feels like some kinda rush..*

Au Pearing in the Netherlands!

I can't believe I've already been here for almost a month! Time is flyyyiiinngggg by and before I know it, it'll be the holidays, then my birthday, then in about the time it would take to carry a seed to term (Jaime, haha) I'll be back home in the U.S. of A.

So things here are still going well. Pim has been crying a lot but his ears have been leaking yellow pus and we found out today that he has an ear infection so he's forgiven. Niek is unbelievably cute but he does this thing where he'll say "Mama! Mama! Mama!" every 2 seconds. Eline is cute because she always answers even though Niek just makes gurgling sounds or says, "kijkt (look), cars!" 90% of the time. Tijn has the most boogers I've ever seen come out of a small child and his fingers are consistently in his nose or playing with his third leg (the other day after bathing, I saw him trying to clasp a Playmobil toy to it). He still has some trouble with his temper but he has the ability to melt my heart with his cute little voice and his refusal to accept that I don't speak Dutch (he has full-out conversations with me). Also, when we watch movies or sometimes while we're playing, he'll crawl onto my lap and I'll stroke his hair.. ahhhh, he can be so cute and sweet! Lara has her moments where she can be cute but she's spoiled. I'm fully aware of the fact that I don't understand much Dutch but sometimes she has a really bad attitude. I'm still surprised that Niek has not given me an eye full of pee but then again, it's only been a month.

The kids are inconsiderate of each other and everyone else which I suppose can be attributed to their age. They wake up wayyyy too early every morning, screaming and playing. Last week, I heard their radio on full blast at 6:30 AM. Luckily, it was an American song (Britney Spears, "Break the Ice") which I had stuck in my head alllllllll day. Lately they've been waking up at 7 which is an improvement. Mornings usually go smoothly but if I could make changes, I wouldn't allow them to play in the mornings or bring toys to the breakfast table. I think it's great that they don't watch too much television but they literally play ALL DAY. Which means I end up playing all day. I know, I know, woe is me but sometimes I'd rather do something else, like go for a walk but the weather here is temperamental. Also, playing is too much of a top priority and makes doing other things like getting dressed, eating, etc. more difficult.

We've still been partying and living it up on the weekends. Last weekend we went to jimmy woo's in Amsterdam where we were solicited the moment we walked in by creepy, old Italian men who offered us free reign in their VIP section. You never turn down free alcohol or a place to sit so we humored them and hung around for a few glasses of champagne. This weekend, we were not quite so lucky. We went to this club I can't recall/pronounce/see myself going too again in Rotterdam, which is about an hour away. Granted, it was actually a really good time but the return trip put a damper on the experience. Before I get to that, I will say that I had a blast dancing my life away, taking good ol' tequila shots and grabbing the mic with Jaime to represent our hood.

partners in crime

oreso sandwich taking shooots

my favorite little Dutch girl :-)


it was all a dream...*

So it's after 5 AM and we're at about to board the train home. Usually tickets are checked (if they are at all) on the train but this time staff was outside checking before they let people on. We bought tickets this time but evidently we bought the wrongs ones?!?! Since we'd gone out on a Saturday night we were suppose to have purchased weekend tickets instead of a day-return. It's not like the automated kiosk machine we used told us this but despite my trying to reason with them, they would NOT let us on. The douche-cock I spoke too kept trying to justify the system and although I understand the rules clearly, it sounds like the dumbest fucking system I've ever encountered. The cost of the tickets are the same and it's not like we were trying to use an old ticket since the date and time of purchase (11:30 PM; he had the audacity to tell me that we bought our tickets a 1/2 hour too early) were printed on the ticket. Jaime flipped her lid and started crying and we ended up making quite a scene. We went to the ticket window to see if they'd help but apparently it was "Be a Cunt" day at the Rotterdam station. Although I had my debit card on me and could've purchased 2 more tickets, I just couldn't fuckin do it. Our tickets hadn't even been checked on the way there and the lady at the window basically told us they wouldn't be checked after 7 AM. So we cursed her our and waited for the 7:11 train. Oh, and if you were wondering, our tickets weren't even checked. Rotterdam is the shit stain on the panties of Holland.

We didn't make it back to Jaime's place until about 8:30 and only slept for a few hours because it was Niek's birthday! He turned the big 2 and got sooo many toy cars as gifts. After his luncheon party, we all went apple picking! It was such a beautiful day and even though Jaime and I were exhausted, we really enjoyed ourselves, taking a plethora of pictures of talking shit about adults and small children. Here are some pics for your viewing pleasure:


apples!

being a dork.

thomas and the kiddies

feels like some kinda rush...*

Jamesssss

Thomas and Niek!

sooo cute!

Eline and Niek!

my little butterball, Pim!

eating... as usual ;-p

Happy 2nd birthday Niek!

She really is cute though!

Anyway, we're finally making legit traveling plans! We're going to Belgium on October 17th then I'm going with Jaime to London around the 19th of December. I'd like to spend New Year's in Paris but we'll see how that goes. 2 of my sisters are also flying out for my birthday (February 3rd, and yes I'll accept deposits to my bank account) and we're going tentatively scheduled to go to Milan!!! We may opt to go elsewhere or multiple places in Italy or maybe even Greece but I'm soooo excited! After that, Eline invited me to go skiing with the family in Switzerland on the 17th, yayyyy! There are so many places I want to see and I'd love to go somewhere far/fabulous at least once a month and nearby places whenever we can. We looked up prices to fly to different places and it was so cheap. I hope a year is enough time to fit it all or else I'm staying until September!

To conclude, I really want a weave. If you're from the area and you know of a good place to get one or just a good place for me to get my hair done in general, please let me know. I can't be looking a hot nappy mess when camera flashes are constantly going off and I'm traveling to all these places!!

dedicated to my anthony...

It has been too long since I've updated my blog! So much has happened and I don't even know where to begin. This has been quite an eventful weekend but I'm so exhausted that I will not do this post justice if I try and elaborate right now. I merely wanted to post something so that a good friend of mine from the states, would have his dosage of Darline.


Anthony, my darling.

He brought it to my attention that I was being a slacker and for that I owe him many thanks. Tomorrow I will go into greater detail about my travel plans, Niek's birthday, making scenes and cursing people out at the Rotterdam train station, grabbing the mic and spittin B.I.G. lyrics (it was all a dream), our Jimmy Woo experience, the link to the video I basically starred in (and by starred I mean I'm no where to be fuckin found in the midst of all the people thrusting violently), some pictures, and various other details of my personal and social life. Hope the suspense doesn't kill you, goodnight!!!

Prettig met u kennis te maken, ik heet Darline!

What it issssssss?! I haven't posted in quite a while but a lot has since happened. I started my Dutch course today so be on the look-out for some Dutch words thrown into my posts (i.e., the title of this one). The teacher is spicy and I may end up being her special project since my Dutch accent is horrific. So that new bike I bought.. yeeaaaaaaaaa, it started making funny noises on me like it was gonna break with me on it. I called the man who sold it to me, and he literally gave me the bike off his back (or in this case, under his bottom) which looks brand spankin new, and since he's way shorter than me, has a cool low-rider vibe to it; it makes me want to get chrome spinners, holla.

Anywho, things with the kids are going splendid but last week was admittedly a little tough. Apparently I felt the need to torture myself, staying up til the wee hours of the morning yapping with people in the US and getting an average of 4.5 hours of sleep a night. BIG FUCKIN MISTAKE. I was miserable for most of the days, craving my bed and not wanting to be bothered by anyone whose age was a single digit. Niek has replaced Tijn as my favorite because he's so easy to watch and really is too cute, like it's really not fair. Today I took him to the playground where he bullied some kids for their soccer ball, pushed kids out of his way so he can get to the slide, as well as managed to get fed. He really is an angel. His English is surprisingly good! He may even speak better English than Dutch (according to Eline, the sounds Niek makes are not Dutch; it sounded like the same gibberish to me)! Tijn has some anger issues they may wanna get checked out. The other day he got mad at Niek, had Niek face down on the bed with the comforter over him and was pushing Niek's face down. Luckily I saw it, but that shit is not kosher. All he got was a talking-too, which I found perplexing and preposturous. I understand not spanking your kids but he should've had to go to bed early/not been able to play/no dessert or some combination of the three. Yea he's young but he likes to shove and when he throws his tantrums, he kicks. He's tried it with me but I'm steadfast and don't give in; he can kick and scream all day if he wants, but he's gotten the message and usually gets over it within minutes. Here are some pics of my little babies!
I was suppose to go into Amsterdam last Wednesday but decided to forgo it on account of my immense fatigue, but I made up for it by going to Bitter Zoet again on Friday and Hotel Arena on Saturday night. I stayed up wayyyy past my bedtime both nights but I had so much fun and it was all worth it.
Despite the usual good times at the clubs, my favorite day this weekend had to have been Sunday. It was Monument Weekend in the Netherlands, which is when the museums/sights-to-see either have free or reduced admission. Jaime and I went into Amsterdam where we walked through the Dam Square and turned down a maze of streets, lined with shops and eateries. Seeing as how we're cheap and they hardly check train tickets, we almost got into a bit of trouble before enjoying the shit out of the sights and beautiful weather. Neither of us bought tickets and of course, they checked tickets. If you don't have a ticket, there is a 35 Euro fine!! We managed to talk our way out of that but the man made it clear that he wanted us to get off at the next stop. Riiiiigggghhhttttt. The train stops and we get up from our seats and move to a place where we can spot him if he's coming towards us. We're thinking, Amsterdam is the net stop in like 5 minutes so we can avoid him for that time. Wrong. I spot him and we go upstairs, trying to be discreet but power-walking like no one's business. We almost get to the end and think we're home free but he's still following. Thank God the doors stay open for a while at each stop because we managed to find an open door and slip out just in time. As the train passed, I spotted him staring out the window; what a douchecock. We got on the next train without buying a ticket and made it to Amsterdam, no problem. All of that was worth it since there are so many retail therapy locations there... it's fabulous! We went into an H&M yesterday that was huge and had 4 floors!!! Not to mention there were tons of second-hand shops with cool/unique/my-cup-of-tea shit.. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and there was so much to see! My eyes were like a pendulum, swinging to and fro as I took in all the sights. We stopped at this place called Wok to Walk and I had Shrimp Fried Rice in a coconut curry sauce.. (my mouth is salavating just thinking about it) it was like the first time I heard the Beatles.






I'm loving Amsterdam and I can't wait to have visitors! Eline said people can sleep here which is really nice of her and is also going to help me with travel plans, should we decide to do so. Mark is due to come for Christmas which would be awesome. Eline also invited me to Switzerland with the family for the holidays so I'm thinking of going with them for a few days and coming back to enjoy some time off with the house to myself. It's a long vacation (December 20th-January 5th) and I'd love to be free to come and go as I please. Damaly is booking her flight out January 28th for our birthdays!!!!! Words can't describe how happy that will make me.. we've celebated our birthdays (her's February 1st, mine the 3rd) together for as long as I can remember and I'm so happy that despite my living in Europe for a year, that's a tradition that won't change.

even the kids are trendy!

Americans and Europeans differ in numerous ways but since I've been here, I've noticed one difference in particular: kids here are dressed magnificently! Ok, maybe not all of them but some of them are already fashionable at extremely young ages. Take yesterday for example... I was at the playground across the street from our house when I noticed a little girl, who couldn't have been more then 3, wearing skinny jeans and the cutest leather jacket I've ever seen! It was an outfit that I'd put together and wear and she had the cutest slicked back curls and I swear she was wearing mascara (her eyelashes were fab!). Another little girl had on this cute gray dress, black tights, a funky brown belt and some gorgeous brown boots! She looked straight out of a catalogue!

The adults are no exception. Eline wears heels everyday and puts together the cutest outfits. Today she had on a lavender polo with an adorable neckscarf and her Fendi shades. Last night, we stayed up for hours talking about movies, fashions and meticulously looking through magazines. Her kids always look sharp and I love her! Once a week she meets up with friends in Amsterdam (last week she woke up hungover the next day.. yet another thingb we can bond over) and she always looks wonderful. She never looks forced; she dresses for her age (35) but is very modern and fashion-forward. Her friends are all milfs and I need to figure out her secret before I leave!

Anyway, I finaaalllly found my camera battery and took some pictures of the kids. enjoy!

Tijn is the one with the white collared shirt and eventually gray boxers (he has an odd fascination with his privates; he touches himself a lot and last week as we were getting all the kids ready for a bath, he teabagged Niek). His friend Ulna is in the brown sweater/white polo/girly sleeveless bodysuit, Eline is in lavender with Pim, and Niek is in orange, cringing in every picture.
Check out the humongous spider below.. I can't even begin to tell you how many spiders there are in the backyard and in the front yard! I used to come outside and my old bike would have webs and fat fuckin spiders all over it. Hopefully those arachnids will respect themselves and not congregate on my new one. I literally flipped my lid TWICE yesterday when one repelled down my handlebars, causing me drop my bike (the old one) and again when one had the audacity to climb up my arm; it met a painful death as i stomped the living shit out of it. I'm hosing my bike down whenever I need to go somewhere.

It's the freakin weekend, baby i'm about to have me some fun..*

So I survived my first weekend in Holland.. barely. This was quite possibly the most exhausting weekend I've had in a while but it was entirely too much fun. Friday night, Jaime came over to have dinner with my host family and me. We talked about everything under the sun, drinking glasses of wine and some other alcoholic concoction Eline cooked up for us. After that, we went upstairs to change into clothes that were more Amsterdam appropriate. I took it upon myself to wear these cool boots from Victoria Secret I'd spent a year trying to wear, with skinny jeans, a vest over a white tee and a brown leather jacket. Sounds cute right? Now imagine me on this thing:














altogether ridiculous. Jaime, Mayra and I biked to the train station where we parked our whips and whipped out a bottle of wine each, which had conveniently been transported in the heavy basket obstructing speedy forward movement on my wobbly bike. We transferred the wine into plastic bottles we'd thought to bring then got on the train. We were meeting up with another friend of ours, Lizzy, and had time to walk around, enjoying the lovely scenery, i.e., the Red Light District. We were sporadically drinking our wine but assumed our bags would be checked upon entering so decided to chug it down like champs! The club was really nice and I had a great time dancing with my friends, being oblivious to everyone around me, and being blissfully intoxicated. Unfortunately, Mayra got sick early on in the night, but I didn't mind taking breaks to keep her company.We had to walk a bit more to catch a bus since it was so late. I sat next to heavyset man who I tried to strike up a conversation with buuttt eventually ended up passing out on him. Luckily, he didn't mind. Everything was going well uuuuntil I began to bike home and FELL off a fucking FOOT high sidewalk, smacking my head into the ground. It didn't hurt at all but evidently I was bleeding quite a bit. Some kind strangers were really concerned with my well-being and gave me napkins to wipe away my profuse bleeding. In true trooper fashion, I got back on my bike to finish my journey home. Of course it starts pouring down rain and I struggled to drag my half drunk, aching forehead and body home at 5:30 AM.

The next morning, I was awakened by 2 strange men in my room, who were there to re-tile my bathroom floor. Although they were making quite a racket, my fatigue allowed me to sleep until about 4:30PM nonetheless. After showering, I biked over to Jaime's place where she, Lizzy, and I took the train to Eindhoven to watch a professional futbol game between Holland and Australia (the Roos won, 2-1). It was a relaxing experience and it was neat to see all the Dutch fans completely decked out in orange. We ran into some people from the states and Australia and it's always nice to hear familiar accents and English in general.

To conclude this fabulous weekend, Jaime in I starred in our first music video! It's actually a pretty good song and shooting the video was tons of fun. We played screaming fans in a crowd, as the artist, DIO, rapped on stage or body surfed. We got to interact with all types of people who found us intriguing/hated on us (some of the girls looked 16) because we were foreigners. I'm going to periodically google/youtube the video to share with you all! goodnightttt!!

The Circle of Life

I'm usually not one for sentiment but honestly, there is not much else in this world more fulfilling and heartwarming than positive interactions with children. When my host family asked me whether or not it was difficult to leave my family and friends, my initial response was yea, kinda. I knew I was gonna miss all that I've grown accustomed to in the US but I was super-mega-turbo excited to experience a different land and culture. These past few days have made it clear that coming out here was the right decision. I friggin LOVE these kids and the family!!

Yesterday was my first official day of 'work'. Tijn (pronounced Tang; what a rude awakening I had, here I was pronouncing it Tijjin) came up to my room around 10:30 with my balloon in his hand and says, 'Darline backdjfe jdiisl jdjdjd?' Of course I have no idea what he said but consider the visual as the equivalent to what I heard. I got showered and went downstairs to join the kids, Eline, and her girlfriend who was visiting. I forget the other woman's name but I would've killed a small puppy for her boots! If I had a charged camera, I would've taken a photo but believe me, they were fabulous. I colored with Tijn for a bit while enjoying a cup of delicious coffee and before I knew it, it was lunch time. Eline bought some yummy bread, laid out about 8 kinds of sandwich meat, green leaves, tomato and fresh mozzarella cheese. After lunch Tijn and I got busy making him a pirate ship! I built it of course but then he, Lara, and I painted and decorated it. I farted around on the internet after before coming downstairs to help the kids with dinner. I then successfully set up a skype account (get @ me!!) and lounged around til my host dad, Thomas, came home from work, read the kids a bedtime story and then the grown-ups had dinner. Eline made some kind of salmon stir fry and it was really really good. We stayed downstairs and shot the breeze til bedtime.

This morning, I woke up around 7:30 to help get the kids dressed and ready for the day. By that time they were already ready so I played with them for a few then went downstairs for breakfast. I was exhausted since I'd spent much of last night watching King of Queens episodes on youtube and listening to music but luckily Lara and Tijn went to school and Pim was sleeping so I only had to watch over Niek (Neek) who was surprisingly well behaved. When Tijn came home he wanted to do handicrafts. He is a HUGE fan of the Lion King and Eline told me that she'd made him a lion out of clay that he loved but unfortunately, Niek threw it out the back door and broke it. So today I made him another one and he LOVED it. He said it was the most beautiful lion he'd ever seen and even had Eline help him tell me that I am the most 'beautiful and sweet darline ever' and that I was his 'best friend'. My heart damn near oozed out of my chest! There's nothing like the love only a kid is capable of giving. He was so happy and excited and genuine and innocent; I almost shed a tear. His birthday is October 14th and I'm having my sister look into an awesome gift for him!