about goodbyes and being a tourist

Time to say goodbye (with loads of pictures, sorry!). With only two weeks left the last couple of weeks I have ben trying to do a couple of things that were still on my list. The school holidays for the kids started as well so I got to spend some more time with them which is always fun! One of the things on my list was Richmond Park, a really big park in London where they even have deers. I went there with Claudia to have a picknick. The weather was really nice and we had a lovely day! 

I had to go to to the hospital...

Well...the title says it all: I had to go to the hospital this week. But fiirst things first let me tell you about last thursday and friday. So last thursday my brother and his girlfriend Raya arrived, but because my brother wasn't feeling well me and Raya decided to get some breakfast without him. They were staying in a place at Islington. There is a story attatched to this as they were supposed to stay at a friend's house but those plans fell through so they had to find something else, but had no luck doing so. They were thinking about giving up and not going and as I really didn't want that to happen I decided to post something in a facebook group full of Dutch people living in London. We got a couple of replies but there was one reply from a very nice man saying that my brother and his girlfriend were allowed to stay in his appartment in exchange for a bottle of wine and the cost of his cleaning lady. Great!

Cambridge!

Hello again!

The last blogpost I wrote was in May and was about me not going to uni (well, at least not this year). And now we are already in July. Time is flying by fast and my time in London is coming to an end, but more on that later. First an update on my life as I often get questions what I have been up to, so here you go. :-)

it's time to sit down and talk.

"You are not going to uni?"

Since I started working here I have met quite a lot of new people and that includes a ton of au pairs. Usually the conversations that you have with new people are about similiar things like "where are you from", "what do you like to do in your free time" and "what are you going to do after your gap year?"
And since I moved here my answer was I don't know. I don't know how long I am staying here, I don't know what I am going to do after this and I don't know if I want to go to school next year.

The answer: I don't know if I want to go to school sometimes leaves people with questionmarks written all over their faces. Why wouldn't I want to go to school? Don't I want a degree? Do I not want to start a life?

I have thought about going to uni  and moving back to the Netherlands for a very, very long time. Almost every spare minute of my time I have been thinking about what to do with my life.
Every time I went back to Holland I would cry for at least a good couple of hours because I didn't know "what to do with my life". After spending quite some time talking to all the people that I care about the most I figured out that the only reason why I would want to go to university is society.
And no, not a university course that matches with society classes but society, like real people. You and me.

It took me quite a while to come to terms with this partly because I would sometimes get the feeling that people would not take me seriously as I am just an au pair, right? But you know what. Being an au pair or having a job similiar to mine does not mean that you are stupid. Just because I am not going to school right now doesn't mean that I am not moving forward, I have learned so many (oh yeah there she goes) life lessons over the past couple of months. I got more independent, more confident as a person and in the English language and I learn something new almost every day. I am trying to keep myself busy with more than just babysitting and drinking coffees in quirky pop-up cafés. Personally I think it wouldn't make a lot of sense for me right now to go to university as I simply do not want to go right now. Which wouldn't really be the best motivation to start at least a 4 to 5 years course with, haha.

I think sometimes people underestimate how important it is to follow your dreams. And for a lot of time I thought that me not going to university meant that I was lost and not sure what my dreams were. Slowly but surely I realized that those future dreams are not always lined out in a college degree. And sometimes it is. If you feel good about it, do it.

I was talking to a friend the other day, she wants to be an artist and she was talking about how she was not completely satisfied with her work, so she was insecure to show it to other people. The only thing I could think about was is when you want to be a doctor you don't just think "I want to be a doctor" and BOOM! You are a doctor. No, you have to work for it, learn and develop. I think it's the same with any other job out there. You can't always exactly know what you want to do for the rest ( or at least a big part) of the life from one day to the next. It takes time. 

Another very important lesson that I learned is just because other people are at university or going to university doesn't always mean that they 100% know where they are going and this has given me a lot of comfort.

No, I am not going to be an au pair forever but you know what I am only 20 and...

nothing is impossible

 Hellooooo! New week, new blogpost. This week was quite hard especially the start of the week since I felt really ill. I think I had a fever and over all I just wasn't feeling very well. So on monday after taking the kids to school I went back to bed until I had to work again. I did the same thing on tuesday. So exciting writing blogposts about feeling sick! My hostdad had his birthday on wednesday so I had to babysit, but luckily the kids were really good. On thursday one of my hostkids Sari went to a concert so I just had to pick up Linus he felt a bit sad about him not doing anything fun so we decided to make hot chocolate, watch a movie and eat some popcorn!

it's always friday

20th January 

This week started off really good because Linus (my hostkid) celebrated his birthday today and because of that I got to go with them to wagamamas, where I had my first curry, ever! I had a great time, especially because I think my hostkid really enjoyed me being there.

I still love the lights

So back in London after the holidays! I came back to London on the 4th of January. My flight was really early and when I was boarding I suddenly saw one of the Dutch au pairs Lois! Unfortunately our seats were really far apart but we saw eachother again when we got to stansted airport (which took a while since there was a lot of fog). We decided to take the bus together. I got home and the kids looked happy to see me. In the afternoon I met up with Larissa, she is from Austria. 

6 months

6 months. I have been living in this lovely city for 6 months already. London... You are a gem. And I might never want to leave this place. I don't want to bore you with super long stories about my last 2 weeks in London before Christmas (oh, what's new... I said I would update my blog and then I didn't update for about a month again). So here are a couple of pictures.

family time, work, halloween and pretty Brighton!

Hello world, I am back! Sorry for the long break between blogposts but I have been quite busy and also have been thinking about my future a lot. After my last blogpost I had a normal working week. On friday I had to babysit for a different family and I went home by cab/taxi/whatever you call it in the country you are in. How posh, haha! Dutch families can definitely learn things from British families. My hostparents went to the Dutch design week so I had to babysit all weekend. On Saturday we went to broadway market and to westfield where we saw "the boxtrolls". We had dinner at wagamamas and after that we went home.

Brighten up your day (week 14)

Monday again! 

After a long weekend with Sofie I was quite tired so this week I decided to relax a lot in my free time.This week was good since I might have an extra job and I had a really good weekend. 

I had to babysit twice for a different family and apart from that I just had to do my normal au pair things. 

Tuesday started with a very good breakfast (with of course my Starbucks Utrecht mug which I can't live without, haha). On wednesday I went to the park with Marmite (my hostdog) and there I met up with another dogwalker, she told me that she got a new job: after that she asked me if I would be interested in becoming the new dogwalker so tonight I am going to meet up with her and the dogowner to see if we can figure something out, meaning: I might have an extra job!)

3 months in London

Hello! Autumn has officially started and it is getting more and more cold outside. After my last blog I didn't really do a lot except posting some letters and changing some things in my room. And working of course! 

On Friday evening Sofie arrived! I picked her up from the busstop and in the evening we basically just talked and after that we went to bed. On Saturday I had to take her to broadway market and after that  we had some coffee and 'breakfast' at the look mum no hands café. 

Maps, museums and memorable moments

So my last blogpost ended on thursday. Friday was a really chilled day:  I made breakfast for the kids and after that I went to Carnaby street because I wanted to go to the Brandy Melville store for Veerle. When I got there I saw Mirjam so we decided to go to some stores together. Later that afternoon, on my way back I went to brick lane for some coffee. I had tea (supper/dinner) with the family and after that I decided to stay in to watch x factor.

On saturday I met up with my neighbour who is also an au pair and we went to borough market together (a big food market). 

Rainy London, loving life.

I went to the Hackney Carnival with Marcia and Denisa on Sunday. I loved it because it was so close to my house and  not as big as the nothing hill carnival. 

Marcia celebrated her 1-year anniversary that day so we both took a Polaroid picture.

In the evening I went to central London again and we went to the comedy club again but note to self: don't go there two times in two weeks. On Monday, tuesday and wednesday I didn't really do a lot except going to a big Sainsbury's and walking the dog with another dogwalker that I met in the park. On thursday I went to the breakfast club. The breakfast club is a café which is quite popular (in the weekends there is always a queue I think ). I went there with Ana (an au pair from Spain). It was really lovely meeting her (+the pancakes were so good!).

Carnaby, Camden and kroketten

It's weekend! It's Sunday today and I just woke up and now I am relaxing and writing this blogpost. Today I am going to go to the Hackney Carnival with Marcia.

This week started after I went to the comedyclub on sunday night so on Monday after dropping off the kids I was quite tired. I didn't really do anything on Monday and sometimes you just have to have days like that. I did (finally) put up my polaroid pictures on the wall. In the first week I put up a new york subway map with some pictures and cards around it and I finally found a good map of London that I wanted to use so now I have a London map on my wall with polaroid pictures around it. This is a really good tip for au pairs to make sure to pack some pictures before you go because it can really make your room feel personal. In the evening I skyped with Sofie (Dutch best friend) and she is going to visit me! She is going to visit me the first weekend in october (19 days), I can't wait!

Life in London: update

Long time no see! My last blogpost was about my first week here and right now I have already been here for 2 months (what?).Time is going really fast and I have been spending my time meeting people and getting used to everything. I really feel at home now. Last week the kids went back to school which means that I now have some free time during the day. The last couple of weeks they had summer holidays which meant that they sometimes had clubs and other weeks I had to be with them for 3 days during the week. I am really happy that I already was here with the summer holidays because it  gave me some time to get to know them but I am also happy that they went back to school again. 

I did so much the last couple of weeks. I have seen so many things, spent so much money on my oyster card, met so many new people and I saw my family again. For now I am just going to tell you about the past week(s).

If this is a dream, won't open my eyes.

Am I asleep? No, I'm alive
I just can't believe that this is my life

So... Here it is: my Sunday blogpost. On Facebook I asked if there were any au-pairs who wanted to meet up with me in the weekend. A couple of girls replied and one of them was Marcia. She said that every weekend her and her friends go to the city and that I would be welcome to join them: so I did! 

The girls (Marcia, Denisa and Laura)  wanted to go to Columbia road flower market and brick lane. For me both of these are in walking distance so that was quite easy, haha. First we went to the flower market, and as the name says it's a market with flowers. It was nice to see since they have loads and loads of flowers but I didn't buy anything since I am not sure if my hostparents have a vase to put them in (hashtag au-pair life). After that we went to brick lane and Viky joined us there. 

They have loads of food in a big hall, but unfortunately I didn't take any pictures: next time I will definitely take my camera. 

We all got something to eat and then we went to another part of brick lane and there was an event going on. One of the people from the event stopped us and told us about the "girl effect" event. Basically this was a big event to help raise awareness for girls in poverty. 

We went in to one of the rooms of the event and we saw that you could win tickets for a Jessie J gig by tweeting a picture. So basically everyone with twitter posted the picture and after that we went to a park to sit down. The park was the weirdest park I ever went to and it got really, really weird. After a while we decided to leave the park and we walked to McDonald's. Viky connected to the WiFi and...
SHE WON TICKETS TO SEE JESSIE J!
Unfortunately she could only take one person with her. She chose to take me with her! We rushed to my house (and took a cab, it started raining) and changed our outfits. After we got changed we rushed to the venue where I called my parents. My parents were a bit confused that I was suddenly going to a concert, haha. 

The concert was really good! It was held in a really small venue (village underground in Shoreditch). There were 3 artists in total.
After the concert I went home. I was incredibly tired. 

And.... On Monday I had the day off and some au-pairs wanted to go to Chiswick. I didn't really know if I wanted to go because I was so tired from the weekend but I decided to go. When I got to the station one of my friends texted me that I had to go to Gail's bakery because my favourite youtuber was there. I had a hard time finding the bakery but when I found it I saw that not only Louis was there but also Jack and Will. If you watch youtubers you will know that this was the best day. Ever. 

After that we  went to nando's and I saw this guy with a really familiar face but I was too busy FANGIRLING over the youtubers to recognise CONOR MAYNARD. Who was basically eating 2 meters away from us. After he had finished his peri-peri chicken we took a picture with him.

So yeah. I just can't believe that is my life was basically my song for the week. Month. Year. Whatever. 

Sorry for the huge delays in the blogposts but I am just really getting used to living here and have been spending my time making friend and of course working. 

Woke up in London yesterday.

Found myself in the city near Piccadilly, don't really know how I got here. I got some pictures on my phone. New names and numbers that I don't know. 
(One Republic- Good Life) 

Hello! This is my first blogpost from London! Sorry I haven't been updating yet, I have been very busy with getting used to the big city and making new friends (which is going really well, haha) I have been here for two weeks now and it has been crazy! So... Let's start at the beginning. 

On Thursday I got back from New York, which already seems like ages ago. In the afternoon all I really did was sleeping. On friday I had to pack my bags which was quite hard. In the end I took way too much luggage. I was really jetlagged and also quite nervous so in the end I only slept for like an hour. 'The next morning I got up and went to the airport. My parents, brother and sister-in-law were coming with me to the airport and my friends travelled to the airport together. It was really nice that everyone was there. 

I am so lucky with all the people around me. I checked in my bags (which were really heavy ofcourse, haha) and after that we walked to the passport security. I had to say goodbye. Saying goodbye was really weird. I will probably see some of them, but others I might not see for a whole year. 

I thought I would be more emotional and nervous though, which I wasn't so that was good! I walked to the gate and got into the plane where I could finally sleep for a little bit 'lucky me' the flight is only about 40 minutes or something so I had to wake up again. After that I got my luggage and I went to arrivals! I turned around the corner and I immediately saw my hostfamily which was really nice! My hostkids picked out a keychain that said "London" which they gave to me. 

We drove to the house and there I went to my room for a little bit and I gave them my presents (a minecraft creeper for the boy and some creative things for the girl). My hostdad came home aswell so I also gave my hostparents their presents (beer from Utrecht and chocolate). 

After that we went to broadway market. Broadway market is a really nice foodmarket nearby. It was really nice seeing the market and the people there, it also was a bit overwhelming so after lunch I went to sleep for a couple of hours.

In the evening I watched the Dutch people play in the world cup. It is always weird seeing it in a different country. The last time I watched them play was at JFK airport!

The next morning my hostmom took me to a big Sainsbury's (supermarket) nearby to see what kind of things I need (or want) to have food related. I just got some regular things like rice crackers. 

The kids had the opportunity to play on the streets in the afternoon because they closed the road. 

Jumping to the next day where I had my first working day! First working days are always a bit weird. I had to make breakfast for the kids and after that I took them so school. The week I started they had 5 days of activities at school. Which basically means that I had some free time during the day. The first couple of days I used my time to unpack and put up some pictures etc. and on Thursday I met up with Vicky, a girl I met via Instagram. We had coffee and saw a lot of touristic things (Hello Trafalgar Square!) 

On one of the days I also had to go to Victoria park village with the kids. Victoria park village is next to victoria park and has nice some shops and pubs. 

 I think my first week went very well. I was very lucky that I only had to take the kids to school on Friday so I was free in the afternoon. I didn't want to spend the whole day inside so I went to Westfield which is a big shopping mall. I got a uk sim-card there, meaning that I don't use my old number anymore!

On Saturday I met up with Vicky again and we went to the Jim Chapman meetup. Basically Jim Chapman is a youtuber and as some of you know I like to watch YouTube videos in my free time. We had to queue for quite some time and finally we got to meet him! 

After that we went to Oxford Street: Topshop! We got some cupcakes at Lola cupcakes and in the evening I went home. 

I am going to write a second blogpost for the Sunday because this blogpost is already very long and well.... Sunday needs it's own blogpost because I have so much to talk about! 

If you are wondering how I am getting along with my hostkids and family: so far it's all I could wish for really. I like hanging out with the kids and I am getting to know them a little bit more everyday! The parents have been so helpful and they told me that it feels like I have been here for longer (in a good way). I really enjoy talking to both the kids and the parents. Which is really good!  

You must be somewhere in London (+ I graduated!)

"You must be loving your life in the rain You must be somewhere in London. Walking Abbey Lane"
- England, the National

Okay, I have to be honest. The title has nothing to do with my past week but since I was listening to music and searching for a blog title I decided to go with this one, haha.

Since most of you know, I went to London last week. I went there to meet my host-family.
My flight was last wednesday and I was quite nervous... I actually had to run for my flight since the line at passport control was a bit long and we might have left a little bit too late, oops!
This was the first time for me that I was really going to fly alone apart from being with friends or my own parents, luckily flying is pretty easy. I arrived about 20 minutes early and I had to go from Stanstead airport to Bethnal Green with the bus. First stop was Stratford, which I would be seeing again on friday. After that we passed some other stops and I got kinda nervous because everyone got out of the bus at Liverpool Street, but the current au-pair who was picking me up from the station, told me that this should be okay and that my stop was the next stop.

London tommorow!

Hi! Do you still remember me?
Sorry my last post has been over a month ago but I have been crazy busy with my exams and planning everything for London and... the United States. Yes, I am going to Washington D.C. and New York! I finished my exams the 22th of may and everyone keeps asking how did they go but to be honest: I have no clue!
Since my exams I have been busy with lots of things, I turned nineteen  (yes nine-teen, 19!) and I have also been planning my first trip to London which is....tommorow.

Enjoy the little things

Happy Easter everyone!

It's the 1st day of Easter right now. This week has been very busy and emotional. As you all know I have my exams (in about 3 weeks now!). This week I had some last tests which were very difficult for me because I couldn't really concentrate due to the fact of my uncle passing away. From Sunday to Monday I slept for about 11 hours. I was so tired! On Monday I stayed home. On the rest of the days I had tests but I also went to Alkmaar a lot. On Wednesday we didn't go to Alkmaar, so I went to the mall together with my mother and sister in law. There we had the first high tea ever for my sister in law. The high tea was in the new part of the mall at the bagels & beans.