Week Twelve

Personal

A person needs at intervals to separate from family and companions and go to new places. One must go without familiars in order to be open to influences, to change.  Katharine Butler Hathaway

The last Family meal altogether

This week was a very exciting week personally for me as my mother came to visit, she arrived in Amsterdam on Friday and I spent Saturday with her just walking around and taking in what little sunshine there was. It’s strange to see her after three months, I didn't realise how long it was because I've been having so much fun.
We walked through Vondel park which is huge and just caught up with all the things that had been happening at home that I had missed, it was very hard to leave her on Saturday evening and I did get a tad emotional but I know that I will be back home In just two months and I really should make the most of the time I have left here.

Eimear's present

On Tuesday we celebrated a big event, Eimear’s 21^st birthday, after spending a few days recovering from our celebrations on Saturday night which ended with a dilapidated bike and a few cuts and bruises, we decided to take it easy and throw a party in our kitchen instead, it was great to have everyone together having fun and doing the Erasmus dance.

 On Wednesday we started our new semester which meant new classes to look forward too, we spent the afternoon laying about at the canal topping up on our sunburn and screaming ‘row row row your boat’ at the rowers going past us, we also discovered a petting zoo near to Vossenveld which we shall be visiting more in the coming weeks to feed the ponies.

Slush puppies

I had my first visit to the Nijmegen brewery on Thursday afternoon, it is such a lovely spot and we sat sipping a cold beverage under the shade of a few cherry blossom trees, Darren and I also treated ourselves to a slush puppy and a few new items of summer clothing. Friday was a very sad day for us all as it was the last time we all sat together for a big Erasmus family dinner one of our dear friends is only here for three months and will be leaving us to go back to

Our French friend Dojo 

France, a few of our friends have taken these two weeks we have off classes to go back home and see their families. For the dinner we each cooked a dish typically found in our country and had a giant buffet, then we went around the circle taking about how we first met each other and the fond memories we shall take away with us. I was personally shocked at how quickly these three months have gone by and am dreading the thought of us leaving here to go home, I know that as much as I miss home, I will miss my home here and the family that we have made for ourselves and I know that I would be heartbroken having to leave now when we have so much more left to see and do.

It doesn't matter where you are now; you are nowhere compared to where you can go. Bob Proctor