16 and Counting!

As of today, I have officially been here for 16 days! I'm so proud of myself. At first, I was a little more homesick than I thought I'd be, but thanks to FaceTime, Skype, and IMessage, I still feel very much a part of everyone's life back home. Also, my host parents (I recently learned this is what the parents of the family I nanny for are called), have been the best host parents I could've ever asked for. They have been so kind, and welcoming, and have definitely made me feel right at home with their lovely family! They have also been so kind in introducing me to people - one of them being another au pair who lives 5 minutes away! Which is so perfect because most other au pairs I've met live somewhere near Amsterdam, which is about 30 minutes train ride away from me. Tonight I actually just met up with another au pair who lives in the city Alkmaar which is very close to me as well! Making friends out here is so great! 2 of the girls I've met are from other countries - Iceland and the Czech Republic! It will be so much fun to keep in touch with these girls once I go back home! I've never had friends who live on the other side of the world :)

For those of you who haven't heard, February 15th I will be flying to Rome with the au pair from the Czech Republic! We are both so excited! We will only be there until the 18th (only really 2 days to sight see) but we will defintely cram as many things into those 2 days as we can! The Spanish Steps, the Colosseum, Vatican City, the Trevi fountain, and so much more! The place we booked to stay in is actually within walking distance of all of these places! Such a great deal! This trip is something I'm really looking forward to - my mom, among many other people, has said that she loved Rome - and my mother has great taste, so I'm so excited!!

These past few weekends I've been kind of busy with things to do! The first weekend I got here I hung out with the family which was really fun! And then this last weekend was the weekend I went to Amsterdam! This weekend, is basically free! Saturday I'm taking a bus into Alkmaar in the late morning to get my hair done (fingers crossed they do a great job!) and then most likely since I will already be there, I will walk around the village! I will defintely bring my camera this time! And then the rest of the weekend is pretty much open, minus a couple of skype dates I have with friends - so that means I will get to roam around my own beautiful village I'm living in and take a bunch of pictures for you to see! There's so many different things around here I hope I will come across - sheeps, bison, horses, cows, the beach, the dunes, ponds, foresty areas, and so much more! So be ready for some new blog posts by the end of this weekend!

I hope all of you are having yourselves some great days as well :) Please feel free to message me whenever on facebook, or my phone (if you have an iphone), or email me, or skype me - would love to see/ hear from you all! Sending my love to you!

xoxoxo