Back on track

It has been a while since my last post, sorry.

In the last 2 weeks I've learned a lot:

I have the most unattractive bunch of relatives I've seen and not all of them are opposed to incest ... gross.

Doing an across the world move is not as easy as I previously thought.

Time changes suck and are near impossible to get used to.

Buying books online is much easier then looking for English ones in a Dutch country.

and finally, road trips determine how much self control you actually have and how difficult it is sometime to hold your tongue.

I have made it to the Netherlands and I've managed to unpack the first bunch of things I brought over and ordered all my school books. Soon after arriving here I realized one thing; I adore mom's new boyfriend ... he's so cool.

My grandmother decided to come for a visit from Edmonton ... the same day we arrived ... for a month. She is a really sweet woman and very generous but there's a certain issue with volume control that is hard to ignore when one is in a car with her for 3 days ... nonetheless I reminded myself that she means well and we all love her just the same. She's also a huge fan of minatures ... *shudder* ... which brought us to this place:

No, giant people are not taking over the Netherlands ... this is part of an entire miniature exhibit of the Netherlands ... fun right ? Well to some maybe ... me not so much.

We also went on a 3 day road trip, we went from our little home in the Netherlands through to Brussels, Belgium then on to France where we stopped in Nancy and Metz ... among other placed then to Germany where we spent the night in Dusseldorf . On this road trip we stopped for McDonald's in Belgium, Mexican food in France and Italian food in Germany ... oh how we adapt. We did do and see a lot though, here's some of the things we saw :

All in all it was a good trip ... except for a specific shoppe in Luxembourgh.

We were walking along and I saw a gorgeous jacket in a window display, decided to go in ... that was the biggest mistake in life ... she gave me a medium to try on and it was WAY too small ... well there's the first ego hit. When I asked her for a bigger size she told me that was the biggest size they carried ... OUCH. Needless to say the rest of my family got quite a kick out of this ... jerks.

Airports, Personal Space and Claustrophobia

I’m typing this from above the beautiful province of Alberta. It’s easy to remember why I dislike airports so much every time I enter one. The loud children running wild, the older ladies who over-dress for a flight in 6-inch heels and huge, dark sunglasses, or the crazy man who sits there babbling to himself in a foreign language all by himself. The thing that irks me the most is the people who think they’re superior to everyone around them, the woman who has been assigned to row 12 but chooses to weasel her way to the front of the line after rows 27-38 have been called. It makes one want to say “if you honestly think you’re that important then you should pay the extra money to get into executive class instead of getting in everyone else’s way”. Honestly, it makes zero sense, when you think about it, we’re all taking off on the exact same time. The only difference between sitting in the tightly fitting plane and the open terminal is a feeling of severe claustrophobia.

Besides those minor annoyances I actually quite enjoy the terminal, so long as there’s a Starbucks and enough seats at the gate to relax and breathe prior to being launched into the air in a tin can full of strangers. I don’t really enjoy the random people who decide to joke around with you, talk about their travels, or inquire about “why a young lady like myself is traveling all on her own”, I’m aware that I look like I’m 14, however, I’m not totally incompetent. I’m jut excited to be moving one step closer to my new home, my new life and my new school all in the quaint little country of Holland. Although it’s quite the nerve-wracking experience, moving across the world by yourself at 18, I’m feeling quite nostalgic and adventurous, grown-up even.

west ed

Today we visited the infamous West Edmonton Mall, the largest mall in North America, 5th largest in the world, founded by two brothers from Iran in 1959. You can Google it, I did. We skipped the water park, bungee jumping, hotel, amusement park, underwater adventure and mini golf, however, we did catch part of the Sea Lion show ... really ... what is the point of all this in a mall ? Why do malls need an Ice Rink ? Well I'm absolutely in love with all that I obtained today, just some basic staples necessary for any wardrobe, and a pair of sunglasses.

The highlight of my day was not a new item but a new friend. Waiting in line at the sandwich stand I was contemplating what to choose from an array of panini sandwiches, I decided on the Panini Napolini. This sandwich had sun-dried tomatoes, red peppers, zucchini and cheese. The adorable lady in front of me asks me if it was spicy because it sure sounded good, she then ordered the same sandwich and went to the till to pay, the poor man working there thought we were together and went to punch in our orders together ... I picked up on this and quickly corrected him, she perked up and offered to pay for my sandwich ! I had to decline her offer, my mother taught me well, I could not accept something from someone who I've done nothing for. Instead, she kept me company while we waited for our food, she told me about her many grandchildren, her daughter that lives in Amsterdam and owns a brownie shoppe (tee hee) and her most recent knitting project. Listening to this woman speak gave me a sudden feeling of deja vu, my grandmother is also this sociable and also chooses to tell many stories to random strangers.

All in all it was quite a productive day, thank-you for the gifts mom, and, despite my rigorous work out at the pool last night, it was the shopping that made me sore ... funny how that works isn't it ?

the pool

Laurie and her friend talked me into doing a workout, in the water ... they presented this idea to me as I'm semi-conscious on her love seat cradling my MacBook and attempting not to drool on the keyboard. So I drag myself downstairs and pick out a bathing suit ... unfortunately the one I happened to choose was missing a cup, I found this out after I got to the pool. The instructor was an adorable woman who was the most intense lady I've ever met, she was running, doing high kicks, jumping up and down and, instead of saying "at your own pace" she said "FASTER!" it was kind of nice. I don't think I've physically endured that much pain while working out, I know I'm going to be aching tomorrow, that will be fun for Sarah to deal with while we're shopping.

Laurie was the epitome of a graceful, limber water nymph. She wanted me to let it be known that she only cried once, as opposed to my zillion mental breakdowns from mental, physical and emotional exhaustion.

One thing I noticed while changing was how comfortable some women are with their bodies ... despite my greatest attempts to avert my eyes, I couldn't avoid the inevitable. All I could think of was the time when I was little in the gym bathroom and commented on an exceptionally large woman's "big butt" that was right in front of my face due to my height at 4 years old. It was a fun night though that was topped off with a trip to Shopper's Drug Mart where we almost had to sleepover due to it's 9:00 pm close time ... then we rushed over to DQ for ice cream to numb the joint pain.

All in all it was a productive evening.

taste of edmonton

Yesterday we made our way downtown to Taste of Edmonton to try various foods from a plethora of restaurants from around Edmonton. Each of us were allotted 10 tickets to try to stretch for all we could, to get the most possible value from them, Laurie's daughter (otherwise known as Veggie Girl) decided to share our findings with one another. With the new restriction of a vegetarian-style diet I found it hard to resist the call of the Chicken Penne and Lemon Chicken, however, I found some great vegan curried chicken, it didn't even have the texture of cardboard ! We also indulged in some green onion creation, vegetable panini and veggie spring rolls. To finish it off we had some desert consisting of chocolate covered strawberries and tiny chocolate espresso bites. All in all it was a fabulous day, even being in public in a swimsuit after eating that mountain of food didn't overly phase me since I was still dazed from the wonderful food. We decided to walk through the fountain to cool off from the 30 degree weather then sat in the sun to dry off and warm up again ... seems kind of counter productive now that I think of it ...

Capital Ex

Capital Ex, formerly known as Klondike Days, commenced today in Edmonton so we flocked like good little Edmontonians and participated in a day in the sun filled with rides, junk food and many creepy men. Laurie and I listed all the food on sticks : Pickles, pizza, corn, corn dogs, lollipops, ice cream, marshmallows, sausage ... then of course there was tacos in a bag ... what is the point of that ? All in all it was an progressive day, I met my future husband:

Isn't he just lovely ? The wonderful Miss Laurie has reminded me of several things that I should probably bring to the attention of all who read this. first if you're going to walk around a public place smoking, please don't blow your second-hand smoke into other people's faces and if you're standing in a line and someone asks you to stop blowing smoke into their face then please don't start giving the "it's not illegal to smoke, I can do whatever the f*** I want" speech, graciously apologize, you are a 14 year old girl, yes it is illegal. second if your shorts cause you to have a muffin top then you probably shouldn't wear them ... and you definately shouldn't wear a bikini top creating a spare tire. and third for the amount of people who spit on the grass it's probably a bad idea to sit on it.

It was an amazing day though, it was an amazing release to go on the roller coasters and just de-stress, Divine Brown and K-os were also there ... that was kind of cool. Thank-you so much Laurie for the wonderful day. It was so much fun !

Premier Blog

To christen this blog I've decided to briefly catch you up on life thus far, I've moved a lot with my mom and baby brother. Although moving can be a pain in the ass, it's something that has allowed me to have a lot of different experiences and meet some truly amazing people.

As I sit here sipping my Mojito Raspberry Mint tea I'm reminiscing over the past few weeks of total and utter chaos, through all the packing, missing clothing, tearful goodbyes and mental breakdowns from lack of sleep I've learned what it's like to have those friendships you know are going to go a long way. I'm currently in the midst of a hectic move across the world from Ontario to Holland, with a 2 week stop over in Edmonton to visit my long lost other mother and her family. It is nice to have this time to relax and spend time with a family that inspires me in so many ways to be a better, more creative and more organised person.

The reason for this relocation to the Netherlands began with a job offer for my mother who was living in BC, while I was going to school in Ontario, her and my baby (14-year-old) brother shipped themselves to Europe. I saw this as a free ticket to Europe and applied for school, abracadabra, I'm off to Webster University.

Besides that up to this point my life has been uneventful, I've fallen into teenage "love" several million times, I'm totally hot for Heath Ledger and I have an amazing support group helping me with every step of the way. I'm hoping to make this blog a documentation through my everyday and I pray that I don't bore you too much. Since that is the case my goal is to complain as little as possible, so I will try to avoid the Internet once a month as a general rule of thumb that may or might not be followed.


Until next time, keep smiling.