This post can title itself.

I have nothing exciting to post about my upcoming move to the Netherlands, so I thought I'd stray from the recent topic a bit...

I was talking to my new friend Taylor (he says he's my friend now) on the subject of... Well, talking to people.

I'm not sure what's wrong with my generation.  I mean, I know there's that popular rumor going around detailing how the current generation is killing the English language with their text speak and horrible grammar.  (Though you can't really say that the older generations have perfect grammar either.)

The thing I don't understand is why every conversation has to start out along the lines of this: "hey whats up?" "nothing much you?" "same." Then if you stray from that even a little, the response is typically in the fashion of: "uhh... right... okay." I don't know, I guess when I ask "what's up?" I literally want to know what is up.  "Nothing much" doesn't really mean anything. Either nothing is up, or something is up.  And I'm willing to bet that something is up, because hardly anyone does absolutely nothing at all.  You would think that maybe if you just ask a more specific question, you'll get a better answer, but even if you were to ask "So what have you been up to today?" you would still get a "nothing much" as a response.

Maybe this is why I have a hard time starting conversations with people.  After the whole "what's up" exchange is finished, people expect you to actually then start in with whatever it was that you originally wanted to talk about with them.  Well, maybe I didn't even have anything in mind.  Maybe I'm just bored and felt like talking to someone, and maybe I was looking forward to your response about what's up to find something to discuss from there.

My friends only talk to me when they want something, maybe this is where the problem lies... They expect me to want something when I go to talk to them, just like they do in talking to me.  I can't just talk to them for the sake of talking to them, the notion of that alone is crazy.  Well, who needs friends like that, anyway?

I gave them my blog link when I first made it.  The blog was intended for family and friends. I thought maybe they'd like to keep up with me or something.  Every single one of them opened the link, told me it looked good, and then never went back.  

Some friends.

The countdown begins...

I was going to wait until tomorrow morning to do this post (after all, it is two in the morning right now) but I decided to open my email program before I went to bed and I had an email from the housing place saying my apartment choice was approved.  Then I randomly became super excited and I'm not sure I can ever go to bed now.

The email says I have to transfer an initial payment to them within one week of receiving the email.  So I guess it's back to the bank for me!  I just finished transferring my package fee (tuition, health insurance, immigration fees and such) last week.  A lot of money.  I've been watching the exchange rate and then became angry at myself because it's lower today than it was when I transferred the money (I transferred it last week because it was the lowest I'd seen in quite a long time. Something about Greece tanking the euro economy and considering pulling out).  I wish I could go back to the same bank I went to before to transfer the package fee because the lady that helped me was very nice, and she was German.  That bank was in Boise though, and I just don't go to Boise too often. Especially when there's a branch here in town.  It was just convenient because we were already in Boise picking Mom up from the airport.

Also, earlier this afternoon I mailed out my immigration forms. They are due on June 15th, so as long as they aren't lost in the mail, and as long as it doesn't take a whole month for registered priority mail to get to the Netherlands, I think I'm good on my time.

So, now I have a place to live. I have my tuition fully paid.  I have a place to stay the two months over the summer, though I'm hoping to find somewhere more ideal. I have a hostel booked for 2 months but I haven't made any initial payments and it's going to be about €400 a month, which is a little on the high end for a room I have to share with 25 other people.  My friend added me to a university buy/trade/sell facebook group though, and I've seen quite a few people offering to rent out their apartments for the summer. I might look into that.  It seems like a much better deal.

I'm leaving in exactly one month!  I am so excited, I can't even contain it.  I'm really looking forward to this.  Now if only my room would pack itself up so I don't have to...

I want my life to be spectacular.

WAKE UP!

I hope people are ready for me to start posting all the time again. At least, I hope I'll be posting all the time when I go back to Europe.

I'm trying to think of what my options will be, when I'm done with school.  I'd like to get a job in Europe so I can stay there long-term.  I think New York or Washington DC would also be interesting options.  I kind of think the UN is looking like the best option for me... I guess I'll see where things go.  I don't really mind taking a bit of extra time to figure this stuff out. I was supposed to be halfway done with college by now but it's okay with me.  I feel a lot better about what I'm doing now than I ever did about my classes at Boise State.

I love spring.  We went to Boise today, dress shopping because Alyssa has prom on Saturday. Last minute, I know. She had a dress, but they dyed it and then washed it and then dried it too long and then rhinestones fell off and then...  Well, they just gave up.  Fine by me, I really didn't like the color they dyed it. Her new dress is purple!  I got a few cute dresses too.  Not expensive prom dresses though. I don't need one of those. I never even went to prom!  Anyway, it rained today. A bit of distant lightning. I love it.

Also, it's weird to think that I'm looking at Mountain Home and Boise for the last time in a very long time over these next couple of months.  Even if I come back to visit in a year, none of my family will be in Mountain Home anymore. Most of my friends are off at random universities.  I'd be up in northern Idaho, where Mom and Dad will be.  I've been thinking that maybe I'll start taking a walk into town every day.  With a dog, a blanket and a book.  And maybe an umbrella, since it's spring.  I can go find a park to lay down and read a book for a while. After all, it only takes about an hour to walk into town...  I could use the exercise and the time out of the house, as could my dog.

I have to start packing up my bedroom. In boxes. Labeling them so they can be put away.  I've lived in this house my entire life. It's very sad to be leaving. I can't really stay forever though, and it will be nice for my parents to have a new house.

The End.  (Not really. More like the beginning.  Stay tuned?)

April

I intended to write this blog post at the start of the month, but somehow it never made it to the screen.  I did write part of it, and then never finished... How about this:  Let's see if Angie can remember everything she wanted to say!

So. It's April.  Suddenly I realized I had a lot of stuff to get done this month, and not a lot of time left to do it. I didn't realize time was getting so short.  I have a plane ticket booked for June 14th.  Ahhh, I'm leaving in two months!  I'm so excited.

I got my immigration forms printed and filled out, I'm just waiting on a response to an email with some questions about certain parts. Then I have to get it sent via registered mail to the school.  I also have to get some money transferred to the school for tuition and such.  That should be fun. I have to go to the bank and figure out how I might go about doing that.  I got an early 4 year renewal on my driver's license.  I was supposed to wait until I'm 21 so I can get the "under 21" label taken off the card but since I won't be here, I don't want to have to retest and everything.  I also need to get my bank card renewed early because it expires about the same time as my driver's license was supposed to....  I haven't heard back about the student apartment, but they said I won't hear about it until 2-3 weeks before the apartment is available, which is mid-August.  They said the apartments are specifically reserved for international students, so even if I can't get the one I reserved, they'll just give me a different one at approximately the same price.  I'm not sure what circumstances would make it so that I couldn't get the one I reserved, but we shall see.

I'm super excited!!  Less than two months, I'll be back in Europe. Not to mention I pretty much get to spend the summer on the beach.  Hopefully I don't get too bored.  The thing is, I have to open a bank account in the Netherlands so that the school can refund me some money after tuition, and they said it will take four to six weeks for that refund to occur, so I want the refund to come to me in time to pay for my apartment. Also, they want to see the originals of my diploma and grade list, so if I am there in June school will still be in session and I can just take that in to them.

Two months! Eep!

a rare post, I know

Maybe no one is reading this anymore. I don't blame you, I haven't been posting very often.  I think my last post was maybe a month ago?  That's alright, I could just write for myself if no one else is watching.  I know, I was trying to post more often. It's difficult to post often when you have nothing to say though.

I'm really not the same person I was two years ago.  I think most people in the world live in a box.  Usually, there's nothing wrong with what's inside that box.  You can make a good life out of the contents of your box.  You can see what's outside your box, but you can't always understand it.  The good thing about it is that you don't need to.  Your box has everything you need.  I think I could have been content to stay in my box forever and do exactly what everyone thinks I'll do.  I think I could have easily spent my life avoiding certain things because they're outside my box.  I was all set to do that, for a while.

I don't know when I changed myself, but I did.  The box is nice but it's not for me.  I took a few journeys outside my box, as everyone does, but I liked it there.  My box was just a little too restrictive.  I don't really want to stay.

I don't remember where I was going with all that. The point is, I could have come back from Europe and gone right back to my daily life as it was before.  I don't think I'd have been at all happy doing so though.  It's what everyone does, it's what people expect, but I don't want everything I do to be because it's what people expect.  I don't feel like the things I was doing previously were getting me anywhere at all. I hate feeling like I'm in a dead-end with no U-turns.  I guess that's why I'm pulling my U-turn before I get to that point.

I think I'm all set for the Netherlands now.  I have my acceptance letter, and I have financial approval.  I applied for the student apartments but they say they won't start accepting students until the first of April. I am not too worried about it, because I got my application in early and they supposedly give priority to first-year international students.  I haven't started the immigration stuff yet, but I might wait until I know about the student apartments first.

I've been looking at flights.  Apparently all the cheap flights this summer go through Reykjavik.  Means I'm going to Iceland this summer, right?  It's actually kind of nice, because it means I won't have to sit through an eight or nine hour flight.  The one I was looking at was four hours to Reykjavik and 3 hours to the final destination.  Sitting through an eight hour flight is tough, no matter how many movies they put on your little TV screen.  I just have to decide when I want to leave and what I'm doing when I get there and I'll be ready to buy a ticket.  I will probably wait to do that after I know about student apartments too though...

Aside from all that, I haven't been doing much of anything lately. Like always.  At the end of this month we're going to Washington D.C., and I'm really excited for that. I miss all the walking I used to do in Europe, I look forward to a week of walking in D.C.  Besides that, I've been to the capital city of three different countries, but never my own.  It's about time I go, right?

That's it for now. I'll try to think of other things to post soon.  Goodnight!

I need to post more often!

I've been feeling a little stressed lately... Maybe I shouldn't, but I kind of have a lot to worry about so I guess it makes sense...

However, yesterday I finally received my "offer of student position" email from The Hague.  Basically, I'm accepted.  That's one less thing to worry about. Now I just have to write an important email that pretty much decides whether or not I will be able to go...  Then I have a ton of pretty immigration things to fill out and a housing application to put in and other fun stuff like that. But, that'll be a walk in the park after those first two important things.

On the other hand, I'm getting super excited now.  I miss Europe.  I find it a little funny how much I've changed over the past year....  I remember when I said I'd love to visit Europe but I'd never want to live there.  Before I came back home everyone said, "you think you'll miss Europe but as soon as you get home you won't want to leave again."  Wrong, I can't wait to leave.  I kind of like the ways in which I've changed... I don't want to stay here and put a halt to that.  I'm not finished.

So I remember how in grade school, I always hated it when they gave you essay questions that instructed you to write about people who have affected your life in some way or another.  I never really had an answer for that...  I probably could have made something else but it would have been pretty lame.  I was thinking about it earlier though, and I think that if I had to answer that question now, I would have quite a few people that I could put down.  I'm not telling you who, though. Perhaps another time.

I think I had more to say, but I can't really remember.  It'll probably come back to me after I've posted, and I really hate editing posts so I'll just have to hope I remember it next time.