Moved to my new room!

Together with my friend Savannah, I painted my (new) bookcase! It was a light brown color before we began and after two layers I had a white bookcase which I am so so happy with, it fits perfectly in my new room!

My mom and sister were here in Zeeland for a week which was really nice as we can hang out a lot now before they leave for Singapore. After they left I decided to travel to Apeldoorn next week so I can see them a bit more as the next time I see them after they leave on Thursday is Christmas. Unexpectedly I went today already so I am now back with my family!

And I officially moved into my new room!! Within the same building... BUT in the past few days, my uncle and cousins husband came to help me move the furniture and together with my mom and sister I spent some time putting the smaller things in place. I spent my first two nights here and I slept so wonderfully probably because I was exhausted but it was also just quieter here than it was on the ground floor and it was wonderful.

Summer

This summer holiday is pretty good so far! I was working a lot and spent a few more days at the beach and am getting a bit more tan so that was all really nice.

Unfortunately I started getting a bit of pain in my knee at the beginning of this week and Wednesday evening it started to hurt a lot. I recognised the pain from a few years ago but was hoping it would go away. It did not however go away and when I tried to get out of bed I could barely stand on my left leg. I called my work to let them know I was going to a physical therapist ASAP to find out what was wrong and an hour and a half later I had an appointment with my physical therapist. Turns out the cartilage under my kneecap is inflamed. I now need to rest and go back to the physical therapist next week but of course this also means that I cannot work so I am now with my mom and sister and am waiting to see if the pain will get less. The beautiful tape on my knee is to give my kneecap some support and has a gorgeous color and I am looking forward to seeing the beautiful tan lines these will cause haha!

I still have an ice cream addiction...

Who's Gonna Save Us

I had my first driving lesson!! It was so exciting and nerve wracking but I am so happy that it finally happened! The goal behind me getting a job this summer, beside just having something to do with 3 months off from school, is to pay for my driver's license. So the first step for that was getting a job, then actually working there, and now I am beginning my lessons! I had so much fun and am really looking forward to the next lessons and also already looking forward to actually getting my driver's license! 

These past few months there were just too many occasions when it would have been really convenient if I had been able to drive, driving to hospitals or picking people up from airports, so I really look forward to having my driver's license! But first I am off to work now to earn more money so I can actually pay for my lessons! ;)

Won't be on this side of the car for much longer!!

Oh yeah this is happening now! :)

Hideaway

One of the best parts of studying in Zeeland is that the beach is less than a 30 minute bike ride away. And so if we want we can be at the beach and back within an hour. Most of my days off from work are unfortunately rainy but I have had three beautiful days at the beach so far this summer which makes me remember just how wonderful it is to live here for a while!

The first time I had a day off that was also a sunny day was almost two weeks ago now. While still in bed I sent a text to a friend, who then replied that she would be picking me up in 5 minutes... And yes exactly 5 minutes later there she was and together with two more of our friends we went to the beach! 

Then yesterday and the day before that, both myself and Tisha had two days off and the weather was absolutely beautiful so we spent two days tanning, reading and swimming at the beach in Vlissingen, soaking up some vitamin D and mentally preparing to go back to work again today!  

Home

Home is a concept that can have different meanings to everyone. To me, my "home", is in multiple locations. At the moment that includes Beijing, Apeldoorn and Middelburg. Middelburg is my current home where I live most of the time and have most of my friends. Apeldoorn is an old home but also present as my mom and sister live there and China is my home because I spent the best three years of my high school life there and because my dad still lives there. I'm writing about this topic because my family is now moving to Singapore together starting a new home. And for the first time I am not moving with them, of course I moved out last year but when you go on an adventure yourself it is a lot easier than when your family or those close to you are the ones to begin the adventure.

So many things are changing next semester, friends are joining sororities and fraternities, my relationship ended, my family is moving far away, I am moving to a new room and 200 new students are joining our school. This is all a mix of excitement and nerves and of positive and less positive events. Nonetheless it is going to happen so I just have to let it all take place and see where the future takes us. Things always change but this is the first time I am experiencing so much change at the same time, I guess this is what they call growing up.

In the book I am currently reading there is a quote that fits my situation that I would like to share:

"Growing up happens when you start having things you look back on and wish you could change."

And yes I am quoting a young adult book... deal with it.

The Air That I Breathe

Wow, these past two weeks have been insanely busy with work but I am glad to say that I am enjoying it! I like that although I am on holiday I have somewhere to be (on most days) and that the work is nice and my body is already adapting to the biking and changing from carrying around heavy things and walking all the time. It is nice to notice that change and I am very happy that my work and my colleagues are all so nice! I have had 8 work days now and have had some awesome and some less awesome costumers haha. Some people are very grumpy and do not realize that yes you did take their coffee order but you also took 70 other people's coffee orders that are also being made at that same moment so yes your coffee is coming but please realize that if I am walking on the terras I am not actually making your coffee so have no way of speeding up that order.... Anyway haha my respect for this field has increased insanely! Some men think everything is hilarious, which is completely understandable because they are all on holiday mode and that is actually wonderful because the majority of the customers is happy. I am noticing that my language skills are sometimes a bit lacking, my Dutch is not always good enough or at least natural enough to understand many of the jokes that people make and often think they are serious but my bosses laugh about this and the situations it brings. Also it is almost impossible to find the right timing of walking up to a newly seated table. Some people want a drink before they even sit down and others want to look at the menu first and get annoyed if you come straight away. How am I supposed to know which category people fall into?

My greatest moment happened two days ago when I was taking the order of two guys/boys who wanted two beers. As I took the order and looked up I realized they were probably not 18... And just this week I had checked with my bosses if we need to ask for ID if we think that customers are younger than 18 and are ordering an alcoholic beverage. So I went to my boss who sent me back to the table myself to ask for ID. So I, 19 years old, ask these two males for their ID. "Sorry we forgot to bring it". Hmmmkay.... I will take that as a "Yes we are younger than 18, busted.". So they ended up ordering two cola haha! It was a strange situation but also kind of cool, I did feel a bit weird as I myself am only turning 20 this year and then to be asking others for ID is strange but part of the job.

Besides working I have been hanging out with the people that are still left in Middelburg. The other day I cooked dinner for my friend Tisha (who has been cooking for me mostly haha so I had to return the favor) and afterwards we just watched youtube videos for a few hours. This is so nice and relaxing as during our semesters it is harder to do this as there is always something you could be doing. Also despit living the appartment building that I live in with another 175 students I walk around in my pyjamas all the time if I am going to a friend or doing my laundry. However on this same evening that I was hanging out with Tisha I also went to pick up my laundry. But I had sort of forgotten there was a party going on (I was fully aware just hoping to not run into too many people). So I walked to the laundry room in my massive sweater and workout shorts and tired make up less face (not the first time I have looked like this haha) to straight away run into someone on the stairs and have a conversation for 30 minutes, and only meeting more people on my way back haha. Normally I would have actually joined the party for a little while but I wanted to sleep cause I had to work again the next day.

Right now I am on my way to Apeldoorn to see my family again! My dad came back from Beijing and my mom and sister came back from Singapore a few days ago so we will all be together again! Today we are going shopping, tomorrow we are going to see a musical and in between I will be sleeping... a lot...

Trying to keep track of the whole family's weather conditions!

Really Don't Care

Sitting in a cafe by myself was one of the strangest yet lovely experiences I had this week. As I was working for half the week I had the other half of the week to fill with whatever I wanted. Unfortunately I was once again ill for these days but I did try to do something every day. I attempted to watch a movie with some friends, celebrated another friend's birthday and made sushi together with another friend. However this last one lasted for both Saturday and Sunday as I had bought way to much and didn't want to let the ingredients go to waste. And as I was ill I spent a lot of time in my room and so I decided to go out and drink some hot chocolate in a cafe. But I did this by myself. At the restaurant that I work I have now seen an individual come by every now and then and just have a drink all by themselves. And I thought this was awesome but it never occured to me to actually do it myself. Now this Sunday pretty much everyone was not in Middelburg, I had been in my room for most of the day and so I decided to go out to a cafe and have some hot chocolate and read a book, by myself. Despite the two cafes that I actually thought to go to being closed, I had fun! It is definitely something worth repeating, I have gone shopping by myself before but never done this. I have also heard that going to the cinema alone can be fun, maybe that is something to try for later this summer. For now I am going to make some more plans with the friends that are returning to Middelburg, as later this summer there is more chance that most people will be gone.