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!

Wow, so it has certainly been a LONG time since I have updated this!  Sorry about that....so since my last update there has been Sinterklaas, Christmas, and my sister and my cousin were here for New Years, a weekend in Amsterdam and 2 days in Brugge, Belgium!  Lots to update.

Skimming over Sinterklaas and Christmas....both were good.  I was really missing my family of course on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day since it just isn't the same without them and without everyone getting together, all talking at once, sneaking smirnoff ice's for my cousin Marc and LOTS of amazing Portuguese rice but I had a good time with my family and went to another au pair's boyfriends apartment for Xmas day where we had a nice dinner. 

New Year's Eve, my sister and my cousin Nick came to Amsterdam!!!! I was so incredibly excited to see them and luckily I had the afternoon off so I could meet them earlier than I had originally thought :)  HUGE weight lifted off my back when I originally had imagined the two of them wandering around and never being able to find them but we met up easily....especially after a 5 second phone call from nicole saying "meet us at burger king....LOSER." We spent that weekend in Amsterdam and went to the Heineken Experience, Van Gogh museum and a bunch of other site seeing and of course a lot of coffee shops.... ;-)  Then I had to work Monday and Tuesday morning so I showed them around Rotterdam a bit and Tuesday morning we were off to Brugge!

 Nicole and Nick drinking LEGALLY in Amsterdam!  Happy New Year!

 Fireworks at Museumplein...New Year's is the only time fireworks are legal in the Netherlands.  I think I heard little fireworks going off for the entire day before New Year's until that night when everyone went crazy setting them off in the streets and in front of their houses.  Literally, fireworks EVERYWHERE!

 This little guy jumped in our picture with us.

Michelangelo's Madonna

Brugge was really cute and we definitely saw a lot in the 2 days.  The stupid train was late/didn't come for probably 2.5 hours before we left though which was annoying!  For Christmas my host family had given me a card and reserved a room for us in Brugge for 2 nights :)  It was really nice.  The city is really medieval and they had a bit of a Christmas market still going on.  Sadly they left on Saturday morning, I went with them to the airport and a big suitcase of stuff to send home.  I can't wait for someone else to come visit me from home....hint hint TARA!

Aside from that I have a trip planned to Ireland for St. Patrick's Day with my friend Sarah!  I am super excited to go celebrate being a quarter Irish :)  And I am also planning a trip to Prague in February hopefully with my friend Marie Lou!  Hopefully I can plan some more trips soon too...I still need to go to London, Scotland, Spain, Portugal, Germany and I'd like to see a few other countries too if I can fit them in.

Well, not much new to write about these days since I haven't been really on any trips.  Last Friday I went to Maastricht with another au pair.  Maastricht is in the south of the Netherlands.  She is looking at a bachelor's program at the university there and her parents said she could take a friend and they would pay for our hotel room :)  So lucky me I got to sleep for free and she even had him pay for our dinner haha...The train there was awful.  We were supposed to have one change in Eindhoven but the trains were all messed up and lots of construction is going on so for some reason we had to get off 40 minutes before Eindhoven and switch to another train which had a 30 minute delay...so probably 45 minutes after getting off the train the next one is finally there and we go to Eindhoven.  Then the train to Maastricht from there is delayed 30 minutes, a train comes but everyone gets off it for some reason and it leaves again and we had to wait another 10 minutes for a different train.  So finally we make it to Maastricht and find our hotel which was right in the center market.  It was dark and rainy the whole time so we didn't get to see much but it seems like a really nice city.  I definitely want to go back sometime and see it during the light and maybe hopefully it won't rain.

Other than that I think I may have decided what to do next year.  (Or at least until I come up with my next big idea and change my mind like usual but I think this one is going to stick).  After being at a university and talking about classes and studying I really really miss the schedule, classes, studying and honestly taking exams haha I am such a nerd.  So the current plan, after I really considered teaching english in Asia (still a slight possibility), is to apply for Work and Organizational masters programs mostly here in the Netherlands but I am going to look into other countries too.  The program and Amsterdam sounds really awesome though, but it is 2 years whereas most are only 1 year.  We'll see though, who knows since it is still early. 

Currently, I am really really REALLY missing home a lot.  I think it has a lot to do with the holiday season starting.  I am going to miss Thanksgiving with my family for the first time. :( Thankfully, one of the American au pairs I know is having a big dinner at her house.  Her host parents offered to make a Thanksgiving dinner and let her invite a couple friends over.  I think me and 2 other Americans, and a Canadian are all going over on Friday night for dinner! I am excited, I hope it is like home although of course there will be no Portuguese rice since that is certainly not a typical Thanksgiving food, albeit it is my favorite part. 

Today all I am craving is nachos.  But since I am not at home, I have NO idea how to get them.  There aren't many Mexican restaurants here and the ones I know aren't open until dinner time.  At home basically any restaurant you go to will have nachos on the menu as an appetizer but here I don't think so.  And I can't make my amazing buffalo nachos quite the same here since I still haven't found tortilla chips anywhere. 

I really miss my friends and my family and my kitty a lot.  I wish that my cat was laying on my feet while I am sitting here typing this but there are 3 cats here and one (Sam) always comes into my room and snuggles on my bed, so it's kind of like home.  Today would be a good day to go hiking too with my friends but I don't think anyone I know here hikes and I'm not so sure it would be so easy to find anything to hike up haha....anyways I miss everyone from home a lot!  And I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and that the Portuguese rice is up to par haha

Cars -3
Danielle - 0

Saturday 10/30 new update on the cars.

also, how do people here manage to ride a bike everyday and not have to buy new jeans constantly?!?!?! my favorite jeans are now ruined with a giant hole in the crotch and the ass is all faded and no longer dark blue :(

I made the mistake of trying hagelslag (chocolate sprinkles) the other morning...they put them on bread here.  At home I hated sprinkles because they were dry and just gross to me, although I don't think anyone would put them on bread!  It's really popular to have a piece of bread, spread some butter and then put the chocolate hagelslag on the bread too.  When I first got here I thought I would never try it because 1. sprinkles are gross and 2. sprinkles on bread is not supposed to happen but alas I gave in.  And it was awesome!  I was so surprised to realize how much I actually liked it and now sadly that is just one more dessert like thing that I will now want to eat. 
I don't think there will ever be a day where I try the "American" filet...spreadable meat is not something I am interested in.  I really wish I knew why it is called American because I think it is as far from American as you can get.  Definitely need to do some research and figure this one out...This is what I've found:
" In Belgium and The Netherlands steak tartare is known as filet américain (translated as American fillet).  Steak tartare is a meat dish made from finely chopped or minced raw beef^[1]. Tartare can also be made by thinly slicing a high grade of meat such as strip steak, marinating it in wine or other spirits, spicing it to taste, and then chilling it. It is often served with onions, capers and seasonings (the latter typically incorporating fresh ground pepper and Worcestershire sauce), sometimes with a raw egg, and often on rye bread."
Most things I've read seem to point to the fact that people think Americans will eat any kind of red meat.  Interesting but I don't think I know any Americans that would want to try this.


The Dutch also have these things called stroopwafels.  They are amazing!! When my mom was here I had her try some and she ended up bringing home 3 things of them.  They are small waffles with some kind of syrup in the middle.  It tastes caramel-like to me.  You can also buy really giant ones on the street in some places that are fresh and warm.  They are really good too if you put them over a cup of coffee or tea and let the syrup start to melt.  I think I am sending some of these home so my mom can give them out to people to try.

Well other than all this food talk, this week the kids were on vacation.  It is their fall break.  It's definitely starting to get cold here too! :( At night it is really cold and I need to wear gloves usually on my bike because my hands get so cold.  There has been a lot of wind too.  The wind one day reminded me of how when I first got here I was so uneasy on my bike and a strong gust of wind blew me over, now I don't think that would happen to me although the wind is pretty strong sometimes. 

It's getting close to Halloween too and I haven't seen any decorations!  I feel so uncollege/unAmerican like because it's a week before Halloween and I don't have a costume, nothing is decorated.  It's really sad, I miss Halloween a lot.  I think I will still dress up for it though, one of my friends is having a Halloween party and there are a lot of pubs that have their own too.  Halloween here just is not quite as big as at home.  No pumpkin carving, apple picking, pumpkin flavored coffee/lattes, and no hay rides or anything haunted!!! I really really wish I could go on a haunted hay ride or a corn maze or in a haunted house.  Well that's all for now.