Happy Birthday to Me!

From now on I will sound way more grown up. Did that mean that a week ago I was a lot more childish? No absolutely not. The fact is that I am not a teenager anymore. But I will not lose my teenager self. What I meant with that was that it will sound more grown up. The word 'twenty'. I turn twenty and for me that is not going to mean a lot. Still to young to go out and party here and till to young to get a glass of wine in public. Well that is how it is. 

Celebrating my birthday this year was in every word different. First of all, I turnt 20 on April 17th this year. A day earlier. There is no date as ugly as that day. I have never disliked a date more than that one. And only because I have to wait one more day. Yes I can be super inpatient. 

Just when I started diner I got messages of my dad and some friends. I didn't forget it but I wasn't looking at the clock all the time. So when it actually was 6pm and my phone started buzzing I realized that in Holland it was April 18th. And if I was still in Holland it immediately felt like it was my birthday. Anouk started calling me and my host mom told me to answer it. So there she was, her voice almost made me cry. The sweetest wishes and of course a song. Pour girl stayed up until 12pm, or maybe not just for me. "The parting goes on without you, Nienk" says she to herself.   

The next morning, April 18th, my actual birthday. and I still think it is the most amazing day of the year. Only the sound of it makes me happy. Looking at a calendar or seeing it on my phone makes me smile. That is not weird, at least I think so. I really wanted to dress up. Tights and a dress are quite unusual for me. It is just not convenient to play with kids in a dress. Plus I love wearing jeans and t-shirts. So I decided to wear a dress that I actually saved to wear on my birthday. And Finally that morning I was allowed to read the cards that my family and friends sent me. I did not received that many card in years. 

My phone buzzed, this time it was Noortje. I was about to leave but that could wait a bit. I miss her a lot. Good to speak with her and quickly update her on me. While she needs to update me more about her, because in the meantime the went to Dubai. Sadly there was not a long time to talk. It was time to go. A new adventure with a old friend. I got my text from Anne that they arrived. 

Anne lives in Chigago, the windy city. I met Anne in New York City during the introduction days. It was amazing to she her again and spent my Birthday with her and Guilia, her  friend who lives near me. They planed a mini road trip. First we went to the Great Falls, Not a waterfall but a place in the potomic river were the water.... whatever I do not even have  a clue were I am talking about. Well, the weather was good, no sun but warm. We stayed there for two hours and took a huge amount of photo's, read selfies. After two hours we moved on. Next stop; Annapolis, I did not even heart of it once before. It is in Maryland near Baltimore. Just found out, thanks to wikipedia, that it is actually the capitol of Maryland. Though baltimore is bigger and has more citizens. Annapolis is such a cute city. The Navy it settled in Annapolis. For a second I though we were in England. Oh, haha I love wikipeadia, while I try to write my blogpost I got totally distracted. Do you want to know what I just found out. Annapolis is a sister city of Talinn, Estonia. In 2012 I celebrated my 18th birthday there! I was in Parnu, but still. It makes a circle be rond. moving on with Annapolis, it was so pretty, we walked around and sat down in the most nicest Starbucks ever. Because there is one thing I really wanted and that was some WiFi now and then. Starbucks is everywhere in the States and they will always provide you with some WiFi! than we strolled a bit more. To the bay and walked trough old American/English style streets. 

Just a moment to appreciate all the messages,  just wauw. I got a lot, lot. not only on Facebook but on basically every social media and more. Being far away from home is hard a specially on days like your birthday. But I had such a great day and all those messages brought home a little bit closer. 

After Annapolis we drove back home. While driving back the GPS brought us through the downtown Washington DC during the traffic jam. Awesome, haha that was a way to show Anne the Capitol and the Washington Monument for the first time. It also meant that we drove through three different states in one day. So that made our little road trip sound a lot bigger. 

We had a lovely diner at a tapas bar. My host dad was in Boston with the two oldest girls for spring break, so my host mom took me and my friends out to that restaurant. It was delicious. I had such a good time in that restaurant. And of course I had a delicious desert. A 'Happy Birthday cake' ! A real American birthday cake. If you never been here you might not ever have seen or tasted it. They are super sweet and they have a huge amount of icing on it. It looks really good and they do taste good. But make sure you don't cut a to big of a piece. I made that mistake and Anne, Guilia and myself were not been able to finish that piece. 

Coming home after this day was so good. My phone half exploded because I didn't had any service for a couple of hours. Out of nowhere all those messages arrived and again, THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH. But having no service also meant for me that I had no connection to my family. I am more of a family person than I might want to admit. I would have loved it to Skype my family that day, but sadly enough that was not the case. Anne let me be on her 'Hotspot', but the service wasn't good enough for a Skype call. Well that evening I came home. Happy but kind of sad at the same time. It turns out that there is a huge box in the hall. My dad had sent me tulips. I was alone downstair. Totally cried my eyes out reading the card that my dad wrote me. I miss Holland and the beautiful flower field, but he brought a piece to my. I seriously hugged the flowers, is that weird? It was such a sweet thing. I love my dad a lot.

So here I am one week later, still 20. My cards gradually arrived and even my moms gift made it after a 4week travel. I had an amazing day. Seeing more of the county what I would love to do more and having a really good diner. America you are treating me well, in all aspects of that word. I need to enjoy more and I will because I feel more and more honored to be were I am every day. I like it a lot and I like all of you a lot. It means a lot to me that you wrote this, did you know that? now you do! 

Smithsonian Zoo

Schrik niet, maar hier komt mijn eerste klaagmoment. JEETJE MINA HET IS WARM. haha Ik zit naast mijn raam die ik wijd open heb staan en het is nog steeds bloed heet. Oh en wat vind ik het heerlijk. Zeker om er nu over te klagen. Toen de noordpool zich even hier had gevestigd kon ik niet wachten op dit moment. Op dat moment dat de Noordpool plaats zou maken voor de Savanne.

Oh wauw didn't even notice. I started of in Dutch. I had a moment were I though that I would translate it but I don't even want to. There is this thing called 'Google Translate' and you probably would still not understand a thing of what I said there but I love Dutch and sometimes you will have to life with that.

So basically what I said in Dutch was that it is hot here. It started of on Thursday. 74F what I still don't understand, but I could feel it. It felt really good. The sun was out and it was official. It's spring in Virgina! Spring here means warm weather and a lot of sun. Not even comparable to the Dutch spring. Although I miss the flower fields. There are some flowers now and than. But in the area were I lived in Holland there a squares and squares of flowers and it is such a connection to my Birthday. Flower fields and a birthday party! But I will not complain, although I started my blog with complaining about the weather. I'll tell you. I love the weather more than ever. Because I deserved this weather, more than ever.

So what do you do when the weather is amazing and you have not really anything to do? You go to the Zoo. I knew that is was going to be a good weather that day so on Wednesday I planed my trip. I wanted to ask people to come with me but for some reason I really wanted to go all by myself. I do that a lot lately. Trips all by myself. So I can do whatever I want and no one it going to keep you from your plans. I basically typed in on google; zoo. Guess what, there is a zoo next to the metro line. Couldn't be better. Well good I found a zoo, but now I needed to know I much I had to pay. And if I did not already found an amazing trip myself, it was not going to cost me anything. 

It's almost weird how much fun I had on my own. People are way more open to you when you are just standing there all by yourself. "Isn't it gorges how the feathers are all different colors?" I normally don't really like birds. This man did and his daughter who must been around 2years old might have been on my level. "I like taking my pretty girl to the zoo but I can't stent it that they arent free." He was way to interested for me "But sometimes the bad isn't that bad and than we shall appreciate them" I just laughed and wished them a nice day. Didn't wanted to be rude but I just couldn't say anything to him. While walking towards the seals I couldn't stop smiling. I thought about the fact that I used to hate zoos. I was never really interested in animals and I didn't care at all. This zoo for some reason gave me such a happy feeling. Still not really interested but that didn't border me. 

I only had two hours so I kind of rushed through the zoo. And because I was all by myself I didn't mind. I walked little faster than I should have if I had the time so that I could stand still whenever I felt like it. Like when I just couldn't stop looking at a toddler losing his mind at the children's farm and a specially at the pigs. Making pig noises and pulling his nose up. Dancing around trying to get the pigs attention. Or a little girl that couldn't stop asking het mom to visit the "roars".

For me, days like that are moments to relax and think about everything that I've achieved. Surely I can tell that I feel proud of were I am today. I feel really well and I kind of think that the weather helps me with that. Everything looks more pretty when the sun is out. I'm feeling very luckey and I enjoy my adventure everyday more and more.

Pictures

Last week I was ready to confront myself. Now today I can tell I wasn't. I decided to go through my pictures on my laptop and put them on a USB stick so I could print them. I adore printed pictures. holding a picture in my hands feels so much better than on my screen. So last week I printed 60 pictures of my friends, family and some memorable moments. If I knew this I wouldn't have done in, but it did hurt me. I got a huge feeling of homesickness. I miss everybody a lot and having a picture doesn't fill that. 

Though I was happy that I got them and posted a picture on Instagram of a bunch of the pictures. within a hour I got a few messages of my friends telling me the memory behind the picture or just telling me they missed me. So I could only respond saying that I missed them too, because I do miss them a lot. 

It took me a couple of days to get over that feeling. So now that I put them back in the envelope I feel content having them. It's a neutral feeling about the pictures. I have to feel strong and for a moment I didn't. So everyone is like; "are you going to put all your pictures on the wall?" No I'm not. I want to have them to remember the moments and go through them when I want. 

Because the memories do make me feel so happy. The week I spent with my cousins and a friend of my cousin in Austria. Hiking and hiking and more hiking. You know what, that week was such a lesson. I underestimated the hiking, but I did it and I'm honored that my cousins asked me. The pictures are amazing and the places we went were so pretty. And every time I see them doing it over and over again a million times harder then what I did I give them a massive amount of respect.

Then the pictures of Estonia. Two years ago I went to Estonia as a exchange student. Together with a lot of friends we stayed a week with a Estonian student and explored their town and a bit of their country. I even celebrated my 18th birthday there. When I went trough those pictures I couldn't stop smiling. That week was so much fun. I am so happy I did that. I doubted going because I wouldn't be home on my birthday. But who can say they spent there birthday with a family they just met a couple of days ago in a country you never been before. Maybe you did, well I didn't and it was a amazing day. Not only that day but literally every day was so much fun. 

Making a lot of pictures means remembering a lot of memories I might forget. So I capture them.

So I printed a lot of pictures basically to have them by my side. For now that is the best option because that gives me the best feeling. And you know what, I can wait to put them in the box with all my childhood pictures. They belong to my collection of joy.