I'm baaa-aaack

Well, here I sit. 1 week after returning to the States and I'm still thinking about what an incredible adventure I just had. I can't believe that I actually got on a plane, flew thousands of miles across a big Ocean and landed in the Netherlands, got picked up by a family I barely knew and then lived with them for almost a year. I mean, wow. I can't believe I actually did that. I can't believe all the wonderful things that happened in this last year either. I saw so many interesting things, and I learned so much about myself and my heritage.

I was able to live near the lively city of Amsterdam. Visit the romantic city of Paris. Meander through the busy city of London. Eat yummy chocolates in Belgium. See ancient history in Rome. See God's handiwork in Cinque Terre, Italy. See Michelangelo's craftiness in Florence. I saw the beautiful city of Venice. I walked the street's of Salzburg, Austria. And I stayed in the majestic mountains of Switzerland. I mean wow. So much in just 11 months. I can barely believe I did that. Me. Angie Mitchell. I did that. I hope that I never forget all the wonderful things I saw, the experiences I had, the delicious foods that I ate, and all the friends that I made along the way.

I feel truly blessed. I can't believe how quickly that year went by. I'm so grateful that my parents encouraged me to go on this adventure and not look back. I'm so glad that I had friends and family to support me with prayer during the difficult times, and celebrate with me during the joyful times.

I'm glad I went on this adventure and I'm already looking forward to my next adventure that waits for me in Virginia. For those of you who don't know, I will be moving near Fairfax,VA to be a nanny for 4 children. While I'm there I will also be taking an ESL course and hopefully a Spanish course as well. I really feel like these are the next steps that God has for me in this crazy adventure called life. I can't wait to see what's waiting for me in VA. And I would appreciate prayers for me and for the family as I prepare to go out there, and as they prepare for me to come. Also, if you could say a prayer for Stephanie. She is the girl that is taking my place in the Netherlands. While my time there was great, there were certainly some challenges. I'm sure she will face her fair share of them, so if you could pray for her as she prepares to fly across the pond in just a few weeks that would be great.

Thank you all so much for all your support. I feel so incredibly blessed to have each and every one of you in my life.

Wowza!

Wow. I leave in just 2 days. Where did this year go?! I remember getting on the plane in August and being so excited and so nervous. I was excited because I knew that this year was going to be amazing, but I was scared because it was a new place, new people, new experiences. But here I am, just two days before i leave with my bags packed and I'm wondering where in the world the time went? It really feels like I just got here a few weeks ago.

For this blog I decided to make a list of things I'll miss, won't miss and things I've learned...

Things I'll miss:
1) The awesome sweets! Cookies, cakes etc..

2) Riding my bike

3) My friends that I've made here

4) The open markets

5) Seeing all the families doing things together. Family is so important here and I love it

Things I won't miss:

1) The bluntness of the Dutch

2) The rainy, yucky, dark days

3) Riding my bike in the rain

4) The smell of Pot. Yuck. I still haven't gotten use to that gross smell

5) The not understanding what people are saying all the time ( Dutch is a tricky language to learn!)

Things I've learned:

1) That I can capable of going far away and surviving

2) Not to ever doubt God's goodness and his faithfulness, it's been proven to me over and over and over again this year. Why do I doubt?

3) That the world is a LOT bigger than I thought it was when I left the States. There are more things, important things, than what is covered in the U.S. news.

4) It's ok to stand up for yourself. And there is a difference between being rude and standing up for yourself.

5) It is possible to see a lot on a dime. You can travel for cheap if you really set your mind to it

I have so many memories from this year. It really has been incredible. I was reading my journal entry from the night before I left for this great adventure and I was so nervous and excited. It's like I"m reading from another lifetime. I think I've grown so much this year. This experience has changed me for the better I think. I'm so excited to see what's in store for me in VA next year. I have no idea why I'm being led to this family in VA, but I'm excited to see what's next!!!

Well guys. I better keep packing those last minute things. I also need to look for a few hostels for while I'm traveling with Josh these next few weeks. Whoo-hoo! Take care and HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

Oh life

So, I was just reading my previous post about how things were so uneventful.. little did I know the next week would be CRAZY! Man oh man. Most of you know what's going on, but for those who don't, here's the deal-e-o..

I have been in the process of applying for my au pair Visa since I arrived. I was denied at Christmas because my employer's work contract (from his work) was older than 3 months old (by the time the IND got to it). So, we quickly reapplied in January and 2 weeks ago I got a lovely letter from the IND saying, you are denied again, you have 28 days to get out of our country before we send the police to escort you out. WHAT? I was freaking out. I found out that I was denied once again because of this stupid contract. Seriously. The Dutch take soooo long in getting anything done. Of course it was older than 3 months if we sent it in at the beginning of January and they finally denied me in May.. helllooo? Oh the irritation. So we had the choice of starting the process all over again just so I could stay another 10 weeks or I could just leave. We decided I would just leave. Which is a blessing in disguise because now I get to travel all throughout Europe with Josh over the course of 3 weeks (true American style, see as much as you can in as little time as possible) and then I'll be headed home the beginning of July (around the 5th sometime) and then in August I will be moving to Virginia to take another job as a nanny. This wasn't quite what I pictured for myself for this next year, but I have 100% peace, the same peace that I had when I flew across the pond to come to Holland for a year. So I know this is where I am supposed to go next. The family seems so incredibly nice, I can't wait to meet them in person :o) So, if anyone is ever in the DC area, let me know and I'll come see you!
Since I will be traveling for a few weeks if anyone has any "must see" places to visit or "must eat here" restaurants or cafe's to go to.. please let me know. We will be in:

England: London
Italy: Rome, Cinque Terre, Florence, Venice
Austria: Salzburg
Switzerland: Zurich and Interlaken
France: Paris
Possibly Spain: Barcelona

Hope everyone has a great day! And I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of you in July! Yay for blessings in disguise! :o)

well...

Hey guys!

I hope you are all having a great week so far! Mine has been pretty uneventful since mom and grandma left actually. It's kind of strange not having them around all the time. I was talking to my friends about it the other day. One of them had her parents here in March and she agreed that it was harder to be the one left, than be the one leaving. Isn't that weird how that works? I left to come here and I was excited and scared. I came home for Christmas had a great time, then came back to the Nederlands and was excited to do some traveling in the spring and for mom and grandma to come. But when mom and grandma came and left.. it was just kind of strange. I'm not really sure how to describe it. But I didn't like it. I think I'd like to be the only one who leaves from now on. :o)

Speaking of leaving. I might be coming home sooner than I thought. MAYBE. Not for sure. It's just a possibility. While that is exciting to think about, it's also kind of scary. I have no idea what I'm going to do when I get back. Well. For a job anyway. I know that I am going to take that blasted, awful Praxis again and cross my fingers and toes that I pass it this time, and I'll also take the classes required to get my ESL certification but other than that. Zero ideas. And to be honest, I'm starting to freak out. Which, logically kind of makes sense. I mean, I'm human. I just want to have a plan. But in my heart I know that I am being totally and completely ridiculous because God has the plan. He knows what I'll be doing when I get home. And I shouldn't fret. But dang, I wish I knew! Silly me. I know. But I'm sure you can all relate. You've all been there, or maybe you are there right now. So prayers would certainly be appreciated :o)

Also, totally unrelated.. but I still can't believe we went to the Royal Wedding. HA! I LOVE talking to people about it and when they asked if I watched it being able to say that, yes. Yes I did. I watched it in Hyde Park :o) heheh. It's so fun. The instant look of "whoa that is so cool and you automatically got 50 cool points in my book" look is amazing. I don't remember if Princess Diana's wedding was this amazing and talked about this much, maybe it's just because I live in Europe, but every lady I talk to just lights up when they talk about this wedding. It's as if Kate was one of us and she really did get her fairy tale wedding, complete with an honest to goodness Prince. Crazy. Ok. Enough girly girly. It's time for this girl to head to bed.

I hope you are all doing well! I was glad to hear that Tulip Time went well in Pella, lots of sunshine. Horray! Hugs all around!

Pictures from the trip

Here are the highlights pictures from mom and grandma's trip over here.

Peace Palace

Peace Palace

Canal Tour in Amsterdam

Queen's day in The Hauge

London

London

Hanging out with the Bobbies :)

Fountain across from Buckingham Palace

My favorite sign I saw in London.. it still makes me giggle :)

We didn't get to see the wedding up close, but we watched it on big screens in Hyde Park

West Minster Abbey, it is seriously HUGE and we only saw it from the outside...

SO excited to be in London

Mr. Ben

Pretty cool huh?

Brussels. I think this statue is in honor of the men lost in WWII

King's Palace in Brussels

Zaanse Schans

Maduradam (little Holland)

Keukenhof Gardens. Beautiful

Pretty awesome flowers, the orange ones in the middle look like palm trees

Van Gogh made out of flower petals

3 Generations

There are hundreds more pictures but these are the highlights :o)

Whew!

Well, well, well. It has been an incredibly busy and way to much fun last 10 days. Mom and grandma arrived here in the Netherlands on April 22 and hit the ground running. It was so busy.

Friday (when they got here): We went to the Keukenhof and then out for dinner

Saturday: Amsterdam. We saw the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum and the Diamond Museum. And walked, and walked and walked. I think I pretty much wore them out that day. Mom took a little nap on the train on the way back and they both slept like babies that night :o)

Sunday: We went to my church for Easter. The message was so good! Then we went to Scheveningen (the beach near the church) for lunch and then we saw Madurodam (little Holland). That exhibit was so cool! The one in Pella is nice, but this one is pretty sweet. They have all sorts of little things and when you get to the Klompen Maker part you can put a euro in the machine and this little truck brings you a pair of delft klompens. It was pretty cool. Pella really needs to do that! :o)

Monday: We drove to Marken (cute fishing town where 12 old ladies still wear their dutch outfit every day!) , Volendam (also a fishing town, but we got a little lost there so we just ate lunch and left) and Haarlem (Corrie Tenboom's house is there) so we could see some of the countryside and see some cute little towns. We also stopped at the Zaanse Schans (4 or 5 windmills in a row, they also have a Klompen Factory, Chocolate Factory and a cheese tasting area there). That evening Maarten and Maurien invited us over for a BBQ at their house. It was really nice.

Tuesday: We went to Maastricht, which is in the waaaaaaay southern part of the Netherlands. It boarders Germany and Belgium. But it is such a cute little town. I love it. Unfortunately our train was way slow and there was something wrong with the train tracks so by the time we got to Maastricht we only had about 3 hrs to look around. But mom and grandma got the general idea of it. Then we got back on the train and headed to Belgium. We stayed in a little bed and breakfast in Ardennes Belgium. Its a teeny tiny town of about 280 people. But it was very interesting because part of the Battle of the Bulge was fought here and the man who owns the B&B researches it and finds all kinds of things in the forest nearby. He has a display of bullets, needles, morphine bottles, pieces of airplanes, bomb containers, etc. It was VERY interesting to me to see all this. It really made me realize how real these battles were. I think often times we read about it, and hear about it but don't really realize that it actually went on, but being there really made me grateful and realize how real it actually was. It wasn't just a story in my history book.

Wednesday: We went to Brussles. We didn't get to spend a whole lot of time there but we hopped on a city sights tour bus. So we saw all the highlights and learned a little about it all. That is really the best way to see a city I've decided. You pay a little to save your legs and to really learn about the buildings instead of looking at a map and trying to decide which direction to go and trying to figure out what all happens in those buildings. It was cool. And of course we got our waffles and our chocolate :o)

Thursday: We went to LONDON! Yep. Thats right. Sunday night we decided we wanted to go. So we found tickets and a hotel room and flew to London on Thursday afternoon. It was super cool. We walked forever trying to get to our hotel (due to bad directions from the Bobbies, but we eventually got there. Dropped our stuff off at the hotel, went out for some supper and then headed to see Big Ben and West Minster Abbey. It was so crazy down there!! People had been camping out for a few days just so they could really see William and Kate when they came by. But it was super fun to be down there and feel the excitement.

Friday: We went to Hyde Park and sat and watched the Royal Wedding on big screens with over 100,000 other people. The park was so crowded that the police actually closed it so nobody could get in. If you left you couldn't come back in either. It was crazy! But man, it was so fun. The Brits sure do know how to party :o) It was fun being there. The energy and the excitement from everyone was so fun. And after they said " I Do" while everyone was waiting for "THE kiss" a live band started playing on the stage and they had some games to play. It was pretty fantastic. After the wedding the band came on and played Areosmiths "I don't wanna miss a thing" and they had the whole crowd singing and dancing. It was way way way fun! I was a little bummed that we didn't get to see Kate and William in person, but to be honest there is no way we could have gotten a good spot so it was just fine watching it in the park. After all that was done we walked down to Buckingham Palace and took some pictures and then headed for Trafalger Square and walked around. Then we went to see Princess Diana's memorial fountain and then headed to the hotel. It was a pretty full and fun day. I really wouldn't mind living in London. I think it is a pretty fantastic city that is really easy to get around in.

Saturday: We headed back to the Motherland and went to Koninginnedag (Queen's day). It's Holland's Tulip Time. Only they don't have parades and such. The big deal here is that everyone gets to set up tables or blankets to sell all their stuff on the sidewalk since they aren't allowed to do garage sales here. And of course they have little carnival rides and vendors on the street and stuff. But it is nothing like the Pella Tulip Time. So we went into the Mauritshuis (the museum with the "Girl with the Pearl Earings" painting) and then we went to my favorite museum, the Panorama Mesdag. This is so so cool. It is a building that has a painting that is 45 feet tall and 393 feet long. It is painted in a circular room on the walls. It is so cool guys. Seriously. Its awesome. Mom and grandma agreed :o) There are only about 37 of these left in the world. They use to be a source of entertainment before movies. People would go and see these paintings instead. At one time there were over 700 in Holland, but because of the war, and the fact that nobody visited them anymore they were destroyed. The man who works there said that there were 2 in the States. I really want to find out where they are and visit them sometime.

Sunday: We went back to Amsterdam so that we could see the Oldest English Church in the Netherlands. It was built in the 1300's and the courtyard surrounding the church use to be for Nuns. We didn't get to go to the service since we got there to late, and we didn't get to go in since it wasn't open for tours but we saw the building and read a little about it. We also wanted to go to the Anne Frank House but the like was about 3 deep and was lined up clear down the block! We tried to get tickets online but they were sold out so that was a bust. Darn it. So 2 of the 3 things we wanted to do didn't work out so we decided that no matter what we would take a canal ride. So we did. It was interesting learning about the area that we were in. I think I'll probably take at least 1 more ride before I go home in a different part of Amsterdam so I can learn even more. Then we came home and went to a Pannekoeken house for dinner with Steve and Sheila. Mom and grandma hadn't had a real dutch pancake while they were here so thats what we did. I mean really, you can't leave Holland without having a dutch pancake :o)

Monday: Well, that's today and they left this morning.

I had the best time with them. I was looking forward to it for so long and I was a little afraid that it wouldn't be all that I was expecting it to be. But it definitely was. We were so tired most of the time, but we saw so much, and had fun doing it. It was hard to say goodbye at the airport, but it helps knowing that I'll be home soon. But not before Josh comes :o)

I really hope that we get to do a trip like this again. Maybe not so far from home, and maybe not for 10 days. But I think it would be a blast to do girls weekend trips. Make memories worth repeating over and over again. :o)

I promise I'll post pictures on here. I've posted most on facebook. But right now I need a little nap before I post pictures :o) Stay tuned.

Have a great day guys. And in honor of the recent events on the news with Bin Laden.. May God continue to Bless America!

:)

My mom comes in 1 week and 1 day. YAY! I can't wait to see her and grandma!!! We are going to have so much fun. Holland won't even know what hit it when they land :o) That's really all I have to say for now. I am very much looking forward to a hug from my mommy and grandma.

You guys can pray for me these next few days. I'm flying solo with the kids. The parents are out of town for a few days and I"m on my own. I'm really looking forward to sweet time with the kids, lets pray it goes well though :o)

Happy Hump Day everyone!