hello old friend

i bet you thought i had forgotten all about you. 

well perhaps i had but i'm back and that is all that matters right? 

so much as happened since the last time i wrote anything on here but lets focus on the more recent happenings, shall we? more specifically just how crazy this last month has been. 

since coming back from the netherlands i have been able to dive head first into the accounting major which has been fun but scary. starting this senior year i signed up to take the three hardest accounting classes all at the same time. educational suicide may have been the phrase that was tossed out at one point. my reply? bring it on. 

but in the back of my mind i was worried. what if i didn't like accounting as much as i thought i would? then i would be stuck taking a lot of classes i didn't enjoy and might not be doing well in. i had been down that road before with chemistry but this time i would have to finish. 

turns out my fears never materialized and i am loving my classes though they may be difficult. 

but classes have been the least of my worries (hopefully grades don't reflect that) this last month. i wasn't aware of this and i'm sure you weren't either but fall is when many if not all of the firms in the area do their recruiting process for new hires. so the first week of october i was meeting with people from the career center on campus and staying up much later than the rest of my house making sure my resume looked good, i hadn't put the wrong name in my cover letter, and that my applications were complete. i applied to a total of 5 firms ranging from quite small to one of the big 4 accounting firms. as i told the people in the career center, "i just hope i get one interview" 

i got 5. 

after the joy of finding out that i had gotten an interview with every firm i had applied to came a bit of practice and picking out more interview outfits that i ever thought i would need all in preparation for the week straight of interviews i had lined up. it was rather funny coming into work everyday all dressed up and everyone in the office was starting to ask questions on how things were going and who i was meeting with each day. it was great because each firm came to campus to conduct a 30 minute interview just to get to know who we were. 

after the first round came the waiting to see if i had gotten a second round interview with the firm. again i told the people in the career center that all i wanted was one second interview and it would be worth it. 

i got 4. 

each email that came in letting me know that they wanted to see me again and have me visit the actual firm was a welcome surprise. it is not common that people have so many call backs for interviews and i was somehow managing to get nearly all of mine. 

the first second round was a full day with Moss Adams at their office in downtown Seattle. we met many of the people working there and ended the day with a social on the top floor of the Columbia Tower in downtown Seattle. i'm talking 75th floor - can see across the entire state - beautiful clear day amazing. the following day was a full day with Peterson Sullivan and going to delicious lunch and again lots of interviews. i also had a few hours with Bader Martin and Sweeney Conrad later that week.

after round after round of interview and telling countless people my story and learning so much about each firm was the wait to see if any of it had panned out. would the firm and i fit? did i make a good impression? will they want to hire me?

end result? 2 job offers. 

say what.

both Moss Adams and Peterson Sullivan - my top two going into this process - extended me an offer of employment with their firms. after a long weekend of pros and cons lists and many questions to those close to me, i finally made a decision.....

you are looking at a future

Audit Assoicate
at
Peterson Sullivan, LLP!!!!

i am certainly one of the luckiest students, i already have a career lined up for after graduation before the end of fall quarter. wow. it's fantastic and i feel like i have learned so much. who really gets the chance to have so many interviews and so much practice. i actually had a lot of fun and i'm incredibly excited to see how this opportunity goes and it is also amazing to look back and see how things like changing from chemistry, study abroad, and speech & debate have all helped shape me through college and drop me off at accounting of all major options!

now let the senior-itis begin! 

building websites...

for one of my classes i had to build a website for an assignment...

so if you are interested i thought i would share it with you! 

check it out at 

myhome.spu.edu/vandalenl

have a great weekend! 

exams week

28  October - 4 November

exams - can anything positive be said about them besides "at least i passed"?

after such a wonderful time in italy and visiting in london i really had to buckle down and get through a few days of serious school work.
i had a paper and an exam on monday so the rest of the weekend after traveling back from London was dedicated to those two. for the paper i had a stellar group that i've been working with all term and so that came together well. the exam was for dutch and it was oral. i was extremely nervous. even after visiting family i struggle with pronunciation and forming whole sentences on my own. for part of the exam there is a prepared 2 minute dialogue with another person. my partner was from Austria so he had a better grasp as Dutch is close to German in grammar. we had practiced our dialogue and had it down to  a few seconds so that was reassuring. for the second part of the exam the professor would ask us about 5 questions based on the chapters we had covered. i thought this would be more of a rapid fire question time but i have the best prof in the school. when we got in and sat down he asked about my visit to family and made a conversation about it. i hardly realized it was part of the exam! he did his best to put us at ease and while testing us not make it seem like he was against us. over all the test went well which was a huge relief!
however, there was no time to take it easy as i still had an accounting final the next day. so it was straight home to begin studying for that. in the evening i took a study break to enjoy a pancake dinner with my good girl friends then back to the grindstone!
the next day my test went well and to treat myself, i enjoyed a coffee date with my friend from the concert. that evening, with all my finals finished, i thought i might bring a study snack to my friends who still weren't finished. so i made my way over to their places and made sure they were happily fed.
the next day was quiet. our group received feedback on our paper and i had coffee with friends B, F, and W. (sounds like i'm on sesame street and have letters for friends.) but other than that i had borrowed The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy from a friend and if you know me, you'll know that once i have a book in my hand not much else will get done.
so thursday was also spent largely with my head burrowed in the book until the evening. by now all my friends had finished their exams as well so we got together at a friends to celebrate. after some time in her tiny room, we made our way to this great place named Fiddlers where we could chat longer. it was fun to see everyone after their trips and to catch up on what adventures they had been on. after hearing from everyone it was time to head home. but in the case of B and i it was time to head back to her place to make some late night food and watch star wars.
the next day was also a good time. in the afternoon i set off with F, W, and A to walk to the market. my bike brakes had broken at this point and i needed to get them repaired so walking it was for me. we picked up groceries for the week and then proceeded to make a yummy dinner out of what we had gotten. there was a large gathering of friends that evening as well so we joined in for the evening.
it was a fine time and a great ending to the week. the rest of the weekend was quiet and spent catching up on emails, sermons from home, and of course reading. 

finally an update!

15-19 october

monday morning i traveled back to den haag in time for my dutch class and that evening i was able to skype with my little sister! 

tuesday was more classes and then a fun night out with friends. but the best part of the night was when i came home and found this waiting for me at my desk! 

total score! thank you aunt manjo for all the fun surprises! i've been sharing and all my friends are super thankful too! 

wednesday was a day of accomplishing tasks and getting assignments turned in. in the evening we went to a film about prostitution around the world. it was interesting to learn about the different attitudes and what the women involved think. it was also sad to see how some people are so trapped that they already know it is the only way for their children to go. after the thought provoking film we went to get some very yummy chinese food for dinner which was fun. anytime we can get together is a great time! 

thursday was a fairly relaxed day then in the evening i headed over to meet up with the others in the school. our school has a bar in it! the attitude concerning drinking is very different here and that is especially apparent when you realize that it is even in the school! it was a halloween theme for the night and it was fun to meet new people there and spend time with friends. later that night we went out to a classly little place named Millers which was opened specially for students. it's great to explore new places especially when you can get in for free! 

friday morning i had a meeting for a group project then meet up with my friend M and talked with her until i had another meeting with K. wow do i just sound busy! that afternoon M and B and i wanted to bike to Delft because we knew it was within distance. we set off a little later than we had expected and got a little lost along the way. 

we ended up getting there right about closing time so unfortunately there wasn't much to see. 

the church and all the shops were closing so we walked around the square for a bit and then promising to come back again, set off for home. we needed to get some rest as our big trip to Italy was next! 

school and family

8-14 october

this week was also a busy one! there is quite a large number of canadians that are on this exchange and so we celebrated canadian thanksgiving! everyone brought a dish so there was a large jumble of assorted foods that amounted to a unique, delicious meal. there were people from all over the world and it was fun to eat yummy foods like 7 layer dip next to crepes rounded out with traditional mashed potatoes then finished off with stroopwaffels and pie.

after a wonderful meal and even better friends we all headed home and i got the chance to skype with eric and my friend studying in London! A great start to the week to say the least.
i won't bore you with the remaining days of the week which all involved school and homework for a majority.
friday morning however i was able to take the train north to visit family! after 3.5 hours on the train i arrived in Groningen where oom Wim was waiting to pick me up. we stopped by the house to drop off my things and have a cup of coffee with tante Jenneka before they took me around Kornhorn. i was able to see the houses my grandparents lived as children, the church they were married in, and the house that my grandpa built. it was wonderful to hear stories and to see where they had lived. of course everything has changed since that time but it was still neat to be in touch with the past.
on saturday tante Bab came by to pick me up and we went into Groningen for the day. Annamarie came as well and we took a boat tour of the city. after the informative tour we stopped at a pub for some food. Annamarie knew all the best places to stop because she had moved there for school and simply stayed after. i could certainly see why! it was a lovely city - quieter than Den Haag but still with lots of activity and charm. we also did some walking around, shopping, picked up dinner from a delectable italian shop and also some ice cream. for dinner oom Onne and more family came over.
it was great getting to know everyone but also difficult as my dutch was still close to nil and why should everyone have to struggle with english? often i would try to listen and learn from conversations or someone would summarize for me what had been said. it was a wonderful time and i'm very glad i've had the chance to come here to meet these people. after a lovely time tante Bab and oom Onne dropped me back off at oom Wim and tante Jenneka's. oom Wim and i stopped by tante Kiki's to say hello. she is a very sweet lady in her 90's and she knew who i was! she knew that i was yvonne's daughter and told me that i should learn more dutch so we can talk when i come visit again! back at Wim and Jenneka's we watched a great music program and talked about all sorts of things. tante Jenneka even showed me all the birth announcement she had saved over the years. mom - she had yours!
the next morning i went to church with oom Wim. however it was all in dutch! i was able to understand a few of the songs because i had the words right in front of me but when it came time for the sermon - oh boy was i lost! i continued to try to find words i could recognize but it was rather difficult to do.
after church we went back home and all of grandpa Tim's brothers and their wives came over for tea.

the book of baby announcements  

looking at a very old photo of family

it was lovely to finally meet all the family from this side and to try to speak dutch and hear stories. it made me realize just how incredibly lucky i am to have the chance to come visit and be in touch with so much family! after tea i went to Groningen again with oom Onne and tante Bab to cheer for the 4 mile race and to spend time with even more family.
i'm so incredibly thankful to oom Wim and tante Jenneka for opening their home to me, feeding me, working with me to speak english and teach me dutch, sharing stories, and showing me all around where grandpa and grandma grew up.
can't wait for my next trip up north! 

a month already?!

24-27 september

back to the grind again on monday. luckily my class starts late in the day so i can take care of errands and take my time in the morning. i got to skype with ej because he happened to wake up really early and i was online so i got to talk to him for a bit which was lovely. i also had to meet with my group for one of my classes but other than that it was a rather chill day.

tuesday morning i had to make my way to the immigration office to pick up my residence permit. apparently americans are burgers. you are what you eat?

my residence permit card to study here. there is no way i'm showing the front of this card. my photo looks terrifying. 

speaking of americans. it is rather interesting to be one surrounded by so many people from so many places. my dear friend wrote a fantastic post about it and i don't think i could have said it better myself. so please do go read it.

the rest of the day was filled with classes and learning. but the evening was the big gathering for international students that happens every tuesday night. i met up with some friends before going and we all hung out at our friends apartment near my house before heading out. we got there by about 11.30 and had a total blast before going to bed *way* too late.

8.45 classes come way too early i'm telling ya. after 4 hours of listening to student presentations i was ready to be done! after a quick lunch i met up with two friends to go on a cultural activity and view the Panorama Mesdag!
wow.

it was stunning. basically it is a large dome shaped room that is painted to look like the beach and town back in 1880. there was even sand added to make one feel like you were actually there. out of the corner of my eye i was waiting for the flags on the ships to start moving in the wind that i could almost feel on my face. if you ever have the chance to go it would be well worth a visit.
the rest of the evening was spent doing homework and planning my trip to italy!! i am so excited for autumn break as the first couple of days will be spent in italy with good friends and then i will leave them to go to london to visit my dear Chandler who is studying there!
{side note it was also little bro's bday but i missed getting to skype him to sing him a terrible rendition of happy birthday}
thursday was a delightful day with only two classes. one seminar for accounting and then a lecture on water management in holland. after the lecture a few of us headed back to my place to make a light dinner and relax. a few more friends joined up and then we headed to the centre to a friends apartment to make pancakes! yum i'm so glad this is becoming more of a weekly tradition. we tried something new this time and added a cinnamon swirl to the center of the pancakes to make them like big cinnamon rolls. it was a good call! they were scrumptious to compliment the fun evening with good friends.
there was a big gathering of people in the same building as thursday nights tend to be student nights on the town. so we all headed down to chill with more people before heading out to Miller's, a higher class bar. even here good conversations abounded and it reminds me how lucky i am to come here to meet so many new people with such different backgrounds and views on life.
i can't believe i have been here for a month already!
{sorry for the lack of photos! look up the panorama - it was beautiful and they wouldn't let me take any photos inside}

nose to the grindstone

17-20 september

week two of classes! 

what could be more exciting! 

however that is the reason that i fly across the ocean for this whole grand adventure. 

so work i must. 

i ended up dropping a couple of classes because i was *way* over the recommended credit load. 

so my week looks like this

~monday~

dutch - 16.30-18.00

~tuesday~

dutch -12.15-13.00

ctrl, alt, del - 13.00-14.30

cost accounting - 15.30-16.15

~wednesday~

ctrl, alt, del - 8.45-12.45

~thursday~

cost accounting - 14.45-16.15

into to dutch culture - 16.30-18.00

you may notice that friday is missing. oh how very observant of you! i do not have classes on friday which is great because it gives me the chance to be caught up on homework.....or to travel and have some fun. same thing right? 

this last week i was able to skype with ej which was a great hour. i had a big presentation due tuesday that was worth 15% of my grade but our group rocked it. wednesday night i enjoyed mushroom soup at a friends house and went to a lecture after. thursday night was an incredibly fun time at a friends apartment just chilling and just having a ton of fun. 

it's fun when there is a network of people you can just call up and say 'hey what do you want to do?' knowing that whatever happens will be a good time :) 

it was certainly true of thursday night and i'm sure it will be for many more evenings!

class??

10-13 september

the last two weeks felt like a total vacation but on monday morning reality hit hard. 

i only had one class on monday but i was also coming down with some sort of cold. ya know the lovely running nose and hacking cough. not one to back down i went to my dutch class and learned to tell people, "Ik heet lindsey" or "Ik ben mevrow VD" and ask them "Hoe heet jij?/Wie bent u?" the best part was trying to go around the room asking people with a tissue clutched in my hand to use every 10 seconds. 

thank goodness that was my only class of the day so i proceeded to go home and drink 40 cups of tea with honey in an effort to feel a little better. 

the next day i went to the lecture for a class i had just picked on the day of registration. it was titled "Ctrl, Alt, Delete: The Digital Society" 

should be interesting. 

the first day was spent telling us about what the module consisted of and then going into some preliminary information on the cyberworld. the whole school is very international and there were plenty of opinions that were voiced throughout the class. i look forward to hearing more of the discussions that play out - i'm way out of my element in this field but hopefully i can learn lots of new viewpoints and information. 

from there was Cost Accounting. this class is immediately after the class for Financial Accounting {which i took last year at SPU so didn't need} and has many of the same students with the same teacher. it was the first day and many of the people had never been in accounting besides the financial acct. class they had just sat through so we covered the basics. 

after that i was done for the day so i headed to the store to pick up some ingredients for a home remedy i wanted to try, grapes, and chicken soup. i skipped on the big party that was going on in an effort to get some extra sleep.

wednesday started early at 8:45 with a 4 hour class for Ctrl, Alt, Del which was rather interesting as we discussed the digital revolution and all the mountains of work we will have to do for this part of the module. {my group had a 30 source paper and a 30 min presentation due next week!} but once we got to actually looking at the material it was rather interesting and fun to learn more about the world that we are living in. 

my only other class for that day was Dutch and we simply practiced more about our names and asked "Waar kom jij vamdaan?" {Ik kom uit de V.S.} we also listened to a dialoge in the book. two of the characters give their last names as Dikstra and de Vries. :) that was all i had to do that day and simply filled up on chicken soup and read my book for our group paper. 

thursday is the last day of the week i have class. i start with Multicultural Consumer Behavior {which i am trying to decide if i should drop. i am taking 37 credits and they recommend 24 to 30} then i have a break in which i simply went home to drink even more tea and try to rest. then comes the workshop for Cost Accounting which was actually great. we worked through some problems i hadn't done before and i was able to figure out what was going on even with most of the class sitting confused. it has nothing to do with the fact i have taken a whole course before and they have never seen it. nope. 

then i attended a lecture for Intro to Dutch Culture which was about Dutch politics with a focus on the elections that had just happened the day before. 

it was also the birthday of one of my good friends here! 

in an effort to celebrate we invited her back to my apartment and made a delicious salad and no-bake cake balls! they were delicious and we just enjoyed the evening together talking about everything/anything we could think of!

that was my first week of school here in Holland! looks like i have lots to learn but it should be a good time. 

don't worry.

the school year is counting down! 

everyone keeps saying only 2 weeks left! 

no. 

sorry. 

but that's ok because it is almost over and then we get to enjoy sunshine without worrying! 

worry. 

the main reason for this post. 

you may remember this post. i'm proud to say that i'm on my way to being better like i hoped. 

but today i happened to see this post from Bits of Splendor. it helped to reaffirm that i can keep working at things without being perfect. nice to hear near the end of the school year while trying to nail down decisions. 

so if you need a boost hop over here and check it out

that's all for now! 

only 2 weeks to go :)

*Snow*Snow*Snow*

Wow! I thought this great city of Seattle would never get snow but SURPRISE! 

We got an entire week off of school because the wonderful white fluffy stuff :)

We went for a chilling walk to Queen Anne on Wednesday to Starbucks to do homework and man was it packed with people!! The line was to the door almost the entire two hours we were there. 

We have been trying to get out of the house so that we don't get cabin fever so we have gone on a few walks and enjoyed the cold air :) I didn't take my camera on many of the adventures (surprise surprise right?) but it's been fun to bundle up and spend quality time with my girls!

To be honest I don't mind the snow. Sure it's cold but I love it :) 

I'm a cold weather person at heart. Not cold-hearted mind you. 

Oh and look!

My siblings missed me so much they made a snow-lindsey just so we could hang out in the snow together! How sweet :)

DONE!!

WOOO HOOO done with finals ~ done with finals 

*happy dance* 

Phew! 

Survived finals! And I think I actually did fairly well. 

{well I already know I finished with an A in psych woot woot} 

It was a fun quarter but I am ready for a break! 

I can't wait to spend time at home with family and friends. Enjoying good food and company :) 

Singing Christmas songs and hopefully getting *SNOW* 

Well I'm going to go find something to do with all of my spare time!