So, today I participated in the Free Hugs Campaign. The event was hosted by the Amsterdam team of couchsurfing(great site! check it out if you haven’t heard of it). My friend was participating and invited me along. The Free Hugs Campaign was started by an Australian guy, Juan Mann, who had to move back to Sydney after living in London. He went back to nothing. No friends and no place to really call his home. While waiting in the Sydney airport he saw friends/family hugging and welcoming each other home. He wanted to feel as happy as they did. So, he grabbed a piece of cardboard and with marker wrote “Free Hugs”. At first people stared, but eventually they came up to hug him.
The first person who stopped, tapped me on the shoulder and told me how her dog had just died that morning. How that morning had been the one year anniversary of her only daughter dying in a car accident. How what she needed now, when she felt most alone in the world, was a hug. I got down on one knee, we put our arms around each other and when we parted, she was smiling.-Juan Mann
I think that’s such a cool story. Not sure if I changed anyone’s mood, but I had a great time doing it and my day was made. I’m sure I hugged over 50 people.
This guy gave the best hugs!
Group hug!
Dutch “slinger” and balloons
Pretty flowers and candles. Gezillig!
They cooked
I ate cake after glasses of wine(not flattering, but meh…so Yummy!)
they danced
and stuff
and passed out :)
The end
i was going to write this long entry about my awesome day, but i’m far too tired. Instead, im going to drink wine and finish reading “Women”-Charles Bukowski
I’ve decided that I’m getting new ink! A collection of tattoos this summer, at the latest. I won’t say what I’m getting yet. But I will post photos.
It snowed yesterday in Amsterdam. Nothing stuck, but it was a beautiful sight. Funny that it snows on the first day of spring and the day after my birthday! Yea, My birthday…hehe. I turned 25 yesterday. I spent it in Amsterdam just as I did last year. Though this year I wasn’t with my boyfriend in a quaint little Italian restaurant. Instead, my friends cooked a nice curry dinner for me and baked tons of cupcakes! I seriously ate about 9 cupcakes between yesterday and today and I have a ton more! Woot! Cupcakes are one of my favorite things in the entire world (see header). :) Anywho, great dinner/wine with friends and that was it. My flatmates decorated the flat with balloons and a typical Dutch streamer. I promise I’ll post pics as soon as I get them uploaded.
Nice of them all to go through trouble for me. I had a really crap week. My laptop is dead! Yes, my mac-y poo has died. :( It started with a small crack in the frame of the screen and now the entire thing is disjointed and doesn’t work at all. It powers on to a blank screen. Not sure what I’m going to do about it. In fact, the whole thing stresses/frustrates me so much that mac-y poo is in a box and shoved under my bed. I’ll probably decide on Monday what to do. I can’t afford to upgrade to the mac I want right now and god forbid I have to buy a pc. blech!
That picture is from a couple of days ago. We went to our usual bar Belushi’s. I actually hate that bar. It’s located in the red light district and has awesome drink specials, but it’s part of a hostel. Which is sort of cool because you can meet people from everywhere,but also sucks because it’s usually the typical 20 something year old looking that’s here to smoke lots of pot and screw a whore. Meh… I usually go there to hang out with my friends and the cheap drinks and then head to the awesome places where the drinks are outrageous, but much cooler atmosphere! So, hello weekend! Glad to see you again! My danish roomie moved out yesterday and my Aussie roomie is in Vienna for the weekend so I have the house to myself. I was looking forward to spending it alone in pajamas playing warcraft and being a complete couch potato. But instead I’m having friends over for a sort of night on the town/sleep over. Not sure what we’re going to get into, but I’m sure it will be fun! Had a great week. Work was ok. The oldest child had a temper tantrum, but I think I dealt with it fine. I just didn’t pay her any attention. And after about an hour of crying/screaming she realized nothing would come of it and stopped. I hung out with Chantal, Tim, and Chloe a lot. They’re off from work this week so they’ve been hanging around the city a lot! Nice, but I looooove my space. So, I probably won’t see them at all this weekend. Saw the funniest thing the other day while walking through the Red Light. Scene-A little girl of about 4 and her father. He was on the phone and staring into the distance and she was peakingin a window pointing! Hilarious. I couldn’t control my laughter!
I hope I’m not waking my roomie up with my typing. We share a wall and it’s a very thin wall. Last night I went to a dinner in honor of the danish roomie. She’s going back to Denmark on Friday. I should explain our living situation a little bit more. We three(me, the danish and the aussie chick) are au pairs(nannies) for families that are best friends/neighbors. The families are so close in fact that they removed part of their fences and now have a sort of community backyard. Our apartment is neighboring their houses as well. Very convenient! so yah…anyway. Going away dinner for Danish aupair was last night at her family’s house. it was really nice. All of the families were there together- kids playing, parents yapping, au pairs drinking wine. After that I was supposed to go out with friends, but I was so tired that i passed out at 9 pm. Bad mistake because I’m wired now at 5 am! Going to get an eye exam soon. I should wear glasses all the time, but I don’t. I lost them a year ago in Rotterdam and never replaced them. Bad Pinkie! Thank goodness for nice healthcare! I’ll be getting a free exam which means I can splurge on the glasses!
I got lost yesterday. I ended up biking around an extra 35 minutes in the rain. Story of my life! K. gonna try this sleep thing again…
So, I moved into a new place. It’s still in Oud Zuid Amsterdam about 8 minute bike ride from my old place. I absolutely love my neighborhood. Only problem is everything around here looks exactly the same. Every house is built the same with the same red bakfiets(dutch bike with a sort of boxcontainer attatched) leaning against the door. Needless to say, I’ve locked my bike at the wrong apartment a couple of times! I share the apartment with 2 girls who are also au pairs. One is from Australia and the other is from Denmark. The Danish girl is leaving next week and we will be getting a new girl shortly after. So far, I love the place, but i have a few complaints. It is so teeny! But that’s the price you pay to live in the city. Another thing is the floor…horrible hardwood floors. Don’t get me wrong I adore hardwood floors! (My dream house is covered in them!) But these are horrible. Every little step makes the loudest noise! Coming in late nights will be tough. Not to worry very much though. My roomies say they can sleep through anything and they are night owls too! I woke up really early this morning. About 7 am. not bad for being out until 3! I played warcraft until I felt it was a normal hour to be awake and then I showered and spent my morning at the albert cuyp market. I shouldn’t have gone!I ended up buying new b oots(it’s going to be spring soon what am I thinking!), black low heels, leggings, and some decorations for the apartment. I’ll take pics when I’m all done!I have a birthday coming up. In 2 weeks! Squee! It’s International Women’s Day! So hope all the ladies out there have a wonderful day!
