Just what more can I say?! Leuk!

There aren’t many things in life which make me just sit back and think WOW! But I’ve found one that ticks EVERY box and then some...

Now you can criticise BA all you want but I had a lovely free lunch and a whole row of seats to myself. BEAUTIFUL!! Getting over that excitement, I realised that I had arrived in the Netherlands, on time and full of the jitters and the ‘OH MY GOD, THIS IS IT’ factor. Now, if you’ve never travelled to Amsterdam’s Schiphol, you won’t know the sheer size of it all. It has FIVE runways and is the 3^rd busiest airport in the world. The only downside to this is that if you land on the furthest runway from the terminal, you have a lovely 15 minute taxi ride in the plane until you get off. Now I don’t want to be picky, but I could be halfway back to the UK in that time. Although it truly is an amazing journey over hectic Dutch motorways and, well, it just takes forever! I just wanted to get off!

Once successfully manoeuvring through to the baggage reclaim, the dream had begun. Everything was going swell. After all, everything is in English first, and then Dutch. Lovely. NO! What are they doing?! Train to Utrecht Centraal Station was easy-peasy. After a brief nervously muttered words to a rather large security bloke asking how I can get to my pick up point, I was off to the 55^th summer course in Woudschoten. LEUK :)

This is where the amazement really does kick in. This isn’t a youth hostel. It is about as far away from that as you can possibly get. We’re talking 4 stars (albeit they are hammers on the sign). Tea, coffee, juice and everyone’s favourite guilty pleasure – BISCUITS – all just openly available. I’ve reached my dream life.

Brilliant. Then we get to the lunch. YUM. The snacks in between and then the dinner.

FOOD WATCH

I have no idea what I was eating but it was delivered to me by a smiley smiley waiter so I just ate away. The dessert was just out of this world too!

Oh we had a test too. Results tomorrow to see which group I shall be in!

Apart from that I’ve played Romania’s youth table tennis champion (I lost), I’ve met Germans, Americans, a Belgian, Indonesian, South Africans and a Pole! I’ve spoken German, Dutch and a mixture of the two and by and large avoided English.

Het gaat goed.

Tot straks

xXx

IT'S SHOWTIME!!!!!!!!

'Allo 'Allo :)

Well this is it. The beginning of the end of the best year of my life. Maybe.

The bags are packed, albeit a little tightly, but they're packed and that's the main point!! Hair is cut, avoiding any unnecessary confusing trips to the Friseurmeister (Brilliant name that), Euros are in and I've got a lovely new Camera to take eine Menge photos and possibly a few videos!

Serious bit coming up now......

Life has taught me many things, but it would be a bit tedious to go through everything so I want to focus particularly on a recent trip to a foreign land, which according to the photos, does look like I just went to the zoo. And no, I didn't. Although the Giraffes were FAB! :D

Anyhow.... It taught me that if you don't open your mouth and say something, then you get nothing. If you don't conjure up some words that more or less convey what you want, you get nothing and if you don't try, you don't get. Life is full of disappointment. Simple as. But I'm starting a revolution.

You need to get want you want to enjoy what you are doing to the MAX. So don't settle for second best. If you want to know the best place to get a smoothie, just ask. ''What's the worst that can happen?'' Well, you may get some Dr. Pepper, but it can't get much worse than that.

Now wouldn't it be great if we all had someone to come along with us and hold our hand which we could then squeeze so they could take over when it all gets a bit hairy! But where is the fun in that?! After all, if I did that, there'd be nothing interesting to write here...!

End of serious bit.... Phew...

Time is tight now, early morning flight tomorrow (7.05am to be precise with good old BA as long as they don't strike...). The fairytale year is coming closer. Starting with what i'm going to call my warm-up session at a Summer Course in Zeist, near Utrecht, for 3 weeks.

After that it's off to Nijmegen Uni to meet lots of Spanish and Italian people who will want to speak English. SOD OFF - unless you want to speak to me in Dutch or offer me FREE language lessons in your mother tongue :D

I may be an international Student, but I have standards. I'm here for my Dutchies and to console them after their dramatic, if not brutal, World cup loss. Although good luck with that as they're not too keen on our English ref Webb.. Who knew you could use a flying karate kick in football these days..? Ah well, let's hope they dislike the Spanish more...

Ohhhh yesh, check out the video: COMING SOON - My Year Abroad!

I Have a YouTube Channel here too: www.youtube.com/skinnerloo

I'll add videos and stuff here so bookmark me or subscribe or do nothing and miss it. The choice is yours...

I'm off now guys and girls. Don't miss me tooooo much. It's been great. See you later :D Well, the ones I like anyways ;)

Loves

xXx

It's one small step for Mankind, one HUGE leap for little old me...

WOW!!! Look!!! It's the first blog!

May I just say congratulations for finding me :) Now all you have to do is to FOLLOW ME.. Now i appreciate that that sounds a little weird, but, I'm innocent. I swear ;) just click on the right and it's done :) Thanks.

This will be just one of the several homes for my YEAR ABROAD BLOG and I will sacrifice almost everything in order to keep all my fans up to date about what I am up to!! Lucky things.. You can also find me on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/skinnerloo (hit the subscribe button!) where I'll be posting some Videos and then I'll be on the cheap Facebook immitation they call uSpace... Fabulous.

My offerings to you will include VIDEOS, BLOGS and, oh hang on, that's pretty much it. BUT that is still all fine and dandy! Oh and I offer prizes for participation so watch out for your chance to win something BIG from wherever I am!!

It'll be exciting, joyful and if you are off on your year abroad next year, then I'm sure it will be insightful for you too. Yes. Positive. Though you may want to get a second opinion

I'll share my best stories, tips and eclectic collection of STUFF in general so keep on your toes and keep it here!

Welcome to my world: It is weird, yet wickedly wonderful... :D