Tonight, at 5am, I`ll be heading towards the airport to start my journey towards Wolverhampton. The plane will be leaving at 9:40 and I`ll arrive at 10:05. Sounds like a super short flight eh? That`s what I though…until I realized the 10:05 is in English time, not in Dutch time, so the flight is actually 1h25m instead of 25m. Ah well, it`s still pretty short. I think it`s about 30 min from the airport of Birmingham to Wolverhampton, so with a bit of luck I`ll be there around 11.

You know what`s really, really, really hard? To move to another country when you`re only allowed to bring 18kg of luggage. I packed yesterday and after just packing my essentials and clothes I had reached 22kg…uh oh…I hadn`t even packed my shoes, bed linen and many more stuff which I had to bring yet. So, I was stressed, and to get the right weight I removed a _lot_ of stuff from my suitcase (with some help from my mum). I ended up taking 1 pair of jeans, a few dresses and t-shirts and underwear. I`ll have to buy everything else there when it comes to clothes, I don`t even have a pyjama!

I`m very, very, very nervous about traveling there on my own but I`m looking forward to it big time too! If I manage to get my internet set up tomorrow evening I`ll give you an update on how it all went ^_^

Today is my father`s birthday, which means that I`ll once again have to break my diet and eat pie. Okay, maybe I don`t have to, but I know that I will *grins* I still have to wrap his presents though…that`s always something I procrastinate until the very last minute.

Only 5 more days until I leave for Wolverhampton! I`m going there the 7th of September, leaving from schiphol at 9:30am (which means I`ll have to leave my house at 5am or so *sulks*)

I`ll go wrap those presents now, ttyl!

I also got loads of fun gifts that day, a Hello Kitty watch from GJ, a Disney Couture medallion from my sister (she has a matching one so we can wear each others faces ), a photocamera from my parents and a package with all kinds of stuff I love and dutch stuff from my sister and parents. Of course, I also got lots of moneeehhhh *insert foamy the squirrel greedy voice here*.

The day after most of my family stopped by (granny decided to stop by at 10:30, waking me, GJ and my sister who were all staying over…ugh). It was a very fun day, which consisted mainly of eating pie *wooo* and chatting. I got more moneehhhss and fun gifts! Love love love, now I can buy my e-reader!

I`m still excited and terrified at the same time, but I`m sure the terrified part will disappear once I`m there and have met some people.*squeals* I`M GOING TO ENGLAND!!!11!!

Tomorrow I`ll be having a goodbye party with my friends and sunday with my family. I`ll be celebrating my birthday at the same time, since I`ll be in England on my actual birthday –September 25- and I wouldn`t want to miss you on cake and pressies!

I`ll be making a separate wolverhampton photoalbum and will be keeping pictures I make there, while keeping this blog to update ya`ll on what I`m doing there.

Love ya!

Day one: It was the first time I went on a trip with my boyfriend, so that made it even more special. We went there by plane, from Amsterdam. It started out a bit troublesome since it turned out our suitcases hadn`t been paid for yet, and that the flight had been delayed for an hour or so.

For GJ it was his first time flying and he was afraid the airplane would come falling out the sky and kill us all, but luckily that didn`t happen. I never cease to be amazed by the view from a plane…Too bad you spend more time checking in and waiting for your luggage then you do flying. Once we did get properly arrive we still had to find our way into Rome itself, since the airport is a good 30 km away. We managed to catch a bus and (after facing some rude bus drivers and using our GPS) we found the hotel.

Day two: This day we decided to go visit two of the most important cultural sites of Rome, the Colosseum of and the Forum Romanum. We were pretty lucky since we were just about to stand in line for the Colosseum (which was 1,5 hours long!!) when someone approached us and asked if we were EU citizens and below 25 years of age. Since we were, we could join their English tour of both the Colosseum and the Forum Romanum for which we had to pay about half of the usual price and we could walk right past the long long line.

The Colosseum was as impressive as I thought it would be, it`s even bigger than you imagine it to be when you see pictures or video footage. There wasn`t much left of the Forum Romanum (everything was stolen to build the Vatican) but we had an amazing tourguide who told us loads of amusing facts (did you know the average roman was only 130 cm?)

Day Three: This day we decided we wanted to go swimming, since it was terribly hot (and it would continue being terribly hot the entire week). This was easier thought then done, since GJ had read about a pool near the Colosseum but we couldn`t find anything about it when we were actually at the Colosseum. Not a single sign, not a single leaflet…it was like the pool wasn`t even there. Luckily, we had access to Wifi in the hotel so we googled it, and it turned out that it was on a 3 minute walk from the Colosseum but it was so well hidden by trees that you couldn`t see it from the street…we`d actually passed it the day before.

So, off to the swimming pool we went. It was expensive, 14,50 for a day, but there wasn`t a single tourist and the water was wonderful! We spend the entire day relaxing there.

Day Four: This day we visited the Pantheon and the Trevi fountain. We were utterly incapable of finding the Trevi fountain at first and had given up, making our way to the Pantheon, when we stumbled right upon it. It sure was a gorgeous fountain. I felt a very strong desire to go swim in the fountain but unfortunately, it wasn`t allowed…you weren`t even allowed to stick your big toe in the water. (You were more than welcome to toss all your coins in though).

We spend quite some time at the Pantheon, just staring at the ceiling and looking around us (and GJ was playing games on his phone…he`s still a geeky boy! ). Eventually we returned to eat some delicious food (the pizza and pasta really is as good as they say!)

Day Five: We went shopping this day! Being a big lover of shopping, I had a great time. At first I was a bit disappointed since all we saw was Gucci, Prada, YSL, Burberry and more fancy brands which we couldn`t afford. Luckily, I`d read something about an affordable street -the Via dei Corso- and it turned out to be amazing! Best of all, THERE WAS A HELLO KITTY STORE. Yes, you`ve read that right. It was a store entirely dedicated to Hello Kitty, and it wasn`t even a small store…it was huge! I wanted to buy EVERYTHING, but unfortunately it was all very expensive so I only bought myself a fancy wallet. I needed a new wallet anyway since I managed to ruin my old one by putting diet coke in an aquarius bottle. It`s not a good idea..not a good idea at all. Turns out those bottle caps can`t handle the soda and explode, it was all over the walls and ceiling of the hotel room. So I was like
OMGPLEAZTELLMETHISDIDNTHAPPEN and started cleaning like mad, seriously finishing about five minutes before roomservice knocked on the door. I`d managed to save my butt there, but not the contents of my handbag… it was all soaked in diet coke, even my money *sobs* But hey…it gave me an excuse to buy the HK wallet!

We also visited an amazing church which was decorated with the bones of 4000 monks. It was fascinating in a really creepy way, seeing all those skulls all around you. What creeped me out most though were the mummified skeletons of some of the monks and the skeletons of small children. It`s definitely recommend you to pay a visit there though, it`s at the Via Vitt. Veneto. (You`re NOT NOT NOT allowed to make any pictures though, I picked this one from google, when a kid tried making a picture every single one in the church was kicked out until they`d found who`d made the picture…I wonder what happened to the kid who had made the picture).

Day six: This day turned out to be a whole lot more exciting than I`d expected it to be! We were planning to just make a stroll through a huge park when we ran into a pond which was filled with…well, we couldn`t see from a distance but it looked like some crazy fish! When we approached the pond we noticed that they were turtles, a LOT of turtles, at least 60 of them! They were very used to humans so you could feed them (they ate EVERYTHING, from cake to crisps) and pet them. So obviously, we spend the rest of the day feeding and petting turtles.

Day seven: Back home again *sulks*

Well, you all know how much I love the animated series Avatar (there will be a new season! Wooooo!) and you all know how much Avatar the movie supposedly sucks. Unfortunately, I couldn`t resist downloading a crappy version so I can watch it on the plane tomorrow. I know I shouldn`t, about ten people have told me NOT TO DO IT…but my desire to see avatar stuff is too big. I do apologize. When I return from Rome I shall tell you if it just sucked or if it sucked ass.

I`m looking forward to seeing lots of Jackson Rathbone though, since I consider him to be quite a hottie. I do hope he`s learned some more expressions than his ‘Omg-I`m-in-pain-because-I-have-to-poo’ expression from Twilight. (and New moon… And Eclipse…).

Hmmm….I`ll go have some dinner now, take a shower and finish packing my bags. See you all in a week! <3

But first, I`m going to Rome! woooooooo *cheers* I`ve been wanting to go there since I first picked up the classes Ancient Greek, Ancient Latin and Mythology (which was part of both classes). They were some of the most useless classes you could pick since they are dead languages but boy did we have fun during those classes. (Any of the classmates remember the Friday-afternoon-crisps-and-cola-parties with Mr. Troost?). So basically these classes left me with a desire to see both Greece and Rome. During my third year of high school we visited Greece on a school trip, travelling to all the big archeological sites of the mainland. One of the things I remember best was being stuck in some kind of cliff which wouldn`t be accessed by cars or helicopters for about 6-8 hours because our tourguide had managed to get lost. Some of the people started thinking they were going to die, but me and my friends were having quite some fun really. We were magically rescued by a bunch of monks though!

…Not really, we just ran into a monastery and stopped being lost. But ah well, it was awesome anyway. SO what I was trying to say is that I`ve already visited Greece (several times actually), but I`ve never been to Rome…I`ve never seen the friggin’ colosseum! But this monday I`m finally going to see it!

Now I can cross this destination off my list and continue on to the next ones… New York, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Next year, I`m going to visit New York with my family so that`ll be another one off the list. (Australia is one I`ll certainly visit one day though…I`ve been whining about wanting to go there since I was about five years old…I WANT TO SEE THE KOALAS).

While I`m at uni I always look forward to the summer holidays for suuuuch a long period of time. But once they actually start I always long to return to school, since I`m bored out of my mind. Since I still have a (hopefully) amazing week in Rome ahead of me I`m not quite looking forward to returning yet, but the boredom did set in.

To temporarily solve this, I decided to remove the dust and cobwebs from my Nintendo DS and install some new games. Perfectly legally ofcourse *cough*. The first game I started playing and fell in love with immediately is Scribblenauts, of which an image is added at the top of this post. The aim of the game is to help Maxwell (or any other avatar, I`m currently playing with a Ninja and before I played with a Pirate and a Bride) solve problems.

Sounds easy eh? And to be honest, it is actually quite easy but you`ll really get to use your imagination in this game. For example I managed to ride a flying dinosaur while battling zombies a few minutes ago, when the aim of the game was just to get a shiny star from a platform. I just tend to get dramatic and summon up mystical creatures to help me get to the star. Explaining the game is rather hard… but basically you get a ‘task’ and you`ll have to solve it to get the star. One of the first tasks was to catch a butterfly… sounds easy? The problem was that you couldn`t reach it…

The fun thing about this game is that you can summon up anything to help you complete your task, there`s a little notepad which lets you write a word down and the object you spelled will be summoned (this can be anything from a ball to a yeti). So to solve this task you had to summon a flower to attract the butterfly. It`s a very well thought out concept and I`d recommend it to any girl who loves solving puzzles (I`m saying girl because my boyfriend laughed at me when I showed it to him and yelled GAAAYYY (So obviously you can play it Patrick)).

NOW GO KILL SOME ZOMBIES WITH A FLYING DINOSAUR WHILE TRAVELING THROUGH TIME!

Says enough…

Anyway, I managed to finally get a room at campus at the University of Wolverhampton. I`ll be leaving the 7th of September, and will be staying there till the 12th of January. I`m looking forward to it but I`m terrified at the same time. To ease my nerves, I`ll post another picture of a koala sheep.

But first, I`m going to Rome with my boyfriend. We`re leaving the 2nd of august which is in like…a week…*squeeeeeee* I`m not sure what we`re going to do there exactly but I do know I want to see the colosseum, and we`ll have fun no matter what we end up doing. (And my boyfriend is going to fly on an airplane for the very first time!!!). To ease his nerves, I`ll give you another image of Koala Sheep.

Also, I only have three hours of work left before I`m unemployed!!! WHEEEEEE (Yeah, teenage years are the wonderful years where you can be happy to be unemployed. That`s when getting a job is super easy ). I got today off since there was nothing to do so now I only have 3 hours left next sunday. To show my excitement, I`ll give you a turtle duck.

It`s meh, Alinda! I know, i know, i`ve been gone for a long time… WELL I DONT CARE…

I`m crashing schwesterlies blog now …. But nomnom is making me, so its not my fault.

Btw sis, love the new layout… But anything you come up with is great.

I dont know if sis told you, but we started a new sport. Scottish Highland Dancing Google it, or Youtube it… but don`t laugh, lolz! Anyway, to get a little more athletic, i started a diet…. A really evil one, the kind that lets you drink water, water, water, water, water and three shakes a day Yeeey! Day three and im still standing… Even yesterday, when i was in a themepark, and my family was eating fries and chips and pancakes, I DIDN`T CRACK…

And im not even hungry! But the shakes taste like shit… so that sucks… I`m aiming to lose at least 50 pounds … Tuesday is weigh in day, ill keep you posted… In the meantime, prepare to be bored by my frustrated ramblings…

Things that i craved in the last three days…:

Donuts, fries, pancakes, chips, slushpuppie, icecream, toast with jam, coca cola…

But that because these things keep showing up on the tellie, on the interwebs, and in my goddamn books!

Got to go though, since im drinking so much water, ive started peeing like a racehorse, lolz!

XXX Alinda