May Recap

May FLEW - we had friends and family visiting nonstop since the beginning of the month (and most of last month too!) so it was nonstop touristing/ hanging/ go go go all month. And it.was. AWESOME. I've realized that I've spent a lot of this year either in our apartment, wandering aimlessly or in our favorite coffee shop, and haven't done a lot of fun, touristy things that Holland has to offer. So it was super fun to have an excuse to get me out of the apartment and actually DO something, and we fully lived up the dutch life this month. Here are some highlights from this month:

April Recap

I can't believe April is already done - where is the time going?! We only have a few short months left in Holland and we're savoring every moment. April was filled with parental visits - the Hogans came at the beginning of the month, followed by my parents with a few days overlapping. We packed in tons of touristy things, lots of yummy meals, and quality family time. Some highlights:

March Recap

March was a crazy month with a ton of traveling,  little peeks of spring, and preparing for our tidal wave of visitors in the next few months. We started the month off with an unbelievable trip to Portugal (read more here). It was a once in a lifetime trip - everyplace we went was amazing and we completely fell in love with the country.

The day after we got back from Portugal I had a shoot for an article that one of Jack's co-workers/mentors was publishing. After the shoot I wandered around Rotterdam a bit - I had yet to use my museum card (which gives you free entry to museums) so I stopped by the Witte de With - a contemporary art museum with very... interesting... exhibits. Not going to lie, I was so confused and slightly terrified the whole time, but I guess it was cool to experience?

Witte de With Museum

The next week Jack flew to DC to attend the White House Water Summit, network with politicians, give bomb presentations, and wander the city with it's pretty cherry blossoms blossoming. Unfortunately that was the same week as my 28th birthday, so instead of sitting in our apartment alone I decided to book a last minute trip to Ireland. It was unbelievable. Such a great experience traveling alone, such a beautiful countryside, and such nice people!

When we got back we had a few short days to prep before parents arrived. It was filled with lots of taxes, errand running, working, and a few more museum visits :) We started to see the beginnings of spring around town - some blossoms on the trees, slightly warmer weather, and much longer days. I biked a few miles out of town to the local greenhouse and purchased WAY too many indoor plants to liven the place up, which will all probably die in the next few weeks but it's completely worth it to finally have some greenery around us! I can't wait until it's beautiful and warm out!!

February Recap

February has been a lot of computer time, cozying up in our apartment and enjoying our little Delft town. Most days have been spent working on AMP projects, catching up on blog posts here (sorry it's been taking me forever!) and lots and lots of reading. I'm currently making my way through the Outlander series and it has been DYING to go back to Scotland! Despite being holed up in our apartment a ton, here are a few highlights from this short month:

- Eindhoven Carnaval // we ventured with some friends to Eindhoven to witness a crazy Carnaval celebration

- Paris for Valentines day // We spent an wonderful weekend exploring bustling Paris and celebrating our love in the city of love.

- We had a super chilly week where it fluttered snow for half a day and some of the canals froze over again, but it was also brilliantly clear and sunny. I went for a freezing bike ride on the path out towards Rotterdam and (tried to) soaked up some rare sun. Even though it was freezing you could feel that Spring was right around the corner - birds were chirping and you could smell the fresh grass growing back!

- One weekend we decided last minute to invite some friends over for a Mexican themed dinner, which turned into lounging and sending each other ridiculous snapchats, which turned into beers at our favorite gezellig bar, which turned into dancing our booties off at the one dance "club" in Delft until 4am in the morning.

- We spent a Saturday afternoon rediscovering Delft. We found a ton of cute cafes that we had never enjoyed, and wandered into a pottery shop run by the sweetest little lady. She said she had just opened her shop after retiring and is only opened when she wants to be open, so if we wanted to stop by again we could just call her and she'd open the shop for us. She was the sweetest and we got two of the coolest little mugs from her and I want to be best friends with her.

- Bar tending at Bouwpub // A student bar on campus is run by student bar tenders, and last time we were there we signed up for a night of bar tending! It was super fun and awkward (because we don't really speak Dutch) but we just drank a lot of beer and danced to really good music with friends.

- I started taking a dark room class through TU Delft and made some new dutch friends! After the first class I road back to town with some new friends, talking about where they grew up and funny things that Americans say, and it was so much fun and the first time I really felt like I "lived" here. Also, it was pretty funny because I was the only person that brought in film to develop so we all practiced printing some negatives that I had taken of Jack. His face is pretty much famous amongst the dark room group now :)

- I finally caved and bought an adult coloring book and I'm obsessed. I know we live in Holland and I should be out exploring everyday, but some days you just need to relax, color, and listen to GOT on audiobook all day.