Uhm... postponing the fourth of July???

Yes. Though for the record I did wear red, white and blue today. Which might've been more effective if that wasn't also the colors of whole bunch of countries, Holland included. Anyways, not many people were up for it so we decided to do the whole grilling thing another day. Tomorrow we will be lighting sparklers and stuff. Because what is fourth of July without fire?

Instead we did this cool thing for dinner tonight. It was four of us: Wybren, Kati, Rins, and myself. Rins and I were in charge of picking out ingredients for dinner and making dessert, Wybren and Kati vice versa. Rins and I decided to pick the most random things we could find. So we gave them ground beef, pancake mix, tomato sauce, fresh basil, coconut milk, apple sauce, and potatoes. They gave us apples, pineapple, coconut in a can, pastry dough, cinnamon, orange juice, and ice cream. They made meatballs fried in pancake batter made with coconut milk rather than normal milk (which came out really yummy) with potatoes in a basil tomato sauce and apple sauce on the side. We stuffed the pastries with apple, pineapple and coconut that had soaked in orange juice with a bit of cinnamon. It was really yummy all in all! And what a fun concept. We're going to make it a thing I think.

Tonight I learned how to ride my bike with someone on the back! Yaay! I'm becoming more Dutch each day.

Well, early morning tomorrow. Slaap lekker!!

- This semi-patriotic girl

Water gun, fan clubs, and a lack of foam.

The foam failed. When Jiska and I got there last night it was just in time for another round of foam (and to get totally drenched) and then they ran out! It looked like the party was about to fizzle out too. But when they got the fog machine working and the DJs kept the music going hot, it picked right back up again.

I then managed to get my hands on a water gun. Hehehehe I started a water gun war. Which meant I had the water gun forcefully removed from my posession...multiple times. Interestingly enough I became quick friends with the guys that I initially squirted with water. And when I say "squirted" I mean I drenched them. Jiska and I found a ledge to dance up on against the wall (since we couldn't dance on the bar) and it was then that she pointed out to me the guys constantly bringing me drinks and refilling the water gun for me.

"I think you have a fun club."

Yea she might've been right about that. It was a lot of fun though. At some point while dancing up on the ledge though, I fell. But not like "oh shit! Are you okay!?" kind of falling, but more like "wait...did you just fall?" It looked like I had just stepped off (it was a little less than a meter high). I kind of laughed a bit and then got right back up, making sure not to slip off this time. (What foam there had been made everything a bit slippery.) I did hurt my tail bone though, I think it's bruised. Ow.

While dancing a bit above the crowd I made eye contact with this one guy. He gave me a sweet smile and I returned it, still keeping in beat with the music and dancing. I made a few more flirtatious eye gesture, things and then stepped down, walked toward him, grabbed his sunglasses off his shirt, put them on, then continued to walk out of the room. He followed me. For starters I'm super impressed I didn't stumble while doing that or screw up being the clutz I am. We got to talking for awhile and went out for a walk. 

Speaking of Monday, it's my countries independence day: 4th of July. I'm thinking of buying some sparklers and poppers, getting stuff for hotdogs and hamburgers and getting the flat together for a bit of grilling and some fun outside. It's a good excuse to drink some beers, play with fire and be outside.

Boytoy's mum also has a new student for me! I get to meet him on Monday, as well, in the morning. (So much to do Monday!) Maybe I can get foam boy to join us for 4th of July stuff.

Prank status: this morning my door frame had tape all across it, making it quite difficult to get into my room. (Especially still being a bit buzzed.) And there was tape on my shower head! I saw that one though before I turned the shower on. Go me. Then I found out his room was unlocked so while he was asleep I went into his room, sprayed his clothes with my perfume, taped his shower head, taped his toilet seat down, and threw his underwear and socks and shoes in the freezer. I had some catching up to do.

Though for whatever reason he's being super cold and kind of ignoring me right now. Ugh. He says it's "nothing" and he "doesn't want to talk about it", oh but "it has nothing to do with" me. So he much rather push me away, not even talk to me, look at me, or acknowledge my presence. Yay! Whatever. The tape he placed at my door frame works wonders for holding up a sign saying:

"Fuck off Ollie"

- This still uses HTML coding girl

Something to get used to, I guess?

Never in my life have I ever been told "I love you" that many times in one night. Alcohol + girl from another country...

The accent thing was loved and I guess you could say I definitely dance like an "American". Also, all the guys I danced with tried to kiss me. The last guy was super persistant and would follow me around the dance floor! Aside from that, I liked dancing with him. He was charming in a quirky way and actually knew how to dance! Though, after boytoy, the whole tipping me part of dancing had me especially nervous. I mean... the foam comes waist high; tip over and your covered.

So the general consensus is: foam parties are a lot of fun. If you get tired of dancing with the guy you're dancing with or want to change up the pace: you throw foam on him. Then the foam battle begins!! You get pretty gross and sticky though. And you should stop worrying about your hair as soon as you walk in because from the moment you enter you are now pulling off the "sexy wet hair look". So take advantage of this moment to whip around your hair and run your fingers through it all sexy like... and stuff.

It was definitely nice to get out and party and dance! I haven't been dancing in a while and I was starting to crave it. (Also was feeling pretty cooped up in the flat.)

Time to wash my clothes and eat some food. Got another foam party tonight!

- This dancing queen

For the record...

Weirdest couple ever.

One minute we're most literally wrestling down the hallway, the next we are in the kitchen teasing the $%@# out of each other. (Kitchen is my territory, so he has to be "nice" to me. Duh, kitchen, women. I rule there.)

Currently I'm in the middle of a bet with my sister. She thinks I can't go more than two weeks without sex. She's wrong. I can. But she told boytoy about our bet and now he's made it his mission to tease me any chance he gets. (I'm already a week in, by the way.)

Assume the position!* CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

Two can play this game. Hehe...

- This super horny girl

*When associated with "challenge accepted", the aforementioned position is similiar to that of a super hero: feet more than shoulder width apart, hands on hips, chest out, and head tilted slightly up and to the side.

Phone party!!

I guess because of my accent it sounds like I am saying "phone party" but tonight (and tomorrow night) is a foam party! It's my first, so pull out the lacey top, bathing suit and indifferent skirt because tonight is going to get messy! (And sticky. Ssshhh... that's what she said...)

This next part includes melancholy! Feel free to skip over the next paragraph and continue on.

So boytoy and I talked last night. It was a lot better than that time boytoy and I planned a talk. Ugh that was awful. We sat there awkwardly and eventually were both like "uh, nice talk" and moved on. Anyways, yea so we talked. It feels like as of recent he's been pushing me away which is awesome! Because I have this big thing where I runaway... So. I told him to stop that. Seriously. I'll runaway enough on my own, I don't need him to push me away. And then! He told me he wasn't sure what he was afraid of and that he didn't want to push me away. He likes me, he said. Aww, if I had a soul (did I mention I'm a ginger?) it might have melted a little. It really shook me a bit though. 'Cause he really just admitted that. Now back to the not so serious stuff.

So Ohio and I are working on songs together. Pretty much I write a majority of the lyrics and he finds some cool chords to go with them. Then we skype and laugh about how this isn't going anywhere and we'll start up again tomorrow. Oooh procrastination. Maybe if this ever amounts to anything I'll let y'all here the songs. Maybe.

Time for a really cool and easy fairly easy recipe. At least I think it's easy, but I cook, a lot. Anways it's for ham and tomato pasta sauce.

butter (I like to use garlic butter)

garlic (even if you have garlic butter)

Diced ham

cherry tomatos

shredded parmesean cheese

an array of your typical "Italian" spices

flour

pasta

Hey wait a second! There are no measurements there! Hush! Eyeball it okay? I usually make pasta sauce to feed a few people but that's because I eat it over the next few days.

So, heat up your pan. (A hot pan is a happy pan.) Add the butter, a good dollop should do. (Is that purely a southern term?) When the butter is melted, and not burnt, add a piece of diced ham. If it sizzles add the rest. If it doesn't sizzle? Wait. Cook the ham, on about medium heat in a large and deep pan, until it all has changed color. Now add the tomatos and your favorite Italian herbs. (Or just a had a whole bunch of "Italian seasoning", uh... to taste.) DO NOT SALT. Parmesean is pretty salty on its own and you add a bit later. Add some cracked pepper (seriously, this stuff rocks, just break down and buy the cracked pepper people). Throw in diced garlic and put the lid on it. It should only take about 5 minutes before the little tomatoes have burst. Add the shredded parmesean to help thicken it. If it's still runny sprinkle some flour over it, stir, and it will thicken the sauce up nice and quickly. Voila! It looks and tastes fancy too.

Anyways, I'll probably be really tired the next couple of days so you may not hear from me. (Not that you care.) But yea, have a good weekend!

- This Texan who can't say "foam" apparently...

Very superstitious...

Dear guy living above me, I like your taste in music. Now turn it down.

That worked?

Oh wait it's back.

So I decided I need pictures in this blog. Yes! Pictures! Aside from pictures being purely awesome and opening up such a wide aray of artistic value to this drab little spot of words I've created, it also cuts my writing time down. (I mean, a 1.000 words a picture!) But sadly my camera is dead. I need a charger for it, a dutch charger that is. Or a converter. I'm not exactly sure where to get one. I'm thinking the airport would definitely have one somewhere, it's pretty big ya' know. Oh, you don't? Well it's in Amsterdam. Now search your memory for everytime when you were in high school someone said "Duuuuude," puff "I wanna go to Amsterdam duuuuuude!" (insert stoner's laugh here), and that is why Amsterdam has such a huge airport.

Last night was this amazing lightning show! The flat I'm staying in is located in Leiden and is 13 floors tall. For the record, The Netherlands is quite a flat country, and since we are on the 7th floor (remember my dear readers from the States, this means the 8th floor) we have quite a nice view. It lasted for a few hours and was super badass. If I had pictures, you'd agree. So instead the guys and I shared a bottle of wine and some beers, stood on the balcony (suppa smart right?) and cheered the clouds on.

Maybe next time I'll talk about why I hate the guy I like. Naaah, you don't want to read about that do you? Though I should start documenting his pranks towards me. The last one was hiding a majority of my underwear. It was above my closet. Far from where I could reach.

- This short amateur photographer

Oh, did I forget to tell you? I'm in Holland.

Yea so not too long ago I managed to get my butt here. (Early.) Go me! In April I finished my CELTA course and got my certificate. Then I got here at the end of May. I'm still working on getting a job though. I had a private student and that was awesome. With my help he passed his English exam with an 8! (Dutch people know what that means.) Yay! I'm happy.

I feel that might be a good idea for this summer. So I am making a flyer to put up around the city for private English tutoring. (So if you know anybody in the area... or heck, The Netherlands, who needs some English tutoring, let me know.)

It's weird because my computer (Finnegan) is completely in Dutch, so as I type I'm being told that about 98% of what I am writing is spelled wrong. (No, it's just not being typed in Dutch.)

Things are good here. Really good here. I have my own room at the flat and I'm making a lot of friends. This past weekend was Midsummer's Nights. I spent the whole weekend in Utrecht with Tommy and a good 80 other CSers (Couch Surfers). The first night I got there we met up at a bar with everyone and had drinks, mingled and played games. One game in particular was this "kiss killing"game in which you wrote your name on a piece of paper and then put it in a hat. Then you draw somebody else's name and have to kiss them (anywhere) to kill them. I killed 7 people. (All on the shoulder or hand.) Every game we played this weekend me or my group won. Go us! Texas is very determined.

I also met two other girls from Texas there! We're slowly taking over. (Or we all realize how awful our state is, and we just need to leave.) Saturday was the big scavenger hunt across Utrecht and then giant dinner in an abandoned elementary school. That was fun, Ohio and I jammed it up with some guys from Ireland and some other Dutchies, then we did a flash mob in the park, and finished it all up with a semi-rave in the elementary school lunch room. (Hello bucket list. Oh I see 'attend a rave at an elementary school' is not marked off, well now it is!)

So now I'm back in Leiden. More adventures in Rotterdam and Utrecht at the end of July and then maybe Spain for my birthday.

Ik moet naar de markt, ik heb geen eten!!

- This trying to be Dutch girl

P.S.

So I'm actually really allergic to chocolate.