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: