Wednesday Story!

Ok, this has not happened before this year: a Wednesday Story!

Last week was filled with getting ready to leave lovely London. First of all, I had to leave my room in Bow in East London. After packing all of my stuff (which is A LOT), I moved everything to Greenford, in West London. Fortunately, I had some help from Kirsten and Lauren. So now, I am a West London-girl! Just for a week though. My friend Carly needed someone to take care of her two cats while she is on a holiday. 

The last week and a half have been crazy busy: handing over my work at Netberg, packing, moving, taking care of the cats and, unfortunately: saying goodbye to people. Yup, that time is here again. After leaving Swansea I thought I was done saying goodbye to people that I met there. But i kept seeing a lof of my lovely Swansea friends during my time in London, which was great of course! But it also means I have to say goodbye to them again. It started with Rachel last week, and yesterday I had my last drinks with Roma. This weekend I will hopefully see Manvir as well to give her one last hug. But that is not all: I also have to say goodbye to my London people! I'm really gonna miss my collgues at Netberg, after working with them for 5 months. Fortunately I will see a few of them in Amsterdam in August and hopefully this will be the start of an annual reunion! I also have to say goodbye to my housemate and good friend, Lauren. We met on the night we both moved in to the house in Bow, and we have been good fiends ever since. 

So this weekend is filled with goodbyes. But luckily, it's also filled with fun things! Tomorrow night, my mum will arrive in London, ready for a weekend of all that London has to offer! And after taht, on Monday I have to say the biggest goodbyes of all: to the UK...

Love,

Yolanda

Busy busy busy!

The end of another week. The start of a cold.
This week has been crazy busy, hence not enough sleep, hence a cold. But I have to say, it was worth it!

After a few 'normal' days at the Netberg office, I went to a fancy party at DSTRKT near Piccadilly Circus with some friends on Wednesday night. It was supposed to be a 'Made in Chelsea' party, where the cast would be, and they would film. I'm pretty sure that was just some PR talk to get more people to the party because I just saw two people of the cast, and no camera's. But ah well, the party was good anyway :)
And then on Thursday night, it was finally time for the World Cup to start! I don't normally watch football, but when the World Cup is on, suddenly my football-fan-side comes out! It was fun to watch the opening match, but of course, I was waiting for Spain vs. the Netherlands on Friday night....
But before it was Friday night, it was Friday. I went to an event at Google Campus to listen to people from the industry to talk about Social Media strategies. Google Campus is a place Google set up for (tech) entrepreneurs. They offer office space, opportunities to get advice from Google employees, opportunities to pitch ideas, and events to learn. It was a really interesting day and I learned so much more about Social Media than I already knew. Of course, I will be leaving Netberg in two weeks, but I still have enough time to share this knowledge with the team before I leave.

And then... the big game!! I didn't really believe in the Dutch national team, as many others with me. But still, to represent my country, I showed up at the office (where we would watch the game altogether) in my orange t-shirt. And I'm glad I did because Holland was a-ma-zing!

The previous night, Rachel had arrived in London! This is our last weekend together before we both leave the UK. So we planned an amazing trip: to the Harry Potter studio tour! But first, it was time for breakfast, which we had at my favourite place around the corner from my house. After that, we made our way to Leavesden. The tour was amazing! It was so cool to see the sets and the props from the movies. To see with how much detail these were made, was really impressive. But mostly it was a trip down memory lane for us, because we basically grew up with the books and the films.
After our journey back to East London, we headed to the pub to watch England - Italy. It was a really bad game and England lost, but the vibe in the pub was really fun anyway!

So today, another Sunday. A Sunday where I really have to say goodbye to Rachel, after sharing so much with her this year. Also a Sunday where I have to start thinking about packing, as I am leaving this house next week already. And a Sunday where I have to think about all the things I still want to do in London before I go home in two weeks....

Love,
Yolanda

Perfect London

Wow, this week London was perfect.
On Tuesday night, I went to an 'Introduction to Mindfulness' meeting. This was done by the Leith, who also runs the philosophical meet-ups on Friday night. It was really interesting to learn a bit about mindfulness, and to do some meditation. Unfortunately I cannot do Leith's Mindfulness course, because I will be going back to Holland soon. But it's definitely something I will explore more in the future.

After having a nice week at work, we got the Friday off! The weather was really nice so I decided to go to Camden and walk along the canal to go to Primrose Hill. Primrose Hill is one of my favourite places in London. It's a really nice park in London with, of course, a hill. When you walk up this hill, you have a beautiful view of the London skyline. Priceless.

At night, I was going to a philosophy meeting with Kirsten and Lauren again. When we arrived at the restaurant, Leith wasn't there. Due to a misunderstanding, he did not show up. So it was just Kirsten, Lauren, me and a lady from Colombia. She actually turned out to be a consultant/life coach for business people in big corporations. So she offered to be the facilitator that night. And we had such a good night with the four of us. Good food, some drinks, and good philosophical conversations.
We went really deep into the concept of different emotions, and how those emotions are linked to the past, the present, and the future. Turns out, most of the negative emotions were linked to the past and the future, and the positive emotions were linked to the present. So it should be easy: be in the present. But of course, it's not that easy. We are mostly thinking about the past or the future. We concluded that sometimes it is useful to think about the past, because we can learn from it. And at the same time, it's useful to think about the future, because we can prepare ourselves for what is coming. But when you are not learning or preparing: don't be in the past of the future. Be in the present.

With this in mind, I really enjoyed my weekend. After doing the usual Saturday stuff (laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping) I spent most of my afternoon and night in the pub. I have to enjoy the British pubs while I can, right?

Today was just perfect. After waking up with a minor headache caused by a few pints from the night before, Lauren and I made our way to Greenwich. And it was amazing. The weather was so good, and it felt like being on a holiday. Even though we had a view of the London skyline, Greenwich really doesn't feel like London. Lauren and I walked around like real tourist, and spend a few hours sunbathing in Greenwich Park. On our way home, we stopped at Tesco to pick up some nice food and wine. We ended the day drinking, eating and listening to music, while enjoying the last sunshine of the day on our improvised balcony. It was a perfect housemate day. Actually, Lauren and I are so much more than just housemates. She is really on of my favourite people ever, and I am gonna miss her so much when I'm gone.

So that's it, only three weeks left! Fortunately, these three weeks are filled with amazing plans. Read all about it next week ;)

Love,
Yolanda

It's JUNE already?!

I know it's getting old but I have to say it again: time is going by so quickly! It's already June!

This week was another nice working week at Netberg! Especially Friday: the bosses were out for a meeting and my iPhone was connected to the boxes. This meant: DISNEY PARTY. Listening and singing along to all the best Disney songs. Yes, I am still the only girl at the office. So yes, the boys were also singing along (probably louder than me...).
After that, we all went down to Borough Market and had a lovely lunch together. We went back to the office and did some more work. Just a bit of work, because it was time to play football! After the football, we all rushed home to shower, change and eat dinner. I actually managed to do all of this within 1,5 hours! We all met in the office again, to start drinking, because it was Tom's leaving party! It was a crazy night filled with enough alcohol, and salsa dancing to techno music(yes, that was my fault...)

Saturday was Saturday. And I stayed in bed for most of it.

I did get a very exciting email! For a week now, I have been looking for an organic farm in Italy to work for a week. And I got an email from one of the farms that I can come in July! Hopefully, everything will go as plannend, and I will work at a farm in Suvereto, Toscany!
Today was a lovely day as well: I went to St. James' Park for a stroll and to film for the video about my time in London that I'm making(stay tuned, I'll post it to my blog sometime in July!)

Also, some more Netberg news: I wrote a press release about our launch event, and Friday afternoon we sent it out. There are already a few online magazines/papers that published it! You can see it here.

Love,
Yolanda

One month left...

Hello everyone,

I know it's boring to say it again, but: another week flew by!
A few days ago I realised that I only have about a month left in London. At the end of June, I'm gonna leave the UK after living here for 10 months. So it's time for ''YOLO!'' again! This means I will fully enjoy the city, and do all the things that you can only do in London.

The first thing is: my internship at Netberg. With only 5 weeks left, I will fully enjoy working with the Netberg guys, playing football with them, ignoring them while they talk about football, and eating chocolate biscuits with them.

Second thing is: going to things Kirsten invites me to. Friday night, we went to a Mindfulness meeting together. It wasn't so much meditation, but more discussing quotes by philosophers and other wise people. I didn't know what to expect when I went there, but it turned out to be a lovely evening. We were with a very small group of people, enjoying some nice food, and meanwhile having discussions about beauty(the theme for the night), but also about love and life. I actually regret not going to meet ups like this earlier, as it is a really nice way to to something else with your night. You never know who you will meet and what you will talk about.

This Saturday morning, my alarm went off at 7.30. Why? Because I wanted to get some first row day tickets for the musical ''Once'' at the Phoenix Theatre. After waiting in the queue at the box office, I got two tickets in the middle of the first row!
After that, I had some time to kill, and I made my way to the National Portrait Gallery. After walking around in the museum and having a cappuccino, I got on the tube again. On my way to meet Manvir for lunch in Shepherd's Bush. This is really one of the best things about living in London after studying in Swansea: I can still see my favourite Swansea-people from time to time!

Last night, it was finally time to go see Once. I had discovered the beautiful music about a year ago, and I wanted to see it since then. ''Emergency engineering work'' at Mile End station almost ruined that. Thankfully, bus 25 got me to Tottenham Court Road faster then normally, and I made it to the Phoenix theatre on time. Once was pretty amazing. The actors were not just actors and singers. They were also musicians: playing the cello, banjo, drums, guitar, violin, etc. The story wasn't that strong or moving, but the music: WOW. It is so special to see a small group of people work together like that to create
amazing musical moments. Another cool thing was that the audience could go on the stage during intermission, to enjoy a drink at the bar. In the end, Kirsten and I didn't have a drink because the drinks were even more expensive than what's normal in central London, but we did walk around the set of the play.

I really can't wait for all the other things I have planned for my last weeks in the UK. I intend to enjoy every second of it, before returning to the Netherlands.

Love,
Yolanda

Netberg's launch and rockaoke!

Hello everybody!

This week was an important one! 

First of all, we had the official Netberg launch on wednesday night! After working really hard on it for a few weeks, it was finally May 14th! It went really well and I learned a lot from it: bot preparing for it, and working during the event. If you want to know more about how it went, you can read the blogpost on the Netberg Blog about the event! (Which I wrote by the way!)

After the excitement and the stress of Wednesday night, it was time to blow off some steam in the weekend! Friday night, Lauren, Kirsten and I went to a bar in Kensington for some Rockaoke! You might be wondering what this is... It's Karaoke with a live band! And it's FUN. The list of songs we could choose from was filled with some rock classics: ''I will survive'', ''Nothing's gonna stop us now'', ''We are the champions'', etc. It's probably the most fun I've had on a night out in London so far. Everyone was cheering each other on and dancing and singing to these amazing songs! 

Lauren and I wanted to sing ''I will survive'' but unfortunately there wasn't enough time for everyone to sing, and we were among those people... But Kirsten did get chosen to sing! She sang ''It's nor unusual'' by Tom Jones. And she absolutely ROCKED it!

On Saturday, I was a bit homesick. All of the sudden I just really missed the people from back home, and living in Utrecht. London is an amazing city, but it's pretty intense to live in. It's not like living in a city in Holland, where you can just jump on your bike to go see a friend. So it's a good thing that I've got a friend living in my house! Lauren helped to cheer me up by baking our very own chocolate cake. Most of you have never seen my kitchen, but let me tell you: it's very small and we don't have a lot of quality cooking supplies... So it's quite a challenge to bake a cake. But we did it, and it tastes pretty good too :)

After going out last night, I woke up with just one though on my mind today: I want to go to Victoria Park and lie in the sun! Fortunately, the weather was amazing. So Lauren and I spent a few hours sunbathing in lovely Victoria Park! 

So, summer is finally here! Hopefully it will stay... It is England after all.

Love,

Yolanda

Abertawe

Hello everyone!

Time for another Sunday Story. Surrounded by all the laundry drying in my room, it is truly a perfect Sunday: staying in my jammies, having breakfast in bed and watching the Inbetweeners.

Last night I got home late from my final trip to Swansea. All I can say is this: it was pretty much the perfect way to say goodbye.
I arrived Thursday afternoon and started getting ready for AGM with Abi, Andi and Anna. While we were putting on our make up and doing each other's hair, we were catching up and telling all of our stories about what had happened in the last three months. After that, we made our way to 360, by the beach, where AGM was held. It was so nice to see everyone from Canoe Club, all dressed in their sunday best! After that, it was time for my last night in Sin City ever, and it was great! Weird music, cheap drinks, free toast with butter: it doesn't get any better than that.

Friday morning it was time for the perfect cure for a hangover: Uplands Diner. With half of the Canoe Club, we had some greasy food, and hared our stories from the night before. Then I went to campus to meet Rachel and Cristabel to go to Mumbles. It was Rachel's 21st birthday and we had some lovely food and ice cream in beautiful Mumbles. I spend the rest of my hangover-Friday on the couch, drinking and eating and catching up with friends. Perfect :)

On Saturday, Abi and I took the bus to Rhossili Bay. I had been there twice before, but yesterday that place managed to take my breath away again. After walking around, I bought this pebble in the shop there(see picture). It says cariad, which means ''love'' in Welsh. And how I love that country.

And then it was time go get back to Swansea, to get on the coach to London! It feels like I have said my final goodbye to Wales, and I did it in the perfect way: going to all of my favourite places and seeing my favourite people :) Wales, fi cariad i chi!

Love,
Yolanda

Back in London!

Hello everyone!

So this week I got back to London after an amazing 1,5 weeks in the Netherlands. Monday morning, I got on the bus, hoping for one thing: a safe journey home without a delay. Unfortunately, the Gods of the Eurotunnel didn't listen to my prayers: yet again, I had a delay. It wasn't as bad as the first one: I arrive in London 'only' three hours later that initially planned. This did mean that I had to travel home during the beginning of the tube strike... In the end, I got home at 10pm: totally exhausted, but also happy to be home(especially because lovely Lauren cooked food for me!).

On Tuesday morning it was time to get back to work! I really missed all the guys in the office, and it was really nice to be back in the office. In a little bit over a week, we have our official launch! It will be hard work, getting everything done, but I'm sure that we can do it!

And I am lucky: just like my friends and family in the Netherlands (who celebrate Freedom Day tomorrow) I also have monday off! Yet another long weekend: I just can't get enough.

This coming weekend I will go back to Swansea for the very last time... It's weird to know for sure that it will be the last time. When I had to leave before it was always: ''I'll be back! Don't worry, I'll see you guys another time!'' But this time it will actually be the last time that I am in Swansea and that I will see everyone. But I am sure this will be an amazing weekend, and the perfect way to say goodbye to Swansea!

Love,
Yolanda

Lang leve de Koning - long live the King!

Hello everyone!

Here I am: writing from the Netherlands. This past week in the Netherlands has been 'truly gezellig' (like Obama would say).

I spent the week enjoying the Netherlands. Being away this year has definitely made me appreciate my homecountry more and more. The first few days I was running around the Netherlands to see as many friends and family as possible. On wednesday night, it was time to pick up Rachel and Christabel from the busstation. My Canadian friends that I met in Swansea spent a few days with me in Holland to visit me and the country. We did quite a lot of sightseeing, and it was fun to see my country through a tourist's eyes. We went to the Zaanse Schans, had stroopwafels and stroopsoldaatjes, had a picknick in the park, went to the Anne Frank House, did a canal cruise, went to the flower market, etc, etc.

We had the perfect ending to their visit: King's day! Yesterday, we went to Utrecht, my University city, to pre-drink at my old house with my friends from Uni. Then we went into the city centre and enjoyed all of the orange madness! After a few hours dancing in the sun, we ended up at a house party, and in the end: on a boat. We are still very proud that we managed not to fall into the Canal.

Today, I will pack my suitcase to return to the UK for the last time this year. I still have two more months at my internship, and to enjoy living in London with my lovely housemates, friends and colleagues. I will have to say my final goodbyes to everyone in Swansea as well. It's quite weird to think that the next time I will be coming back to the Netherlands, it will be to actually move back here. After this week, I have to say I am also quite excited to move back to Utrecht and to live in the Netherlands again, even though saying goodbye to the UK will be very difficult...

Love,
Yolanda

With love, from the Netherlands

Hallo allemaal!

Yes, I am back in the wonderful country of cheese, tulips and freedom again!
Last week, after a few days at the office, I got on the bus on Thursday morning. Unfortunately, my journey didn't go as well as I'd hoped... Due to an electronic problem with one of the train in the Eurotunnel, we had to wait 8,5 hours at the Terminal before we could get om the train to France, which only takes half an hour. As you can understand, I was NOT amused. Neither was my mom, when she had to pick me up in Amsterdam at half past 4 in the morning...

But, I was back in Holland! These last few days have been filled with seeing family and friends, and eating and drinken; just as Easter should be! This week, I will basically keep doing this. On Wednesday, my friends Rachel and Christabel that I met during my time in Swansea will arrive in Amsterdam to visit me! So I'll spend a few days being a tourist in my own country :) We'll end the week with, of course: King's Day! A day where you can wear orange, drink beer and dance on the streets, without feeling embarrassed. And morst of all: celebrate the beautiful country that is the Netherlands :)

Love,
Yolanda

The end of Lent and the first half of my London-life

Wow. It is seriously Sunday night again? When did that happen? Time is going by so quickly, it's scary.

This week was again an exiting week at Netberg. We have started planning our official launch event, and I get to help out with the preparations. It's still is a month away, but I'm sure that month is gonna fly by, so we need to focus and work hard!

This weekend was pretty amazing to be honest. A good weekend of a lot of London-fun. Friday night, it was time to catch up with Kirsten and cook and eat some lovely food. On Saturday we went to Victoria & Albert museum together, and afterwards we enjoyed some of the most beautiful places of London: The Borough of Chelsea and Kensington. We even ended up in Harrods and we were almost crying because all of the beautiful night gowns. Mostly because they were expensive and we will probably never be able to afford them...
Saturday night, I had a social with work. We went to this place near Westminster Bridge (where I got to enjoy the sunset over the Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, while I was waiting for my colleagues who were late, so it was a blessing in disguise). We played table tennis and pool all night, while enjoying each other company and of course: had a few beers.

This morning I went to Palm Sunday at St Paul's Cathedral. I had never been inside, and I thought: ha, why not go to a service, without having to pay the entrance fee. As it is the Holy Week, I thought: there must be something special going on at St. Paul's this week. And I was right: this morning, there was a re-enactment of the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, with a procession of palms led by a donkey from Paternoster Square, which is right next to the Cathedral. After that, there was a Eucharist service. I am so happy that I went this morning. It was very special to be able to see St. Pauls like that, while listening to the amazing choir and the Bible stories. The procession before the service was also really special, with in fact not one but two donkeys!

As this is the Holy Week, it is also the last week of Lent, so of me not eating meat. I was surprised that I didn't struggle that much with not eating meat. I saw it as a test for myself. I have always been talking about how I just want to eat organic meat, as it is better for the animals and the environment. But it is quite hard to get(especially in restaurant and pubs) and expensive. Therefor I thought: ah it's to hard to just eat organic meat, I'll just eat any meat. That's why I stopped eating meat during Lent: to see how much I would really miss it. Turns out: I'm ok without it. Therefor I have decided, if I want to eat meat, I have to be sure it's organic.

This week is not just the countdown to Easter, but also for me to go home for a bit! As much as I love London, I can't WAIT to be home on Thursday night. I can't wait to see everyone!

Love,
Yolanda

Whoops!

Oh dear, it was been more than two weeks since my last blogpost. So this blogpost now is wrong in two ways: it's a week late, and it's on a monday.
Ok, so I'll try to put these past two weeks in one Sunday Story, here we go:

I can hardly remember what happened the first week of the two, which probably means that it wasn't too interesting. I guess I just worked and spent my free time hanging out with friends. Oh, and I wrote my Work Placement Progress Report and handed it in. I had to hand this in 8 weeks after the start up my internship. And then I realised: I've been here for that long already? WHAT?
It's safe to say that these two months have gone by so quickly. I guess it's because I just got used to London, and the people, and made it my home. So I'm just really enjoying my time here, and you know what they say: time flies when you're having fun!

The second week was a little bit more eventful. First of all, things are starting to get more and more busy at my internship, which is really good because that means Netberg is doing well! Last week, I even got to represent Netberg with on of my bosses at Google Campus, at an event for start-ups. (see photo)

Other than that, I saw a lot of lovely people that I hadn't seen in a long time. First of all, my sister and her boyfriend came to visit London! I had a lot of fun showing them around, catching up, and spoiling my sister for her birthday. I also had Sunday-afternoon beers with two friends I met during my time in Swansea, which was also lovely.
And of course, there was a crazy night out in Shoreditch. Again.

So now it's April 7th already. Which means I'm going back home for a bit in 10 days! Although I will definitely miss London and my people here, I also can't wait to go back to Holland for 1,5 weeks. I really need some fresh air, a better shower-head and especially: cuddles from all of my lovely friends and family :)

Have a lovely week everyone!

Yolanda

A short one this week.

Hello all!

This week was a pretty good week again. Unfortunately, the lovely weather has left London. But at the same time, it's finally officially spring! That's why me and my housemates thought it was necessary to go shopping. I'm ready for spring now with my new yellow, blue, and green nail polish (what can I say, I just love nail polish), and some summer clothes. Now we just need the sun...

Of course, I also had to work this week. My internship is still really fun! We have such a nice team of young people, and also when we're not working we all get on. We even started our own football team! Surprisingly I didn't suck that much when we played for the first time on monday night! My body was sore for three days, but let's not focus on that.

There was also enough time for going to the pub a few times, also last night. So here I am: a little tired from dancing in Shoreditch all night and shopping all day. Now I actually need to do some boring stuff like clean my room and start working on my progress report out my internship for Uni...

So this was my Sunday Story of the week. A little short and a little boring.

Love,
Yolanda

Just a lovely week.

Hello all! Once again, it's sunday night and I have to write my Sunday Story. Once again, I just want to put on my pyjamas and drink tea. Yes, it was a fun weekend.

This working-week was really fun too. After being away from London last weekend, I realised how amazing my life in London is. This week, I really enjoyed my internship. It was just so much fun working with everyone at the office. We had some amazing lunch breaks, with great fresh food from Borough market, and strolls along the Thames. Seriously, how lucky am i?
I also had some really nice evenings during the week, involving going to the pub a few times. This week, I introduced a lot of the different people in my life (my colleagues, my old friends, my housemates, etc.), to one another. And it was so nice to see that everyone got along. It makes me so happy when my favourite people here are talking and laughing with each other. It makes me feel so blessed that these people are my friends!

This weekend, the weather was again amazing in London. Saturday I went to Tate Modern with Kirsten. We were just in there for about 15 minutes, which we spent laughing at some of Picasso's paintings. Then we got some coffee and food and sat down at Tate, in the sun. It was so lovely.
Saturday night, we went out with Kirsten's boyfriend Jon and some of his University friends from when he studied in Oxford. They took us to this amazing place, called Bar Nightjar. It was like being in one of my dreams. The entire bar was decorated in 1920s style. You could see that they put so much thought and effort in every little detail. The waiters looked like they just walked out of the Great Gatsby. Alphonse Mucha's work was everywhere. The waiters were doing magic tricks, and making these amazing cocktails for us. It was simply amazing and I really hope that I get to go back there again. If not, I 'took' some souvenirs with me, so I will always remember that place.

Today was again a lovely day. Andi was in London because she was here with her parents for a few days. They flew back to the US today, so we could meet up and catch up! We got some food and went to lie in the sun in Hyde Park. A little bit later Kirsten also joined, and we had so much fun together. That's really all I want: being outside in the sun, having some nice food, and having good company. Who needs more?

Love,
Yolanda

Swansea Revisited

This week went by so quickly. 

After a short working week, I got on the train at London Paddington, to Swansea! It truly felt like a mini-holiday. Like in the rest of the UK, the weather was absolutely amazing this weekend. I have always thought Swansea was a lovely place, but this weather makes it even better. It was so good to be back in Swansea for a bit. I enjoyed Singleton Park and the beach like crazy, and I even left Swansea a tiny bit more tanned. 

But the number one reason for visiting Swansea this weekend was for my friend Manvir's birthday party. Last week, I told her that I couldn't make it to Swansea because a friend from Holland was visiting me in London. Not. A few people knew I was coming, and helped my plan the surprise. And it worked! Even though the rest of the weekend was so good, the best moment was still seeing Manvir's face on Friday afternoon when she opened the door to her bedroom, and she saw me standing there. The rest of the weekend was filled with seeing my lovely friends again, drinking (a bit too much) and enjoying the sun. After seeing Wales loosing the rugby to England yesterday afternoon (SO GUTTED :( !!), I got back on the train to London again. I finally got home at 23.30 and I woke up my housemates to cuddle and kiss them. I really missed them and the city this weekend. By going away, I realised that London is my home now, and this makes me very happy.

Have a great week everyone!

Love,

Yolanda

The lesson of my week

Hello all!

Yes, the title of this Sunday Story says enough. I don't have a lot of inspiration to write today. Everything at my internship and in my house are still really good, which makes me really happy.

This week, I was going through some old pictures on my computer. I found this one picture I took at the improvised 3rd-day-of-Christmas-dinner that me and a few close friends did when I was in Holland this December. We were picking a random small notes from a box. I don't know the correct name of this thing but ah well. The point is that I came across this quote by a Dutch poet, Vosmaer.

It's in Dutch, so I'll act as Google Translate for those who aren't lucky enough to speak that beautiful language. It basically means that most people have to many expectations of life and therefore enjoy it too little.
It is something that kept coming back to me this week, in various conversations with different people about different things. I just wanted to share this with all of you.

Have a good week!

Love,
Yolanda

Sunday, lazy Sunday

I can’t believe how fast this week flew by. It was my second week at my internship and I still really enjoy it there. Especially this Friday, because I got to work from home. I woke up early so I could finish my work as fast as possible. Around 3pm I thought I deserved my weekend and I took the tube to central London. I found this great bookshop that sells secondhand books. An hour later, I walked outside with four books that I had bought for only 14 pounds. I picked up a coffee at Costa and went to Trafalgar to sit on the steps, read one of my books and drink my coffee. This was a moment of pure happiness. Also because I still had the whole weekend to look forward to!

On Friday night, I combined the best of everything: going to the local pub with my lovely housemate Laura and my fellow interns at Netberg to watch the rugby match. This night ended with all of us in Camden, drinking more than we should have. But hey, we’re working people now and we deserve to celebrate the weekend!

On Saturday Laura dragged Lauren and myself out of bed and forced us to get ready and face the day. After a stop at Costa to get some food and coffee, we could function properly again. It was a lovely sunny day, and I met Kirsten in Hyde Park to go for a walk. I hadn’t been in a park at all since coming to London and I really missed a bit of nature. In Swansea, it took me 10 minutes to get to the beach, and just one or two minutes to get to wonderful Singleton Park. But London also has amazing parks and they are only a few tube stops away. After walking around for hours and stopping for tea and hot chocolate, Kirsten and I went home. A few inappropriate conversations in Dutch in the tube later, we finally got back to Mile End. We both went home, desperately in need of some sleep. Saturday night was again a lying-in-the-big-bed-and-watch-a-movie with Laura and Lauren, lovely!

This Sunday was an amazing lazy Sunday, and I am really surprised that I managed to write a pretty long Sunday Story on this lazy afternoon.

That said, I have to go now and get back to having a lazy Sunday night.

Love,

Yolanda

The life of a working Londoner.

Wow, this was my first "real" week in London. After settling in last weekend, I had my first days at my internship. The week went by so quickly so it's safe to say that I already really enjoy working there! We have a small, young, international team and everyone brings something different to the table. I've also been enjoying me nights off, eating with friends and going to the pub with my housemates or colleagues.

Working throughout the week really made me appreciate the weekend. In Swansea, my weekend already started on Wednesday afternoon, after my last class of the week. Of course that was nice, because I could do whatever I wanted for four whole days. But after a while, that got kind of boring too. This Friday morning, I was walking to the tube station to get to work and I was so excited because the weekend was almost there!

And what a great weekend it was! After enjoying not having my alarm clock wake me up in the morning, I went to Paddington to pick up Rachel, who was visiting me from Swansea. The trains were a disaster because of the rough weather in England but she made it to London and we managed to find each other. After dropping her stuff off at my house, we took the tube to Bank and walked over to London Bridge and I showed Rachel the neighbourhood that I work in. Then we went to the Sheaf and did what we do best: having a pub dinner with a few pints and talk, talk and talk.
After a few hours in the pub, we went outside and the weather had improved massively. The wind wasn't as crazy as before anymore and the rain had stopped. So we decided to have a little evening walk along the River.

Today we had a nice slow Sunday morning and then we went to Brick Lane with my two lovely housemates Lauren & Laura. We did some shopping and then we enjoyed the best thing about Brick Lane: food food food. We had some Dutch poffertjes, and they were pretty amazing. After that, we all had a great international dish from the food market for lunch. Then it was time to take Rachel back to Paddington. It was so nice to have her in London with me for a bit, but it also made me miss Swansea more.
I went back to central London to meet Lauren & Laura for coffee. The coffee was supposed to give me more energy, but instead in got really tired suddenly. So I went back home and had an amazing bath. (So so happy that I live in a house with a bathtub again!)

I’m now in my massive and soft bathrobe, preparing for another working week in London. This week will be very excited again, because tomorrow the beta version of Netberg will launch! Besides that, I have some lovely nights planned with friends in London and, again, visitors from Swansea!

Have a lovely week everyone.

Love,
Yolanda

LONDON BABY!

First of all, sorry about the delay. Except for spending most of time enjoying London and decorating my new room, I actually have a good excuse for posting my Sunday Story as a Monday Story again. It’s because we didn’t have internet in our house until tonight.

What a difference a week makes… Exactly one week ago was my last night in Holland before my big London adventure. And tonight, I’m already settled in in my new room, have met some amazing people, and started my internship!

So first things first: finding a room. This was not easy to be honest. Especially because of the tube strike that was happening a few days last week. It was almost impossible to get anywhere in London. On Thursday night, I decided to just try to get to East London because I had found an agency that was letting rooms in East London. So with a lot of optimism I started my journey from Greenford, where I was staying with my friend Carly, to the agency in Langdon Park. Two hours later, I finally arrived there. Like my friend Rachel said on Skype that day: you definitely don’t live in Swansea anymore.

But it was worth all the trouble, because that night I viewed a room, and decided to take it! I could move in on Friday already, so it all went very quickly. By that time I had no idea who my flatmates were gonna be, as it was a new property for the agency.

So when I was unpacking my suitcase and I heard someone at the door, I was quite nervous. I was afraid that there was gonna be a middle aged, scary man coming through the door and saying: Hi there, I’m your new housemate!

Fortunately, that didn’t happen! A really friendly girl my age walked through the door and clearly really relieved that I wasn’t a middle aged, scary man either. (See Lauren, I named you in my blog!)

For the last few days Lauren (who is from Luxemburg and is also doing a internship in London) and I hung out a lot and we’re both so excited to live in this nice house together. A day later, we met our other housemate which is a British guy, somewhere in his twenties. Tonight, our last flatmate moved in. She is our age, from Germany, and is also doing an internship. I’m very excited about my new home! My room is really nice and cozy, but because of these girls, I really think it could be a really fun new home.

And then the reason that I came to London in the first place: my internship at Netberg!

Today was my first day, and it was pretty amazing! We work with a really small team. It is basically just the co-founders and the interns. It’s a young, fresh, international team just consisting of guys. So this means lot of conversations about football. It is also really nice that we’re all international, young people who just moved to the city, so we can share experiences.

Even though it was just the first day of the job, and I don’t know exactly what I will be doing yet, I’m really excited about the internship. I think I am going to learn a lot, and will be challenged, which is a good thing.

Now it’s time for bed, as I am a working Londoner now!

Love,

Yolanda 

Double Sunday Story

Last week was the first Sunday since September that I didn’t write a Sunday Story. It was a few days after I had left Swansea, and I was too busy enjoying being home.

These last two weeks were, to be honest, very weird. First of all, I had just a couple of days left in Swansea. I spent those last days packing, walking around Swansea, and enjoying the company of my friends.

On Wednesday night, my lovely housemate Matt cooked me the very British dish Toad in the hole. It took a while before it was done, thanks to our horrible oven, but it tasted great in the end. On Thursday, it was really time to say goodbye. It’s safe to say that a lot of tears were shed that day. That was mostly because I was sad to say goodbye, but also because I felt incredibly blessed that I had such a great time in Swansea.

The first few days home, I really enjoyed being back in Holland. I enjoyed the best shower ever in my moms’ house, speaking Dutch, and seeing my friends and family.

After that it was time for, as we say in Dutch ‘’het zwarte gat’’, which literally means ‘’the black void’’. It was hard being back home, while my friends in Swansea were still there, with each other, without me. It was strange being in Holland, but not being able to move back to my house in Utrecht and start my life again. Fortunately, this passed after a few days, and I started enjoying being home again.

These past few days, I spent most of my time being with friends, and preparing to go to London.

I will leave in two days. I am really excited to go back to the UK, and especially London. The first few days I’ll work very hard to find a room. Hopefully, I will succeed in this so I can move into my own room before my internship starts. You’ll read all about it in my next Sunday Story I guess!

Now it’s time to pack, print out my bus ticket, and other boring stuff. Thankfully I will go ice skating on the temporary skating rink that is build in the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam this afternoon. After that, we plan to eat Dutch ‘’stamppot’’ and drink red wine. Sounds like a good Sunday to me!

See you next week, when I’ll write about my first few days in London.

Love,

Yolanda

Decisions - Keuzes

For weeks, I have thought about this blog post that I’m about to write. I have been thinking about decisions. We all know that every single decision we make influence our lives one way or the other. This is the last Sunday Story I write in Swansea, and I’ve been reflecting on the decisions I made while being here. The funny thing about decisions is that you never know how they’re gonna turn out. The moment you have to choose between one thing or the other, you have no idea if you will end up regretting that decision. Sometimes, you can look back on something and think: I wish I had done that differently; maybe then it would be better. But you can never know if this is actually the case. Looking back on my time in Swansea, I do know for certain that my study abroad period could not have turned out better than this. 

My decision to spend my study-abroad period in the UK started all of this. A combination of circumstances made that I would spend this semester in the small city of Swansea in Wales. After that, it was my decision to except the room in the house that Swansea University offered me. At the time, I was hesitant about it, because the pictures of the house did not look that good. Afraid I was going to be homeless if I didn’t take this room, I accepted it. When I first walked in 172 Rhyddings Terrace, I saw that the state of the house was far better than the pictures let me believe. So instantly I was happy that I did decide to say yes to this room. Meeting all but one of my lovely housemates that evening, made that feeling even bigger. Because of two of these housemates, I made the decision to join Canoe Club, a little bit after that. I had had one previous experience with a canoe, and it wasn’t great. But I thought: I’m going to try this, even though I’m scared. Maybe it will be fun. And fun it was. That most of the fun (if not all) was when I actually wasn’t in a boat, is not important.

But before all of this, I took part in a pre-sessional course offered by the University. I was hesitant about doing this because it cost a lot of money, but it in the end I am so happy that I did it. Because meeting great people all started with this. I now not only have great friends in the UK, but also in Germany, Canada, the USA, and even some new friends in Holland.

I feel so blessed because of these last months. I never dreamed it would be as amazing as it has been. In a way, I’m already homesick and missing Swansea, even though I’m still here. Because I’ll be doing my internship in London, Swansea will just be a couple of hours away. So I know for a fact that I will be back here within the coming months. At the same time, I know it will be different then. But still it eases the pain. This sounds very dramatic, I know. But truly, I can not even imagine how difficult saying goodbye would be if I was not gonna stay in the UK.

I think this should be the end of my very philosophical and dramatic final Swansea blog post. These last few days, I will be seeing a lot of people to say goodbye, and I intend to enjoy every minute of it.

Coming back to making decisions, I can say this: I don’t regret making any of them. I am aware of how special it is to be able to say that. So I would like to take a moment to thank all of the people who made this happen, also from the Netherlands.

Love,

Yolanda

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Tijdens de afgelopen weken heb ik al nagedacht over de blog post die ik nu aan het schrijven ben. Ik heb veel nagedacht over keuzes maken. We weten allemaal dat elke keuze die je maakt invloed heeft op het verdere verloop van de leven, hoe klein of groot ook. Dit is de laatste Sunday Story die ik vanuit Swansea zal schrijven, en ik heb na zitten denken over de keuzes die ik heb gemaakt tijdens mijn tijd hier. Het ding van keuzes maken is dat je nooit precies weet wat de consequenties zullen zijn. Het moment dat je een keuze maakt tussen het een of het ander, weet je niet of je spijt zal gaan hebben over  je keuze. Soms kan je terug kijken op iets en denken: had ik het maar anders gedaan; dat was het nu beter of gemakkelijker. Maar je kan dat nooit echt zeker weten. Terugkijkend op mijn tijd in Swansea weet ik wel zeker dat mijn study abroad nooit beter had kunnen zijn dan dit. 

Mijn keuze om mijn study abroad in de UK te doen begon dit allemaal. Door een samenloop van omstandigheden kwam ik in Swansea in Wales terecht. Na dit was het tijd om een woonruimte te vinden. Er werd mij een kamer aangeboden door de University. Ik twijfelde of ik de kamer wel of niet moest nemen, aangezien het huis er op de foto’s niet fantastisch uitzag. Omdat ik bank was uiteindelijk als zwerver in Swansea te leven, heb ik toch ja gezegd. Toen ik voor het eerst 172 Rhyddings Terrace binnen liep zag ik dat het huis er stukken beter uitzag dan de foto’s me deden beloven. Dus onmiddellijk was ik blij met mijn keuze om de kamer te accepteren. Toen ik diezelfde avond m’n leuke huisgenoten ontmoette, werd dat gevoel alleen maar groter. Door twee van deze huisgenoten ben ik lid geworden van de Canoe Club. Ik had daarvoor één ervaring met een kano gehad, en die was niet erg positief. Maar toch dacht ik: ik ga het gewoon proberen, ook al ben ik doodsbang. ‘’Misschien wordt het wel leuk’’, dacht ik. En leuk was het zeker. Dat deze leuke tijden vooral buiten een kajak plaatsvonden, is niet belangrijk.

Maar voor dit alles, heb ik een pre-sessional course gedaan wat aangeboden werd door de University. Ik twijfelde eerst of ik wel mee zou doen omdat het heel duur was, maar uiteindelijk ben ik zo blij dat ik het heb gedaan. Want het ontmoeten van geweldige mensen begon hier. Ik heb nu niet alleen fijne vrienden in de UK, maar ook in Duitsland, Canada, de VS, and zelfs (nieuwe) in Nederland.

Ik voel me zo gezegend na deze maanden. Ik had nooit durven dromen dat het zo geweldig zou zijn. Op een of andere manier, heb ik nu al heimwee en ik mis ik Swansea al, terwijl ik hier nog ben. Omdat ik mijn stage in London ga doen, zal Swansea maar een paar uur van mij verwijderd zijn. Dus ik weet zeker dat ik nog (een paar keer) terug zal komen. Maar tegelijkertijd weet ik dat het dan anders zal zijn. Toch verlicht het de pijn wel. Ja dit klinkt heel dramatisch, ik weet het. Maar ik wil er serieus niet eens aan denken hoe het zou zijn om afscheid te nemen, zou ik niet in London zitten aankomende maanden.

Ik denk dat dit maar het eind moet zijn van mijn zeer filosofische en dramatische verhaal. Aankomende dagen zal ik nog veel mensen zien en gedag zeggen, en ik ben van plan om van elk moment intens te genieten.

Om terug te komen bij het keuzes maken: ik heb van geen van mijn keuzes spijt. Ik ben me ervan bewust hoe speciaal het is om dit te kunnen zeggen. Ik wil hierbij iedereen bedanken die eraan heeft bijgedragen, ook vanuit Nederland.

Liefs,

Yolanda