I am creative, aren't I?

I believe this to be true. I like to consider myself creative and therefore a little beast. It makes me hold on to every little piece of paper with a nice word or a pretty picture on it just because my little brain has this crazy idea for a project in some form or way. I never make it happen but the idea is there. With this craziness I also have 10 books hanging out in my room with quotes, funny postcards, crazy stories, song lyrics and weird poems I wrote while babysitting. I think there's some song lyrics in between as well... I'm like a cat lady only with - to me - interesting things that I truly believe to be the next big thing that will make me super duper famous cause that's all I want in life! And even though I have never actually finished one of my projects I'm still determined to finish at least one. When I have the time. Which will be never. Maybe when I'm retired I'll flip trough my books while petting my cat who's lying on my lap and I'll finally finish a project. If that is the case, I'll let you guys know!

I'll be back!

This is it. Summer is over. After lying on my bed for a decent amount of hours trying to find the courage to put all my clothes (that were strategically placed all over the floor) in my backpack it is time to go. I have slowly been saying goodbye to all the beautiful people that I've met at camp. It has been amazing.

Camp is a special place. I think that sums it up. It is so hard to describe.. The best one is: frustratingly awesome. Camp is an emotional roller coaster. You dive in and hope you get out alive. We all did. It has been one of the greatest summers in a while. You can be your crazy self and not get judged for anything.. maybe silently but that's alright. You also realize it's not just you who dresses up in onesies or likes to wear ties and suspenders in combination with a dress. I'm going to miss those outfits when I get back to the real world. I wish the 'real' world was like camp. Full of magical rainbow moments!

 Sleeping in tents between the bugs and slightly bigger animals is something that I hadn't done before. Did it! I pet a snake. Check. Rode a horse. Check. Laughed. Check. Cried. Check. Screamed. Check. Slept under the stars. Double check.








I have met the most amazing people at camp. We are all one big family and that is something that I love the most about this summer/camp. I have so many places to go to after this, because we will all visit each other.

I love crazy outfits!

I have learnt so much at this place. About myself, about others, about the world and about life. Cheeeeeeeeezy, I know, but true! I would do it all over again and not change a thing. Well, maybe I'd stay longer.

I will forever remember this summer as a horribly fun summer where I decided to be me and stay me wherever I go. Cause that's all you need. 

And now it's time to say my last goodbye. But don't you worry, I'll be back! Whether you like it or not! 

Does this ever happen to you?

You're in California, in a room that is way to hot to move or touch anything. You're there with your new Australian friend looking around on youtube and you come across a song that you totally forgot about! No? Never? Well, it happened to me today.. I forgot about this song:

Sometimes I wish I had a big brain where I could store all the good music in. Without forgetting about it, because I really don't want to forget about music like this.

Other than that, life is really good in California! Tomorrow I have to get up at 4.30 in the morning to get myself to Yosemite.. I'm excited now, I don't know if I feel the same in the morning.. let's find out!

River Cats vs. Fresno Grizzlies

Out of the park! Yesterday I went to my very first baseball game. I have to say, the only time I've ever played baseball was in high school and it wasn't very exciting.. If you never hit the ball, the game is not thrilling at all. Luckily my baseball skills have absolutely nothing to do with the fact that we can still go and watch it! So we did!

To be honest, baseball is not the most exciting sport in the world. It's very laid back and they only run really fast when the ball has a decent pace and points have to be made.. that's all. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the game. I find it more amusing to watch any sport in real life then on tv. Heck, I never watch sports on tv but in real life I may as well be the most dedicated supporter!

I had a blast! If you don't like the game, you can always go walk around and watch other people get crazy! and it really is like the movies with people walking up and down the stairs selling popcorn and merchandise. It was awesome!

The game itself was good as well, they played for 4 hours straight. Yes, that is exeptionally long but we won! So that's a nice touch!

Anyways, that's about it! I am now melting away in this heat and my feet are being eaten by a dog but she is so cute you doon't really mind her eating anything!

I'm here!

Never in my life have I been in so many planes in one day. My lord! In total I've been in the air for 14 hours and I've been waiting for 8 hours. Insane, I don't know how I did it!

All the fligths went well, nothing scary happened.. no crash, so that's good! There was a lot of food though! We got sooooo much! I had about 4 meals on the first flight. No small meals, just big ones. Crazy! But I was still hungry when I arrived in New York so I decided to go for some pizza. I was thinking I might get 2 slices, but then I saw the size of the slice, and just got one because those things are huge! And the coke was a small one..

My pizza literally fell over my plate, but it was soooo good!

So, after my dinner in NY, I took a flight to Dallas. That one was less fancy and only gave me something to drink. I watched Big Miracle, a decent movie about saving whales in Alaska. It sounds lamer than it is, I promise.

Look! This is me in Dallas!

 Next stop was Sacramento. This was my last flight. It was alright but I was sick and tired of airplanes. Luckily I had a window seat and the lights were on in every city so I had something to look at! That was very pretty. But other than that it was plain boring.
When I arrived in Sacramento my host mom and host dad were waiting for me! Yay! They are very nice! After that, I fell asleep..

My lovely room!

That's about it. It's not super interesting, but it's something! I'll keep you up to date!

My bags are packed, I am ready to go!

I'm the packing queen! I am telling you, I don't know how I do it but it's awesome! Tomorrow I'm leaving for 2,5 months of California.. I packed my bags today. I have 14 kilos. That's not much. It's all in one backpack and I have everything in there I was planning to take with me. Amazeballs. And honestly, I don't know how it all fits in there. I'm guessing my backpack has some secret spaces and swallows half my stuff. It's wicked. Check it out:

But wait.. you only have one back.. How are you going to take 2 backpacks with you? Well, let's just say that is a challenge I have yet to accept. I'm not quite sure how I will do that, but we'll figure it out along the way.

Guys, it's going to be totally awesome! My next story will be written from the other side of the world! I'll let you know if I completed the challenge! Cheers!

A.J. for the summer

I just came back from a my-lord-she's-leaving-again-this-is-getting-old-but-hell-it's-a-good-excuse-to-go-out-again-bye-bye-Robin family dinner! It was very nice! Here's a little picture:

Wow, what a lovely family! Too much awesomeness in one picture!

So, tomorrow is the day I pack all my stuff. It'll be interesting.. Today I bought the last items I needed with my bestie and now it's slowly getting to me that I leave in less than 2 days.. I'm so STOKED! It's gonna be soooo cool! I'm pretty sure time will fly by like a fruit fly, oh boy..

Also, the letter from my college came in the mail today. They were "delighted to tell me that I have passed phase 1 of the selection" Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet! Yes, you are allowed to do a little victory dance for me, thank you very much! So, the only thing I have to do now is charm them with my looks in an interview and then I'll be the new soon-to-be producer! Cool, cool, cool.

I'll see you guys soon. Probably when I'm in California, cause I'm cool like that! By the way, did you know that California is a little bigger than Germany and a little smaller than France? That's freaking big! Did you also know France in bigger than Germany? I did not know that. Getting smarter every day over here!

Only one week left

Dear friends,
Only one week left and then this girl leaves for a 22 hour travel to the U.S of A. To be exact, Sacramento, California. From there on, the journey will really start! These are some of my plans: learn how to surf, learn how to ride a horse - this will be fairly dangerous since horses freak me out a little - fall in love with San Fransisco, make lots of new friends, eat lots of Chocopuffs and try not to get a sunburn. It's a challenge. Challenge accepted! Yay!

I have another blog, where I put my travel stories but it's written in Dutch. I fully understand that not everybody speaks Dutch, since it's an impossible languages that freaks a lot of people out - I don't blame them. So, for those awesome friends that aren't Dutch I will personally - not Google Translate, that one kind of fails to convey the message - into English and post them here. Isn't that lovely? That way you can all enjoy my journey with me! Yay!
In return, I would love it if you leave a comment every now and then so that I know my adventures are being read and that I'm not translating it all for my Dutch friends to read them again in English. Deal? Sounds awesome!! I'm looking forward to enlighten you - and make you jealous, cause I'm a little mean like that.. sorry..

I am so ready to go!

Days with my father

Phillip Toledano is a photographer who documented the last years of his dad through pictures and put them on a blog. They ended up being a book but the website is still in the air: http://www.dayswithmyfather.com/

If you click on the right down corner you can flip through the entire book. Honestly, it broke my heart a little. The pictures are so powerful and the stories he tells about his father's changing are beautiful. This man, his father, is such a handsome guy.You can see he has lived his life to the fullest. Amazing. The memories he has will forever be remembered through this book. There are happy bits and sad bits but you can see the vulnerability and I really appreciate it. You almost feel like the photographer opened the door to his house and said: "Well, go ahead and don't be afraid to snoop around in unexpected places where you will find all my thoughts and secrets. I'm happy to share it you. If you have any questions feel free to ask."

I guess I just really want to thank him for doing that because it made me that much stronger. I believe this is the best way to slowly say goodbye to your loved onces. Here are some of my favorites:

Definitions

My dear friends, today I found out that I have this thing called: wanderlust. It is originally a German word: fernweh. It's a noun. "A crave for travel; being homesick for a place you've never been."
This word is magical. I am complete now.

Another word that makes me smile. Skinny love. It is originally a song. " When two people are in love with each other bur are too shy to admit it. They still show it. " Amazeballs!

While we're at it, there's this guy. His name is Rudy Francisco. He's pretty cool. Rudy is: " The 2009 National Underground Poetry Slam Champion, the 2010 San Diego Grand Slam Champion, the 2010 San Francisco Grand Slam Champion and the 2010 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion" That's a whole lot of slams, I can tell you that. Anyway, he has a website that's pretty awesome, and a cd that's pretty awesome. Do check him out, you won't be disappointed - I hope. He also has some definitions of words that I think are spot on:

envy is when someone walks around with a pocket full of 'that should've been me'
hate is what happens when you put a shotgun to the face of understanding and it cowers in the corner
truth is everything you tell yourself when you realize no one is looking
courage is ripping your heart from your chest and saying "here... hold on to this for me"
trust is when you jump into someone's arms knowing they would never let you hit the ground
love is a tablespoon of hemlock I've been dying to try (personally, I'm not sure about this one)
faith is doing what you love for a living and watching the bills pay themselves
failure is when you talk yourself out of becoming something amazing.


Mr. Francisco, you rock! That's it for today, I'll go wander around in my dreams now.

I'm just a dreamer but I'm hanging on

Shoot me now, killer song!

With a song to celebrate :)

I got a B. I passed my exam with a 75 out of 100. How awesome is that. I did a little victory dance. It was a good day, the Queen celebrated her birthday. So did we, by sitting in the sun, listening to music and drinking beer (yes, I had one too. - Robin, what has gotten into you?) I even got a little sunburnt. Gobsmacking, it was barely 20 degrees and I got a sunburn. Just gobsmacking!

Anyway, I am an exeptional listener and user of English. Bam, there you have it. Take that! 10 weeks of die-hard studying (you can take this with a pinch of salt, pepper and whatever spices you like) paid off. This is legen.. wait for it... awesome! Here's a song to celebrate:

Yikes!

Two days. Only two days left and I know how smart I am in English. It's too long. I can't handle it! 

When I came back from London, it was so far away. I sort of forgot about it - not completely of course, I studied 10 weeks for it - but now it is super duper close. The past week I have been restless.. I'm driving friends and family insane.. sorry 'bout that!

See, there is this system in my head that works very strange. In high school, whenever I had a very good feeling about an exam, it turned out I failed miserably and vice versa - when I thought I failed harder than ever, I got straight A's. I have an incredibly good feeling about this exam so I'm freaking out! I'm hoping the system is only applicable on high school exams and none other than those. Unfortunately I won't know until Monday, 11 am. For God's sake, why?!

It's a good thing it's Queens Day, so I don't have time to really think about it. I'll just drink it all away. Just kidding, I'll be babysitting my cousin. Hell yeah, I'm going mommy style this Queens Day, while my aunt is partying. Something's not right. 

Here's an 'inspirational picture'... I'm a sucker for those. 

Wheeeeeeeeeeeee, I'll go dance around the room to lose some energy. Bye!

This could easily be a page in one of my scrapbooks..

Look, I am a daydreamer! Is it too much? I like it, it looks weird - in a good way.

I decided it was time to make a new story. I want to write more often because I miss it a little. I just don't really know what to write about so bear with me while I'm discovering my next topic.

Lately I've been thinking about writing a proper story. An actual book. Don't get too excited, it's one of my many ideas. Just like I had the idea to make a portrait series of random people or my documentary about people and the content of their bags. Yes, loads of ideas but no execution. One day, all of this will be reality, I will make this happen. You are now my witness. It is written in black and white - I, Robin Voskuilen, swear to make all my dreams come true. I do.

Dreams are wonderful. It is great that there is a place you can reach with your mind where anything can happen. You fall in love with the greatest person in the whole wide world and everything goes as planned. Nothing is extremely difficult or embarrassing. You can twist and turn things as much as you like and it all makes sense. One moment you are in a swimming pool and the next you are fighting a big dragon in order to save the life of your beloved prince - I tend to be the one that needs to do the saving, instead of being save by a knight in shining armour. That's just how I roll.

Did you ever notice that dreams enable you to have a perfect conversation?! It's true. The other person - the one you spill your heart and soul out to - says exactly what needs to be said in order for you to use your most beautiful and poetic sentences ever. I know I'm not the only one who does this. If my dream conversations would actually happen, boy would my life be epic!

I hope to never stop dreaming. Once you're not afraid of your dreams anymore, they are not big enough. Go big or go home!

Well, this didn't turn out to be that spectacular. Thank you for letting me ramble on, I appreciate it. I hope it wasn't time wasted.. For me, it wasn't!

Money, money, money!

Today is Easter. Happy Easter y'all! Easter at the Voskuilen-residence means sleeping like babies, then eating our hearts out on the fancy diner plates and searching for Easter eggs. After all this excitement - I love searching for Easter eggs, I really do! - it's just a lazy Sunday and nothing really happens. So, I decided to count the money in my two piggy banks. That's right, I have two!


However, these are not your every-day piggy banks. Since I like to spend all my money, I'm not really an expert in saving it so these lovely piggy banks hold just foreign currencies that I'm unable to use here. Interesting, isn't it?
I thought so too, so I decided to count them and put them into piles. So I did:


From left to right: Norwegian crown, dollar, pound and euro - the kind that we do still use but somehow found their way into my piggy banks..

I have to say, I was a little disappointed with this treasure. I expected there to be a little more but still.. It's a little awesome! I also found a coin in there that I couldn't quite define:

After some long and difficult research (I found it on Google within 2 seconds..) it happens to be from Swiss.. Amazing! How did that end up in my piggy bank? I'm afraid they come alive at night and go on little holidays. They look so innocent but meanwhile they are the most bad-ass piggy banks you've ever seen. I'm sure.

Beautifully sad

I have something for you. You might like it. I'm a fan of strong feelings. If you don't have a strong feeling about something, forget it, it's not worth it. That's how I see it. So here's something I got a pretty strong feeling about.

Put this song on, if you please:

When it is ready to be played, go to this website: www.rainymood.com.. What do you think?

It gave me a beautiful sad feeling. Sometimes I like that feeling, like today.

My Valentine's Day-date.

I got beautiful flowers:

Then we had dinner:

Dessert:

And after that a movie:

Best Valentine's Day evah! Thank you, you! I fell in mutual weirdness with you.

And for all those men out there carrying big bouquets, you are doing it right! I wish you all the best.

I fell in mutual weirdness with you.

This will happen. You know it will.

Dear guys,

I don't need tight clothes or tons of makeup to get you to like me.

I will seduce you with my akwardness

Sincerely, be ready.

dearblankpleaseblank.com for life.

The beauty of London skies

Enough said.

My dream came true today!

Have you ever seen that dancing game where you have to follow the steps that are shown on a screen? Here's a video to refresh your memory:

Now that you know what I'm talking about I can tell you that I've wanted to play this game for at least 5 years! In my world, it is the coolest game!

Today was the day. I played the game. FINALLY! No, I was not as good as those guys. I sucked, but still! It was wicked awesome! One day I'll be those guys! Just the female version. And just one. I won't multiply myself. Mark my words! When, and if, I grow up I will buy one of these maniac machines!

Next to us there was a guy who, I assumed plays the game every single day. His level was 'expert' and his feet were flying all over the floor! Gobsmacking!

I' m a happy girl now.

The Guard

I'm in England. Really? Gosh, you didn't tell us about that in like 20 blogs. Anyway, since I'm here I've seen some of those guards. They are in front of Buckingham Palace and also at the Tower of London to guard the Roayl Jewelry (which are very shiny). They look like this:

I find those caps a little bit strange because they can't see anything. This particular guard had a tattoo in his neck. Rebellion!

Every once in a while they change shifts. When they do, they march in groups of 4 from one place to the other to pick the 'old' guard up and to deliver the 'new' guard. That ritual looks like this:

Well, that is not the ritual, that is how they walk. But still pretty amazing! Before they move they check each other if everything is right, stamp on the floor a couple of times and replace their guns (which are loaded)

I would never want this job but I believe that it is an honour to have it and not the easiest one to fetch!

Notting Hill

Yesterday I was at Notting Hill, you know.. from the movie. I don't really remember a lot from the movie since it has been a long time ago. We went to see the door from the house in the movie (are you still with me?) We walked the same street up and down for at least 4 times. At last we found it. It was the ugliest door I have ever seen in my life! In my memory the door was very pretty but this one was just.. yuck.. How can that be? And the bookstore he works at is actually a shoe shop. Wait, what? Why? Another dream has been smashed into pieces.

(I never really liked the movie but still.)