Monday, March 30, 2009

and the plot thickens...

supposedly mystery Al has red hair too....

and dated aunt leigh....


things just keep getting WEIRDER and WEIRDER

awkward

soo dad- i have been constantly trying to call you on skype. it never really works. but whenever you call me it says alan robbins. well it turns out- i have been trying to call the wrong alan robbins for the last two months....

hello...iare you trying to reach me?  A bit hesitiant to add people I don't know...

dad?


then it gets wierder...

but it does seem you're a real person, and we do share a last name...

im sorry i thought you were my dad

funny...nope, this isn't dad unless you've got some REALLY big news for me!

9:44 PM 

there is another Alan Robbins in DC

9:44 PM 

in fact, he's a friend of a friend

9:44 PM 

perhaps that's your dad

that must be him

is he an attorney?

yes



ANYWHO-


so dad someone in DC has your name- and knows you. and i found this out. on skype. in maastricht.


what a world.

another thanks


crazy and pops sent me a lovely new scarf!!! thanks mom and dad!!!!!

and kate got me a late birthday present here- a bottle of wine!! always good. and a gift certificate to my favorite coffee place- coffee lovers. cant wait to bring the fam there!!

oh ya- liz- start practicing biking. i learned you can rent bikes here so you and mom and dad will rent bikes here for a day! it will be fun. maybe now you will wish you didnt leave my bike at the gardners...

a day out on the town



today we went on a field trip! one of our teachers took all of us exchange students around town to two different places. we first went to this old cement factory that they are currently turning into theaters and offices and what not. it was neat but kind of a boring tour. it might be cooler once its finished and up and running.

then she took us to the 5 star hotel called Kruisheren Hotel. It was an old church and monastery that was converted into a luxury hotel. there are 60 rooms and every one of them are different. very cool place and a beautiful property. whats really cool is when it was allowed to be turned into a hotel, they were unable to touch and tamper with any of the walls or ceilings. so its pretty much a floating hotel inside the church. everything is built right in front of the walls (like stair cases) and the elevator only goes up one floor because it can touch the ceiling, so it works on hydraulics. really neat place- i would recommend crazy and big al and liz to stay there when they come but it is super expensive. maybe one night?

oh- and did i mention that on field trips here there is no big yellow school bus? of course you bike everywhere!!!!!!

Sunday, March 29, 2009

the day of the big 2-1

me with my lovely birthday hat from mariel and meg
everyone singing to me and me getting my gelato gift card!!
everyone singing to me in the hall way!!

still hasnt hit me that i am 21. cant wait until the airport home and duty free shops!

Monday, March 23, 2009

the bird of avant garde


a boy on my floor has a bird name ozzy or something. here it is on me. very very interesting.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

i miss my family.

cutie cakes


and cutie cakes sent me a lovely card as well! (as long as other people- thank you!) 

but cuties cakes sent a very appropriate card.

from one cutie cake to another. miss you so much! ill call from skype today i am once again out of minutes (thats why you have yet to recieve a call).

my lovelies



and thanks molly for the birthday shout outs!!!!!! miss you dearly. its just not the same not power hour-ing with franzia....and i am so sad i could not go out with my  besties in happy valley- i miss everyone so much!!!!! just get ready for ARTS FEST!!!!! we will all be at the bars! holy moley....

the perfect birthday card.

and the award for the most perfect birthday card goes to miss elizabeth robbins (im sure with little surprise to anyone)....

success!!

my 21st birthday weekend was quite a success!!! i thought it would be tough turning 21 abroad (because it clearly is of no importance to anyone who is not American) but everyone was great and i had an amazing time!

i turned 21 at midnight on friday and we had a big party on our floor. there were more people there than i have ever seen before. we played beer pong (my favorite of course) and the spanish kids made a gigantic tub of sangria that was delishhhhh (ma- you would loveeee). and then at midnight everyone came out singing! it was really nice and they had a thing of ice cream/gelato instead of a birthday cake (and you know that makes me VERY happy) although of course i do miss moms chippy cake with chippy icing. but the ice cream is amazing. and meg and mariel bought me a gift certificate to my favorite gelato place (once again-  ask for anything better) and a happy birthday hat. after these festivities we finally made it down town, but me meg mike and trevor made the mistake of stopping to get something to eat first and then never quite made it to the bars. haha. oops.

then yesterday morning (saturday- my actual birthday) i woke up and mike and trev got me kinder buenos (again- greatness) and a vase of bright orange flowers! (i have been wanting fresh flowers since the day we got here!) and i got my first birthday card in dutch!! then we all went to lunch then watched movies and hung out to get ready for the night. then we went to dinner at my favorite italian restaurant and then we went out. i had a really great time and i am so happy to be 21!

and yes.... i feel older.
not just older....definitly sooo much cooler. ob-v.

CANT WAIT TO GO TO DEWEY WITH MY SISTERS!!!!!!!!!!! (thank GOD we have such nice parents to drive us :) 


Saturday, March 21, 2009

21!!!

IM 21!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

birthday updates to follow!!!!!!

YAYYYYY

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

nayyyy


did you know people eat horse here? it is served at school. yuckkk

when bikes attack

i split my lip open today. it hurts. the bungee chords that you use to strap down things on the back of your bike snapped off today and hit me in the face. my first thought was i need facial reconstruction surgery. luckily its just a small cut and my lip is just swollen. but i do look silly.

gosh darnet.


and i can always count on lizzie to have something good to say...

 me:  it hurt
now i dont want to go out because my lip is swollen
 Lizzie:  who could tell?
 me:  huh
 Lizzie:  i was making a joke
like you said your lip was swollen
like who'd be able to tell
since you have big lips
get it?

and the count down continues....


3 DAYS UNTIL I AM 21!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


what am i going to do with out my lovely happy birthday sign hanging in the kitchen that my nice mother puts up every year!? ill have to find one here.... but then it would be in dutch?! not as fun. oh well- mom- hang it for in spirit ya?!

im alive!!!!

i went snowboarding last night and i am still alive!!!!!!! i had so much fun!! it has been years and years since i have snowboarded. and lucky for me everyone i was with snowboards or skis a lot! so they threw me on a lift to the top of the biggest run and basically wished me luck. i was terrified. LUCKILY a nice german girl from school who invited us happened to be a snowboarding instructor a few years ago! she helped me out TREMENDOUSLY and was an amazing teacher. she re-taught me the basics and by the end i was flying down the slopes! but i had some really really nasty spills in the mean time. i ate probably about 10 pounds of snow, about 5 of which went up my nose. i think i seriously injured my tail bone because i can hardly sit and my left tushy cheek is black. i can hardly move any of my muscles but i had so much fun!!!!!! i love snowboarding and i cant wait to go again!!! (i must say...i do make quite a cute snow bunny!). (i know all my friends are rolling their eyes and my dad is probably laughing). 

dad- you would have died laughing seeing me wipe out face first in the snow then get back up again and keep flying. it was hysterical.

i did have one near death experience where  i thought i was going to get decapitated- i saw a boy in front of me getting on the lift and he slipped and fell and naturally i laughed and thought- that sucks. then it was my turn- turns out there was  massive ice patch and i wiped out as well- snowboard still attached to one foot. all i heard was JESSIE LOOK OUT and i look up to see a chair lift coming at my head. i was in tons of pain (this is partially where my black left tush cheek comes from) and i thought i broke my elbow- but i look up and a chair lift is in my face. all i can do is start climbing on before they finally stopped it and prevented me from having my head chopped off. thank goodness.

still an amazing time though!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

snowboarding



tonight i am going to an indoor skiing/snowboarding place with a group from school. how fun! wish me luck. last time i went snowboarding emily bass broke her wrist on the bunny hill and i didnt believe her until i heard the crack. anywho- were going to the largest indoor ski slope i guess so i hope its cool! its going to be 45 euros for the bus (30 minutes away), snowboard rental and snow pant rental and lift tickets. sounds like a good deal! i hope i can pick it up quickly. wish me luck!

Monday, March 16, 2009

me and my goldmember! (ha ha)



riding home from the bar on the top one.... AND YEP! thats me and my bike!!!!!! gotta love it. goldmember never ceases to amaze me...

Sunday, March 15, 2009

the count down begins...


TO MY 21ST BIRTHDAYYYYY!!!!!!!!!

6 days and counting....

yikes! 

my first disturbance

i lost my stupid wallet the other night. now i must BIKE back to the club to get it at midnight on a sunday. oh how i just quickly started to miss my car.... i am longing for ABU.

amsterdamned out

sorry- time to catch up a bit! my internet is not working really anymore (typical of this place) hopefully i will get something worked out...

anywho- spent last weekend in amsterdam again. lets just say i will NOT be going back for a while..i am exhausted!!! i traveled with my friends from here so they could meet their friends from school. it was a nice. we went to the anne frank house which was really neat to see. i loved it so much and it was amazing finally seeing it in person.

then i got to see molly!!!!!!!!!! molly and anthony flew from london. we had a really nice weekend and we went to the van gogh museum. i really loved the reijchs museum...but the van gogh museum was really really neat. i loved his art. there was also the starry night exhibit open so i got to see that. it was amazing- i never knew i liked art museums!

now i am just trying to get back to life again! i am beyond exhausted and i have a big paper coming up that i have to work on with 4 other people....we must write a 25 page paper on why we should build a hotel in cape town. this should be interesting!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

goldmember

my bike, goldmember, is back in business! the chain fell off within 24 hours of me purchasing it...but i was able to get someone to fix it! now i MUST purchase i new seat... 

ireland and the dam


i went to ireland last week. it was really fun and beautiful but TONS of traveling. i went with trevor because we both have friends from high school studying in galway. we started our journey by train with a layover in liege, then a train to charlios in belgium. then we flew to dublin. we got to dublin and went to a pub, heard some irish music, had a beer and then we were too tired because it took a total of 10 hours to get from maastricht to dublin (lots of waiting around). then the next morning we hopped on the first bus to galway. in galway it was this thing called Rag week where people drink all day and night at the pubs because the money is all donated to some charity. so we arrive and drink. i got to see conor! we stayed at trevors friends apartment with 6 boys and had a fun and interesting time. galway beautiful and we walked around and saw the coast and what not. ireland is definitely very green and tons of sheep.

then...i tried my first fish and chips! and of course...i loved it. we got fish and chips from the best place in galway. we waited until the place opened at 12 for lunch.... people were lined up within seconds. we were the first people- followed by a long long line of people waiting for these fish and chips. they were amazing. reason enough to travel back to ireland.

after galway we took a train back to dublin and then flew form dublin to amsterdam. we met trevors dad and his dads friend there and spent two nights in the dam. they put us up in an amazing hotel and took us out to some really great dinners. i had an amazing time with the three guys and it was fun seeing another side of amsterdam (from the first weekend we went and spent no time sight-seeing..). we went to the reichsmuseum and it was awesome. i saw a lot of amazing art and really enjoyed it. we tried to see the van gogh museum but there was a long line and it was raining, so we went on a boat tour instead. 

this entire week was amazing and i really enjoyed a week vacation!!! i cant wait to keep traveling.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

bye bye boo boo :(


i found out recently that poor little bailey has passed :( the most devestating news i have heard in months and i am very sad :( i wish i could hug ryfranks and cutie cakes! 

Monday, March 2, 2009

carnaval is over











me with some fellow ninja/fake asian ladies







i was obviously on the other line with someone. ha. this man carried around a phone pretending to talk on it all day. my idea of a perfect costume.








the crowds!!



















some of my friends with the crazy furry men! what grown men wear this stuff?!













this is how this family carried its kids around...












the avant garders!! (my apt).














the boys of the avant garde






carnaval was amazing! i have never seen so many crazy people in my life!!! the streets were filled all morning all day and all night with whacko people dressed up in the most rediculous costumes. i was a three musketeer whcih turned into a pilgrim when i lost my suspenders (how does that happen??) and then a ninja when i lost my hat (not too hard to do in a crowd like carnaval). loved every second of it! here are some moments...