Young and sweet, only seventeen

Yup, I've officially reached my 17th. Good job on me, right? I had such a lovely birthday here in America, that I was too tired to write about it at night. Hence why this post is a little late.. ;)

I started the day off with getting through so many lovely messages from friends and family. I will admit that it was kind of strange to be so far away from them on my special day, but it didn't hurt. After having tried to reply to each and every one message, I went upstairs to have some breakfast. Two boxes of Honey Dew Donuts were waiting on the kitchen counter, and I had one with coloured sprinkles. It was lovely, I'll have you know.

After breakfast I sat outside on the porch to soak up some sun as Amy, DeWitt, Deuce and Carson played basketball together. I had a little photo shoot with Chloe and caught her on camera just while she was yawning. This is the result: 

It looks like she's laughing at me :')


For lunch we had leftovers from the dinner-party the night before, meaning pizzzaaaa. <3 It was great, haha! After finishing up lunch I joined CeCe to the city centre of Georgetown for a pedicure. That was the first time I had ever let anyone touch my feet like that, and I couldn't control my laughter. I am extremely ticklish in my feet, so it took me all the strength I had not to pull them back every time the brush went up and down! My feet became super smooth, though! And my toenails look better than they've ever done. When everything was finished we walked over to Udderly Devine, an ice-cream/candy shop in Georgetown. It was just lovely sitting in the sun with CeCe like that!

When we got back home I sat in the garden for a while, reading my book and enjoying the good weather. Once everyone was back home we drove off to Newbury Port, where we walked around the harbor and the little city which was perfect in the afternoon sun! We had dinner at Michael's Harborside, where Jock had invited us to. Fish and chips was my dish and for dessert I had Strawberry Short cake. They sang for me in the restaurant which was great and embarrassing at the same time, haha! They even got me presents, which I'm so grateful for!

It was a terrific birthday!

xxx Eva

People

A recurring conversation I've had during my stay here in America, was about how special and strange it is that people can meet each other just in the right/wrong time, and affect each other so strongly. Today's mindset seemed to revolve around that a lot. People.

Today started off with a slow start. I made myself some breakfast, took a shower and got ready for Donna and Jilly to pick me up at 10:30. Jilly was going to pay a visit to her personal coach in exercise/dance in Cambridge, which is just a bridge away from Boston. Donna and I would be able to walk around in Harvard Square during the two hours which she spent there. It honestly amazes me, how easy it is to talk to some people. Donna is definitely one of those 'some people'. For some reason, and I have no idea what, nothing seemed too bold or embarrassing to say to her. She was so sweet, honest, caring and funny. It was just the most lovely day walking around the pretty streets of Cambridge with her, and sitting on a little bench in the sun just sipping coffee and chatting. Well, we walked around on the Harvard property and I took some photos.

We popped into a new shop on Harvard Square which had the most interesting summer collection, but most of the items weren't tagged yet. I was just looking around and searching through shorts, wondering what they would cost. So as I reached further into the back of the store, and found the labelled items, I picked up a little piece of fabric which you could wear like a bustier/croptop kind of thing, and it was over a hundred dollars!! So that was the end of that little adventure ;) We continued onto Urban Outfitters, which is like my favourite store ever, but it's sooo expensive! Like, not as expensive as the shop I just mentioned, but still pricy! But everything there is just lovely. From the dresses to the books to the sports-clothes to the jeans. Love, love, love! I found a pair of sunglasses that I really loved and it was within my price-range so I decided to buy those for myself as a little birthday gift. (photo will follow) At this point we had to start walking back to the place where Jilly had had her training, so that we could have lunch together.

We had lunch outside a precious little restaurant named (...) Luna. I wish I remembered the full name, it was really nice there! So we sat outside in the sun and I got to wear my sunglasses, which I was immediately complimented upon by the waiter. "Oh, my God! I love your sunglasses, are those vintage??" He was a very enthusiastic fellow. Especially about the specials of the day. Well, I had a caprese-sandwich, which was incredibly good!

Donna and Jilly

When we finished up we had to leave quickly, as the parking-time was about to run out and you really didn't want to get a ticket in that area. So we toured around Boston for a little bit more by car, as my music was allowed to play from the car's speakers. (yay!)

They brought me back home to Georgetown, all the while apologising for the amount of traffic. As if they had any saying in that! I thanked them for the lovely day I got to have, and we said our goodbyes.

At night the Purcell's had neighbours/friends over for dinner, which was a lot of fun! One of the guys who came was actually Dutch! He came from Utrecht, and had, astoundingly, even gone to the same school as my Mum. It's amazing!! Such a small world. When we walked Logan, one of the neighbours, home so that she could start her homework (she has school on Saturdays!!!) we saw a shooting star! It was the most beautiful thing! Like, nothing like I'd seen before. It lit up the sky super brightly and lasted longer than I'd experienced previously. It must have been a pretty big thing falling! It was so cool. I'm still ecstatic. :')

Tomorrow's my birthday, even though it has been in the Netherlands for a couple of hours now. I'm hoping to have a great time. :)

Goodnight!

xxx

Beautiful day

Does everything just become lovely instantly when the sun starts shining? Because I definitely believe so! I had the most terrific day today, out in the open air with Jock. Despite a very early start to my dismay, this morning was amazing! At the banding-station on plum-island, we caught a bird! Only one bird, but a bird nonetheless! It was a, correct me if I'm wrong, black-headed chickadee. Which is nothing exciting, according to the volunteers at the station, but to me it most certainly was!

It already had a ring, so that we didn't need to do anymore. However, we still needed to record some data on its health. I never knew, but it turns out birds have see-through skin, so when you blow on their feathers you can literally see into them! This way you can check its body fat, and you do that by the colour. I'm probably not so accurate in my explanation, but I believe that red fat on the wishbone of this bird was a good thing. It was hard to understand exactly, as I was just stunned by the fact that you can look into a bird. Yellow was negative, I believe, depending on where in the bird you looked. So for example, a chicken would have red in its legs because it's mostly a walking bird. And a flying-bird would have red closer to the wing-muscles. This is probably the most inadequate explanation, so I may have to do this again sometime ;) The bird is put into a small cone to be weighed, and this just looked adorable with its tail sticking out.

After jotting down all the data, Ben, who was holding the bird at that moment, asked me if I wanted to release it. There was no way I'd let go of that opportunity. So I took the Chickadee over in my hand, in a soft grip the way you see him do in the picture above. It was so incredibly soft! Honestly, I don't think I've ever felt anything as soft as that bird. In the palm of my hand I could feel its tiny little heartbeat, which was so heart-warming in some way. Then I had my most-anticipated disney moment; I got to let go of it by gently letting it slip onto my other hand and watching it fly back to its friends in the trees. Something tells me this is kind of a once-in-a-lifetime thing, so I'm really glad I got to do it! Sad that there wasn't a photo of me with the bird, though, because they thought we would get another one... But the experience will be with me forever :)

After this Jock took me to something called News & Views, which is a talk-group for retired people. And by retired people, understand people who have been retired for a while. I think there were some people that could have been over 90 years old! Despite the fact that I was probably the only person, out of 32, under 70 in the room, I thought it was interesting to see that these people still spend their time talking about politics and current-affairs in a most-opinionated way. Truly, I don't believe something like that exists for older people in the Netherlands. Really something to watch, but the sounds I just couldn't handle. I'm terribly sorry, this is going to sound so disrespectful, but I cannot stand the sounds older people make. I cringe. I shudder. I just can't stand it. Snorts and coughs and heavy breathing, everything with just too much saliva. Certainly wish I was better at blocking all of that out and focussing more on what insights they shared in the group. Again, I'm so sorry. :']

When the News & Views meeting was over, and I'd shaken the hands of almost every member in the group, Jock took me out for lunch at Bob Lobster. A seafood snackbar just by Plum Island. Over there I wasn't quite sure what to get, so Jock recommended I would try a lobster roll, as it was very 'New Englandy'. I had never eaten lobster before, but I decided to just go for it and give it a try. As we were queueing up, you could actually see the live lobsters swimming around in a fishtank; ready to be boiled and eaten. A lobster roll is basically a tick slice of bread with lobster on it, including some slaw and onions. I have to say, I quite liked it! It tasted differently than I thought it would. Sweeter, although that could've been because of the onions.


At Bob Lobster, Jock gave me two books. He did so, because he was really excited about the fact that I wanted to become a writer, and he was certain that these two books would help me get there. One was more of a journalism guide from the New York Times, and the other a memoir and guide written by Stephen King, on (fictional)writing. I was ecstatic! I thought it was so sweet and thoughtful of him to get those for me.

Once I had finished my lobster, and he his clam-chowder, we went on a little tour of Plum Island. Plum Island is a National Wildlife Refuge here in Massachusetts. It is absolutely gorgeous! Especially the seaside! Boy, was it pretty! While Jock sat down with his vernaculars on the boardwalk, I took my chance to stroll down the beach by the atlantic ocean for a bit and shoot some photos. This one was my favourite:

And here I am on the beach!

Back in the car, we drove back to Amesbury, where we had ice-cream at an ice-cream shop by the road. I thought it to be normal to pick two flavours for an ice-cream, coming from the Netherlands and all that. Well, my eyes nearly popped out of my skull when I saw the gigantic snowballs balancing on a cone. I almost felt embarrassed for ordering so much! I had one scoop(!) of cookie dough, and another(!) of chocolate & marshmallows. Both were like heaven. After finishing it all, I felt like I'd eaten enough for an entire week!

Just after this we drove into the centre of Amesbury, because I wanted to buy my host-family some flowers to thank them for having me stay with them, and for taking such great care of me. The people in the shop helped me put together a very pretty bouquet, which I was glad to come home with later that afternoon. They loved them very much!

So that about sums up my day! Hope yours was as great as mine :) Write you all tomorrow!

xxx

Eva