Christmas in The Netherlands

"Who would win in the Hunger Games?" I forgot to add this to the other post, but this came up in a conversation I had last night, which made me laugh. Over dinner one night, Becca, Lukas, and I were discussing who would win out of all of us in the Hunger Games. Lukas said that me and him would win together, because we would never kill each other. Now as for everyone else....I won't go into details, but I decided Dena would be my biggest competition because she's outdoorsy, and would team up with Charlene and Jarno, because they are the careers. They have to go first. Sorry Dena. It was a pretty funny discussion, and I honestly can't remember all of it, but I do remember those parts because they made me laugh the hardest.

Ummmm. I had to put the picture up, because it looks like Marijn and Becca are secretly in love. Really, we were just waiting for the train to get to Marijn's family's house. The morning we got to Marijn's was the only morning that Becca and I really slept in. It felt so good. We went to the store to get stuff to bake when we were at his family's house and ingredients to make some spaghetti with homemade sauce. #spoiled

YAY Charles Dickens!!! Turns out Deventer has a Charles Dickens festival and have murals on the walls of scenes from Charles Dickens books. It's pretty cool. I just love this quote.

We took a walk around town on Christmas day in our fancy dresses. I was planning on wearing flats to be more fashionable with my dress, but then realized, it's cold outside. #badidea Nevertheless, Deventer is an adorable town. 

 Jarno and Marijn are from the same town, so we went to see him on Boxing Day. We met his dad and it turns out he's awesome, and I have a crush on Jarno's dad. He was telling us how he roadtripped across America in his younger days. He bought a vehicle and just did it for a few months. No big deal, right? Super legit. He travels everywhere too. He's is wise and told me "if you have the money, you have to travel". I must say, I think of money in things I can do traveling, like "I could spend money on this, or it could buy me a plane ticket to *blank*".  He was really cool.

 We were at the Paleis Het Loo. It was awesome. The only constructive criticism I would have for the palace is for them to have English tour headsets for the rooms that speak to you in Dutch. Are you kidding me? My Dutch is almost non-existent. Twin pose! 👯 Becca and I did twin pose around Europe. Next trip...we will have more twin pose pictures until I can make an epic twin-pose collage ;)

 Bread, Cheese, and Maple Syrup?!?!?! I know, right? We were in Haarlem for the morning to see what's there to see. We found this adorable little cafe for lunch and were very curious by the menu with has two of our favorite European foods: bread and aged cheese. (seriously, the Dutch have great cheese). We were confused by what it meant by "syrup". Nope. It was what we thought, but it tasted better than expected. It was soooooooo good! They are genius.

Classic windmill picture.

This was at the Amsterdam Festival of Lights. I was super mean and wouldn't let Jarno eat until we walked around and saw ALL the exhibits on the trail. I'm terrible. At least I let him eat before we went on the trail 😏

We went to Maastricht! This, in and of itself is quite the accomplishment, as Marijn didn't want to go because it was "too far". #2hourtrainride we arrived and it is a lovely town. They were still having their Christmas market going on and the first thing we had to do was the very big Ferris Wheel! It was really high up, and I had to close my eyes at a couple of points. Crazy.

This is after going through the underground tunnels of Maastricht. We decided we needed a group photo, so we asked a random person. He was walking his dog and said if we hold the dog, he would take a picture for us. Deal. Later, we were at a bar and it was uncomfortably crowded. The best part was when Jelmer asked me if bars in Texas were like this one. I said, "I don't know. I don't go to bars in Texas." He looked at me and repeated the question. lol. I had to explain to him, in Texas, my friends know that I don't drink, so we normally do other activities than going to bars. I think something was lost in translation. He didn't seem to understand, and Becca was sitting there chuckling about the whole conversation.

We went back to Munich for the night before Becca flew home. We decided to go to Restaurant 181 in the spinning Olympic Tower. I had wanted to do this when I lived in Munich, but never found the time. It was epic. Becca and I should have probably been more dressed up, but we used the tourist excuse and enjoyed it anyway. The food was glorious!!! The bread and butter, I probably could have eaten that all day. First course was crazy good. The soup was so fluffy and amazing. The main course, sublime. Dessert was classy. I love food. It was worth every penny to eat there. I felt very posh.

This is the view from the front of Petra's family home. Wow. Enough said.

#1. Petra bought me this tiara, because she decided it was a Princess Day at the Castle!!! She's the best.
#2. To get this view, we had to climb around several "Do Not Enter" signs to go up to the bridge. I'm sure it's normally a great walk during the Spring and Summer, but trail was iced over. It would have been better to have ice skates. We had to walk on the side of the path to avoid slipping and falling. That almost happened many times. But it was awesome.
#3. I almost had an anxiety attack on the bridge. I hate bridges. It was super high up, and I kept having a vision of me breaking one of the boards as I stepped on it and falling to my death.
#4. Since this was on New Year's Eve, the place was pretty uncrowded, so there weren't too many people on the bridge or at the castle.

Ok. I know. Two pictures of the same place?  I really love the Neuschwanstein Castle.

This is a little game that they play on New Year's Eve for kids, where you melt down this metal toy and then drop the metal in water. When you pull it out, the shape indicates something, which is a prediction for the coming New Year. It was awesome. 

I would just like to say, I realize now, I didn't take any pictures of Marijn's family, otherwise they would be on this blog like nobody's business. They were amazing to let Becca and I join their Christmas festivities. They are the NICEST people and super cool. They do a very classy Christmas, which made me doubt I've ever had a moment of class in  my life. Thank you to Marijn's family!!! Thank you to Lukas' parents for letting us roadtrip across Germany with their car. Last, but not least, thank you to Petra and her family, who let me crash at their place in Allgäu. Petra's dad was super nice, even though he didn't speak English, and I don't really speak German. I like to think we are friends. It was an honor and privilege to be the first American to stay at their house. #blessed #grateful #thankyou

And now, I know what you are all thinking, "Natasha, you ate so much food in Europe! How much weight did you gain?!?!?!?" Fact: I lost weight! #win Turns out walking for miles and miles everyday is a good idea as long as you are eating tons of yummy calories to give you energy. #apfelmuscrepes

'MERICA

Happy 50th post to me! As a celebration....I will tell you a story. Once upon a time, there was an awkward girl trying to make friends. Luckily, she met some really cool European guys, and became very happy. A little while later, after weeks of underlying envy, some girls decided to cozy up to said girl to get in with the European guys. To this day that awkward little girl is still friends with everyone, :) So maybe that's not 100% accurate....but I think we've joked about it enough that I don't remember how it really happened. (I apologizing for posting this about a month after it happened, but here it goes)

So a few months ago Marijn whatsapp-ed me and said he was going to be in NYC this year. Now I've been wanting to go back to NYC for a while and realized this would be a perfect opportunity. Sadly, Marijn didn't want me to meet him in NYC. Instead, he wanted to meet up in the Capital of America, Washington, D. C.! Turns out Becca wanted to come along too. #win Marijn tried to get two other girls to come along too....personally, I think he wanted a weekend surrounded by girls. Nevertheless, I'm grateful it was just the three of us who met up.

Normally, I am pretty good at making an epic list of to-do/see things when travelling. This time, I have been so overloaded with work for the past months, I hadn't really had time to look at anything in DC. I put together a few ideas and whatsapp-ed them the Marijn and Becca probably a day before I got there. It was a crazy work week. I'm going to be honest, the day I was leaving to DC, I was pretty unproductive with work. I couldn't concentrate well, because I was going to see Marijn and Becca in a few hours. I love those kids!!!

I got caught my flight after trying the EcoPark parking lot at the airport. There was no one at the entrance and a sign listing hourly parking options. I was super confused, as I was pretty sure that it was supposed to be a long-term parking area. I paused but decided to go with it. I parked, and normally there is a a shuttle that finds you or place to wait for the shuttle to pick you up. I did not see any thing, and so I started walking around and flagged down a shuttle. It was sketch. I got on my flight and was super excited the entire time. Pretty stoked. The plane right was pretty good. I was trying to read a book about gypsies, but it was terribly boring, which is never a good thing to discover at the beginning of a flight. I persevered, but it was mentally exhausting. When I landed, I went out to search for Becca, because we were flying in around the same time. We decided to meet at the metro stop outside of the DCA airport. It took me a few minutes of staring at the metro card machine to figure out how to get from one place to another, how much I needed to pay, and where to pay. Nevertheless, I succeed. I then went up to check how much time we had before the train before searching out Becca. We found each other easy peasy, and hopped on the metro to the hotel. Marijn had checked in earlier in the day, and was waiting outside the hotel on a bench for us! It was a happy reunion. When we got up to the room, we found salt and vinegar chips (i said i was going to be hungry after landing) and drinks (orange fanta for me, because that's my wild 'n crazy drink) We stayed up super late talking and catching up. After staying up super late....we decided to wake up super early the next morning, because we had lots to see!

We hopped on the metro in the morning and headed into town. We stopped at a cute looking retro-feeling diner for breakfast to get our energy up. We hit up the World War II memorial, which is always beautiful. I got my picture next to the Texas part. #beststate Then we headed to the Lincoln Memorial. it was still early in the morning and quickly getting ridiculously hot. Seriously hot. Like sweating profusely and becoming gross kind of hot. Then we walked to the Vietnam Memorial. On our way to the White House, I was realizing what a terrible shoe choice I made for this trip. There were blisters already forming on my feet and I could feel them. I should have brought my travel-approved Tevas, which I normally always bring with me. However, I thought my cute black sandals were comfortable. #worstdecisionever We stopped off at CVS so Marijn and Becca could get some sunglasses, since it was so sunny, and I bought some shoe inserts, another tried-and-true female life necessity.

After the White House, we went to cool down and have drinks on the rooftop terrace at Hotel Washington. I felt pretty glamorous, relaxing on a couch, and escaping the sun. After that short break, we headed out to our tour of the Capitol. It was pretty cool looking. We got a tour and had to wear headsets so we could hear the tour guide. One of Texas' monuments in the Capitol is a statue of Sam Houston. #obvi  The art was pretty cool in the rotunda. My biggest issue is with all of America's history that could be chosen to display, one of the nine ginormous paintings is of The Baptism of Pocahontas. Why is this such a terrible painting to display along side of art depicting, Washington going to battle and the signing of the Declaration of Independence? Because it's one of the most depressing parts of American history! They could have shown art of "Pocahontas Greeting John Smith" or "Pocahontas becomes Friends with Settlers", but instead they show her in Europe after leaving her homeland and life she knew only to become white-washed and die from some disease. I'm pretty sure she's a perfect example of Stockholm Syndrome, as she was captured as a prisoner during war, and at the end of the war, she decided to stay with the Europeans. So yeah, I was not a happy camper by this display.  We had lunch in the Capitol, and it was pretty good. Then we took the underground tunnel to the Library of Congress. #ilovelibraries

The library was beautiful. They have the horoscope signs on the ground. Becca and I are Pisces. Marijin didn't know what he was, so we had to look it up. There was a Gutenberg Bible. #wow and an exhibit of Thomas Jefferson's personal library collection. There was also a great exhibit on the Civil War, which was perfect, because Marijn was asking about the Civil War earlier. It turns out, in Dutch history classes, they don't really go into much detail about the Civil War. We took the exhibit nice and slow, expounding on the details of the Civil War. I'm kinda impressed by how much I remember from High School. It was also another reminder of why Becca is so cool; she's super clever. Friends with brains are great! After the Library, we went and laid down in the grass of the Capitol building....and fell asleep. We were all snoozing in the beautiful green grass, and it reminded me of how wonderful it is to just pause for a moment or two in the day and just *be*.

Now this below picture has a little bit of a story to it. I have a co-worker, who whenever I do something outside of work that sounds pretty fun he says something along the lines of "have fun with your boyfriend" or "are you going with your boyfriend". He knows full well that I do not have a boyfriend, and do not date because my work and I are having a very intense, co-dependent, and dysfunctional love affair. When he told me to "have fun with my boyfriend" this time, I said "Thanks. I will tell him you say that." and laughed. So this was the couple photo I took with Marijn. As we were walking, (I dont remember who brought it up, but I think it was Becca) Becca joked that if we really wanted to sell it, we could get a pic of us kissing in front of the Capitol. I laughed and said to Marijn "So how committed are you to this?" He responded, "I'm European. It doesn't really matter to me" lol. He's too funny.

We headed to the Old Ebbitt Grill for dinner. On the walk over, I saw someone with the Deathly Hollows symbol tattooed on their calf. It was epic.I stalked the guy to get a good photo while he was walking in front of me. Back to the restaurant...the food was great. We had to wait for a bit at the bar, where I got a sugar boost with my yummy Shirley Temple. (why don't I drink this more???) Our waiter gave me the heebie jeebies, but we survived. We then headed to the other side of the White House, where I saw the anti-war protester lady, who I read about a few months ago. It was pretty cool, since I felt like I knew her whole life story. We took a walk to get some ice cream, because ice cream is joy. Marijn doesn't like ice cream...or joy. :P haha.

We hit up the store for drinks on the way back to the hotel. I had to take a cold shower immediately. I felt super gross after being so hot and sweaty all day. bleh. I told Marijn and Becca how happy I was knowing that no matter how gross I became, they would still be my friend. lol. We stayed up late again, talking about everything...especially, since Marijn is a guy, and forgets to share important details of his life with us, so we have to dig into his life until we know everything.  I did discover the truth about an incident that happened years ago. When I first met Marjin and the guys, we were in the library, i think we were planning a trip. Marijn was sitting across from me, and his foot hit mine. I wasn't thinking much of it, until it happened again, and he gave me a huge wink. I freaked out, because that's what I do when I think someone likes me. lol. I was really nervous, so I texted him later. It turns out....it was Jarno who texted me back, not Marijn. So Jarno made me believe that Marijn was into me. #sneakydutchman (the end of that story is that Marijn started dating my friend shortly after I had about a week of panicking)

The next day started off nicely. I woke up Marijn by jumping on his bed. lol. We headed down to the Arlington Cemetery to see JFK's grave, the grave of the unknown soldier. We went to the Pentagon 9/11 memorial, which was nice to just sit and enjoy the serenity of the memorial. After this, we went and checked out the Capital Bike share across DC. Can I tell you, I'm super out of shape, and I love leggings. I biked around in a skirt all day because of leggings. woohoo! We went biking after getting some yummy pizza for lunch. We biked to the holocaust museum. Biking on the road in a city with traffic is something I've never done. I biked around Tempe my last year of uni, but even then, I stayed on the sidewalk always. It was a little nerve-wracking, even with a Dutch bike leader. The Holocaust Museum was amazing. I highly recommend it. It's really cool, because they give you a little "passport" when you go in, where they tell you the story of a real Jewish person's life during WWII, and at each level (each level is a different time period of the war) you read about their life during that part of the war. I am a firm believer in learning from history, and although the Holocaust is one of the most horrific events that happened in modern history, it is something we must remember with a spirit of reverence and reflection in order to never let happen again. Another thing I learned is: when you are about to do something depressing, bring someone to give you hugs when you are feeling sad. It was a wonderful museum, especially since we went on the day that WWII started.

After the museum, we biked around the Tidal Basin, hitting up the Thomas Jefferson memorial, the FRD memorial (we did it backwards), and the MLK memorial, which was pretty cool. After the super long bike ride, we went to find food. We went to switch out bikes, and walk a little. We went to the next bike place only to see that there were no bikes. I was hangry, so we caught a taxi to this awesome dinner place....only to realize everyone else is eating there too. We then went to another place around the corner that Saryah recommended, but it was closed. We then went to another place only to see that it was ridiculously expensive. We then went to the 4th option next door for SUSHI!!!! Omg. It was delectable. I demolished my food, with a fruit smoothie. Food is great! We then went biking around DC to find the house that Marijn's sister used to live in. Then we decided to bike all the way back to the hotel. OMG. i am the gross fat kid. I was DYING on the bike ride back. My legs were jelly. We got back to the hotel miraculously. Marijn and I decided to take a swim. He then told me a secret that as soon as we got back to the room I told Becca and we both ranted at Marijn for a while about how we could have been together for two days and him not tell us. We stayed up super late talking about everything under the sun; there were confessions, future plans made, dreams shared, and lots of laughter. The best part is when I told Becca I wanted to go to Guatemala over Christmas, and Becca saying she would love to come along. #futuretrip We also decided that next year, we'll go to the German Christmas Markets and spend Christmas with Lukas and his family. (we did tell Lukas about these plans, no worries)

I'm touching a moon rock. #win

Monday morning, we had a yummy breakfast overlooking the city from our hotel. Our waiter, who served us the previous morning was talking to us and was asking us where we were from. Becca said "Wisconsin"; I said "Texas"; Marijn said "The Netherlands". He laughed and said "now you are meeting in Washington DC! haha. How did you meet?" We replied, "In Spain". We really have seen bits of the world together. It's funny how it took us travelling to foreign countries for our paths cross and become intertwined. We went to the Smithsonian Air and Space museum. We did the group tour, and left after about an hour, because it was taking forever. It was interesting, but we handle ourselves pretty well on our own.  We then biked over to the Union Station. It was evacuated when we got there. Something was going on, and when they finally let us back in, the sirens were still going off very loudly. It was pretty crazy. We got some Subway, and can I just say, the guy making my sandwich skimped on my pickles. It was a very sad moment. He refused to give me more pickles on my sandwich. Anyone who knows how I like my sandwiches and has heard my anti-Jimmy John's rant, knows how I feel about pickles on sandwiches. We then had to say goodbye to Marijn, who went on his way onto the bus back to NYC. Parting is such sweet sorrow. We invited him to come to Guatemala with us, but I think he's just going to wait for us to head to Germany next  year.

After we dropped Marijn off, we took a taxi up the street and saw some lovely embassy houses, or at least we think they were embassy houses, because there were random country flags and gates around buildings. We went up to the National Cathedral. Kinda weird, there was so much historical stuff there that it felt more like a American Museum than a church. Weird. There were also state flags hanging around the place. Weird. But cool to see a Texas flag.

We went back to the hotel to get our luggage and take the metro to the airport. We had time, and decided to spend some time chatting over some yummy Starbucks, with Becca's Starbucks gift card #win It was great. Becca is AWESOME. I really have some of the most amazing friends in the world. Literally, the *world*.

I was so grateful for that trip and time to get away from the stressful times at work. I'm grateful that Marijn was travelling over Labor Day weekend, so I could get away for three days. I am grateful for the time where I can relax and be myself around people I love. I can't wait to see where our next adventures take us.

My Date with 4 Guys

Let's start with a story...

The first time we ever hung out, Jan 2009...we got a little lost on trying to
find the restaurant that the guys wanted to go to for dinner

Once upon a time, there was a girl who made a crazy decision to go live and study in Madrid, Spain for 5 months without really knowing Spanish or knowing anyone in Spain. After a week or two, she still didn't have any friends to hang out with, as most of the Americans studying abroad just went out and got drunk every night. She was feeling lonely and was praying to find some friends. (Now I'm not saying what happened next is a miracle or anything, but this was definitely an answer to my prayers, and it changed my life for the better)One day on the train back home, she saw a group of 4 guys and 2 girls that she'd seen before at school but never talked to. She gathered all her courage to introduce herself to the group of people. She spoke to the girls first and the girls introduced her to the 4 guys: Marijn, Jelmer, Jarno, & Lukas. The guys even invited her to go to dinner that night! Without giving it a second thought, she agreed to meet up with them that night, so she met the 4 strangers later in during the night in the Plaza del Sol, by the bear, (it wasn't till later that someone suggested that might have been a not so smart idea) and began a journey of friendship which took her on epic adventures to far off places.

More than 3 years later, we had a nice little reunion.

The past week started in England, which was great because my stash of English cookies was depleted. I was working there from Tuesday till Thursday on vendor selection. It was pretty interesting, and I just love working with the English. They are a lot more chatty than the Germans. lol. During the lunch break on Thursday, I stocked up on my English cookies and the firsts reaction after someone saw my big back of goodies..."Are you going on a diet?" haha. They're too funny.

Top of the Dom Tower

I flew back to Munich on Friday morning. I had no food in my fridge because I knew I was going to be in England this week and Frankfurt the next, so I didn't do any grocery shopping. That meant, I had to go find something. I went down the street for some bakery bread and a piece of fruit. Let's just say that Germans like to follow the rules a lot. But I'm a big rule-breaking American. So there was a group of us stopped at a corner and there were NO CARS, but everyone was stopped waiting for the walking man to turn green.  Now I'm not one to encourage rebel-rousing behavior, but I crossed the street. To be honest, I knew the Germans wouldn't like it, but I didn't realize how mad they would be. As I made it to the other side of the road, the light turned green, so I moved back so the bikers could cross, and this little old man gave me a mean glare and started yelling at me in German and he biked past me. I wasn't sure what he said, but everyone around me was staring at me, and the little boy across the street on a bike was looking at me and dying laughing. I went back home a little sad.

Kayaking in the canals of Utrecht

Anyways, I went back to the airport later Friday night to fly to Amersterdam where Jelmer and Marijn were waiting for me on the other side of the gate to take me to Utrecht. YAY! It was awesome cuz we went to get drinks as we waited for our train, and for our drinks, we got orange juice! because they know I don't drink :) Later, we were waiting at the Utrecht train station to change trains, and the Olympic Opening Ceremony was being broadcasted on a big screen for all to see. I was entranced. It was a little weird, and I didnt understand the dancing through the decades part that I saw...I was a little confused at what I was watching to be honest. When we got to the apartment, we turned the tv back on and the countries had just started to be introduced. Marijn was amused and my comments about Canada. As if it's even a country. (joke). I fell asleep around the M's. I remember being woken up for the USA, and saying "Go USA" but I dont remember seeing them or anything. Marijn said I said that and just passed out again. I was tired. lol.

It started raining while we were kayaking. I wish I could say
that I got wet from the rain, but I ended up splashing myself
with water as I a lot, and there was a moment where we
were splashing each other for a bit. 

I was able to steal Jarno's room for the weekend. When we got up, Marijn made us some breakfast. Lucky us. We chilled and waited for Lukas to show up...I was so excited that I was making myself all nervous. lol. Lukas arrived and we headed into Utrecht. We went to the Flower Market and got my mom some tulip bulbs for her garden (hopefully dad won't kill them with weed killer this time). There was an intense gothic festival by the Dom Tower, which was a little disturbing to be honest...but super funnny. We all couldn't help but stare. We went to the Dom Tower and walked up all those stairs. It was exhausting. But it was SOOOO FUN! Jarno lost his keys, as he was arriving from vacation from Italy, so Marijn had to go home to let him in. So we had to wait for him to get back befor KAYAKING! Can I just say, it's a little sad going kayaking with a bunch of guys when you have only a fraction of their upper body strength? It was funny. Lukas, Marijn, and I had our own Olympic race. I totally won. TEAM USA! It was epic. But it's only because they were disqualified for breaking the rules and pulling on each others kayaks. It was epic. It was a great night of fun. Jarno was able to join us for dinner (I think he should have gotten the waitress' number) and drinks after.

When we were back at the house, Marijn was calculating my chances of finding someone to marry and helping me understand how small my chances are :/ lol. Since I want to marry a Mormon, there are only about 14.5 million of us out of about 6 billion humans. Then you have to take a fraction of that to only get the single age-appropriate guys. Then you have to take and even smaller fraction of that for people i'll actually meet and interact with during my life. Good luck for me. "May the odds ever be in your favor", right?  Also, in Utrecht, it was pretty crazy with their terrace seating, you don't face each other, you face the plaza, which is great for people watching :)

Saturday started with a hearty breakfast after waiting for everyone to wake up. Supposedly Marijn was awake earlier but Lukas and I didn't see or hear him. I'm skeptical. lol. So we watched some more Olympics, which is always fun when there are 3 different nationalities. Jelmer left the night before because he had a football game to go to. Jarno stayed behind because he had work to do, so Marijn, Lukas, and I ventured into Amsterdam together. Now, I haven't been to Amesterdam since I was 16 and I was sick when we went, so I remember looking for a store with medicine, and that it was super touristy, crowded, and dirty. Lukily Marijn took us to the nicer parts of Amsterdam, like the parks and nice areas. He was kind enough to avoid the Red Light District for me too. lol. But we didn't go anywhere without first getting snacks! my love language =  food. :)

We saw awesome things. We ate yummy sweets. At one point, Lukas was saying, "I've never seen that part of the city." and "I really like that part of the city." I was looking around trying to figure out which part of the city he was talking about and then we figured out, he was mixing up the words "this" and "that". It was awesome, especially since Lukas' English is better than mine most of the time. When it was lunch time, we got some bagel sandwiches, and while we were waiting, Lukas and I were sharing a coloring book to color a bee. (just an example of how cool Lukas is) it was awesome. Also, I'm ashamed to admit it, but I forgot how Lukas likes to sing-along with the music in your head too! We used to burst out and sing songs all the time in Spain! Also, when we were walking around, Marijn remembers how much I hate PDA, so he would say "don't look" but of course, i would look so see what I wasn't supposed to look at. lol. it was kinda hysterical.  We sat in the park and ate and were so ridiculously silly. Plus, Lukas played our Spain song in the park! Shake It by Metro Station, which we would always listen to in Retiro and when we were travelling.  I can't even explain how much fun I had this weekend and how relaxing it was to see them.

I feel ridiculously lucky to have these friends in my life. We haven't seen each other for over 3 years, but being together was flawless and effortless. Seriously, I'm so grateful for them and their friendship. It doesn't matter how often we talk, but they're awesome and great friends. Plus, they help me live a little, like making me eat crazy Dutch food, aka french fries and mayo. I ate it, for realz. It was also relaxing to be around people who have known me longer than 2 months too. Because they already know my crazy habits. It was a little sad having to say goodbye, but we're already planning our next world adventure. I suggested Greece, because I super want to go.