China, here I come!

Hello!!!

Starting now, I am going to start typing my upcoming blogs in English, so everyone can read it. Besides, it'll be a good exercise to practice and improve my English writing.

It's been two weeks since I returned from America and I still enjoy being here. I feel bad sometimes that I don't miss America or my family, but I guess it's because I started a new adventure here in Holland. Plus the fact that, since the day I got back, I have been swamped with "social events" throughout February and of course school. I have had dinners, get togethers (for drinks) and parties. Of course I also went out clubbing :), since I am allowed to do so again. But let's not discuss that in details.....

I enjoy being around students again and making new friends. I started this year with a new class, except for the one guy I knew from last year. Of course we weren't in the same project group...I was placed in a group with 3 people I didn't know, but after our first meeting we had already shared so much memories and laughs it seemed like we knew each other longer.

It seems months ago that I returned from America, but every time I tell somebody about my experience I start to "glow" (or at least that's what I'm being told) and I just can't stop smiling. I really enjoyed it, even though it sometimes feels like it never happened.I connect things that I see or hear here with stuff that happened in America. Like Mike once showed me he had Smurfs (Smurfen in Dutch) and a big supermarket here has a commercial/salespromotion using those Smurfs again. Or like Paul joking about the drugsboat and me seeing the drugsboat pretty much every day. Or everything I learned during my internship and the fun moments with Patrice. Or every time I hear a song that I downloaded in the US and thinking back when I was there, driving, staying up late, doing fun stuff with Simone, with the family. The times we spent in Disney or just in the back yard. Just every event or fun moment I had is coming back somehow...and I have always been good at visualising stuff, so I just start seeing those fun moments every day, over and over again.

It's funny that I already have been told 4 or 5 times that I have an American accent :) and I love it when people tell me that, hehe :). Anyway, the only thing I really had to get used to was the weather....it's cold here compared (I even witnessed the coldest night this year...brrr) to Florida, but everybody here tells me that it's not that cold anymore...so I just wear an extra sweater, use an extra blanket and drink lots of hot tea! Unfortunately I did get a heavy cold yesterday. As Paul once told me, I drank lots of water, but I wished I had my Vitamin C or Emercen-C here too, hehe. Anyway, I felt better today!

What else...my internship evaluation was last week and it was graded with a 75. The highest anybody ever gets is pretty much an 80. My first report wasn´t detailed enough and my tutor and me had a little miscommunication at the end, so I got a 75, which was fine by me :)! My tutor also told me that the second/final report was written well and had a a nice flow, so it was easy to read. She explained me I could take some classes in creative writing, which I didn't know I could do. Apparantly, you are able to attend extra classes with other groups in your spare time. So I want to know what else my college offers in the Communication field or Digital Media.

I will also start a new job at my college starting next week. It's basically working on marketresearch projects and my previous projecttutor recommended me, so I'm excited to start with that. I am keeping my job at the florist for the saturdays.

I started the minor "Doing business with China" 2 weeks ago and I love it! I had Chinese today and we learned the basics, we also need a language partner to practice this. Everybody had to find Chinese people at school, which we have enough of at my college. Anyway I found one that attends one of my classes, she is in her first year. And today another Chinese girl talked to me and we exchanged emailaddresses and phonenumbers. It's always helpful and it's another chance for me to get to know the Chinese culture.

And yes I am going to China on March 29th for 10 days, I'll be back on April 9th. I am so excited! It's related to our project, but of course we will have time for cultural events (like the great chinese wall and karaoke). Oh life is good :)!

Well this is my first English Blog, hope you enjoyed it!For my new american FRIENDS (hehe), if you want to leave a comment, simply click on: Leave a comment and check the box for "anonymous", fill in the security code and you can leave a comment. Of course you can always email me or just read it and do nothing :)!

I hope you will keep me posted with your live too!

Cheers,
Talitha!!

PS: The pictures of my last weeks in America (San Francisco included) are on Picturetrail: www.picturetrail.com/talithastage7 and www.picturetrail.com/talithastage8. I also made a new picturepage for my upcoming pictures of stuff I do in Holland: www.picturetrail.com/talithamm