LADIES AND GENTLEMAN.
I know, I know. I've been doin' some serious blog slackin'!
I apologize with all my heart.
Now that so much time has gone by, it would take me years to update you with all the fun little details of the past month of Amster-livin'. And while I do enjoy telling you beautiful people all my stories via this little corner of the interwebs, I got things to do and places to see. So, instead I am going to gift you with a thousand and one pictures of my adventures. And of course, I'll give you brief little tidbits along the way.
Enjoy, my lovelies!
Let me start by introducing you to this lovely lady, Jenny from Germany. This picture was taken at my favorite market just before she took a bite of her first cinnamon roll ever. Her life hasn't been the same since.
And this is Mayla. We played with sticks for an hour in the pouring rain. We were both the happiest we've ever been.
Hi guys!!! JOEHOE! (for you engles folk: WOOHOO!)
Guys, I went to London! I visited one of my all time favorite Colorado people, Nhani (that gorgeous girl on the right) and met these two beautiful girls in the middle. Thanks for such a lovely time, ladies!
To each and every person who wished me a happy birthday, I love you and you are the greatest human on earth.
To the people who sent presents all the way across the globe, there are no words to express how much I appreciate you. Though I will say that I had a whole lot of happy tears running down my cheeks as I opened these gifts. I love you, I love you, I love you.
Some of you may be disappointed, some of you may be proud... but I had nothing resembling an insane, wasted American 21st birthday party. This glass of crisp red wine, accompanying a perfect plate of pasta and wonderful company, was my very first legal (by those ridiculous American standards) drink.
(For those of you disappointed: this just means that you will have to throw me that crazy American 21st birthday party when I am indeed, back in America. Can't wait, crazies!)
After the wine, I was serenaded by these two adorable guys.
Fun fact: It was a sit down show and I was the youngest person in the room by a good 20 years. But a friend worked his magic and got us front row seats, we sipped more red wine and for the next hour they played a few of my all time favorite songs while I sat with wide eyes and a unwavering smile on my face.
Shoutout to that bro and sis of mine! Thanks for passing on your great taste in tunes.
Afterwards they wished me a happy birthday and I congratulated them on their upcoming show in Denver, headlining at the Bluebird Theatre.
Thanks to one of my favorite Dutchies and thanks to The Milk Carton Kids for making my birthday so incredibly perfect.
Guys, I also traveled to a little island in the North one weekend! It was called Schiermonnikoog and it was heaven.
See, just look how gorgeous this lighthouse is. Heaven.
The island is full of a bundle of tiny old lady and gentleman Dutchies, perfectly content in their quiet island lives. Momma, perhaps you should rethink retiring to Seal Beach? Schiermonnikoog is the place for you.
A few of the best girls around and I found this flawless stretch of concrete and named it The Road. We then brushed up on our cycling tricks and got into all sorts of shenanigans. You girls are goofs and I can't get enough of you. The Road 4 lyfe.
And would ya look at that! I made it to Friesland!
For those unfamiliar, that adorable little flag with the red hearts represents the northernmost providence of the Netherlands. The land of farming and milking cows and my little ol grandparents. Schiermonnikoog is technically part of Friesland and although I didn't make it too far into the countryside (YET!), spotting this flag felt like home.
See? That tiny little goober there in the front is me and that tiny little shirt I'm struttin' has got Friesland pride written all over it. We've even got the Dutch clogs (klompen) on our tiny feet.
Sidenote: this picture makes me miss my three other halves more than I can say. How did I get blessed with the three best people in the world as my siblings? I love you kids more than any fat kid has ever loved any cake (even more than us four fat kids love Dutchbaker cake!) <3
And hold on to your hats kids, next up is QUEENSDAY!
Here's a little background info: The Dutch Monarchy has been led by a Queen for forever. Queen Wilhelmina, Queen Juliana, Queen Beatrix. So every year the whole country shuts down and throws a giant party to celebrate the Queen's birthday. April 30th, Koninginnedag (or: Queensday). It is literally a million people gathering in the streets of Amsterdam, all decked out in oranje, laughing and frolicking and drinking lots of beer.
But on the very day that I was awaiting my plane to Holland, Queen Bea announced that she would be abdicating and her son, Willem-Alexander, would soon take the throne. Get it? This is the first King the Netherlands has seen since 1890! The Dutchies were freakin' out, my friends. And all this abdication nonsense was to happen on none other than April 30th. So not only would this be the day that the Netherlands gets their brand new King, but it would also be the very last Queensday (next year will be Kingsday and will be celebrated on April 27th). It was promised to be the celebration of my life and turned out to be nothing less.
Seriously, one of the best days I've spent in Holland. One of the best days I've spent anywhere, ever.
Koninginnedag preparation.
Mom - Don't mind the beer and mimosa ingredients... look at that water bottle and apple! I am so responsible!
Ps. I ended up making 5 euro that day. An unfortunately sobering man saw my tiny Heineken can and desperately asked where he could find one. I jollily offered him one of mine. "Here sir, take one of mine!" As I handed him a can, he handed me 5 euros. "Oh no no, don't worry about it! Have a lovely Queensday!" But he insisted and I walked away 5 euro richer.
Pss. That 5 euro more than covered the entire pack. Awesome.
I spent the day wandering the streets with these four beauties. Couldn't have had a better day with any one else, lovelies <3
We decided that running after any person donned in an exceptionally great Queensday outfit and was more than necessary. Exhibit A.
Exhibit B.
Is this tulip suit even real?! And where can I get one for next year?
We also took a picture with this gracious politie man. And no, I am not casually holding a large bottle of sparkling wine while interacting with police in the middle of Dam Square.
Sidenote: check out Clare's oranje Bavaria lederhosen. The girl is a gem.
And after a quick power nap in Vondelpark, Clare and I stumbled on a wild dance party in the middle of a crowded street. There we met these lovely Dutchmen.
Look how fun they are! Yippeee!
And get a load of the pants one of them was wearing!!! Holy Holland, I love them.
The Pants in all their glory. Yes, you are seeing this right. One leg is oranje and the other leg is the Dutch flag. I can't get enough! And the most adorable sidenote of all time: his Momma sewed them for him.
Swoon!
They took us to a restaurant/someones very nice house (this small detail is still unclear) and fed us shrimp and beer.
And can we all take a moment to relish in how perfect this picture is. Clare and I, each with a Grolsh in hand and oranje bows on our heads and smiles on our faces, cradled in the arms of three incredibly lovely Dutch boys' arms.
Queensday: conquered.
And I know it's hard to imagine, but things only got better from there! We stopped at one of their houses and they pulled out two guitars. For the rest of the night they were either serenading us with Dutch songs, or strumming our favorite indie tunes while we sang off key and loved every second of it.
Thank you Clare, for being one of my new favorite people of all time. And thank you Dutch boys for making our Queensday so flawless.
Best day ever.
Soon after Queensday, spring finally hit Holland. Hallelujah! The weather was beautiful and everything was blooming and my cheeks constantly hurt from smiling.
Flowers in fiets baskets!
Flowers everywhere I look!
And look how incredible all these little guys are!
I'm in love.
And then one day Nhani came to visit me! We spent our days having wine and cheese (and stroopwafel) picnics sitting on the edge of canals in the sun.
We tried not to inhale freshly made stroops. Is there anything better in the whole world?
And we walked along the canals marveling at my beautiful city.
I took her to my favorite market and I snacked on this little baby tatje.
We went to one of my favorite cafes. And get a load of this, ladies and gentleman, all of the sudden I busted out translating this Dutch menu!
Mind you: Dutchies speak Dutch, but they also speak perfect English and the moment they realized you don't speak perfect Dutch they graciously switch to English. How lovely of them! But it makes learning any bit of their language near impossible. So while I beg my Dutchie friends to teach me little phrases every now and then, I have learned hardly any Dutch. Or so I thought! I don't know how it happened and I surely couldn't whip many of these words out in conversation, but I was a beaming little Dutchie-wannabe as I easily translated for my silly American friend. Ha ha!
And one day I found this dog!
I also stumbled upon this adorable bench!
(Please note: this is evidence of how lovely the Dutch are. They don't smoke weed (or other funny stuff). But they don't mind if other people want to, as long as it doesn't bother them. And they write precious little notes with hearts on them. This is evidence of why I am so in love with every single one of them.)
For the past month my life consisted mostly of doing anything and everything for a certain social entrepreneur class I've been taking. This is massive chalk drawing that I hid on the streets outside all the university buildings around the city. A little bit of chalk, a little bit of advertising. I was a slave to FundRun.
It wasn't too awful though cause I got the pleasure of hanging out with these three fantastic people quite a bit.
We did lots of crazy things like cycling for hours across the Dutch countryside in search of Zaandam.
We finally found it! Joehoe!!
And pretty soon May 11th came and went and FundRun was a success! We were able to raise a chunk of change to donate to South African students for scholarships to university as well as provide our friends with a crazy day full of adventure. We celebrated that night with a little bit of team building drinking and a roller disco. We were left with a few great memories and quite a few more swollen bruises.
(Guys, my knee is still a mess of black and blue!)
And slowly the five of us became a little entrepreneurial family :)
Update on my baby fiets: I woke up to a flat tire last week. Serious bummer! But with help from a really great bike dude my tires are now in impeccable shape. He even WD40ed us, so my fiets is runnin' like a dream. We are so love.
This picture was taken on a day when Amsterdam was corrupted by insane wind. The type of wind where people got off their bikes and just walked next to them because even dragging a bike through a mess of tourists is faster than trying to peddle into a brick wall of wind. Bleh. But on one of these special (read: miserable) days I walked out of class and to this beautiful sight. All the bikes in the row had toppled over, but my little fiets was goin' strong. I was a proud Mama.
And a couple days ago I went to het weekend van de rollende keukens. The weekend of the rolling kitchens. Aka. the most amazing food truck festival ever! This was one of my fave food trucks. How freakin' adorable is this. I die.
This is me, in all my Dutch glory, eating POFFERTJES at the Rollende Keukens. These little diddies are tiny Dutch pancakes covered in powdered sugar. You could also just refer to them as a dream. Anyone visiting me: look forward to diving into a plate of these bad boys. YUM
And one random day we stumbled upon this giant chess board and were quickly propositioned by a rather strange Dutch oldie. Kaity and Zach were champs.
Which brings up full circle to today: KEUKENHOF DAY!
Keukenhof is a giant garden with about a million blooming tulips.
Kayla, Joanna and I frolicked the day away.
Ps. Is this not the most typically Dutch photo you have ever seen?
Flowers
Upon flowers
Upon flower trees
Upon hiding in flowers
Upon more flowers
Upon even more flowers!
And then we found the petting zoo!!!!!
PEEGS.
I had to use every ounce of self control I have to not snatch these two baby peegs and run.
And I fell deeply in love with this beautiful cow. She was so soft and so pretty and so sweet and I could've snuggled her for forever.
And completely randomly we got caught in the middle of a saint bernard parade. It ended with two babies in a basket. Family, are you seeing this baby face? I was almost in tears. My heart. I could not handle this amount of cute.
And we left a little lovin'!
And this is where I will leave you lovely people. With Kayla and I crouching behind beautiful bloming flowers, happy as can be.
I LOVE YOU GUYS.
I COMPLETELY LOVE THE NETHERLANDS.
AND I NEVER, EVER WANT TO COME HOME.
BUT DON'T FORGET: I MISS YOU ALL.
KISSES!
