The last one- July

Hi all,     

Welcome to my last blog post about my Au Pair life in London. While I’m typing this I’m realising that by the time you will read this, my adventure will be over. In this blog post I will describe my last 28 days.

On Saturday the 1^st I wanted to go to the musical Wicked. I saw on the website that you could buy day tickets for 30 pounds so I was in the que at 9.45. The 3 people in front of me were Dutch so I was listening to their stories. At one point a lady with quite a big breast walked pass us. Her breast was so big that her boobs nearly fell out of her top so the woman in front of me said in Dutch: ‘’Nou die vallen er ook bijna uit.’’ She said something that her boobs would nearly fall out of her top. ‘’ Her daughters started laughing and I started laughing too. 3 seconds later 3 heads turned around with an expression of ohnooo she heard us. The mother said that she just thought that there wouldn’t be Dutch people here but she was wrong haha. Eventually we found out that they live 20 minutes from my house in Holland. The world is sooooo small…

Unfortunately the day tickets were sold out so I bought tickets for the musical: ‘An American in Paris’. It was a nice story but I think that the balance between singing, dancing and acting wasn’t  good. They danced a bit too much in my opinion.

On Sunday the 2^nd I went with Marieke and Amelie to Thorpe park. This is a theme park with many rollercoasters, rides etc. We went in the newest attraction. This one was about a ghost train. We had to sit in a fake tube and then we had to put on virtual reality glasses and headphones. The tube moved and we felt wind and everything. At the same time I saw zombies in front of me and fire. It was really scary because it looked extremely real.

In one attraction we were soaked because there was water everywhere. It felt like we had taken a shower with our clothes on.

On the 8^th it was time for the annual Pride parade (Gay parade) all the streets were decorated with the rainbow colours and many people were wearing the most fancy and over the top clothes.

In the afternoon I went to the musical: ‘Phantom of the Opera’. This was still on my bucket list so I was really happy to go there. Celinde Schoenmaker (Dutch actress) played the leading role so it was perfect and I was so proud and amazed by the beautiful songs followed by goose bumps. After this I had dinner with Amaya at Bill’s restaurant. I ate a delicious Thai chicken curry.

 

The next day I went with Alexandra to Oxford street and we had dinner for the last time at our favourite Italian restaurant Zizzi.

 

On the 15^th I did another pub crawl with Alexandra and a friend of hers: Veronica. We had a great night!

The day after I went with Lara to the famous pedestrian crossing at Abbey road. I wanted to make a picture there because that was the last thing on my bucket list. There were many others who had the same idea. The traffic was busy so a few drivers were annoyed by the people who were standing still on the crossing. After this we went to Notting hill and we met another German Au Pair Lisa. We ate some food and walked through the streets.

I travelled to Finchley at 6 pm. to say goodbye to Marieke, Farina and Amelie. One of Farina’s friends could play piano so they sang some beautiful songs when I arrived there.

I said goodbye to Alexandra on the 22^nd. First we went to Kensington rooftop garden. The weather was awful and it rained all day.

Next we did an ‘afternoon tea’ at a fancy hotel in Covent Garden. Eventually it was time to say goodbye to Alexandra, this was really strange because it just feels that I will see her next weekend or so. After this I took the tube to Piccadilly circus and I walked to Leicester square to say goodbye and at that moment I realised that my adventure was nearly over.

The next day I made a trip with Seema, Graham and the girls. Seema made pancakes in the morning, we played a few games and we went bowling. In the evening we had dinner at an Indian restaurant. The food was delicious and spicy. We ordered way to much food so we took some of it home.

 

 

The last 2 weeks were all about  doing last things, finishing my bucket list and to do list because I had to do many things like: cancelling my UK bank account and gym membership, sending a parcel full of shoes and clothes, buying and making saying goodbye presents etc. I went to a recorder concert and a gymnastics performance of Isla. On the last  volunteering Tuesday it was sports day at the school so in the morning I helped with the reception class and in the afternoon I cheered for Isla’s team.  Further I said goodbye to the reception class teachers.

Some nice things I just wanted to tell you:

• Every time when Isla and I walk to school she talks about cars. Graham works for a car magazine so he tells the girls many things about cars. A sentence that I often hear is: ‘’Look there’s an Audi SQ7!’’ It is always so funny although I’m not really interested in cars I know a bit more about them now.
• One evening when Erin came out of bath she looked in the mirror and asked me how something was called. She pointed to her nipples. I said that they were called nipples. Her answer was: ‘’Okay let’s call this one: Miss Duarte and this one Miss Pringle’’ (the names of Isla’s teachers).
• Another evening after the bath routine Erin said something that came out of nowhere. She said to Graham and me: ‘’I did a fart here and here (she pointed next to her bed). Ennelain you should write that in your blog.’’ Well it definitely is in my blog.

My last week:                                                                                                                                           I did many nice things with Isla from Monday the 24^th until Thursday the 27^th because of her summer holiday. On Tuesday we went to the Natural History Museum and St. Paul’s cathedral.

 

On Wednesday morning we went to the cinema and watched the movie: ‘The Smurfs and the lost village’. It was a nice movie. At the end of the movie a Smurf sang a song about saying goodbye. On that moment I saw some tears in Isla’s eyes and I started to get emotional too. This whole week I didn’t really realise  that I would go home on Friday but at this moment I did. I never thought that I would cry as a 20 year old while watching a Smurfs movie. Next we went swimming. When Isla and I were in the water for 3 seconds one of the lifeguards started to whistle. I had no idea what was happening so suddenly he pointed to us and I swam to him. This was our conversation:

Lifeguard: ‘’How old are you?’’                                                                                                      Me: ‘’20 why?’’                                                                                                                        Lifeguard: ‘’I thought you were 15’’.                                                                                                My thoughts at this moment: EXCUSE ME!! I know I don’t look like 20 but 15, come on….

(Apparently children younger than 8 years had to join someone over 16 years old and he thought that I wasn’t 16).

Friday the 28^th: This was a day that I knew would come but when this day was here it felt strange. I said goodbye to Seema and the girls at St Pancras. It was an emotional moment. My parents and sister picked me up from a station in Brussels. When I arrived at my house it was decorated and my granny’s and grandad were there too. We ate some fries and a typical Dutch snack called a: ‘Frikandel speciaal’.

Some conclusions:

They always say that English people are very kind and yes that’s absolutely true. They are so polite, friendly and helpful. London is a beautiful city with an amazing atmosphere. It feels so alive and there is always something to do. I wish I could bring some of the liveliness from London to my hometown.

I will miss the good transport especially the tubes but on the other hand I’m looking forward to ride my bike again. The good thing about living in a small town is that you can just ride your bike instead of being afraid of getting hit by many cars, taxi’s and red buses. 

My favourite place to be was: Piccadilly Circus, Soho and Leicester square.                  Favourite restaurant: Zizzi.                                                                                                    Favourite sandwich shop: Prett A Manger

Some facts:

• I had a look at my bank account and I’ve have spent over more than  £3000 on clothes, restaurants, day trips, musicals, travel expanses etc.  This is even more in euros of course so  I was a bit chocked when I saw this number on my calculator.
• I made around 1550 pictures in the past 11 months.
• I gained 2 kilograms of weight because of all the eating.

 

My life after this adventure:
I would like to have a job in childcare. I applied for jobs over the last few weeks but the conclusion is that they don’t want to skype but they want to see me in person so I have a few openings and I will start this process again after summer break.

Now I don’t want to write about me but I want to thank a few bunch of people.              I want to thank Isla & Erin:  I have never met 2 girls who are so enthusiastic , funny and chatty who will always have a special place in my heart.

Many thanks to Seema & Graham for all their warmth, support and kindness. I was very lucky to have such a sweet host family.

Thanks to all my family and friends in Holland. I enjoyed all your sweet messages, cards and support. A year abroad made me even more grateful to have you in my life.

Cheers to all my Au Pair friends: Alexandra, Amaya, Amelie, Dania, Farina, Julia, Kathi, Kim, Lara, Marieke, Marielle & Myrthe. I’m so glad that I’ve met every single one of you. You all made my adventure special.

And last but not least I want to say thank you to you: the readers of my blog, it was lovely to share all my stories with you.

I had a fantastic year that I will never forget and I think that this year will always be the best year in my life.

 

Lots of love from Holland,

Annelein

June

Hi all,     

Welcome to a new blog post about the month June.

On Saturday the 10^th I had one of my best experiences here in London. I went to the Capital Summertime ball. This concert was organised by a famous radio station in London.  A few days before this I was listening to the radio and I heard people talking about the concert. I definitely wanted to go there because it was still on bucket list to go to a concert in a big venue in the centre of London. So I found a website that sold tickets from people who didn’t want to go there anymore. After hours of research the tickets were way too expensive for the seats we would get so we skipped the idea.

But on Saturday morning I was still thinking about the concert. Eventually after refreshing the website I suddenly found tickets for 61 pounds so at 2 o’clock  Marielle, I and 80.000 other people were dancing, singing and screaming along. It was a 7 hour during concert and the line-up was incredible.

 

It was such a magical moment to be in Wembley stadium with all these people. At this moment I felt so a happy and grateful that I am able to experience all these amazing things.

 

On the 11^th I made a walk with Amaya. We walked from Highgate to Hampden. This is an area with many lakes, trees and everything looks green. When we arrived in Hampden we had a drink and we bought some chocolates in a shop called: Venchi. We could choose between so many chocolates. Thereafter we decided to meet another Dutch Au Pair named Joeske. So we took the tube but we were so busy with our chocolates that we didn’t have a look if we were in the right tube so after a few minutes, Amaya woke up from chocolate wonderland and concluded that we were in the wrong tube. After 30 minutes we met Joeske and went to ‘The Hems’ (a Dutch pub) and drank my favourite drink: Kopparberg cider. Next we went to an Italian restaurant. It was a lovely and varied day.

I did a pub crawl (Dutch= kroegentocht)  on Friday the 16^th. We started at a pub where I don’t know the name of and after this we went to the ZOO bar. The DJ played remixes of the charts so that’s always good. After this we went with approximately 30 people to the nightclub: ‘Ministry of sound’. It was around 11.30pm when we arrived there. 3 of the 4 of us didn’t like the music at all because it was just with a beat. There were several rooms but they all played the same kind of boring music so we decided to go back to the Zoo bar. Unfortunately our Pub crawl wrist bands weren’t valid anymore so our night ended with eating a wrap at the Mac Donalds haha. I had a great night!

The next day I went to the Queen’s Birthday parade/Trooping the colours with Lara. The Queen celebrated her 91th birthday with a parade.

Google said the following about it: It is a chance for the Queen to inspect soldiers from her personal troops, the Household Division. The colourful display of pageantry features 1400 officers and men on parade, 200 horses and 400 musicians from 10 bands. The Queen always attends and takes the salute. After a while the queen appears on the balcony with members of the Royal Family a to watch a fly-past by the Royal Air Force.

 

After this we planned to buy some last-minute tickets for the musical: ‘Phantom of the opera’ but when we wanted to buy the tickets I saw that the Dutch actress: ‘Celinde Schoenmaker’ that night wouldn’t play so we decided to come back another time. Eventually we went to Regents park and met some other Au Pairs.

On Sunday I went with Marielle and Alexandra to Hyde park and we had a swim in the lake.

Who wants a crisp?

On Tuesday the 20^th it was time for volunteering. 1 reception class had a school trip to ‘Coldfall wood’. I joined the school trip and I helped where I could. The children did some activities to explore the nature. The boys had to do a wee at the ‘’wee tree’’ hahah. It was nice to see the children play in another environment instead of the class room.

On the 24^th it was time for West End life. This was a big event on Trafalgar square. All the West end musicals performed a few songs on that day. I was really looking forward to see Celinde Schoenmaker from the Phantom of the Opera and Willemijn Verkaik from Wicked the musical. They are both Dutch so Marieke and I were very proud Dutchies that day. Afterwards Marieke, Farina, Amelie and I went to the Pizza hut.

The next day was Marielle’s last day in London so the 3 of us decided to do some nice things. First we went to Primrose hill/Regents park and we rented some bikes. This took a lot of effort because we walked 2 times pass the bikes rental and when we eventually found a bike rental there were only 2 left so after a while we found another bike and we made a little bike trip in and around Regents park. At one point we decided to cycle on the streets so in the beginning the whole ‘cycle on the right side’ became accidently ‘let’s cycle on the left side’. Good for us that there was no other traffic on that point.

Then we wanted to eat a big ice-cream but strange enough we couldn’t find a proper ice cream shop so we wanted to take the bus to Covent Garden.

This was not what we meant…

We had a bit of bad luck that day because the bus never came and when we decided to take the tube there were delays so around 5 o’clock we were at Covent Garden and I thought let’s eat dinner first so we went to a Greek restaurant. After that M&A had a big ice-cream and I had a little one. It was so strange to say goodbye to Marielle but it’s good to have social media these days so we can stay in touch.

Some other things I wanted to tell:

• Together with Isla I baked a typical Dutch Appel pie: ‘Appeltaart’.
• One evening the girls asked me to made up a story, so I started telling a story about 2 sisters named: Hanna and Elsa. They went to their grandma’s house for a sleep over but when they were asleep their bed started to fly up in the sky and that was the start of a big adventure… The girls were so into the story, I’ve never seen them so quite since I came her.
• One morning Isla and I walked at school. It was raining, I wasn’t wearing any make-up and I felt really ugly. When we approached the school Isla said: ‘’It looks like we’re walking on a red carpet.’’ I thought whattt? I said: uhuhh because I feel so stunning haha. We had a laugh about it.
• I always iron the girls clothes on Fridays. One Friday Erin was playing in the same room where is was ironing. The radio played the song: ‘Can’t hold us’ by Ryan Lewis and Macklemore. Erin started laughing because the singers were rapping. She asked me: ‘’Why are they singing so fast?’’. A second later she said: ‘’Oh maybe they had to go to the toilet while they were recording it.’’ A 4 year olds logic.
• Erin regularly askes me: ‘’Ennelain why do you want to be so fancy?’’ I always answer: ‘’Well I don’t want to be fancy, I am fancy 😉 so last week we made up a dance on the song: ‘I’m so fancy.’
• When I was volunteering at the reception class I heard something very funny. A few boys were playing outside. They had built something that looked like a house or a car so I asked them if I could go inside their house. Suddenly one boy said: ‘’No it’s not a house it’s a Lamborghini.’’ I was surprised by that answer and when I said something like: ‘’Shall we go on holiday with the Lamborghini.’’ The same boy said: ‘’No we are going to rob a bank’’. I didn’t see that coming from a 5 year old boy.

Mail for her old primary school…

June flew by and I can’t believe that my last month will start tomorrow.

Thanks for reading and I will see you one more time at the end of July.

Lots of love from London,

Annelein

 

May

Hi everybody,  

Welcome to my new blog post. First I want to say thank you for reading all my stories, experiences and awkward situations over and over again!

Let’s start…

On Friday the 5^th of May Seema had to go to her work. The girls were crying and didn’t want their mommy go to work. When we walked to school they were still quiet and sad. Isla had to take a toy to school that they could sell for charity. So I had 2 sad children walking next to me and a ‘hobby horse’ underneath my armpit. This whole situation looked so random because of this horse. After a few minutes I thought let’s cheer them up and sing a song. I started to sing on the melody of ‘If you’re happy and you know it’.

‘’If you’re happy and you know walk to school with a horse, hiiiia.’’  (to make things clear) I made a horse noise. Suddenly is saw to smiley faces.

The whole way we sang different versions of this song:

‘’If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands… clap, clap…’’

‘’If you’re happy and you know it cross the street… look, look…’’

Is saw that people were watching us and most of them were grumpy parents with a just out of bed look. This situation already made my day.

On the 7^th it was time to go to Oxford. I went with Marielle and Morgane (French Au Pair). But I was very disappointed because I didn’t like the city at all. I’m used to the liveliness of London so this city was really boring. And of course the old universities looked beautiful but it’s old and old is old so I wasn’t impressed.

 

On the second week of May I was homesick. I hear you thinking Annelein and homesick? I know that’s what I thought too. This week I was just very unhappy and I had the feeling that nothing could change this. Normally when I am a bit tired or grumpy a day I can fake a smile but this time I couldn’t anymore. In the beginning I thought why am I feeling this because I can’t be homesick after almost 9 months can I? But I think you can. Before I came to London Carlijn (a family member who had travelled a lot) said to me: ‘’It’s not the question if you get homesick but when.’’ And I think that she was totally right. That week I skyped with my parents often and after a week it was over fortunately.

Then something else. Here is an update about the Zumba classes I join.

The name of the teacher is not ‘Alejandro’ but ‘Pedro’.  We always have to scream while were dancing and that’s so annoying because for example when we’re jumping we have to scream ‘’whoeeeee’’. When I’m jumping I’m out of breath and I can’t scream: ‘’Whoeeee, yeeeeej, eeh eeh eeeh.’’ He said that this is good for your lungs. It sounds that it could be true but most of the time I do it on the Ennelain way: I playback. 😉 Every time when I walk home I walk pass a Mac Donalds, KFC, Bakery, Sandwich shop, Supermarket and a few Restaurants this practised my self-discipline.

On the 13^th we went to a restaurant because it was Seema’s birthday. Graham bought a cake so at one point the waiter brought the cake and the whole restaurant started to sing happy birthday.

The next day I booked a boat trip with Alexandra. My English Au Pair agency organised a boat trip over the Thames. I took the train to Waterloo station because in this area would the boat depart. When I walked pass a building I saw that people were laying down a red carpet and the main entrance was fenced. On the fence it said: British Academy Television Awards. I thought OMG I want to know more about it so I asked one of the security men. Eventually I had 2 wrist bands in my hand to watch the red carpet. I love everything what involves red carpets, shows, celebrities etc. I was so happy and eventually I had to hurry because the boat would leave in 10 minutes.

I have to admit that I wasn’t thinking about the boat trip anymore but by mind was in celebrity land.

Alexandra and I had a short pick nick because I had to leave to be in time for the red carpet. Alexandra decided to stay at the park with some other Au Pairs.

 

Around 5pm.  I saw a few famous faces but I didn’t know them by name. So I had a look at Google: Joanna Lumley, Benedict Cumberbatch, Cuba Gooding jr, Jim sturgess and Joan Collins.

 

At the end it started raining so badly. I didn’t have a raincoat so I had to use my umbrella but this wasn’t ideal because at one point my umbrella went like this (I don’t know how to describe it). Because of this I was holding a sort of water bag in the air. After a while it was really heavy followed by a grumpy man behind me because the ‘bag’ with water fell on top of him.

On the 16^th it was my first day as a volunteer at ‘Brunswick Park Primary school’. From now on I volunteer every Tuesday at the reception class (Dutch= groep 1). This is a class for children of 4 and 5 years old. It was really interesting to see. The class rooms were decorated with pictures, words, arts and craft projects etc. This is quite normal for a class room but I’ve never seen a class room that’s it’s covered with so many things. They used every single space. I couldn’t work every day in this busy environment.

The children have so much freedom that I’m not used to give children. For example in the building are 2 class rooms. Both classes consists of approximately 26 children. When the children have free play time they can play in 2 class rooms. And both class rooms are connected with a porch and a garden where the children can play as well. So it feels like the children and toys are everywhere. I mean it’s amazing for the children and I don’t think it’s a negative thing but it was so new to me.

Because of the move my week schedule is a bit different so here is a new schedule:

Monday	–          Brownies (scouts) Isla
Tuesday	–          Volunteering
Wednesday	–          Zumba (me) –          Gymnastics Isla
Thursday	–          Zumba (me)
Friday	–          Seema at home

 

On the 20^th I had lunch with Denise (friend from Holland) and Bo. After that we went to a few shops in Oxford Street. It was nice to see her again and it feels really strange that I will be in Holland in 2,5 months again.

One evening I went with Alexandra and Kiara to a Greek restaurant near the Thames. We had a beautiful view what ended in a photoshoot.

The next day I went with Lara to Columbia road Flower market. This was a busy street full of stalls where you could buy flowers. When we walked pass a hotel a famous looking man stepped out of a car. He was wearing sunglasses and a cap. He looked like the actor: Robert Pattinson (Twilight movie) so we tried to make eye contact to ask if we could make a picture but he looked one second at us and walked immediately with his luggage through the main entrance. We thought that this was suspicious and were 90% percent convinced that it was him but after some Googling I saw that man couldn’t be him because he was at the Cannes Film festival.  After this we went to a small festival in North Greenwich. We sat in the sun and enjoyed the nice weather (finally).

 

 

Alexandra and I went to Brighton at the end of this month. We had 3 lovely days!

 

 

Welcome to my crib…

 

Quotes of the month:

• ‘’It’s not fair that you can see my boobies and I can’t see yours’’. – Erin
• One evening Erin came out of bath and I gave her, her nickers to put on. I pretended that I was very silly so I said: ‘’Erin where did you put your knickers? You can’t walk around the house naked.’’ Of course she was wearing one but I helped her to put on another one. At the end she was wearing 3 knickers and 1 on top of her head. She looked at me with big eyes and she wasn’t 100% sure if I was acting silly. When I ended the joke I asked her: ‘’’Which one do you want to wear?’’ She said: ‘’The pink one because I already farted in the this one’’.
• Another evening Graham had to go to a ball of his favourite football club: Arsenal. He had to wear a suit and a bow tie. I was standing on a stool because I had to help him to attach it and he is very tall. The girls were impressed by his look. Isla said: ‘’Daddy your bottom looks like the one of Özil (Football player of Arsenal).
• Isla wanted to give a presentation about Holland at her school. I thought that this was such a sweet idea!

 

Thanks for reading! See you next month xxx.

Lots of love,

Annelein

April

Hi welcome to my new blogpost,     

I have to tell you all a lot…..

The children had a half term holiday so they were at home for 2 weeks.

On the 2th the Au Pair: Paulina from last year was here. We played outside with the girls and in the evening Seema made a traditional English dish: ‘’Toad in the hole’’.

Graham planned a photoshoot 2 days after this. He writes reviews about cars for the website www.autoexpress.co.uk

This time a new type of car came out and he had to write an article about the children’s opinion. So there was a photographer, editor, and they brought their children. The photographer made some pictures of Isla and Erin and 3 other children while they were sitting in the car. It was really interesting to see. It was hard for the photographer because all the children had to look into the camera.

On the 5^th I was at home with the girls. We went to the new library, to the park and we went to the hairdresser. Seema wrote down how many inches the hairdresser had to cut off. This was my first experience with hairdressers and children but they behaved very well and they were happy with their new coupe.

The day after I joined a Zumba class at ‘’Pure gym’’ for the first time. When I came there I saw that there was a male Zumba teacher. At the beginning I didn’t really know what to think about this but he was energetic and friendly. It was a bit strange to see a man shaking his body. I still don’t know his name but I think the name ‘Alejandro’ would fit him. He was wearing a tank top so when he shook his body his nipples came out of his tank top. I can imagine that there are people who think that this is attractive but I’m not a part of this category.

I think that this was the most exhausting Zumba class I have ever joined. At one point we had to dance on a song and the singer sang the whole song: squat, squat, squat, squat… so we had to do squats, my legs were burning and my face looked like a tomato.

On the 8^th I went to Primrose Hill with Lara (German Au Pair). We had a beautiful view of the city and the sun was shining so we had a lovely day!

The next day I went with Marieke, Amelie and Farina to the centre. This day was beautiful either so we did some sunbathing.

I went with Alexandra to St. James park on the 10^th. I wanted to make a video about myself to send with my job applications. We were standing on a bridge with the London Eye on the background. I felt a bit like a BBC news reporter, it was very busy at the park so people were curiously and had a look what we were doing. We tried different locations and after 1,5 hour the job was finally done.

It was Isla’s first day at her new school on the 18^th. This was a big deal of course but she did great! Over the last 3 weeks she made some new friends. In the evening we had dinner at a restaurant because of Isla’s first day of school.

On the 22^nd my parents and sister arrived in London. They came by car and rented a flat for 11 days at a 5 minute drive from my house so it was perfect. In the evening my mother made her delicious pasta saus and later my sister and I did some typical things that you only can do with your sister: screaming a long with songs while you’re holding a deodorant bottle in your hand, crazy dancing and a lot of chatting of course.

The day after it was time for the Marathon of London. It was a big event with 40.000 participants. It was a beautiful day and it was nice to see.

 

 

On Tuesday the 25^th I had to work during the day but when Isla was at school my parents, sister and I made a short car trip to the countryside. We went to Hertford and we had some lunch in a pub called: The Old Barge.

On Wednesday I spent the day with my sister at my house. She made some homework, I did some laundry and we picked up Isla from school. I automatically wanted to take my sister’s hand when we crossed the street. 10 minutes later we asked Isla how her day at school was and she told us that she learned were different types of vegetables come from. I asked her if she knew where bananas come from and she said I think it was somewhere near India and it’s starts with a ‘V’. When I answered: ‘’Do you mean Venezuela?’’ four eyes looked at me in a way of: are you seriously. My geographical knowledge isn’t that great so Isla and my sister started laughing and Isla said: Ennelain, Venezuela is in South America even I know that…..

Friday was a day full of shopping with my sister and food: Jamie’s Italian.

Saturday I went with my family for lunch at the house of my host family. Seema made a delicious chicken pie. After dinner we played football. It was Holland against Arsenal (English football club). It was so funny to see my real dad and host dad playing football with each other. It’s really nice when these 2 different worlds come together but at the same time it’s a bit strange.

In the evening I celebrated the 50^th birthday of our Dutch King in a Dutch pub. In the beginning we ate some typical Dutch food and after this we danced and screamed a long with Dutch songs. At one point the DJ played  a famous childish dance called: ‘De kabouter Plop dans’. All the Dutch people started dancing and all the English people who were at the pub were looking like: what is happening?….

 

Sunday we went to the Imperial War museum and in the evening we went to Zizzi Italian restaurant and we had a beautiful view of St. Pauls Cathedral and the Thames.

The 1^st of May doesn’t really belong here but I would love to tell you about this. It was my sisters 17^th birthday on this day. We went for a traditional afternoon tea at the Ham Yard hotel and after this we did some shopping (again I know ;)). In the evening we said goodbye. This was a bit hard but after a few minutes it was fine.

 

Some funny or nice things that has happened:

• One day I was at home with the girls and we did some dancing and singing so at the end the girls were so crazy so I thought let’s calm down and do some yoga. I’ve never joined a Yoga class but I just made up some moves. On the background the music installation played some relaxing yoga music. At one point I just made up some funny exercises with a serious expression on my face. The girls just followed me like it was very normal but it wasn’t of course. After a few minutes I started laughing and I had to tell them that I played a joke on them.
• I went with Alexandra to the movie Beauty and the beast and we went to a dance show called: ‘’Smother’’. It was a love story between 2 boys. One of them was good looking so it was nice to watch 😉

• Seema ordered the Google home. This is an audio installation made by Google. It’s really cool because you can ask several questions and the Google home will answer. For example: ‘’Okay Google can you please play Shape of you by Ed Sheeran? Okay Google what’s the weather like today?’’ One night we were having dinner with the 5 of us and Erin was a bit naughty so Graham said: ‘’Okay Google can I please put Erin in the bin?’’. Google home answered: ‘’I’m sorry but I’m afraid I can’t help you with that’’……
• One evening I was in a restaurant and I wanted to ask: ‘’Sir can we pay please’’. But my mouth accidentally said this: ‘’Sir can we play please’’. The waiter came closer because he didn’t understand this weird question #awkward.
• When I was in the centre with my parents, we sometimes crossed the street when we had a red light. My mother always had her doubts about this so at the point when my father, sister and I were across the street, my mother decided to cross the street but every time when she decided to do this a taxi or red bus came followed by a hysterical run of my mother.

This month was amazing!

Thank you for reading and see you next time.

Lots of love,

Annelein (Ennelain)

The weather in London…

 

March

Hi all,     

Welcome to my new blog post!

I have to tell you a lot so make sure you aren’t in a hurry. Let’s start….

One evening I was a bit in a hurry because I was supposed to meet Dania (new Dutch Au Pair) and Alexandra at Crystal Palace. I wanted to drink some water so I grabbed 2 glasses that were stacking into one another. I tried to get them out of each other.  Suddenly one of the glasses broke in thousands of pieces so there was glass everywhere. I didn’t know that I had superpowers to break a glass…

After the whole glass incident, I went to an Italian restaurant with the 2 girls and we had a great evening.

The next day I went to a meeting of my Dutch Au Pair agency ‘’Travel Active’’. It was nice to share my experiences and stories with other girls.

On Monday the 6^th of March it was confirmed that we would move house on the 10^th. So I packed most of my stuff but it didn’t fit in my 2 suitcases of course.

On the 9^th 2 employees of a move company packed the whole house. All the pans, little jars, books, cd’s furniture etc. At the end of the day they packed 200 boxes full of things, it was unbelievable!

The next day there were 8 men in our house to put the boxes and furniture in 2 big vans. It looked a bit like an army of movers.

 

Lean and dabb…..

Lean and dabbbbbbbbbbb….

Around 2 o’clock we said goodbye to our old house and we went to the  North of London by car.

Time to say goodbye…

When we arrived the moving company brought all the boxes into the house.

The house is beautiful, it’s really modern and I don’t know why but the street and the house look a bit like a movie set.

I love my room. I sleep on the top floor because a part of the bed of my host parents didn’t fit through the staircase, so that’s why I got this room. I’m very lucky. In the beginning we had a laugh about this room because it smelled cheesy but after a while the smell disappeared fortunately.

In the evening we went with the 5 of us to an Italian restaurant. We were so tired after dinner. We sat in the car and in a moment of silence Erin very randomly said: ‘’I suppose we don’t have a bath tonight’’. This was very funny.

It was special to experience the whole moving thing. It was a big step for my host parents and girls.  I feel that this made my relationship with my host family even stronger than it was before.

There were a few funny situations because of the chaos:

• In the evening we couldn’t find the bed sheets of my host parents because they were somewhere in 1 of the 200 boxes, so they slept underneath Frozen and Disney princesses sleeping bags.
• We kept 1 blue suitcase separately with pyjama’s and things that they needed for their first night but apparently they had 2 blue suitcases, so when we opened the one that was in the girls room we found out that it was empty so Graham had to go to the shed in the garden to get the right one.
• On the second day I wanted to make breakfast but it took so much longer than normally because I had to open all the drawers and cupboards to find the things I needed.
• When I was tidying up the closets of the girls I found a machine and I thought it was for breast feeding so I asked Seema if she wanted to keep it but she told me that it hadn’t to do anything with breasts but it was a steam machine for when you have a cold or a sore throat. We had a laugh and Seema didn’t understand why it looked like a breast feeding machine.

We slept in a flat in the neighbourhood of our old house for 3 weeks. The girls had to go to school at their old school until Easter and it would be impossible to travel from the new house because it would take us 80 minutes approximately.

In those weeks I had a few times breakfast or lunch with Dania and Alexandra and I said goodbye to my lovely Zumba lessons.

On the 18^th I went with Alexandra, Marielle and Kim to Shoreditch. This is a bit of a hippy area with graffiti, vintage stores and coffee shops. I bought an old map of London at a market. There were stands with delicious muffins, cupcakes etc. While we were eating a muffin Kim said: ‘’Now I know why I don’t look like a Victoria Secret model.’’ When I was on my way home I was a bit lost because I took the wrong bus stop but the app ‘’City mapper’’ was my hero and brought me safely home.

The next morning was pretty chaotic because Seema had lost her Oyster card so the plan was that Graham and the girls would take the tube to activate the new card. Seema would drive to the next station on the Piccadilly line to pick them up. But after 30 minutes Graham called me because he was wondering where Seema was and she left her phone in the kitchen so nobody knew where she was and we couldn’t contact her. We were worried because we thought that she had a car accident or something. Suddenly Seema came home with the car and we found out she was waiting at the wrong station all the time. Seema and I drove to the station and when we came there Graham was surprised to see us because he and the girls had still no clue what went wrong. At the end we were safe in the car with the 5 of us on our way to our house.

In the afternoon I was a bit late for my meeting with other Au Pairs because of the whole misunderstanding. I went to Notting Hill (of the movie Notting Hill). I walked with Lara and Lisa through the town. It was a nice afternoon but very windy and cold.

On the 22th was the horrible terror attack at Westminster. It was strange to think that I often walked on the bridge and that it was a horrible scene on this day.

Isla and her class had a play about an airport this week so they were all dressed up as Steward and Stewardesses so cute to see. And she had a performance of her choir. Isla did very well and the children had beautiful voices.

On the 25^th I went to my favourite shopping street in London. In the evening I went to a Dutch pub called: ‘De Hems’. We ate some typical Dutch food. I had a nice evening with Marieke, Amelie and Farina.

‘Frikandellen speciaal’

 

Some random things I just wanted to tell you:

• One night I took an uber (taxi) and I had a driver that looked like the singer: Sean Kingston so let’s call him Sean. I always have a chat with Uber drivers because otherwise it’s so awkward. But this time the driver thought I was interested because when we arrived at my home…

Sean: ‘’Would you like to go out in the centre?’’.

I wasn’t sure what he meant with that so I acted like I didn’t understand his question.

Me: ‘’What do you mean?’’.

Sean: ‘’With me.’’

I thought oh gosh what now? So my non-existing ‘’boyfriend’’ popped into my head.

Me: ‘’I’m sorry but I have a boyfriend.’’

Sean: ‘’Oh you will miss him a lot then’’.

Me: Uhuhhh

• Another Uber story:  One day Isla and I had to pick up Erin from nursery because Seema’s train was delayed. We booked an uber and picked up Erin. On our way back the driver took the wrong way. Isla and I weren’t paying attention to the way because we were talking but after a while Erin said: ‘’You are going the wrong way. This isn’t our street but that’s our street. The taxi driver was surprised that a 4 year old girl could show him the way.

• One day Erin wanted to write down some words but she didn’t know how to write them so she asked me: ‘’How do I write Custard (pudding)?’’. In Holland we say for the A= ahh but in English the alphabet is different of course so when you say it in phonics then it’s different too so Isla said: ‘’No Ennelain it’s A= ehh.’’ I was so confused so Isla had to help me to help Erin.

• At one evening the girls didn’t want to go to sleep and they were laughing all the time. In the meantime Seema and I were hanging up some clothes on the laundry rack. After 30 minutes Seema said: ‘’If I hear one of you again you have to sleep in the bathroom!’’ Suddenly it was so quiet and we had to make an effort not to laugh. We didn’t hear them anymore the whole evening.

• Further I enjoyed the little moments of the girls. For example: at one evening I read Isla a book and after a few minutes she laid her head on my shoulder. This was so sweet because she never did this before. That night I checked if they were asleep and while they were asleep they looked so sweet and peaceful with their minds in dreamland.

While I’m typing the last few sentences of this blog I’m sitting outside in the sunshine.

Today (30^th) is my last day in the South. Earlier I had lunch with Dania and now I’m typing and waiting to pick up Erin at the nursery. It feels so strange and I think I will miss this area because this was my home for 6 months. Erin and I will go to the new house in the afternoon and Seema and Isla will come home tomorrow after Isla’s last day of school.

Bye ‘Anerley’

On the 31^st I had to take care of Erin. We had a nice day and we did many things. We baked banana bread, we played nursery, we painted our nails etc.

 

This month flew by because of the move. I’m looking forward to April because it feels like I finally can start a new life in Southgate. My life in Holland is on pause so it felt like my life was on a double pause because we stayed in a flat in the South of London. So I couldn’t discover my new living area. My parents and sister will come to London in April so I’m really excited!

Next week I will look for a new gym to do Zumba, a language school and a pre-school or Nursery where I can volunteer and of course I have to make a start with applying for jobs in Holland. As you can read I have a long to do list.

Thanks for reading and see you in April.

Lots of love,

Annelein

 

February

Hi all,   

My blogposts will be a bit different from now on, but I think you already noticed the change.

After 6 months of writing in Dutch I thought let’s write in English. The reason of this is because:

• I made non Dutch speaking friends and they would like to read my blogposts too.
• I want to improve my English because my goal is to speak and write in English perfectly after these 10 months.

Today it’s the 4^th of March that means that exactly 6 months ago I said ‘’goodbye’’ to my life in Holland and I said ‘’Hello’’ to an Au Pair life in London. If someone would have asked me 3 years ago if I wanted to live for 10 months somewhere else in a strange city, with a strange family I would definitely have said no. I always thought that I wouldn’t be able to live away from home. So I’m proud of myself that I’m still here and living this great Au Pair life!

In this new blogpost you will read about chickens in a henhouse, my 20^th birthday celebrations, beautiful lanterns etc. Make a cup of tea and have a seat because it will take some time to read.

For my new readers just a short summary about my life in London:

I live in the South-East of London in a town called Anerley. I take care of 2 girls named: Isla (7 years old) and Erin (4 years old) and I’m having a great time with them. The parents are called: Seema and Graham.

On the 2^nd of February there was a builder in the house to paint the walls. He was constantly chatting while I was doing laundry and stuff like that. At one point he asked me how old I was and I said that I was nearly 20 years old. His answer was: ‘’Oh I thought you were younger because you have a baby face.’’  In Dutch I would say: En bedankt… I know that I always look younger than I am but a ‘baby face’ say whattttt? The point was I was wearing make-up to. It wasn’t a compliment at all hahah.

A day later I played ‘schools’ with Erin. We pretended that she was the teacher and I was the child. A few hours later I went to the hairdresser because I wanted to cut my hair a bit shorter. I was very happy with the end result.

I went with Alexandra (German Au Pair) to the National Gallery. This is a museum with many paintings. We took a free guided tour. Our guide talked 1 hour about 5 paintings so we were looking for 12 minutes at 1 painting. So, so boring. Next we walked for a bit because the weather was beautiful.

Then we went to Westminster Abbey. Alexandra told me that when there’s a service you can go inside for free. We went inside a few minutes before the service began otherwise we had to pay 20 pounds. The service took 1 hour and I saw many similarities between a service in England and Holland.

The day after I met Marielle (German Au Pair) for the first time. We met each other at Kensington station and we had lunch. After that we went to the Victoria and Albert museum. This museum consists of paintings, old cutlery, vases etc. Again I came to the conclusion that I’m definitely not a museum person.

I celebrated my 20^th birthday on the 7^th of February. It was special to celebrate my birthday in London. In the morning I came downstairs and I got some cuddles of the girls.

Around 9 O’ clock I took the bus and train to the centre because my dad travelled to London that day to visit me. We spend our day together. Firstly we walked around Piccadilly Circus and at 1 O’clock we had a traditional afternoon tea in a fancy hotel. This was my birthday present from my host family. It was delicious with scones and jam, sandwiches, cupcakes and tea of course.

 

After our bellies were filled up we went to the London Eye. We had a beautiful view over the city. At 5 pm. I said goodbye to my dad and I went home. It was special to celebrate my birthday with him.

Isla wrote this little piece:

‘’In the evening we all went to Ask Italian in Beckenham. Ask Italian is a very good restaurant! The birthday girl had a pizza calzone with goats cheeseJ. For pudding we all had chocolate pizzaJ! It was made of normal pizza dough, Nutella, marshmallows and strawberries. IT WAS DELICOUS!’’ 🙂 🙂 🙂

Presents from my parents and sister

It was a great day that I will never forget!

The next day I volunteered to help with a school trip to the Science museum in the centre of London. I had one group of 4 children to look after. I had Isla in my group and 3 other girls.

We went with 2 classes so there were 61 children in total. And with these children plus the mothers and carers we travelled with public transport. I hear you thinking OMG public transport and 61 children helpppp! That’s what I thought too when I first heard it. Isla’s  teacher was really strict and has such a loud voice but she is friendly too so she has a good balance. I think that teachers are different in teaching than teachers in Holland because they focus a lot at being polite. For example the children say things like: ‘’Yes Miss Bodington’’, ‘’Thank you Miss Bodington’’. Whilst children in Holland just say: ‘’Okay’’ or ‘’yes/no’’.

We took the tram, train and bus. The bus was a long story because we took one bus and all the children were squashed in one little bus. Because it wasn’t a double decker but a single bus. We were at this bus for 20 minutes and people who were waiting at different bus stops couldn’t get in anymore.  After 2 hours we arrived at the museum. Then it was lunch time and after 2 hours it was time to go home again. I wasn’t really looking forward to travel back to the school. In the evening I was exhausted but it was a nice experience.

On Friday the 10^th of February my friends came to visited me and to explore the city. I waited for them at the arrival hall at St. Pancras. While they were walking through the doors they sung:  (These are 2 sentences of a typical Dutch birthday song but they changed the lyrics).

‘’2 violen en trommel en een fluit,

Leintje die is jarig en onze koffers puilen uit’’.

After that we went to our hostel. Our room was so small so it was very busy with 6 girls in one room. We always call ourselves a ‘’kippenhok’’ this means a henhouse. We are always chatting and with so many girls it gets loud. Because of the bunkbeds and the small room we looked like chickens in a henhouse. You can’t say that it wasn’t cosy, can you? 😉

Around 3 O’ clock I showed them the Big Ben, London Eye etc. In the evening we ate at my favourite Italian restaurant Bella Italia.

 

 

Peekaboo I see you…

Mean Girls 3.0

On Saturday we went to Piccadilly circus, Soho and China town.  I booked a table at a burger restaurant because it would be impossible to find a table for 6 people. Because of the booking we had to hurry to go to the restaurant. In the evening we went to a bar called: ‘’Strawberry Moons’’. We had a few drinks and danced it was a great evening and around 2.30pm. we went to bed in our henhouse.

On Sunday we went to my favourite part of London. Have a little guess?

OXFORDSTREET

My friends bought a few items and they went back home at 6 pm. It was hard to say goodbye but after 5 minutes I dried my tears and went home.

The next day Isla was at home because of half term (holiday). Isla wrote:

On Monday we made some chocolate chip cupcakes which were so good J. I did most of the work, Annelein did the harder parts for meJ. Baking is so much fun (I should be on junior bake of (just joking ,I’m too young)).

On the 15^th of February Isla and I went to the movie Trolls. It was fun because they used famous songs so it was interesting for the parents/carers too. After that we went to the library and she made a 3D model of an airplane for her homework. Then we decorated an old shoe box for the storage of all my memories of my time here in London.

I met a new German Au Pair called Lara and with her and her friends I went to the Modern Tate museum. This week was London Fashion Week and in one section of the museum was a show space for a couple of fashion shows. We didn’t know this so on our way to the museum we saw a lot people wearing fancy and fashionable clothes. So we walked to the crowd and saw the visitors with their beautiful but sometimes weird combination of clothes. After 45 minutes we decided to go to the museum. I thought that this museum was the most interesting museum up to now.

 

 

 

When I was at home that evening I saw in my 5 year journal that exactly 1 year ago I went to an information meeting of my Dutch Au Pair agency. It was so funny to read this and I’m still so happy that I started this adventure.

On the 24^th I went with Alexandra to the Magic Lantern Festival in a town called Chiswick. We walked for 75 minutes in a decorated garden full of impressive handmade lanterns.

On our way back home we compared the differences between German and Dutch language, this was very funny because there are a lot similarities. After a while our brains were confused and we couldn’t speak properly English/Dutch/German anymore.

I went to London Fashion Week Festival on the 26^th.

We saw a real fashion show of a designers couple called: ‘Teatum Jones’. After that Marielle and I made pictures in different photo boots,  I had a manicure, we tried on coats that we couldn’t afford etc. It was an amazing day!

 

Some random pictures:

 

Good job you are nearly at the end of my blog but first I have exciting news because next week I will move with my family from the South-East to the North of London. They sold their house so from next week I will live in a town called: Southgate. I’m really looking forward to the move because I like the challenge and I can explore another part of London.

Thank you for reading my blog!

Lots of love from London,

Annelein

 

January

Hallo allemaal,  

Dit is weer een bomvol blog met vreselijke ontdekkingen op mode gebied, protesterende mensen en ellendig lange busritten.

Zaterdag 8 Januari begon met een stressvolle situatie. Ik was vergeten om mijn Oyster kaart in te checken en daar kwam ik in de trein pas na 5 min achter. Ik dacht oh noooooo en 2 min later kwam er iemand controleren (is pas de 2e x dat iemand kwam controleren) dus ik dacht nee he dat heb ik weer. Toen die vrouw bij mij kwam zei ik dat ik het helemaal vergeten was omdat ik vaak door poortjes loop en dan in moet checken. Alle mensen waren mij aan het aanstaren. Uiteindelijk zag ze het door de vingers en kon ik bij het volgende station als nog inchecken. Dus toen ik snel de trein uitrende om vervolgens snel in te checken en weer terug in de trein te springen riep een man die op het perron stond zoiets van hé dat is niet de bedoeling.
Gelukkig heb ik nog geen Brits accent anders had ze het denk ik niet door de vingers gezien en was ik 80 pond armer phieuwwww.

Samen met Julia en Kim had ik afgesproken in Stratford. Hier ligt het Westfield shoppingscentre, dit is een van de grootste shoppingscentra in Europa. Dit was dus echt belachelijk groot. We hadden afgesproken om naar de film: ‘Collateral beauty’ te gaan. Dit vond ik zelf niet zo’n succes want ik heb alleen maar zitten huilen. Nadat we de film gezien hadden, vroegen we ons alle 3 af wat de titel precies betekende dus toen ik Google translate erbij pakte, betekende het volgens Google: ‘onderpand schoonheid’. Het kwam er meer op neer dat in ieder ding iets moois zit ook als is het bijvoorbeeld de dood. Waar ik het niet echt mee eens ben maar goed. Ik liet ze dus de woorden: ‘onderpand schoonheid’ zien. Ze konden dat natuurlijk helemaal niet lezen omdat ze Duits waren maar dat was ik even vergeten.

Die dag was ook een tegenvaller want Julia vertelde dat ze in Februari voorgoed terug ging naar Duistland. Dit vond ik echt jammer omdat ik het goed met haar kan vinden.

Uiteindelijk namen we snel afscheid en moesten we naar de underground rennen om de laatste treinen te halen omdat ze om 6 uur gingen staken. Al met al was dit een rare en chaotische dag.

14 Januari had ik met een nieuwe Nederlandse au pair afgesproken. ’s Avonds heb ik kaartjes gekocht voor Matilda de musical. Toen ik voor de ingang van het theater een paar foto’s aan het maken was, kwam een man naar mij toe. Hij vroeg of ik vanavond naar de show ging en vertelde dat zijn dochter die avond Matilda speelde. Hij was zo trots en liet mij op een foto zien wie ze was.

Toen ik ’s avonds thuis kwam, kwam het gezin even later ook thuis en kreeg ik een kus op m’n wang van Isla. Dit zijn echt leuke momenten want dit doet ze normaal niet zo snel.

Zondag 15 Januari had ik met Myrthe en Amaya bij North Greenwich afgesproken. Dit is het gebied waar de O2 ligt. Dit is een heel groot stadion waar veel concerten worden gegeven. Vervolgens zijn we vanaf North Greenwich met een kabelbaan over de Thames gegaan.

Hierna wisten we niet zo goed wat we moesten doen dus toen hebben we de trein gepakt naar Stratford. Hier ligt het grote winkelcentrum waar ik de week ervoor ook geweest was. We gingen bij  H&M op zoek naar een bepaalde trui die Amaya heel graag wilde hebben. Ze was al in heel veel verschillende vestigingen geweest maar ze hadden haar maat niet. Vervolgens zag ik boven op een plank een hele stapel met de juiste kleur trui liggen. Dus wij helemaal blij omdat daar een S-je echt wel tussen zou zitten. Dus wij in de winkel op zoek naar een krukje waardoor Amaya de stapel kon pakken. Uiteindelijk bleek die stapel dus hartstikke fake te zijn. Het was een blok met schuim waar een trui over heen zat. En ik maar altijd denken hoe ze die stapeltjes boven in, zo netjes opgevouwen kregen.

Woensdag 18 Januari had ik om 12 uur met Alexandra (een nieuwe Duitse au pair) afgesproken. Ze woont op 20 minuten afstand dus dat is heel fijn. Samen hebben we door het park van Crystal Palace gelopen. Ik wist niet dat het zo groot was.

Vrijdag 20 Januari zat ik met Seema en de kids op de bank om naar de Inauguration van Trump te kijken. Isla vindt dit soort dingen heel interessant.

Zaterdag 21 Januari heb ik samen met Seema, Isla en 2 vriendinnen van Seema geprotesteerd tegen Trump. Samen met 100.000 anderen liep we een in een march naar Trafalgar square. Heel veel vrouwen waren verkleed als poes en riepen: ‘’Grab your own pussy’’. Waardoor Isla vroeg: ‘’What are they screaming?’’ Dit konden we natuurlijk niet uitleggen. Verder hebben we het volgende meegezongen: ‘’Say hey, hey, ho, ho Donald Trump has got to go!’’

De dag erna ben ik met Myrthe naar de musical Matilda geweest. Dit was heel erg leuk alleen snapte ik de meeste grappen niet omdat ze zo snel spraken. Na de musical hebben we bij ‘Spaghetti house’ een hapje gegeten en hebben we een planning gemaakt voor het weekend waarin onze vriendinnen een weekendje naar Londen komen.

In de ochtend van 29 Januari liep ik om 7 uur de deur uit om naar Cambridge te gaan. Ik moest de bus, overground en 2 verschillende tubes  pakken om bij het verzamelpunt te komen. Thank god dat alles soepel verliep want openbaar vervoer werkt helaas niet altijd mee hier in Londen. Bij de ontmoetingsplek troffen we de organisator, een paar anderen en een groep Chinezen aan. Na 3 uur rijden (volgens Google zou het 1,5 uur duren) kwamen we aan in Cambridge. Als eerste kregen we volgens de website een ‘walking tour’. Na 20 min lopen was het tot onze verbazing al voorbij en hadden we de vrijheid om zelf dingen te bezichtigen. Ik dacht dat Cambridge een stad was, met de bekende Cambridge universiteit maar dat klopt niet. Er bestaat namelijk geen Cambridge universiteit maar er zijn er een aantal bij elkaar. Er stonden mooie gebouwen tussen maar ik heb daar eigenlijk weinig van gezien. Ik was voornamelijk meer naar de omgeving aan het kijken want het was heel anders dan Londen. Er waren veel fietsers. Je zag zo goed het verschil tussen toeristen en studenten/bewoners. Ze waren ontzettend netjes gekleed en zagen er rijk uit maar ja dat kan ook eigenlijk niet anders als je voor een studentenkamer op de campus 30.000 pond per jaar moet betalen. Er liepen veel knappe jongens rond met loden jassen. Echt niet normaal hihi…

Om half 3 had onze reisleider tickets geboekt om in een bootje over de rivier te varen. We stonden allemaal als groep bij elkaar totdat de reisleider onderscheid ging maken. Hij zei zo iets van: “Let’s put all the Chinese people with each other in one boat.” Julia en ik keken elkaar aan en dachten hopelijk is het een klas die bij elkaar hoort want anders zou het een beetje racistisch zijn. De Chinezen gingen bij elkaar staan en op een begeven moment zei een geërgerde Chinees: “We’re not from China but Taiwan”. Julia de gids en ik stonden bij elkaar en keken elkaar aan en moesten moeite doen om niet te lachen, dit lukte niet echt en de gids legde uit dat hij echt een erge fout had gemaakt. China en Taiwan hebben schijnbaar een groot conflict met elkaar dus ze zijn enemies van elkaar en ze willen natuurlijk niet met elkaar vergeleken worden. We hadden echt de slappe lach en toen de gids vertelde dat hij helemaal had gepland om ‘’Ni Hou’’ (Hallo) enzo te zeggen werd het helemaal erg.

Om 5 uur vertrokken we weer naar Londen. Na 1.5 uur kwamen we aan op een plek waar we van bus en chauffeur wisselden omdat de helft van de groep naar Brighton ging. Toen we in de 2e bus stapten, hadden we dezelfde rare chauffeur als die ochtend. Wij zaten helemaal voorin omdat Julia dan niet wagenziek kon worden. Hierdoor zagen we dat:

– Hij niet wist waar het knopje zat om de  circulatie in de bus aan te zetten dus het was hartstikke muf en warm. Je zou toch denken dat een chauffeur zijn eigen voertuig kan bedienen?

– Hij besloot om bij een splitsing op de autobaan niet de weg te volgen maar na een paar seconden twijfelen te remmen en alsnog de afrit te nemen. Met als gevolg dat een auto achter onze bus bijna op ons knalde. ’s Avonds reed hij bijna met een harde snelheid tegen een lantaarnpaal aan.

– Hij op de terugweg een mega omweg had gemaakt waardoor we dus vanuit Cambridge naar het Zuiden van Londen reden om vervolgens weer naar het Noorden van Londen te rijden. Ik zat dus in de bus een uur extra naar het centrum van Londen te rijden om vervolgens weer een uur met het openbaar vervoer terug te reizen naar het Zuiden. Ik snap het nu nog steeds niet???

Om half 10 was ik eindelijk thuis en heb ik dit hele verhaal in geuren en kleuren aan Seema verteld.

Leuke/aparte/grappige dingen die er zijn gebeurd:

• Op een avond ging Seema de pony van Erin knippen door tijdsgebrek om naar de kapper te gaan. Toen ze dat ging doen, had ik echt zoiets van helpppp het is een pony dus als je scheef knipt ziet het er niet uit. Door mijn twijfel en het kijken werd ze heel zenuwachtig en moest ik de kamer uit haha.
• Wat ik trouwens niet begrijp is dat als ik in een bus, trein, tube zit er altijd een mens tussen zit die aan het bellen is. Ik vind dit zo irritant ik snap niet waarom mensen dit doen.
• 12 Januari sneeuwde het voor het eerst in 4 jaar dus de meiden waren helemaal hyper.
• Een avond heb ik aan Isla’s neus gevoeld om te voelen of ze aan het liegen was. Dit deed mijn vader altijd bij mijn zusje en daardoor was ze altijd eerlijk. De kids hadden nieuwe tandenborstels gekregen en ik wist bijna zeker dat de blauwe van Isla was, terwijl zij zei dat hij van Erin was, dus voor de grap paste ik het Pinoccio trucje toe. Het allermooiste was, dat ze het nog geloofde ook.
• Bij de zumba les op de woensdag hebben we een soort van mascotte. In het sportcentrum is ook een crèche waar de ouders hun kind naar toe kunnen brengen en ondertussen kunnen sporten. Een van de leidsters komt altijd met een meisje voor het raam staan en vaak maakt ze de deur ook open zodat ze de muziek beter kan horen. Op een begeven moment was de leidster even niet aan het opletten en drukte het meisje met haar ieniemienie vingertjes het geluid uit hahah.
• Isla en Erin waren met magneetjes op de koelkast aan het spelen. Op een begeven moment vroeg Erin: ‘’Is this one made in China? Because then it will break…..

Hoezo respectloos

Cornflakes bij het avondeten. Omdat het kan…

Myrthe’s afscheids lunch

Als je dit leest, ben je eindelijk bij het einde van mijn blog. Dank je wel voor het lezen en tot over een maand. Dan heb ik hopelijk weer nieuwe verhalen te vertellen.

Alle liefs uit Londen,

Annelein

 

 

December

Hallo allemaal,    

Happy new year!

In deze nieuwe blogpost kunnen jullie van alles lezen van squeezende vagina’s (nadere uitleg volgt) tot en met kapitein Haak.

3 December heb ik kerstinkopen gedaan. Het hele centrum was echt prachtig versierd met lichtjes. Op het dak van de winkel Topshop stond zelfs een sneeuwmachine waardoor er sneeuwvlokjes naar beneden dwarrelden.

 

In Oxford Circus hangen tussen de gewone kerstdecoratie ook sterren. Deze sterren zijn van de stichting NSPCC Little Stars. Dit is een goed doel dat kinderen een toekomst geeft. Je kon de sterren kopen en dan aan iemand opdragen. Mij leek het wel een mooi idee om een ster op te dragen aan mijn overleden oom en opa.  Iedere avond schijnen deze bijzondere sterren op een plek waar duizenden mensen langs lopen. Zo zijn ze opeens niet meer ‘ver weg’ maar ‘dichtbij’.

So far away but still so near…

’s Avonds toen ik thuis kwam, heb ik gezellig met mijn hele familie geskypet want mijn moeder vierde  haar 50^e verjaardag. Mijn nichtje Ingeborg was ook via skype van de partij. Het leek alsof ik er gewoon bij was dus ik heb niks hoeven missen.

8 December ging ik naar zumba. Deze zumba les is altijd heel apart want de muziek staat mega hard, de lerares is rond de 45-50 denk ik en ze is vrij stevig. Ze heeft altijd een strakke legging aan met de meest rare printjes. Ik heb in al die weken al een katjes, een regenboog en een  bloemen legging voorbij zien komen. Een keer had ze zelfs een legging aan met gekleurde vlakken. Een aantal vlakken waren huidkleurig (kwam ik na een tijd pas achter) dus het leek net of ze uit haar legging gescheurd was. Ik kan haar eigenlijk nooit serieus nemen en ik vraag me ook echt af of ze wel een soort diploma heeft als sportinstructeur. Het lijkt eerder of ze ons wil leren om een soort van striptease te geven in plaats van zumba haha. Om het allemaal nog aparter te maken, lagen we allemaal op een matje om buikspier oefeningen te doen. Op een gegeven moment zei ze ook of ja dat schreeuwde ze door de zaal: ‘’Squeeze in your vagina’s’’.  Ik dacht oké wat bedoelt ze daarmee. Dus iedereen was zijn ‘vagina aan het squeezen’ terwijl ik naar het plafond zat te staren en dacht ’t zal wel. Na een tijdje wilde ik toch kijken wat ik precies moest doen dus ik kwam overeind met als gevolg dat de lerares weer riep …

Ik antwoordde: ‘’I don’t know exactly what you mean’’.  Uiteindelijk  bedoelde ze dus dat je het moest aanspannen wat je normaal doet als je erg moet plassen. Geen idee waarom ik dit zo uitgebreid in dit blog aan het beschrijven ben, maar ik vond dit echt een hele rare situatie.

9 December werd ik wakker en kreeg ik een appje van Myrthe (goede vriendin/ au pair) waarin stond dat ze had besloten om voorgoed weer terug naar NL te gaan. Dit had ik niet aan zien komen dus dat was wel een beetje een schok en daar had ik het echt moeilijk mee. Ik heb hier ook nieuwe lieve en leuke mensen ontmoet maar omdat Myrthe en ik al 3 jaar vriendinnen zijn, voel ik me bij haar gewoon 100% op m’n gemak. Met nieuwe mensen begin je op 0 en moet je een band opbouwen. Die zelfde dag hadden we afgesproken om erover te praten en hebben we er toch nog een gezellige dag van weten te maken.

De volgende dag had ik ook met Myrthe afgesproken en gingen we naar Camden market. Hier zou een kerstmarkt zijn maar dat bleek alleen maar op Donderdag te zijn dus we hebben geen kerstmarkt gezien. Toen we bij de Subway op het terras zaten (ja echt op het terras want het was helemaal niet koud) en we net ons broodje uit wilde pakken kwam kapitein Haak aanlopen. Het was een man met een soort van lange leren jas aan, wijnfles in z’n hand, 4 tanden uit en lange sliertige staart die hij volgens mij al weken niet meer had gewassen. Hij zei op een agressieve toon zoiets van: ‘’Do your daddy’s know that you two are here or did you walk away from home?’’ Daarna was hij nog meer aan het wauwelen en praatte hij ontzettend veel met consumptie. Na een paar zinnen zei een jongen die aan de andere kant van onze tafel zat: ‘’Please they try to eat’’. Dat viel bij de man natuurlijk niet in goede aarde dus hij zette zijn wijnfles keihard op de tafel en bleef de jongen aankijken zonder iets te zeggen dus ik dacht ojee what will happen next? Er viel echt een doodse stilte. De piraat balde zijn vuist en schold alles bij elkaar. Uiteindelijk kalmeerde hij een beetje en liep hij weg. Zo waren we weer een ervaring rijker.

Leuke/ grappige/domme dingen die er zijn gebeurd:

• In een restaurant naar de wc gaan (gehandicaptentoilet) en aan het rode waarschuwingstouwtje trekken in plaats van de knop gebruiken om door te spoelen. Gevolg: het alarm ging af.
• In het Kinderdagverblijf op het verkeerde knopje duwen met als gevolg dat het licht van de drukke receptie uitging en niet de voordeur.
• Verder heb ik nog een hele dikke spin moeten opzuigen die Isla had ontdekt. Ik en spinnen is natuurlijk geen goede combi dus dat was wel even een ding. Uiteindelijk kwam de stofzuiger goed van pas.
• Een dag was ik mijn lunch aan het eten en Erin zat voor de tv. Seema wil liever niet dat ze chocola eten dus normaal eet ik geen Nutella of hagelslag als de kinderen bij me aan tafel zitten. Erin was zo aandachtig naar de tv aan het kijken dus ik besloot een boterham met Nutella te maken. Na een paar minuten stond Erin op en zei: ‘’What are you eating?’’ Ik wist niet zo goed wat ik moest antwoorden dus ik gaf niet echt antwoord. Even later vroeg ze: ‘’It smells like chocolate. Are you eating chocolate?’’ Ik zei dat ik geen chocola aan het eten was. Ze wilde natuurlijk proeven dus van Seema mocht ze een boterham met Nutella eten. Ze vond het smaken naar chocola maar ze was niet 100% overtuigd dus de volgende ochtend vroeg ze: ‘’Can I have some toast with the thing that smells like chocolate but isn’t chocolate?”….

Een X-mas party de week voor kerst met ooms en tantes enz.

Kerst cadeautjes voor de meiden waaronder een K3 cd

 

19 December was er een soort sing a long op het kinderdagverblijf van Erin. Een stuk of 25 peuters zaten op een ieniemienie stoeltje en zongen allemaal kerstliedjes. Dit was heel leuk om te zien en daarna had ik constant het volgende liedje in mijn hoofd:

‘’Christmas Pudding, Christmas Pudding,

Steaming hot, steaming hot,

Sprinkle on the sugar, sprinkle on the sugar,

Eat it up, eat it up.’’

‘s Avonds ben ik ook gaan kijken naar Isla’s gymnasticks display. De kinderen lieten zien wat ze de afgelopen weken hadden geleerd zoals: koprollen, handstanden enz.

Van 20- 24 December was mijn nichtje Ingeborg op bezoek. De eerste dag had ik haar de Big Ben en the London eye laten zien. Ze vroeg een aantal dingen over de geschiedenis en waarom de Big Ben er eigenlijk staat. Op haar vragen kon ik niet echt goed antwoord geven en voelde ik me echt een hele slechte gids. Ik wist die dag de goede weg niet te vinden dus toen realiseerde ik me eigenlijk dat ik Londen niet als een geheel ken maar alleen losse delen. Als ik ergens naar toe ga, neem ik bijna altijd de underground dus na deze paar dagen met een kaart rond gelopen te hebben, wist ik eindelijk waar de hoogtepunten ongeveer lagen. Een dag later wist ik gelukkig wel de weg want toen heb ik haar onder andere Oxford street laten zien (daar ken ik het op m’n duimpje).

 

311 trappen

 

Het waren 4 hele gezellige dagen maar toen het 24 December was, waren we heel blij om eindelijk naar huis gegaan.

Toen ik thuis kwam vond ik het de eerste paar uren een beetje raar maar uiteindelijk wende het heel snel. Afgelopen week heb ik mijn lieve familie en vriendinnen kunnen zien. Dit was heel fijn!

2 Januari kwam ik weer thuis. De meiden kwamen blij op me afrennen. Dit was een heel fijn gevoel. Aan de trap hing een zelfgemaakte welkomslinger. Als kerstcadeautje had ik een grote doos met chocola gekregen en een kettinkje met daaraan 3 letters. De I, E & A. dit was echt super lief.

Nu ik het laatste gedeelte van deze blog post typ, is het 4 Januari. Ik ben benieuwd wat ik de komende weken mag meemaken. Dit kunnen jullie dan weer lezen in mijn nieuwe blog post.

Dit was het voor nu.

Ik wens jullie een goed 2017!

Heel veel liefs uit Londen xxx