All of a sudden two more months have flown by. This blog was my idea to keep some kind of diary to get back into writing. I had it all planned out: one blog per month to collect twelve chapters of 2023. When I didn´t make the time to write something at the end of February I instantly felt like I´d failed. Insane right? Well.. I´m learning to be better, to go with the flow and accept that when things don´t go as planned it´s not failure by default.

With that out of the way the last two months have been hard but also eventful. I started a new job at this fairytale castle close by where I live. I will be doing the marketing and communication there for the next 5 months and I´m super excited about it. I can bike to work and

I´m already looking forward to the summery bikerides through green fields filled with cute animals and just enjoying the feeling of the sun in my face... Let´s just hope the Dutch summer will do us good this year.

In March I went on a trip to Lapland!! It was such a dream come true. Even though I travel quite a bit it´s always to see family or friends and more often than not it´s combined with work. I love to be able to go back and forth from Iceland this often but it never really feels like a vacation. Traveling to somewhere where a) I´ve never been before and b) where I didn´t know anyone, really felt like a proper holiday. I went with a group of freelancers so in a way it was also for work with all the networking but we enjoyed everything that Lapland has to offer and had one big adventure. The last night we even got to see the Northern lights. I really had so much fun spending all day outside in the snow with the warm sun in my face. Pure happiness.

Funny thing was that I´ve never been so aware that I´m not from the Netherlands as when I was with a bunch of Dutch people in Lapland haha. All of a sudden I realized that being from a more northern climate really means you understand nature and weather differently. There is really a difference in the culture when it comes to snow and more extreme circumstances. The cultures are so similar in other aspects and even though there are small things here and there that are quite different I´ve never had the feeling that I´m different because of where I come from. It´s a privileged feeling when you´re living abroad, that´s for sure.

Anyways. It´s already half april now and spring is finally here. In just a month I´ll get to go back to Iceland for a photoshoot and a family-weekend. Can´t wait! Meanwhile I´ll enjoy the warmer temperatures, flowery trees and sunny skies.

Until next time!