HALLO HAARLEM

If you equate Amsterdam to New York the Haarlem is the Brooklyn of this situation. Haarlem (though different from New York's Harlem, I'm assuming!) was amazing. All kinds of amazing cafes and shops and REAL people. Like families and babies and puppies and people who look like they're doing more with their life than tasting pastries.

Which is basically all I do so um...

LEVI'S WINKEL

So what a coincidence that I'm talking about pastries next! (Is Pie a pastry? Or its own category? Carry on.) This cafe is unique because It's owned by a 14 year old boy, who we saw in the flesh and I was tempted to ask for his autograph. Just because, you know! There's a video on it here (all in dutch, granted) but I will tell you that Levi has had a haircut, thankfully, and now looks as good as that pie. Well....almost, because pie.

TEN BOOM MUSEUM

Everyone and their second cousin has read the Anne Frank Diary, which is fine and all, but that means its way more popular. Instead of waiting in the 3 hour long line at the Anne Frank House we went to the Corrie Ten Boom house in Haarlem. It was incredible and in my opinion, better than the Anne Frank House simply because the tour was lead from a Christian perspective (and the wait was probably 15 minutes so basically Ten Boom>Frank House. But suit yourself.)

Grote Markt and Ons graan jouw brood
After the house tour we walked around Haarlem and explored the Grote Markt and the smell from Ons Graan guided us in. It was a nearly divine experience. Forget boys, fresh bread is the way to my heart.

On another note, I can't figure out why my clothes are a little tighter.
The two can't be related. ;)

A PLUS FOR AMSTERDAM.

*cheesy Fault in Our Stars Quote*

I swear the only reason teenage girls know that Amsterdam exists is because of Hazel Grace Lancaster. Despite all the history and the VAN GOUGH museum and you know, other things of significance. I am happy to report that I DID in fact know Amsterdam existed before the craze, but even after I still wasn't interested in coming. I was convinced that Amsterdam was nothing more than sex and the fault in our stars....which may or may not be one in the same.

AMSTERDAM IS SO COOL. It's amazing. The people are friendly and most everyone speaks English very well, I've never seen cooler coffee shops in my life (Paris needs to get with the times) and the cute canal streets are an instagrammers dream, if I may be so shallow as to say so.

Amsterdam is broken into many parts because, Amsterdam.

#gramthedam

BOCA'S
Now I'm NOT  a foodie but I did really enjoy the food/cafe portions of our trip. So much so that I actually wrote down everywhere we went (That was good!) Our first night we ate at Boca's and ended up ordering the same thing as the people next to us, unintentionally. They probably thought we copied them but whatever.

BLOEMENMARKT
A floating flower market! This made my flower loving heart very happy. It was different than I expected (super touristy and not a ton of fresh flowers) but there are bulbs upon bulbs of every type of tulip you can ever imagine. I ended up with a bag of peonies bulbs because I like to prove that I am not swayed by cultural norms or the status quo but instead choose to be different and original and forge my own path.

Also, I really like peonies.

HI EVERYONE HERES A PHOTO OF ME ON THE SAME BENCH THAT ANSEL ELGOT SAT ON....AKA HOLY GROUND. CUE ALL THE FEELS AND PUNS AND METAPHORS.

Also, I actually don't really love The Fault in Our Stars. I just really like participating in average teenage girl things.

More Amsterdam coming soon and PS:

Really proud of my snapchat story that day. ;)

CLASSY GIRLS WEAR....

Top: J.Crew Skirt: J.Crew Necklace: H&M Sandals: Saltwaters

....A shirt that came in the mail 3 hours earlier. The shoes you've worn all over the world. The skirt you have in 5 different colors and a necklace that you left outside one night.

On second thought, maybe I'm not too classy after all ;)

Brought to you by phone photos and nostalgia.

OKAY! I just felt like clarifying. TPNC does not stand for "toilet paper north carolina", despite that being the first obvious choice. It stands for Teen Pact National Convention..which week long camp where Teen Pact kids from all over the nation come together for a week of eating and sitting.

Basically. But it's really fun!

Getting up at 3:30 am to get on a bus with 50 people you don't know is a scary thing. Yet again, through gods grace I had an amazing time and met such wonderful people. Even if the bus was HOT (like being in 80 degree weather but without the benefit of a tan) and the drive was long (12 hours much) it was wonderful.

Also all the photos people took of me while I was sleeping, pure joy!

1. squad represent
2. #thefaultinjersphotobomb (see his nose ring? Brought to you by sun and random chance.)
3. Found: a Kryn on the clearance aisle.

There are lots of attractive guys my age at teen pact....yet somehow I always end up hanging out with the 14 year olds. No matter how hard I try it always happens, so this year I ran with it. The little fitz twins made me so happy. And with 5 boys in the family, I decided they needed an honorary big sister and that I was also fully qualified for the job! I just haven't told them yet.

1. GINA who does pageants and is a big sister to everyone and  all the guys love her.

2. My roommate Mandi who by a crazy set of events turns out to be friends IRL with my online buddies. 

3. "I look like a fuzzy watermelon"- Amanda Wiggins on her #OTTD

4. Apparently Anna Lees beauty is too blinding, thus the closed eyes on my part. Regardless of how it is, that's what I'm rolling with.

What a good, good week. What a good, good God we serve! And how wonderful it is to not have to look decent 24/7 anymore.

PS: Last years NC post HERE.

#TPNC15

Alternate title: #thanksfitzpatrick

What a week. What a wonderful week full of death by laughter, tears of both the happy and sad variety, and a tiny glimpse of Heaven. Oh, and I drank my first cup of coffee and didn't wear a skirt all week! Its okay, I'll revive you if you faint.

Hallelujah, all I have is Christ.

Hallelujah, Jesus is my life.

To bae or not to bae

TO BAE OR NOT TO BAE, That is the question!

One day during a school/tanning session I was deep in thought. It wasn't about the Cuban missile crisis (where I should have been thinking) or my arm placement so I got an even tan (the next logical thought, for Kryn you know.)

It was about the word bae, naturally.

I use to be very opposed to the word bae. IT was weird, it was funky! And even though I'm typically drawn to weird and funky (Richard Simmons anyone?!) I just couldn't get behind the 21st century bae movement.

But boy have things changed!

Ask any one of my friends and they'll tell you that I have a lot of baes. I don't know what convinced me but in back November or so I turned the metaphorical bae corner and haven't looked back. I'm a little bit like Oprah on her Favorite things episode. You're a bae and You're a bae and EVERYONE IS A BAE!!

And I don't know, it's pretty fun to be friends with everyone.

What is your opinion on the baes? do they make you gag or skip with glee?

Connected again.

Words, sentence structure, punctuation, I've forgotten it all! How do I publish a post again? Insert a photo? Beats me.

Thats what 2 and a half weeks without internet can do to a girl!

You know, I never really realized how many things I googled over the course of a day until, I couldn't google them. Recipes, obscure words and celebrities birthdays were just a few of the things I had to go without. And while its nice in theory to unplug from the world, sometimes you just wanna find a good quiche recipe,  man! (Or finish a paper...that too)

More than once I found myself at a friends house "borrowing" their wifi ("I swear, I'll return it later") and of course their food too. (I'll probably keep that, but thanks for asking.) And while that was fun and all, it sure is nice to be able to browse Pinterest in my pajamas. The simple joys of 21st century life.

So anyway! I'm back. For like a week! Let us hope the wifi (and my sanity) last through finals!