EURO-TOUR!

www.europatour.tk 
Well we now have the full schedule for Euro-Tour and it looks pretttyyyy amazing.

May 29th - We'll depart by bus from Woerden (in the center of Holland) for Berlin, Germany. 

May 30th - Visit Checkpoint Charley, Haus am Mauer Museum, the former Berlin wall, Potzdammerplatz, Jewish memorial monument, Brandenburg gate, Bundestag, Kurfürstendamm, Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, KaDeWe, Unter den Linden, Gendarmenmarkt and Alexanderplatz.

May 31st - Visit to the DDR museum after loading our baggage, and head to Prague. 

June 1st - Visit the Prague Castle, Karlsbrucke historic bridge, the heart of the old city, Gothic city hall, astronomic clock, Hradcany plein. In the evening we're going to the Tristan and Isolde Opera.

June 2nd - A free morning, head to Vienna in the afternoon.

June 3rd - Visit the Schloss Schonbrunn and gardens, a guided bike tour through the city, walk around Prater park

Travel to Lido di Jesolo (near Venice) overnight.

June 4th - Lido di Jesolo... free day on the beach!

June 5th - Leave for Punta Sabbioni. Boat tour to Murano island, visit San Marco plein, free afternoon in Venice.

June 6th - Bus trip to Rome

June 7th - City tour.. Colosseum, Piazza Venezia, Pantheon, Piaza Navona, Trevi Fontein, Spanish Steps, Roman Forum, churches.

June 8th - the Vatican, Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, St. Pietersplein. Load onto the boat to travel to Barcelona

June 9th - Free day on the deck of the boat. Arrive in Barcelona and have a tapas dinner.

June 10th - Walking tour through the city with tour guide

June 11th - Free morning and afternoon in the city or beach. Visit the soccer stadium. Leave for Lyon in the evening by train.

June 12th - Disneyland in Paris!

June 13th - City visit.. the Louvre, Notre Dame, City Hall, Center Pompidou, Les Halles, boat tour on the Seine, de Sacre Coeur. Visit the Eiffel tower in the evening for our last night.

June 14th - Return to Holland

It's not Christmas anymore.

Since my last real post has a picture of a Christmas tree on it, I guess I'll give an update. Right now I'm sitting outside in my backyard in the SUN with NO RAIN, and only one tiny tiny cloud! Finally the typical Dutch weather is going away and the tulips have arrived :) My bike route to school in Sassenheim is now full of daffodils and hyacinths, and soon to be more tulips. It's now become very obvious how lucky I am to be living in such a beautiful area of Holland.

This week has been a little stressful as I was supposed to have a Finnish exchange student come stay with me in return of the trip my school took there. But.. since a certain volcano in Iceland decided to make an ash out of itself (ha...ha..) the trip turned into mission impossible. We were sure they would finally arrive on Thursday evening (instead of Wednesday morning) only to find out that the flight had been cancelled yet again. So unfortunately, I won't be seeing my Finnish friends ever again! :(

During the Voorjaars vacation I had a best friend from Canada come visit me. Crystal is doing a Rotary exchange in Sweden and was allowed to come stay with the Tromp family for a week in Warmond. We had a busy week together checking out the Anne Frank House, a concert in Amsterdam, Haarlem, Volendam (a traditional Dutch city), Utrecht and of course, Leiden. My Rotary president from Sassenheim wanted to take us to Haarlem and we visited the Frans Hals Museum who was a well known painter during the Dutch Golden Age. There was a painting of the Grote Markt (Big Market) from the 1700's that my Rotary president pointed to and casually said: 'Hey, we'll go to that cafe on the left for coffee after this'. Fair enough, about an hour later it felt like we were walking in the painting as we approached the main market in Haarlem.
My host mom also took us on a day trip and we went to Volendam and got a looooovely picture taken in the Dutch costumes. For the record, I haven't seen a single person here where clogs yet which is quite upsetting.

I was happy Crystal was here during part of the Olympics because that was the first time I really really really had to miss Canada. My first taste of true homesickness. Watching the snowboarding and hockey events just weren't the same with Dutch announcers. Especially knowing that many friends and family members were right in the center of Vancouver partying along the streets. But on the upside, I know this year is beyond comparable to just a few weeks in Vancouver. And at least this way I got to see how crazy the Dutch people are over speed-skating and more in particular, Sven Kramer. To catch juuuust a little bit of Olympic spirit I went to the Hague for the day when the Olympic athletes arrived back in Holland and got to see the whole team and even snag a few autographs. I went back to the Hague a few weeks later for the National Volunteer Day where I was a volunteer photographer. I've still been doing a few photography things for random organizations that I find online and this one was pretty cool. I basically just took pictures of events and people, and then found out one of my photos might even be published in the company's next edition of their monthly magazine. I've also been in contact with a local professional photographer and he invited me to teach a workshop with him in the Keukenhof, the world's largest flower garden.
As for the buddy system with my Rotary Club, I have still been busy with some nice outings: a day trip to Delft to see the traditional Delft blue pottery, a Holland VS America soccer game in Amsterdam (Holland won of course), pannekoeken dinner, Naturalis Museum in Leiden, the Bloemencorso parade, the Keukenhof, and Madurodam in the Hague. It still amazes me how so many Rotarians take time out of their week to show me something special about Holland. I was even invited for a weekend trip to a small town in Belgium with Rotary Voorhout which was really nice. When we returned, we had visitors from the Phillipines for a Group Study Exchange who I got to spend quite a bit of time with throughout the week. I joined them on a trip to the Aalsmeer Flower Auction which is the largest in the world, and also on a boat tour on a local lake in Warmond surrounded by windmills. As of now, I think it's safe to say I've seen the whole country! I still need to make a trip to Maastricht which in the South, and then I have been to every corner. Last month the Tromp family took me to Groningen which is way up in the North (a 2 hour drive) so of course we spent the night. Anything farther than 45 minutes on the train seems far away now, I have lost my Canadian "let's go to Kelowna to go shopping for the day" attitude. But of course it was a nice couple days with the Tromp family, one of my last weekends with them! :(
I also went MOUNTAIN biking! In Holland. Turns out there are some areas in this country that contain slight inclinations of land. I guess I should consider it hill-biking, but it was still pretty impressive. This was during a Rotex weekend with the other exchange students in Castricum, North Holland. In two weeks we'll already have our going away party on Texel island. It's not really good-bye.. we still have plans to go 'wadlopen' in the North of Holland which I think is just walking through mud from one island to another.. but apparently it's quite Dutch? And then of course we'll be going on Euro-Tour from May 29th to June 14th! I'll post the schedule for that at some point :)
It is still unbelievable how fast this year has gone by. Pretty soon I'll be trying to figure out how to fit the past year into two suitcases to fly home. I'm now by my third and last family, the Verdegaals! I've known them since arriving in Holland so it felt comfortable from the start. My host parents Joan and Joop took me on a nice car ride through the tulip fields, and also to Muiderslot, an old castle from the 13th century near Amsterdam. I have two host sisters, Maaike, who studies and lives in Amsterdam during the weeks, and Ester, who is currently on exchange in Argentina. And lastly there's Leo, my very first little brother :)
Overall, the past few months have been amazing, but I can already feel that the best is yet to come.

Rotary Magazine Write-Up

Here is a write-up in Dutch I wrote for a Rotary Magazine in Holland. My host mom was really nice and helped me a lot! Sorry for the non-Dutch people reading this.. but it is just a simple re-cap of my year so far :) http://www.rotary.nl/yep/Nieuwsbrieven/nieuwsbrief_6.htm 

Mijn naam is Maymie Tegart en ik kom uit Kamloops, Canada, dichtbij Vancouver aan de westkant. Zeven maanden geleden kwam ik naar Nederland, vol verwachting en heel nieuwsgierig. Inmiddels, heb ik een nieuwe taal geleerd, heel veel nieuwe mensen ontmoet, en ook een voorliefde voor Nederlandse kaas, hagelslag, stamppot, en Sven Kramer ontwikkeld.

Tot nu toe, heb ik heel veel van Nederland gezien samen met mijn gastgezinnen en de Rotary mensen. Ik woon in Warmond, en mijn gastclubs zijn Rotary Voorhout en Rotary Sassenheim. De Rotarians zijn heel gastvrij en actief. Mijn counselor, Martine Engel, is zeer betrokken en heeft een “Buddy Programma” voor mij gemaakt. Dit betekent dat elke Rotarian van mijn twee gastcubs mij een keer mee uit te neemt naar iets leuks. Dit kan zijn naar de film, naar een iets toeristisch, gezellig uit eten of een uitstapje naar een andere stad. Heel speciaal was Prinjesdag in Den Haag waar ik als VIP gast in Paleis Noordeinde ben geweest. Ik heb heel veel van Amsterdam gezien, en ook Delft, Alkmaar, Haarlem, Leiden, Volendam, Utrecht en ook nog veel meer.

Ik zit nu bij mijn tweede gastgezin met een gastbroer en drie gastzussen rond mijn leeftijd. Met de kerstvakantie, zijn we twee weken in Zwitserland geweest. Wij hebben bij Oma gelogeerd in Lenk in het Berner Oberland. Ook al waren wij in Zwitserland, wij hebben een Nederlandse Oud en Nieuw gevierd met eigen gebakken oliebollen. Mijn eerste gezin was ook  erg aardig en gastvrij. Zij hebben mij meegenomen op vakantie naar Lanzarote, de Canarische Eilanden voor een week. In deze familie had ik 3 kleine zusjes die natuurlijk alleen Nederlands praten. Zij waren voor mij de perfecte Nederlandse leraresjes. Jammer genoeg, ik ga straks alweer naar mijn laatste gastgezin waar ik zal blijven tot ik terug ga naar Canada op 13 Juli.

Ik zit op school in 5-VWO op het Rijnlands Lyceum in Sassenheim. School is mijn grootste uitdaging. Ik vind school in Nederland heel lastig voor een exchange student want daar zijn niet zoveel activiteiten buiten de lessen om te doen. De leraren zijn meer gericht op hun eigen leerlingen die examen moeten gaan doen dan op een exchange student die er slechts voor een jaar is. Eerst vond ik het moeljik om  vriendinnen te maken, maar nu heb ik heel veel aardige vrienden en vriendinnen. Wat wel heel leuk was van school is dat ik meek on op reis naar Finland voor een week.  Omdat school lastig is , heb ik een fotografie cursus in Amsterdam gevolgd in September. Ook, doe ik vrijwilligerswerk bij een bejaardenhuis twee keer per week. In de Keukenhof, ga ik foto cursus geven, samen met een professionele fotograaf.

Geduurende dit jaar, heb ik ook een aantal Rotary weekends gehad samen met alle andere exchange studenten hier in Nederland. Er zijn er 13 van het Noordelijk halfrond en 10 van het Zuidelijk halfrond. In Augustus hebben we in Dutch Orientation Course op Texel gehad, een weekend in Zeeland, een weekend in Den Haag, en binnenkort gaan we een weekend naar Bakkum en later ook nog Wadlopen. Eind Mei gaan we met z’n allen op Europa Tour voor twee weken!

Al met al, heb ik een mooi en leerzaam jaar, en zal het moelijk zijn om straks in Canada weer te wennen. Ik ben mijn gastclubs heel dankbaar voor alles wat zij voor mij gedaan hebben. Ook mijn gastgezinnen wil ik bedanken: de families Goedkoop, Tromp, en Verdegaal.


Here is an English translation although it might be quite boring to read!

My name is Maymie Tegart and I am from Kamloops, Canada, which is close to Vancouver on the western side. Seven months ago I came to Holland full of suspense and much curiosity. Since being here, I have learnt a new language, met many new people, and have also developed a love for Dutch cheese, hagelslag, stamppot, and Sven Kramer.

            Up until now, I have seen many different areas of the Netherlands with my host families and Rotary Club members. I live in Warmond, and my host clubs are Rotary Voorhout and Rotary Sassenheim. The Rotarians are extremely accommodating and active. My counselor, Martine Engel, is very involved and has made a Buddy Program for my year abroad. This means that each Rotarian from my two host clubs has the opportunity to take me on some sort of outing. This can be a movie, a trip to a tourist attraction, going out for dinner, or a day trip to another city. A highlight was going to Prinjesdag in the Hague where I was a VIP guest in the Paleis Noordeide. I have seen very much of Amsterdam, aswell as other cities such as Delft, Alkmaar, Haarlem, Leiden, Volendam, Utrecht and many more.

I am now living by my second host family with a host brother and three host sisters around my age. During Christmas vacation they invited me along to Switzerland for two weeks. We stayed in Lenk in the Berner Oberland at the grandmother’s house. Although we were in Switzerland, we celebrated the Dutch New Year with homemade olliebollen. My first family was also very nice and accommodating. They took me on vacation to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands for one week. In this family I had 3 little sisters who of course spoke only Dutch. They were the perfect Dutch teachers for me! Sadly, I am leaving soon to my last family where I will stay until I return to Canada on July 13^th. 

I attend school at Rijnlands Lyceum Sassenheim in 5-VWO. School has been my biggest challenge so far. I think school in Holland is difficult for an exchange student because there aren’t so many activities outside of the lessons. The teachers are more focused on the students who are going to write their finals exams, than a student who is just staying for one year. First, I thought it was difficult to make friends, but I now have a nice group that I go out with regularly. One positive outcome from school was a school trip to Finland that I was able to partake in. I have also chosen other activities to get involved with instead of school such as a photography course in Amsterdam, volunteer work at a seniors home, and volunteering as an assistant for a local professional photographer during his workshops in the Keukenhof.

During this year, I have also had a few Rotary weekends with the other exchange students that are staying in Holland. There are 13 from the North Hemisphere and 10 from the South. In August, we had our Dutch Orientation Course on Texel Island. We also went to museums in the Hague, sailing in Zeeland, and mountain biking in Bakkum. We will soon go Wadlopen in Groningen. At the end of May we are going on Europe Tour for two weeks!

In conclusion,  it has been an amazing year full of learning experiences. It will be very difficult to soon return back to Canada. I am very thankful for my host Rotary clubs for everything that they have done, as well as my host families: the Goedkoops, Tromps, and Verdegaals. 

ya missed me?

Well if one thing is official, I am the world's best procrastinator. I realize I haven't updated in awhile, and to be honest I pretty much have no excuse. Host family change, switzerland, christmas, new years... I guess I should take a little bit of time to talk about some of those things, right?
 Of course the family change was difficult, but the Tromps already feel like a new family. I miss being able to paint Elsa's nails, constantly being asked "Maag ik een snoopje? alsjebleif? (can I have a candy? please?)", being woken up by the three screaming girls on my birthday "JIJ BENT JARIG! JIJ BENT JARIG!", listening to Sexy Chick and dancing with the family, spending time doing nothing in Lanzarote, hearing Elsa say "NIET DOEN!", and the feeling of having a new set of parents that feels completely natural even though they were once just strangers.
These memories have been moved aside as I'm forced to settle myself into a new house, new bed, with new welcoming family members. If one thing is for certain, there is never a dull moment in the Tromp household. That is one of the first things Henriette told me, but only now have I realized the truthfulness of it. I have 4 siblings, Reinier (21), Marilou (20), Claire (18), and Dorine (15). I got to know all of them very well over are immediate trip to Switzerland. I had 4 days to settle in before we left for a very cramped and cozy ride to the Alps...

Maybe it wasn't necessary to pack I-pod speakers and 7 different sweatshirts. A 10 hour drive took us through Germany and down into the Swiss-German speaking area of Switzerland. Germany has extremely impressive toilets, by the way.
In Switzerland I was able to see the true colors of my new siblings... Reinier is actually 12 years old at heart and is very talented at giving face washes in the snow. Marilou loves Kraft Dinner like a typical Canadian and can relate to anything Canadian-ish I say, as she lived near Niagara Falls last year on exchange. Claire, a Farmville addict, is the one who makes sure there is never a quiet moment, and ensures there is always good (and loud) music playing. Dorine is the quiet one who seems to be happy doing anything and is also a great Dutch teacher. Then of course there are my lovely host parents... I managed to dance on a table with my host father, and my host mother happens to be an amazing cook. I have yet to discover something I don't like. Overall, I really couldn't ask for a better host family to share Christmas vacation with.
2 and a half weeks in Switzerland doing nothing but snowboarding, skiing, lounging, and Tipi Bar-ing was a great way to start my 3 month stay with the Tromps. We stayed in Oma's house in Lenk, right on the slopes..

Two other families that are close friends stayed in the same area. With 12 teenagers in the group you can imagine how busy it was.
Christmas was different of course. It was very toned down than what I'm used to and consisted of no christmas carols, turkey or stuffing :( But the "gezellig" family atmosphere was still present. New Years was also very different, but thoroughly enjoyed of course. We started off the night with the whole group drinking champagne, eating olliebollen and playing games before heading down to the village of Lenk. The ski instructors of the mountain lit their old skis on fire and wrote "Lenk" on the side of the mountain. Later on they all skied down to the village to celebrate with everyone else. The village was packed with rowdy people, some who even walked around ringing huge cowbells. It was nothing comparable to New Years in Canada, that's for sure. Although there were tons of fireworks, I guess that's one similarity.

Since returning back to Holland I've been going to school and also volunteering at a seniors home called Bernardus. I enjoy helping out there as it reminds me a lot of Berwick, my past job, and makes me feel completely at home. School isn't always great for the whole day so it's nice to get a break in between. I find the school system here very difficult for an exchange student, and have realized that exchange students back home are very fortunate. This system here is strict and very standard... maybe for a real student it's great, but for an exchange student it's nothing but boring to be completely honest. No sport teams, no school clubs, and the classes are only the basic academic subjects. It's been hard to adjust, but as Rotary always said "nothing is better or worse, only different". But sometimes I think.. 'how can someone enjoy going to a school like this?! It has nothing!' But I suppose the system has different benefits for the students as well.. I just haven't discovered them yet.

I've learnt that Dutch people are very direct, which I find to be one of the biggest differences. This has been good for me as I'm always so indecisive in nearly everything I do! I rarely hear someone say "Well... maybe.... I'm not sure." where as that is almost my most common saying. What's so hard in simply making up your mind and saying yes or no? You're the only person who can decide for yourself. Spending time on silly decisions is a time waster and has always been my biggest flaw.

As far as recent fun outings, I have been to Holiday On Ice in Amsterdam which was a beautiful show. Later on I went to see The WestSide Story in The Hague which was another great show. I went to both with nice people from Rotary Voorhout. Just last week I went to Amsterdam again for The Marriage of Figaro Opera in the fancy shmancy music theatre. It was a great experience! also a great opportunity for some picture taking as we walked around the city before and after at night-time..

On a last random note, I've decided to make a goal of visiting 20 different countries by the time I turn 20. I figure it will be good medicine for my travel bug :) Here's my list so far:

United States
Costa Rica
England
Egypt
the Netherlands
Spain
Switzerland

Later this year...
Finland
Germany
Belgium
Austria
Italy
France
Czech Republic
Sweden (I hope!)

Sometime before I'm 20.. maybe after I win a million dollars..
Argentina
Brasil
India
Thailand
Australia

Easy to do, right?

PAUL McCARTNEY PAUL McCARTNEY PAUL McCARTNEY! :D

Amazing, amazing, amazing. Wednesday night I went to Arnhem with my third host family for the Paul McCartney concert. We had standing tickets, which of course meant we had to go early to get good spots. The show started at 8pm and we left the house at 1:30. It was certainly worth it since we got awesome places!

It was a night I'll remember forever... Let It Be, Blackbird, Eleanor Rigby, Hey Jude and sooo soo many more songs that were sang right in front of me.. AAHHHH!!!!! It was so cool. I can't believe he's 67 and can still sing so well.. not to mention still have a completely sold out show. Thank you thank you thank you to the Verdegaal family :)

Over the past few weeks it seems Amsterdam has become my second home, which I'm certainly not complaining about! I'm getting to know my way around better and better each time I go. First I went for my photography course, which is going great. Right now it is only myself and one other student so I'm learning a lot. A few days later I went to Amsterdam again to meet with the daughter of a Voorhout Rotarian. She is also into photography and we had a lot of fun in the city together.. After Amsterdam we returned to her house in Voorhout to have a delicious dinner with Cees and his wife.
A few days later I went again to visit with Fiona, from Kamloops West Rotary. I had a great dinner with her and two of her friends who were all in town for a concert. So nice to see and visit with a familiar Kamloops face! She brought along a few things for me from Kamloops.. including a nice Christmas card from Dona and the rest of Kamloops West. AND my awesome snowboarding helmet to bring to the Swiss Alps :)

I also went a few weeks ago to the Sounds concert with my third host father and sister (again, Amsterdam). They are also taking me to a PAUL McCARTNEY concert on December 9th!! Pretty excited to say the least... The family is great, I'm definitely looking forward to living with them in March!

Gayle, a friend who I used to swim synchro with, came to Amsterdam and we were able to meet up and go to museum night together. Yes, I realize that sounds extremely nerdy but it turned out to be such a cool night. About 42 museums throughout the city are open until 2am showing their exhibits as well as special performances and shows. We mainly went to photography museums which I of course thoroughly enjoyed :) We stayed the night at her very nice aunt's house who coincidentally is a Rotarian.

Aside from Amsterdam excursions I was also in the Hague for a Rotary weekend with the other exchange students. We had a Sinterklaas party, stayed with a host family and did some touring around the city. Overall it was a very fun and well-organized weekend. My favorite place was visiting the Peace Palace which is where the International Court of Justice is. I returned to the Hague a few days later to do synchro with the team there. It was so nice to swim again and I can't wait to return.

I also went to Haarlem with Jos, from Rotary Voorhout, and his wife to see the Teyler's museum which is the oldest museum in the Netherlands.

Right now is an exciting time in the Netherlands as Sinterklaas has arrived! I went to Leiden with Martine and her family to see him arrive by boat in Leiden. There is a parade in each city to celebrate his arrival.

  The story is that Sinterklaas lives in Spain and he arrives in Holland a few weeks before his birthday (December 6th). He is like Saint Nicholas but dressed as a bishop. While he is in Holland he watches the children to see if they are behaving or not. His helper is Zwarte Piet (Black Peter) who is similar to Santa's elves I suppose. He is said to be black because he climbs through chimneys to deliver presents. Children can leave there shoes by the fireplace and sing a song for Sinterklaas and if they're lucky there will be a small present for them in the morning.

Sinterklaas, kapoentje

Gooi wat in mijn schoentje,

Breng wat in mijn laarsje,

Dank je Sinterklaasje.

Saint Nic'las, my dear one,

Put something in my shoe,

Something in my stocking,

Thank you, Saint Nich-o-las!

Finally, most families celebrate with more presents and festivities on the eve of his birthday, December 5th. It has been lots of fun being with the little girls during this time! We will celebrate it this weekend at Dieteke's parents house.

Last Friday I was taken to a Sinterklaas party where I got to dress up like Zwarte. I guess it might be a little strange for kids to hear the helper of Sinterklaas speak in an accent or with horrible Dutch, but they luckily didn't seem to notice! I guess they were too busy devouring handfuls and handfuls of lekker pepernoten. Tomorrow, I have another Sinterklaas party with Rotary Sassenheim where I'll get to do it all again. :)

Another nice Dutch tradition I've experienced is St. Maarten which is similar to Halloween in a few ways. Younger kids walk around with lanterns door-to-door and sing a song for some candy. I think it's a lot nicer than Halloween because it doesn't involve all of the evil, scary stuff.. but just as fun for the kids. Again, I'm very lucky I have cute little sisters so I could have experienced this..

I'll be switching host families on December 15th.. I guess I'm not to sure how I feel about it yet. Certainly can't complain since I will be leaving for Switzerland a few days after with the Tromps!... but leaving the Goedkoop family will be very hard..  I'm lucky to have all three of my families in one small area so I can always go visit.
Just last week I had to write a report on my exchange for the Fall Rotex Round-Up. I can't even describe how hard it is to describe 3 amazing months on just one page. I know I've said this before... but I seriously have the most supportive and amazing host clubs, counsellor, and host families any exchange student could ever ask for. I just love this cheese covered country.. Certainly couldn't ask for anything more!

NIET OPENEN!

Updating my blog seems to get harder every week as I'm developing a busy routine. I'm now going to Rotary meetings twice a week between my two host clubs as it's always nice to be able to get to know everyone better.

I've also been able to get to know my future host families better. I've had dinner with all of them and they are both great. Leaving Jaco, Dieteke and the little princesses in December will be very difficult, but knowing my future host families are so welcoming already it makes it a little bit easier to think about! I stayed the weekend at the Tromp's house and I must admit they are a crazy fun family -- I'm sure I'll fit in perfectly. I'm very much looking forward to going to Switzerland with them.

A few weeks ago I was in Lanzarote in the Canary Islands with Jaco, Dieteke and the girls. They took me on vacation with them (just one reason why they're the best host family ever!) and showed me the real way to do a true vacation. The islands are part of Spain but off the coast of Africa and it's absolutely beautiful. We laid by the pool or the beach for about 98% of each day. Every once in awhile we would get up to get a drink or some food. Or a new book.

The weather was perfect and I certainly got my sun fix for the rest of the rainy winter months here in Holland. Jaco and I went on a few adventures.... Jet skiing with him driving which was terrifyingly fun, and parasailing which was unforgettable. One day we all decided to go on a bus tour around the island which was really nice. We went camel riding, saw volcanoes and few beautiful look outs. But that pretty much somes up all of the physical activity of the week! It was great to just spend time with the family and the three little girls.

As for Rotary outings.. a few weekends ago I had a Rotex weekend in Zeeland which is in the south of the Netherlands. It was another time where all of the exchange students got together along with some Rebound students (Dutch students who have now returned from their exchange). There were many activities planned, one being sailing which was quite uneventful because there was no wind at all. Luckily for me I was invited to go sailing the weekend after I came home with Marco from the Sassenheim club. We had perfect sailing weather and went for the full day. I'm loving this little buddy system more and more every week.

Leiden has a big party weekend on October 3rd every year in celebration of their liberation from the Spanish in World War 2. Hans, a Rotarian from Voorhout, and his wife took me out for dinner and to see the parade and big celebrations. After the parade is finished the streets are flooded with people and the real party starts. There are concerts on the streets and a huge fair. Leiden is a university city with many young students which makes it a very fun place.

Ben, another Rotarian, took me to Amsterdam for a canal tour. This was probably my most entertaining outing as of yet. I guess it was mainly because of how hilarious he is. When I found out one of his favorite movies was The Hangover I knew it was going to be a good day. He also does pretty decent impressions of Borat and George Bush. Oh, and while showing me the city he provided me with my new favorite quote of the year: "Personally, I get insulted when people say Holland is nothing but drugs and prostitutes.... I mean come on, we have Heineken too!"

Next was Willem, him and his family took me to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. I think it was my first "real" museum and I enjoyed it very much. Tons of beautiful paintings and learning about his life was interesting too.

And lastly I went golfing with some Rotary Voorhout members. It was a nice day with typical Dutch rainy weather which for the first time didn't seem to bother me. I guess I'm used to the rain and clouds at this point. I had a golf lesson and then played a little game and I must say I'm much better than I thought. My team got first and I even won myself a super awesome Waterproof flashlight. Woo hoo!

Last Saturday I started a photography course in Amsterdam. I'm taking a Digital Imaging course and the first day was awesome. The teacher is so accomplished and inspiring and the class is right in the heart of Amsterdam. I took the train to Central Station, walked down Damrak, through the main square and then to the class. During the class we walked around just taking pictures of everything and anything trying different techniques. Ahh, I loved it.

As for things at home and school.. My host family is still great. The little girls are learning english thanks to me and Dora the Explorer. Emma can count to 10 and Elsa always like to say "Oohhh Noo!!". They also love saying Let's GO! and Good Morning. Soooo cute. My goal is to teach them "1, 2, 3, 4 get your booty on the dance floor" by the time I switch host families.

School could be better as I find it a little bit boring, but I'm hoping to occupy myself with more photography courses and maybe some volunteer work.

Oh, and one more awkward exchange student story.... Wiping out on a bike is nothing compared to this.

I was out of phone credit so I went to Albert Heijn in Sassenheim. This is a popular grocery store in Holland and conveniently provides the most audience for you when you do something embarrassing. After clearly showing I was an exchange student as I had no idea what I was doing when buying the credit, I went to leave the store. One door was busy with people coming into the store, so I walked to the other side and conveniently saw a door with happy welcoming green letters saying "Press bar to open". In English! How nice. So I open it.. and then of course an alarm starts going off, simultaneously as I look at a red sign just above reading: "DEZE DEUR IS BEVEILIGD 24 UUR, NIET OPENEN" Oh, awesome.

Anyway, those are my stories for now! Doeeiii!