When I was a kid I used to 'taste' words. A new word had to be tested first. It was rolled around on my tongue, stretched and shortened, repeated until it was mine. Some words tasted great, others felt bad in my mouth. 'Emmer', the Dutch word for bucket, never felt right, whereas 'waarom', the Dutch word for 'why', become one of my favorites rightaway. As I grew up and started new languages, I added...

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When I thought of Berlin, I thought of grey buildings, a big wall right in the middle of the city and people in a terrible mood. Berlin just isn't beautiful in my mind. Yes, I am biased, yes, I've seen too many documentaries in East Berlin. My previous trip to this city couldn't change my mind: I was three years old and spent the entire time playing house in the gigantic wardrobe in our hotel...

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"Still I cross my fingers for good luck when the bus comes close to this stop. These days, however, I hope he doesn't get on the bus." A few months ago, I wrote these words about the guy who used to be my high school crush. I haven't thought much about him since that post went up. I haven't crossed my fingers since New Year. He never got on my bus anyway. But then, one...

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Apparently April is A-Z month. I, as the busy college student who's busy binge watchig YouTube videos, was not aware of this fact. But then one all-changing morning, I opened a new tab, went to Twitter and saw Be from Love from Be tweet about her A-Z post, which told us all kinds of awesome stuff about herself. My reputation as a blogger was saved (don't tell anyone that I couldn't keep a straight face...

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It's marked on my calendar in big red letters: Berlin. From April 21st till April 26th I'll be in the German capital with my college class. My mom is glad college is offering this chance; Berlin is familiar territory and I won't be all alone in a big city. Loads of people will keep me from getting into trouble, she thinks. She's not worried about this trip at all. No, she's worried about the word...

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It was October when I discovered this glorious channel called Buzzfeed Video. One video of Americans trying Indian food and I was completely hooked. I thought nothing could top the taste tests, but I was wrong: the Try Guys were even better. When it came to Buzzfeed, I'd been living under a rock until that day. I didn't know there was a website, neither did I know you could write for it or that becoming...

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My mom is one of the loveliest people I've ever met. Also one of the kindest. And also one of those people who believe that a cup of tea will make every situation better. I don't remember a time when my mom didn't drink at least three cups of tea a day. Just like every other little girl, I wanted to be like my mom when I was three years old. I'd already found out...

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It happened on an almost daily basis when I was an overexcited four-year-old. I'd run into the house, yelling: 'Dad, dad, I need my bike! Can you get it out of the shed?' My dad would look up from his book and ask: 'Which one do you want?' It was one of the toughest questions I had to answer as a kid: which bicycle would I take for a ride today? There was the tiny...

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