World Forum, Oreo Chocolates, and Lasagna :)

So basically my week was pretty much the same, give or a take a few things. As I said last post that the Nucleaur summit was here and it caused a bit of disruption. Streets were closed off, you couldnt bike places, some people had to work from home(my host mom and my friend's host mom) because the freeway was mostly closed as they only had one lane open. Everyone here was totally excited about seeing the President of the US of A though. I went with my host dad, and host kids and the kids across the street on Tuesday to visit the World Forum building where the Summit took place.

 It was very enlightening and cool to see the flags so you could see where each country leader had sat. I took a lot of pictures because I figured why not...lol. Anyway they have one picture I put it below, it's flowers(real ones, I touched them) attached to chains in a sort of a design..they were wierd but cool looking. They are to the left of the sentence. <<<<<<<Check them out!!

 

I'm a bit tired to actualy explain more in depth about what I saw and how tiring I was to go to the world forum as we went by bike. My legs were on fire but I made it somehow and I Stayed with the group pace...surprisingly. I am improving in my bike riding, speed wise I mean.

So this to the right is a candy bar I bought last week, they have an amazing selection of chocolate here, and it's nothing back home. Backk home I often bought bricks of Belgium chocolate, or UK chocolate as honestly I don’t like the taste of a regular bar of a chocolate. I had a chocolate at home and it tasted waxy, I get here and everything is real, you can taste it. So I love milka the brand I mean, they make amazing combinations, I was craving and orero cookie when I bought that on Last Saturday and I still have one square in my fridge!

And on one last note and I'm done. This is my dinner I made tonight, and it will last me until Sunday. It's lasagna..and yes it's in a frying pan. My room doesnt have many dishes so I improvised and that was the only oven safe dish I had. I'm so happy my mom made me learn how to cook at 11. Which is great actually because I cooked this same dish last Tuesday for my Host family. They all enjoyed it. Okay, I'm done..I think..yeah It's almost 10pm and I'm tired..Time for a cup of tea and then procrastinating until 12 and ten bed. I'm so happy tomorrow is Saturday!

Nuclear War Summit! The Hague!

Did I mention that the 24-25 of March, which is today and yesterday that the Netherlands or more specifically Den Haag, or the Hague will be hosting the 2014 Nuclear Security Summit. That took place yesterday and today as I stated and since my host family lives about 10-15 minutes away from the building it's taking place at the streets around us, were cut off, or blocked and it was just very exciting. I left my camera upstairs, which was a bummer but oh well. They had over 50 world leaders from countries, for example, the president of the USA(everyone here was extremely excited to see Obama) Like we saw him and his cars earlier. The dutch people here said they understand the significance of our president even if we don’t. I understand but it's like they are overly excited about it. It's very different. Anyways, they have the Canada, the United Kingdom, Egypt, Australia and New Zealand, and Greece, Mexico. Today we saw in addition to the USA president, we got to see the Mexico president? Or do they have a prime minister? Anyway them, and the leader of another flag which I currently don’t know. I'm going to google it.

I just googled it and it was the Argentina flag. Hmm, we saw a bunch of cars with the leaders in it and diferent flags. In case no one has noticed I have a things for flags. I like to have one of every place I've gone, even in the states, If I get no other souvenir make sure I get a flag. That's bascially the building where it's taking place, the street has a tone of flags, it goes further up as well, but I didnt take a picture of it yet. As the USA flag is nowhere to be found in this picture.

Okay that's all I wanted to share, going to try to catch a mid morning nap while I have the chance. The helicpters are getting very annoying. You hear one every 10 minutes or so, anyway toodles.

Ps. This is what I had to see since last week, signs all over the town, telling you of the summit. It was crazy! Below is where it took place, there were a ton of police but like I said, I didnt get any good photos becuase I left my camera on my bed. *sobs*

Sniffling, Pillow fights, and Festivals Galore!

So I should have really blogged this, last week but I really wasnt feeling it. That cold/sick thing I had is still here, taking the natural road out, as their medicines taste like sweet syrup and does nothing. Tylenol...PLEASE! Okay enough of the dramatics but I'm still talking through my nose unfortunately and I can't laugh without coughing lol. But I digress onto this post.

So this past Friday I went to the bank for my appointment and understood mostly nothing but the basics. He spoke in English but everything written is in dutch. Which is weird as the Hague I'm told is an international city why don’t they have some documents in English? Anyway I go inside and I'm 15 minutes early of course, I'd rather be way early then late. So I'm sitting on the couch there, I took a picture of the couch, it was funky and weird so of course I totally liked it! I can't find my camera at the moment, so I can't upload it. >.<

And as I'm sitting there one of the girls who had told me to take a seat comes over and she's like. Would you like anything to drink? Tea? Coffee? I politedly decline but I know my look was bewildered at best. I had not been expected that to say the least. Because back home I go for a bank account...offered nothing but if I want to open up as savings as well as a checkings lol.

So I wait for maybe 5 minutes, I don’t know I lost track of the time, my table came out, free wifi at the bank! So then a guy comes over and we shake hands and all that and we head back to the room. Now he asks me if I minded if his colleague could sit in with us. I said no that fine, thinking his colleague would be this old guy as he was older himself. Nope, in walks this extremely attractive guy in his twenties. The thing I noticed was Dutch people like to stare when they talk to you, or when they don’t talk to you. SO every time I looked up this guys eyes were on me, extremely uncomfortable for me.

And this irrelevant but I feel I have to say when he stood up, he was so tall, but his dress pants that he had on were beyond fitted they were extremely tight. And the only thing I could do was to stop myself from blurting out, if they were comfortable or not. Because they honestly didn’t look comfortable. So back to the appointment, as I take a seat, I'm offered yet again if I would like something to drink??? What is with the refreshments, I decline once more and we focus on the paper work. 

As I'm getting the information on the paper, they're taking copies of my stuff the guy looks at my address(in Den Haag) and he freezes before looking back up at me. Here is when the questions really started coming out, he's looking at me and he's like what do you do again?

SO I'm Au Pair, they're all familiar with that. And he goes, this neighborhood that you're living is one of the more expensive part of the Hague. And I'm like...okay...thanks. And he keeps going on about it, and then finally goes to me and like is all, you've noticed the houses are a bit...posh don’t you think. I was thinking what the hell did this have to do with anything? To have an Au Pair first off, you have to be well off at least a bit. You have to make a certain amount of money a month, I've seen some of the forms, because you are literally paying for everything but in the long run, it's cheaper then a nanny or Daycare.

And because they can Afford it, families take the Au Pair options. I've been in a few dutch houses, and all the ones I've been in, had Au pairs, and the houses were huge. It's just the way it is, I suppose. It's not really a surprise anymore. I don’t question it, I just live it. Getting off topic again, back to the bank.

So I was signing the first and last paper and then an alarm starts going off in the bank, and the hot guy rushes out to see what it is.

It's a Fire Alarm btw, I figure that out myself, so they're like sign here, and here, and we have to go okay thanks bye! It was a strange experience, and then as I'm getting ready to leave the guy comes back and he says it's all good, but yet the alarm is still going off! I was done, and casually walked out, with my whole information pallet in dutch. My host parents said they would help me, good thing too.

Saturday I didn’t do much, it poured like the rain came down and poured but then it cleared up, but I couldn't be bothered. I babysat for 5 hours though as I had nothing else to do and earned a bit of extra cash. I love my host family! The kids while a bit difficult at times, they can have their moments.

Oh yeah, because it's finally merging into spring, Finally! The festival seasons are coming up. Last week when I went to the center by accident I stumbled upon the St. Patricks Day Festival they had there as I said last post. Next month, I'm thinking of going to the Elf Fantasy Fair Festival. It's a 3-day event but I'm only going for two days I think. It's bascially...think Harry Potter world and all the creatures in it and focus on those instead of the witches and the wizards. It looks likes so much fun, I really think I'm going to do it. Hopefully I'll find someone who wants to go with me, and if not well I'll live.

Another thing is in June, there is going to be a Festival in Amsterdam called the Color Festival. This one seems so wild, but I'm going with some Au Pairs that I met a few weeks ago. I'm so excited about that one. Everyone goes in at least a white tshirt, but you can be all in white if you prefer and then they're a concert going on, and while the music plays there are canons of color powder shooting at you in the crowd. Gosh that seems...just so strange but I want to be apart of it!

Last Post I said I would have a bit more Au Pair work on here, so here it is. This past Wednesday I had pillow fight with Wies, she really enjoyed beating me with a pillow. She has frustrations and I knew that, and I let her get them out by using me. I did hit her back with my own pillow but for the most part I let her release all that pent up anger at my person. She felt better afterwards so I think I did a job well done! We tried to have a pillow fight with Floor, but she only wanted to hit you, and everytime you hit her, she would 'cry'. So Not going to even go there.

My Youngest host kid, who I call Clara, but her real name is Claartje, which is pronounced Clar-cha, or some variation of that. It's easier after you've heard it and said it a few times. But I know at first glance I was like what??? She's turning 4 at the end of the month, and having a birthday party so I need to go out and get her something. Good thing I know what she likes! Lol..I think, she likes a ton of things. Anyway when she turns 4 she's going to be going to regular school, she likes that. But that means, goodbye my bike. 

Because she's not yet 5-6 she wont be riding her bike to school, so I will either have to use the bakfiet(only on Wednesdays!) Or The mommy bike, which I prefer. It's lighter to ride. But no more my bike, as I refuse to ride on the weekends lol. I ride a bicycle every single day, weekends are my lazy days and I ride the tram, the train, or I walk. Dont judge me. Okay that's all for this post, today looks like it's shaping up to be cold with a bit of sun so I'm going to go get dressed. See you guys later!

Last Weekend, Hyped up on Redbull and Vodka, ADHD Au Pairs :)

Hey guys,

I have a bit of news to tell you guys, I really should have wrote this on Sunday but I really didn’t feel like doing it. I still don’t know but I'm making myself do it as this weekend is coming up and I plan on doing something different too. And I don’t want to be behind on my posts. Okay so last weekend, On Friday I went to the bank as on Wednesday I have legally become a resident of the Hague, The Netherlands. And with their Social Security Number I can now open and account! Finally, because there are things I need to buy online like the OV train card with the 40% discount on the rides. But I digress back to the bank, So I go in with all my information that I needed to open it, Passport, the paper that says I'm a resident and my permit to work in the Netherlands.. I get to the front and as I says their banks don’t have the glass. She says I need to make an appointment..and the nearest one is Next Friday, which is in two days lol. And I'm excited! So I explored the town by myself.

Saturday I went back to the Center as I didn’t want to stay home and have my host family think that I was lazy for not going out. And I ended up finding this candy store in the middle of the center that has something that resembles chocolate chips. I don’t know if I said it, but they don’t have chocolate chips here, and if you guys want to send me some.....go for it! So while I was splurging and spending money on people who have no idea I'm thinking of them, I got a call from Marcy that asks if I want to hang out with her and her friends, fellow Au pairs. I'm so not going to turn down that, so I said yes.

Fast forward 2 hours later I get the information I needed and I head to the central station. I took the metro here for the first time, and heres where it gets bad. I stole a ride! I know, it's not that bad but I was horrified. They have an automatic system here, you have a card that words on the bus, tram and Metro. You put it in front of the machine and it beeps, that means you paid, when you get off on your stop there is a machine there too you have to put your card to it again, to signal the end of the trip, otherwise it just keeps taking money off of it. And when I got on the train I didn’t do it, so I spent my half hour journery on the metro, invisioning a dutch officer who checks the fares(they do that on the trains and the busses) coming to me and finding out that I didn’t pay. I don’t want to go to jail! Least of all in a foreign country.

So I finally get to Pijnacker, yes it is spelled like that. And it's a small town, still in the Hague. I didn’t know the Hague extended that far. It was a surprise to me. And while there I met a bunch of new Au Pairs, 3 Au pairs from South Africa, one from Denmark, One from the Philippines, and then there was me an Marcy from the USA, a bit of a small mixture. We had a blast.! Like really we did, we had this whole Karoke thing going on. It was hiliaroius, we were hyped up on red bull, vodka, wine, juice and ice cream. It was an awesome experience, I'm so happy I was apart of it.(The video I'm putting up here lol)

In the middle of the night we went to the park, and went on these swings that took a lot of upper and lower body strength, it was tough but it was so much fun. I don’t have many pictures from that night as my camera died early on. I do have some pics of us jumping on the trampoline in the backyard. That was amazing, and falling and laughing. Good times!

Sunday morning, I woke up with the other Au Pairs and we had breakfast and then watched some tv, before I left at about 11:30am, because I had a prior engagement at 2:30pm later on that day. If I would have brought my bike I would have gone with them to Delft. I'm so sad that I missed out on that. Their pictures looked amazing. Anways so when I went to the Center later on that day, imagine my surprise when I saw that they were having a St. Patricks Day Festival going on!(A small picture of that to the right!)

It was all in ENGLISH!. I was excited about that. I didn’t stay for too long but I was enjoying myself for the time I did.. I then went home, but it was such and awesome day. I have more to blog about this week, about my Au Pair experiences because after all this is an Au Pair blog. And I have a bit I'd like to talk about it. Anyways. Stay tuned for that!

Stuffy Noses, stupid maps, and flowers in a can :)

Hi everyone, I think I might have an interesting post tonight, but I'm sick. I was with the youngest last week, and she had the flu, and I and the rest of the house, caught some form of it. Bascially, my nose is stuffed, have a horrible cough and I'm miserable oh yeah and I sound like my brother apparently. But that's not the point of this post, I have a bit of sporadic things that I felt deserved it's own spot on this post today. Like this bit for instance, I just realized since I've been over here i've been untentionally spelling the words how I see them everyday, instead of how I was taught. For instance, Gray and Grey, Favor and Favour, Color and Colour, Center and Centre, Get it, I know right, they're all the same but to those grammer Nazi's out there it's correct, either way you say it!

Okay moving on to things that matter. Today I worked a morning shift so that meant at 1pm, I was free to do whatever I wanted. Okay so then I took my Granny bike and my Nook, and proceeded to get lost while looking for Rabobank. That's the name of the bank that lets Au Pairs get accounts for the year. So I was looking for streets, according to the directions and map but I got so lost. 

I was wondering around for an hour and half until finally I was like, forget this. I ditch both the map and the directions and I'm like, I'm just gonna check out the center. So I go to the center and lo and behold, I see to my astonishment that Rabobank is directly next to the train station. The one station I constantly have been through. Facepalm, and fail blog at it's finest. I had to snicker to myself, but I couldnt believe it.

So then I go instead and I'm like, I want to open a bank account. And the woman behind the counters told me, it's by appointments only. What the hell? Seriously? And their banks don’t look like ours, they don’t have the bulletproof glass separating the customers and tellers. It was very surreal. So the next available appointment is Next Friday at 2:00pm, heres to hoping I can get the morning shift again. It depends on the mom's schedule though..

I parked my bike near HEMA, as that's the Giant store directly in the center and I knew if I got lost, I could always find my way back there. So I went exploring, and I go lost a bit, turned some corners but I managed to make my way back to this small cafe we had went into before. It's an Asian-Dutch cafe. Yes I know, weird as that is, but I'm on a mission to try every one of their fruit soda's. Last time I had melon, and this time I had watermelon, next time something else. This time though I decided I would try their cheescake, and has ultimately decided it tasted like mousse and not like cheescake. The desserts here are wierd, dont let me get started on their Apple pies. I digress the strawberry cheesecake was so pretty though, check this out. 

I know right??? And i dont even like Hello kitty!

Tommorow, I'm gonna take the tram I think because my cold hates the bike and the wind. It's like a wheeze and it hurts my throat and ugh just miserable. Meaning on Thursday when I went to pick up the girls I had to ride the 'mommy bike' instead of the bakfiet. Which I enjoyed actually. The mommy bike is bascially a bike with 2 child seats on them or more depending on the family. Our Mommy bike has 2, but I have seen bikes with 4, and then a seat in the back for a child, or just all different types. Hmm, I'm gonna start taking pictures because it's cool when one thinks about it.

The child seats are usually One in the front, one in the back. I rode with Clara on the backseat, it was easier too, Marcy had one as well. So I felt a bit better with the wind at my face. With the bakfiet and you with you being sick is a horrible combination. So we rode this way and I have to say I prefer this, as I know I cannot ride the bakfiet every single day when Clara goes to school next month. That's just no.

One last thing and then I'm officially done for the night. Today during my little 'shopping spree' I bought something for my favorite Harry Potter fan girl, but thats besides the point lol. I got a a little soda can thingy thats bascially you can grow a flower in the can.. It's so weird, but so cool looking, well to me anyway lol. It looks like this. I'm still a bit unsure on how the directions truly go as the front is in english, but everything else including the directions is in dutch >.< As that's becoming the norm I can read a few words..but I'm still mostly lost.

Well that's it for now I'm tired of typing and feeling like I'm about to cough up one of my lungs. As soon as one nostril gets unstuffed, the other gets all stuffy, and another thing I miss from home is the menthol coughdrops and nightquil, and Vicks vapor rub with an extreme amount of menthol. I know I brought one from home, but I'm too sick to look for it. So I have to make due with the one I bought today which sucks. Anyway, enough of my complaining, until tomorrow when I venture out again!

Au Pair Training Weekend, and City Tours

Hey everyone, Not sure if this counts as being all that interesting but not wanting yet another week to go by without updating this blog. Lets see this past week was hard, and I have a feeling this upcoming week will be even harder even if its the same. This weekend that passed I went back to Laren at the Bed and Breakfast only this time there was 3 other Au Pair girls with me. And I have to say it was fun, but it was a bit sad. As I found myself really missing Natalia.

So The girls I met were from South Africa-Belinda, Elena was from Moldovia, and Leydia was from Columbian. A good mixture yeah, as I'm from the US as we all know. So we get there on Friday night and no one knows each other, but being Au Pairs, we all have something in common right. This group of Au Pairs were older, The ages were 23-31, with me in the middle of it. It was nice making new friends, that werent so far from me, I can't wait to get together with some of the girls.

Saturday is when it started, it was called the Au Pair training Weekend. And on Saturday it was such a beautiful day outside, but we spent the majority of it, inside and eating or drinking tea. Gosh I hate bread...just putting that out there. Over here, I don’t know if I ever said it but they eat bread every single day, for Breakfast, Lunch, and Snack. So I buy a loaf of bread every day when I go grocery shopping. Yeah...I know..in addition to bread, Potatoes is a big thing over here, and butter. I've come a long way since January where I still ate American Mayonaise on my sandwiches, now I use butter like them...

Anyway back to the weekend, the training consisted of Margo and Nathalia telling us everything there is to know about Au Pairing and things emotionally that we will encounter, like homesickness. I felt it, two weeks on Saturday, I remembered a song that my mom loves to listen to you, and I had to hear it, and I got all teary eyed and then I was like...hell no. No way I'm not going home, get over yourself and that was the end of it for me. Other girls sob it out, Im not about to end my amazing journey over a bit of homesickness.

Sunday, it was more of the same as Saturday only after the two women finished, they left and then Veronique our other Agency lady went with us to Zutphen and had a tour guide give us a tour of the city. A city I had already seen, like a week before. And this time when we went out for drinks I still ordered my hot chocolate with whip cream, it was so yummy.

 Tomorrow, I get my social security number here, and that means I can FINALLY get my bank account, which means. I can buy stuff online and my family can send me money...*hint hint* lol They were already going too, but seriously, pocket money over here, is seriously pocket money...I feel like I'm doing so much, making so little...On the plus side I was looking into Au Pairing again, but in a different country next, I'm keeping this to myself and to whoever really reads this.

But my agency has a partner agency that works in New Zealand, I always wanted to go to Australia which is only an hour away by plane from it. So I would get paid $320 a week,,, enough said right? Not to mention work there. The visa requirments are 18-30 years old, and I'm not getting any younger, I could mess around and totally miss out on spending a year in this amazing country, as next year I will be 26. Of course though I will come home January 2015, after my year in the Netherlands, and stay there for a month visiting family and friends, before leaving February 2015 for New Zealand. 

I'm already talking with the agency about it as well.  After that year I may or may not be through, or I may take up Australia, I'm not sure yet. Either way I'm living my life to the fullest and with no regrets! Anyway, below is a few pictures of my weekend, the weather was amazing.  The one below this sentence had alot of history in it. That bit of wall that you see around the room, was the original. It's not wall paper, it was painted back a long time ago, back in the Shakespearian time. Amazing right?

<<<<<<<This one was put, here in memory of the war. This was a statue, in front of a library and a church. It's hard to believe that everything I've ever read about in my history texts, I can actually go and visit it. It's sombering and exciting at the same time. 

Oh yeah an one more thing, on Saturday night for dinner, we have Dutch pancakes, which are extremely thin pancakes, and they had them with apple, or bacon, or plain, and then add those toppings and more to create something. They had some type of pudding they add..it was so good. Anyway they looked like this 

They are incredibly thin, but they are very filliing. I had 3 and was done, the same for my friend, it was just too much. That to the side is a stack of about 8 pancakes, enough for about 4 people. They have their own type of syrup which looks and has the consistency of mollasses. It's extremely thick and dark, not like the syrup back home.

And lastly, this week, here is a piece of the world, in the girls That I got the pleasure of meeting this past weekend. A Columbian, Moldivian, South African, and American, one thing in common, an experience of a lifetime, I wouldnt change it for anything!

Sorry but I haven't done anything!

Hey everybody, sorry that I havent blogged in a bit. I just am not doing anything worthwhile at the moment. Last week I went back to the Bed and Breakfast for Au Pairs and didn’t do much. I visited nearby towns but nothing else. I had planned a a few days to go to Amsterdam and then I would be able to take pictures and stuff, but I lost my charger for my camera and had to buy a new one. This weekend, I plan on doing something. Not sure what exactly but something so hopefuly the post will be promising. After a week of vactation tomororw the works starts again. And I hope that I'll get used to it. Anyways, thats all not much as I said but hopefully more coming soon. I have a lot of things planned!