What I've learned

I actually never finished my blog so I might as well do it now. I'm too lazy to write a whole chapter about New York. But in short: New York is an amazing city. It's huge and therefore pretty overwhelming. The moment I walked out of the subway station I looked up and my jaw dropped. Being completely surrounded by insanely tall buildings is pretty intimidating and it made me feel so small yet it was so beautiful. All the lines, squares and other shapes of the buildings perfectly lined up together making beautiful structures. For the first 20 minutes in the city I did nothing else but look up admiring this amazing city vibe. I wish to go back there.

Anyways. I've learned a lot on my trip through the USA. America's culture is not that different from the Europeans because it's both Western. But there are still a lot of small things that are different. Actually America is kinda weird in a lot of things :p No offence. It's just... slightly different. So here's the list of things I learned from traveling and being in the USA:

1. Almost every car in the US is automatic.
2. All the toilets flush differently.
3. Bagels are THE BEST and why aren't they a thing in Europe. Man I could just live off cinnamon bagels.
4. Poptarts. Just poptarts.
5. You can buy guns at walmart. Not to forget anything else you can think of.
6. Gas is super cheap in the US.
7. Public toilets are free!!
8. Everything is very spread out. Just the whole construction of a place is way less compact than in Europe.
9. You're gonna gain weight in America because everything is bigger obviously. It's true. The portions of food you get at restaurants is just... so so much. And don't get me started on the size of the drinks .-.
10. 
11. Speaking about drinks, they are super cheap.
12. Refills are annoying when I'm going out to eat. Sometimes one big ass glass of soda is enough for me. When I drank like half of it I don't want it refilled! It's too much for me. And yes, very generous if they ask if I want my glass to be refilled. But when they just grab my drink away from me without asking, no thanks. They keep refilling it too so I'll never finish my drink. How unsatisfying and what a waste of soda!
13. Omg tipping is so weird. We're just used to leave a little bit of our 'left over' change behind when we go out to eat. Just a couple of euros. But in America you actually have to tip 15% or 20%. Less means that something was wrong. So even when you think the restaurant wasn't really good you tip. Because not tipping at all is a realllly bad gesture. You even have to tip at a bar when you just buy a drink. I still don't really get how it works.
14. When you order a drink you don't get it in glass bottles like in Europe. You just get the glass of soda itself. Sometimes you can actually fill it yourself at soda machines and it's usually refillable. Also most of the time water is free at a restaurant. You always get it next to your other order.
15. Traveling is SO easy! I was always very nervous on the airport or just nervous to travel in general. Now flying feels like taking the bus. It's just so easy to go from one place to another. There's no stress necessary.
16. The distances between locations are bigger but no one cares. Everyone just doesn't mind to drive around a lot. If we have to go to a place one hour away just to get something, no problem we'll just hop in the car whenever and leave and then drive back again. It doesn't seem like the time matters. In contrast, in the Netherlands we won't just drive to Amsterdam for instance just to get something and then drive back again. It's a whole trip we have to 'plan out'. Traveling through the US made me realize how tiny Europe actually is. The distances between different countries, cultures and invironments are so small. When Americans asked me which countries I visited and I could only name the general western Europian countries, they were like 'If I lived in Europe I would just roadtrip through all the countries. It's all so close to each other!". And that really made me think. Why didn't I do that or even think of that? It's so easy to just drive to a completely different place in a few hours. It really opened up my eyes. Now I see I should take advantage of the short distances in Europe and I will definitely do that in the future.
17. Home can be anywhere. I realized I feel at home at so many places. And actually home is not a place. It's living amongst those who love and honor you. Being in such a place with these wonderful people really creates a family atmosphere. And family is home.
18. Getting things done is fun. When I'm working on something it's so nice to see how something is improving and to see the end result. It just makes working so much fun because you know and see you made a change and that it was worth it. It was always so nice to just get the barn chores done and make everything look tidy. It's especially nice when all the work is done super early knowing you're gonna get the whole afternoon free no having to worry about anything.
19. Responsibility encourages motivation. When you have the responsibility over a certain job, a place, or being, it's easier to actually want to maintain it. It motivates you to work on or for it. When we had the responsibility over the horses, I wanted to do so much to take good care of them. Also we got the responsibility over our apartment which actually made me want to clean and organize everything. At home my motivation to clean is sooo sooo low. It's weird how it changes when you get responsibility over something.

That's about it I guess. I really fell in love with traveling. My first day at home again felt sooo weird. I haven't been homesick at all when I was in the US. But I was homesick when I actually was at home. I didn't actually want to step on that plane to Amsterdam. I didn't want that to be the end of my trip. I didn't want to leave the people I met on my trip, I didn't want to leave the beautiful New York City from which I wanted to see SO much more. I didn't want to leave the freedom I had on that trip, the new experiences I was gonna have. I just did not want to leave. At home everything is just the same. It's always the same. And I learned that I live for seeing new places. And I will do that in the future. I want to see the world and I'm going to.

Being at home is not bad though. I was so happy to see my friends and family again, my dog. It just felt weird because like I said, everything was exactly as how I left it. It was almost like I never left. As if my trip was a dream and now I'm back in reality again. Which is actually true. In reality you can't just go away and live a good life. You have to work for it. And that's what I'm gonna do now. I gonna work and learn so I can go travel again. But first... I still have summer vacation :) Oh what a good life.

Boyd Family Ranch @Buffalo NY

After flying to Buffalo for about 7 hours, I travelled 3 hours forward in time. Sounds like I'm a timetraveller now haha. I arrived in Buffalo at 11 am. I met Coleen at the airport and she drove me to the ranch in Otto, about 1.5 hours away from Buffalo. As I arrived I met the other workawayers at the ranch. They were all German. Two 20 year old guys who travelled together and an 18 year old girl. It was fun to have people of my age around. At all the places I visited I was most of the time the youngest and the rest was already over 26. I didn't have any problems with that though. I can get along pretty well with people older than me. Age doesn't really matter anyways after a certain age. But it was still fun to not be by far the youngest.

I was very tired the first day at the ranch as I didn't get to sleep much that night in the plane, so I basically napped the whole afternoon. In the evening I went out with the others to do the evening chores. They told me about their daily routine and showed me what to do. In the morning we had to put the halters on of the 17 horses in the barn and let them out in the pastures. Then we muck the stalls, put shavings in them, fill the waterbuckets, put grain in the stalls for the evening -same for the hay-, put grain in buckets for the next morning, clean the hallway, feed the chickens and collect the eggs. Every morning one of us feeds the horses at around 6 am, then goes to sleep for about an hour and gets up again at 8 am to start the morning chores. The first two weeks we gave the horses hay in the morning too so we had to drive the tractor around with the hay. I really like driving the tractor :) Now the horses can just eat grass in their pastures as all the plants have been growing quickly these weeks. Every couple days we have to fill the buckets in two of the pastures too but there are no hoses around so we have to fill two barrels with water, drive them to the pasture and empty them there. Sometimes we have to help with other things like grooming horses or fixing fences. In the evening we take the horses back in to the barn.

In the afternoon or whenever we have free time we can do a lot of things. We can go canoeing in the lake or whenever it's hot we can swim in it. We can go fishing (haven't done that yet but others did), horseriding, play ball with the dogs, play baseball, take a walk to the river etc. There's so much to do here on this giant piece of property. And if we don't want to be outside we can just relax in our apartment, play a game, watch TV or bake something. In the apartment we have a living room with a kitchen, a bathroom, two bedrooms and another room. We have three beds. When I arrived we were with 4 people so I slept on the bedcouch in the living room for the first 6 days. The second day an Australian couple arrived but they slept in their RV. They only stayed for a week.

The first days were cold and rainy. It was about 6 degrees outside and everything was wet and muddy. After 5 days the weather got way better, it was dry and the temperature went up to 18 degrees. The ground quickly dried. Sometimes it rained in between the sunny days. The second week it totally became summer and we had some incredibly hot days. It got 28 degrees and those were perfect days to go outside and to swim in the lake. I expected the water to be way colder but it wasn't really that bad! I completely got that summer feeling from these days and I loved it so much! We went trailriding a couple of times and we took several walks to the creek. The first week we also went bowling and we visited Buffalo to watch a baseball game. After one week at the ranch the boys left too. Only me and Liva are left now but we still have as much fun. We get along pretty well and it's fun to learn each others languages. We both realize how similar German and Dutch is! Sometimes when we can't come up with the English word we just say the word in our own languages and most of the time we understand it then. It's nice to have that extra language to support the understanding of one and another.

We also went to a reining competition and took a bet at a horserace. I actually won 5 dollars yayy. Joe and Coleen took us out to eat every once in a while. A few days later we spent the day at Niagara falls and we dicided to go to Canada to see the falls as they are way more beautiful from up there. I didn’t plan on going to Canada but now I can cross that from my list too! J The weather couldn’t be better that day. It was 28 degrees and there was no cloud in the sky. We took a lot of beautiful pictures as we walked along the falls. This was one of those moments which made me so happy. As we were walking I just realized everything that was going on. Here I am walking along one of the World Wonders in Canada, feeling the warm sunlight on my skin and enjoying this moment with a great friend I made at the ranch. A rush of happiness ran through my body and I had a smile on my face the entire day.

When we were done looking at the falls from up we went to see the falls from the boat. We all got those cute red raincoats and we surely needed it. When we approached the falls waterdrops were pouring on us. The bright sun shining through the mist made a beautiful almost 360 rainbow. I’d never seen anything like this before.

With a beautiful smokey eye that the mist had created from my not waterproof eyeliner, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe to end the day with a giant ice cream and nice cocktail. Yes I was finally not underaged anymore in Canada. This was just one of those days I’ll never forget. It just made me so happy!

Furthermore we went to see the Amish community. The ranch is basically located in between all the Amish people. It was fun to see how these people live. It’s so entirely different from modern lifestyle. The Amish don’t use modern technology. They don’t use electricity and cars. They drive around with horses and carriages. All the men have a so called pispotkapsel and they always wear those hats. All the women are wearing headscarfs. Their clothing is always blue and green I believe. The Amish can be a bit weird around strangers –not amish people- who they call ‘the Englishmen’. I think it’s a weird way of living but it’s also kind of fascinating. Their shops are really nice. They have a toyshop for instance with all hand made wooden toys or a bakery with delicious candy and cookies.

The ranch was still always a nice place to be at. I was never bored. At beautiful days we went to go horse riding or swimming again. Two days ago we actually went swimming with two Haflingers and it was so much fun!! I think I could do that all day. It feels so nice to be this close to nature. Sitting on a horse bareback with just a bikini and riding bridleless. The horses really enjoyed swimming too. That feeling to sit on a swimming horse is just so much fun. The water in the pond actually has a very nice temperature now. The hot days really helped to warm it up. Yesterday evening we went night swimming. The water was nice anyways. Man those kind of things make me so happy. Just do something kinda crazy and it will be so much fun. Now this is my last whole day at the ranch. I’m gonna miss it so much. I think on this trip I’ve never felt more relaxed as now. The whole atmosphere here is so friendly and relaxed. You don’t have to worry about time at all. I think I could easily stay here for a year. I indeed found another home here in America and I’m so gonna miss it.

Tomorrow I’m flying to New York City. I planned on going there by myself but Liva was actually leaving almost the same day to go to NYC. SoI changed my hostel so that we could stay in NYC together. How much fun is that! I’m glad I don’t have to leave everything yet from this ranch. I still have just a couple of days left in NYC and then I will fly back home again. My real home in The Netherlands.

Seattle

I'm sorry I haven't been writing much lately. I just don't really take the time to do it because it takes so long to write a story. Anyways, Seattle was so nice. For a week I stayed with a family my parents met on a holiday in France. Although they knew each other for only 4 days they seemed to get along very well. I was so lucky to be able to spend my week with them in Seattle and we had loads of fun. During the week they had to work and their daughter went to school so I had the house to myself haha. However I went downtown basically every day. They got me a City Pass which I could use to go to a variety of museums or other very Seattle things like the Space Needle. The first day downtown I mainly wandered around a bit to get to know the city. I spent a lot of time in Starbucks. It became part of my routine basically when I went downtown. Every time I just had to take a break at Starbucks. I know, It's not cheap but whatever, I just wanted my coffee. I mean, it doesn't really matter where you look in Seattle and there's a Starbucks. There's literally a Starbucks on every two blocks. I'm not kidding. No wonder I got a little addicted to Starbucks :P

Anyways, I went to Pike Place market where I saw some fish sellers throw with fish. That was fun. These people made a real show from just selling fish. Apparently they throw a big fish every time someone buys one. Pike Place market is a cute place with a lot of little shops.

After walking around there and seeing the disgusting but pretty gumwall I walked to Seattle Centre which was about 20 minutes walking from downtown. In the centre there's the Space Needle and a couple museums. My first day I went up to the Space Needle. It was kinda disappointing though when I arrived to the top. Apparently the Space Needle was under construction so there was no fancy restaurant or anything. And one part of the outside railing was under construction too so I couldn't completely walk around to get a 360 degree view. I made some pretty pictures though but I only stayed up top for about 15 minutes.

I also went to Chihuly Gardens and Glass museum. It was beautiful to see all these fancy artsy glass thingies. I made some nice pictures there too.

The rest of my days downtown I had a harbour tour on a boat, I went to the aquarium and the EMP museum. I spent the weekend with the Baileykazes. They basically drove me around to show me the area and we had lunch and dinner at some cool places. We went to the Fremont troll, gasworks park and things like that.

I really enjoyed my time with the Baileykazes. They are such nice people and they made me feel so at home (I know I apparently feel at home at a lot of places). I'm really grateful for everything they did for me and I wish (yeah again) that I had more time. One week was just too short. I even wanted to change my flight to stay longer but that got too expensive. Anyways, I really hope to come back once. And of course, they are more than welcome to visit us in Eindhoven!

San Diego

San Diego was the best. The ITH adventure hostel was so nice. The people were so welcoming and the place felt like a big student home. There actually were people who hired a room there and lived there. Everything was just really informal in a good way. The common room was full of musical instruments you could play whenever you wanted and we had some awesome jam sessions. Making music with random people is just so much fun and you really get to know people from it. We used to hang out on the porch a lot. It was a great place to relax in the sun while someone is playing the guitar or piano. My first day in SD I just went out to explore the city. I noticed there were certain bikes and little scooters you could unlock with an app and ride them anywhere you want. I used those a lot to go places. These bikes were so handy and you could find them everywhere. They were perfect for a ride along the coast. This day it was so hot too. A perfect sunny day. I went to the waterfront park and walked through the water to cool off. In the evening we had a potluck BBQ and it was sooo nice. I met so many nice people that evening. The next days I went to some other places with some people. It's nice to be able to do so many fun things with people you just met. You have so many things to talk about and learn about different nationalities. My last evening at the hostel we had a house party with people of different hostels. I actually met someone at the hostel I had maths class with in Utrecht a few months ago. We were like. "Omg I know you!" but at first we didn't know what from. But seriously what are the chances to meet someone in this one little hostel in the US. It was so funny. Anyways. San Diego was so nice and I absolutely fell in love with this city. I just like everything about it. There are so many fun places to go and it's all so close to each other. I would love to come back there. When my plane to Seattle was departing I looked down and I realised I was really leaving California. It made me kinda sad. I had been in this place for roughly a month and this place became so familiar. It's weird to really leave a place like that knowing I wouldn't go back there in a long time. I would really miss the hot Californian sun too. And believe me I still miss it already. I'm in Seattle now and the weather is actually really good for Seattle. But it still not as hot as California. Not even close. Man I miss that summer weather. Anyways I had a very good time in SD. Now I'm in Seattle which I will write about later because I'm kinda lazy woops.

Days at Sandia Creek Ranch and Goodbye SCR :(

So after the Pentathlon World cup I finally went back to the ranch. It felt good to be back there. The first few days there I got to ride a lot at the ranch so that was awesome. The ranch is big enough to do a short trailride up the hills. It was so relaxed to ride bareback and look at the beautiful views while enjoying the warm sunlight on my skin.

Those relaxed days were over quickly though. Apparently the electrical poles on the ranch had to be replaced and they were going to fly with helicopters near the ground. As a result all 60 horses had to be removed from the ranch. It took days to get all the horses moved to another place. In the meantime 4 workawayers left so there was much more work to do. The timing was pretty inconvenient as this was a period that we actually needed more hands. Instead we got less. These days were kinda chaotic because we needed to take care of the horses at 3 different locations and the few horses on the ranch still had to be moved.

I got some very fun days too though. Crystal took us to San Diego and believe me my cheeks hurt from smiling so much. It's so nice to go somewhere else when you've just been at the ranch for quite a while. Crystal took us to Del Mar which is a place with a lot of horse stuff. A big horse race track is located there too. After that we went to Torrey Pines Gliderport to see the Paragliders and the beautiful coast. Mount Soledad gave us a stunning 360 view of the area and we could even see Mexico from there. After enjoying the views we went to La Jolla to spot some seals and sea lions. Again the views there were amazing and I started to realize how much I like being at the beach and the ocean. However, the smell there was awful. The seals smell sooo much. If you have a dog, do you know that terrible smell of your dog's mouth after he has eaten? It smelled exactly like that. Blergh.

Then we went to Belmont park at Pacific Beach where we got the ride a very old wooden Rollercoaster. It was really fun. Belmont park is like a fair but it stationary. I loved it. Finally we went to Old Town where we got some delicious Mexican food. We walked around there for a bit and damn what a nice atmosphere. There was live music and the old Mexican character of Old Town makes you feel like you're at a completely different place. Again the atmosphere was simply 'gezellig'.

A week later Crystal took us to Palm Springs. We went up to Mt. San Jacito State Park with the Aerial Tramway and we took a hike there. The nature there was beautifull and the views were amazing. I know, I talk alot about the views but I just can't get enough of them. I want these views in The Netherlands you know. I wish we had mountains and hills. Anyways, it was very cold up the mountain. 4 degrees celcius. Man I had to adjust to that again after being in the hot California sun for almost a month.

So being back at the ranch, I didn't have much to do there anymore. Other people were taking care of the horses at the other locations and the ranch didn't have any horses. Those days were weird.. weird to not have horses at the ranch. Anyways, I got to fill my days somehow. It was not very productive or anything and boring sometimes but it just became part of my routine. In my boredom I started thinking.. It's very easy to get caught up in a routine and forget about time. After days you realise there's still so much you want to do but time doesn't allow you. However this routine gives you some kind of feeling of safety and comfort. Generally because this routine is the easiest thing to fall back on. But it's important not to let this routine engulf you because even though it's a comfort zone, there's no time to waste. Use your time. That's an important thing I realised and that's the reason I decided to leave the ranch a few days earlier as planned. Even though I absolutely love the ranch, the horses and the wonderful people there, I realised that I could better go to San Diego because I felt like there was much more to explore. I could either help a bit at the ranch for a few hours and then do nothing the rest of the day because there's not much to do there without the horses, or I could spend my time in San Diego, filling my days with activities. It would be a waste if I didn't go. I'm using the time I have here and I'm glad I made that decision.

However, saying goodbye to the people at the ranch was hard. Saying goodbye to the ranch in general was hard. In a month, this place became my home and the people became my family. I felt so comfortable at that place and I'm so grateful for everything they did for me. I wish I had more time to experience being at the ranch when everything's normal there (not having any helicopters flying around and not having to move horses from place to place). But despite all these projects I had the best time there and I'm going to miss these people so much. The thing that makes it worse is that I don't know whether or not I'm going to see these people again in the future. I might, but chances are limited. And even if I would see them again, it would probably be in months or years. Anyways, I'm never going to forget this.

And now it's time for a new chapter. San Diego!! :D

Pentathlon World Cup

So for the last 11 days I've been helping taking care of almost 30 horses for the Pentathlon World Cup in Pomona near Los Angeles.

Me and another workawayer left the ranch at the 22nd of April with 6 horses to go to the barn where the Pentathlon would take place. We were staying at a hotel near by and Tammy would drive us to the barn every morning and back every evening. The rest of the day we were staying at the barn to take care of the horses. It was a lot of work to take care of so many horses, especially the first day because there weren't many people there yet. The second day the kids from the pony club arrived to help. They would stay in the trailer at the barn. The main chores we had to do were mucking the stalls in the morning and evening and quick picking the stalls during the day, put new shavings in the stalls, watering the horses twice a day, feeding the horses three times a day,walk all the horses at least twice a day and clean tack. We were busy the whole day because the horses needed to be in top shape for the competition.

We could take breaks in between though and we had a whole table of food and drinks. I honestly never ate so inconsequently during the day.The food was just there staring at me all the time. Eat meeee eat meee.I couldn't resist grabbing a little snack every time I walked passed that table. And believe me, I walk passed that table many many times. Also we had pizza for 4 days in a row. And no not even different flavors of pizza. Pepperoni and cheese pizza for four days in a row :0 I am a pizza lover for sure but this.... this was too much :')

Anyways, we didn't have personally designated chores to do. It was just a list of things and we had to jump in for whatever had to be done. We worked with a nice group of people and I got to meet more new people too. It wasn't all work work work. We had lots of fun in the meantime and I generally enjoy being around the horses.

We also got to ride a bit but it was just a relaxed short trailride to give the horses time to see the area. At the days of the competition the workawayers from the ranch came to visit in the afternoon too to help us with the chores and walking the horses to the arena. For the competition we had to tack up all the horses and walk them to the arena where the athletes would warm up their horses. It was very nice to see all the athletes and to be part of this event. Pentathlon will probably be part of the Olympics so it was quite a big deal. It was just a bummer that the Netherlands didn't participate in the competition.

I don't know a lot about showjumping myself but I heard that the Pentathlon riders aren't really good at horse riding. Pentathlon includes fencing, swimming, running and shooting and showjumping. Showjumping is the last part of the pentathlon and it's considered less important than the other parts. That's why many of the athletes aren't trained enough to be an actual showjumper. Some are good riders but some are just really bad. Anyways, the way the athletes probably think about it is; as long as we don't knock over any obstacles, don't fall off the horse and have the fastest time, we're good. No matter what it looks like how we ride. Anyways, it was very interesting and fun to watch the showjumping and the horses did so well. Most of them though. One athlete fell off of Soldier and he ran out of the arena almost all the way to the road because no one shut the gates.... yeah. It could have ended pretty badly but luckily he was caught before anything disastrous could happen.

The end of the three day competition was a great weight off our shoulders. Everything went pretty smoothly and the horses were all okay. Crystal and Kiersti took us to the Drive in Cinema to say thanks to everyone. I had only seen those in movies and TV shows before. I absolutely loved the drive in movies. It's so cozy, simply so... gezellig (no translation for that haha). There we were with all the workawayers in the back of the truck with blankets and food. I definitely need this in The Netherlands, loved the experience.

Yesterday we went back to the ranch again. I did miss the ranch. It feels more like home and there's more to do here. At the Pentathlon barn I could get pretty bored, especially without wifi. It feels good to be back at the ranch. I had to say goodbye to some workawayers already and more will leave in the upcoming days :( I'll miss these people. I'm going to bed now though. I really need some more sleep after these busy days.

Goodnight!

Horse Ranch

Okay. So I went to the horseranch in Fallbrook. The people here are amazing. We share the place with 10 workawayers and we all have our own chores. We have morning and evening chores. We all got an own part of the ranch that we take care of. I have to water 10 stalls, muck 3 stalls, blanket 5 horses, feed Tiara and feed the cats. I don't have any problems doing these things. I think its nice to have something to do here. Mucking the stalls is actually quite relaxing. Just put a little music on and start scooping. Everyone does their chores in the morning and evening but if I'm finished a little earlier I usually help someone else a little who isn't done yet. In the afternoon we're usually free unless there are some other chores to do. We're just here around the ranch so if anybody needs any help there's always someone around. I've had two horseback riding lessons now and today we did a short trailride around the ranch. Crystal likes to teach us bareback riding first so we can connect with the horse better and find the right balance. I have ridden bareback a couple of times before though but there are some other workawayers that just started learning to ride.

The place here is so nice and big. There are so many animals. Horses, cats, dogs, owls, even a lot of peacocks. They make horrible sounds though. The weather here is nice as well. We had some rain but that was mostly at night. But when the sun shines it gets like 25 degrees up here. I absolutely love it. Yesterday when I had some free time I just took a walk around the ranch and found a nice big rock to sit on. I climbed it, threw myself down on the big warm rock and simply enjoyed the sun and view for a while. What a relaxing moment.

As I said the people here are so nice. It kind of feels like family. Everyone is always around and there is always someone to talk to but we don't have to ne together all the time. We take care of each other but we also take care of ourselves. It's the perfect balance.

After the evening chores and dinner we usually do something. We watch a movie, play a game or we go to town to visit Stampede, a big linedancing bar. I went there two times now and it's so much fun. They give linedancing lessons at 7 pm but some my friends taught me some dances so I could join in with a couple of songs. I don't consider myself a good dancer but it is so much fun to randomly do the same dance with so many people. It's so much fun. I also got to ride the mechanical bull. I almost finished it untill the hardest setting. People were surprised how long I was able to stay on haha.

Anyways. I'm having a good time here. It's completely different from living in Hollywood obviously, but this feels like home :)

Last day in LA and Horseranch

I haven't been able to blog for a while. I've been pretty busy lately and I can't get my laptop connected to wifi here, so I'll have to do this with my phone for a while.

Los Angeles was amazing. My last full day i went to Beverly hills with the group. We basically hiked a part of it. First to the Beverly Hills hotel which was surprisingly not that fancy as I thought, then we walked to the Beverly Hills sign and shot a few pictures there and finally we walked Rodeo Drive, the super fancy shopping street. I had planned to go to the beach that day but I was already pretty tired from walking Beverly Hills when I got back so I decided to rest for a bit. Being with other people all the time is kind of tiring too so I wanted some alone time that afternoon. After grabbing a coffee at the Starbucks at Hollywood Boulevard I was ready for the evening. There were a lot of people at the lounge drinking and playing pool so I decided to join. That evening was bar night so we would visit a few clubs. The only problem was, the drinking age here is 21 and I'm 19. The hostel crew felt kind of sad for me and everyone wanted me to go with them so I would just try. And luckily it worked! And I had a crazy night with the people of the hostel. It was so much fun. I got back at about 4 am so I didn't get to have a lot of sleep. I had to check out next morning at 10. Next day I slept a little more in the lounge and in the afternoon I had to say goodbye to these lovely people in the hostel and leave to go to my next location; the first horseranch in Fallbrook, 2 hours from LA.

To be continued...