Angelie and Richard: May 2012

Winter ended up being really mild here this year which gave hope for a beautiful and warm spring and hopefully a nice summer in NL. Reality has proved otherwise. We had a couple warm days in March and for the rest of the time the temperature has hung between the 50s and 60s. I still have to wear a winter jacket and scarf occasionally. We are hoping it gets warmer faster!

In March I had a 4 day trip to Spain for school. That was the week Holland had warm weather. I was looking forward to sun in Spain... but we got rain and it wasn't all that warm. I still enjoyed my time there though. Girona is a neat, charming city. I finally had a chance to practice some Spanish and by the time the trip was over I was answering everyone with 'Sí' instead of 'ja' haha!

Richard has been working hard at a project for the goverment and is looking forward to summer vacation! I will be finishing up my second year of school here in a few weeks and, well... I'm always looking forward to vacation!

I had an interview for an internship/practicum at a high school here for next year, and they chose me for the spot! In the coming month I will get to meet the people I will be working with and one of the students I will be supporting.

April 30th was koninginnedag (queen's day) again! We didn't go to Amsterdam this year because the city council doesn't allow the big concert that we always went to at museumplein anymore! The weather was beautiful that day though, so we headed up north with Richard's sister (Bianca), her husband (Marcel) and baby (Jip) to hike around in the dunes at Schoorl.

Last year we bought a groupon deal with some friends for an airsoft adventure game day in Liége Belgium. We finally used it last weekend. We weren't sure what to expect at first because when we originally bought it we thought it was for paintballing. It ended up being soooo much fun!! We all had to put army gear on and we got some heave duty guns. There were multiple groups and 2 teams were made from the groups. We were the rebels and the other group was the national troops. We played out several missions throughout the day. The setting was awesome (but actually pretty unsafe if you think about it).. it was an old broken down village-like place where windows were broken out everywhere, broken walls and cielings, manholes in the ground that you had to watch out for etc. It was at the end of an airport runway, so we heard airplanes flying close overhead and the sound of our airsoft machine guns. At the end of the day the score was tied 2-2 for missions won. I still have a red spot on my leg from being shot on the first mission haha!
Here are some recent pictures!

We went out to a dance cafe with the students
on our last night in Girona. It was funny
because the highlight of the evening was not
dancing and music, but...
BINGO hosted by these rumba boys! haaha!
It was entertaining for a while, but it took forever
and we just ended up heading back to the hostel
after a while. The Dutch students were determined
to show them what a 'real' party night out is like
when they came to Holland.

Traveling transavia to Spain...

Taking off and going up with the sun.
I had to be at the airport at 4.30am!!

Girona by night.

Girona by day.

Our hostel

View from the bridge crossing in to historic old Girona

Waiting for the train at Barcelona airport

One of the nicer days.

One of the presentations from a social worker
at a foundation for youth

Lunch in Spain is like dinner at 2pm..
real dinner is at 8pm or later!
The youth learning culinary skills to use in
the job market made our lunch. YUM!