D.C. pictures!

We are really enjoying our holiday! The city is great, the weather couldn't be better and we got to hang around with some awesome people.

Sunday we spend a very nice afternoon with Chris, Beth, their unbelievable cute daughter Mia and Zandria I think Mia stole Bambi's eyes. She has the biggest brown eyes you'll ever see. It was awesome hanging out with all of them. And they didn't even laugh at our European accent! We only know them through our blogs and I think it's just the coolest thing how internet makes the world just a little bit smaller.

Some pictures of our trip:

Tim is really into monuments

Me, Tim & Zandria next to the reflecting pool

The monument again

Walking around with daddy

Watching the bears at the zoo

Getting hugs and kisses from Mia

According to Tim, the waterfall was the coolest animal.

All of us together in the zoo. Made with Chris' really cool remote controlled camera.

JL'd in DC*

*jet lagged in our hotel room at 6 AM in DC

I'm not really good at adjusting to time difference. I've been awake since 4.30 AM. FreezeM is doing a lot better. Tim however is just a little angel. He has magically adjusted perfectly in his normal sleeping routine. Hooray!

He handled the plane right pretty good too. He cried only once or twice. And that probably had more to do with him being hungry than the plane itself.

The lovely Zandria picked us up from Dulles airport Friday and drove us to our hotel. We spend a great day with her yesterday at the Mall. We saw the Washington monument, the Lincoln memorial and the reflection pool. I am in awe about all the HUGE buildings here in D.C.

Today we're going to the zoo with Zandria and the cutest couple Chris and Beth. It's a bit strange to meet people that you've only known through reading each others blogs. It's been many years since I visited a zoo. And Tim has NEVER been to one. So I'm pretty excited about today.

Now if I can only get over this jet lag! Tonight I am going to drink a LOT of coffee so I'll force myself to not sleep until 12. And hopefully, that will launch me into a normal sleeping hours again.

Frog

Have you ever played the computer game Frog?

It's a game where the player controls the frog. The goal is to get the frogs to cross the road. Avoiding the the many cars traveling from left and right, trying to smash the frog.

In the old school computer age, I have played it many times. I haven't thought about it in quit some while, until we moved into our new house and I noticed that there are many frogs living in our backyard. Almost every time I look out the window, I see one jumping around. The rules are a bit different now:

The road is not a road, it's our garden.
The frog is not a frog, it's me.
The cars are not cars, they are frogs.

That many frogs (or toads, I can't tell the difference) live in our backyard. I'm guessing both our neighbors have ponds, and we happen to live on an popular intersection.

Yuck.Yuck.Yuck.

6.8.

Remember my gloomy - I screwed up my exam - post? Well, I got my lowest grade ever, : a 6.8. (out of 10) In my defense, this grade was still in the top 3 of my class. That's how hard the exam was.

Even though it's not a high grade, it's a pass (5.5. is a pass). Together with 4 other grades, this will be the final mark of my major. I hope to finish this major somewhere in June.

So that leaves my final graduation paper. My teacher already told me it's going to be a good grade. He said more, but I don't want to be too enthusiastic yet. I'll still have to finish, turn it in and present.

I hope I'll finish school this June! One year early. And perhaps still with honors. Woohoo!

Tim, that is not funny!

Tim and I were at the grocery store earlier today. We’re busy picking vegetables for dinner, when suddenly we’re startled by a woman throwing cucumbers on the floor. What the…?

I look up and notice she didn’t do in on purpose. The woman is clearly not in control of her muscle movement. I feel kind of sad about my initial reaction. She cleans up the cucumbers and continues to make weird moves. When I turn around and face Tim, he’s shaking his head like a mad man. It’s not the first time, it’s a game he likes to play. To humor him, I shake my head too. We laugh. He shakes his head. I shake my head. And at that point, I notice that the woman passes me, shaking her head. And she sees us. And than I realized, Tim wasn’t doing his funny head shaking game. He was imitating her. And she saw us doing it!

I turned radish red and quickly moved on to the sea food section. How embarrassing!

Beware, gloomy post and confession ahead!

Just days ago I started a post with ‘When you’ve graduated,…’

Well, truth is I think I just blew a school exam. One I need to pass in order to graduate. It was an exam mostly about PR, which I find extremely interesting. I thought I understood it and knew it by heart. But the questions asked, were just a little bit weird to me. I did not know what the teacher wanted me to answer. So I wrote a lot, without saying anything. Other students felt the same. No idea what my grade will be, but I’m not expecting anything higher than a 5 (out of 10). ‘Yeah right, that’s what you always say,’ my good friend and classmate replied. Yeah right. This time I really blew it.

But being gloomy is not my style, nor my Ipods. So when I went home, and felt sorry for myself (boohoo)… the Take That-song ‘Shine’ shuffled its way to me. (see, I confessed: Take That is on my iPod!). And the song cheered me up, here are (part of) the lyrics:

Stop being so hard on yourself
It's not good for your health
I know that you can change
So clear your head and come round
You only have to open your eyes
You might just get a big surprise
And it may feel good and you might want to smile, smile, smile.

What song cheers you up?

Writing

‘When you’ve graduated, you should write and make lots of money with it.’

That’s what my teacher who is guiding me with my final research & paper. He likes the way I write. He’s referring to my Dutch writing skills. Although I get around in English, my ability to write beautiful – and grammatical correct -, is one I only have with my native language.

Of course I’m really flattered. I look up to him. He’s my best teacher ever. I have never met anyone more inspiring than him. And I hope I’ll have the chance to work with him one day.

Back to the writing: I don’t think I’m good enough. Yes even though I work as an editor. I’m not fishing for compliments here – as 99,999% of you probably have never read anything I wrote in Dutch -. But I am considering starting a Dutch blog. I won’t be replacing this blog though. I like the international character of helloworlditsme. More importantly, it gave me the chance to get to know real fun people. A couple of them, we’ll meet in Washington this May! Through writing I made friends, I am not sure about making money.

Soccer mom, already?

Tim loves soccer. Not to watch, but he does it, all the time. He kicked a ball before he walked his first steps. Every day, the whole day, he's chasing and kicking that ball. His mom and dad? Not into soccer. At all. Any sports for that matter, so no idea how he got the soccer genes.

My sister in law recommended Socatots, a place for babies and toddlers up until the age of 5. They learn how to play Brazilian street football. If more than anything, it's just a sort of baby gym, with music and lots of colorful toys and balloons and stuff.

This Sunday we went for a trial, and it was actually kind a fun. It will be a cool place for him to play with other kids.