Vrijdag, Zaterdag, Zondag

I must be doing something right here, because on Friday, I was walking with Antea (another exchange student from Switzerland), and a lady came up to us and asked if we knew where the shopping centrum of the town was. Of course, we didn't know, but what matters is that the lady asked us. So she must have thought we were actually Dutch! Which means that it can't be completely obvious I'm American.
But, that was not the most exciting thing that happened on Friday. I took the bus after school to Alkmaar, which is a pretty big city that's about a fifteen minute drive from Akersloot, where I live. Antea took the train in from Texel where she lives. I think it's about an hour and a half for her by train, plus she has to take the ferry from the island in to the mainland and then take the train. We walked around Alkmaar for a little bit and shopped. It was so nice to spend time with someone who is doing the same thing that I'm doing right now. Also, Antea is just fun to be around. Then, one of the exchange students who lives in Alkmaar called, and said that she was with two other boys who are exchange students nearby too, and that they all wanted to meet up with us. We waited for them (Andria; from Indonesia, Francesco; from Italy, and Rafael; from Venezuela). And then we went shopping with them for a little bit longer, though the guys were not very cooperative.
If the same lady who had asked us where the shopping centrum was early would have seen us around six or so, she definitely would not have asked us where to go. We were all walking with a big map between us, and looking down all the streets, trying to find somewhere to eat dinner. In the end, we asked someone for a pizza place and ended up at a nice Italian restaurant. It was so much fun with the other exchange students, the whole dinner we were all laughing and talking.
After we ate, we walked back to Francesco's house and played a board game. Well, some people played. I tried, but I had absolutely no idea what to do for most of the time. It's so funny when all of us are together because even though we speak English , it can be really hard to communicate sometimes. So, I didn't really understand the instructions in Francesco's Italian accent very well.
On Friday night when we were done in Alkmaar, Antea came back home with me. We tried for a long time to get the dvd player to work, and we had just given up, but then Taiana called, and of course it was really easy. We watched.... (guess my favorite movie)...... Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants! What else? Milja and Antea liked it too. Antea said afterwards that it reminded her of her friends. She's right, now I know what movie to watch when I'm homesick.
It was so nice having Antea stay over. Talking to her at night was great, because she really does feel a lot of the same things that I feel about being here and missing home and everything.
When we were talking about it, we decided that it's like this:
We always miss home, we miss our friends, we miss our family, we miss everything. But we're not always homesick. The missing people never stops at all. It's constantly there, whatever time, whatever place. It doesn't make a difference if we're doing something exciting and fun, or if we're lying in bed trying to fall asleep. No matter what, we are always missing people. We decided though, that it isn't always a bad thing, it's just something we're not used to feeling all the time.

Saturday, we took the train into Amsterdam at 10:20, and got there at 11:00. We met with all the other AFS students, and went on a walking tour of Amsterdam. It was nice to see the city, but there were so many of us, and so few guides that a lot of the day was just standing around waiting. We went to the Red Light district, and walked through the smallest street. That was extremely uncomfortable, because it feels like you should not be there as a tourist when the prostitutes are working. Then we went to the Dam, and to this park with the big letters that say "IAmsterdam."
I was so tired after walking all day, but it was fun. And it's always nice to see everyone and hear how people are doing.
When I got home from Amsterdam we ate dinner and then were all sitting on the couch. Taiana came home with a friend just a little later though, and they brought me out with them to a birthday party. It's nice when she brings me with her places, because even though I know people now and I have friends at school, I don't do things with them outside of school very often.
The party was a lot of fun, all of Taiana's friends are nice and friendly. They ask me things about home, and always seem like they really are interested in what I say. It's a little hard because I don't understand the other conversations that they have, but it's still nice to stand and be with people.

Today, Sunday, I got up and rode my bike to the hotel in town at 8:30. I have to wait there on Sundays for the coach from my running team to come pick me up, because then we drive half an hour to run at the dunes in a town called Schoorl. The weather was so nice today, it was really crisp and cool, and there was sun, but also a lot of mist. Once we are in Schoorl we do a warm up run for about 20 minutes, and then do strength training for another fourty. The strength training is things like ab workouts, sprints, planks, push ups, lunges, jumping, and stretching. Today we did it with "the team" as everyone else calls it, which is just the people who are too old for our team, and have made it to the more serious one, so they still get to train with Team Distance Runners. After the first hour of strength training, we went for another short run, and then did four fast repeats of about a 600 meter loop. Because we were at the dunes though, there's a lot of hills and they are sandy. It's a good workout!
Sundays are my favorite day of running, because I love going to the dunes. Everyone on the team is fun, and nice. The atmosphere is the way that it can only be when you're with other runners, and I love that. Then there are so many other people in the dunes. Everywhere people are walking, running, roller blading, riding their bikes. Every time I hear the sound of the mountain bike wheels spinning, I think of Dad!

After the practice in Schoorl, Milja and I went and watched Taiana play handball. Then because the weather was so nice, we went for a long, slow, bike ride. We biked around the lake with all the sail boats, and through the little towns right on the canals. It was all so pretty.

Tomorrow, back to school. Another week! And who knows, maybe I'll miraculously understand a little bit more Dutch when I get to school.

xoxo

A Week in the Life

Things that happened to me this week:

• Story number 1- Wednesday afternoon. Taiana, another girl from my grade, and I are all biking home together. The weather is gorgeous, the sun is shining, and we're all happy because we got done with school early. Now, technically, you're not supposed to bike with three people next to each other on the bike paths. But, everyone does it, and then when other bikers come from the other direction you just get closer together, or one person falls behind. We start to come up towards this older couple who are riding their bikes towards us. They're getting closer, and closer, and closer, until we're right next to them. Then, out of no where this scooter comes flying towards us and tries to go between us on the path. Unfortunately, there was not enough room for him to go through. His mirror knocked into my handlebars and I sped off the side of the path. But, don't worry. With my quick reflexes I kep the bike standing up, and I didn't even fall! Let me just say though, that it was extremely scary, and very embarrassing. Everyone was looking at me. Maybe it was worth it though, because now I did get to tell this story, "when I got hit by a scooter."
• Story Number 2- Sometime this week (I can't remember what day), I decided that I was going to download iTunes to the computer here, and then put my music onto iTunes so I could get new songs, move my old ones, etc. You know, everything that you do with iTunes. I went through the whole long process of downloading it, and then I plugged my iPod in. Of course, the iTunes program was in Dutch. Thinking that it would be obvious when the computer was asking every me something important I clicked "ja" to basically every question. But then, I looked at my iPod, and I saw... no songs! There were no songs on my iPod. All gone. Kapoot! No more Lily Allen, or Taylor Swift (she's the only country singer I like, don't worry), or all of the songs I listened to on the way here.
• Story Number 3- Actually, I guess this one isn't really a story. I just want to make it known that I was not very happy after I deleted all my music from my iPod. So then I was really frustrated when I realized that I have to take the PSAT in two weeks. And I was really frustrated when I ran into the dog's bed about four times in a row. Everything was frustrating!
• Story Number 4- Another bike story. Thursday at school, one of our classes got canceled, so one of the girls in my class and I decided to go the mall for a little bit. But, then I realized that I didn't have my bike with me because I'd gotten a ride to school. So she says, "Oh, it's no problem. You can just ride on the back of my bike." Of course, I'm totally terrified to go on the back of her bike, but finally she convinces me that it will be fine. We bike to the mall and nothing happens. I was terrified the whole way, but we made it there safely. We walked around at the market, we ate Ben and Jerry's, we walked around in the mall. Then it was time to go home. Somewhere, something went wrong when we were trying to get started. We ended up crashed, in the middle of the road, with a ton of people watching. Another embarrassing bike story for the records.

Besides all those exciting things, the week was normal. School all week, then on Tuesday and Thursday I practice with the running team. I do homework, I write e-mails home, we watch t.v. together (sometimes Dutch, sometimes English).

And then there's the weekend. Just hang on, I'll get there!

Pancakes, Movie Nights, and Races... Almost like home.

Everyone always asks me what food I miss here, and on Friday when I told the next door neighbor, Marijka (sp), that I miss American pancakes, the first thing that she said was that I should come over to their house the next morning so we could make them. So on Saturday, I went to the grocery store (all by myself!), and picked out everything that we needed (all by myself!). The thing is, I don't think they actually sell baking soda in any of the grocery stores here. And self rising flour worked fine when I made chocolate chip cookies. Naturally then, I figured that self rising flour would work for the pancakes too. Well, they didn't work all that great, but in the end we did still have pancakes. The batter that we made looked just like the regular batter. I guess that's sort of obvious though, since baking soda and baking powder don't really make the batter look any different. And the pancakes still looked normal when we put them on the frying pan. It was just after they had been frying for a while, and the batter didn't really rise at all, and never bubbled very much on the top. In the end, we had lots and lots of pancakes, and they were kind of a mix of Dutch and American pancakes. Also, we didn't have any maple syrup so we put "stroop" on top, which is kind of like syrup, but it tastes better in cookies, and not so great on pancakes. They were all right though, and with butter and sugar they were pretty good. And you know, I figure it's a good lesson. Because I'm here to learn Dutch, and learn about the Dutch culture. Really, I shouldn't have been trying to make American pancakes in the first place. I should have been learning to make Dutch pancakes!

After we made pancakes in the morning, Taiana (my host sister, if everyone doesn't know that already), Marijka, and her daughter Pip, drove to a bigger city called Alkmaar that's pretty close by. Marijka and Pip went to the market, and Taiana and I walked through the big shopping street in town. I say walked, because we did go in the stores, and we did look around, but I didn't actually buy anything. It's just so hard, because I want EVERYTHING that I see in the stores. I can't pick just a few things to buy because there's so much! All the stores sell a ton of different types of cute boots, and bags, belts, skinny jeans, long shirts, and scarves. Everywhere you go it's like fashion central. So for now I'm being responsible and holding back a little bit on the shopping. For now. We came home from Alkmaar pretty early in the afternoon, because Taiana had a handball tournament later in the afternoon, and we both had homework. She was totally shocked when I ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch. I'm not really sure why though, because she was eating this chunk of meat that she had fried for maybe five minutes. It was pink almost all the way through... but to each her own, I guess (or whatever you say).
Later in the afternoon, Milja came home from Amsterdam, where she walked the 16km Dam tot Dam race that I would run the next day. She told me everything that I found out on Sunday when I actually got to do it. "En heel mooi dag," was her description I think. Which means "a lovely day."

On Saturday night, I rode my bike over to a friend's house in Akersloot. She lives just a few blocks away from us, and we usually bike to school together in the morning. Anyway, she was having a big group of girls over to watch Twilight. Most of the movies that they watch here are American actually, and of course Twilight is a classic. Even in the Netherlands! There were eight girls there, I think, and they all brought food, and pastries, and candy. One of the girls works at a bakery, so she brought this whole plate of croissants, and scones, and apple turnovers. Oh my gosh, it was amazing. Then of course there was chips, candy, and pop. Also they had these tiny cookies that apparently they eat mostly around Christmas. They taste a little bit like gingerbread, but I have to say I actually think they're better.
The movie night was nice though. I can't really understand a lot of what the girls say when they are talking to each other- they talk so fast- but it's nice just to be there and be included.

Sunday:
Dam tot Dam loop, 16.24 km (10 miles), from the middle of Amsterdam to a town called Zandaam. 45,000 runners. I went with a group of men from this company called Forbes, that makes floor tiling. Somehow someone told them that I wanted an entry, and they had a spot, so I ended up going with them.
The race was a lot of fun, there's people everywhere, and we ran through these small towns on the brick roads. The people in the towns had strung up flags between the houses, and they were all playing music and clapping as we ran by. And so many runners! The whole atmosphere was really nice.
As great as the race was, it made me miss doing the Short and Fat a lot, since that was this same weekend. The atmosphere was the same, but it wasn't the same people, and it wasn't the same place. I guess you just can't have it all though, because I know that next year when I'm racing the Short and Fat I'll be thinking about Dam tot Dam and wishing I could be there again.

Tot laater!
I hope you're all having a great fall.
xoxo

Italians are loud, but Belgians aren't stupid, and Dutch is not easy

Since nothing very new and exciting has really been happening this week (I've pretty much just been in school). But the camp I went to last weekend was amazing, so I can write about that.

When I thought about coming to the Netherlands, I thought about eating Dutch food, meeting Dutch people, living with a Dutch family, going to a Dutch school. What I never thought about was that I was going to meet other students from Italy, Belgium, Turkey, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Germany, Switzerland, and everywhere. Everybody has such completely different lives, but because we are all in the same country and going through the exact same things, it feels like we've known each other for a long time. And not at all like we've just met.
On the last night that we were at the camp (which was only for the weekend), there was a talent show that everyone had to be in. We got to see belly dancing, Indonesian dancing, Thai dancing, and the Italians sang songs.
It's like nothing you can even describe being there and being a part of all the different cultures at one time. All of the Italians were always singing, and they would clap whenever any music was played, and the South Americans always were laughing and hugging.
During the day at the camp we did language lessons and talked about adjusting and etc. But then at night everyone got to go and dance. They played music from everywhere, and everyone danced together.
It's crazy to think that now I know people from so many different places in the world.

Besides the camp, things are going good here. Though, I do have to admit that learning Dutch is not going all that great. I feel like I can hardly ever say anything that I want to say, and that whenever I do say anything, I say it wrong. But everyone else tells me I'm doing well, and you know they say that Dutch people are honest! I keep hoping that one day everything will all just click, and suddenly I'll be able to talk. We'll have to see about that.

I've joined a running club here called Team Distance Runners. They're online if anyone wants to look them up! They are all way faster runners than me, and the team is extremely serious. But I think that in the end I'm going to be a much better runner. Everyone on the team is nice and friendly too. It's nice to have something here that is like what I did at home. The girls on the team want the same thing as the girls on the cross country team in Spooner. We all just want to be fast!

So between the girls on the running team, and the girls at school, I think that slowly but surely I might be making some friends here. Of course, it's impossible to make friends like the ones I have at home in one month. I've known the people at home all of my life, and everyone here for just a little while. But I'm starting to feel comfortable, and it's nice to see people outside of school occasionally. I went over to a girl's house after school today... major breakthrough! And on Saturday there's a movie night with the girls from my class, which should be fun.

It's family time here now. Tea, Italian chocolate, and t.v.
Here they call that gezellig, which they say means cozy. But they say it whenever anything's nice. At least I can say that in Dutch!

Doei!

#1

Well I realize that so far I haven't written anything at all about being here in Holland. But then I started thinking about it and I realized that I never have time even to tell my parents about everything that I'm doing here, and definitely not everyone else who I think (hope) might want to know what is going in my life. I also realized that since I've been lazy and haven't been keeping a journal or anything about what I'm doing, it might be nice for me to keep a blog so that I can actually remember what I'm doing here.

Wow, so much has happened since I got here, I don't think I'm even going to be able to remember everything that I've done. I guess we'll have to skip details on almost everything that has happened so far and I'll try to be better about writing. But some of the things I've done:

• I bought a bike, and I ride it to school every day with tons of other kids. It's about twenty minutes one way.


• Seen lots and lots of sheep and cows. We think we have cows in Wisconsin... we have none compared to how many they have here. The weird thing is they're really skinny. Probably because they don't eat them... they're for milk. The sheep are everywhere too. The path that I run on has trees on one side, and on the other side is a lake for part of the way, and then the rest of the way sheep, ducks, horses, and cows.


• Drank wine (but don't worry anyone, not all that much).


• Gone shopping in a Dutch city (Alkmaar)


• Visited the Red Light District. I have to say, that it's shocking to see half dressed women from the ages of 18 to at least 40 standing behind glass dressed in only a thong and underwear grinding at the windows. But, as sad, and weird as that was to see, I have to admit it was very interesting!


• Eaten lots of cheese, and lots and lots of bread.


• Gone to a Dutch birthday party.


• Met an entire family of Dutch people and kissed people who I have only just met (the people here think that Americans are cold and way too formal when they meet here, and maybe I am, because I am still a little bit schocked every time someone kisses my cheek).


• School, in Dutch of course.


• I've said "ja, ja" a million times, and tell people I understand what they just said when really I have no idea.


• Talked on skype... I guess that's not a Dutch thing, but still, I never did it before I came here.


• Joined a running team where everyone- literally everyone- is a way faster, stronger runner than I am.


• Run in the dunes, and on the beach, in the sand right by the sea.


• Seen goats standing on barrels.


• Met students from Italy, Finland, Belgium, all over South America, Germany, Indonesia, Thailand, Belgium, Canada... everywhere.

I'm sure there's way more that I'm going to think of five minutes after I post this. Every day something new happens. Sometimes things are exciting and fun, and sometimes things are hard. I miss home every day, but I don't feel "homesick" if you know what I mean by that.

I have way more than this to say, and I don't think I'll ever catch up. But I'll try!

Tot ziens!