Travel Tips

Here I am in Sweden with my Dutch friends, after the premiere of the big musical I was in. They came to see the show on opening night, and everyone enjoyed it.

During my semester as an exchange student in Sundsvall, Sweden, I met a lot of other exchange students, from many parts of Europe. I ended up spending most of my time with the Dutch people. They were friendly, funny, and usually had the best parties! In this pic, there's Chantal, Wouter, Elisa, Bindert, me, and Andries, and Remco is in front. Missing from the picture are Astrid and Marloes.

They were also exchange students in Sweden, and I enjoyed spending time with them. Sofie is from Belgium, Anca and Monica are from Romania. Sofie and I often went out at night with the Dutch group, and the Romanian girls would sometimes come along too.

During the exchange program in Sweden, I got to meet a lot of Swedes by getting involved in the student theatre (Spex). I played a dancer in Utan Rim Och Reson (Without Rhyme or Reason), which was written by a student at the university. I was the only person in the cast who wasn't Swedish, but there were two other exchange students (from Germany) in the pit band. In this pic, are Anna, Lina, Asa, Emma, me, and Therese (Tessan).

This picture was taken on my last night in Rome, in the summer of 2000. I had gone there for World Youth Day, and one of my best memories was meeting this charming young Italian man named Carlo (second from left, next to me). He was the one who inspired me to go after my dream of the performing arts.

We lost touch for a while, but I still wondered about him and how he was doing even though he hadn't written in years. But in 2006, I found his blog on the internet, wrote him a message, and we got back in touch. We met up again in June 2007 when I returned to Rome.

In 2001, I went to the Dominican Republic for 3 weeks with a Church group to learn about life in the Third World. During our stay there, each person lived with a host family for a week in different parts of the country. Cristina was part of the family I lived with. She is a school teacher, and was also a university student. She sent me this picture of herself at her university graduation. She is one of the nicest people I have ever met, and I hope we'll see each other again someday.

When I was in Seville in spring 2007, one of my classmates at the language school was an American guy named Nathan. He was one of the funniest people in the group, and always had me laughing, especially with all the silly stuff he said. When I told him I was meeting up with an internet friend (VTer Spanishguy), Nathan said "Tomorrow we'll find your body in the river". At the Feria de Abril, he got drunk and made jokes about getting me drunk and said "I usually read passionate poetry but this time I'll make passionate love". Later, when I was having boy trouble involving a flirty guy who turned out to be a player, I asked Nathan for advice and he said "Forget about him, the last thing you need is a case of syphilis". Even though he was funny and always made me laugh, he's also a sweetheart who was friends with everyone he met.