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