Britain!

Hey everyone,

Hope everything has been well with you... things here are still going well.

I have just been working and got my social insurance number for the Netherlands..

Everything with the family has been going well but they decided they only needed a part- time au pair and i need full time work so I found another family. They live in Cambridge,England and I think that will be a better situation....unfortunately i wont be in Maastricht for carnival!

So i will be going over to stay with some family/ friends in the end of February and then i will be heading back to work in March in Cambridge!

I've met a lot of amazing people here in Maastricht and I'll be sad to leave but i guess thats how it goes...

Next stop: fashion week in London!( if i can scrounge up some money)

Take care.. Tot Ziens! -eden

Neverneverland

Hey everyone,

So its been a while and  i have decided to come back into reality. I'll tell you a little bit about the dream that is my life at the moment.

I met Sage in Bangkok on New Years eve and we went alll out.We ended up dancing all night and at one point i'm pretty sure we were eating tom yum soup with random Thai people.Anyways, the last few days in Bangkok were pretty good, considering Bangkok gets old fast.We met up with James and also met some really awesome people from Vancouver.Sage ended up travelling with them for a bit after i went off to Europe.

I flew from Bangkok to Finland and then Finland to Amsterdam.I had the pleasure of sitting next to a drunk Finnish man who brought a bottle of whisky onto the plane and then ordered 2 beer and 2 glasses of wine with dinner alone.Entertaining to say the least.When going through security i forgot that i had left a knife in my carry on that i had used to cut an apple earlier that day, so that was also a bit of a situation.

Once i  got to Amsterdam i was there for a bit and then took the train down to Maastricht.I visited a bunch of my family.. Pieter and Regina,Roos and Ted,Joop and Puck and Fran and her kids to name a few.Theres lots more to come..I was there staying with them for a few days and realized i should probably start work soon, so i arranged an appointment to meet my host family.The family said i could start as their Au Pair as soon as I'd like so i moved in a few days later.The parents own a design company so the dad is only home a couple times a month because he's always traveling.My job is to get the kids ready for school and pick them up.Other than that i get nights and weekends off, which is pretty nice.The girls are 6,7, and 9. Maastricht is a beautiful town, it has lots of old architecture and its not too big.I can cycle pretty much anywhere in the city, which is convenient. Luckily a couple girls from Nelson are also Au pairing close to where i am so i get to see them every once in a while.

I'm going to keep this relatively short.. theres lots more to say but  not worth writing really.I'll update you all soon when i get more settled in.I've only been here a couple weeks!Okay well hope all your holidays went well and i miss  eryone.Talk to son soon, love -e

time for a new continent.

hey everyone,
Its been a while since my last post so let me fill you in..
I flew up to Koala Lumpur from Phuket and stayed in KL for a few days.I ended up having to buy another suitcase and it became a bit of a situation... i bought it for about 20$ and i was packing my things and one of the zippers ripped off.. and then the other one... and then the stitching came apart and i had to bring a carry on that had huge holes connected by safety pins.I guess you get what you pay for.
I took the bus/ ferry over to an island called Penang, which was really nice.The beaches werent as nice as in southern Thailand, but still beautiful of course.I fed some horses on the beach some apples and carrots because they looked like skeletons.I also took a bus ride that somehow took 3 hours when it was supposed to take 40 minutes, that was a long day.The artictecture is amazing there, Penang is one of the worlds most historical sights.
On Christmas Eve me and some of the girls from the guesthouse went out for dinner and went christmas partying.In Malaysia Christmas was really weird because not many people celebrate it so its just like a public holiday.All the clubs had huge Christmas Eve parties and counted down to midnight...
On Christmas i went up to Koh Phangan, Thailand for the huge Christmas parties.Theres 10-15 thousand people on the beach.. its pretty insane.Its definately a Christmas to remember!On Boxing Day i went over to Koh Samui to meet up with my godparents,Lee and Vallarie.Ive been hanging out with them and they're kids for the past few nights.On the beach there's a bar thats made completely out of ice.. all the stools are like big ice cubes!The whole club is (-7) degrees!
Next I'm heading up to meet my friend Sage for New Years in Bangkok and then flying up to Amsterdam.
Write again soon.Happy Holidays!love, E

i have also posted a few new photos... here's the link again:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=49010&l=b2c08&id=509443580

West coast

Hey everyone,
Sorry i haven't been updating very much but theres only so much i can write about..
I am in Phuket now.I was with my friend Shani for a bit but she went home to Australia...
Phuket is an island so i spend most of my time at the beach.Unfortunately i can't swim right now because i cut my foot open the other day and i'm on antibiotics so i have to wait a bit.It's healing up really well though considering i cut like half an inch off my big toe...
It's really beautiful here and theres lots of different beaches.Patong beach is the one i spend most of time at.It has lots of clubs,shopping, a nice beach and lots of people.Right now theres the annual Phuket carnival at Patong so theres lots going on.. lots of events, art and vendors. Kata beach is smaller, less hassling and nice to relax at.Karon beach is nice as well but i dont go there alot because its farther away.
Today i went to the " Big Buddha". Its a huge buddha on the top of a mountain near Kata beach.Its 50 feet tall and made out of cement.I got blessed by monks and they tied strings around my wrists for good luck and gave me an orange.The view is gorgeous from up there, you can see the whole coastline.
Tomorrow i'm going to Malaysia because my visa runs out so i'll be there for about a week and then back to Southern Thailand for Christmas.. i'll try to write again soon.love, e

So i have made to to the Southern islands of Thailand,Railay to be specific.In KL(kuala Lumpur).. I took a bus over the border and when i went to catch the bus they ended up sending me to the wrong platform and the bus left without me.Which would've been fine if i didnt leave my bag with the people i was travelling with.I ended up getting my bag back but it was quite the ordeal...
In KL i went to a fish spa.. a trendy japanese spa where hundreds of little fish suck on your feet..it was really ticklish to say the least.Its supposed to be very good for circulation, metabolism and overall health.
Now i'm in Railay where they have amazing rock climbing and today i ran into 2 friends from Nelson(avery and jamie)! Its beautiful here, write again soon -e

Koala Lumps

Soo I had a flight out of Saigon to Bangkok last week which, obviously, i didnt attend.So i got a credit fromAir Asia and flew down to Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia.I met up with a canadian couple from Victoria/Fernie and we travelled over here together because they are also going to the southern islands of thailand.Last night we stayed in a hotel thats was used to be an old railway station, and it kind of reminded me of the movie The Shining.The guy who carried our bags up to the room looked like lurch from the adams family.
Malaysia is SO different than the rest of S.E asia so far.The architecture here is amazing,all the buildings look like they belong in Aladdin haha...Malaysia is a mix of Chinese,Indian and Maylay cultures, so its very diverse.Within Kuala Lumpur theres lots of different districts including Little India and Chinatown.Theres also huge twin towers and a times square, just like in New York.The food here is so good due to the multiculuralism.. my favourite is a malaysian iced tea kind of like an iced chai.. but better.
Tomorrow or the day after i think i'm heading up to Krabi, an island in Southern Thailand to meet up with some friends..I'm hoping to travel around the islands for a few weeks until i have to catch my flight up to Amsterdam.The situation in Bangkok seems to be escallading.. i just talked to a couple travellers who came down from there and they said it was havoc.So i may have to change my flight to fly out of Malaysia instead.Hope all is well...love -e