Author Archives: Yannani

Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope everyone is having a wonderful time through these troubling times, This year Nathan and I are spending Christmas eve and a week in Norway.

I started the day with my oral exam in Dutch. The exam was online which meant I could do it from home. It started at 9:15 am and lasted 15 min. We went through the different subjects such as; family, moving, use of present tense and doktor. I was feeling super nervous but in the end, I felt that it went better than expected.

Our next task was to prepare for the flight ahead. We still had to pack and tidy the apartment a bit. The plan was to leave at noon, but we weren’t ready until 12:45. We went to the bus station and waited for the bus. We hoped we would be able to take the train that left at 13:19, but we were just too late when we arrived. Next one left at 13:49 which would give us 40 min to go through everything at the airport. All this made me really stressed.

When we arrived at the airport I tried to move as fast as I could. We were super lucky because there was no line for the security which saved us a ton of time which made me really happy, but little did I know that the plane would end up being 1h delayed anyways xD

It all started with a 30 min delay. Then when everyone had boarded the plane we got an announcement that someone from the previous flight had forgotten their brown hand luggage so the entire staff had to check if it was on the plane which took almost 30 min. After that was resolved they had to resume the process of loading the other luggage into the plane which added another 30 min. So at 4 pm we finally took off and we landed in Norway at around 7:45 pm. Then we had to have the police check our registration form and we thought they would want to see our vaccination pass, but the guy just said “it’s fine I trust you” which made me wonder if he does that with everyone. After that, we stopped by the duty-free to pick up some alcohol before we went to get tested. When EVERYTHING was done we finally found where my sister had parked and headed over. Then we were on our way home.

During the car ride, we talked a bit with my sister since this is the first time anyone in my family has seen Nathan everyone was very curious. When we arrived home we got greeted with both of my parents, a lovely tree and some amazing food. We still had to wait for a bit until dinner was ready which gave my parents some time to get to know Nathan. Then finally at almost 9 pm dinner was ready. We were having a classic Norwegian dinner.

That consists of a bunch of different sorts of meat. The main attraction is the rib steak of pork where the giant challenge is to get the skin the perfect crust with crunch. Then you also have meatballs and small sausages. For the side dishes, you usually have red kale, jam, potatoes and different causes. The entire meal is really delicious but also contains a bunch of fat xD. It came from when Norway was a poor country and Christmas meal was when you finally enjoyed some great food together with your close one.

After dinner, we prepared ourselves for the presents. We went around opening different presents from both friends and family. Nathan and I got each a pair of tall soft socks and a gift card. Then I got a jumper from my sister. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any presents for my parents or my sister which I will have to find during my time here. By the time everything was done it was already midnight and everyone were ready to head to bed.

I hope you guys had an amazing day too or if you celebrate today I wish everyone a very merry Christmas. May you celebrate with either family or friends and with some amazing food. For those who do presents I hope you get something nice 😀

I have finally moved from Norway to Belgium to live with my current boyfriend. I am excited about how this will all turn out, but what I know for sure is that it will be one hell of an adventure.

The week leading up to the move I talked to a bunch of people to be sure I didn’t forget to do something important before I left. I talked to my mentor in the government and to my boss plus a couple of other important people. Thankfully the requirements I had to do wasn’t that long. I basically just had to report the move into the state department and the postal service and that was basically it. I packed all of my clothes plus some other items down and sent it away through the mail. My pc-case was going into a suitcase with me on the plane so I had to make sure that it was safe and secure with both bubble wrap and clothing. Then i also packed a small suitcase as a hand luggage so that I had some cloths if need be.

On my last day in Norway I met with my boss for lunch and we just had a nice chat about my work in their company, life in general and the road forward. She wished me good luck in Belgium and said that if anything should happen and I would have to come back to Norway I could always hit them up if I need some work. That made me feel a bit safer just in case this move doesn’t work out. The rest of the day spent mostly traveling towards the airport, going through the steps to get on and off the plane and more public transport to Nathan’s apartment.

The move was a being kept as a surprise from Nathan. He thought I would be arriving today, but I was able to change the flight without extra cost so I did and decided to keep it as a surprise for him. It wasn’t easy because I just wanted to tell him that I was moving in earlier. I had also told a couple of friend which made me worried that they might accidently reveal it, but all of them managed to keep it a secret.

When I showed up at his front door he got so happy and gave me a BIG hug. Since he is still ill our days are mostly spent sitting in the sofa. I have so far tried to make some appointments that will help me get a job here since I have 6 months so get a job to be eligible to stay in the country. I can’t wait until I have settled in properly with a job and everything only then will I be able to finally relax.

I hope you guys have had an amazing start of September and I wish you all to stay safe

Last Friday I finally got myself on a plane home to Norway after a month of postponing my vacation because of different reasons. It was both a good thing, but also might have given me the worst feeling I have had for a long time.

So during the weeks leading up to the return my boyfriend got sick right after his second vaccination. He became super weak and not able to take care of himself. The symptoms he had was fever, swollen glands and throat so for the last week it was mostly me who went around doing different chores around the apartment.

On the day that I was leaving I first started going to a clinic to get my tested. The facility was not that far and there were not many people there. My appointment was at noon and it was a speedtest so I got the result within an hour although they did say 15min, but I guess they were some delays. After that I just went home and started cleaning the apartment so that it looked nice and tidy before I left since I knew he couldn’t do it up until I had to leave. The plan was that he was suppose to follow me to the airport, but because he had become so weak he was in no condition to travel. Plus we also thought that it might have been mumps at the time which is highly contagious. So we had to say goodbye at the front door which was sad. During the goodbye he started tearing up which made me tear up too.

The trip home was went pretty smooth. I had already checked in plus I was only carrying a hand luggage. I was done with everything after around 30 min in the airport. So I went to get something eat since I hadn’t eaten anything that entire day and the clock was almost 6pm. Decided to go to a place called “Quick” which is suppose to be similar to McDonalds. The food there was pretty decent. When I eventually got on the plane the captain said that the ride home would be shorter since we had the wind on our side. Throughout the entire flight I decided to catch up on my netflix series and watch “Lucifer”

As soon as we landed that’s when all the controls started. I had to go through passport control where they check if I had a negative PCR and that I had registered my return. I got the all clear and told that I had to spend the next 7 days quarantined at home. My parents wanted something from “Duty Free” so I stopped by that and bought some champagne. After that I had to get tested again and wait for the result at the airport before I could leave. To no surprise it came back negative and I was good to go. I took the bus home since my mum had agreed to meet me at the buss stop and drive me home. I got home around 11pm and sat down and told my parents about my trip before I went down to my room which i hadn’t seen in 2 months. Since it was pretty late I didn’t do much before just heading to bed.

2 days after I came home my boyfriend told me that he had gone to the hospital because he didn’t get any better. They had him over for a couple of days to run some test. Because of all the swelling around his neck area he couldn’t eat so they gave him liquid through a tube in his arm. They discovered it was mono which is strange since that usually spreads through saliva which means that I would be the most likely to give it to him, but I haven’t been feeling ill. Regardless after a couple of night he got sent home and his throat is better, but now he is having stomach problems. Thankfully my stay in Norway is only for a week so that I get to pack etc and then I’ll move in with him and be able to take care of him.

So that was the end of my summer vacation. I hope you guys have had a lovely summer too and for those who are starting or going back to school I wish you guys good luck.

I attended the wedding of my boyfriend’s mother when she got re-married. Knowing only four people in total and barely being able to speak with other guest.

When i first heard about the wedding might be happening on the 9th of July two months ago there was a big part of me that hoped that they would change it to a later date, but soon after his mother confirmed the date. So then here I was being super nervous since this would be the first time I would meet Nathans mother and her side of the family and we have only been dating for 6 months and I barely knew any Dutch either. Being a people pleaser I was super worried that they wouldn’t like me or that I would overall give a bad first impression.

The day before my nerves started to pile up. I had so many different thoughts about how it would go, because all I wanted was for them to like me. Nathan said that I shouldn’t be worried and that everything would go fine, but there was still a big part of me who constantly kept thinking about the worst outcome. We got told that his brother was going to pick us up at 9.30 in the morning so we had to wake up earlier to get ready.

Apparently the wedding didn’t start until around noon but we were going to meet up with their mother just to hang out and Sara aka the brother’s wife was going to do the makeup. I didn’t know this before hand and got even more nervous when I got told. I tried to take a deep breath and just go with it. We sat in the car and drove over to the place. Upon arrival we got greeted at the door and we sat down in the sofa. I also got to meet Nathan’s grand mother. After a short time mother started asking question about my stay in Belgium, where I was from, if I was living with family which was fine as they were pretty slandered questions, but then she asked some intersting ones like “do you ask him to shave? and does he listen?” followed up by “because he never listens to me!” these kind of question made me a bit uncomfortable since I wasn’t sure how to respond.

When it was finally time to head to the place where the wedding was being held I couldn’t help but having a bit mixed feelings about everything, but I tried to just brush it off and keep going. The weeding took place in a nice town hall looking building since it was a stately there were no church and because of covid there were barely any people there. Just a the grooms parents and us. The wedding was held in Dutch which meant that I had no idea about what was said, but I assumed it was your standard wedding. The grand parents shared their speeches but there were no vows or anything. It all took around 30 min. After that it was photoshoot time. Sara was also the assigned photographer and she took ALOT of photos. I was also included in the wedding photos which I found intersting. After all the photos were taken the mother came up to me first speaking in Dutch and Nathan had to remind her that I didn’t understand it and said “I’ll give this to you since Nathan is the only one that isn’t married so maybe after a few years you’ll become my new daughter in law.” while handing me her bouquet, and all I could think about was “thanks, no pressure”

When everything was settled everyone headed over to a nice restaurant where we had lunch. There were more intersting question, a lot of cake. I had their special burger which I must say wasn’t that good. The patty was too thick didn’t taste that special. The cake was delicious however and it had macaroons which are always amazing.

After a long day it was finally time to head home. Both me and Nathan were pretty exhausted and we both took a small nap as soon as we got home. Later that evening we headed over to the his brothers place for some casual hangout, more food which tasted way better and card games. I had also asked Sara to take some pictures of me and Nathan since we didn’t have any proper couples photos. They turned out nice.

All in all it wasn’t too bad of an experience, but I’m so glad that my boyfriend was sitting right besides me making sure that I was feeling alright even when things got a bit awkward and I still have mixed feeling about his mother. So there you guys go. Just a small insight about how it went at my first abroad wedding.

Today mark the day that me and my boyfriend have been together for 6 months and we decided to celebrate it the way we know best. Great food and amazing entertainment.

On August the 18th 2019 was the first time I sent Nathan a message and our friendship journey had begun. Fast forward to January 18th of this year we figured out that we had developed close feelings towards each other and decided to give the long distance relationship a try.

As with all LDR’s (long distance relationship) we had our ups and downs, but we still haven’t had a single argument that haven’t resolved. The more we spent time with each other the more we discovered that we were really similar in many different ways. He surprised so many times with his opinions and just the way he thought and the way he based his decisions, because I was used to being with guys who didn’t have a lot on their minds when it came to a lot of things. I could go on and on about what has made Nathan so special to me. but then you would be stuck here for a while.

Short after we got together we had already made a strong emotional connection and there was no doubt that I really wanted to meet him in real life, but because of Covid-19 that wasn’t possible until June when summer started and a lot of restrictions had lightened up. Belgium had also gone from having the country on complete lock down to be forced to open up! So after I got my vacation weeks granted I booked a ticket and was set to travel the 13th of June.

We started our day pretty quietly with us just hanging out in the apartment doing our own things. Then when the time was around 4.30 Pm we prepared our self to head out. Nathan had resaved a table at a restaurant in the city who specialises on spare ribs. So we took our usual bus and walked to Groenplaats. The place we were eating was called Amadeus. We headed over to make sure we made it for our reservation.

When we arrived we decided to sit inside and the interior was so amazing filled with ALOT of books and incredible different items. There was a fruit machine, a clock etc. So after I was done being amazed by the surroundings we ordered. To no surprise we both ordered the spare ribs. The thing about this place that Nathan told me about was that this place not only specialise in spare ribs but you also get “all you can eat” spare ribs for only 20 € they also give you more baked potato if you want that too. So not only was the food delicious but if you are really hungry, in the mood for spare ribs and have a big stomach this is definitely worth it. The waiters was walking around with plates filled with spare ribs and potato’s for when you wanted another one. I had total of 2 whole ribs and Nathan had 2 1/2 spare ribs before we decided we were satisfied. Plus we couldn’t stay too long since we had a movie to catch a the cinemas

After we had eaten it was straight to the Cinema called “Kinopolis”. To get there we went with the tramline. The movie we had booked was called “The courier” featuring Benedict Cumberbatch which is one of my favorite actors. It was a war movie categorised as Thriller. Me being a huge fan of history found it super intersting although I did have some trouble when the actors were speaking Russian because there were only French or Dutch subtitles, so most of the time I just had to guess what was happening based on the context. It all worked out in the end and it was an amazing experience. I cried once during one scene. So I would defiantly recommend this to anyone who are interested in history or if you just want to se another movie featuring Benedict.

When the movie was over we had a nice walk home and thankfully the weather had gone down which made the walk even more pleasant. When we got home we just relaxed and I gave him his present.

Hope you guys had an amazing weekend and that no one is dying of the heat and as always stay healthy and stay safe.