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