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!

windmills, royalty, and more dutch doings.

I'm thinking it's time for a serious update! I have tons to share so I figure I'll sort this nice post into sections to make it easier to read. So here it goes! (Luckily I have a few free hours at school right now)

Some fun adventures I've been on with Rotarians.....

The program I've talked about in previous posts is now starting to pick up and a few kind Rotarians have taken time to bring me to some very special places. First was a nice boat ride to Leiden (a larger city nearby) for dinner. We went in the evening and luckily had very nice weather. My only regret is that I didn't bring my nice camera! So I only took one picture but it was amazing just riding through the canals seeing the city, and of course after dinner it was even more beautiful at night time. Can't wait to go back!

The next week, Jan, the president of the Voorhout Club, had me over for dinner at his place to meet his family which was nice. After that we watched a small parade in the village and then went to a fair going on a few crazy rides. On the weekend he also took me to a town called Kinderdijk which has 21 windmills in the area! It was soo Dutch and very very cool to see. We also toured inside a windmill and saw how people used to live. I learnt a lot about how they work which was actually pretty interesting! After that we went for dinner and ice cream in Noordwijk which is a town right on the beach. Sooo nice! and I LOVE the ice cream here. It's way better than back home. Jan and his family are great and very welcoming just like everyone else here.

On Tuesday I had an amazing opportunity and had a VIP ticket to Prinjesdag! A Dutch tradition in The Hague.

A lady named Carol (prior president of the Sassenheim club and also happens to be a sister of one of my future host dads) works for the Royal Family and decided

to bring me along with her son, Jarno. From what I understand she is the flower arranger,

which may sound simple but in Holland it is a very big deal! She plans and arranges all the flowers for the Queen and the Royal family. Prinsjesdag, the third Tuesday of every September, is when the Queen reads the "million dollar speech" which is the financial plan for the country for the upcoming year. To start off the day Jarno and I took the train to Den Haag (the Hague) and we walked through the town to Noordeinde Palace (where the Queen lives!). Our tickets allowed us to go in the back entrance, through the palace and then sit inside th

e gates to watch the Royal family come out of the palace. They came out in pairs, Queen Beatrix and Princess Maxima (the Princess who will eventually be Queen) came out last of course. They all rode in cute carriages that reminded me of a movie, and the beautiful Golden carriage came for the Queen and Princess. The whole event reminded me of some kind of fairytale (probably Cinderella)-- it was AMAZING. and I was so close! They all leave the palace and head over to the Binnenhof where the speech is made in front of members of the government and other very important people. Along the streets there are about 100,000 spectators that come from all over the country hoping to catch a glimpse of the members of the royal family in their carriages. During this time we were invited into the palace to have lunch and watch the speech on TV. After lunch we came back outside to see the carriages return to the palace, and then see the royal family come out and wave on the balcony -- again, just like a movie! SO COOL. Around the balcony of course are flowers that Carol arranged! I got so many neat pictures with my new camera and nice new zoom lens too. I'm starting to love that camera more and more everyday...

After this incredible experience we again walked through town and took the train back to Leiden. AAHHH an amazing day I can't even fully describe! You'll have to look up Prinsjesdag on Google because I'm sure I didn't do that great of a job describing it. But it's certainly a huge tradition here that I wish we had something to compare to in Canada!

So to sum things up, my host rotary clubs are amazing. I've only been here a month and I have seen so many memorable things. I'm scheduled to go see the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam as well as the Marriage of Figaro opera in Amsterdam later on. With some more lovely Rotarians of course....

One Rotarian, Rinus, is giving me Dutch lessons once a week. He's a very nice man and fun to talk to. I had my first one last week and it went well.. we went to the meeting after and I was able to tell a bit about my week in front of the club. My Dutch is slowly, slowly getting better :)

School!.....

My school is going smoothly so far. I have French (easy, but taught in Dutch), English (my favorite because my teacher is a hilarious clone of Bridget Jones), Art (another favorite), Science for Public Understanding (SO BORING! but taught in English, so can't complain) and Math (waaayy more advanced than Canada and taught in Dutch..). I'm also taking part in the first year english classes helping the teacher and laughing at them talk.

I'm very lucky that most of my classes are taught in English except French and Math. The school system here is very different in the fact that they have different types, Mavo Havo VWO, like I mentioned before. Also, you have to choose a profile to follow which determines what kind of classes you take. You are also divided into classes which means you are primarily with the same people in all classes, which isn't that great for an exchange student but I'm still enjoying it. They have 9 classes a day here and it seems much more like university to me. Students have a different schedule each day and start and end times always differ.. but can sometimes be 8:30-5ish. But for me I have a very slack schedule and spend a lot of time in the study hall with nothing else better to do -- like right now ;)

The only big difference I've found is that kids here actually seem to do work in class. It's so strange. The teacher will assign something.. and then all of a sudden the kids plug in their Ipod and start to work... then they put up their hand to get a question answered... and then resume. Every single one of them. Quietly and obediently. I was almost terrified the first time it happened and even felt a little awkward. Now I'll be honest not every class is like this, but still. It's just so very strange. I think the obedience is starting to rub off on me. But don't worry, I'm sure I'll still be the world's best procrastinator when I get back home.

My English class is best described as a riot I think, the teacher is so funny and the kids in it just seem to make me laugh all the time. A lot of the boys speak in English accents because the teacher (aka Bridget Jones) does, but I didn't realize it was a joke until my second week. The students seem to have more freedom here. I've also realized swearing in English isn't as frowned upon in schools as it is back home. For example, the first day of my English class we were asked to pick a picture out of a pile and relate it to how you feel about coming back to school and then share it with the class. One girl chose a picture with a swamp and a pretty background in the distance. She said "I chose this because the swamp is like school, you have to get through all of the shit and then when you're done you're free." Sorry for the language Mom, but seriously. My teacher replied "Well said Laura, interesting word usage." This is just one reason why I love this teacher.

Anyways that's enough blabbing about school.

Some more random adventures....

A few weeks ago I went to the Kaasmaarkt (cheese market) in Aalkmaar with Dieteke, Geraldine, and Dieteke's mother. It was huge and there was SOOOO MUCH CHEEEEESE! Literally an entire street covered in it... so Dutch and so great :). and then of course we did some shopping where I realized I am going to spend way too much money this year. Everything seems to be double the price here than back in Canada -- very depressing!

Today we went to the fair in Sassenheim which is almost exactly the same to the fairs back in Kamloops. The rides are very similiar, the only difference I noticed was that they have fried miniature pancakes called Poffertjes instead of fried donuts. Again, so Dutch.

Okay this doesn't really share everything I've done, but I'm getting blogged out and my wrists are sore from typing. Tot ziens!

Ps. I'm starting to get more comfortable on my bike and can even ride with one hand while texting on my phone. That doesn't really say much considering half the teenagers here ride with no hands.. but still. I love biking to school on the little brick roads!

more, more pictures!!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=297367&id=563270103&l=b993dbf7e5

Wie ben jij?

Last week I was on Texel Island for the Dutch Orientation Course put on by the Rotary Club of Texel for all of the inbound exchangers. It's soooo nice! While taking the ferry I almost felt like I was on the BC Ferries heading to Victoria.. but that wasn't quite the case.

After arriving I was able to meet the 14 other crazy exchange students:

Emma from Ohio, Sara from Arizona, Kandice from Texas.. ya'll, Ariella from California, Laura from New York, another Canadian Rebecca from Lethbridge, Ruriko from Japan, Benny from Thaiwan, and Jorge, Alfredo, Jenni, Marifer, Elva and Mariella from Mexico! They all have unique personalities and kept things interesting throughout the week. I'll admit the mexicans are definitely my favorite.. they are so loud and funny it sounds like there's about 30 of them.

I tried to keep track of everything we did.. but I told think I succeeded. Our first day was just a free day and we got to sleep in and then spend the day at the beach. After that we had classes from 9-3:30ish everyday learning about the Dutch grammar and a bit a vocab. I found it a little boring and tedious.. but of course the mexicans kept it entertaining, along with our cute little teacher, Tineke Hoogenboezem -- tricky name to say the least.

Each day after classes we usually had a bunch of different activities. We climbed the Lighthouse, went to Ecomare (an aquarium/wildlife park place), walked down the beach, visited the Rotary Club of Texel, had a Dutch cooking lesson, walked around Den Burg (the main village on the island), went to a Rotary BBQ, did some shopping and plenty of other things! At the Rotary meeting each of us introduced ourselves in Dutch. Yup.. Dutch. It was my first time really speaking Dutch because everyone just speaks english to me here. But I was able to introduce myself in front of about 40 Rotarians. "Ik ben Maymie en ik kom uit Canada. Ik woon dit jaar in Sassenheim met mijn gastfamilie. Ik heb drie jongeren gastzussen, Emma, Isa en Elsa. Ik vind Nederland is heel leuk, maar het is vlaak. Dank u Rotary Texel voor deze week." WOO HOO! On the last night we went to an amusement park that had a nice dinner theatre area where we had a yummy good-bye dinner. After that we went "ice" skating.. but it was on plastic. Very strange.

Oh and I also made some pretty exciting discoveries throughout the week:

1. Oreos are way better back home. I think they send the oreos that don't turn out to Europe because the pack I ate (yes, literally an entire pack) was filled with mutant oreos that weren't sandwiched right or didn't have the proper icing to cookie ratio. It was quite depressing.

2. Dutch people think there's such thing as mountain biking on flat land. Maybe it's not entirely flat, but I'm sure it doesn't compare to mountain biking at Rose Hill in Kamloops!

3. Meat does not belong in a squeezable tube.

4. Bread starts to not be quite as appetizing after you have had about 10+ slices a day.

5. Laughing at a joke told in Spanish just makes you look like an idiot because everyone knows you don't really understand.

6. Stroopwafels are delicious and have become my new addiction.

7. Everything is a thousand times more exciting when you're an exchange student. OH MY GOSH.. A WINDMILL! WOAH.. LOOK AT ALL THE BIKES! But I'm slowly getting over the bike fetish.. (as in I don't stop to take a picture after every big group of them I see)

So all in all, that was my first Rotary experience. It was a very busy and tiring week but I can't wait to visit the exchangers again which will be at the end of the month in Zeeland where we will go sailing! On the way home my counsellor Martine and her family picked me up. We ended up spending some extra time on the island having dinner and walking around the area. Martine is amazing! I would consider her like an alternate host family, and her daughter Maud is so so cute.

Aside from DOC, I also started school! yayyy. I'm attending Rijnlands Lyceum Sassenheim which has about 1000 students and seems to be extremely crowded from what I've seen so far. The school system is very very different and much more complicated than back in Canada. They have a 4, 5 or 6 year highschool you can take.. MAVO, HAVO, and VWO. Within each level there are different profiles you can take. VWO is the highest and I'll be put in my 5th year of that (V5) which means I'm mostly with 17 year olds. I'm taking a few V6 courses starting next week which will be 18 year olds. About half of my classes are taught in English which is handy, and the ones that aren't are a bit of a challenge. But everyone is very nice and the teachers are helping me out a lot. I feel like I'm in grade 8 all over again.. not knowing where to go or what to do.. and hardly with anyone to talk to! But after my first class I already made a few new friends who were asking tons of questions about my exchange and what it's like in Canada. Everyone seems so interested and wants to get to know me more which is nice.

Last night I also had my first Rotary meeting. It turns out I actually have two host clubs. Rotary Sassenheim and also Rotary Voorhout. They are sharing me I guess you could say. I will alternate each week by going to Sassenheim on Tuesday one week, and then Voorhout on Thursday the next. Last night was Sassenheim.. the meeting was very similar to the Kamloops West meetings I have been too except for the fact that I couldn't understand the vast majority of it! The club is great though and seems to be quite involved with many things. Every Tuesday afternoon a Rotarian has offered to give me Dutch lessons for an hour which I'm sure will help a lot with learning the language! And I mentioned the program they have made for my exchange in a previous post, and it's now starting. Every week a Rotarian from either Sassenheim or Voorhout will take me somewhere or do something with me. So this weekend I'll be going to Leiden with a man named Henry who will take me boating and then to dinner with his family. After that I'll be going to his daughter's birthday party. :)

At the meeting I was able to introduce myself (in Dutch!) and then talk about my first two weeks (that part was in English;) ).

Oh, and of course on the way to the Rotary meeting I had my first bike wipe out! First of many I'm sure.... it was pretty minor, but very funny nonetheless. Cheers to being an awkward exchange student!

"Well, you can't get more Dutch than this..."

4 days in and I've managed to eat raw herring, experience the Amsterdam nightlife, ride my bike without making a fool of myself, and go on the craziest 5km race known to man-kind. In Warmond, the village beside Sassenheim, it is a tradition to do a race called the Polder-Cross. Polder doesn't really have an English translation, but it means land that used to be under the sea. Land that is polder is now secured by dykes.. but if Holland had no dykes nearly half of it would flood. There are about 3000 polder areas in the country. The neighbour (Lisa) who I have become pretty close with told me about the race and said I should come watch. But then of course my crazy host father threw in the "Hey, you should join!" comment. And again, the "be a yes person" advice came running through my head. I decided I had to join otherwise I would probably regret it... and I can definitely say I was right! It was an experience I will never forget. We rode our bikes into Warmond and got registered and then joined in the huge crowded line up. My legs were already beat after the bike ride... did I mention I'm ridiculously out of shape? Pretty soon the race started.. and I immediately realized what I had gotten myself into. Throughout the race you have to jump in and out of small muddy canals called "sloten". There's probably about 20, all of them are different sizes and depths. The trail is very unique.. and, well.. Dutch. It began on a regular field you run around to spread out the racers, and then there's a series of swampy sloten. Eventually you get to a tree area with a narrow path. It had a lot of variation but the whole time you could always see a windmill in the distance and a few cow pies around your feet. And of course a whole bunch of crazy Dutchmen covered in mud talking with words I can't understand. Lisa said I would get muddy... biggest understatement EVER! After jumping in the first slote I couldn't even recognize my host dad. I'm glad I was able to run it with him because he warned me when it would be over my head or when it would be rocky. I can't even explain what it feels like when it goes over your head. Oh, and the smell... it's something like dirt, cow poo fertilizer and more poo? It's great. There's also a bigger canal that's not so muddy.. almost like a river that you have to swim across twice. So all in all, 5 km feels more like 20km when you're climbing in and out of smelly swamps. There were tons of spectators watching the race and the kids (mostly the little boys) like to yell "BOMMETJE!" which means cannonball. So after awhile the racers just starting doing cannonballs into the sloten getting mud all over everyone. It.. is.. so.. awesome. After you're finished, the fire department is there with the giant hose and you get rinsed off. That atleast gets the first layer off.. and then they have real showers. And then of course you go home and have another shower.. or ten. My hair was literally a mat of mud. Almost worse than synchro knox gelatin hair!

Anyway, my own explanation doesn't even begin to explain the rush and craziness of the event, you'll have to check out my facebook album link below. There are a few good pictures. And to conclude.. I think it's safe to say I won't be gaining weight during my exchange. Even though I'm eating pounds of bread and cheese, I think this crazy host family of mine will be whipping me into shape very soon. Tot zo!

Check out my facebook album for some pictures!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=297367&id=563270103&l=b993dbf7e5

Welkom.. !

3 days into my exchange and I already feel like my head could explode from all of the new things I have seen and experienced. One thing is official: my host family is amazing.. I know I said this in my last post but they are so accommodating I can't believe it. Last night was my Welcome BBQ and they prepared for it almost all day. Tons of food was ordered along with extra tables and chairs. I was able to meet all of my future host parents and most of the kids. They seem just as excited as I am to come live with them. My second family has a daughter who lived in Canada last year on exchange near Niagara Falls. They will be taking me to Switzerland for 2 and half weeks in December for Christmas holidays. My third and last family has a daughter leaving for Argentina this Saturday on exchange aswell. I can't wait to grow even more relationships with other host parents in the near future. I am still overwhelmed with all of the friendliness and encouragement! My host club has made a program for me where they will assign a Rotarian to me each week, and they will provide me with some kind of an "experience". It may just be going to a movie, or it could be a weekend trip somewhere. Either way I am so excited to be able to get to know everyone more closely.

Back to the Welcome party, it was perfect. About 40 people came to welcome me and introduce themselves. It went until about 10pm and then the jetleg was starting to get to me again. I went to my room and thought about going to bed.. and then came upstairs to say goodnight. I walked in on my host dad dancing to the new Pitbull song first.. and he turns to me and says "Hey! Wanna go to Amsterdam tonight?" I basically just yawned and laughed. But he insisted he was serious. I kept laughing then realized Dieteke, Geraldine and him were actually looking at me for an answer. I was so tired but the most common advice I have been given from past Rotary students is you have to be a "yes" person. Never say no to an opportunity. So I figured we might as well hit Amsterdam. It's about a half an hour drive from Sassenheim, and even though I was almost falling asleep, I was quickly ready to hit the town. Apparently 10:30 is too early to go so he wanted to leave at 11 or so. The neighbours came over for some wine and then soon enough Jaco grabbed his keys (that's when I realized he REALLY wasn't kidding.. I was still a little skeptical) and we headed out the door. We had a nice talk on the way there.... about pretty much everything.. especially music. I asked him what his favorite song was and he started playing it. By playing it I mean blasting it in his BMW. It was the most intense techno rave music ever and made me extreeeeemely excited to go to Amsterdam.. why we were randomly going on a late Thursday night I'll never really understand. After the song he just said "Oh, I miss being twenty." ..SO AWESOME. He also has a pretty good talent at dancing and driving at the same time.

Anyway, we get to Amsterdam after the Dutch GPS conveniently guided us right to the main night life square. At first I thought it was strange I was about to go out in Amsterdam with a 30 year old, but he's so funny and easy to get along with it wasn't even awkward at all. He relates well to being an exchange student and wants to make sure I have an unforgettable year. He used to work in Amsterdam so he knew a lot about where to go and where not to go. First he took me to chic place to show me a taste of the nightlife. It was crazy, there was every type of person you could imagine.. even men with briefcases who just got off work at the office. We only stayed there for a bit and then walked around to a few other places. Amsterdam is beautiful at night time, I can't wait to go back.

Today Martine, my counsellor who is helping me get everything set up, took me to the Hague to apply for my residence permit. This is when I got my first taste of stubborn bureaucracy I guess you could say. We brought every possible document you can imagine, along with many photocopies of each. I got to stand in line many many times and then sit through arguments that I didn't understand hardly a single word of. But hours later I got a pretty stamp in my passport so I guess all is good! After that we signed up for my bank card.. and then hopefully in the next couple of days I will get my cell phone.

I'm now feeling completely settled in.. I'm still missing everyone at home but my family has occupied me so much I don't even realize it until I start thinking about. My new room and new place is starting to feel more like a home everyday. :)

Finally arrived!

After months of waiting, I have finally arrived in Sassenheim, South Holland! It has been such a long preparation process for this trip. From orientation weekends with other District 5060 students to a ridiculous amount of paper work.... I am finally on my exchange. Sassenheim is a small town part of the municipality Teylingen which is made up of two other villages, Voorhout and Warmond. I am hosted by the Rotary Club of Sassenheim in District 1600. Before I came I was lucky to be in contact with all three of my host families. I am now settled in my first house, and the family is amazing. The parents are Dieteke and Jaco Goedkoop. Dieteke is a model, and Jaco is now not working after he sold his lumber company last year. They have a 2 year old name Elsa, and two twin 4 years olds named Isa and Emma. I have officially fallen in love with them already! The girls only speak Dutch so it is hard to communicate, but it is nice because it helps me learn the small words. The parents are both fluent in English. Jaco was an exchange student to Baton Rouge, Louisiana for two years so his English is perfect.. with a bit of an awkward southern accent which is funny. They are so welcoming I can't believe it. I already feel like I have bonded so much with the family. They have planned me a Welcome BBQ this Thursday where I will meet all of the neighbours, some Rotarians and hopefully the rest of my host families.

It's only been a day and a half and I already feel like I have seen and done so much! Yesterday when I arrived we just visited with some snacks (cheese of course..) and then they showed me around their beautiful house and property. They have three large fields, one for the horses, one rented out by a neighbour for tulip planting, and another rented by someone else for year round planting. They also live right by De Kaag Lake which is a big recreation area. The family goes wakeboarding and boating all the time and we will be going tomorrow. Today Dieteke, Geraldine (Dieteke's friend who also lives in the house) and the girls and I went into Sassenheim to do some shopping (by bike of course :) ). The town is larger than I imagined and has many cute stores and a few hotels and restaurants. We had lunch and I managed to try some raw herring... it surprisingly tastes much better than I thought. After shopping I biked to Warmond and went to the beach with one of the neighbours and her friends. They are all fun to be with and I'm sure I will get to know them better in the next few months.

Next week I will be in Texel, which I hear is a very nice island. The Dutch Orientation Course will be held there where I will hopefully learn some more of the language. The language hasn't been much of a struggle because my host parents have been nice enough to speak English the first couple days. They said they will stop after my orientation.... ;)

I already feel so at home here... I helped give the girls a bath before bed tonight and am slowly turning into a nanny (which is fine because they're soooooo cute!) I'm not too shy to ask for things and I'm starting to feel really comfortable around everyone in the household. But I guess this is enough blabbing for my first post... hopefully I'll do a good job of updating this from time to time!

Tot ziens!