One more night until I'm in Ghana

At the moment I'm on the train to London to stay the night there, however due to some broken connections on the trainline I have to go the complete opposite way to Birmingham and go via a different route, and will arrive at my hostel at 12.30am instead of 10pm. BUT I got a first class ticket as it was the same price ticket as a standard one online, so I've been served lots of drinks for free and can use the internet for free!

I'll be staying in a hostel in London tonight as 2 friends from Australia happen to arrive in London at around 9am tomorrow, so I thought I couldn't miss this opportunity to see them. I'l see them for about 2 hours and then start heading to London heathrow, where I'll meet up with my dad as by coincidence he has a connection flight there.

The last few days I've been so busy but it's been incredibly nice to have been able to see nearly everyone I wanted to! The goodbyes to my main group of girls and to my best friends have been the hardest but I know that the ones that really count will come and visit me in Holland or stay in contact:) I've gotten some absolutely lovely letters and beautiful present including a stunning silver bracelet and 2 really pretty necklaces and of course lots of chocolates, so been spoilt rotten!

There have been quite a few very emotional goodbyes and they were hard but it also means that I've obviously really enjoyed my time in England and have made some amazing friends. Now to think that I'll be in a different country, culture and in a place I've never been before, this time tomorrow is so surreal! 

I'll make sure to write down many first impressions I get when I arrive so I won't forget and will update you all as soon as I have time and can find some internet! Thanks all you guys for reading my blog and showing your support!

this will be the busiest week of my life

Last weekend I went away with Claudia (one of my best friends) for her birthday and I took her as a surprise to the West Midlands Safari Park. It was a really nice day, we spent about an hour and a half driving around wild animals and we pet quite a few of them (although the tigers looked very soft and cute, it was a sad moment when we had to keep our windows and doors shut for that part haha). It was really nice spending some quality time with her as we get on like a house on fire, but we both have very busy lives. Afterwards we drove to a nice hotel nearby and just spent the night chatting with a couple we'd met there and having some dinner, using the swimming pool etc.

 

On sunday morning there was meant to be a pentecost church service at a park in leamington, where all the churches of leamington would have a service outside, however the weather didn't let us so we went to a big church nearby and about a thousand people turned up which was amazing. It was such a good feeling to know that there are so many Christians in this town. 

Last week I had 2 maths exams, which both didn't go extremely well, but I think I passed at least, but I guess I'll see the results in August, there's no point in worrying about that now anymore. I also got 3 more this week which for 2 of them I think will be okay, however Biology on Wednesday, will be the most horrible one I think. I'm just glad that I've already been accepted into university (HBO) otherwise this could have been a problem.

On Tuesday I went to Holland for the day to have a look at my uni, as it was having an open day. I grabbed a flight at 6.50am and arrived in the city where my uni is at, Breda, at 10.30am. Jitske met me there at 11am as she offered to come with me. We had a few hours to kill, therefore we just went to explore it. There are many nice cafes with outside seating and as the weather was beautiful we had some lunch at one of them. The city is a good size, not too big, not too small, very clean and has a nice park as well, so I'm looking forward to living there.

The uni is about a 15 minute walk from the station, which is good as i'll be using that a lot! When I arrived I went over to the 'international tourism management' section and started talking to a teacher who did ITTI. As my course is split into two sections from the second year onwards, I needed to know a bit more about both. ITTI (International tourism and travel industry) deepens your knowledge about the practices of the international tour operating, the travel industry, emerging markets and dealing with culutral backgrounds of holiday makers. As I was talking to him I got really interested into this specialisation and thought THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO DO, definitely not ITMC (international tourism mangement and consultancy). He made it sound like something that I'd love to do and I probably would. However, then an international student from ITMC came over and chatted to me. ITMC focuses on analyising international tourism destinations. He started speaking about that specialisation and that's when I got confused. As that sounded amazing too! I could have done this uni course in 3 years as a fast track course, because of my qualifications, however I would then need to know which specialisation I'd want to do. Therefore, definitely after that day, I've decided to just go for the ordinary 4 year course, as I have no clue yet haha!

After the open day, I had to say my final goodbyes to Jitske until I see her in August and went back to the station to catch the train back to the airport. On the platform I saw a boy standing there looking through the same booklet as I was, about the course at the NHTV uni. So I struck up a conversation with him, and we ended up talking for the entire train trip, so at least I'll know one person who'll be doing my course!

On Friday night, Luc, Judith and I had our leaving party. Loads of people, somewhere around the 120, came and it was a really nice night. It was hard obviously as I couldn't say hi to everyone and didn't get to say bye to everyone either, but my goodbyes to my close friends are all happening this week.

This week is going to be crazy. I've got 3 exams, am working twice, am meeting about 7 people for either a sleepover or a long goodbye and am going to Southampton  for 2 days where one of my best friends (steph mann) lives. Meanwhile I also need to prepare my room for the move, and need to pack my bag. It's going to be absolutely crazy but needs to be done as I just can't leave without seeing these people. I hope I can update you one more time before I leave!

10 DAYS!

visiting Holland

I've stayed 1.5 weeks with Charlotte (one of my best friends) until last Wednesday as her mum and husband were on honeymoon and it was absolutely lovely to spend some good time with her! But sometimes I think I shouldn't do things like that as we just end up getting closer which means it'll be harder to go. Sophie (another best friend) is coming over today as well and staying at my house for most of my last 3 weeks as we never seem to make enough time for each other so that definitely does the job haha, which will be sooo nice as I love spending time with that girl, but that same thought goes through my mind. However I think I'm just going to let that thought pass as I'd prefer to make more memories with my friends the last few weeks than locking myself in my bedroom.

I left to Holland on Wednesday until yesterday and felt at home the first moment I left the plane. I don't know what it is but I just feel so comfortable around Dutch people. Not that I don't usually get along with people, but there's something that just clicks with other Dutch people. I also like hearing the Dutch language being spoken around me, I mean Holland's where I from so I guess it makes sense that I feel comfortable in my own country. We were staying a couple of houses down from our house, which was ideal as we could do lots to our house, like putting wallpaper up, cleaning, fix some things etc, it's all slowly coming together.  The last two picture are my room:)

23 days until I leave! I'm excited, sad, nervous, and every feeling you could feel! I'm going with Jitske my best friend from Holland to my uni in Holland that I'll be going to on the 14th of June to see what it's like and to ask questions. So that'll hopefully clear some more questions up for the Holland part. The Ghana part is just hard to know what to ask and what to expect. People will ask me questions and my answer a lot of the time is: I'm not sure.. But they'll be answered as soon as I get there I'm sure and I also can email them at any time to ask them questions! Now just gotta continue revising for my 5 exams next week and the following, while trying to still see as many friends as I can.