Last few minutes

Yes, everyone, the day has come.
I'm leaving Boston.
I'm so sad and it all feels so strange to be the one leaving and not the one staying after that being the routine for twelve weeks.
I've posted a little message on Facebook for my friends from EF and I'll repost it here, because it just says it all:

September 24th, 2010.
As I read all these wonderful messages that so many people sent me for my birthday, with not only “Happy Birthday!” but these genuine wishes for me to make the best of my life and the rest of my days here, I can’t help but cry over how I’m going to miss this wonderful place. Besides, even if these messages weren’t genuine and FB helped them remember that today is my birthday, I do appreciate it so incredibly much that they took at least the seconds to come on and send me a little message. Thank you all for that.
Thank you for the amazing time here; it is something that I can SWEAR I will not shut up about in quite some time. It is definitely an unforgettable experience that I would never, EVER dream of giving up.
Thank you for being these amazing people that taught me that being ME is something that I should keep up. That being shy is not bad, but that being talkative, smiley and happy about everything is something that I should not hide. With that also comes, thank you for changing me. For making me grow and become a better person, a person that without you wonderful people would still be hidden inside me.
Thank you, Chris, for screwing up all other teachers for me, because seriously, you were UNDOUBTEDLY ( ;) ) the best anyone could ever wish for! I cannot begin to describe how much you have taught me! :)
Thank you all for letting me into all your different cultures, for teaching me I don’t know how many ways of saying “F you”. Because come on, that is just basic ;)
Thank you for all these birthday wishes that made this, one of the greatest days ever! Seriously, it’s SO much fun to walk down the hall and have people hug you and congratulating you. :B

The words “thank you” seem to say everything and nothing all at once. They cannot depict the amount of happiness I experience while being here, the amount of times that I couldn’t stop laughing, the amount of times that precious people came into my life (even for only a few weeks, because a few weeks are AGES here in EF time) and threw everything upside down, just to leave again and have taken a little part of it with them.

I am crying as I am writing this because I know that as soon as this day is over, this experience will just be a memory. A chapter of my life that I wish I could go back to. I had predicted not wanting to leave, but I could NEVER have suspected that leaving would be so strange and sad and happy all at the same time. The people that were here will understand this feeling perfectly and I will not make an attempt to even describe it, because it’s hard (almost impossible even) to do so.

So once again, THANK YOU, Merci, Obrigada, Gracias, Dank je wel, Grazie, Danke, etc etc etc ;) I love you all, I will miss you more than words can describe and, how could I forget this? QUE PASAAAAA?! hahaha

__________________________

I'm going to miss this place and the crazy people so much! It's not funny that my cab already leaves in half an hour!
That tomorrow around this time I'm going to be HOME!
I will still post the rest of the pending posts though, I do think you deserve it.. hahahha
xoxo Bella

Introduciiiiiing... (pt.2)

Okay, so to continue my post about my friends.

Pia!

My crazy, energetic, Robert Pattinson-loving friend. Love you my darling, I freakin' miss you!

My friend who WILL come to Holland, because if she doesn't I will personally come to kick her a**.. :)

Country: Argentina.

Marie

My lovely, as small as I am, buddy. And my second daughter ;)

Country: Peru.

Clara & Carlota

Carlota was in my Advanced Presentations class and was soooooooo nice. Love you darliiiiing! And Clara was her friend and was also GREAT! :D

Country: Spain.

See that guy on the left? That is Octavio aka Octi.

This dude was OBSESSED with this little white box from the Chinese place in NYC. Besides, he's so funny! hahah

Country: Argentina

The two right ones: Ines and Victoria.

Two sisters that lived with me in Belmont. FULL of energy!! haha

Country: Spain

The most left: Alice

On my left: Marguerita

I have found my Alice! We were destined to meet! :D haha

Marguerita is this talkative girl that is just simply awesome!

Country: Italy

Francesco

My darliiiiiiiiiing! :D Francesco is SUPER nice and loves to talk crap.. hahaha

Country: Italy

Gabriel

This Austrian dude is THE nicest guy you'll ever going to find! :D

Country: Didn't I already say it? ;)

Heidi

My third daughter!

Yes, I have become a mother of three here.

Love you my darling!

Country: Finland

This was the end of part 2. I'll come with part 3 asap.

(otherwise it would be SOOO long!! hahhaa)

xoxo

Introduciiiiiing... (pt.1)

First I was going to do this whole post thing where I described the people and stuff and put pictures. But I have discovered that it is too hard to write all the amazing things about all these amazing people in one little post.

So I'm going to do this differently.

Carolina.

My roommate at the Cookoo's house.

Fellow SURVIVOR!

Country: Italy.

The Giulias.

Best friends of Carolina.

Left Giulia: CHIPMUNK GRANNIES!

Right Giulia: CANY LOVEEERS

Country: Italy (DUUUH)

The First Dutchie, aka Tijn

Just a pain in my a**.. haha

No just kidding dude ;)

First Dutchie I met, apparently he'd been looking for me everywhere.. haha

Country: Take an educated guess (yes, I just quoted the Nespresso commercial)

Tyfaine

My housemate in Belmont. Je t'aime ma cherie. ;)

Country: France (--> she's from PARIS!)

Lousie-Anne (aka Lou) (aka my DAUGHTER)

My Belgian friend, who later became my daughter. :B

Country: Taiwan --' NO! What do YOU think!

The Dutchies.

From left to right: Mitch, Vincent, Vincent, Leon and Max.

Mitch aka THE GIANT

When I get back to Holland I'll go to that carnival with you, dude.

Oh and BUBBLE ATTAAAAAAAACKKK! hahha

Residence: school.

Max

Don't you start talking to me about going to the movies!! ;)

Residence: school.

Vincent

My Upper Advance, Chris' Choice buddy. :D

Residence: school

Leon aka Huug (HAHA now you can't tickle me! )

You and your cookies in the limo.. haha ;)

Fellow 86-haters.

Residence: host family

I'll leave you with this for now, I have to go.

I'll finish later! I SWEAR!

xoxo

Cannot believe this

My last week is here.

No friggin' way.

It went way too fast! It's not funny..!

I DON'T WANNA LEEEEAVE!

It's going to be really strange to not go to class here anymore and laugh like crazy over Chris' sarcastic/witty remarks. Besides, what am I going to do without the iLab/Facebooking classes??

It's just going to be effing strange to not walk these halls anymore, talking English to everyone.

I'll dedicate a whole post to this when the last day has arrived though.. ;)

xx

FINALLYYYYY!!

I almost can't believe this is finally happening.

No, I didn't meet Robert Pattinson or Kristen Stewart right now.

I'm actually watching ABC.

In the USA.

On an actual TV.

For those of you who actually know me very well, you all KNOW how much I have been saying that I wanted to see ABC here.

And it's finally happeniiiiiiiiiiiiiing!

Ok, ok, I MAY be making a huge deal out of this.

It's just that I love ABC... :B hahaha

And guess what I was watching? GREY'S ANATOMY!

*in Chandler's voice* Could this BE any more perfect? :D

And then later tonight, I'm gonna watch Jimmy Kimmel Live, which is totally hilarious.

Next week is the actual season premiere of Season 7 of Grey's Anatomy.

I'm not sure if I'll watch it though... hehe Still, it's AWESOME! :D

xoxo

Lost(?) and FOUND!

I found my baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagg!!

Or rather, Luciana found it in a secret compartment of my other bag :)

YEEEAAAHHH!! :D

Genius Vid

I don't know how Jimmy Kimmel keeps coming up with these things, but it's freakin' funny!

GE-NI-US.

The bet

Participants: Me and Woud (some other Dutch guy I met here).

Goal: Not talk ANY Dutch this whole week.

I fail?: I buy him a Starbucks.

He fails?: He buys me a Starbucks.

I win?: He buys me a Starbucks.

He wins?: I buy him a Starbucks.

Wait, something isn't right.

If this is the bet, we both get a Starbucks anyway.

I gotta straighten this out with him tomorrow.

In the mean time: I'm talking ENGLISH baby! (which was what I was doing anyway, buuuut whatever. That just means that I'm gonna get a Starbucks at the end of the week.. TEEHEE!) With everyone, including the Dutchies. We're with 5 now! :D

xoxo

Remembering Tyler

Look at the date and the people who saw the movie will know why I'm posting this.

I love you Tyler.

I am going to watch Remember Me TODAY!

xoxo

The Tale of the COOKOOO Indian Woman

Hi guys, I decided that the time has finally come, I have finally recovered completely from my trauma to tell you the Tale of the COOKOOO Indian Woman.

Okay, I was just too lazy to write a whole story.. Now I have to because it's Saturday, I'm sitting in the kitchen in my Pj's and I'm doing absolutely nothing.. haha

One upon a time, in a land EXTREMELY far away lived an Indian woman with her two daughters.

The two daughters grew up and moved away to live their lives and the Indian woman started getting exchange students to keep her company in her oh-so deserted house.

The last 4 students that arrived, two Spanish sisters, one curly haired Italian girl, a French girl and a small Dutch girl, arrived expecting the experience of their lives.

Little did they know that they would get exactly that, but NOT in the way they hoped.

By their arrival they got a two page document stating the rules of the house. This after having removed their shoes as the Woman almost went crazy when she saw that they were going to enter with shoes on.

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I'm sitting in the sun and you can see my red haaaaaaaaaaaaiirr!! :D

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Then came the time for their first meal together. The Woman said: "I can't really cook, but you girls can find things in the freezer, so you can cook for yourself. We will always eat together at 7pm and I will not make dinner if one one of you is coming to eat."

The girls were shocked by that but but it in the back of their minds because it was their first day and maybe she wasn't being serious. She couldn't be, right?

They got microwave-unfrozen burgers and pasta with ketchup for dinner. They looked at each other and all hoped the same thing: please let this be a one time thing.

As time progressed, they found out that everything at the house was very breakable, besides the house was hot and it was summer and there was only one decent fan. The toilets kept breaking and the woman kept blaming them. After which she always said that they should've just told her so she could call the plumber and get it fixed. Imagine what went through the girl's heads at that point: they were being blamed for something that wasn't their fault and they were at risk of having to pay a large amount of money for something ridiculously unfair.

And then the day came that the shower broke. The Dutch and Italian girl had gone on a trip for the weekend and when they returned they heard the most strange stories.

The toilet was broken once again, with that the shower broke as well and they were not allowed to use the shower downstairs, which basically meant they had NO shower at all.

That same weekend two other girls left the house to go home and they had left the room absolutely filthy. The Woman got mad and started throwing the books that were supporting the bed (yes, you read right) down the stairs. The French girl was taking a shower (in the then still working shower) and when she got out she was going to her room in her towel and the woman made her clean the bathroom and the French girl's own room IN HER TOWEL!

Yes, strange things were happening to the girls in the house.

The Woman kept having discussions with the Italian girl about the fact that she doesn't talk English in the correct way. And it was the EXACT same discussion every time.

It was as if she'd forgotten all about it!

These kinds of incidents kept happening and it started going from annoying to very disturbing.

The girls didn't want to go back to the house anymore in fear of having to talk to the Woman again.

They went multiple times to the organisation responsible for putting them there to get them out, but nothing happened.

Once they were al eating and the girls had decided they wanted to eat hot dogs, so they bought everything, even OFFERED the Woman if she wanted (she said no) and then she just sat there looking at the girls eat and when the Dutch girl said in answer some question: "I'm not very picky about food." and then the Woman decides to "mingle" in the conversation and says: "Yes you are. I make food for you and you want to eat hot dogs while there is turkey in the fridge!" The Ducth girl had always avoided discussion with the Woman, but now it was too much.

She said that she olny got th hot dogs because she was in the mood to eat hot dogs! That nothing was wrong with eating hot dogs when they wanted to!

To make a long story short these discussions lasted until the very minute all the girls left the house. All of the girls except the Dutch one went home, with an experience they wished they never had (at least not of the house, the rest of the memories were THE BEST) and the Dutch girl was transferred to another family. One that was not in a land far far FAR away, but actually a 10 minutes walk! Half an hour before the Dutch girl left she asked the woman if she could look for her bag and the woman got mad because she had been there for one month and never even mentioned it! The girl had to go clean her room again and when she came back downstairs she asked the Woman again: "Could I go look for my bag?" and to her utter surprise the Woman answered: "Why didn't you ask for it earlier?!"

The Dutch girl left the house then, without her bag and moved.

Now she lives in a home where there is food, the people are VERY nice and she can just walk to school instead of having to deal with three buses every day.

And she lived happily ever after :)

This is REAL.

xoxo

The land of Obama

Until I come up with enough inspiration to write the whole report on DC and Philly and whatnot, I'll just leave you with some pictures ;)

Kisses from the White House ;)

And from the Thomas Jefferson Memorial

And from Capitol Hill

And from President Lincoln himself :)

xoxo