tu parles francais?

Ok, so more about my vacation and this Paris place.

I spent Christmas Eve with Rems and his family, where I prepared a delicious roasted chicken dinner with mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and hot chocolate sauce served with an assortment of fruits for dessert. Het was zooooo lekker! The next night, his brother prepared a smoked salmon salad, baked fish, and vegetables which ik ook het lekker gevondt (I have no idea if that's grammatically correct but whatever). The day after that, I continued my lekker-eating streak by dining at Jaime's host family's house where I inhaled duck, french fries, some divine alcoholic cauliflower concoction and homemade tiramisu. Rems stayed over and the next morning we started on our adventure to Paris!!!!!

We drove there Saturday morning with no traffic and beautiful sunny weather. I managed to stay awake for at least 3 of the hours (it took us about 5) and was pleasantly surprised that our hotel in Irvy Sur Seine wasn't a rat-hole. The city is about 10 minutes south of Paris by car, 5 by RER. We were literally down the street from the train station

*****Sidenote: our 2nd day there, we didn't know where we were going so Rem's suggested we use the TomTom (navigation system) to find our way. It seemed like a good idea. When we went outside, I looked down the street and said I thought I could see the station. Being a man, Remco insisted I was wrong and that we should follow the TomTom. Needless to say, we walked for about 25 minutes, making U-turns and passing things that looked familiar to us from walking around the city the day before since the stupid thing was giving us car directions!!! In the end, I'd been correct; the station was literally 5 minutes down the street. MEN.*****

Anyihaveagoodsenseofdirection, we saw quite a lot. There was so much to see and you couldn't take an ugly picture. Here are some from various places like the Arc, Grand Palais, the Eiffel, the scenery, and a buncha other places I forget the names of and ME:
















I had a fantastic time with Rems, who was a great travel partner. We got to do things at a leisurely pace and he also appreciated the beauty of Paris. I would've liked to party more and I know it would've been a different experience with someone more outgoing or with the girls. We would both like to go again, but at a warmer time of year. Paris is really huge and I'm sure it'd be even more beautiful and enjoyable if we didn't have to be all bundled up.

My sister officially gets here in 21 days and we're both so excited! We're going to celebrate our birthdays (technically just hers because we'll be back in Holland for mine) in Barcelona! I haven't seen her in too long and knowing that she's coming is the main reason I haven't felt as homesick. I know we're going to have a blast and I can't wait to see her!! I'm going to tackle the shit outta her at the airport and be depressed for a month after she leaves.

iedere dag ik hustling...*

That post title is just a taste of what all my American friends have to look forward too when I get home because I will surely be Dutch translating/remixing every fucking song I know (you're welcome!).

Anyweg, I just had quite a fabulous weekend! Friday night, we all went out in Haarlem rather than making our usual trip to Amsterdam. I was definitely in more of a bar mood and despite feelings of irritation from the day/week, I ended up having fun as usual. We ran into the normal group of characters: model-types, magicians, guys in pants tighter than mine, dentists, guys with these which I stuck my fingers through, naturally. Saturday I babysat my two cute little babies, Niek and Pim before going to my first kickboxing match! My boy Remco from the gym kickboxes semi-professionally and after seeing the matches, I have a better understanding of what I had deemed as nonsense during the class he teaches. I haven't had that much fun in TOO LONG. It was really leuk to be off doing something different and watching men try and tear each other's heads off. There was a 25 Euro entrance fee which we managed to bypass since we didn't get there until intermission. I had my handy bottle of wine in a Pepsi bottle in my purse and was good to go. The first match was painful to watch since it was the dik sak (fat boy) weight class and blubber was a jigglin. Contenders were kicking and punching the Dutch out of each other and 2 fights were even ended early (one TKO and another guy's trainer threw in the towel). Remco did well. He had a worthy adversary who was very good at making it look like he was doing big things to the audience when in fact, most of his blows were being blocked. Anyway, the match ended in a tie. I toyed with the idea of really getting into kickboxing but after seeing his legs, ummmmm no thank you. I think it'd be fun to punch and kick the shit out of some broad (I've never been a big fan of girls as it is) so maybe it's worth it?!

Anyway, the best part of my weekend was talking to my sister. She is honest to God, my numero uno and if she wasn't my sister I'd go lezbo for her- that's how much I love her. She is the funniest person ever and I never have to deal with any bullshit from her. I'm so unbelievably ecstatic for her to get here. I've been having a good time with everyone here but NO ONE compares to her and just talking to her on the phone today made my life. We're really similiar, yet really different. She has so many qualities that have become increasingly difficult to find in other people. She's blunt, honest, GENUINE, caring, humble, hysterical and best of all, her own person. No matter where she is, she will always be herself (this hasn't always been well-received but at least she's not a poser. I can't stand people who front for others and try way too hard to be someone they're not just to impress people). I'll stop dick-riding her right now but trust me, she's the shit.




As usual, I went off on a tangent. So we're on the phone chatting about her impending visit (HOORAY!!). We're talking about how much she misses me and I her, and comparing our rather shitty weeks. I wish I could talk to her more often because she kept me on the phone laughing hysterically until my stomach hurt. She's been a little stressed out not having me around, going to school, working, relationship bullshit, and being an adult and paying the whole bills thing so she decided some retail therapy was in order during Black Friday. She was on the phone in line at Macy's and apparently didn't hear the cashier call out for the next person. The woman behind her decided to rudely tap her shoulder and mouth off at her, telling her that maybe she should get off her phone. This woman made 3 crucial mistakes that would have saved her from getting punched in the face: 1) Don't interrupt someone's phone conversation, it's rude 2)Don't touch people you don't know and 3)Don't mess with people during Black Friday, that shit will get you punched in the face!! While the cashier dials security, my sister drops everything and makes a run for it. I have a sense she won't be visiting Macy's anytime soon.

I think we may end up doing Spain for when she gets out here and I'm going to see if I can work something out with the family to get the entire week she's here off. I'm thinking maybe we can spend a long weekend in Spain then come back and party in Amsterdam for a few. She comes January 28th-February 4th so if you know of anything cool happening anywhere in Europe, feel free to let me know!