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 

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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. :)