I am nervous to leave behind a world that I have come to know and love.  I am excited though to meet new people and make a LOT of new friends.  I am very unhappy to leave my besti's and dogs, but I will be seeing them in 1 year.  At my new school we have uniforms, and I don't have much more to say.  Just kidding I have quite a bit to say about the uniforms, and that is that they are very professional, skirt or pants? Scarf or tie? Sweater or vest? CONVERSE!!!!  Sorry... It's just that I l❤ve converse.  Now back to the point, I am super nervous to move because of the danger of the crowded bike paths and the dumb rule that states 'If a scooter goes under 35 mph then they can drive on the bike path' WHAT THE MUFFIN?!? What kind of a rule is that?  Well i'm going to sign of right now and I will be blog again soon!🤪

LOLZ (laugh out loud zebras)

getting ready to live in Europe is exciting

I've been watching the videos of the school and I think the school looks great.  I've been enjoying the past few weeks of summertime in Tahoe by seeing a few friends and riding horses at camp but when I'm not doing that, I'm trying to sort my clothes into piles...a pile for clothes to bring, a pile to store & some things to sell or donate!  It is a lot of work & we only have a couple weeks to finish.🤔

I'm going to miss my friends dearly & I will have to skype and facetime them daily!!  I am excited to meet many new friends from all over the world...I can't wait to see our apartment but I'm not excited about sharing a room with Kai!  We are going to put a piece of tape down the middle of the room to keep our stuff separated!

LOLZ🤪

August 29, 2013 - we are at the airport and the excitement is definitely building and I can't wait!😀 

We have been packing(which was no fun!😉)  We have been saying good-bye to friends and family, and we went to the water park, the lake, we saw our cousins and their pets.  We also had to say bye to our little doggies... I'll post a picture of them...

September 2, 2013 - Well, today I got my uniforms for school.  After surviving a bike ride to the place we needed to go to get our Visas, only to learn that we needed some additional documents from the house.  My parents freaked out & went "WHAAT??"  and then we got coffee so everyone felt better & happier.  So we rode our bikes to the school and we picked up our uniforms.  When I walked into the school I was astounded!  It was very bright & roomy & it had spiral stairs which I really wanted!  As a matter of fact there is one set for going up & another set for coming down!~ I met my new teachers today!  They both seemed cool & they were both from different countries.  One was from England & the other was from Ireland.  I think!  I'll let you know tomorrow what their names are & where exactly they are from!  I met a girl named Clara who didn't speak much English and she was from Denmark.  She had only been here ONE day!  So I have been here longer than clara & I'm not the newest newbie!  I met another girl named Alex I think who had already joined this school at the end of last year so she told me the school & or class is really great.  She said the girls in our form (our class, 8.2) are super nice & almost all of them are taking French so I am thinking maybe I should also take French instead of Spanish.  I am also going to take Dutch (not German) so that I can know about 3-4 languages a little bit.

😎

I will write more tomorrow after my first day of school.  This past week has been cool. we got bikes, beds, house, unpacked, had lots of toasties (which are like grilled cheese & served everywhere you go) and my brother is annoying as always. but he's my roommate (which sucks!) and he talks in his sleep.  Last night he said "it's cool bro, it's all cool" HAHAAHA!  He's funny. And I love him anyway & I named him Blondie.  Talk later!!😉

LOLZ (laugh out loud zebras)

Sabrina

September 4, 2013 - Hello everyone! I have really enjoyed this past couple days they have been super fun and I have made two new friends.  Their names are Alex and Clara, and there both from cool places Alex is from England and Clara is from Denmark.  We have our classes already and we all stay together as a class most of the time sooooooo...  All the girls in my class are super nice.  We have an outdoor ed trip in two weeks so I will definatley be blogging after that!😀 I still definatley miss Lake Tahoe, LTS, my pups, pals, and family but all I keep tellling myself is that "it's not forever you are coming back"  but don't get me wrong I still really do like it here.  OH MY JEEP!!!!!!!! Today it was so hot!!!!!!! Like I was sweating a river and when we were on the tram all I was thinking was "can they see my sweatmarks? Maybe if I were my backpack they won't see them"  So that was my day in a nutshell, wait actually that was my day in a nutshell that's in an oven, turned up all the way, in the middle of the Saharra Desert, under a red sun, sitting in a bowl of boiling water, and finally surrounded by a ring of fire.

🙃

Well bye for now my loyal readers!

LOLZ (laugh out loud zebras)

Sabrina

September 6, 2031

Hi everyone!

😋 Yesterday at school we did stuff about plant cells and animal cells in science and for plant cells we had to cut of the thin skin like layer of the INSIDE of an onion and to do that the teacher had to CUT ONIONS and everyone was like *eyes watering *breathing in nose out mouth *lots of blinking and the teacher was all like *yeah whatever I'm cutting onions calm down she didn't say that but I bet she was thinking it.  For animal cells we had to use a cotton swab and swab the inside of our mouths but when Alex and I were guessing what we had to do we were like "if we have to cut someone's cheek it will be yours!" "no it'll be yours!" "No yours!" And that was pretty much how that went.  But when the swabs were handed out Alex was like "you can swab YOUR mouth" and I was all like "fine" and I did it in like the grossest way possible and Alex was like "that is sooooooooo GROSS!" And I was making noise I was like "aaaaahhhh! There's a cotton swab in my mouth! Aaaaahhhhh I'm gonna die! *gross noises" and she was like "OMG! Sabrina I'm gonna barf stop!" And then when I was rolling the swab on the slide so we could study it she was like "oh that is GROSS! I'm gonna wait over here⬅ until your done" then when I was done she was like "ok I'm putting the iodine on this time!" I was like totally cool with that because I had put it on the onion.  Then when we were looking at my saliva in the microscope we were both like "wow I/you have REALLY cool looking saliva!"😱 It had like gold looking craters in it with like gray surrounding.  So when we were riding our bikes home it started pouring and we were like peddling faster and faster! Our perfect weather was gone.😭

Well thanks for reading peeps! My mom said we have 1600 readers! So that means that I have 1600 Zebras!😄

LOLZ

Sabrina🐮

Sunday, September 22, 2013

So last week I went to a summer camp called Camp Heino and it all started on a Monday morning.  We all brought our stuff to school & we were sitting in our desks waiting for everyone to arrive.  As soon as everyone did, we loaded up the bus & took our seats.  Clara & I were sitting behind Notsumi & Elize & we wanted to chat but the teachers were like "everyone who isn't road sick, go to the top" and so Clara & I were like "we get really really roadsick" 😉 because we wanted to sit with our friends so we did.

OK when we got there it was time for lunch.  Bread, just bread (oh and soup) but mostly bread.  Breakfast & lunch every day was bread.  When we were sleeping in our dorms it was really fun because we just got to hang out on our beds & talk & chat.  But Elize was sick from her sister & she got everyone in our dorm sick.  We were all like "ELIZE!!"  "And she was like, "SORRY! It was my sister who got ME sick!" 

Our pack list didn't say bring sweets but all our friends said "BRING SWEETS BRING SWEETS!" so we had a candy feast at midnight. 

Tuesday we got to do this really fun photo treasure hunt so Alex, Clara & I were running around looking at the list & trying to find everything.  Alex said don't worry I have 30 euro we can buy everything we need!  I had to touch raw herring but I didn't eat it... we had to take a photo of everything we did: a dog & its owner, eating raw herring, the whole team eating popsicles ("Ice Lollies") & we had to wear a mardi gras mask in every picture.  There were 16 items on the list... we didn't accomplish all of them but we got most of them.  And it was a fun day!

On Wednesday, we got to do a really fun thing called a challenge run.  We had a group of 6 & we had to bang out as many fun things as possible like biking, ropes course, canoeing & rock climbing.  They attached a bungee cord to people & they see if they could run forward while the bungee was pulling them back.  I didn't get to try that but it looked fun.

Thursday was the best day ever! We went to an amusement park called Slagharen  ( http://slagharen.com/ ) and we went on all these awesome rides including a water ride we did like 20 times.  We also went on this fun moon ride with seats that spin around & fly through the air... everyone in our grade was holding onto the backs of everyone else's chairs so we were all connected in a big ring... you actually have to run at the beginning becuase the seats are so low to the ground!  There was this one ride that was one spinning fish & then four spinning fish and then the arms that attached to all the spinning fish like a demented tea cup ride.  Elize had her eyes closed the whole time.  We walked down one street that was all candy shops...including one with a dead wasp in the candy.  EEWWWW!!! 

We made a game plan at lunch to eat really fast & go ride go carts & go to the Top Shop (where I got a cute pair of pants...see photo) when we got there we were tooo freaking tall for the ride!  No go carts...sniff..

I missed my family very much even though the day I left, Kai & I were going through a fight.  But now everything is all better. 

Yesterday the family all got on a tour bus & we rode out to the countryside to see windmills & cheese factories & wooden shoes!  It was really cool & I liked the windmills at the end.  I took some photos with mom's camera & will post them here.

LOLZ

Sabrina😀

Sunday, September 29, 2013

This weekend I had lots of fun!😀 On Saturday my mom and I went shopping and bought some uber-cute clothes!  Why did you guys go to the mall is what you may be thinking, and the reason we went because we had to meet Kai after his sleepover (They stayed up till 1 on laptops went to sleep and woke up at 7 and played some more!!!!!!😲) 

Today was SUPER fun too!!!!! Even though I could not find my bike keys and had to use my extras...  Other than that FUN.  Today was so fun because I spent all day with 3 out of ? of my girlfriends and we went to my pal Natsumi's house.  Once most of us had arrived (Alex...😉) we started eating Lunch.  My friend Alex has super curly hair and today when she FINALLY got to Natsumi's house we were like half way through Lunch, and that was when we figured out why she was so late... SHE HAD STRAIGHTENED HER CURLS!!!!!!!!!!😲  We were like OMJEEP!!!! And we made faces like this 🤪, 😮, 😀, and this 🙃.  She looked like a totally different person! For lunch at Natsumi's we had homemade sushi! It was so good!  After Lunch we got on our bikes (Except Alex hers was at home) and rode to Alex's house to pick up her bike.  After we picked up her bike we went to this small park near Natsumi's house and we played tag and all sorts of fun games.  When we got back to her house we had a chocolate vanilla cake pastry thing.  It was so tasty!  Then we started eating these yummy candies and then I was like "wouldn't it be so funny if you got a note on one of these wrappers that said 'you have a secret admirer'' and then we wrote all kinds of notes and then someone was like "Lets put them in people's lockers!" We all agreed but now I'm thinking that this may not be a good plan.  Well that's all I have for today! Daddy sent me pictures of my doggies so here ya go.

Keep LOLZing my ZEBRAS

LOLZ🙃

Sabrina

My dearest Zebras!

I am very sorry for not blogging recently.  I have just been super duper busy with all of my new friends and school work and traveling!  Over break we went to France & Gent & Bruges, which are both in Belgium. 

In France, we went to Paris & saw the Reeds!  And we were also with the Kirklands!  I loved when we went to the Eiffel Tower at night and all the lights were glittering!  I also liked when we went to the Arc de Triomphe and climbed to the top and could see almost all of Paris from up there.  We did a lot of walking.  We walked up & down the Champs de Ellyse and if you look at that picture we are standing in front of the biggest Louis Vuitton store... they had a giant golden dinosaur in the window!

We went to the Louvre museum and saw the Mona Lisa.  I thought there was quite a lot of hubub about it when it is only just a little painting.  Don't get me wrong, I still liked it but there were so many people standing in front of it, just trying to get that one perfect picture.  But it was behind glass so the pictures don't come out anyhow.  I thought that it was a bit strange that people found a statue with no arms to be so perfect.  We went on a derpy double-decker tour bus but luckily, we snagged some awesome green headphones & we got into a bus crash with a taxi which Dad loved!🤪

One afternoon we went over to Notre Dame to see the catacombs and after we saw the catacombs we went to this man who would put rice in your hand & help you get a pigeon on your arm.  This other lady would put rice in your hair & get them on your head!  Picture coming...  when one of them was eating, Scarlett grabbed it and the French people were like "NO No nononono no!"  And so she put it down quickly and it scampered off.

Hanging out with Sophia was great & we just caught up on how school is going and how we are liking our trips.  It was sad to say goodbye but I think we will see each other again, hopefully soon & I think it will be here in Amsterdam.

In Belgium, we went to Gent, had a meal & left!  When my dad & I wondered around we got some Belgian chocolate & it was the best chocolate ever!  Then we drove to Bruge  my parents were both having a spaz attack meltdown (not as big as the one driving to Paris) because we could not find our way out of the small town streets in Brugge.  You know what they say, Paris is the city of fights!  Wait, lights...

My mom & I had a photography contest in Brugges!  I will put up some of the pictures we took for the contest.  It still has not yet been judged.  We need to do this with Dad & Kai and our anonymous entries.

We have to go get ready for trick-or-treating now!  I am going to put on vampire fangs & a cape... maybe some black lipstick!

Keep on LOLZing my ZEBRAS

LOLZ😀

Sabrina

(Goldfish)

Nov 6

Hey guys!

I don't have much to type about but I will try my hardest.  So here goes...  Today when I woke up I was feeling a bit 'under the weather' so I stayed home from school, and that is why I am blogging a bit earlier.  

  Are class started the year with 20 and now we are 18 because one of my BFFL (Clara) left to go back to Denmark.  The other person that left was one of the fellow new kids Nick, and he left to go to ISA (International School of Amsterdam).  Now at school we have assemblys every Thursday.  That means that each year group gets (HAS) to come up with a creative way to fill in a 10 minute space.  My grade (8.2) has to make up a 10 minute play, sets, costumes, and scripts included.  Everyone broke into groups, 6 (?) people are doing music, 6 (?) people are writing scripts, 2 (Caroline and Ruby) are making the sets/backdrops, 2 (Alex and Natsumi) are doing costumes, and 2 (Me and Elize) are doing props.  Doing props is pretty fun because Elize and I get to dig through the Drama Closet during our Music lesson.  What really excites me though is how I totally feel like a drama nerd from a movie where they walk around with boxes full of props, sure its totally dorky but that is how I feel.

Well toodles for now!

Keep LOLzing!😀

Sabrina

(Goldfish)

I was this close to Ariana Grande : )

~ Saturday, November 16, 2013 ~

Hi!

Last weekend my mom, Kai and I had the best weekend ever!  On Saturday we went to a super cool climbing gym! We went with our neighbors from Portland.  Their little boy was very tired and hungry so he was not really in the mood for climbing.  The little girl was super good at climbing and she would speed up the wall, but only with a little back seat driving (climbing) from my mom and her dad.  I climbed really high too!🙂  Kai only climbed a few feet off the ground but that was fine for him.  After that I was supposed to go to a Disco Party for my friend but I was feeling sick so I did not go.  That made me sad because later that day there were pictures all over Instagram.😥

Sunday was probably the best day ever.  It started off with us sleeping

(🙂) then eating (💋) and then we went to the mall down in Amstelveen by bus.  The mall was fun, we got to walk around, try on clothes (we barely bought anything dad, don't worry), we even got CUSTOM MAGNUM ICE CREAM BARS(🤪). After that I finally got what I had wanted all day... a new pencil case and erasable pens!  Sure it seems dorky, but in my BSA class practically everyone has erasable pens, and everyone has cool pencil cases.  When we got home, we all went off to do our own things: Kai went to his computer, my mom went to her computer and I excitedly began to go through my new pens, and that was when it happened...

My mom was checking her email when she saw one that caught her eye. It was from her friend J*** M*** (some people may not want their names on the internet, hence the ***s)  & as she read, she began to get more and more excited, and then she began to ask Kai and I questions about the MTV EMAs (European Music Awards).  She said her friend had offered some tickets to see the show but we both deflated because we thought that the EMAs were the night before & we had totally missed this opportunity of a lifetime!  Then we began to think back to the TV when we tried to watch the EMAs it said they were on Sunday!!  We then began trying to figure out how we were going to get the tickets?!?  When the whole ticket things was fiqured out, we began to get ready.  My mom called an UBER car and in about 15 minutes, we were off!  We told the driver the directions and we were just chatting about how this may not work but once the tickets and VIP braclets were in our posession, we knew that everything was going to be okay.

When we arrived at the EMAs, we got to go right in because of our VIP bracelets (we later found out that they got you free drinks and a pass through a bunch of lines at the begining) & we had a blast!  Most people were dressed super nice!  We were wearing the nicest clothes we could find with 15 minutes notice.  When we got to our seats, we just sat and took everything in.  I was sitting star gazing scanning for stars in the section that led to a private bar and sitting galery for them.  While I as scanning my mom was having a conversation with the lady next to us (turned out that her husband worked in the music buisness) then I began to squeek because I saw Ariana Grande.  I was grabbing a my mom's sleeve and pointing, and I was like 'MOM! MOM! LOOK IT'S ARIANA GRANDE!!!!!!!🤪' She tried to get good pictures but we mainly got pictures of the back of her head, and that was ok with me because I still got to see her in PERSON!!!!!!!  The guy from LMFAO was hosting the EMAs and he made lots of weird, dirty jokes but it was funny because he changed his outfit everytime that he went off screen.  The first performance was by Miley Cyrus, she sang We Can't Stop.  The other people who preformed were Miley Cyrus (We Can't Stop, Wrecking Ball), KATY PERRY (A RADICAL new song of hers I am not sure what it was called), Bruno Mars (Gorilla), Eminem (A awesome rap that I am not sure of the name), Kings of Leon, Imagine Dragons (Radioactive), Robin Thicke (Blurred Lines).  Ylvis (What Does The FOX SAY?) unfortunatley we missed this preformance but he was there.  Katy won Best Female, Miley won Best Music Video (Wrecking Ball), the other artists won to I just can't remember what.  

That was how my AWESOME weekend went.  I hope you enjoyed reading about it.  

Well later!

Keep LOLZing!😉

Sabrina (Goldfish, Sping)

NOTE FROM MOM: We got home at midnight & I tried to sleep in & miss some school the next day but she was having none of that!!

Sunday, December 8th

Well this last few weeks has been great - we missed one week of school to visit Prague & Berlin so now I have been to five countries in Europe!  The Netherlands, France, Belgium, Czech Republic & Germany!  This does not count the airport stop in Austria.  When we were in Prague, I loved eating TrdloTYhs & learning about midevil times at the castle.  It is super exciting & fun to walk around & see all the sights of places that are a lot older than anything in the USA!  When we were in Prague, we found that it was a bit dirtier there than in Amsterdam.  At the end of the trip, my parents asked which city we would prefer to live in & we all said obviously, Amsterdam.  In Berlin, I loved visiting Christmas markets!! Especially the one that was close to our hotel. 

I enjoyed visiting the Berlin Wall exhibit at Checkpoint Charlie because it all makes a lot more sense to me now.  I loved reading about how some people escaped from East Berlin to West Berlin during the time that the wall was up.  There was a story about a man who just casually walked over the border by standing next to a motorcoach & no one saw him.  There were some others who hid in the boot of a car...some had hidden compartments in the floor too.  Many people were caught & some were killed trying to leave... I think about 180 people died at the wall.  There was also a teenager named Peter Fetcher who was one of the first ones shot & he was tangled in the barbed wire at the wall.  No one was able to help him because he was still on the East German side.  The guards eventually hauled him away as he was dying.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Fechter  it is so sad & interesting that this only happened about 30-40 years ago.  

The annoying thing at the Berlin Wall was all the gypsies who try to get you to "sign a petition" but then they put out their hands for money.  And they never leave you alone! 

When my dad was here the last few weeks, I loved hanging out with him because he always knows a lot about what we are learning & he told us all about the history that we were studying.  Plus he loves to eat all the fun festival food!  He makes us stop & try all the different street foods!  I miss him already but I will see him in two weeks.

Thanks for reading LOLZZ!!

Sabrina, aka Goldfish

~ Thursday, January 9, 2014 ~

Hello friends & zebras!

I'm sorry that I have not been blogging but now I will tell you all about my fabulous cruise that my family went on together during Christmas break!

It all started on the flight to Atlanta, then to Florida from here in Amsterdam in the middle of December... we had to go the airport without our coats on because we didn't want to carry them around for the next two weeks...parkas are quite unecessary in Florida!  I was very very tired on the flight to the US because it was a long flight & there was a time change.  When we got to Florida we had one extra day before we got on the cruise... my mom got spray tanned & we both got mani-pedis while we waited for my father & the rest of his family to arrive!

The next day, everyone was there & we all went over to get on the ship!  The boat was humongousaurus & I couldn't wait to go check out our room!  Unfortunately the rooms were not quite ready but we went & got our first serving of buffet food!  You know, that evil fattening stuff that you can get as much as you want of, for free!?  When they announced our rooms were ready in English, Spanish & some other languages, we all rushed down & found our luggage in our rooms.  The rest of our family was down there & we were getting ready to share a room with our cousins.  The bunk bed was really cool because it came out of the ceiling.  We didn't use it much though because both Weston & Kai tried to sleep on it but they both got sea-sick so they slept on the sofa & the pull-out trundle.

The boat was super cool because on the very top level it had a big open grassy area where you could watch a hot glass show or sit & relax in the sun.  There were also two outdoor pools, four outdoor jacuzzis and an indoor pool.  The indoor pool was only for adults but we would sometimes walk through there.  I tried to work out in the gym with my parents but they kicked me out & said no one under 16 could be in there.  But I got plenty of workouts wandering the ship & going up & down stairs instead of using elevators.  What I found interesting about the ship was that there was no floor 13.  I guess it is considered bad luck & nobody wants their ship to sink.

We went to fancy dinners just about every night.  Uncle Eric always made the dinner reservations for a really early time... 5:30... are you serious?!?  😋 I know, I know, that was really the only time we could all 12 sit together.  Plus it was OK because we could always watch the show after dinner.  I missed a few of the shows because I was really tired & jet-lagged.  I did enjoy dressing up & wearing my new wedge heels but I never seemed to have enough time to do my hair the way I wanted to!  My mom was always rushing me!  HAHA she is actually helping me type this so she knows she's a nag & is not offended because I wuv her💋

After 2 days at sea, we landed at our first port which was St. Thomas.  We got to go to this fabulous beach & we played in the waves all day long.  Aunt Cece rented us some rafts to float on in the water.  Fortunately the rain only came pouring down right when we needed to leave.  It was a super fun day!  Aunt Cece brought Kai & I back on the boat for some gelato while my mom & dad whooped it up at the Senor Frogs bar right by the ship!  And they ordered a really really large margarita.  Apparently they danced on the dancefloor in their bathing suits but no one else was even in the place so I'm not too embarrassed.  They were like the last two people to get on the boat before it left the port!  Glad they made it!!   We were screaming at them to hurry while we ate our ice cream on the deck!!

The next day we went to St. Kitts (on Christmas Eve day) where we met some adorable monkeys!  (my mom has some pictures she will put in a photo album so check it out in a little while)  We also went on a totally awesome rainforest zip-line!!  Too bad our grandpa & aunt were sick on the boat & not allowed to leave their room!  The zip line was super fun but I don't think they would have liked it.  There were 5 ziplines & some were about 300 feet off the ground!

That night we had a fancy Christmas Eve dinner.  I wore a fancy red dress & we took a whole lot of pictures.  The whole ship was decorated & then in the morning, Santa actually arrived through the smokestacks to meet all the little children on the boat.  I got Oreos 🤪YAY!  That was the day we went into town in Barbados!  We had a hilarious van driver named Michelle & I think she liked my grandpa!!  My mom & my uncle stopped inside the 7-11 type store while we got gas & ended up meeting some Barbadian guys who gave her a beer.   Did I mention it was about 10:00 in the morning?  She's funny & adorable.  Remember who is typing this...  Anyhow, we then went to a beach where we played in the waves & got harassed by the guys who wanted us to buy a jet ski ride.  The funniest part was that these guys were wearing Scooby Doo & Dalmation costumes... huh??   I think it was some sort of marketing technique!

This beach had a lot more rocks in the water & the waves were a lot bigger than St. Thomas.  The most hilarious moment was when Aunt Cece got knocked down by a huge wave out of no-where... my dad could not stop laughing!!!  He truly couldn't!

Christmas night was fun again as we had a big family dinner & watched a really good show.

Two more stops on this trip included Dominica & the last one, St. Martin.  In Dominica, we took a really, really, long, bumpy & windy road to a place where we hiked to a waterfall where we got to swim.  That's a good thing because the drive was so awful!  My mom even got so sick she had to get out of the van & get back to town when we were on our way to the second half of the excursion.  My aunt went with her & they hung out in town.  But the rainforests were quite amazing and swiming in the waterfall was magnificent!!  My aunt also bought me a really neat doll that was hand-made there in Dominica...her name is Dominique.😀

The last port was a really cool island that is both French & Dutch!  It is called St. Martin / Sint Maarten... the taxi driver who took us to the French side spoke some Dutch with us & she has been here to Amsterdam a lot.  When we got to the beach where we were headed, we went right to this adorable hotel & restaurant called the Love Hotel...we LOVED it!  They had beds on the sand & brought us drinks and coffee and food.  They put a FatBoy in the water & we floated around on it all day.  They also had an umbrella & a table in the water so we were playing around on that!  My parents went & ate some amazing ribs that Dana told us to try & they brought some back for us to try.  Delicious!!!  My mom & dad surprised me with a LOVE shirt from the hotel & it is super cute.  We spent a few minutes walking around this part of the island before we had to drive back over to the ship.

We went back to the boat & spent the next 2 days at sea, sailing back to Florida.  This trip was amazing & like nothing we have ever done before!  We flew back to Europe on New Year's Eve & there was no party, not even a glass of champagne for my parents.  It also sounds like we missed a really big firework show here in Amsterdam...our neighbors said it sounded like World War III!  Maybe some other time we will get to experience that!  This past weekend we did a lot of sleeping in to catch up on the time change again!  I think I'm finally back on track & school this week has been fun.  thanks for reading this really long post!  I hope you enjoyed it & come back for more soon!!!

LOLZ,

   Sping

      (Sabrina)

P.S.

     I am excited for the Reeds to visit!🤪 My Danish friend Clara is also coming for a visit!😀

~ February 4th, 2014 ~

LOLZers.  I am very sorry for not posting!  My life has been a whirlwind of activity lately and I have not had any time to blog.  I have some stories to tell...

First & foremost, my class gets to have a Valentine's Day Disco! Everyone is getting really excited because apparently the BSA never has dances!  People are so excited!  They are already asking one-another to go!  Me and my dateless gal-pals are all going to go together.  The dance is the day before Valentine's Day on Thursday the 13th (kinda wierd, right?)   The dress code is super strict and it is kinda wierd.  All the girsl HAVE to wear a skirt or a dress and all the boys have to wear nice white shirts.

The elementary school (my bro's school) got to have a dance too!  They had a Hawaiian theme.  It was funny when my mom & I walked in wearing parkas whereas everyone else was skipping about in shorts and tank tops.

UPDATE!  Today is February 11th and the dance is just two days away.  My friends & I are going to be going to the cafe across the street after school to get ready.  My friends & I are all planning on dresses and some wedge heels.  I hope I can dance in those!  Ok I will give you another update after the tremendously sparkling night!

Other stories from the past few weeks include:  one of my very best besties from Tahoe, Sophia, who is living in Paris with her family this year, came to Amsterdam with her mom & sisters to stay with us for the weekend at the end of January. 

First lets talk about allll the Dutch foods that we had them try while they were here!  First, we had the city's best waffle with Nutella which you can get over by the Rijksmuseum if you want to know where to get one. They also got to try the fries with mayo at Chipsy King, which we think are the best fries in Amsterdam.  They got to try pancakes at Pancakes! Amsterdam which has some crazy dishes like one with bacon, banana & chili pepper which my mom seems to enjoy, strangely!  They had some bitterballen right before they ran to the tram that they took to the train station.  I think they liked it all! 

A few things we did were: we played on the skateboard halfpipe and the rest of the park with her sisters at the Museumplein.  We went on a canal boat cruise & looked at all the funky houses & out into the open sea.  We took them to the Anne Frank House on Sunday morning.  It was the second time I have been, but I still think it is very interesting when I go there.  Sophia & I put the little kids to bed & stayed up waaay past our own bedtime when the moms went out to meet some friends & also went to the Amsterdam Fashion Week fashion shows one night.  They said there were some pretty crazy clothing but they couldn't get very good pictures so I'll take their word for it.

OK so I really miss Sophia & all my Tahoe friends, but I'm getting a lot closer with my Amdam friends like Elize, Esmeralda, Francisca, and a little closer to my friend Alex.  Although I am super far from the Lake that is still where my heart and mind are.  I can't wait to come back and tell all my stories in greater detail.  Amsterdam is great and I still have a lot of time left!  My London trip is also coming up and I can't wait!!!!!😀

Keep LOLZing!

Sabrina (Sping)

P.S.

  The Olympics are going super well for the Americans and The Netherlands and I can't wait to see how many more medals they all win!🙂

P.P.S.

    My Danish friend Clara got sick so she did not make it here for her visit.  My friends & I were all very sad and we did not like hearing that news.  Oh and before I forget, there is a new girl in my class and she is from England!  She is pretty cool and I sit next to her in Math.😉

-Tuesday, April 22, 2014-

Hello readers & welcome to SPINGTIME!  Some of you may already know that people call me SPING so not only is it SPRING but it is also SPINGTIME because I'm finally going to blog! 

Well, the preparations for KINGS DAY have begun, because King's Day is this Saturday!  King's Day is a day to celebrate the King of the Netherlands.  It used to be called Queen's Day but she abdicated last year & turned over her crown to her son so that he could be our King!  What happens on this day?  Well we have not seen it but we are excited because we hear that a LOT happens!  For one thing, anyone can sell their crafts or baked goods or second-hand clothing & toys anywhere in the city on this day without a permit.  Apparently Dutch people love to haggle so this is a big deal for them!  Everyone wants to make some money & get a good bargain.  My mother & I will be setting up a booth & selling some home-made floral wreath headbands as well as some of our gorgeous photography of Amsterdam!  We are super pumped!  We already have a plan with some of our other friends who will sell some traditional & healthy Swedish cakes with their second-hand toys & clothing.  I think it will be cray-cray crowded in The Vondelpark where we will be set up.  The weather right now is amazing but it is not guaranteed to last.  We hear it might be raining on Saturday &  "pooping upon our party promptly"... (picture me saying this with over-exaggerated "P" sounds!)

We just got back from a very long & awesome trip to Istanbul & Antalya, Turkey!  And BTW, we did have some Turkey in Turkey if you were wondering.  I will just say that my grandmamommy's turkey on Thanksgiving is better!  You will have to look at the pictures & read about Turkey in the other post about our Spring Break trip! 

Today we went back to school & let's just say, I didn't miss it!  I did miss my friends & I did enjoy my art class today because we got to work on our ceramic glazing project!  Also, as a school project, I am helping my music teacher by knitting some of the gloves for the school production of Alice in Wonderland, which I also happen to be in (I'm a flower, the least important flower, mind you😙).  The gloves are part of the Cheshire Cat's costume.  I can post a picture of the finished product *soon* I hope!!

Today I also had to ride my (adult) neighbor's bike to school because mine had *yet another* flat tire!  I was afraid of the judgemental stares I might get because of the baby seat on the back of this bike! (teen mom alert!?!😉)  and the whole ride home I kept thinking up scenarios of what people might be thinking about me & what I might respond to anyone who asked about it in "Perfect Dutch" haha lol!  I would say "s'noneya bidness why I'm on this bike! stop starin!"

Keep LOLZing on!

Sabrina (Sping)

This week was my performance of 'Alice in Wonderland'... it went really well.  On Tuesday we performed for the Primary School, on Wednesday we performed for Secondary & on Thursday night we had the big finale for the parents.  We knew most of our songs & choreography, but the one thing that kind of let me down about the play was the costumes for the flowers.  We just wore our own clothes & added a few flowers on top.  I wish we could have had real, matching costumes with a little flair that didn't make us look like Hawaiian tourists or Spanish flamenco dancers.

In other news, it is a rainy weekend & we have no plans.  We are just lounging about & then Kai & I are going to clean the bathroooms as a Mother's Day present to mom. LOLZ!  One of the moms at the BSA was selling 6 One Direction tickets & my friends & I were going to attempt to buy them but we think someone else beat us to it.  I might still try & go online.  The concert is June 25th.  It might be tough because we get back from Tuscany on the 23rd or 24th but we will see how it works out.

An update on the King's Day activities & sales:  we made around 100 euro selling floral headbands as well as photography!  We also babysat that night & made about another 20 euro.  

Last weekend, one of my best friends, Elize & I had a double sleepover & I stayed two nights.  The first night we had a sugar party with her sister & her sister's friend.  The sugar party consisited of Oreos, gummie frogs, nerds, poptarts and homemade chocolates because Elize & I were working on our Chocolate Project for school!!!  After all that sugar, and playing Mario Cart for hours, then watched Pitch Perfect, we kind of passed out & it sort of hurt my stomach but it all worked out OK🤒. By Sunday, we had detoxed because her parents took away our big spread in order to keep us from getting sick. 

On the second night that I stayed, we made cleansing face masks out of food.  The first one was made out of chocolate & pancake mix & the second was made from bananas, pancake mix & honey.  After the chocolate one, our faces felt soft & refreshed but after the banana one our faces really felt like a bunch of bees farted all over our faces & it stung like heck!!!😥

The next day, we went to her horseback riding arena & I even got to sit up on her horse for a little bit.  We also helped some of the younger girls to saddle up their horses.  Later that day, I had my last big rehearsal for the play & a Cinco de Mayo party with our friends.  BUSY WEEKEND!  I was so tired.  And a big week of play performances this week makes me pooped so I'm glad we are doing nothing right now!

The picture you see here of me with the family is at The Keukenhoff.  It was super fun and gorgeous to see that many tulips in one place.

Keep LOLZing!!!

Sabrina

Hello Everyone!  

I definatley do not want to sound over the top right now but I have another blog that I would like for you all to read.  It is for school and it is a lifestyle and life hacks blog.  I also share some of my experiences on that blog that have not quite made it onto this blog.  I still use my witty humor (😉), awsomeness (😀) as well as my humbleness (😙)  and I would love for all of you to read it!  I will put the link below.  Thanks a bannana bunch zebras!

Blog again as soon as possible!  Keep LOLZing!

Sabrina

http://pancakelifestyle.edublogs.org/