American friends & Amsterdam

Last week I posted a blog about that fact that I can drive. That same day I had yet (again) driving lessons. This time around everything went PERFECT. My driving instructor was blown away. See....I CAN drive!!! Anyways...enough about my obsession with driving! It's probably driving you'll nuts!

Past week has been a crazy week. I worked all week and then on Friday I had to clean the house and do grocery shopping for the weekend, while my friends Sarah & John came over for a short weekendbreak.
Sarah & John are originally from Texas but they have been living in Germany for the last 1,5 years. John is with the US army and is stationed there.
It was really fun to get to know them a little bit better. They also brought their cute labrador puppy Bèni! Makes me want to have a dog too again!

While English is my second language and I normally don't speak it a lot it was good to actually have a chance to catch up on my English! Not to mention that I love having people over. We took Sarah & John to Amsterdam. Both of them wanted to visit the Anne Frank house. I've been in that museum a couple of times already, it's a nice place but after 30 minutes you've really seen it. Although the museum is really cool and it's cool to see that actual diary, rooms and wallpaper. I think it's good way to picture and think of World War II and also about how Anne Frank lived. However the museum about World War II and the jews that made a huge impact on my life was not really a museum but a Concentration Camp called Terezinstadt near Prague (Czech). If you are ever near Prague, you should visit it! It's impressive! It makes you think how bad the war was!

Anyway to go back to the story we decided to let them go in the Anne Frank house and we went off to find a restroom. When they were done we decided to have lunch and the something real Dutch is: pancakes! So we went to a place that served pancakes. Not hard to find in Amsterdam! The diner we ate in was named 'Sara's' and so we thought it was really suitable. Sarah should eat in Sara's, right? It was a really small diner but the pankcakes were really nice! After lunch we took them to see more of Amsterdam including a tour through the redlight district. Although it's a bit of a nasty place to go, it is a big part of Amsterdam plus the buildings in the redlight district are very old. Mainly because it was situated near the harbor and in the 16th century loads of V.O.C ships came in and you could find most fishermen in the bars ( in that district). The city itself was established near 1000 a.c.

Anyways we walked around and showed them bits of Amsterdam. The city is quite big but not as big as London or New York. I wish I could have showed them more but we only had one day. On Sunday Jeroen and I took Sarah and John to the beach here in my hometown Katwijk. After lunch they left again to go back to Germany. It was a short trip for them but hopefully they had fun. We surely did. We hope to visit them in Germany sometime this year or otherwise definitely next year.

My best friend got married!

Enjoy some pics of the wedding :-) It was a blast! Really weird to think about it that she's married now... I still need to adjust to that, haha.

Driver license

The day has just started and the sun is out and shining bright! I love the fact that it’s almost spring. That means that summer is on its way too and that I can hit the beach in a couple of months! That’s the nicest part of having a beach right near your house, when you have time you can always go and you don’t have to travel far. At the moment I’m still looking for a job. It’s frustrating because I know what I want and know where I can get that job but for some reason they never invite me for a job interview.

My first driving lesson starts in one week. I’m planning on getting my driver license in 2 weeks. It’s a very ambitious plan, especially because you need to have at least 30 or 35 lessons to be a reasonable driver but I’ve booked all my lessons in two weeks time so we’ll see how it goes. I’m 24 and I really need a driver license! Not to mention that the age in The Netherlands for driving is 18 and that I could have got my license way earlier but the costs have kept me back. Right now I’ve paid 1971 euro’s for lessons and the final test. It's almost 2000 euro’s! Which is 2532,60 dollars! I have to pass otherwise it will cost an additional 500 euro's. It’s crazy. I could have gone off to the US to get it there but then they won’t let m drive in The Netherlands, so there was no choice.

This week I’m heading to Belgium. One of my friends does an internship in Genk and so I’ll be visiting her on Thursday and Friday. Belgium is a whole other country than The Netherlands, but they speak Dutch too and so I don’t really see it as going to another country plus it costs me 3 euro’s to get there. I do look forward to be somewhere else for a day.
Other than that I’m working fulltime for my dad at the moment. He has his own company and advises other companies in technical installations. I’m doing the administrative side of it. He’s off to Frankfurt on Thursday so I’m glad I will have the rest of the week ‘off’.

I'm getting old!

January is the month of my birthday. I was born on the 15th, two months too early. I guess I couldn't wait to come out. So this year I'm again a year older. It doesn't really matter to me but of course you get the usual birthday pranks. One of my best friends texted me the morning of my birthday saying that next year I will be 25, which if you round up, will be 30! Thank you Marianne. I think she forgot that she is turning 25 in november this year. Then there's my nephews and nieces who believe that I'm way too old for my boyfriend and that a man should be the one that's older in a relationship... Right! And they are only 10 years old.

I had a really nice birthday this year. Last year Fiona was in Holland and we had dinner at a really nice Malaysian restaurant. She's originally from Malaysia. Anyway I think the spicy food ( I mean REAALLLLY spicy) didn't do me good because my stomache felt horrible the whole evening. It was quite hilarious actually. This year I spend my birthday at a worship conference. Tim Hughes and Al Gordon were in Holland with Worship Central and so Jeroen (boyfriend) and I went the entire day. It was amazing and what a perfect way to spend my birthday!

The next day I had a big party for my friends and family and of course I got spoiled! I have an amazing group of friends, seriously and I can't thank God enough for that.

Graduation is coming up soon (I hope) There's still some things I need to do but I hope to have it all finished by february 1. I have been looking for a job in journalism/pr/communications for nearly two months now and I can't seem to find anything. They either don't take me or they take me and just don't pay me enough, it's horrible at the moment. It's frustrating but I have my hopes up and hope to find something in the next 3 weeks. Please continue to pray.

BACK!

I haven't been updating my blog in a loooooong while, but I will today! Yay!!! So what happened in the past 1,5 month?? Well loads of things. Sinterklaas on the 5th of december is always fun! For the ones who don't know what Sinterklaas is, I will explain shortly. Sinterklaas is translated into English as Santa Claus. So on the 5th of december all the Dutch kids get presents. They get either presents the regular way, or hidden in a surprise box with poem (so they have to dig up their presents) The adults get presents too! So why the 5th of december? Well the real Santa Claus (Saint Nicolas) died on the 6th of december, so I guess they started to celebrate his generosity on the 5th of december!?!! And when the Dutch founded New York (then New Amsterdam) they brought their customs with them, but seriously I'm not sure why the Americans celebrate Santa Claus at christmas....haha.

People ask me quite a lot if we also give each other presents at christmas. When I answer with a 'no', they immediately ask what we do at christmas. Well to be honest, we have two christmas days (december 25th and 26th) and we celebrate the birth of Christ with going to church both days and have a really nice meal with family (both days). It's not as boring as it sounds, trust me. It's nice to have a long and very nice dinner with your relatives. At least, for me! haha

New Year was great too, we celebrate it here with LOADS LOADS of fireworks and hang out with our friends or family. I spend it this year in Ermelo, where my boyfriend lives. It was great and we had a nice time.

Wishing you all the best for 2009!!!

Engaged!

My best friend is getting married!!! Yes! Her boyfriend proposed to her yesterday.

Without knowing it I saw the proposal. I was cycling down the boulevard when I saw a small airplane with a huge banner flying over the beach. I couldn’t read the sign because (obviously) I’m blind without glasses on.
She called me later that evening to tell me the news. It’s amazing! I’m so happy for them!!!

My roommate is getting married too!! Her boyfriend proposed to her 4 weeks ago!!

A LOT of marriages next year ;-) Congrats to both couples!