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