one day shes gonna get a serious reality check and shes gonna hae a mental breakdown cos she doesnt know how to handle it... problem is, mum n dad are gonna handle everything for her so shes never really gonna experience hardship or living off the bones of your arse to appreciate how good shes gotit... shes so spoilt and its so annoying cos she just gets handed everything!

and ive only been here 2 weeks and she hates me! lol just cos i dont drop everything and give her what she wants, when she wants it. shes the kinda girl where her whole room is pink and filled with roses (real ones... pink ones...) and fake jewels and dolls and fake fur wraps and designer dresses.... shes like a paris hilton of 7 yr olds!

grrrrrrr

6th Jan 2007
ok ive been back at "work" for about an hour and already im sick of it... why i thought being an aupair was a good idea i have no clue. i think its partly cos im waiting to get in trouble for something, as the family were back in the house before i was n so, luckily the cleaning lady came n fixed everything but maybe she missed something> i dunno i didnt do anything wrong or something... and also a bit worried that the bike has been stolen, but thats my own fault for leaving it in laren chained up for a week... this is a notorious country for bike theft, im a fool...

im already missing being with rens every day, and the freedom of being able to come n go das i please... as here i dont have that freedom and it sucks. i guess i just have to stick it out for a few months, as in march they go away for a week and im free again... and then in june they go away again for 3 weeks... but after that, who knows... hopefully ill have sorted out ssome sorta social life outside of just seeiing rens on the weekends, as im sure hed getting sick of me...

i also have a cold, and the kids are all in shitty moods cos theyre so tired... im tired too, and i dont wanna put up with their shit... im already so over it... this boring life of ironing and washing up... why anyone would wanna do this for a living is totally beyond me. for me its a means to an end, as the result ofbeing extra optimistic that this would be a cool job, but im in a family which is very nice, but at the same time expect that im there 100% for them and that i should prioritise my life around them... which sucks... rens dads 60th birthday is on next friday and i have a feeling i cant go, as theyre going out for dinner, and rens really wants me to go, but i have a feeling that theyre gonna say no... and im pissed about that i kinda wanna do whsat he wants atm sincei feel like i kinda overstayed my welcome a little (he had to study n stuff...), ni think that me not being able to go to his dads is gonna annoy him a bit... he knows its not my fault but yeah... i dont wanna let himj down...

10th Jan 2007
ok im a little annoyed here... what happend to give a little, take a little? why has things turned into only taking? this family iw ork for take take take, and give very little... I thought it was just common for ppl to think if you give something youll get something back, not the case. how naive of me really... so i had my bike stolen, well the mothers bike stolen... i hsave to pay for a new one. it sounds fair, but this family has SO MUCH money they could afford to pay for the shitty bike that im getting, the shitty bike thats costing 400euros. i get 550 a month. god only knows how much they get, but their holiday to eustralia is costing them something like18000 euros. for 3 weeks. they hasve enough money to help me out here with the bike. i mean, dont they wanna keep the person looking after their kids on good terms? its not like ie expect so much from them, that they have to make all the effort, its just that i do extra things for them all the time, i babysit for them, for nothing, i clear up after the mum n dad all the time, its not part of the job to tidy the parents room, but i have to do that, i have to clean up after these grown adults all the time, yet they cant find it in them to part with a small amount of their money 9as opposed to a BIG amount of mine...) to help meout when i help them all the time... i never get a thank you. i no its my job here, and its just all expected of me, but why not improve relations and just be friendly and nice by saying thank you once in a while? make me feel like im doing an ok job, instead of feeling like im crap all the time, and if i AM doing something wrong then tell me! maybe i dont iron fast enough idk... shes pretty picky for someone who does nothing, so it could be anythhing.

also, ive asked for a week off when my parents come to visit in august, after they get back from australia... this all seemed too hard, until i suggested that i make up the days i want to have off. so for the next 7 weeks ill only have sunday off... which is shit because rens trains twice on sundays so for most of the day i wont see him at all. whyi couldnt just get this one week off, i dont know... how could i expect her to give a little? well i hope she doesnt expect me to anymore. she hasnt given me any reason to. i could do it anyway for goodwill, but why should i make her life any easier than it already is? im the one facilitating her easy life, youd think shed be somewhat grateful, even if she is paying for it... if she wants me to stay out the whole year she'd better start being a bit more user friendly, cos atm im not happy here and shes not helping at all...

13th Jan 2007ok working tonight has been a dream... why? mum n dad arent here, theyre in den haag, so tonight ive had to babysit. its been a dream because they organised for the girl to go and stay at omas place. its amazing how much easier things are without her here... last night she screamed at me that she had more respect for animals than she did for me,which explains alot of why im happier without her here! theboys are so much easier to look after theyre much less demanding... the oldest one even sat with me n watched jamie oliver, and really got into it! n when the youngest one came home from tennis, the oldest one was really into helping make the chocolate slice, and then in making the pizzas! it was pretty cool, he listened, did what i told him to do (the girl wouldve tried to tell me what to do, like she even knows...) and looked out for his little brother ie telling him to watch out cos the pans hot etc... it just makes it so much more fun and soooo much easier!! i WANT to do things for them when theyre like this, when the girls around tho, shes so demanding and selfish that she always ends up getting in trouble or fighting with one of the boys... not fun. the boys are have a much better, chiller attitude...

i wish it was just them all the time...

PS the pizzas look wicked and smell amazing, i made my own tomato sauce by roasting cherry tomatoes and red peppers and blending them with garlic (too much actually, next time just the one clove! lol) and some passata and it smells incredible... next time im gonna put a few more things in there, asim making it for the boys and they might not like basil or too much pepper... as a rule they dont like veges, so im trying to ease them into it!

i also made my own bases and put then thru a pasta roller so theyre thin, but i used self raising flour so theyre gonna be nice and not too crispy but just perfect! theyre sitting in the oven atm n im loving what im seeing!! if i do say so myself :P

18th Jan 2007
i SWEAR to god im gonna go crazy here. im sick of being babyed and treated like im stupid... every morning this mother tells e what im meant to do that day, thing is, its the same every day! theres a list of things to do, i do them every day, and every day she tells me what to do... i mean WTF!!!! does she think that doing the same shit every day is gonna make me FORGET what im meant to do? no i doubt it... the monotony is killing me and she just reminds me of it every chance she gets... im so sick of her condescending, patronising way she speaks to me! and today i was like yeah swet i finished the ironing early, at like 10:15, i nornmally finish at 12,so i was like sweet! shes always at me that i dont do it fast enough n hinting "do all the ironing you can so it doesnt build up..." and so i finish early today and she comes in and says oh can u do t hese too? and gives me 2 business shirts which are impossible to iron. u just think of the word wrinkle and they wrinkle... i was like FUCKING HELL!!!! and then she comes out witha list of all this other shit she wanst me to do... dont i get tie formyself? am i meant to live to make her cushy life easier? no, thats not my job... i pick up after her all the time, coffee cups laying around, tea bags, cereal bowls. how hard is it to stack the dishwasher urself?? i wanna get out and explore this place but i dont have time! today is stormy as hell so i wasnt planning on doing anything at all really but relaxing and watching tele, doing my dutch honmework, but no... i have all this other shit she gives me. if rens wasnt moving outta his room to this shared house for rowing, id very seriously consider leaving and getting a job in amsterdam in a bar or something and doing other work, cos im sick to death of this job. today has been an exceptionally annoying and irritating kinda day, but shit... im not her personal maid! she always only picks up on the negative things, she'll never see any positives in anything i do. h ow am i meant to WANT to do a nything for her when i clearly cant do a thing right? she seems to think that buying me a sweater here n there or a pair of cheap thongs from argentina is gonna make me feel like im appreciated or something? its all material shit.. theres so much more value in her saying thank you, or leaving me the hell alone for an afternoon when ive finished my morning jobs...

im sick of her taking advantage of me and not even getting thanked for it.

the only reason im staying here is cos i have nowhere else to go...

28th Jan 2007i am at my wits END with these kids. their obnoxious disrespect disgusts and astounds me. their selfishness is incredible. all 3 kids act like an only child. ive had to yell, and i mean seriously yell, 3 times this weekend, because ive been yelled at, abused in some way or screamed at. the oldest kid is addicted to pokemon on his game boy and while he was away one of the other kids played it and accidentally deleted his progess... i h ave never in my life seen a more devastated person, mourning the loss of anything. ive seen ppl at their parents funerals more composed than he was. when i told him if he was going to scream and yell and kick and throw things, to go and do it in his room, he screamed at me NO IM NOT GOING!!! like really screamed... and totally in my face.. after a day with the girl pissing me off all day doing the same sorta thing i had just had enough. i yelled back at him to get upstairs right now and stay there until dinner and he was to go back there after dinner and he again, screamed IM NOT GOING! it was only until i threatened to confiscate his game boy that he apologised... and i have a personal rule that if they apologise for something then its somewhat ok. but theyre on thin ice. so i told him as long as he was sorry he could stay downstairs but hed better watch his step...

im just so frustrated... this 4 days has been fucking long, and for what, no extra pay or anything, just for the mum n dad to skiing in Lech. she'd better have a bloody good time..

30th Jan 2007
so i thought that id write a blog on exactly the things that im expected to do here at this families aupair, some ppl ask, and as time goes on, my tasks get even more menial, anal, and lazy (for everyone else). this doesnt make me happy.

mondays i have to be up and ready to go by 7:45, i have breakfast, pretty much every day special K, sometimes with bananas, i have to clear up the breakfast mess, if there is any, as the kids rarely eat brekky. they get hot chocolate from a baby bottle (even the kid whos almost 10) which they leave scattered around the tv room, which is the first place they go when they get up (they dont get dressed first, but watch tele). the mum gets them dressed and i finish off their lunches. the ids come downstairs, run around and be silly, dont brush their hair when theyre told, walk around mind numbed by game boys or throw tantrums. they usually leave late. im left to clean up the tv room which is scattered with coffeecups and rugs; i have to fold the rugs, fluff the cusions and open the curtains, as well as put the kids toys away (cos apparently theyre incapable of doing it themselves). i then have to unpack and pack the dishwasher, which has all the dirty dishes needed to be stacked strewn in the sink, often on the side with clean dishes in it, because they dont really care much about it, as they dont have to do it. all the curtains need to be opened, otherwise i get in trouble, cos the mum has to do it. i dont blame her for getting narky, opening 3 sets of curtains is quie taxing... i then have to go and make the beds. sometimes mum will make 2 of the kids beds but the kid who has a double bed she doesnt make, guess tahts too hard. i also have to make the parents bed and clear up their bathroom and bedroom (if it needs it). i hve to pick up the kids pjs that are strewn on the floor and take htem to the bathroom (mum cant find the energy or time to do that either, poor thing). the kids rooms have to be tidyed up, heaven forbid they have to do it themselves.....

then i have to do the washing and ironing. none of mums underwear can go in the dryer but the kids can, and none of the parents pants can go in either. everything has to comne out of the dryer and be folded into the ironing basket. i often get told i havent folded things right, or theyre too dry coming outta the dryer. then i iron e erything, the shop way otherwise mum has to fold everything again......... same thing goes with towels... every tuesday the bed linen gets changed, mum n dads bed is very particular, as their doona isnt the right shape for the cover (since they just HAD to buy them both even tho they dont match up in size...) so oi hav e to make sure i oput the doona in the right way, otherwise they get cranky, poor things...

i have to hang the kids coats up when they come in becuse "theres no point standing there fighting with the kids about it, they dont do it properly anyway...". so they walk in, chuck em, and walk off. i have to take the kids lunchboxes outta their bags,epmty and wash them...

and now t hat mums working, i have to lift my game a bit, since mum is "happy to cook when i get home but i want everything done, now that im working". thing is she works ONE DAY A WEEK! and she makes out that cooking dinner is some kinda huge favour to me.

this job totally blows and i cant wait to leave... i will be leving early, thats for sure, this kinda laziness and fob it off to the nanny attitude is totallu ghey.

26th Feb 2007
ok so ive found out that these kids are on a new level of spoiled.... they had good reports from school... so dad gave them each (inc the kid whos FOUR) 100euros, which is about $175AUD...

the oldest one put $50 of his own money in, and then dad chipped in another 100euros to get him an IPOD NANO.

hes NINE.

its got 8MB of storage... a kid that age doesnt even know that many songs... when i was 9 i doubt i knew 10 songs to put on there, apart from peter coomb.

so now hes dancing around the house listening to U2, cos dad likes U2 so he does too...

unbelievable.....

5th March 2007
one advantage of living with a rich family.... they go on lotsa holidays! im getting paid an extra 100 euros to stay home with the dogs (who apparently cant be left alone more than 4 hours...) when the fam go away to ski in Lech for a week. at first i was well annoyed about them asking me to stay home with the dogs, but for a hundred euros, it becomes less of a hassle :P

7th March 2007
hate this job.
hate it
hate it

these kids are so spoilt, their behaviour sometimes is beyond me, why the hell should i have to cop all their shit? why am i the first in the firing line? mummies perfect, jacqui, who does all the bloody work, is "the meanest nanny ever and i hate you". all because thijs spend HOURS on the computer and i told him to get off. he said i just wanna do this n that! no thijs youve been on here way too long... even as i was speaking to him he was playing with the controls, not looking at me. so i threatened to just turn it off, he hit me, started crying and charlotte yelled at me about being the meanest nanny etc.

im so sick of it... i have no freedom, no respect and im having no fun. weeks go past where every day is the same and its all just blurred into one. this isnt the year away i wanted. im dissappointed in the "aupair experience" if there is one. i think im a very typical aupair tho, go into it all optimistic, convinced its going to be fun... but then once reality sets in, you become a little bitter, very bored and apathetic. youre lumped with all the shitty jobs no one else wants to do. youre the hired help thats not really meant to be seen OR heard.

this isnt what i wanted, these kids are NOT my responsibility and im sick of having all their shit flung at me every time they dont get what they want. maybe i shoul djust leave and see how they like that...

10th April 2007
ive had such a shit night i cant even find the words to write it down. matthijs was like an angel from heaven tonight, calm and cool while the other 2 screamed at me... swore at me... blatently ignored me and what i told them to do... i tell them tostay upstairs, they go down, screaming at me, i even told ollie at one stage, if youre going to act like an animal then fine but you sleep in the dog basket and put him in there, he screamed at me and got out, then called me a fucky head. thats not a typo either. fucky with a Y. i told denise and she thought it was funny. FUNNY. what the HELL is wrong with her? and she has the balls to come in and look at me, and ask me, like ive done something wrong, why matthijs isnt in bed?! why do you think?!? youre other 2 children are demons and its tough to sleep on the same level as a spoilt angry demon, let alone 2!

they literally sit there and just scream till theyre red in the face... staring at me.

im looking for another job, right now.

had a bad friggin day...

Aupair Tales Part 2 remains copyright of the author jaxstar84, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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anyway, as the title says, i now have an opinion on art... well, on expressionism, which is apparently the movement he inspired. i agree wholeheartedly with the idea behind expressionism, in that it allows the artist to paint what he feels rather than only what he sees. i like that because back in the day so many governments and regimes suppressed the art world into just basic pictures with no meaning, as any hidden meaning might be blasphemous/cause for treason/ or hold negative messages or connotations for the governmental strongholds that were in pwer at the time. in this way, expressionism was a breath of fresh air in art, allowing the artist to let his heart do the painting rather than his eyes. even if it was just a picture of a field or a house, it was still the freedom they had to just paint the emotions that they held, looking at the field or house. this is what i like about expressionism.

what i didnt like about it was some of the actual paintings... i know that it sounds weird to say yeah expressionism is the ducks nuts but the pics are crap, but in some cases its true. it seemed that the freedom they had to paint what they felt, gave them reason to be a bit.. well... lazy! some paintings seemed to show the artist painting in a hurry, not realy bothering to concentrate on fully showing the form of the subject, as if you were looking at it with blurred vision. but then, its the artists feeling about the subject, so it cant be wrong, can it? other paintings however, i did like.. most of them were by van gogh. sunflowers i didnt find esp mindblowing, i didnt like the colurs or the way the sunflowers sat, they looked as tho they were dying with the browny oranges and yellows, instead of vibrant yellow and green. i liked mots of his self portraits, as i found they were consistant,and gave me a pretty good idea of how he looked. isnt that the idea of a self portrait? there were some more detailed than others and those were the ones i liked.he managed to make one of them very lifelike, even tho the colours werent 100% lifelike... some were really good painting, when i looked at the skill involved in sitting there anfd painting a field, and it coming out looking like a field. i look at things and appreciate them more if i know i could never do it, and painting is one thing thats not my forte!

There wasnt any paintings that i really liked, none that i would consider buying, but i dont really like paintings that much to buy them. theyre a bit olf fashioned for me, i prefer photography and cool prints like andy warhol and things like that. the cambells soup can is dumb in my opinion but hey, i know nothing about art! pop art is cool, and i like funky art rather than traditional art... but i can certainly step back and appreciate the things i saw, theyre popular for a reason. some of them had wicked colours, bright and vibrant and theyre the ones i liked the most, i dont like dull or bland... is this another reason expressionism is cool? i dont know, idk if excessive and out of place colour is a trademark expressionism thing to do or if you were allowed to do that before... someone who knows, feel free to tell me! my opinion is based solely on a 45 min trip to a museum about one painter!

so to sum up my uneducated opinion, the expressionism movement was cool, but most of the paintings, were not.

Dutch Art remains copyright of the author jaxstar84, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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so today when i was shopping i went to the chain Wok to Walk, which ive seen a few times and its always had ppl in there... good sign! its cool cos you can choose everything you want, you choose what kinda noodles/rice/vege base you want, then what extras (what meat/tofu/extra veg eg pineapple shiitake mushrooms etc theres about 10-15), and then what kinda sauce, n theres about 10 of them too... i chose today to have egg noodles with chicken, baby corn, and mushrooms, which a coconut curry sauce... it cost me 9.90 which was a bit steep, but i got a coke too, and the size of it was to much for me. i looked around when i got it and there were a number of ppl sharing theirs... obviously been there before!! but it was yummy, the sauce was a touch hot but it was a curry so i cant really take points off for that! i couldnt finish it so portion size isnt a problem! you get your moneys worth thats for sure! they ask your name when you pay and then they call it out when its ready which i always think is cool! There are so many different things to choose from there, and you can see it all being cooked right in front of you, which is sweet, and you know its DEF fresh, and hasnt been sitting around for ages!! Ill def go back there again...

I went to Matias' Mexican restaurant when i met rens parents. Its (again) just off the leidseplein, about 4 shops down. It has a cool interior, and our waitress was very patient when rens parents wanted to move all the time (cos rens dad was sick and there was a draught...)! We had this really yummy appetiser, which was 2 dips, a tomatoey salsa-ish one, that was a touch spicy but not much, and a REALLY good guacamole with tortilla chips. sounds boring and pretty standard but it was really nice... not sure if it was complimentary or if we ordered it...... i think we ordered it! But then i had a thing which had rice and beans (that came with pretty much everything) a little salad and 2 burritos, one with chicken and one with beef, and they were SO GOOD!! i had the same as rens mum and the 2 fellas had something else, but i couldnt finish mine, it was too much! tho i managed to eat the burritos :D they had some of the salsa/guac and sour cream dolloped on the top (not heaps but enough!) and it really was so good! i loved it... i wanted more!! I didnt pay the bill, so i dont know exactly how much it cost, but when i walked past the other day i had a look, and it was a little expensive, it was about 13-16euros for a main, so its prolly not somewhere id go again, just cos of the price, and i know there are so many other good places to go around that area! but if it was a little cheaper id be back there all the time, it was really really delish!!

Torey and I went to a place called Muy Thai which is next to or a few shops up from Matias'joint... its cheaper than there too, and its a nice place for a quiet meal, even if the guy that works there is a little creepy! I had a chicken curry and it was really nice, you have to buy the rice seperately, but we shared the rice and it was enough... it was yummy rice too! there was a little something extra in it, and it was very moreish, as was the whole meal! he bought out prawn crackers for us with a really nice dipping sauce, i dont know what was in it, but it wasnt spicy... im not good at picking out fl avours in asian food, as theres often so many in there! but it was really good, torey gutsed heaps down! But so did I haha.. it cost us about 9euros each, and we left pretty satisfied! both full and content! it was good enough for me to go back the other night and get take aways, and i got thai soup which i dont remember hte name of, but its the coconut nad chicken soup, and it was too hot for me to eat lol but im a pussy with chillies.. it did taste really good tho! just too spicy... i got 2 things off the express menu, which were 9.5euros each. i dont remember the exact combos, but i got satay chicken with rice which was dissappointing, it was 2 kebabs, which tasted SLIGHTLY of satay but it wasnt saucy, which is what im used to... maybe its authentic? and im used to the westernised version? idk but the malays in my town made satays all the time and they were MUCH more saucy and peanut-y.. and so there was nothing really to mix with the rice, which wasnt a prob as i mixed it with the other thing i got, which i have NO idea of the name, but it was beef n some veges with a runny dark sauce which tasted a little of soy but not overpoweringly of it... so not sure there! but it wasnt bad! perfectly edible but it dint blow my mind... and then pad thai, which at first i thought was bland, and then when i are more, it got better somehow lol the flavours werent at all in ur face, they were very suttle, and couldve done with more sauce, but it was still nice! if i went there again id eat it, but prolly wouldnt order it... the chicken curry was nice! i think it was a royal chicken curry or someting along those lines!

The 2nd trip torey and i made to amsterdam we went to an italian restaurant.. now atm the name escapes me, but its on the same street as the last 2 places ive written about! theyre pretty much all next to each other! there are 2 italian joints, next to each other almost, we went to the 2nd one. I ordered the tri colour bruschetta which was with mozarella/basil/tomato, it was 5euros which is a teeny bit much but payable really, you got 3 pieces which were big enough really, if you werent hungry then itd be perfect! it was nice but a bit burnt on the sides, and the tomatoes werent in season, so thats my fault for ordering it in the first place... it was very basic, but still very nice! Torey had the minestrone, but didnt really like it, cos she thought the base was made with chicken stock, and being a vegetarian, that didnt go down well with her! If i hadve eaten it, prolly woulda liked it... so ya know... if youre a vego you prolly wont like it! Then we shared a 4 cheese pizza, which was def enough for us both, youd need to be HUUUNGRY to eat the whole thing! tho its do-able, the boys could do it! the pizza was pretty nice, tho im not a massive fan of blue cheese and there was some on there. in moderation its nice but every now and again i got a big mouthful of it and its a bit strong for me! torey loved it tho... it was a very nice pizza for only having cheese on it! i saw the calzone come out to someone else andi t was massive! it seems so far, that portion sizes in the leidseplein are big! we also shared a caraf of red wine which was too easy to drink, it didnt have alot of body, but was drinkable all the sme, esp for me whose only just getting into red wine... the pizza was about 8.50 i think so to share a meal, we did pretty well! it wasnt that expensive in the end... and again, we left full! id go there again, if there wasnt so many other places to pick from! the lure to try a new place is too much!!

There are tonnes of argentinian and uraguyan restaurants/steakhouses which im keen to try out, tho i wont be able to when im with torey since shes a vego! but thats cool because eating with her opens me up to a whole diff world of food that ive never tried before, i wouldnt have chosen myself! So many places to eat, so mucht ime! its great!!

This R'dam section is just a copy and paste from another blog, but since i know some ppl read only this entry, im just taking it and sticking it in here!

Ok so in Rotterdam, we went to the Bagel Bakery for some coffee, and the city redeemed itself somewhat (since we werent that impmressed..), for having a wicked coffee! it was served in a massive bowl like thing, which looked more like it was used for soup rather than coffee, and you had to pick it up and drink it like you were geting the last of the milk from your bowl of cereal. i kept expecting to get my hands slapped for being rude lol and it tasted like it had some cinnamon or vanilla or something in it, but just a tiny bit... it was sdweet enough that i didnt need any sugar in it, which normally do! it was just really yum, and it looked like they had other really good things to eat and drink... the mint tea was served in a moroccon style tall glass with hot water and a big sprig of mint in the glass, it looked really pretty! but i dont like mint tea that much, so i wasnt really tempted to drink it!
we had lunch (at about 4pm lol) at this wicked bar place which i just cannot remember the name of... you could pick from all kindsa little finger foods, and get a platter of them, and it was delish! il oved it... we had too many glasses of wine with it, and a good old chat and it was awesome, the waiter was SO nice, he had a really good attitude, he hada laugh with us about our crap dutch, and he spoke english with us a few times, and it was all just good times! We had a platter with 2 x 7 little appetisers, and they were ll vege and fish ones, since the girl i was with is vegetarian. There was a tiny vol au vant (i KNOW thats spelled wrong..) with some melted cheese and cranberry sauce which was YUM! and a little tuna, tomato and onion tart, some really soft crumbly bread with anchovies and cheese and herbs, a tart with parsnip creme fraiche (i THINK it was parsnip, he said it was a kinda white carrot.... im assuming thats parsnip...) uuum... brioche with pesto (YUM), some white bread with salmon paste and other stuff (we couldnt quite put our fingers on it!) i cant remeber what else there was, but it was so good! If i could remember the name of it id recommend it! it was down the road from Burger King (kinda far down the road...) where you walk on a little red carpet past the clothes shops... if anyone knows then help me out!!!

Eating in Amsterdam remains copyright of the author jaxstar84, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We went and saw the building shaped like a pencil, which was built in the 50s (any dutch ppl pls feel free to remind me of the dutch name!). i thought it was ugly, but when you condsider when it was built, its cool. it was a thinking outta the box kinda building, and i can imagine there werent many building like that around at the time! right next to that are the apartments shaped like cubes, which did look cool! they were yellow which was a bit garish but it was a nice change from the grey that surrounded it... i have pics, ill add them a bit later..

we went to the Bagel Bakery for some coffee, and the city redeemed itself somewhat, for having a wicked coffee! it was served in a massive bowl like thing, which looked more like it was used for soup rather than coffee, and you had to pick it up and drink it like you were geting the last of the milk from your bowl of cereal. i kept expecting to get my hands slapped for being rude lol and it tasted like it had some cinnamon or vanilla or something in it, but just a tiny bit... it was sdweet enough that i didnt need any sugar in it, which normally do! it was just really yum, and it looked like they had other really good things to eat and drink... the mint tea was served in a moroccon style tall glass with hot water and a big sprig of mint in the glass, it looked really pretty! but i dont like mint tea that much, so i wasnt really tempted to drink it!

it was at this cafe we decided to go somewhere else... the city wasnt doing it for us, and we were looking in the book for other things to do. but upon discussion decided to go to another museum (we went to the national museum of architechture but decided not to go in), the Boijmans van Beuningen (http://www.boijmans.nl/smartsite.dws?id=2039276). not being an art lover myself, i wasnt thrilled at teh prospect really, but ya know, im still happy to go there really... anyway, it was a VERY comprehnsive collection, ranging from 14th century to modern art, some pieces being made in 2006. There were pieces by Mondriaan (i like his stuff, its pretty cool, i copied some of it in yr 10 art), Dali, Picasso, Rembrandt, and other famous artists (a few that have escaped me atm). but in terms of value for money and something for everyone, it gets 10/10. it was 8euros to get in, which is cheaper than the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum in amsterdam, and it was WAY bigger. it had a really comprehensive collection, and there was something different in every room. some of the modern art was just plain weird, and it kinda bugs me that EVERYTHING has a name ie expressionISM, cubISM.. functionalISM... if something didnt fit the bill exactly, then they just made a new category and added ISM to the end. a branch of surrealism and magic realism. uuuuh ok. the definition was meant to be that surrealism is meant to be totally unrealistic, impossible to happen, but magic realism is meant to be possible, but highly unlikely. and there was a "movement" dedicated to this kinda art. it was all just pictures of very weird things, and so i didnt really like it at all. they had displays of 60s retro kitchenware, and 70s ceramic vases (which was just packed into one room with HEAPS of boring coloured vases lol) which i thought i recognised from my mums kitchenware at home! They had art deco displays, modern furniture... there really was a bit of everything... how there was a shift in the 70s (or 80s?) to design things where function was more important than form, which left the art deco-ists in a huff lol. it was a good museum, and was the saving grace for rotterdam! the city itself isnt much good, but the museum was great! i think its the kinda place where you need a plan before you go there, you need to know where youre going, as walking around there isnt really much of an experience... not like amsterdam...

we had lunch (at about 4pm lol) at this wicked bar place which i just cannot remember the name of... you could pick from all kindsa little finger foods, and get a platter of them, and it was delish! il oved it... we had too many glasses of wine with it, and a good old chat and it was awesome, the waiter was SO nice, he had a really good attitude, he hada laugh with us about our crap dutch, and he spoke english with us a few times, and it was all just good times! If i could remember the name of it id recommend it! it was down the road from Burger King (kinda far down the road...) where you walk on a little red carpet past the clothes shops... if anyone knows then help me out!!!

anyway, i think i need to give rotterdam another chance... it wasnt bad but it wasnt good either, and i think maybe its the kinda place thats great to live, but its not a touristy place. it looked like there were some good restaurants all over the place, and the shopping looked alright, so myabe its worth another visit, when its got a better atmosphere than on a dreary sunday arvo!

Rotterdam remains copyright of the author jaxstar84, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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But i took the train on friday afternoon to get there by 6:30, as i was meeting Lucy there, a chick who came and lived at our place on exchange from south africa, like, 14 years ago. kinda weird that i was staying at her place, since i hadnt seen her in so long, and i guess, didnt know her that well lol we were emailing for like a year until now so that was a nice step, but in terms of personally knowing someone, i dont think you can really get to know someone when youre like, 7... lol. so anywya i met her (late, oops!) at the anterp centraal, after a little panic that it was gonna take ages to get from berchem to centraal. never fear readers, it only takes about 10mins! but i met her there, and since the second we met up again, it was like we;d been friends for years... I got to their place (we took the tram) a little later and met her husband terence and the 2 kids, emma and joshua. we had a coffee, then sat down for dinner, which was yuuuuum! after the kids had gone to bed lucy got out some of the pics and her diaries from when she was in australia. some of the pics were funny, the fashion was preeeeetty bad lol mum n dad have changed ALOT! well, dad hsnt changed so much, mum has tho, but i think its got alot to do with the loss of the BIG glasses and a hair cut haha..

anywya, in the morning we had chocolate croissants and coffees, and lucy and i set off into antwerp to be tourists! well me a tourist, her the tour guide, cos she knows stacks about the place! every corner we turned she knew something about the building sitting there... it made it much more interesting to know what i was looking at, since mostly, i dont! i can appreciate the architechture, the style, what theyve done with the place, but mostly i cant appreciate what it actually is, lol. we saw the catherdral, which reminded me somewhat of the cathedral in Milan, buton a smaller scale... it was wasnt as detailed or over the top as milan, but it was very impressive none the less! i havent been in a church since i left germany, and we went in. im not a fan of religion at all really, i think it causes alot of problems and i just dont agree with alot of things the bible says. however i like churches! theyre very peacful places, you relaly can sit there and just feel chilled and peaceful. quiet and cool. and they have such old things in there it makes the mind of an australian (who knows nothing older than their grandparents most the time!) boggle! they certainly dont make things like they used to! churches these days suck compared to the old ones. anywya.. it was crap weather, so we went for a coffee at EXK or EKX lol i dont remmeber the exact order, but we had little tarts with the coffee, which were yum! the caramel walnut was my fave :D we went walking around a bit more, saw where lucy used to live and the square where the town hall is.. its a really pretty city, of course there are some areas that are just normal city looking, but other areas were really pretty! It reminded me of amsterdam, yet much quainter. it has a slightly different style, im not sure what it is, if i knew anything about architechture then i could tell you what it was, but it was the same yet different if you know what i mena... it certainly attracts a different crowd than amsterdam, without the legal pot and hookers, but thats a good thing, as a'dam has too many damn bogans. its cute, quaint and has a little more charm than amsterdam i think. i still love amsterdam of course

Rens came on saturday night which thrilled me to bits, as we ont get to spend much time together since his rowing started, so to have him come to antwerp was really cool. we picked him up from berchem and just chilled at home, laughing at him, as emma was quite taken by him, and was climbing all over him, sitting on his lap, kissing his hand, telling him to pick her up etc lol shes only 3, and tiny, and hes massive, so to be lifted that high was like a rollercoaster for her! it was VERy sweet tho, he sat down and did puzzles with her, watched josh play video games, put on stupid glasses that josh bought, gave them wizzy dizzies, hes not scared of kids at all, and it was very cute, and nice to see! hes going to be a really good dad one day!

we just chilled at dinner, the kids managed to convince me (they didnt have to try hard lol) to read them a story, and i got treated to a story too, as josh wanted a dutch book but since i suck at reading dutch he decided to read it to me! lol hes actually a very good reader, much better than charlotte, and hes a year younger than her... the way he sounds things out shows that hes really learned what theyre teaching him, and hes not just memorising words (tho im sure he does that too). charlotte just tries to remember wat the words look like, and then she guesses a word that starts with that letter. shes not good at sounding things out, and sometimes i think she just does it on purpose totally wrong, just so she doesnt have to do it, thats the extent of her unwillingness to do ANYTHING for herself. even read.

anyway, after being woken up by the kids running around, banging on our door and opening the door (which was funnier than annoying, i was already mostly awake when it started! it was getting late anyway lol) we went down for more chocolate croissants (i wasnt getting sick of that kinda breakfast!) and coffee (i need a coffee break lol i drank TOO much there!) then rens and i packed up our stuff and went on our way to see the same things we saw the day before, but with much beter weather, and the camera! so ill upload the pics later on tonght.

the highlight of the weekend had nothing to do with the city of antwerp, as many ppl might expect it to be, as everyone goes on about how pretty it is there... rather, spending time with a wholly normal family. it made me see in an even clearer light the things i dont like about the family i work for now. there are good things, of course, but the negatives of how this fam is run, in my opinion, outweigh the positives. but to be in a normal family, who eat dinner together, mum kids AND dad... where the kids have to clean up their own mess, they have to do as their told, its not a time to bargain or throw a hissy fit, you do as your told. its exactly how i was bought up, and to be in that kinda environment just restored my faith in the modern family! and the fact that the kids were awesome helped too! emma is the just sweetest thing, shes so boistrous and outgoing, if she wants to play with you she's not gonna wait for you to offer, she'll come to you! she has the cheekiest smile and you cant help but wanna take her home with you! Josh was also a sweety, hes a bit quieter, but once he comes out of his shell a bit, hes a smart funny kid! he was so proud of this glasses he got from Bart Schmit, he wore them all thru the shops getting comments from all the shop keepers, and he just loved the attention! when he was reading the story to emma and i, he was always involving emma, syaing things like oooh emma look at the picture, whats behin the sink? A MOUSE! it was so sweet, and again so refreshing to see a big brother looking after his little sister. i see so much fighting, and so much "this is MINE not YOURS! GIVE IT BACK!" in this house i was beginning to think all kids did was fight, and while they certainly do that alot, some kids are jsut good kids, and they love their sisters and brothers. unselfish kids are a rare find...

probably one of the nicest things tho, was how welcoming lucy and terrence were, not only are they just genuinely REALLY nice ppl, they were just happy to have me there, and made me feel right at home. it didnt feel at all like the first time id met them (it wasnt the first time with lucy but relay, i was so young it might as well have been). theyre just an all round, fantastic family, theyre everything this family isnt... you can just tell by seeing how lucy and terrence are together that not only are they husband and wife, theyre best friends, and thats just the sweetest thing. theyre always checking up on each other, theyre totally in it together, its the total polar opposite to where i work. Theyve been thru alot together, relocating abroad, kids, jobs, houses, pain in the arse neighbours, but theyre still stuck together like glue and it all jus makes me sit back and wonder why all fa imlies arent exactly like that. why are some familes SO materialistic? why are THINGS so imoprant? money and power will only get you so far, and kids dont need that. emma and josh are surrounded by a solid routine, and alot of love, and you can see the difference it makes. it reaffirms my beliefs in how you should bring a kids up (my uneducated beliefs, since i have none of me own yet...), and what kind of parent a person should be. and it echos loudly here, as this place is fairly empty of good routines and a solid family base. dads never here, kids are always late for school cos t heyre too busy doing nothing in the mornings watching tele to get ready, adn they cant do it themselves cos theyre too damn lazy.

if they lived in amsterdam and wanted an aupair id be there in a flash... a normal family is such a blessing...

Antwerp remains copyright of the author jaxstar84, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Driving: thank god i havent had to drive yet, im a little scared to! im glad that i have the presence of mind (usually) to look both ways before i cross the road as alot of the time the ppl are driving too fast in a tiny street and wont be able to stop in time. and this was at a zebra crossing! dont ppl stop at them?? if ppl dont stop at them whats the point in having them at all!? rens told me look, if u wanna use the ZC then just walk and im like WTF are u mad look how fast theyre going! n i bet ill cop the abuse too, when someone has to slam on their brakes to avoid kiling me.. and as for ppl giving way... well i dont think theres a rule for that, as ppl pull out in front all the time, and denise, the mother of this family does it too! how there arent that many accidents i see all over the place, is beyond me! the streets are so fkn tiny n narrow n she has a BMW X5 which is pretty big n wide, i dunno how she hasnt scratched anything or buggered up a nyone elses car! tho apparently the aupair before me totally destroyed another car with the BMW... so i geuiss it certainly DOES happen!

Cheese: blooody hell, if you like cheese COME HERE! i knew that teh dutch were big cheese eaters but you can go to a bar and order a plate of cheese chunks with a toothpick in them... and you can pick between young and old cheese lol and as for the cheese section in the supermarket, damn. its like double the size of what we have. this doest come as a complete suprise to me really but its def worth a mention!

Old ppl: there are so many old ppl on bikes around here... i mean everyone does the bike thing but... when im riding to take or pick up t he kids from hockey, i see more old ppl than young ppl. by old i mean nannas. with headscarves lol this country is overrun by nannas! altho i think it may have something to do with the lifestyle here... ppl are generally more actifve here with the biek riding, and everythings so close that you can often walk, or ride the bike... so maybe the old ppl just live longer or feel more mobile than ppl back home feel at the same age. i dunno... worth lookin into!

Dog walking: why is it necessary to walk the dogs like10 times a week? i mean shit... dogs need walksim ALL for dogs getting walks but theres a point where the dogs are thinking shit not again.... i just wanna chill! lol it says in my little book of what im meant to do n stuff, to walk the dogs sometimes 3 times a day. now WHY. 3 times a day? bit much i woulda thought...

but to be honest... il ove it here... i really do. in germany i never really felt at ease or anything but here i really do. i feel like ive found something here, i really dont wanna let go of it, which i guess is good considering ive been here like 5 days out of like, a year!! i think maybe it has alot to do with the fact that even tho im IN holland im not totally immersed in dutch language as the kids speak english 90% of the time and so does the mum... so imj not faced head on with the language barrier. ive had a few very brief encounters with ppl talking to me, me understanding and actually knowing what to say back, which is a big big thing really, considering in germany i woulda just given them a blank look back! and alot of the time when i AM saying something, even tho its something easy and really simple it feels normal, i dont feel like a freak butchering a language!! tho when i start to talk dutch all the time ill probably feel a bit like that sometimes!

but how mad, rens is a crazy keen kiteboarder.... and the dad of his family, wouter, is also into it... weird! rens reckons it means that its meant to be! lol maybe hes right... i hope so!

7th Nov 2006
thought it was about time i sent you an email letting you know what im
up to! Ive been in the netherlands for about a week now, and im LOVING
IT! i think, no i know, ive found my second home! it feels like ive been
here for ages, i feel right at home! doesnt matter than i barely speak
dutch! i am learning more n more, but not THAT fast, as the kids im
looking after speak englishmostly, and the parents speak english to them
80% of the time... ill be taking a dutch course sooner or later, but in
the meantime im jsut going to be doing some online and CD stuff to get
me speaking and not just smiling and nodding when ppl ask me something
:P also alot of the ppl im meeting are english... theyre mostly mothers
of the kids friends from school but since they go to an international
school where they teach in english its fair to assume that the parents
are english speakers!

but a typical day for me is...

7:45am dressed and ready to go, i just have to clear away breakfast
dishes n clear up the playroom (which thankfully looks nothing like ours
at home where you cant see the floor!) 8:30 - 12pm Washing and ironing.
ironing takes me forever!!!! i reckon its got something to do with the
fact that EVERYTHING gets ironed. fitted bed sheets. kids pjs. ive
decided that i realy do hate ironing! before i came here i was just
going by what everyone else told me about ironing, i never did it myself
:P but now i can say from my own experience that it sucks!
12-3pm FREE WOOHOO!
3-8:30pm taking the kids to hockey, tennis, horse riding ballet....
stopping them from killing each other... clearing away dinner dishes and
clearing up, bathing the kids and then helping put them to bed...

it really is quote a cushy job tho i dont really have to do that much,
yet.
ill have to do way more when i have to start driving the kids around,
which im not looking forward to as the car is huge and the streets are
small and they drive on the other side of the road here, as most of you
know! i also dont wanna get lost and make the kids late! they have a GPS
in their car tho so hopefully that'll help me!

my room is on the 3rd floor of the house. well, it IS the 3rd floor, as
its a rooftop room, but its pretty big! i have a doublbe bed, a little
fridge, tea n coffee making stuff, a sink, 2 little armchairs, a tv/dvd
and a computer (well i WILL have one theyre just getting their wireless
inet set up on it!), and the room is decorated heaps cool! it was
renovated pretty refcently i think. the house itself is massive and
really nice too, the kids rooms are all decorated really nicely and its
very posh! they have a MASSIVE tv and the chillest couch ive ever
seen... its huge. its like a bed not a couch.... its the best thing i
ever saw to watch tv or movies on! they have
2 dogs, one a 10month old black lab called max who jumps on you like
itsw going outta fashion, but hes just so cute you dont mind so much
hehe and a brown lab cross with some kinda hunting dog, called magic,
shes about 2 i think. pretty funny dog, very good at soccer!! speaking
of soccer, their backyard just about fits a soccor pitch onit! its
pretty big... their house and garden is considered pretty big by aussie
standards so imagine how it must seem to the dutch! HUUUUUGE!!! Wouter,
the dad is a private equity banker or something, the dude in charge i
think, at a bank in amsterdam, and denise was a lawyer but now shes a
stay at home mum... with a nanny, a cleaning lady, a gardener and window
washers (they came today!). to her credit tho, she does get them up
every morning and ready for school, drives them there, and then after
school drives them to 101 diff activities in diff towns, cooks dinner
and puts them to bed, and she has no help from wouter, as hes ALWAYS at
work. its a little sad realy as the kids dont see their dad that often,
maybe for 30mins or an hour in the morning, n thats not really playtime.
dunno how the weekends work here as i havent been here for one yet maybe
hes home more then? but i guess his way of helping is earning the money
to be able to afford all the help! and the holidays.... they go to
argentina for xmas, and australia in the summmer. a few weeks before i
got here they went to thailand for a month and also spent some time in
spain (they used to live there). denise and the kids also went to london
for a while and flew back the same day i got to holland. oh and denise
and wouter are flying to london this weekend for a party lol apparently
wouter was born in holland and lived there till he moved to paris when
hewas like, 10 or something, then went to uni in london... i dunno about
denise but i know she lived in london and america, and then they got
married and lived in england for 9 years where they had all the kids
(and which is why they speak
english) then moved to spain for 2 years and then moved back to the
netherlands. crazy!the kids are pretty grown up in some respects but in
otherways are spoilt and sheltered a bit..... olivier is 4, charlotte is
7 and mattijs is 8. i asked charlotte to put away a pair of pants in her
room the other day and she said she didnt know where they went. clothes
in her own room. but i guess its not really her fault, shes never had to
do it herselfl before... they do expect sometimes to be a bit waited
on... but for things like getting a cup of tea i cant expect them to
make it themselves as its hot.. but they can be prone to tantrums
sometimes, and im just very lucky that theyre pretty easy to get them
out of it. olli especially...
he'llcrack the shits about something stupid, so ill take one of dads old
tricks and say dont you DARE smile! you do not smile at me!! and he ends
up pissing himself laughing. hes one of the happiest kids ive ever seen
really... i am lucky with the kids, while they can be pains in the
arses, they do love me haha charlotte tells me all the time tthat tehy
lke me better than the last nanny because i play with them more lol
theyre pretty well behaved really, i dont have much trouble with them.
theyre mostly just cheeky!

I was in amsterdam with rens last weekend, but we only managed to get
out to the entre of the city on sunday, as saturday was spent sleeping
and buying rens a fridge (yeah welcome to holland... lets go to harvery
norman woo). it was just how i remebered it, better actually. we werwe
meant to go to a market ton the waterlooplein but it wasnt open so we
just walked around a bit.... checked out the red light district at about
2-3pm...w as full of chicks in the windows... i guess when you have
"needs" in amsterdam youre catered for any time of the day!! it was
pretty funny to watch them tho (rens n i sat in a bar watching over a
few heinekens!) theyll just stand with their ciggs looking bored and
indifferent but then a guy walks past n they put their sexy face on lol
it was funny.... i dunno how they do it tho, some of the guys that went
into those little rooms were old and feral and looked homeless. i doubt
they were cos if they can afford a RLD girl im sure they can afford some
kinda house but y aknow... alot of bums hangin around...

imheading into amsterdam again tomorrow, as i need to go shoping! i
wrecked my boots, as they heel kept slipping into thee cracks in the
cobblestone streets and now theyre gradually getting sharpened, and are
starting to look like a pencil. its not fun to walk in them! so io need
shoes, and also pants as smart me only packed like jeans, 3/4 and
trakies. good one. also bought 2 longsleeved shirts. smarter. so ill be
spending alot of my $$ 2moro on the kalverstraat in amsterdam
(apparently a good shopping street!).

11th November 2006ok so atm im confused... im not sure about my opinion on the way the mum n dad of the family i aupair for, live...

the dad is a banker, and very well off. he works alot, and whike im confused about other things, him im sure of. i dont esp like him, at least his attitude to his family. he seems totally and utterly indifferent to spending time with his family. his first priority is his work, hich is sad. he doesnt like the traffic at peak hour on the dutch highways, so he comes home after 8pm everynight. the kids go to bed between 8:00 and 8:30, so if theyre really lucky theyll see their dad for 10min before theyre sent to bed. for the same traffic reason, he leaves at like 9am for work, the kids are gone by about 8:30 at th4e latest, while they see him for 10-15mins, some times hes still sleeping when they go. the weekends are the only time the kids get to see their dad, and every other weekend he travels somewhere or has something on. poor kids just fall over him when hes around cos they just never see him! they just idolise him cos they never see him... its pretty sad... which leaves the mum, who used to be a lawyer, but gavethat up when she had thekids.

the thing that i dont know if i agree about, is how she runs the joint... they make alot of money, so they can afford a gardener, a nanny, a cleaning lady, window washers etc... but the thing is, my jbs are really not that hard. i have to just clear up after meals, do the washing and ironing, bath the kids and kinda look after them in the afternoons and various babysitting... but small things like putting away their toothbrushes that they leave in the sink, putting their clothes away... i mean, why do they need to employ me to do things like that?? im not sure i agree with the fact that these kids have no responsibility at all, not for tidying up their rooms or anything... i asked the girl to put aeway a pair of pants the other day n she told me she didnt know where they went. it was her own bedroom and she didnt know where her own clothes went! if i ask them to do something sometimes they respond with we dont have to do that... amazing. i mean, they do nothing but go to school, after school activities (which they can get out of with just a whiney voice to mum...) and playing. they have no sense of commitment or responsibility and i dont like that, i dont like those kids to think im just gonna run after them doing things for them all the time. yeah i look after them, i do the washing and ironing... but im not their slave, why should i have to do things like put away their toothbrushes??? but then again theyre paying me so i just do what im told right? but theyre sooo spoilt.. i mean for spoilt kids theyre ok, totally managable so far, but at the same time im like JEEEEEZ you kids need to learn that you cant just rely on someone else to do everything for you!

the mum, i dunno if i agree with her way of life either... i mean, i understand it, totally, but i dont know if i agree with it. she has the cleaning lady, and me to clean the house and just do the stuff that she pretty much just cant be arsed doing. in her defense she DOES have a fair bit to do, when the kids are around but during the day she hasnt gotmuch to do but go shopping and pay bills n non strenuous things like that... meeting friends for coffee etc. when the kids are around she has to get them up n ready for school, n then take them to their activies, hockey, horse riding, ballet, tennis... and then she comes home n cooks dinner for them, helps them with their homework and puts them to bed. she goes in and helps at school, doing reading and things like that in her kids classes, and also volunteers at the local hockey club her kids play at working in the canteen and the bar n thing like that... but... i just wonder, is it fair enough that she gets someone to do all the shitty jobs, shes certainly got the money to pay for it! or is she just lazy? i mean... im torn between thinking HELLO this is the real world and you cant just pay ppl to do all ur shitty jobs while you go out and drink ur coffees and get ur facials and nails done... go shoping for DKNY and Ralph Lauren clothes for your KIDS! and thinking well... no one LIKES these jobs, if youve got the money, why not get someone else to do it??

maybe im a bit jealous? maybe im a bit pissed off that im the one who has to do her shitty jobs, effectively allowing her hassle free lifestyle... i dont know... but at the same time, im in themiddle of a pretty steep learning curve, seeing how the other side lives. i came from a small town where there were ppl with big houses, medium houses and small cr appy houses. there was "rich", "normal" and "poor". because i had a swimming pool and a massive house, i was consideredone of the rich ones, which wasnt helped when i went away to a private all girls boarding school... but in reality, while my parents could afford to swend me to a good school, and could afford to give me enough money to have nice clothes and a nice house, we werent rich. were not rich. were well off, but not rich... but we were the family who had our ironing done for us (mum had no time, as she works from 7-70 and a cleaning lady come in once a week. but my dad was so fuckin anal about me having my room tidy... we had to put our own clothes away... we had to do the dishes, stack the dishwasher... take our clothes to the laundry, n tidy our own shit up. we had the same responsibilities as anyone else, maybe not things like mopping the floor or ceaning the toilet, but the same base chores as everyone else... so while i know how it is the be the one employing the cleaning lady, ive never seen the other side...l either "other" side, the uber rich or the hired help... i am now livingin an uber rich household as the hired help. im experiencing 2 totally different lifestyles that i never thought id be living in... and while today the kids shat me to tears, i have to look at the positives and know that im going to be a better person at the end of the whole thing, as ive experienced how the other side lives.

ill also know how to iron a business shirt :P

Aupair Tales Part 1 remains copyright of the author jaxstar84, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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all ill say is that i wish dad coulda seen it, and also had one of the hot ham rolls with curry mustard sauce. it was a ripper. for 4 euros itd wanna be good.... speaking of 4 euros, the last pic, of the strawberries in a cup... cost 4 euros. rip off.

while im waiting for the pics to upload, ill write some thingds anyway..

ive never seen so many germans in one place than i did today. except in germany. there were bazillions of busses outside this place, and i saw i think 4 that werent german. all i heard was german, the guy who checked my ticket thanked me in german, and a couple came up to me, and asked me if i could take a picture for them... in german! its lucky i speak german....

ive also never seen so many old ppl outside of a retirement home... damn. now i did expect to see a fair number of the pension crew, but not this many! and they were mostly german... they even had oompah music on! this place caters for germans more than anyone else i think!

it was 12 or 13 euros to get in, which was a bit steep i thought, no student prices... hmf. im not a student anymore but i ahve a student card still, which ppl accept here, muah haha. but its a big place (for the perth gang, not as big as kings park, but i reckon its prolly better than araluen, havent been there in a while!), and it is very impressive, if you like gardens...

so really, the typically dutch things, ive done... tulips, windmills, cheese... getting stoned, yeah well, mum n dad read this, so no. anyone else reading it, go to the rockerij for the muffins, theyre good.

Keukenhof - Netherlands remains copyright of the author jaxstar84, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I finally got to madrid and it was pretty warm. I managed to find my way to the hostel on the metro, which was just around the corner from the Gran Via stop, which is one of the main roads. on the website it said this hostel was in the fashion district. turns out its actually in the gay district. whatever, the shops around there were wicked. the hostel looked a little dodgy tho, and you cant really see anything but a little sign from the outside! you have to go in and find the little tag on the doorbells which says who lives on what floor. so i went up there to find a dodgy sign, which made me wonder what kinda place this was (see the pics!). anyway i went in, not willing to give up the $10USD id already paid. The lady in there didnt speak a word of english, me barely a word of spanish. all i knew what she was on about was "tres noches" three nights and "nombre" name. She then started to call me Hacqui, as the spanish pronounce Js as Hs. She showed me to my room which was an 8bed shared dorm. full of snoring sleeping guys. so i put my stuff on the bed, got my things and left. I walked down the Gran Via to the Plaza de Espana, took some pics n had a look around. I looked in a few shops, and its not expensive there! i had to stop myself from trying things on, as i need to save! but i could have spent a fortune... I went back to my room where i found another girl on another bed sleeping. at least i wasnt the only female! i laid down and ended up falling asleep, somehow. this hostel is NOISY! its right on a street off the gran via, which is busy and loud. the cars are loud, the ppl are loud and the doors to the little balcony dont really shut properly and arent sound proff at all! sometimes id wake up to an angry hooting driver or an over excited singing/shouting spaniard. But my nanna nap rejuvenated me, and when i woke up i started talking to the other girl in there, who was australian, from townsville. the other boys from the room came back in, one canadian, one scottish, one aussie, from perth! later on another guy came in, who was aussie too, from brisbane. after chatting for a while with them, Paula and i (the aussie chick) went and had dinner at a tapas bar down the road. we got a mixed platter with cured hams, salamis and cheeses, and a couple of beers, with bread that had some gazpacho (cold tomato soup) or something similar and olive oil drizzled on top. it waqs really nice, esp followed by the sangria! the guys at the bar there were quite funny, really nice... they asked where were from, and we told them australia. their response? "Ohhh australia! kangaroos! (bouncing around the bar like a roo) and nicole kidman! si!?" uuuh yeah. lol they were very nice tho... so we went back and talked more, then went to bed...

on the friday i tried to sleep in, but the noise doesnt really allow it, so at about 10 (which is a sleep in really..) i was up and ready to go! I walked across the Gran Via, following some signs to the Puerta del Sol (which is kilometer 0 in all the roads in spain ie when it says its 50km to madrid, they measure from that square). It took me thru the hookers main area, who hung out by the sex shops, counting wads of 50 euro notes and smoking. charming. on the way i stopped at Maestro Churrero, on the Calle de Atocha, for my breakfast of chocolate churros (sp). This is apparently a typical spanish breakfast, of deep fried strips of dough, which you dip into warm chocolate sauce! its a bit sickly for me first thing in the morning, but its def not the worst thing ive ever eaten!

After breakfast i made my way toward the plaza mayor, which was finished in 1617. there were lots of cafes, resturants and artists there, and i was really tempted to buy a painting of a flamenco dancer, but i didnt... and i really wish i hadve, it was really nice, it was bright red and it wouldve looked really cool on the wall... so i regret not buying it! i think it wouldve been expensive tho. i did buy a little notebook tho, which has a little plaque thing on the front resembling the street signs in the city, and it says "Calle de Madrid". I thought itd be cool to write things down so i didnt forget anything, it could be my memoirs of madrid book! i meandered around the streets for a while, getting a little lost, but enjoying it, as its a pretty city. its much cleaner than i expected... I found a cool market (Mercado de la Cebada) that i decided to buy my dinner from on the way back, which also needed me to work up the courage (and to think about) to try and buy things from the market stalls! I found a church (Iglesia San Andres) with a courtyard out the front, full of either yobbo students or homeless ppl sleeping on the benches. i took a few photos of the outside and kept on moving!

I moved on to the Basilica San Fransisco el Grande, which was cool from the outside!

It had a little garden on the side, which overlooked some of Madrid as it was on a hill...

after that i backtracked a bit past the market and bought some grapes, an artichoke (why i dont know, its in season i guess, and i had romantic ideas about cooking delish market food for dinner. hmf.), some tomatoes, radishes and some lettuce, it cost me about 5 euros which is a bargain! i went back to the church with the yobbos and the bums and joined them on the benches in the shade for some grapes, a well earned rest! after id had enough of the yobbos talking shit (you dont have to understand the language to know when ppl are tlaking shit...) i set off again in the direction of the Iglesia san Pedro. on the way there, i saw many photo ops of quaint spanish streets and tapas bars, seemingly unswarmed by tourists!

I finally got to this church, and after lugging around my shopping and dying of thirst, i sat with the pigeons in the shade on the steps n had more grapes. i figured since i ran out of water, the grapes had the most water in them, so would help! and they did somewhat!

It wsa after that i decided id had enough, and headed back to the supermarket that id gone past earlier, to buy some serrano ham and semicurado cheese, which are meant to be local "must eats". also bought a BIG water and bread, and figured out how to use their shopping baskets... they have wheels and a big handle so you can drag them along like a suitcase. GENIUS! why dont more shops do that??

so i headed home and had a nanna nap (or i couldve been much more spanish about it and said i was having a siesta!) for too long, and woke to find that i was the only one sleeping in the 8 bed dorm that night. boring. i ate my ham, cheese tomato and lettuce baguettes on the balcony in the sun, then decided to walk down the other side of the Gran Via to see what was there... good thing i did, as i woulda missed out on the metropolis building and the Correos y telegrafos

i trekked on home and turned on the tele in my room to find everything in spanish. bummer. even the german movie was dubbed. so i wrote some postcards, read a bit and tried to sleep amongst all that bloody noise!

the next day was busy too, as i needed to get to toledo st some stage, and also see the palace and the cathedral! so i made the trek, still tired from the walking yesterday. but im glad i did was it was really nice! i didnt go inside the Palacio Real cos there was a big line, but the outside and the courtyard was nice!

i had a breather in the Plaza de Orient and talked to some german tourists, then headed off to the debacle that is the Atotcha train station! i needed to get to Toledo, and on the train its 30mins... so i waited about 20mins in line to find out that the 13:50 train was full and the next one wasnt until 15:50. bummer. so i was instructed to go to the Mendez Alvaro bus station. which was hidden in what looked like a WW2 bunker, not clearly marked AT all. I went wandering around for 10 mins in this weird area with no idea where this place was. how can you HIDE a bus station? anyway i found it, even tho i was a bit unnerved by the 3 cops standing at the entrance to the bunker with a german shepherd. i got my ticket got on the bus and drove thru some dodgy areas of madrid, where everything was a warehouse and every 2nd building was a furniture shop. apparently renting isnt big in spain, buying is the norm, so everyones obsessed with home decoration!

ok im tired now, ill write the rest of this 2moro! and im sure youre tired from reading it too, its pretty long! :D

Madrid remains copyright of the author jaxstar84, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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we went and had waffles for breakfast, which were very nice!! we bought heaps of chocolate, and just walked around taking pics, eating, or talking to ppl we'd met at the hostel. the pics are in the pics section under Brugge, so have a look!

the canal tours are 30mins and only about 5 euros! bargain! thats the coolthing about brugge, you can find thigns for all the price ranges. we had italian for dinner for about 6euros (without wine), waffles for 5, and a 4 course chinese for 17,50. thebeers at the hostel were really cheap (happy hour you could get beer for 1 euro)... you can go there, have the full tourist experience, for a cheap price. you can do things for free as well of course, its the kinda town where you can walk around with a map and a book and just find out about the city and the landmarks. its gorgeous tho, canals, chocolate, horse drawn carriages... its so picturesque and quaint! it feels lik eyou step back in time...

we went to this sweets shop, which was a bit of a trek (and randomly located) who is run by this 89yr old lady, and shes been running it for 50 years! it was all over the plcae, disorganised but i got a water for 50c BARGAIN! she was really sweet, trying to talk to the others but i was really theo nly one who could communicate with her since im the only one who really can speak any dutch. she had signs saying "disciplne and respect" taped up everywhere lol i guess aimed at toursits, she didnt speak much english and the signs were in english lol

we left brugge, both deciding that we wanted to live there! so pretty... loved it... and we went to amsterdam to stay at hans brinker hostel which had the grumpiest receptionist ever! but it was ok, we had showers in our rooms! WOO! no trekking all over the hostel! but we went out, got chatted up by a random turkish guy who worked in the restaurant we were at. he kept on interrupting our convos and stuff, he knew torey coudltn really speak much dutch, but he kept talking dutch anyway, so i guess he was chatting me up. nice ot know i generate some interest! but he was creepy, trying to get us to go to smokeys which was a coffeeshop/bar across the road so he could have a drink with us later. we just got the bill and left....... RUN AWAY! we ended up having a smoke anyway, i cant remember the name of the place, but it was chill, and cheap. we had this MASSIVE bong, it wasnt easy to use. torey got stupid straight away, getitng all weird and talking real crap, i couldnt follow it. then she like, passed out and slid off the couch onto the floor mid ramble. it was friggin weird. i was pretty stoned by that stage too but i still had enough sense to be like duuude, youre wasted, lets go outside. we both then decided we just wanted to be in a blanket in bed, so after getting a little lost, i managed to navigate the way home. amazing. stoned, and rambling shit about how pollies should get indercover agents to come work as an aupair to see how ripped off they get, and how uch trivial shit these ppl spend their money on, itll convince them to raise the taxes on the rich and lower them on the poor! and i STILL managed to find our way home. NICE. dont tell me i cant keep my head! but it reminded me why i dont smoke weed, it just burns the shit outta my throat, i hate that feeling. so, not gonna be in a hurry back into the coffeeshops anytime soon, dont worry mum n dad. smoking isnt something i like, even if you do get something out of it (unlike smoking ciggs where all you get is lung cancer).

Brugge remains copyright of the author jaxstar84, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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the day after that i climbed vesuvius, which wasnt as much of an effort as it sounds! more of an effort on my wallet haha it was 8.60 to for bus, return, and then 4.50 just to pass some old guy with one leg to actually start the walk. it takes about an hour, its not that steep, as the bus takes you up pretty far, so all the real leg work is done by the bus! but the views are great and its cool to look into the crater. its still an active volcano, but its just in a dormant cycle, and those in the know say its gonna erupt again, the question is just, when? those in the know, btw, are scientists not the old guys sitting outside the cafes talking all day! you can see where the lava flowed down the mountain from the last eruption in 1944,its still all there, like a river frozen in motion.

Paestum: the oldest and best preserved greek temple ruins in the world, i think. the place is totally dead, given, i was there on a sunday, but the town was one street, the station was run down and looked like noone had been there in years. theres no ticket office, nowhere to validate the tickets you bought in town (which is a 10min walk down an abandoned road). and the ruins themselves, while very wel preserved, the area around them isnt at all. they say its a UNESCO site but its all overgrown and unkempt. i was scared of snakes, as dry grassy areas like that, in austrlia, are where youreon snake watch, but here, i dunno... i was paranoid anyway! but the ruins are big, and quite impressive! to be honest, theres not much to say about them. theyre greek temples, theyre very nice. but thats it. theyre sitting in a field full of dead grass, in a tiny sleepy little town... i glad i went but you dont need much time to see it...

ok i just wrote lots more and the comp froze. grr. anyway, lets get on with the rest of the story!

after paestum, i left the hugely passable city of Salerno to head off to sorrento. after braving the circumvesuviana (pretty much an above/below ground metro) which is full of smelly, hot, bothered ppl, pair that with a stuffy rickety carriage and you have the essence of this means of transport! but its cheap, so who cares :P i got to sorrento, only to find out after walking around for a bit, that my hostel is in the next town.. the stop before sorrento. great. so back onto the death trap and off to san angello! its only 5mins away or something, but the hostels location is a little different. after wandering around for another aimless 15mins i got a taxi to take me to the hostel.. i was so glad i didnt bother to try n walk, it was a 10 min drive, or later on i would discover about a 20min walk, thru winding residential roads, lemon groves, sharp corners and narrow streets, where italians on the scooters came roaring around corners without even hesitating to see if someone else was coming. this was something id have to get used to, but on this day, it was something worth noticing! i finally get there and part with a rip off price of 15 euros. note to self, italian taxis are rip offs. all the time. the hostel is dead. is smells like a shearing shed. but it looks clean, so my mind boggles! everything in the hostel is shut for the day until about 4ish, and i got there at about 1... everything in the hostel i mean, there was actually nothing around the hostel that could be classed as needing to be "open" it was just all lemon groves and houses. im in an 8 person room and im the only one in there, which is depressing since when you travel alone you kinda depend on there being ppl in your room to befriend for a few hours! anyway i ate (bread and canned tuna mmmm), showered (such a good feeling), wrote a little in my diary, and went downstairs into the common room and read a magazine or 2.. after a while 2 british guys came in and i talked to them for a bit, but they seemed alot more interested in the italian tomb raider on the playstation, so i gave up talking to them. boys will be boys. anyway i walked down to the centre of san angello, which was hardly thriving, it couldve been a sunday? not sure... but it was dead. i didnt really wanna have to brave the walk home if i ended up pissed in sorrento or something, so i ended up just walking back. sad i know, but i was tired, annoyed, sore from carrying my bag... it was in this day that i decided travelling alone sucked!!! so i stole the magazines from downstairs, took them to my room to wallow, it was getting late enough anyway..... then 2 american girls came into the room. yay! so we chatted, ended up going downstairs and ordering pizza, then getting roped into random conversation with a german lady who lives in arizona, and then bundled up and shoved out into the garden, with this germany lady talking shit. we found out she was in our room..... dammit. she talked like we should be amazed or surprised by everything she said. but she said nothing amazing, or surprising. she also didnt stop talking. so we ended up making excuses to leave, going to our room, only to have her come too, since its her room too. bah. but she slept, we were in peace!

the next day id arranged to take a bus with the american girls to the sorrento port, so that i could get a ferry to ischia, an island west of naples. we got there adn i asked for my ticket.... the lady says sorry, there arent any more ferries to ischia, theres only 1 in the morning at 9:30. shiiiiiiiiiiiit. so i asked if i could go via naples? "ooooh i dunno. maybe." you have no idea? "no sorry." well gimme a ticket anyway. it was only 5 euros... and i guessed itd be a pretty ferry ride anyway. so i took the fery to naples which took a little over an hour, got out, got harrassed by gypsies, got my ticket to ischia and was gone straight away. i got in at 12 and was gone by 12:15. maybe i should ring that lady and tell her that ferrys leave more than once a day.... aaaanyway i got to ischia! got straighton a free bus to forio which was where my hostel was, and then tried to use useless instructions to get to my hostel. NO idea. taxi! he took me so far away i was again grateful i didnt have to walk.. then a guy comes out of the place, introduces himself as lorenzo, asks me my name, how long ive been here etc and tells me the taxi driver took me to the wrong place, but dont worry, he'll take me to the right one, without exra costs. we finally got there, and i really dont know if i couldve found it on my own, and i give the taxi driver a 20 asking for 5 back. he tells me hes gone all the way up the mountain! i assumed thats what he said, he looked annoyed and was waving his hand up high. i asked again for my 5 euro back, its not my fault he had the address in front of him and took me somewhere else! so in i go, and the first thing i see is writing ALL over the walls of reception. the place used to me a convent, so the walls are all whitewashed, but are now covered in ppl writing about how great the hostel was. eventually im greeted by an amazonian woman who turns out to be kiwi. kate the kiwi. she shows me around, everythings nice, big n spaced out, i have a room to myself again, but this time i dont seem to mind. shes assured me that every night everyone get driven up to mamma and pappas restaurant (which was where the taxi took me before) and we have dinner and drinking there. sweet. so i dump my stuff, and go exploring. i decide that i LOVE ISCHIA! it was SO cute, so quaint, they had wicked little shops, with preserved lemons, chilli oil, ceramics, dried herb mixes, wines, chocolates... home made soaps, gelato on every corner. theres a little fruit n veg shop, which has cured meats and salamis inside, and mozzarella di buffola (sp), fresh bread and moderna balsamic vinegar. the foodie in me was in love! in the next few days i did nothing, walked around, hung out, had afternoon naps... walked to a beach past amazing views, white churches and crazy italians on scooters shouting out CIAO BELLA!

speaking of italian men, im very sexy in italy it seems. everywhere else im pretty ordinary but in italy the guys always had something good to say! they have something good to say about EVERYONE and all the girls, theyre really not picky tho.

anyway in ischia you can go cliff jumping (NOT for me), thermal spas, hiking, beach lazing, windsurfing... you can do everything or you can do nothing. the ppl were friendly, so much so that a lady came up and started talking to me at the bus stop, telling me about her daughter living in new york, n how they always missed ischia, because of the laid back atmosphere. she loved it there, and i could see why. everyone takes a little step back there, and just, doesnt really worry about anything much. it suited me perfectly! i was sad to leave, and alot of ppl extend their stay! i was heading off to amalfi, or more specifically, atrani.

so i manged to spend 40 euros on a long drawn out lunch, while waiting most of the afternoon WITH my bag, before my ferry left for amalfi. my waiter was pretty cool, when he found out i was from australia, that was it, he wouldnt stop asking questions! and telling me about his home in naples.he didnt like it in ischia, naples was his home. i asked him about how everyone says its dirty, full of criminals and gypsies who have elaborate ways to steal you bag at teh train station. yes, he said, its full of cr iminals, but its my home and i dont need to worry about it! fair enough! he told me of his plans to go to australia, by going to the traval agent and getting the cheapest deal, it didnt matter where, he had friends in melbourne, sydney and perth. doesnt suprise me, the amount of italians that live in australia! the other female waitress comes out and tries talking to me too, but her english isnt good at all, and my italian sucks. it seems im the centre of attention, just becuase im australian! after chatting away, trying to understand eachother, i pay the bill and off i go, to where my ferry leaves from. after like, 3 hours on the ferry i arrive in amalfi! it was a gorgeous trip, mountains, cliffs, towns balancing on the cliffs! i find my way to the hostel, which is in the next town but its walking distance, its about 10mins with a heavy bag :P its such stunning scenery, its not really worth it to try n describe it, just look at the pics! i went to the hostel and am shown to my room by a man who looks like a serial killer. he actually turns out to be very nice, but still.. so i meet some girls in my room, 3 of them, all aussies. turns out one girl is the sister of a girl who was on exchange in germany, who i met at a gathering on the north sea, who spewed on the end of my bed. small world eh!? i ended up going down to the piazza of atrani and using the net at the bar there. it cost either 4 euros an hour, or the cost of a drink for however long you needed it. i obviously went for the drink! got a pizza there later as well, which was cheap and good and ended up in my room at about 10ish. the piazza was small, with 2 bar/restaurants and a couple of little convenience stores. they hada fountain which had water you could drink (as it seems everywhere in italy!) and old ladies watching everyone from their balconies. atrani, as most places on the amalfi coast, was built in a valley, so surrounding the old falling apart buildings, are cliffs and lemon groves. its one of the best places ive ever been to hang out, chill and have a few drinks. and thats pretty much all we did the whole time we were there! i spent the next day wandering around amalfi, buying gelato, and, i dont know really, the day got away from me totally! i ended up meeting a chick from canada, muneera, and we went down to happy hour (even tho she doesnt drink) and talked for ages. we have scarily similar love lives!! we wer talking about everything and anything for ages and then some other randoms came and joined us, and it was only then we realised we hadnt even introduced ourselves. thats just how it goes tho, when you meet ppl in this way. you know that you have no time to develop some kinda friendship, you just dive right in. you skip the formalities and become best mates straight away. then they check out a day before you and its over, and all you have left is an email, a facebook contact or a myspace address. but i met some really cool ppl there, hanging out at the beach, floating in the ocean surrounded by cliffs and forrests, trekking up said cliffs thru lemon, pumpkin and fennel patches to get views over the whole bay, amalfi, an old tower... i loved it. and did NOT want to leave. the pictures are so beautiful, but they dont do it justice. you cant capture in words how it is to be floating in the ocean with friends you just met, in turquoise water, surrounded by cliffs and gorgeous old buildings and towers. esp after all the stuff thats been on my mind, i just felt SO good. cept for the time i got molested by the guy at the emerald grotto. seriously, if the young guy offers you a ride on your own, DONT take it. he told me he was gonna teach me how to row the boat (cos its kinda weird) but he ends up taking you to a remote corner of the grotto (which isnt that remote really) and tries to make out with you. nasty. and the thing was, i went to get outta the boat after the first round, with everyone from the boat, but he wouldnt really let me out. so he took me around, went for a grope n tried to kiss me, i pushed him away, almost ready to swim lol and then i go out of the grotto to see the boat 50m away from the mooring point. SUPER!! so im stuck out there with a greasy sleazy italian. but they came back, very apologetic about leaving me behind! The woman was laughing saying "its all marios fault! im sorry! its marios fault!" i ended up talking to a really nice norwegian couple for the boat trip home, which was a nice way to try n forget about my molestation! but to all concerned, the emerald grotto is a rip off. dont bother. it was 15 euros for me, and it was NOT worth it. if anything, spend the extra money on seeing the blue grotto in capri if youre set on seeing a grotto. thi emerald one is small and blue, not emerald!! and the boat guys are really weak, they try n be really charismatic etc but they just look desperate for a tip, which is made apparent when they say EH dont forget your driver! all the time... they had these statues put in the water of jesus joseph and mary, n theyre saying ITS A MIRACLE! all the time...... the whole thing was just an ordeal..... so dont bother.

but in the end, that wasnt enough to sway my opinion of the place, and i loved it so much!! but i had to go to rome! my hostel was easy to find, and my room was nice n clean and fine! i went to a pizza joint id seen around the corner and had the best pizza of my life. it was amazing.... sooo yummy. and 4,50 for a massive slab of it. of course i went there every night! cept the night i discovered the supermarket. italian supermarkets ROCK! they have EVERY sort of fresh pasta imaginable, dried pasta too, sauces, pestos, huge jugs of wine... canned tuna with all kindsa combinations to mix with pasta and things liekt hat... i spent like an hour just looking lol i loved it. an american guy took us to a place he knew which had good ice cream, and he bought all 5 of us ice cream, saying that when he came to italy, he was greeted and welcomed by an italian with an ice cream, so he was passing it along to us! how sweet! and the coolest thing, him and his friend were both rocket scientists!! really! "it doesnt take a rocket scientist to..." was a common phrase amongst us, or saying,about something seemingly difficult, "well these guys could figure it out, theyre rocket scientists :P" i saw all the sights i was meant to see, colosseum (the inside too), sistine chapel, vatican etc... i really dont feel like i have much to say about rome. i was only there a few days but i wasnt impressed at all. it has important and interesting history and impressive landmarks to see, but it didnt leave an imprint in my memory at all. it was too loud, fast, dirty, hot... everyones in a rush there... i didnt like it. i wouldnt go back... it had so many things to see n do there but it just didnt impress me at all... there are pics, you can see what i saw. i think it was just the end of my trip and i was tired, and not as enthusiastic anymore. it didnt help that it was HOT and humid, NOT trekking around the city kinda weather at all! so i was actualy pretty happy to leave. i left and got to london WITH my bag (i flew Alitalia not BA) and went to my hotel mum had booked, where i went and did laundry, checked emails and was shocked at the expense of things and at how much things were when i converted them to australian dollars. i sat in the hotel bar for a while (you couldnt check in until 2pm) and read a newspaper and watched the cricket (australia wasnt playing so i have no idea what was happening). an american guy behind me ended up striking up a conversation with me, and we ended up somehow talking american politics (of which i know little) and why he started drinking again after 11 months of NOT drinking. well his reason was, hey, im on holiday. fair enough! he was nice, a little pissed, and was impressed with alot of things i said lol am i impressive or was he really that drunk?

I had a really good few dyas with my mum who arrived the next day... we went and saw the phantom of the opera at his (or her?) majestys on the haymarket. i really liked it, the guy who played the phantom was brilliant, but the girl who played christina had, a technically, brilliant voice also, but she sounded too girly, too babyish. the only guy to get a standing ovation was the phantom, but we didnt get a program, so i dunno his name. but we ate good food, saw nice things! i really liked london, but its just SO expensive... it was AWESOME to catch up with my friend Fran, who was an exchange student when with me in germany. shes from NZ but is living and teaching in wimbeldon. we had a free dinner from the hotel and since mum wasnt there, we used it! we went to an indian place (after the place before that had pretty much told us, after a boittle of wine, that cos of a mishap in the ktichen, we couldnt order..) and got a free wine cos of our troubles at the bar before, and got nicely merry and chatted about old times, and good times to come! its funny how you meet up with old friends, and even tho you havent seen each other in so long, you havent really got much of an idea what theyve been doing, you never shut up. i guess were re-getting to know each other! but i saw her in NZ when i went boarding in queenstown, and now again here, and ive decided shes a top chick! lol we couldve sat there for ages talking shit and drinking wine but she had to go before the underground stopped... really looking forward to seeing her again!!

anyway so we caught up with the treacys on the last day i was there and i saw brodie which was cool. went to speakers corner in hyde park which i LOVED! all these crazy ppl standing on their ladders preaching and converting.. ppl fighting back.. il oved it! i wonder ig fights break out often there? but mum n i went back to the hotel, got my things and went to kings cross to get the train to the airport. thing is.... the train takes way too long to get there and if i were to take the train, id miss my flight. so we chanced it on a taxi. taxi broke down. so i missed my flight.. it wasnt really anyones fault but it seems like when im with mum im ALWAYS late. anyway she paid for another ticket on the next flight and i was home. but one catch. as i flew with BA it seems like its a given that they lose my stuff. so i got to amsterdam, again without my bag. useless. i ended up staying at rens place (hes in bonaire, and i got the keys back.............) for the night since it was too late to go to blaricum. i slept sooo long the next day, dozing till lunchtime.

i got home to find a massive pile of ironing...... super. welcome home.

Italy and London remains copyright of the author jaxstar84, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Since I went on exchange to Germany in 2002 with Rotary for a year, I knew that one day I'd come back to Europe for a working holiday, where I'd have freedom to travel and do whatever I liked, unlike an exchange, where the organisation is responsible for you and your actions, and they dont let you out of their sight. I got a taste of Europe in that year. A Eurotour on a bus full of other exchange students, sharing fleeting experiences in cities, for no more than a day or two, like Japanese tourists. Minus the peace signs. Running around as much of Europe as possible with mum, for the 2 weeks I was allowed to take off school. But I could never go where I wanted to go, when I wanted to go. This is one reason for the decision to definately come back on my own for a working holiday. The other reason, being the other main reason for spontaneous overseas travel. A boy. A Dutch boy to be more specific. Yes he was tall, tanned and had a gorgeous accent. So Im off to the Netherlands.

But what to do there? I'm limited by the fact that I don't speak Dutch. After thinking for about five minutes, I decide that I'm going to be an aupair. It's a sweet deal! You get a place to live, rent free. You get fed, no bills. No expenses aside from your own pub crawl and shopping spree needs. All you need to do is look after kids, how hard can it be? Right now, I can hear the mothers reading this, laughing at me. How hard can it be? Well at the time I imagined uber disciplined Von Trapp children, scampering into line at the sound of the Captains whistle. Without the pine cones on the seats, or frogs in the dress pockets. The Sound of Music has alot to answer for, in regards to the expectations of nannies to be. The children will not run to your bedroom in a thunderstorm. Nor will they sing with you. And I'm pretty sure they won't wear the clothes you fashioned for them from your curtains. And if the mother finds out that youve chopped up her curtains, you're likely to get fired. As a the host mother of a friend of mine said to her "These curtains are worth more than your life.". I kid you not. Chances are, they're from a mega rich family, and your clothes, not theirs are the subject of the looks up and down, a hidden grimace, and a forced smile. Excuse me whats wrong with my trakkie dacks and leavers jumper? This is the kind of family that I ended up at. In the rich and famous area of Het Gooi, the Desperate Housewives cluster of small towns 30 minutes from Amsterdam. The town I lived in, Blaricum, has a population of about 10 000 people, and an average house price of E700 000. One look at the size of the garden of my future home, and I knew I was in one of the houses that bumps up the average. Tennis court, swimming pool, room for a pony. Well, it had none of those things, but Hyacinth is on the right track. Theres certainly room for a combination of the three. They made the sacrifice though, and decided to make room for the Range Rover Sport, the Mini Cooper and Porsche Carrera. And space for the 2 Labrador dogs and 3 children to run around. Im not sure who needed the leashes more. Uh, I really was a good aupair, I never actually put a leash on the children. Tempted, but it never happened.

My aim in becoming an aupair was to use the job as a means to an end, a base for European travel. And to get to know this dashing young dutch man a little better! Obviously, I thought it was going to be fun playing with kids all the time, doing educational things, teaching them the ways of the world... But the expectations I had didnt quite match those of my host family. I knew that I was meant to do the washing and ironing. What I didnt realise, what exactly how much a family of five goes through in a week! And the rate at which it needs to be done! A minimum of an hour ironing every day, barr weekends. I stop ironing every day at 12, because I will not sit there all day and iron. And on holidays or days when the kids arent at school, ironing is to be done before the kids are dealt with. Unless im making their breakfast. Ironing is the number one task of my job. Im sure that my dissappointment is shared by all. No one likes ironing. Im the number one fan of NOT ironing. Anything. If i was shopping and I found the most gorgeous item of clothing, that needed to be ironed all the time, chances are, I didnt buy it. I didnt even know if the iron we had at home worked. Did we even have one? I know Mum bought me some of that spray which "irons" your clothes... After a week the mother decided to get the fathers business shirts done at the drycleaners. Thats how good i was. What a confidence boost in the first week of my year of being a maid. I mean aupair...

Aupair in Holland Part 1 remains copyright of the author jaxstar84, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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but everyone should go to edinburgh!! so pretty... were thinking of going back to scotland for xmas... anyway whos keen on coming is more than welcome!!

Edinburgh remains copyright of the author jaxstar84, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Ive just discovered the Nieuwmarkt, which is so nice at night with the "in de waag" cafe (which looks like some kinda little castle) lit up in the middle of the square. the nieuwmarkt area seems to be a little chinatown, the signs are in dutch and chinese, and there are loads of shops and restaurants from just about any country in asia! they have a big oriental supermarket and lots of little ones scattered around. on the actual square, they have tapas bars, bruincafes, regular restaurants and bars, and theyre not that expensive.. i went there wit a friend last night and we had a cheese fondue and a drink for €10. I went to another tapas bar with another friend and we had 4 tapas to share between us and a drink for about €13... then took home a bottle of wine from the AH for €2,10!

I live in Badhoevedorp which is about 12km from central station in amsterdam, and it takes the same amount of time to bike in there as it does on the bus. and its not a hard ride either, its all flat... i love how bike friendly it is here, im going to miss that when i go home. its free and its exercise.. everything is so much closer here so its more often a viable option than in perth, but still, i wish that things were more bike friendly for aussies! you dont have to wait for the bus, you can leave when youre ready! i love biking here

I love it how part of the dutch culure seems to be a desire to be comfortable. if its gezellig then youre happy! bruin cafes are dimly lit, with dark couches, dark wood and homely meals, cheap beers and are a totally gezellig place to hang out!

Im totally in love with amsterdam and am happy im still here and have been given the opportunity to see it in another light to how i used to see it...

Amsterdam remains copyright of the author jaxstar84, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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