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.

I feel like I have been posting a lot lately..I seem to go through phases of posting a bunch and then neglecting this blog for awhile.  Anyways, I stole some pictures from Ineke's blog of me and the kids :)

 This day seems like so long ago now...we haven't had snow since before Christmas I think.  Morten, Caroline and I had quite the snowball fight though...with quite a few tears from Caroline who would then bounce back and run back out to get revenge on Morten which usually ended up with her hiding behind me.

 Morten really enjoyed getting as much snow in my face and down my jacket as possible.  Who can blame him...I had fun doing it to him too haha :)

This is how Caroline and I were watching tv last week...she played with my hair for probably half an hour I think and it was actually quite comfy except when she wanted to bounce up and down and me to pretend I was a horse...that part was not as fun.


Well that's really all I have to say for now...I'm looking forward to the weekend in London!  Everyone I've talked to has said so many good things about it and it seem to be a lot of people's favorite city.  Plus, it is a country where they speak my own language although I am anticipating not having any idea what they are saying with all their funny words and ways of saying things.  So while I am in London for the weekend, all my friends from home will be up in Vermont like we went last year.  It was quite the weekend last year so I can only imagine what happens this time.  I miss you guys and I wish I could go to Vermont too but I guess I will just have to settle for London! :)

Sunday I went and met up with Ineke and her sister, Thea, for the International Film Festival here in Rotterdam.  It was the last day and you could buy a ticket and were assigned one route of of I think 60.  Each route had 5 films which started at 10 am and then went all day.  Robbert went to the first one and then I met up with them later at 12:30 and he came home.  We saw Silent Sonata, pa negre, Pure and King's of Devil's Island.  The first film they saw was Blue Valentine which I know is playing at home and coming to the theatres here in March so I will probably see it at some point; they said it was one their favorite films of the 5 also...the other favorite being King's of Devil's Island.  All the films on our route seemed to be a bit strange and morbid.  I was about going crazy sitting through so many films all day, I have never felt so A.D.D. in my life!  I started to get really antsy in the 2nd film and even more so in the 3rd one.  Overall though it was a really cool experience.  I don't think I could see anyone I know at home attending a film festival, I don't even know of any nearby us or anything about tickets for the general public.  Before now I always assumed film festivals were for rich people, film critics and press.  Glad I got to go and see some films even if I didn't like them all.

Friday I am going to London and staying with an au pair I know, Heather.  She was an au pair in Holland but she left her family and moved to one in London.  3 other au pairs from outside Amsterdam are also staying with her and then 2 other au pairs that I know are also going to be in London this weekend!  I am really excited, it should be a lot of fun since 6 of us are all living in Holland and now Heather can be our tour guide this weekend :)  Sadly though, my camera is still broken and I haven't figured out where to go and get it fixed....not sure what I am going to do for this weekend since no camera in London will be awful!!!!!! Hopefully, I can figure something out.

There are so many more stories about strange people at the gym too..I just can't remember them all but sometimes I wish I chose a different gym.  I really miss the Ladies Golds section of Gold's Gym back home so I didn't have to deal with the annoying meat heads, which verrry few exist here but the ones that do are just as annoying, or deal with the creepy old men either.  But today I got my new running shoes my Dad sent me from home so I am excited to run in them tomorrow and have my feet feel a bit better than they have felt lately.

The weather here has been sooo amazing this week!  Today it is currently 46 and when I go into my room the sun shines in and there is no wind (as long as I keep the window closed) and I swear it feels like 60!  It's warm enough though to keep my window open now and feel a nice breeze and I've been outside without my jacket all day.  Certainly a bit better weather than what everyone at home has...my Dad said more snow is expected today.  I really can't believe how much snow there is at home!

This is my driveway at home...the snow is so high on the side!  I'm sure it is probably higher than when this picture is taken and if not it will be soon.  Winter is still going full speed ahead back home and here it feels like spring.  I have some tulips in my room that Toos (the kids grandmother) brought over on Friday.  Can't wait for the rest of the flowers to bloom everywhere but knowing the weather here we could get snow some day in the future or hail or else just A LOT of yucky, cold rain.  Actually, now that I look at the weather it shows rain for Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  Maybe it won't rain in London but we will see.

seriously...how good does this look?!

Last night Caroline told me she wants me to make her wraps (do it yourself tacos) for her birthday....which is in October.  I told her you know your birthday already passed and I am not going to be here next year but she expects me to be in attendance at her birthday and to make her dinner haha if I end up nearby maybe I can visit for her birthday but I told her I don't know about cooking her dinner unless she makes me chocolate chip pancakes for my birthday...she just said BUT I DON'T KNOW HOW TO DO THAT! So maybe one of the days when I am with the kids all day we can make some American pancakes with blueberries, strawberries, and chocolate chips!!!! Not all at once but ahh just thinking about them makes me hungry!  We are also planning on making chocolate chip cookies...we were going to today but the kitchen was being worked on again so that will have to wait for another day.  And sadly without real chocolate chips since I have never seen them here...we will have to take a chocolate bar and break it up into pieces which I suppose can't be too bad.

Well that's all for today...the boys are about to eat dinner and then are off to water polo and Caroline is outside roller skating with a friend.  Pretty chill afternoon and now I need to go do something productive...Tot ziens! :)

Na regen komt zonneschijn.

Today the sun is finally shining again!  After the past week being cold and in the low 30s, it is back up to high 40s and low 50s!  I didn't even need to wear my gloves or hat today on my bike.  I can't wait for spring weather and to see some more sunshine.  I am so sick of all the gray dreary weather but it will probably start to rain again tomorrow anyways...

This past weekend I visited an au pair I know in Den Haag, Sannia from South Africa.  She lives in a little town just outside of the city called Voorburg but we spent most of the weekend in Den Haag.  Den Haag is where anything governmental is located and the Queen lives here.  Sadly, I did not get to see the Queen haha  It was a really nice city though, every where I have been in the Netherlands is so different from Rotterdam.  There was also a lot more English being spoken on the streets than I hear in Rotterdam.  I almost never hear people speaking in English when I walk around here but there was English everywhere!  It was kind of nice to not be the only one speaking English..

Haven't really done much else of note lately...I spend most of my mornings at the gym and either I picked a gym where all the weirdos go or else it is just because of the time of day that I go is when all the strange people are also there.  Who knows but there are some weeeeiiirrd people there between 9am-12pm!  Today a guy was running on the treadmill and then he stopped to walk for a bit and while he was walking he started to clap and flail his arms while yelling WOO YEA over and over before starting to run again.  I get that he is pumping himself up but I don't know how no one else was staring at him like he was out of his mind like I was doing...
Then there is this other man I usually see and he smells AWFUL.  So awful that no matter how long I have been on the treadmill, bike, whatever I will get off as soon as he gets on next to me.  He wears a garbage bag under his clothes...I guess it is what they do to sweat more but I don't see why he can't just wear an extra sweatshirt?  Whenever I see him running he is always having to adjust his trash bag and tuck it back in and he makes a swishy noise when he runs.
This other man is always running at the same time as me and he is this short tiny man and he will turn the speed up too fast for his little legs to go and so instead of running he is just over striding and he has to hold onto the treadmill so he doesn't fly off.  I just don't get it!
Another woman at the gym told me I have a great ass and then asked if I would prefer her ass or my ass.  She looks EXACTLY like my Tia Maria though which made it all funnier, same hair, same voice, same body and I could definitely see my Tia saying something similar...the woman's name ended up being Maria too.  Now she always says hi to me whenever I see her at the gym so at least she is friendly and not creepy like the other men that I always see.

Today I probably looked like the crazy person on the treadmill though...For some reason I couldn't stop thinking and picturing what it would be like when I went home.  So I would just be running then I'd imagine getting off the plane and being so excited I was running down the terminal and seeing my mom, dad, my sister and probably Tara and/or Jon and so there I am running and then I just would start to smile, then I started to laugh at myself because I am smiling while running.  I think it is around 5 months until I will go home!  So now I have been here longer than the amount of time I have left.  Don't get me wrong, I am definitely happy I am here and I love living abroad but this is the longest I have ever gone without seeing any of my family and friends and there is soooo much I miss from home!  Things I never gave a second thought and now I miss them.  Hopefully some friends will still visit me. HINT HINT TARA WALSH!!!!!

I am also seriously missing UConn, my roommates and sports! I miss espn and being able to watch all the games on tv when they happen...or better yet GOING to the games!