Home sweet home

21/07/14

So it's day 24 back in New Zealand, which is pretty crazy when I think about it. While it's so nice being back with my Tucker family again, I also have a whole other lot of emotions that I am dealing with!

I guess I have to tell you all how my trip back went! Before I even started the trip I had to stress about packing my bags! This was a BIG drama. I had to sad good bye to a few items and stop myself from buying anything else before I left! I had 34kg in my suitcase and could only take 30kg! I also had my handbag full of books - weighing a wopping 6kg -and a backpack instead of a small suitcase that had a good 6kg in it. I had my fingers crossed hoping that they would let me get away with a handbag that looked like I was trying to pack my whole bookshelf into.
The massive haul of a trip started on Wednesday the 25th when I had to say good bye to my awesome host family and all my Spain friends. As a parting gift to my family I gave them a clock adjusted to New Zealand time and wrote a letter to them on the clock face. Their parting gift to me was a bracelet (which I'm sure my host mum would have picked out) and a spanish fan with little things written about me on it. It was very sweet and I did cry a wee bit. I knew I was going to miss my host mum, and I do.

My host family dropped me off at the train station where I met with all the other AFS students to travel to Madrid. This journey was a solid 9 hours long but I was lucky to be one of the only ones who got given a bed instead of a seat (they obviously listened to all my panicking about being exhausted before I even started my long journey home to NZ!) Despite the fact that I was given a bed 2 hours into the trip, I still didn't get much sleep (maybe 3 hours) and was very tired when I hopped off the train. After that we got taken on a bus to a university residence which was actually really nice, we all had our own bedroom and bathroom each, I thought that we would be sharing a room with quite a few people, which I was not looking forward to. When we got there we got to settle in for a while before we headed off to explore Madrid. I'm not going to lie, nobody was very keen on this idea... I mean it was nice getting to see a bit of Madrid but we were all so tired and just wanted to eat and relax.

That night we met with all the other exchange students who had done an exchange in Spain but that were from all the other areas outside of Cataluyna. It was pretty cool meeting with them again! I love hearing everyone's accents and learning about their countries and experiences.
I stayed up as long as I could that night because I knew I would probably have to say goodbye to the majority of these awesome people and would never get to see them again! That's one of the best and worst parts of a student exchange - you meet so many amazing people and leave your heart in so many different places.
There were 5 groups of departures leaving for the airport at different times the next day and I got up to say goodbye to the closest of my friends. I was the only one with a late night flight and so I had to leave with the 2pm group even though my flight was at around 10pm. That completely sucked. I had to wait in the airport for about 8 hours which made my journey seem so much longer than it should have been. I had to say goodbye to Katy one of my best friends at the airport which was pretty hard. I'm glad to say that she and Zanete will be coming to visit me in New Zealand in 2 years :)
Luckily I checked in all my bags without problems after I rearranged my things so that my suitcase was not overweight. I had so many emotions as I finally entered the departure gate, I couldn't believe I had lived my dream and it was then coming to end. I just can't explain that feeling.

I'm glad to say that my trip back from Spain was better than the trip to Spain, even though I didn't have Hugo the other New Zealander travelling back with me. From Madrid to Dubai I was sat to a mum and her son who were nice enough and I got a wee bit of rest on that flight. The best thing was that from Dubai to Melbourne and then Melbourne to Auckland I was seated next to two girls my age who were really lovely. It was really interesting talking to them and they made for lovely company. I managed to watch 3 movies on the trip back and got a few hours sleep in. The trip went quicker and because I had bought flight socks, my feet did not swell up which was a relief!
Little did I know, there was a great surprise waiting for me in Auckland! As some of you may know my Mum and sister Katie had gone to America for 2 weeks and I was told that they would arrive back before me. They had no other choice!! But the thing that I did not know was that they had arrived back in Auckland the same day as me and that they would be waiting for me there!! When I walked out with my suitcases and everything the first thing I saw was my sister Bex, her boyfriend and my sister Katie holding up a big welcome banner! You can imagine the smile that broke out on my face! Then suddenly from the side, came running a beautiful woman, crying... you can guess who that was! My mum! As soon as I saw her I burst out crying and I was just the happiest girl ever. I had been thinking about that moment for so long and it was amazing.
After the tears and hugs, smiles and more hugs, we got a bite to eat and chatted for a while. It was so strange to just be hearing english all around me again. Of course I had to demonstrate my spanish skills though.

The flight to Christchurch went fast and I was so grateful to be sitting with my mum and my bestest friend. Funny story. My mum had actually planned this whole thing ageees ago and had just never let on, I had no idea, and so when I discovered that my flight seat was in between two strangers (or so I thought) I moved my seat and placed myself next to a window a couple of seats back! My Mum was horrified to find out that I had soiled her carefully planned plan! hahaha Luckily after pleading with the airline, she got it sorted, and I was put back with them again. Good one Victoria!

My Dad and my brothers were waiting for me at the Christchurch airport and I nearly had a heart attack! My Dad was just the same as always but my brothers... they were HUGE. To me, it looked like they had been on steroids! I was so shocked at how big they had gotten and their voices had dropped. So scary. When I left they were a good head shorter and I still thought of them as my little brothers, now they're like wee men. Kaitlyn did try to warn me. It was a nice trip back to Timaru, just sitting there, soaking in my family. It was so nice just hearing their voices again, laughing with them. I missed them a bunch.

Now I have been back a good 3 weeks. Everything was strange at first. Nothing had changed really, Timaru is just the same small town I left. But I still feel weird. It's as if I suddenly don't belong anymore. I know that I now have wanderlust, but it's more than that. The way I see people, the town and everything around me is different now. It's better, unexplainable. I may seem the same to the people around me, or they may notice that something is different, but I can guarantee that they won't be able to quite put their finger on what it is. That's the thing about an experience like the one I have lived, it's so life-changing, in so many ways, but I don't even understand it fully myself.

I have caught up with a few friends since I've gotten back and have repeated myself over and over, telling stories about my exchange. I miss all my friends back in Spain and my AFS student friends who are all over the world, but I am happy to have some good old kiwi company again. That's something I am really grateful for, my friends, no matter where they may be. :) I love them all!

One of the first things I did when I got back was meet my niece, Lilly! She is absolutely beautiful and I was so happy to finally hold her in my arms! I have been so lucky, being able to go and visit my sister, spending time with her and Lilly. I know my sister loves having me around to help and to chat with.

At the moment I am having a kind of break whilst doing lots of little bits and pieces that need to be done, so I have time to visit them. I am currently searching for full time work, I need to save money for university next year, and I am also working on some final NCEA 3 assessments that will allow me to complete my certificate. It's nice having spare time and being able to organise my days how I like, but I know that I need to start working as soon as possible.

I can say that I am overall happy to be back, though it will still take some time to really settle back in. It's been so nice seeing everyone again and to find that my relationships within my family are stronger now. I appreciate them all so much now and I think it goes both ways ;)

Thanks to everyone who has followed me along my journey of a lifetime and supported me, I hope you have enjoyed reading all about it.

Love from Victoria,
the spanish girl ;)

Nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity

Day 286: 16/06/2014

JUNE 16TH!! 9 sleeps till I leave Barcelona and 11 sleeps until I leave this country. That means that in less than 11 days my life here will end. Just writing this makes me feel quite emotional. My excitement lies in seeing my family again, back in New Zealand, but I can not help but feel like I am being ripped in half. During these 10 months here in Spain, Cataluyna, I have made a second life for myself - one that can never be repeated or relived. This exchange has been the best, most challenging and life-changing experience of my whole life and even though I have only lived 18 years of it I am sure it will still be one of the most important things I will have ever done.

To anyone who is thinking about doing an exchange, DO IT. It is the best decision you could ever make. The money was the biggest problem for me when trying to pursue this dream of mine, and sure it proved to be difficult and I know that many other people cross out the idea of an exchange once they see the price but if you are determined enough and you really want it, you can make it happen. I know there are so many quotes saying that money can't buy happiness, which is true, but the money that you pay to go on an exchange buys you the oportunity of a lifetime! The things that you learn and experience are worth more than any amount of money and at the end of the day, nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity. You only live once you know :)

Soo, what has been happening within the last month?? Well I have been keeping up with the gym and english classes as per usual but I finished school on the 6th of June! I still have to finish off NCEA level 3 by correspondence back in New Zealand BUT I have officially finished high school classes forever! Wow, I must be getting old.
I am now on holidays now and am enjoying every minute of it! The sun is shining (a little too much for my pale, easily burnt skin) and the summer atmosphere is all around me. I am trying to soak up the good weather before returning to the ice berg called New Zealand.

The weekend of the 24th and 25th of May I went on my final AFS camp in Coma Ruga which was really fun, like always. This time though we were actually surprised as we weren't just the usual group of Cataluyna students that were doing an exchange, they called us "hostings", but there was also a huge group of students that were going to be participating in an exchange, which they called "sendings". So once we arrived we were unexpectedly mobbed by students taht we didn't know. The volunteers had the sendings play a breaking the ice or getting to know you kind of game where they had to go around and ask peoples names, age, where they were from and what languages they had learnt. I had barely set foot in the door and they practically leaped on me with their questions with their papers and pens going mad writing what I said down. I have to admit that I felt like the paparazi was after me.

After this we were then split of into groups, organised by country, so that the "sendings" could ask us "hostings" questions about our countries. I was very surprised to find that there were two students going to New Zealand! I was also given the South Africa headed students as there was no one from South Africa (luckily I have South African friends and had heard a few stories from them). It was actually pretty cool getting to talk about my country as I am pretty proud of it and I was super pleased that they actually chose to go there (that was until I found out that if you want to do a 2 month program you only have two options, South Africa and New Zealand, and so it wasn't as if they had chosen New Zealand out of a huge list!)

Once we had covered all topics from school to fashion, we had a small break which included some snacks and then were separated into "hostings" and "sendings" where we when participated in different activities. We had a sort of reflection time, discussing what we had learnt from the year and talking about differences we had discovered. The volunteers then told us that we had to prepare a special ceremony for the "sendings", just as the volunteers had done to us previously. It was basically to demonstrate that we can't always assume we know what things mean in different cultures and that we have to be careful and respectful. We planned the ceremony out before heading to dinner, a buffet type dinner, and then went downstairs to prepare ourselves. We dressed up using our white bedsheets and we painted our faces all differently as if we were from some strange tribe.
It would be quite difficult to explain as it was quite a weird activity but it basically just involved us demonstrating some sort of ceremony that the "sendings" did not understand and did not have any idea what was going on so that we could show them the importance of what I mentioned earlier about culture differences etc.

After this activity us "hostings" were taken into a small room where we had to sit around in a circle and there were candles in the centre. It was all quiet and serious. The candles in the centre were to be lit or blown out by individuals (if they wished) representing something positive or negative that the person had experienced throughout the exchange. It was quite awkward at the beginning as people were quite hesitant to share in front of the whole group but little by little more people got into the activity. It turned out to be rather emotional as it dawned on us that our time together was so amazing and it was coming to an end. There were a few tears and a couple of loving embraces shared as well.

The next day we woke up and had a nice breakfast and everything was pretty laid back. We were given bright orange AFS t-shirts to wear and were split into groups to either participate in rock climbing or go to the beach. I chose to do the rock climbing before heading down to the beach, it was fun just chilling with everyone, chatting about whatever came to mind. I love how there is ALWAYS something interesting to talk about with my AFS friends.

After the beach we headed back up and took a big group photo of parents, students and volunteers, just everyone really. I realised that we were actually such a big network of people. All too soon it was time to say goodbyes and head back to our own host homes again. I am always sad to leave my AFS family. We really are like a big family.

Aside from my AFS friends and family I have also made friends in school here in Spain you know! :p So as I mentioned, I have finished school now and as a farewell we had a dinner for me the other night at a restaurant and then went out afterwards! Just people from my class came to the dinner but just about the whole year level came out to party! We all met up and headed off to the beach to carry out the party. There was no music (unfortunately) but everyone just had a nice time hanging out and talking on the beach. It was nice chatting to students that I had only ever seen around school but had never really talked to before, I was surprised when quite a few knew my name and who I was despite this.
As a special thing to take back to New Zealand with me I also bought a flag and had my friends sign it for me. It is now full of nice messages from my friends and classmates :) It is pretty cool being able to say that I no longer need to communicate with anyone in english as my spanish is fluent enough! :D I would say that I have had a decent level of fluency since March.

This month I have also enjoyed a nice weekend in Girona with my host family! We stayed at their Girona house like usual and made a trip to the beach and to their garden. The pictures can probably so you how nice it was! You should know that the smiles in my photos are always genuine! I really am enjoying life and I do enjoy being with my host family, especially with my host mum who I now think of as a second mum!

Yesterday I arrived home from a non-mandatory AFS trip which I chose to participate in. Wow, it was a rough weekend. It started off Saturday morning with catching the train to Premia de Mar, arriving at 12pm. There I waited for everyone to arrive (most late as always) and we walked down to the beach. It was a pretty hot day and we all straight away stripped off our clothes (down to our bathing suits of course) and took off into the water to cool off. The water was cold, as you would expect, so I wasn't brave enough to spend that much time in there. Turns out that we were at the beach for a solid 6 hours! I had to lather myself with sunscreen and wear my tourist-like hat all day! I am so paranoid about getting sunburnt because my skin is sooo white and doesn't have the ability to tan but rather turn red like a lobster... luckily I didn´t get any sunburn whatsoever.

7pm came around and after waiting for a boy to arrive, who had lost himself on the train, we had to walk all the way from the beach to the mountain where there was a restuarant, that was like 2 hours worth of walking. (The AFS volunteer that was with us thought it was hilarious to tell us that we would be walking for just 1 hour, then he would change his mind and say 2 hours and then 3...) We had dinner there and then had to walk further up the mountain to where we would sleep, this was about 45 minutes of walking . We set everything up in the grass, with no shelter, and then it started to rain. So we had to pack everything back up and head back down to the restaurant to sleep outside under a roof outside. The floor was cement. So uncomfortable. We had to wait until all the people left the restaurant until we could try to sleep which was around 2.30am. I then somehow managed to fall asleep from like 3am till like 4am but was startled awake when it started absolutely pouring down with rain and there was thunder and lightening - it was the loudest I had ever heard it in my life! It was pretty scary to be honest! So the water started going through the roof and the restaurant owner let us move inside to sleep on the restaurant floor. Slept from about 4.30am till 8am when we were woken up by the owner as we had to pack up and be out of the restaurant because they were opening.

With only a piece of bread with chocolate in it (it´s considered a breakfast food here in spain) and a box of juice as energy we then headed back up the mountain (a little bit further this time) to where we would be meeting our host parents to take photos and participate in an activity.

The activity included making flour bombs and then when the parents arrived we would have a flour bomb war. That was quite amuzing I must say! We all looked like crazy bakers. I looked whiter than ever! All flour-covered (expect for the wussy parents who used their cameras' as an excuse not to participate) we went back to the restaurant, in cars this time, and shared a big lunch.

Even though it was probably the worst night sleep I have ever had it was actually a pretty awesome weekend. This was due to the company I had of course. Zanete my best friend wasn´t there and I missed her presence A LOT but I still enjoyed being with all my other AFS friends. I really will miss them so much :(

So I think that is about all there is to write about! This will probably be my last blog before I leave Spain, which is a really sad thought, so I hope you have enjoyed!
Ahhhh I can't even explain how I am feeling right now. I can't wait to see your amazing faces back in New Zealand but I wish I didn't have to leave so many people behind here! I am torn in two!!

Anyway, hope everyone is well where ever you are in the world at this moment! <3

Lots of Love,

From the spanish girl :)

Back to my roots in The Netherlands

Day 242: 04/05/14

Life never stops to give you the chance to catch up on things, for that reason I have not had time to update my blog since last month! Hope everyone has been well! We have now arrived in May and , for me,that means that there are only a few 54 days left before my journey will come to an end. Sad and exciting thought right there! I am looking forward to seeing everyone again but I don't want to leave behind all these awesome people here!

So probably the most exciting thing that has happened over the last month would be my trip to The Netherlands! Okay no, definitely the most exciting thing! Absolutely beautiful I must say. This opportunity came about when I met my host family's family from Holland who came to visit us in Spain. I got along really well with the 19 year old daughter and was invited to stay with them in their home sometime if I would like to! Of course I wanted to but I wasn't sure if it was possible. So after about a week of thinking it over I went about planning and organising and doing all I could to make it happen. After getting my real parents' permission, I then got my host parents' and then AFS's. I was worried that I wouldn't be allowed to go but was relieved to find that no one had any objections. Holidays were coming up so I had a few days off school for my trip . I bought tickets and arranged a trip from the 16th of April until the 23rd of April, so I had 6 days in Holland. You can imagine how excited I was!

I arrived in Rotterdam (the city where my host aunty and uncle etc lives) at about 11pm and was collected from the airport and driven back to the house. First thing I noticed was that the houses were all so perfectly aligned and it was just such a different atmosphere compared to the one in Barcelona. I somehow felt more at home. I think this might have had something to do with the fact that there was a lot more nature, more green and canals everywhere, but also might have been because I have a little Dutch blood in me! My Grandfather on my mum's side is originally from Holland but moved to New Zealand when he was young. Consequently I felt like Holland had some sort of special connection to me!
Entering the house I discovered that my bedroom for the week was in the attic, I had to climb two sets of stairs and a wee ladder, and the stairs were crazy! The steps were so thin and I felt like I had only enough room to place my tippy toes on each step as the stairs went upwards rapidly. I suppose that they are this way to save space but people who live in The Netherlands are used to these stairs anyway.

First day in Holland I rid my first typical dutch bicycle! There are more than 13 million bikes in Holland with a population of approximately 16.5 million this is almost one bike per person! There's honestly bikes in every direction! I can understand why though, I mean first of all, the bikes are cute as and after that, the way you sit is just so relaxed and comfortable and since Holland is a flat and small country, the bike is a great way of getting around. I really wish I could have a dutch bike back at home!
Francesca, my host cousin and I rid our bicycles to the metro station as we were going to go visit The Hague, another town close to Rotterdam. In The Hague we enjoyed a nice lunch, a little bit of souvenir shopping and some sightseeing. I loved absolutely everything from the old style buildings to the bright blooming flowers. I don't really know what I had expected to think about Holland but I think that my expections were not nearly high enough! I'm sure that I went on and on about how much I liked the houses and gardens!

Notice all the bicycles lined up in the first picture?? Crazy huh!

After spending the day in The Hague we went home and had a nice family dinner. The dinner conversations were mostly in english but there was also a bit of dutch and catalan in there too. It was so strange to be talking in english so much as I was so used to speaking in spanish but whilst I was in Holland I spoke mostly english. There was a noticeable difference in the english ability in Holland compared to that of Spain :3

After dinner Francesca and I made plans to head out for the night. After not dressing up too much, due to the cold but also due to the fact that Francesca had warned me that the type of party we were going to was quite a different kind of party. By this I mean that people wore whatever they wanted. A onzie, a dressing gown, paper bag if you felt like it. The party was in a town named Delft which is a town full of university students and the party was being held by a specific group from the university. You could call it a sorority party? You know like what you see in the american movies? Makes me realise how boring the parties for the youth are in NZ... am I right? haha
In Delft we met with some of Francesca's friends and it made for a pretty enjoyable night. Though I am always happy when there is good music and a good dancing atmosphere!

Second day in Rotterdam I woke up to a nice typical breakfast with toast and butter! There´s never bread and butter in Spain, only oil and tomatoes! Both countries will argue that their way is better I´m sure :p
The weather for the day looked like it would be alright so we decided to do some sightseeing around Rotterdam and a little bit further. First stop was the famous windmills. Of course I couldn´t go to Holland without seeing the windmills!

After the windmills we just travelled around looking for beautiful churches and buildings. I tell you, I´m absolutely in love with the way the houses are in Holland!

Don´t you just love it too?? The countryside and sheep really reminded me of New Zealand, though I don't know of any other country that has as many sheep as we do!

Francesca and her family have a garden behind there house and this was so nice! I mean Spain is great but it could really do with some more grass, more green!

Just behind their house and over a little bridge there was also a huge park with a mini zoo and an amusement park for kids. This was pretty awesome I must admit. I mean, if I was a kid again I would absolutely love to play there, I would probably be able to play there for hours and hours on end... it was that awesome. Entrance would usually cost but Francesca and her family have a full year membership and can enter whenever they want so I got to go in and have a good look around, even had a turn on the swan pedal boats :3 There were heaps of playgrounds, big and small, a go kart zone, a water ride that shot you into the water, and this house that had everything giant sized inside. Giant jumping beds, hide and go seek wardrobe (not quite like the wardrobe from Narnia) and a huge bird cage.

On the Saturday morning my host mum took me in the car to find tulip fields and take photos! I was very lucky to be in The Netherlands at the time I was because the tulips were all blooming! There were sooo many colours, I had no idea there were so many! I wanted one of every colour to put in my own garden back home!

After the tulip fields we paid a visit to Madurodam! Madurodam is a big centre that has a lot , if not all, of the beautiful and famous attractions of The Netherlands in miniature version. The miniature versions were done so well, with such great detail, that I think if anyone couldn't visit all the places they wanted in real life, they could just visit them in this centre. I really enjoyed being able to see everything from bird's eye view too as I think I would not have been able to see things so clearly from street level. In fact, I had visited one of the buildings that was shown off in Madurodam but I hadn't even realised it before because it looked so different walking through the middle of the actual streets. The only annoying thing about Madurodam was that it was crowded with tourists, but hey, I guess I was one of those annoying tourists too :p

After enjoying a nice afternoon snack at the expensive Madurodam cafe, Francesca and I met up with her friend and hung out in a park close to the centre. It was a really nice day and we made the most of it listening to music, making daisy chains and climbing trees. I have come to realise how much I love just laying down in the grass, I could pass hours reading in the garden...if there was one here :p We really take grass for granted in New Zealand!

Saturday night we had Indonesian food for dinner! First time I had tried it and it was really nice (not quite as spicy as I would have thought though)! After dinner we took the bicycles and biked for half an hour to the central and stopped off at a bar where we were to meet up with Francesa's friends who were celebrating a birthday. On the way to the bar we met up with another one of Francesa's friends and because we were 3 people with only 2 bikes we had to do that very typical dutch thing where they carry someone on the back of their bike. I did a wee run and jump onto the back and felt ever so dutch hahaha. It's funny imagining my Grandad doing the same thing with one of his dutch girlfriends back when he was young and living in Holland.

Easter morning, Sunday of course, it was a nice day and I shared a lovely breakfast with the family. I was surprised to find out that eggs had been hidden in the garden... by the easter bunny of course. It's a Tucker family tradition to have an easter egg hunt and I'm not embarrassed to admit that I still love doing it. Usually I would go to church with the family on easter sunday too but I didn't end up going this time. Instead I spent Sunday out in the sunshine with my host aunty on the bicycles. We had a tour around the town and just talked about life. It's surprising how much you just appreciate the little things in life as you get older. I can imagine my younger self getting bored so easily, but now I take life day by day and always find enjoyment in the small things. There is so much to be thankful for, it's so sad when people just can't see it! My exchange has definitely helped me in this way, to be more positive and grateful, and I would definitly recommend the experience if not only to improve the way you or your child views life!

Anyway! Monday seemed to come around so quickly and before I knew it I was off to visit Amsterdam. Amsterdam was about 30 minutes from Rotterdam by train so it was super easy to organise a visit there. Unfortunately I have lost all of my Amsterdam photos as my Iphone has been stolen and I had not had the opportunity to upload any photos from Monday onwards... sooo I would recommend looking up pictures of Amsterdam to get a good idea of what I would have seen. In Amsterdam we went around the central and saw the typical things including red light district. In all honesty I actually enjoyed Rotterdam more than Amsterdam. I am not sure why but I think that I am just a small town kind of girl. I have grown up in tiny Timaru all my life and I could easily live a bigger town (in fact, I would like to) but it might take some time to adapt to a big city. I mean I am very sociable but I don't like when people are always in my space and I don't like getting lost or feeling insecure. In saying that, I feel more confident with independent travel now that I have done an exchange. You really do have to learn to navigate, use maps, translate messages and ask strangers for directions.
Overall I thought Amsterdam was a really cool city and just like what I had thought it would be, definitely a good place to visit if you are young and looking to have some fun with friends. I did some souvenir shopping there and found some nice wee gifts for my family back in NZ including some dutch treats! I am really struggling with the concept of repacking my bags for the trip back home. Even if I do leave the things that I don't want behind I am sure that I will have to wear like 10 layers of clothing on the plane to get away with all the shopping I have done during my exchange! First world problems right there...

As you can probably tell I loved The Netherlands and I am so glad I got the opportunity to go! This has got me thinking about how bad things might really have happened for a reason during this exchange. Maybe if I hadn't been with my first host family for so long I wouldn't have ended up here in this host family. I might not have had the opportunity to visit The Netherlands like I have which is pretty lucky I must say! Well that's just what I think anyway :)

I hope you have all enjoyed reading about The Netherlands and that you also all had a great Easter! I know a lot of time has past since then and I thank you for your patience :p As I mentioned, my Iphone got stolen just recently and so finding internet access and a good device to write my blog with has proven to be quite difficult!

Thanks for taking interest in my life and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask me, I love hearing from everyone :)

Love from Victoria,

The Spanish Girl :p