jealous my sister got to go eat all my favorite Portuguese food!!  I had a great Easter weekend.  The kids had off of school on Friday so we spent the day painting Easter eggs and I made chocolate chip cookies.  Timo had a fun afternoon outside covering himself in water and playing with water balloons.  Everyone was in high spirits since of course the first day of vacation is exciting in addition to the temperature being well over 70 degrees!!! What more could you ask for?! :)

Friday night I went to Amsterdam and stayed at a friends house.  She lives right next to Vondelpark and her house is massive!!! It was immaculate and so modern, white and clean.  We spent most of the afternoon laying in the sun and kicking around a ball we found.  The weather was around 75 degrees so the park was packed...almost no empty space left to sit.  We left for a little when it started to cool off and went back to get our jackets and set off to buy some wine to go back and sit in the park for the night.  When we finally made our way back to the park we saw a sea of blue lights flashing on the far side from where we were.  Some Dutch girls were freaking out about how we needed to leave NOW and that people were probably murdered but of course the American in us likes to stare at car accidents and watch fights and so naturally we tried to get as close as possible.

When we got over there, I would say there were probably about 60 police on motorbikes, horses and in cars.  The police were all lined up and evacuating the park.  Some guys we asked told us that some drunk people pushed a policeman and his horse into the water and that now the horse was stuck in there.  We saw what looked like a horse being held on the edge of the water.  I just found an article on an English Dutch news website that says there was a fight between about 60 people but doesn't say anything else.

Police on motorbikes and horses intervened following reports that a gang of youths were harassing people, pulling them off their bicycles. When the police arrived, they were pelted with bottles and other objects. Five arrests were made

The next morning my friend Kira and I planned to wake up early to go to Groningen, a city in the north of the Netherlands.  Thursday night my host mom brought up the idea of hitchhiking and asked if I had considered doing it...I hadn't so I mentioned it to Kira fully expecting her to say she would rather take a train but she thought it would be fun!!! So Friday night I spent a few hours researching places to hitchhike from and the direction we should go towards Groningen.  Saturday morning we were off!  We went to a train station just outside of the city and then maybe 200m from the station is an official "liftplaats" which is a hitchhiking spot that had a big sign with a thumbs up on it.  So there we stood with our backpacks, cardboard sign and our thumb out on the side of the road to wait for a ride.  Lots of giggling ensued and we were not sure if we were doing it right...a lot of people were acknowledging us and saying sorry and then a ton of people seemed to be doing some hand signal where they pointed downwards.  We later found out from our first ride that it meant that they were staying nearby and couldn't pick us up.  After maybe 20 minutes or so a nice Dutch man picked us up and drove us an hour north.  He was really nice, spoke excellent English and told us all about his hitchhiking experiences and also about the area we were driving through.  We were dropped off at a rest stop and he told us we would have no problem finding a ride and wished us luck.

So once at the rest stop we felt totally uncomfortable again since we were supposed to actually approach people at their cars and ask for rides.  I asked one man and he just kept saying no over and over.  most of the people in this area were older couples or families with young children.  We ended up standing at the entrance to the rest stop with our sign and after almost an hour someone waved us over and offered us a ride the rest of the way!!  He was a Turkish man who didn't speak a lot of English but I at least knew enough Dutch to make a little small talk and make sure he would bring us the right way.  In the end it was a great experience.  We both definitely want to try and do it again.  I was surprised at how easy it was and how friendly people were.

Couchsurfing friends..Sebastian and Nils

In Groningen we had made plans to meet up with 2 German guys to couchsurf at their flat for the night.  I had contacted them on the couchsurfing website and so we went to get some lunch and then waited for them to meet up with us.  They were both really friendly and brought us to the park where we spent the afternoon laying in the sun and talking with their friends.  There were 2 German girls who actually were au pairs in the States!! One was an au pair in Fairfield so it was really interesting to hear about their experiences living in America compared to our au pair experience here in Europe.  Later that night we bbqed and then went to one of their friends birthdays at her flat.  It was like walking into Little Germany!! There were probably 15 or so Germans all speaking German, it was interesting to hear another language...after we hung out there for a bit we went out to the center and spent the night out there.

The next day Kira and I were on our own and we spent a lazy Sunday in the city.  We walked around a bit, ate a slow lunch outside and then spent some more time laying in the sunshine.  I got home Sunday night around 9 and then spent most of Monday laying outside in the sun...yet again....I am trying to get a nice tan going while the weather is nice just in case it goes bad soon!! So far so good :)

Up next on my things to do is plan a trip to Berlin...and possibly hitchhike there!!! And then this weekend is Queen's Day and I am going to Amsterdam to stay with friends again.  Well tot ziens!

Caroline: Danielle, you're irritating me.
Me: I don't care if I irritate you; you're irritating me.
Caroline: Well I don't care if you're irritating me!
Morten: why did you say that then!
Caroline: a;lkdjf;ladjflakdfjlkajf (literally it sounded something like this)

'Cause her hair was black and her eyes were blue

Well, well well.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE Ireland!  Irish people are so friendly and fun...maybe it's because they like to drink so much and so we get along just splendidly haha but seriously I met so many nice, helpful and fun people this weekend in Dublin.  Our flight was somewhat late on Thursday (St. Patty's Day) so we missed the parade and the all day drunkfest but the flight was surprisingly fun!  Tons of people dressed up in green and excited to celebrate St. Patty's so we met a lot of people on our flight...2 of the people we met were 2 Americans studying abroad in Utrecht (about 30 min train from Rotterdam) and we ended up meeting up with them Thursday night again and then Friday for dinner before they left for Scotland.

Car bombs of course

I went with my friend Sarah and our friend Kira was already in Dublin with her best friend from home.  We all met up together for a bit on Thursday but Kira and her friend ended up going their own way and Sarah and I stayed with our two new friends at a pub for the night.  Somehow we managed to find the only people not speaking english and ended up hanging out with 5 Dutch guys for the night.  I was told by 2 guys from Florida that there was just no way that I am American and that I was doing the worst American accent so I definitely wasn't American.  Interesting...

My camera battery died within 5 minutes of starting our day Friday so I will have to steal Sarah's pictures of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin Castle and Christ Church Cathedral.  St. Patrick's Cathedral was really pretty outside though..it had a big lawn with ponds and lots of benches.  The weather was GORGEOUS!  We have been so lucky with the weather the past few weeks...it's been in the high 50s so it made it even better sight seeing.  Then we met up with Kira and Brittany and went to the Guinness brewery.  The line was insane but luckily we made friends with the Americans behind us and they bought our tickets on their smart phones so we could skip the line!  Friday night we met up with the 2 other girls and our 2 new friends for dinner.  We went to this place called Flannagan's for some Irish food!  All but one of us got the Guinness Pie which was soooo good!  Sadly, the sauce ended up upsetting my stomach a little while later but regardless it was delish.  Our two new friends (Becky and Sam) were going to Scotland in the morning so we said goodbye to them and then the 4 of us headed off to a different part of the city to try and avoid the crowds of tourists.

We ended up at this pub which was not crowded but we were the only girls it seemed.  At some point Sarah and I went to the bathroom upstairs which was next to the upstairs bar where there was a birthday party.  In the bathroom were these 4 girls dressed wicked trashy in dresses with cut outs and whatnot and all their rolls hanging out. Gross.  Then next thing we know they are snorting coke off the counter...Later on some guy came downstairs and invited us all upstairs...they were celebrating graduating university and had no idea about the birthday party but heard there was going to be a stripper.  So we hung out upstairs for awhile...eventually the stripper comes and she was quite disappointing.  I mean what kind of stripper doesn't actually take off her clothes?!  Happy 21st birthday dude but sorry you don't get to see anything tonight.  So after that disappointment we decided to head off elsewhere and we ended up running into the same Dutch guys again and then went back to Temple Bar (the most crowded, touristy area in Dublin).  Found a cool pub with Irish music upstairs, the other 2 girls left and Sarah and I stayed and hung out with two Irish guys.  Met another Dutch guy who was in love with me...thought I was Dutch so we talked in Dutch for a bit until he started just making faces at me because he was so drunk I don't think he could make coherent sentences anymore.  When he spoke English he didn't really make sense...."do you enjoy Rotterdam with me?"  ummm I don't know what you are asking me..are you asking do I like Rotterdam or do I want to hang out in Rotterdam with you? or something entirely different? and he would just scrunch up his nose and nod his head at me.  Cool see ya later.

Saturday we woke up and I wanted to go see Howth Head which is a peninsula outside of the city.  So we looked up how to get there and it was about an hour bus ride.  We figured that was fine with us since it looked beautiful and we didn't have a whole days worth of sights to see again.  We took the bus up to the summit thankfully or else it would have been almost 10 km I think if we did the full hike.  At the top there was a lighthouse and then one part on the side of the cliff you could climb down.  The water was really blue and the weather was perfect.  Plus, I love hiking so I was in heaven.  Then to get back to the village there is a cliff path all the way around the outside and we went the long way it turned out...I think over an hour later and we were still nowhere near where we wanted to be.  We ended up finding some random road and cutting down off the path to the road and then walked at least another hour.  Finally we got to a place where we could catch the bus back and rest our feet which was amazing after the day of walking.

Trinity College

Saturday night we went out to another pub.  More live music which was awesome.  A lot of the pubs had one guy playing a guitar singing Irish songs and lots of popular songs as well.  It was lots of fun to sing and dance along to and we ended the night with the most amazing pizza ever!  Sunday we had just a little while before we had to catch the bus back to the airport.  We headed to Trinity College.  The Book of Kells is in the library there.  It is an illuminated manuscript in Latin, containing the four Gospels of the New Testament and is the world's oldest book.  We didn't actually pay to go in and see it because I am cheap and broke duh.  That was all we had time for Sunday because the buses on Sunday don't run as often and so we ended up with an extra 3 hours at the airport. BOO :(  Flight home was uneventful....some of the same people as on the way there, including a guy from SUNY Geneseo who is a 'Cuse fan (yuck) and then the same Dutch guys we kept running into.

I can't wait to go back to Ireland again sometime.  I really want to go to the other side and see Galway and the Moher Cliffs.  I really can't wait to plan another trip too...anyone with suggestions of places to go see let me know!! I have nothing planned until the first week of July so far.  I am really hoping to go to Edinburgh, Galway, Rome and Prague.  Barcelona would be nice but I am going to Madrid in July so maybe I will do Barcelona next year (that is banking on everything working out with grad school here!).

It's crazy to think I have been here for over 7 months now!  Almost time to go back home but I am really itching to go home.  I miss everyone a lot so as much as I am enjoying it here and I love traveling and seeing new places, I definitely am in need of some time back home.

Sooooooo last Saturday was Carnival!!! In the Netherlands it is mostly celebrated in the south, below the rivers.  The farther south you go, the crazier the party gets.  Me and 3 of my au pair friends (Kira from Oregon, Sarah from Virginia and Tiff from Australia) went to Breda which is only about a 30 minute train ride from Rotterdam.  We met up around 11 on Saturday and had to plan our costumes..totally last minute.  Kira fit into one of her kids Jedi costumes so she was set, Sarah had a masquerade mask and Tiff and I had nothing!  My only idea that seemed plausible with such little time was a toga and Tiff ended up buying a sailor costume.  In the end, all the costumes ended up being pretty good.  We couldn't show up and be the only ones not in elaborate costumes!  Some costumes were hilarious..my favorites were these 4 guys dressed as the Jackson 5 (obviously now only 4...) and pushing around a coffin they had made that said "R.I.P. MJ" on the side and had a little black baby inside. 

It was a big street party.  And so so so much fun!  I wish I could go back in time and do it all over again.  We made so many friends just walking through the streets.  Everyone was drinking, old and young.  We ended up splitting up in the end, 2 of the girls went back home at 8 and Sarah and I stayed until around 10 or 10:30.  We weren't really up for staying out all night which was alright, we had a good day and I came back to Rotterdam.

Monday night I went to the Taylor Swift concert in Rotterdam.  My host parents had given me two tickets for Sinterklaas in December.  My friend Sannia (from South Africa) went with me.  We were shocked at how many guys were there alone and not with girlfriends or other girls.  It was crazy!  And a bunch of older men as well.  I kept thinking there is no way these guys are actual Taylor Swift fans but sure enough as soon as she started playing they busted out their cameras and started singing along.  It was really funny and I spent a good amount of the time laughing at them.  Plus, this one older man was dressed like an American cowboy from a lonnng time ago and he just kept bouncing around dancing like a crazy man.  It was a good concert and a fun Monday night.

It is almost time for Ireland now!!!! I can't wait to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Dublin!  I am going with my friend Sarah and our friend Kira is also going to be there with her friend from home.  I cannot wait to see Ireland!  Then aside from that I am hopefully planning a trip with Kira to Rome and we are going to camp outside the city! Should be pretty sweet if we can work that out. :)

Oreos in Holland don't get soggy as fast or as well as they do at home. Disappointing but oreos with milk are still awesome.

Today is the day I finally rode my bike without hands!!!!!! Needless to say, I was ecstatic.  Timo on the other hand was not so impressed...even though he can't do it either and we have been practicing a little bit on our bike ride to his guitar lessons his response was nothing like mine.  I was riding along and started yelling LOOK AT ME I'M DOING IT! and his response was basically just a very monotone "oh."  Thanks for the support Timo haha but I think that is a difference between Europeans and Americans in general.  Americans show a lot of emotion and get really excited over the simplest of things whereas Europeans are not quite so emotional and I have definitely never seen any European running around yelling out of excitement like I have done so many times.  It is so satisfying and exciting though to be able to ride without my hands!  I had said it was my goal to be able to do it by the time I left and now that I can, I have 5 more months to practice it so that I can ride really far without my hands and be like all the cool Dutch guys I see riding around handless.  I am such a nerd.

Once we got to guitar we decided to have a sword fight.  Timo's sword was the size of a small branch and sadly mine was just a twig.  The fight started off unfair so I had to do the only thing I knew how to win it...act like a crazy person.  It almost always works; no one knows how to react when you go crazy on them and no one can hit a crazy person.  So while I thought I was distracting him with my jumping and weird noises he ended up kicking me instead.  Well played, Timo, well played.

Other than that my life has not had a whole lot going on...I got a package from Tara the other day! A pretty Coach scarf :)  Hopefully she gets her birthday package soon because I am excited to see what she thinks of it!

London Calling

So I am back from London and for some reason STILL catching up on sleep...I didn't even have late nights like I would normally on the weekend but I guess traveling just exhausted me.  Kind of like how Kira's camera battery was exhausted and just didn't want to work :-P

Anyways, I loved London!  At first it was totally strange to hear English all around me...for the past 6 months I have been in a country where I rarely hear English spoken and I haven't heard a lot of English any places I have traveled either.  This was the first place I have been in 6 months where I could understand all the conversations around me and read all the signs; it was a bit of information overload since Dutch is so easy for me to tune out if I want to.  All of a sudden I found myself not knowing where to look or what to actually listen to but I got used to it.  It was really nice to not have the first thing someone said to me be in another language, to not get nervous when I order something and worry about saying something correctly.

I flew on Easy Jet which is one of the cheapest airlines and I can totally see why...the seats were tiny!  On the way there the man next to me was practically on top of me.  People also seemed to be a bit dumber than on other airlines, for what reason, who knows.  I am not sure what it accomplishes when all 100+ people try to stand up as soon as the plane lands.  I mean really?  The person at the window seat has no reason to stand, there is just not enough room in the aisle.  I even saw people taking bags out of the overhead compartment over other people's heads and just shoving them aside to get their stuff as fast as possible.  It would be much faster if people just stopped and realized the most efficient way to get off a plane is for the people in the aisle to go, then the middle and then the window and then the aisle on the other side has their turn.

I got to London late on Friday night and once I met up with Heather I put my bag down at her place and we went for a walk along the Thames River.  Not a lot to see but it was nice to walk around instead of going to bed...I saw the London Eye and the Big Ben from far away and at night the London Eye is red and really pretty.  The next morning I met up with 2 other au pairs from Holland, Kira and Stephanie.   So first, we went to Camden which was this awesome market area full of vintage shops and TONS of food from all over the world.  I think it was one of my favorite parts of London.  On the outside of a lot of the shops were big converse shoes, a plane, and a bunch of other objects.

After Camden we went towards the Big Ben, the Parliament Houses and Westminster Abbey.   They were all really beautiful.  The architecture in Europe is amazing.  London streets are not kind to your feet!! I don't understand how some women walk around in sky high heels..it is just dumb!  Our feet were killing us so we wanted to stop for a coffee but it seems that there is never any restaurants near the big tourist places so we walked awhile more and on the way stopped for some classic pictures inside telephone booths.

Next we were off to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge and again more walking around with sore feet trying to find somewhere for dinner.  We ended up walking quite far which was alright since a lot of the tube was closed for work or something...we wanted fish and chips for dinner and ended up at an Irish restaurant.  The fish and chips were really good though!  Then finally met back up with Heather (who I was staying with) and we went to Covent Garden.  Covent Garden is full of pubs and clubs to go out and lots of street performers.  We watched one guy for awhile and his big trick was to fit his whole body through a tennis racket.  He dislocated his arm which was disgusting to see and then made it like a helicopter and did a bunch of stuff flailing his arm around.  At one point he was trying to get the audience more lively and told them to stop clapping like a bunch of English people at a cricket match and to clap like Americans with feeling and so of course the 4 of us started whistling and yelling really loud and since we were in the front he said "yes, see what I mean! Just like those Americans."

Sunday we woke up to go see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace.  The Palace wasn't as beautiful as I was expecting it to be.  It was also just insanely crowded so it was kind of annoying after awhile.  The guards are impressive...I don't know how they keep such a straight face.  I spent most of the time looking for them cracking a smile or messing up..I did see one guy fall behind when they were walking and shuffle to catch back up and another one cracked a smile at one point.

After Buckingham Palace we went to King's Crossing to see platform 9 3/4 from Harry Potter.  Sadly, they have apparently moved it from the actual brick wall to just a plastic fake brick wall up against a white one so it didn't look quite as real. :(  I had wanted to go to Abbey Road also but since I had to catch a bus to the airport we didn't have time.  I will have to save that and a few other things for another possible trip to London to visit Heather again! :)  The trip ended with a visit to Chipotle which we were all so excited for!  It was just as satisfying as I was expecting and a good end.  Overall, a great weekend visiting Heather who has left Holland but now I have a reason to visit London and travel the UK with her.