Isn't snow suppose to fall in December?

Hi all,

How is everyone?? I hope you are all doing fine, where ever you may be!

As I told a couple of people in America, Dutch weather is very unpredictable. It can be sunny on monday, rainy on tuesday, sunny again on wednesday and even snowy on thursday..

And I am happy to anounce that we had snow!!!! It's almost snowing for 4 days now...ofcourse not the good stuff, that stays for a day, but the kind that dissapears within the hour. But it's making me smile every time I see the white sparkles falling down from the sky! I just love snow and since I missed it last December and "God is good" or is it Mother Nature...anyway I've had my snow!

Over to more important things...I explored different places to go to a night out. I even went to a gaynight, it was so much fun! All the lesbians were standing over at the bar...doing absolutely nothing. The gays were dancing and a couple of them were dressed up and looked like females, hehe. I was with a couple of friends and me and another girl were dancing like crazy. It's perfect, no worries that you're being harassed or anything like that. The gays loved us and since we were both open and talked to everyone, soon all the gays were coming our way. When we were leaving, we apparantly caused a "traffic jam" in the hall way because we were talking to everyone that passed and we both formed our own groups. We were asked nicely to leave. So we took our new friends outside, exchanged emailaddresses and said our goodbyes.

I also went to sort of the country side of Holland, where there is more green and where the houses are bigger :)! There was a tent (see left picture, more pictures can be found on www.picturetrail.com/talithaaspen) and the easter party was in there. I never saw this many young kids getting drunk....it was funny though. In the "tent" there was a live band and the beer was flying through the air! One of my friends had the brilliant idea to walk to the front of the stage.....it's like you're in a rollercoaster with no seatbelts, we were being leaded from left to right, forwards, backwards, left again, backwards, right again.....got beer in my face, on my hair and clothes...we finally managed to get out! And we were missing someone...so a brave friend found his way through the crowd and pulled the poor girl out of the chaos! And then it didn't matter anymore, our group started with the beer throwing too. Thank god, beer is good for your hair (we even have Andrelon Beer-Shampoo in Holland).

As you can see, I kept my word of going out every thursday and saturday.
I've sort of formed a routine...
- I usually arrive later than agreed
- I almost never stay in one club
- Or with the same people
- I always make new friends
- I always dance my a** off, which compensates my drinking (calories)
- I am never able to drink just one glass
- I never drink till the end though
- The partying ends at 5.00 o'clock
- Which means it's time to continue talking outside for 15 min. or so
- My transportation is always waiting for me
- It has 2 wheels and is called a bike
- I sometimes walk home (last time, it was raining the last 10 min. of my morning exercises, resulting into wet socks)
- I never have a hangover :)
- I will continue the next day with my daily life
- Usually after a (at least) 6 hour trip to dreamland...

I finally saw my grandmother after my big USA adventure...! Shame on me, that I waited this long! But it was fun, we joked, we laughed, made pictures :)!

I think that's it....I'm going to China this Saturday and I am soooo excited!! Last Thursday I went out to dinner, to a Chinese restaurant with my class + teachers (see picture, more pictures can be found on www.picturetrail.com/talithachina) to get a taste of the Chinese Kitchen and to get to know one another even better! It was so much fun! The food was good too, most of it anyway! Spending more time with the class has made me realize even more that it's going to be so much fun with this group! We might be sick of eachother after being stuck with eachother for 12 whole days and after the flight of 12-14 hours!!! But I'm still excited and ready to go (well...almost...haven't packed my bags yet :)....).

I will leave it at this and will try to send an update & some pictures while I'm in China!

Take It Easy, Stai Comiente, Rustig, Tranquilo, Siga Siga, Do-suh-màn (French, no idea how to write it...so if anybody knows..),
Talitha!

It feels good to be a student again!

Hello, Nihou, Hoi!!!

How is everybody doing?? I am doing absolutely fantastic! I am living the life and spending money like crazy!

I still am busy with all kind of get togethers! I went to a concert in Amsterdam (Nada Surf, not very familiar...). But it was awesome!

And I finally had my "nieuwjaarsreceptie"/New years party of my job here, they where waiting for me :D! Anyway, that was last thursday and at first I was talking to everybody and telling them about my experience....and then me and another collegue got the party started! But then again, what do you expect when the booze is free, hehe! God, I sound like an alcoholic!

Anyway, I had my fair share and we started dancing, almost everybody got a little drunk, even my boss, his wife, some managers, it was funny! The one sober person that was present has the pictures and videomaterial to prove it! It was so much fun though! And everybody was so happy to see me again! Anyway when it was over, we went outside and we saw two guys, one was from romenia, spoke english, anyway I asked him to teach me something in his language and I yelled it when they walked away...Stai commiente (take it easy, relax, it's a new goal to learn it in every language).

After that (around 1 am) I went out with some friends and partied till 4ish, went to sleep around 4.15 and was wide awake at 7.15 the next morning! My voice was half gone, but nothing else bothered me! On Friday I went to dinner at my aunts house and on saturday I had to get up early again to work!

And since only my voice bothered me, I went out again on Saturday from 12-4ish and went home on my bike! It was fun, went out with a bunch of girls and we went barhopping, but to the bars I never go...it's the kind of bars that are fun after a few beers...anyway, we landed in a bar called Bloopers and there he was, the romenian guy! I couldn't remember where I knew him from and then it hit me and I said, Stai commienteeee! So we danced and danced and we went to another bar again and on sunday my voice was still half gone...

On monday I had a presentation for my Chinese lesson, which went great. The teacher loved it! She said that it was good that we made a boring subject so interesting :D!!! It's awesome that I'm learning the basics of the Chinese language!

On tuesday I went out to dinner with a good friend and her boyfriend, we went to a greek diner! And I scored us a free Oesso (a greek drink). Oh and I learned how to fold napkins and how to say "take it ease" in greek, Siga Siga. The owner was really funny. And then I looked outside and there it was, SNOW! I could hardly believe it! Granted, it only lasted a few minutes and it was the kind of wet snow that you only see falling down, but that doesn´t stay laying on the street...unfortunately, but it was snow! It was really snowing for a sec!

It was awesome to see!!!

As you could just read, I am still busy and I thought it would get calmer in March...but that might not happen...since I am going to China at the end of March and there are still a lot of people that want to get together before I go!

Tomorrow is another schoolday and Friday I'm going to my sister in Amsterdam for her Birthday, Saturday is another workday and Thursday and Saturday are potential partynights...

By the way, just so you know, I wasn`t like this before I went to the usa! Yes, I loved a good party and a good beer, but since I had sort of an `adult` life in the US, I enjoy being back and being able to go out and party all night long and living a student life!

Take It Easy, Stai Comiente, Rustig, Tranquilo, Siga Siga,

Talitha!