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!