Long Overdue..

Why hello strangers! I'm sorry I haven't been writing recently. I've been a bit more than busy. To be honest it really just feel like one huge blurr. I've been here for 3 months now and it's really getting easier. Some days are more difficult than others; and not even in terms of the family, The work or the children.. Just getting used to my new life. My new friends. What we do when we go out now, compared to what I use to do when I went out in murrieta! Lemme tell you.. HUGE difference. Mello relaxing quiet nights are few and far between, while Late, LATE crazy nights.. And early slow mornings, are abundant and consecutive. Lol but that's what you do here. That's the life style. And it makes me glad that I'm here for a year. Because honestly i don't think another year of these parties would be too good on my sleep schedule or my mental health LMAO!As the days go on I find myself meetin more and more Americans! I met a guy from Arizona, a girl from Oregon, Arkansas, and a girl from California :) they are all pretty close to Amsterdam so I'm stoked to meet them. Arizona even lives in my town! Holland is getting colder and wetter as the weeks pass and I'm not really looking forward to it /: I need to get some boots and I need to go shopping for some warmer clothes! But I can't right now because I'm saving forrrrrr PARIS!! :D this trip is coming up on the 25th of November; the American thanksgiving, and I am traveling with Stephanie who is American as well! So were goin to have a little celebration in our hotel room. We planned for his trip for weeks and it really paid off. Bus ticket to Paris - 20€ hotel room in Paris - 110€ so in American that's about $150.00! I can't wait. Paris has been my dream, well.. One of them for a very long time. I really hope it is everything I think it will be. After that Christmas will be coming up soon! Its going to be so weird to be away from my family for the holidays : ( it's gonna be hard but I figure people do it all the time, so I can do it. And I'll be home for Christmas next year! Christmas 2011!! Woot woooottt! Haha oi vey.

Recently I went to Belgium with Esther and the boys! The city is truly beautiful. With it's classic 17th century European architecture, it's sitting right on one of the biggest harbors in Europe! Rotterdam has the first. I love going to the harbors, seeing all the boats and you can smell the seafood places as soon as you step out of the car. It's almost like being at point loma, but 200x bigger hahah. We walked around Antwerp, went to a nice little Italian restaurant, and looked at all the stores! For people who love chocolate and beer I highly recommend Antwerp :) there are beautiful chocolate shops on almost every corner, and they have very nice pubs and restaurants all over. The cathedral in the centre of the city is probably the most beautiful I have seen since I've been here. It's the largest and most intricate of the churches and we actually went inside! It was really cool. I love stuff like that. I would like to go to Brugges next. It's the opposite of Antwerp; it's in the countryside and I heard it's so nice to visit. But I wanna go when it gets warmer out. Which at this rate seems to be never. Lol you can take the girl out of California but you can't take the California out of the girl :) I wish I could still wear my flip flops! Hahah I really need to start writing these more. I really have been finding myself having more and more things to write about but not enough time to do so. I read something the other day that was written by Ernest Hemingway and it said " I find writing to be very easy, you just sit at a type writer and bleed." which couldn't be more true. I've always loved English, literature and writing.. But maybe I should turn this into something more? Who knows. All I know is art school awaits me when I return home. California awaits. San Diego awaits!! I have 250 days left here :) I've decided I want to be home around my birthday. And that's what I want as my present. To be home with my family. The longer I'm here, the more anxious I am to start my life back home. The more I see, experience and learn.. The more I wanna go home and share with Jack and Hannah! Oh oh oh I'm getting butterflies just thinking about it :D apartment shopping. Starting college.. AGAIN! Lol ugh :) can't wait. Paris is 6 days away. So is thanksgiving! Christmas is 36 days. Then.. It's new years!! Lol


I can't believe it. I really don't even know where the past couple months went. It was like we didn't even have the month of October. We just had September, Halloween then November. Lol it seems like Saturdays were diminished in the process! I can never remember where those go! Lol like today is Saturday. I woke up and got ready, an left to come to the centruum. Went shopping because I had some extra cash. (for once) got some stuff I'm gonna need for Paris :) and now I'm sitting at the cafe in the v&d eating tomato soup and an iced cappuchino <3 it's lovely. I love having time for myself to just thinks and write an breathe and SLOW DOWN. It's like my refresher to get me ready for the rest of the week :) this week is going to e especially insane. I know I'm gonna be stressing about Paris unroll the moment we walk into our hotel room. Because I'm Gina Pauling. And my anxiety gets the best of me sometimes. Lol all the Christmas lights are put up in the town, and in the evening when it's all lit up it is so beautiful. It reminds me of how home is duringg this time. There's no Christmas tree selling on the sides of the road here though like there is in Murrieta. Well, none that I've seen. And I know I know thanksgiving hasn't even come around yet. But I'm used to having everything up so early! My thanksgiving was last night :) I spent two days preparing my favorite traditional "Pauling family thanksgiving" food for Ed, Es, and the kids. Sweet potato casserole, creamed cauliflower or.. Bloemkool! Corn, masked potatoes, cornbread stuffing, and instead of turkey, we had chickens :) try don't sell turkeys in the grocery stores. If I wanted one I would have had to go shoot it, take all the feathers off then.. Well.. Behead him. Lol which I was surprisingly informed that my Mexican mom ( Mamma Manzo) could have showed me how to do that?? Hahahah!! That's rad. Lol I could never do that. I'd catch him, end up making friends with him before I even had time to do the rest. Oh well :) haha oh! I got the coolest ring today. It's big and gold and tacky. It looks like a jaguar and has little diamonds in the eyes. Very 80's. My mom would hate it!! Hahah! But it's rad it actually looks like a snake. But it's suppose to be a cat. They have the coolest Jewelry! I love stuff like this. Alright lovies, my food is gone and I just got a wiff of Christmas trees from outside. I'm gonna go see what's going on. I love you guys, and I miss you terribly. Send me your addresses so I can send you postcards from Paris! Good morning Murrieta and San Diego! Good evening Breda :) tonight gonna be a long one <3Love,