365
Without even realising it, it seems a year has come and gone since I left Australia. 365 days. 365 days ago I was standing in the Brisbane International Airport at 1 in the morning, sweating through my coat and jumper, ukulele case and backpack in hand, saying goodbye to my parents and two best friends. 26 hours and several timezones later I was arriving at Schipol Airport to be greeted by my host dad holding an Australian flag. Jetlagged and suffering from tonsilitis, exhaustion and a cold I'm surprised I stayed awake for long enough to unpack that night. Or got up to start work the next morning.
My first few weeks were sort of miserable; it was cold, I didn't know anyone, I was only just getting to know the family and all of my friends back home were having so much fun. But of course that's the kind of displacement you feel when you move somewhere new, when you step so far out of your comfort zone, and the flipside of that is the amazing experiences you can only have by pushing yourself outside the boundaries of your normal life. Things have happened in the last year that I could never even have fathomed before. It's been an incredible year and I want to give a quick overview of my time here
Towards the end of the month I travelled with some of my new friends down to Breda in the far south of Holland to celebrate Carnival, a hectic street party that lasts about a week or so. There's no particular dresscode, but the more far-fetched and out there the better. It was definitely an experience and a half, drinking in the streets, dancing on a stage, eating supermarket salad with my fingers while sitting in a doorway with my Italian friend.
All in all February got markedly better as time went by and I really settled into my new life abroad.
Towards the end of the month Holland became awash with orange as the people prepared to celebrate their King in the most patriotic of ways: by drinking heavily on the streets whilst wearing bright and crazy outfits. Honestly, Koningsdag (King's Day) was simply an explosion of orange with the occasional splashes of blue white and red. Having gone out in the Hague the night before (for Koningsnacht/ Kings Night) I wasn't exactly in the mood to party hard, but I put in a solid effort. A couple of my friends and I went to a festival in the outskirts of Amsterdam but it wasn't really my scene. I think that at this years celebrations I'll just hang with Noor at the Childrens Market.
All in all, August flew by faster than some other months.
Later in the month the Au Pairs and I got our spook on and celebrated Halloween in true style, we cycled together to the Hague in the dark, in costumes, stopping at one point in the forest to finish our drinks and get group photos. It was on Halloween that I met Sarah VD, a girl from New Zealand with whom I instantly bonded. Despite having put so much thought and effort into my Forest Spirit costume three people asked me if I was a Christmas Tree. One of those people was Sarah, may she never live it down.
Open Mic Nights, coffee dates, band practice. A weekend trip to Venice. November was off to a great start. I celebrated Sarah L's birthday with her in beautiful Venice, the weekend was amazing. Although I flew into and out of Bergamo ( a 3 hour train ride away) getting there and home was surprisingly easy. We stayed in a lovely little hostel right on one of the main canals and Sarah and I got a free room upgrade to a private room which meant we could lock our door and not worry about our things. It was such a lovely weekend and I was so glad to be able to spend it with someone who shares my "oh wowee everything is amazing, let's explore the heckidy doodle out of this place" attitude. After that weekend it was back to coffee dates, open mic nights and lots of bike riding. My host family went away for the weekend and I had a boardgame night at my house, after which Linda and I decided to convince Erik to join our band. So more band practice, bike riding, coffee drinking and board games.
And that's about it. In the first three days of February I've been to a First Birthday party at my neighbours house, tried to fix my hair and played Mario Kart with Erik. I don't know if you could really call my life exciting but I've definitely gotten comfortable here. There's a couple more months left on my VISA and I plan on making the most of them before my European Adventure comes to an end (for now.)
Kisses,
Lily.
My first few weeks were sort of miserable; it was cold, I didn't know anyone, I was only just getting to know the family and all of my friends back home were having so much fun. But of course that's the kind of displacement you feel when you move somewhere new, when you step so far out of your comfort zone, and the flipside of that is the amazing experiences you can only have by pushing yourself outside the boundaries of your normal life. Things have happened in the last year that I could never even have fathomed before. It's been an incredible year and I want to give a quick overview of my time here
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February
My first month in Holland. I went for a lot of walks in the forest and sand dunes and enjoyed the completely different landscape around me. I took up cycling (as it is the easiest way to get around in Holland) and even rode to the beach and home with a flat tyre. I was sick for a couple of weeks which kept me indoors and fairly miserable for a while, then I went to the HEMA breakfast ( €1 breakfast, who can say no to that?) and met a few other Au Pairs. I also started my Dutch Language Course which saw me get up early on Wednesdays to cycle to the Hague, it was there I made some truly great friends, and also discovered that my internal compass was completely turned around and thus I got lost and was late EVERY WEEK. (To my teacher, I'm still so sorry about that!)Towards the end of the month I travelled with some of my new friends down to Breda in the far south of Holland to celebrate Carnival, a hectic street party that lasts about a week or so. There's no particular dresscode, but the more far-fetched and out there the better. It was definitely an experience and a half, drinking in the streets, dancing on a stage, eating supermarket salad with my fingers while sitting in a doorway with my Italian friend.
All in all February got markedly better as time went by and I really settled into my new life abroad.
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March
I distinctly remember March 3 arriving and thinking "I've been here for a month already?" It seemed the time was already flying by. I'd made a solid group of friends amongst the Wassenaar Au Pairs. And was still going to my Dutch lessons, the weather was starting to warm up and we were facing an early Spring, all around me the countryside was coming to life! I'd never seen so many beautiful wildflowers in my life, they were literally blooming everywhere! Even on the median strips on the road. Cycling to my lessons in the early morning was becoming something I actually looked forward to because it almost felt like cycling through the set of Pride and Prejudice in some parts of the journey. My legs were getting stronger too, suddenly it didn't seem like such a big deal to cycle the 10kms to the Hague and back in the space of a morning.
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April
Already the spring was in full bloom, I started the month with a trip to the iconic Keukenhof Tulip Fields with my friends. I'm excited to get to see them again this year because they were truly spectacular. If you're ever in or even near Holland in late March or April you really do have to make the trip to Keukenhof it is worth every cent. If you don't want to I understand, even just driving or cycling around at that time of year gives you a chance to see the Tulip fields bloom. In April I also turned 23, I took the chance to pre-book a 4 day weekend (since my birthday was on a Friday) and took the bus to London to visit my friend Trent. The weekend was a mixed bag of amazing and terrible experiences and it taught me a lot about international travel. And I mean, A LOT. Feeling a little older, and a little wiser I returned to Holland and got straight into planning my next trip in May.Towards the end of the month Holland became awash with orange as the people prepared to celebrate their King in the most patriotic of ways: by drinking heavily on the streets whilst wearing bright and crazy outfits. Honestly, Koningsdag (King's Day) was simply an explosion of orange with the occasional splashes of blue white and red. Having gone out in the Hague the night before (for Koningsnacht/ Kings Night) I wasn't exactly in the mood to party hard, but I put in a solid effort. A couple of my friends and I went to a festival in the outskirts of Amsterdam but it wasn't really my scene. I think that at this years celebrations I'll just hang with Noor at the Childrens Market.
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May
May was gorgeous, the days were becoming long and languid, the flowers were still blooming and the forest was alive with new growth. I went on many a solo bike ride in May just enjoying the beautiful countryside around me. I had a week off early in the month and took a trip to Prague. Since London had been my first experience travelling internationally I wasn't quite as prepared to travel to Prague as I could have been. For one thing I went by bus which was a solid 15 hours each way, and for another I only booked everything a week or two before leaving. The city was incredible and I made some awesome friends in the hostel, given the chance I would go back to Prague in a heartbeat. The journey home was somewhat of a disaster but I made it back alive and well and full of stories. The rest of May sailed by in a blur of late nights out with my friends (with the sun still up) and dinner parties with the other Au Pairs.
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June
Somehow summer was upon us. How? When? At what point had four months passed me by? June was one of my favourite months, the sun was rising at 4 in the morning and setting at 11 at night. The temperatures were finally reaching appropriate levels of warmth, (i.e. above 20°C) which meant I could actually wear half the things I'd brought from Australia at long last. Beach dresses! Shorts! Singlets! Thongs! Heaven!! In early June my friend Jessica came to stay for a few days, it was so nice to have her around and the host family was super welcoming, she even gave us all haircuts (she's a brilliant hairdresser.) It was great having Jessica here, we went for a bike ride/hike/tree climbing session up in Meijendel, went to the beach, had ice cream at Luciano's, made a silly video for our RYLA friends, explored Leiden and Amersfoort and had an all-round grand time. Towards the end of the month my Canadian friend Emma and I went to a music festival in the south of Holland and it was AMAZING! I was already impressed with how cheap weekend camping tickets were and then I saw the the lineup for Best Kept Secret Festival and knew I had to go. Chvrches, Franz Ferdinand, Angus and Julia Stone, Belle and Sebastion, Nils Frahm, Metronomy, and so so many more incredible artists. BKS was awesome from start to finish. Em and I had these tiny one man tents from the toy store and set them up in the perfect spot, we made friends with our neighbours on three sides, as well as out and about in the Festival grounds. Wooden swing benches, a lake and a free sunscreen, plus an allowed 4.5 Litres of alcohol per person (so long as it was in a can or plastic bottle) meant that BKS was pretty much the most chilled out, fun festival I've ever attended. It was far and above the best way to end the best month.
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July
The lowpoint of the summer was of course that it meant that a lot of Au Pairs contracts were up. A lot of goodbyes were said over the warmer months. It wasn't easy, but thankfully I had my summer holiday ahead of me, a whole month off to do as I pleased. My friend Trent came to visit for a week in mid July/the first week of my holiday. It was nice having him here, we went bike riding and to the beach and such, although I was a little sick at the time and my energy levels were low, I felt like a pretty lame host but Trent didn't mind. He left to go to a music festival in Belgium and I was off like milk to sunny, gorgeous Ireland. Oh Ireland. I fell utterly and hopelessly in love with the Emerald Isle. I made some incredible friends there, and had quite the unexpected journey across my distant ancestors homeland. Two weeks didn't seem like nearly enough time and if I'd planned everything better I could definitely have stayed for longer which would have suited me just fine. I know I'll be back again one day, this time with my best friend by my side.
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August
The one big thing to come out of the Ireland trip was an interest in music. While in Belfast I attended a few open mic nights and even sang (terribly) but the whole experience brought the idea of improving my musical skills to the front of my mind. It was when I came back to Holland that I connected with Linda, a Swedish au pair who happened to sing and play guitar. After a few conversations and a little jam session at my house I started teaching myself guitar and Linda and I formed a band! It was really an excuse to hang out and play music more than anything else. But we still went so far as to name ourselves and I did make album cover art. Other than that August was a fairly relaxed month. I was still in Ireland for the first week and enjoyed having the house to myself for the second week before the host family came back from Australia. They even brought me Cherry Ripes and Caramello Koalas (yesssssss)All in all, August flew by faster than some other months.
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September
There was a fresh wave of Au Pairs in town. HEMA breakfasts were a blur of new faces, new names and new accents. It was weird to suddenly be the Mamma Duck figure to all these girls, but I was more than happy to take them under my wing and help them with anything they needed. Linda and I learnt some more songs, and were talking about (and putting off) doing an open mic night. September was spent lapping up the last of the already fading warmth, getting to know the new girls and spending lots of quality time with my host family, including making and selling cards with Noortje at a little Kindermarkt (Childrens Market) in Wassenaar.
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October
Autumn was here at last! The leaves were really starting to turn and cycling through the forest was like cycling through a postcard. My friend Alba (who left in the summer) came to visit in the first weekend of October and we went to Amsterdam and an Au Pair dinner party together. I had a week holiday in mid October so I spent the first half of it in Cologne with Emma and Leigh (a new American au pair who works the in the same town as Emma,) we Couchsurfed with a couple of different people while there and had many an adventure (which I'll talk about in a travel post.) Then back to Wassenaar for a day before heading down to Paris to see my friend Sarah L from Australia, who had just moved to Europe to teach English at a school in the north of Spain. It was amazing to see Sarah again, and our weekend in Paris was so wonderful, though we both had our troubles getting home. Hot tip from Sarah: don't ever fly into or out of Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.Later in the month the Au Pairs and I got our spook on and celebrated Halloween in true style, we cycled together to the Hague in the dark, in costumes, stopping at one point in the forest to finish our drinks and get group photos. It was on Halloween that I met Sarah VD, a girl from New Zealand with whom I instantly bonded. Despite having put so much thought and effort into my Forest Spirit costume three people asked me if I was a Christmas Tree. One of those people was Sarah, may she never live it down.
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November
A couple days after that I went to an open mic night with Sarah VD and her Canadian friend Lisanne and we enjoyed a personal sermon on full English Breakfasts by an English Breakfast Enthusiast. Also some great music. This was the beginning of the Open Mic Night/Coffee Date period of my life. The best one was of course held at Sarah's house and was where I met Erik, a male Au Pair from Sweden who also plays guitar and sings.Open Mic Nights, coffee dates, band practice. A weekend trip to Venice. November was off to a great start. I celebrated Sarah L's birthday with her in beautiful Venice, the weekend was amazing. Although I flew into and out of Bergamo ( a 3 hour train ride away) getting there and home was surprisingly easy. We stayed in a lovely little hostel right on one of the main canals and Sarah and I got a free room upgrade to a private room which meant we could lock our door and not worry about our things. It was such a lovely weekend and I was so glad to be able to spend it with someone who shares my "oh wowee everything is amazing, let's explore the heckidy doodle out of this place" attitude. After that weekend it was back to coffee dates, open mic nights and lots of bike riding. My host family went away for the weekend and I had a boardgame night at my house, after which Linda and I decided to convince Erik to join our band. So more band practice, bike riding, coffee drinking and board games.
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December
Somehow we were here, the final month of 2014. The year seemed to pass by so quickly, but isn't that always the way? Band rehearsal was going strong, we spent an entire weekend together towards the start of the month rehearsing and hanging out, it was such a beautiful weekend. Followed by some quality family bonding as I celebrated Sinterklaas with my host family. It was a long and enjoyable evening of presents and poems, and definitely gave me some ideas for traditions to bring home. Sadly December also brought with it a lot of goodbyes, my Dutch class friends were all off home, but before they left they gave me some really great advice (which I followed) and some further words of wisdom. The next weekend the "Gangalang" as we liked to call ourselves (Sarah, Lisanne, Linda, Erik and I) headed down to Dordrecht for the Christmas Markets. That was around the same time Erik and I started dating (the advice from my friends was "just ask him out already omg you're killing me") which came as a surprise to almost no one. Invisible Mountain made it's debut at an open mic night a few days before Linda went home to Sweden. We were a mess on stage but sounded okay and managed to make people laugh (with us, I think.) It was a rush and I don't know if I'll ever have the will to get up on stage again but it was definitely worth doing. Inevitably though, the high came to an end. The following weekend I had to say two of my toughest goodbyes, to both Linda and Emma who had both been my dearest friends here. To ease the pain and to celebrate the glory of Christmas we had a small gathering at Sarah's house and enjoyed a gift swap and a group collab meal by the fireplace adorned in our ugliest Christmas sweaters. It was 'heel gezellig' as the Dutch say. I spent actual Christmas day Skyping my family and a few friends, and leaving Skype messages for many others (seriously, how neat is that function?) and shortly after saw snow for the first time in my life. Bliss! Then I bleached all of my hair blonde just in time for New Years, which I spent (sober!) with the Gangalang, roaming the streets of the Hague and setting off sparklers.
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January
2015 started in such a pleasant way I have no doubt that the rest of the year will (generally) follow suit. After popping home on New Years morning to feed the cats and wash the glitter off my face I was joined by Sarah, Lisanne and Stephanie (another Canadian Au Pair) for a few days of not much really, we watched Netflix, tried to go op-shopping (but they were all closed) and went walking in the forest. It was very relaxing. My host family returned home from their trip to marvel at my new hair and by monday it was back to business as usual. Weekdays spent either at home or in the Hague and weekends with Erik and the Gangalang visiting different cities. So far we've been to Haarlem, Rotterdam and Utrecht. My hair has gone from blonde to pink to blonde to bright, horrible orange all in the space of this one month. I've received gifts from my parents and my friends back home and prepared a few packages to send back. A lot of January has been spent organising a trip to Sweden at the end of February to visit Linda and playing Rummikub. So all in all a good month.
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And that's about it. In the first three days of February I've been to a First Birthday party at my neighbours house, tried to fix my hair and played Mario Kart with Erik. I don't know if you could really call my life exciting but I've definitely gotten comfortable here. There's a couple more months left on my VISA and I plan on making the most of them before my European Adventure comes to an end (for now.)
Kisses,
Lily.
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