A Not-So-Science Lesson in Delft (Part 1)

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm not highly fond of communications classes.  In fact, I think I entered quite quickly into a state of Chemistry and Calculus withdrawal.  In communications it seems there is no single correct answer.  In fact, for one question on a quiz I found out later that every possible answer was correct- we just had to say why.  But then what's the point?  Calculus may be complicated (although I consider it stimulating) but at least  1+1 = 2, ALL the time.  None of this pick any answer you want baloney.  Sorry if anyone reading this is a communications student.  Just because I had rather a strong opinion on the subject doesn't mean that I'm entirely right.  I'm sure there is much merit and use in communications, even if the classes I'm taking haven't taught me what that is. 

In any case, I decided there must be something I can do about my science deprivation.  So I did some research on the university website and found someone who seemed to be from the science department and Erasmus MC (Medical Centre) and emailed to ask if I could please have permission to sit in a science or calculus lecture, whether in Dutch or English.  He gave me two options- both at TU in Delft.  Initially I was going to email him right back and say that wasn't possible since I live in Rotterdam, but before jumping to conclusions I decided to google map it.  Turns out it's only 17 km by bike.  I figured that was quite manageable since Erasmus is about 8 km by bike, and sometimes I go there twice in a day.  So I emailed the man back and said I was very excited to be able to take a Biophysics class in Delft.

Yesterday was the first class.  I'd spent a large part of Monday evening looking up directions on google maps, and the Macleans very kindly photocopied a map for me to bring along.  A far as I knew, I was as ready as I'd ever be, but still quite nervous.  Anyone who knows me knows that my sense of direction is... well... nonexistent. 

I asked Kim to come along, and was relieved beyond words when she said sure.  We'd probably still get lost a few times on the way, but being lost together is so much more bearable than being lost alone.

So Kim and I set off at about 9:00 AM.  The journey was supposed to be just over an hour if we set a good pace (and we're in pretty good shape now) and class started at 10:45.  We figured 45 minutes extra should leave us plenty of getting lost time.

Well, unfortunately it only took us about 20 minutes before we were feeling rather confused about which direction to take next.  We were definitely in a beautiful area though.  There was a lake, and some trees.  The Dutch people call it a forest, but I think if you can see right through the trees to the other side it doesn't really count.  And then as we were biking we encountered a very unexpected sight.  I will post a picture:

 

I'm not sure exactly what that animal is.  It's sort of like a buffalo, but the horns are most definitely a different shape.  The buffalos (or I guess officially bison) in Canada have rounder horns, but this guy had flat horns with little curves at the ends.

 

Kim and I were so fascinated that we just had to take a closer look.  He seemed nonchalent and harmless enough.  And I was already giving up hope of being in class on time.  I figured getting attacked by a buffalo would be a good excuse for being late.  It's also probably one the teacher has never heard before.    

 

Here's our friend from closer by.  He's really quite time.  He didn't even look at us.  But don't worry, we actually were quite careful.  We didn't get closer than twenty feet.

 

Then we hopped on our bikes and set off again.  Eventually we arrived in a city, though we had no idea which one.  We decided to ask for directions in a library.  So I bravely marched in there with my map while Kim watched the bikes.  And an amazing thing happened!  I asked in Dutch, and the people answered in Dutch!!!!  That just made my day. 

 

So, with our new directions Kim and I set off in high spirits.  The other good news what that there were now signs along the road that directed us to Delft.  Those were extremely helpful.  The kilometers ticked down quickly and we soon made it there, although we did stop for a few minutes because there was this really cool spinney thing at a playground.

 

 

So we had to try it out.  (I'll admit it was my idea).  I love spinney things!  Those old fashioned merry-go-rounds that some playgrounds still have are the best. (Although I still haven't seen any out here unfortunately).

 

 



Oh, and I have another confession to make.  Kim and I were having an animated conversation (I can't remember what about) and we may have biked into each other.  Oops.  Thankfully neither of us were hurt, but the rubber on my kickstand came off, and Kim's rim got bent. 

Thankfully the repairs were quite easy.  Once we could stop laughing long enough to breathe, we spent about three minutes on repairs before we were again set to go.

At this point we could already see the skyline of Delft, so although we were very late, optimism was high. 

Those buildings in the distance are Delft.

And we saw a Canada Goose!  That's the first one I've seen since I was in Canada, and I didn't know they had them in the Netherlands, so I figured it was worth a picture.

Thus it happened that we entered Delft just before 12:00.  I was very much late for the class, but I figured it was worth finding the building and lecture hall anyways.  It was at that point that I discovered to my embarrassment and distress that I had forgotten the paper on which I'd written the room number.  *Sigh*.  So much for a science lesson. 

But not all was lost.  Kim and I have Rotterdam Passes, which we made sure we brought along.  They also include several museums in Delft.  We started with the Science Centre because we figured that at least if I couldn't have my Biophysics lecture we could at least learn something scientific.  It was interesting, but not nearly as cool as Science World in Vancouver.

After that we headed to the Royal Delft Blauw Factory, which is also a museum.  It's usually 12 euros, but with a Rotterdampas, it's free!  That was a very fascinating museum to see.  We got a self-tour with headsets to tell us the history and the stories of everything.  And we got to see in the actual work area where the clay is shaped and dried and people paint it by hand.  Super cool!  And very educational.

There were two things that I was very surprised to learn.  One was that the Delft Blue designs don't originate in Delft.  They came from China before, and then when wars blocked the trade routes, then factories sprang up all over Delft to supply the great demand.  Once British porcelain was invented though, the demand dried up quickly.  Now this is the only Delft Blue Factory remaining.

 

The other thing that surprised me was the way the designs are made.  First the clay is shaped, then a wrap with tiny holes is pressed over it and rubbed with charcoal to create a pattern of dots so the master painter has a design to follow.  Then the item is painted.  But not in blue- it's greyish black at first.  Only after being heated in a fancy oven thing for a long time does it turn blue.

 

Oh, and I guess there are a few other things that I found extremely fascinating.  One was the factory used to make practical house decorations such as pillars and banisters before it switched to the more decorative pots and dishes.

This is an actual dress that someone wore.  I think it would be awfully cold and hard to put on a dress made out of pottery.  I think I'll stick with my soft dresses.

 

And now some pictures of inside the factory where the make Delft Blue things every day.

 

And this was in the store.  I commented to Kim that the artist was probably exceedingly disappointed when he took it out of the oven and discovered it had flopped.  But then she pointed out to me that there were several others that were identical to it.  So I guess it's supposed to be that way.  I'm not sure why anyone would want to buy that for $600 though.

 

I did buy one thing though: a little egg cup.  I was debating between that and a cute windmill.  It's not handpainted with the Delft Blue official signature, but I'm very happy with it all the same.  The 'real' Delft Blauw version of the egg cup would have costed about 60 euros instead of 4, and the only noticeable difference is the signature underneath.  So this poor student is a happy girl with her cheap imitation egg cup souvenir!

 

But my head is getting a little spinney from all this writing.  There's still a lot more to the story, but I shall leave that to another day (probably tomorrow morning). 

 

Oh!  And I almost forgot to mention that tomorrow afternoon I am off to Brussels, the capital city of Belgium.  I am very excited, and also quite determined to buy a Belgian Waffle.  Apparently they are some of the most delicious things in the world!  I'll be sure to bring my camera and take pictures.

 

Two Parties and Biking the Drive-Through

I've had quite the weekend!  (And quite a lot of naps to recover from it). 

Friday morning I went to Dutch lessons.  I don't think I'm mentioned them yet, but there's a story there as well.  Every Friday at the church there's a sort of food bank (Voetselbank) as well as free Dutch lessons.  So naturally I jumped at the chance!  The first week I went there I was put in the beginner's class, where I heard a lovely story about shapes, students, and teachers.  It was a very fun class, but I found it too easy.  There were only two words that I didn't know yet.  After the class I was quite thrilled when the teacher suggested that I move up to the intermediate class the next week!
So the next week I took my place in the intermediate class, where we had a more challenging Dutch story about the weather.  I was quite surprised when after the class that teacher also suggested I move up- to the highest level!
Thus, for the last two Fridays I have been in the advanced Dutch class.  It's definitely more of a challenge, but I love it because I can learn so much more!  I also look up grammar rules and words I don't know in my spare time at home.  I'm really getting there, and it's incredible to finally be able to understand almost everything.  Now I just have to learn to be able to say what I want to say in Dutch.  I have three months yet!

Another thing I do to learn more is write down words I don't know from the sermon at church.  Last week I only had 15 from an entire 40 minute sermon (of course I might have missed some).  And then my Dutch friends help me to translate them after the service is over.  I'm so glad that they're so helpful with that.  And it's fun!  It's almost like a game to see who can translate the most words for me.

Anyways, back to Friday.  In the early afternoon I worked on homework (I am after all taking a few classes at university).  This week I have a 2500 word Qualitative Research Proposal due.  It's in a group with three people and my job was to write the introduction, the research question, and to set up the sections for everyone else and send out the info we'd gathered.  Boy, did that writing ever take a lot of brain juice.  I've mentioned before that I am very much a science girl and not a communications girl (although I love to learn languages).  But although this paper definitely isn't the type of thing I usually enjoy, I was determined nonetheless to do a very good and thorough job on it.  Thus I looked up half a dozen literature sources, read articles chock full of complex vocabulary, extracted the important information, and put it all together into a 500 word Research Proposal introduction.  Referencing and sourcing included.  It's been a while since I've had to do that.  But once it was cranked out of my brain it felt quite good.  My group was also very impressed.  Phew!  So this science girl can also do communications if she puts her mind to it.

Shortly after sending off my finger sweat and brain juice (aka Research Proposal) to my group I got an exciting phone call.  Rob's birthday party was that night and Kim and I were invited!  Thus followed a busy and fun afternoon of present shopping, card making, and meatloaf making.  Meatloaf isn't a Dutch food, but Tante Joke had it once in the US and asked me to make it for dinner that night.  For the present I knew instantly what to get: a bucket of Ben and Jerry's ice cream (cookie dough flavoured because that's Rob's favourite).  I've never tried Ben and Jerry's ice cream personally, but apparently it's the best in the whole world.  It's definitely on my bucket list of things to try in the Netherlands.  And as for the card- I made a Minion Card (from Despicable Me).  I was quite proud of it indeed because I drew it and it actually ended up looking the way I wanted it to.  Success!  Usually when I attempt to draw something it turns out looking more like a nightmare, or maybe a random unrecognizable blob.

And the party of course was fun.  Parties are always fun!  I won't say exactly how late Kim and I went home... but I think early in the morning would be a better description. 

The annoying thing was that I woke up at 7:30 the next day, thanks to my annoying inner alarm clock.  Grrr!  So I zombied around for most of the morning before going back to bed around lunch time to take a nap.  Kim and I were supposed to help Andre paint his new flat (apartment), but Kim went without me because I was sleeping.  I woke up two hours late for painting, but decided I'd better do something active, so I went anyways.  After getting lost on the way there and biking an awful lot of circles I finally found the place.  Painting was pretty much done, so I more or less just got to wander around and supervise.  I think it was a good thing I showed up when I did, because Sander and Kim were doing a better job painting each other than the walls! 

And that night we got a phone call shortly after 10:00.  Did we want to go to another party?  Ummm, YEAH!  When in Rotterdam do as the Rotterdamers do.  So we headed off on our bikes, giggling about the crazy Dutch people that would start a party so late, but excited all the same.  We left earlier than on Friday night, but past our bedtime all the same.  And biking back with a group of eight of us or so, the Dutch people all of a sudden decided to make an impromptu trip to McDonalds for hamburgers or ice cream sundaes.  So we all biked through the drive through and then sat down and ate our treats under the stars.  I think I'm starting to really like this life in Holland!  It's full of excitement and surprises.

I did have a very lovely nap between church services though.

I saw the King!

Last Thursday I officially saw the King of the Netherland- Koning Willem-Alexander.

But I really should state the many exciting happenings of the day in chronological order.  Thus, I shall go back to the beginning.  I was invited to be part of a photo shoot for the university.  That sounded fun to me, so I hopped on my bike and pedaled my way to university.  It is now a route that I am very familiar with, and no longer get lost on.  Quite a relief!  I arrived at the university to discover that there was a great and unusual commotion going on.  Hundreds of people were standing outside the tallest building.  There were fire trucks all over campus and firemen guarding the entrances.  I asked some of the students (in Dutch) and found out that there was a small fire on one of the highest floors!  I also got to see where firemen get their water from in the Netherlands.  Instead of fire hydrants they lift up bricks from the ground and screw in a sort of fire hydrant thing into a pipe in the ground.  It's probably more sanitary that way because dogs can't pee all over it.  But in any case, it was very fascinating, and I also got to see water come gushing out all over the ground.

 

Sorry the building is sideways (I am still technologically-challenged me after all)

Eventually I tore myself away from the riveting scene to head over to another building where people were meeting for the photo shoot.  Then followed an hour of posing for photos with a group of people.  'Look natural' the photographer kept saying.  Well, that can be a bit challenging when we don't know each other.  But we laughed and made the best of it, and apparently the photos turned out very well, though I haven't seen them yet.

For a cool effect for one picture, we had one guy sit on Erasmus' head, and the rest of us took a picture of him while the photographer took a picture of all of us.  So here's the picture I took.
After the photo shoot I headed out on my bike toward the new Centraal Station.  It was the official opening day and Koning Willem-Alexander was going there to make the official declaration that it was in business.  I was quite proud of myself because I managed to bike to the station without getting lost!  All by myself too! 

At the station there were oodles of people.  But an hour and a half of waiting in the crowd eventually paid off.  Standing on tiptoes as high as I could (there are times I wish I was taller) I could see Koning Willem Alexander step onto a podium and declare the station open.  It was a very brief sighting, but still quite exciting, and good for bragging rights because now I can say I've seen a king!

This last picture is of a building near the station, and it's kind of difficult to see, but all along the roof and the top balconies there were dozens of people standing and watching. 
After the action was over I headed back to my bike and realized I had no idea whatsoever which direction was where.  I always carry a map of Rotterdam in my saddle bag, but that doesn't help me much if I don't know which way I'm facing.  So I asked some people for help, in Dutch of course.  And as usual they responded in English.  Grrr.  I can understand Dutch now (including the sermons in church!) but I still have an English accent.  Almost every time I try to speak Dutch people answer in English.  That's not very helpful for me to learn Dutch better.  But oh well, at least I was pointed in the general direction I had to take.

So thus I headed home, happy and healthy, and thanking God for all the gloriously beautiful sunshine we've been having in Rotterdam.

Kim Deserted Me... but I Survived

I'm going to Belgium in a few weeks to see the parliament there!  A class from the university is going, and they made a few extra spots available.  Interested students had to write an essay explaining their interest in the subject.  I was quite thrilled to be selected!  What an opportunity to see politics in action, and to have a free trip to Belgium!

But Kim also wanted to go to Belgium, so this weekend she took off with an Estonian friend from the university.  I was kind of worried I'd be lonely, but people took good care of me here!  On Friday I went with Tante Joke and Oom Gert Jan to the elementary school where Renee's kids go.  Tante Joke and I were in charge of sewing things that were broken for the children.  We did jeans, coats, sweaters, tights, and especially bags.  All the children have a blue bag in which to put their jackets, and a very large number of those bags had holes in them.  Thus we were not bored during the three hours we spent there!  It was very good gezeligheid, good practice for my sewing skills, and a fun opportunity to see a Dutch school.  It's in a very old brick building.  And a picture of me busily sewing also made it into the school blog!  So that was a fun way to spend a Friday afternoon.

Saturday morning I worked on a news report which I have to do for one of my classes at the university.  One thing I have learned from that class is that Valerie plus video editing software equals... well, not good movies that's for sure.  More like a lot of Valerie's time wasted.  But oh well, I guess it's a good learning experience in patience and not letting dreadful computers get the best of me.  I spent a bunch of time writing the script and finding pictures and researching info and making recordings... only to find out that the filming I'd done at the event I'd planning to cover didn't work.  All that showed up on my computer was a fuzzy screen with an exclamation mark and the rather depressing message that my computer couldn't read it.  Grrr. 
So my news report is no longer on the opening of the new cafeteria at the university.  My news report is now on the weather.  But I am a very lucky girl indeed, because this weekend there were record breaking high temperatures on both Saturday (19 degrees) and Sunday (20 degrees)!  Very news-worthy material indeed. 

Saturday afternoon I went with a friend to the Alexandrium Supermall.  He needed a new sweater, so he tried a bunch of different ones on while I gave advice about which one was the best.  After that we had some delicious ice cream and went for a walk.  Then he came over for a while and we played some piano duets (I miss my students in Canada, so it was good to be the teacher for a little while again).  He learned very fast!

On Sunday Andre and I went to Sander's house between church services.  We played Ligretto (a card game), and Just Dance (on Wii).  I won Ligretto!  But unfortunately when it came to the dancing I was badly lacking in skill and gracefulness.  It would have helped if I could've practiced some of the dance moves beforehand.  I do very much wish I could dance.  Maybe I can look up the songs online and practice and next time hopefully look a bit more professional.  But despite slight embarrassment at my lack of skills I thoroughly enjoyed playing that game!  Sander and Andre and I also went for a bike ride together.  The weather was just too gorgeous to stay inside for long!  They also introduced me to some of the popular Dutch music.  I'm definitely planning to learn at least one Dutch song... but I forget what it was called and who the artist is.  I'd better ask again.  And in the evening there was Zaaier (young people's).  I was nervous about having to bike back home alone in the dark afterwards, but once again my new friends came to my rescue.  Sander and another friend of his whose name I don't know biked me home, for which I was truly grateful. 
I am a bit afraid of the dark.

So a weekend which I thought would be lonely turned out to be a lot of fun! 
One thing I miss is always having lots of people around.  At my home in Canada I have six siblings.  There's always someone to talk to, or play games with, or play music with, or get annoyed at.  I do love it in Holland, but there are times when I really miss having a busy and full house.  Sometimes it's good to go off alone, but if I'm by myself for too long I get rather depressed.

So I'd like to end this blog post by saying how thankful I am to have such incredible friends here in the Netherlands!  God has really blessed me by letting me get to know and spend time with such amazing new people from the church.

But I'm also really glad that Kim's back. 

Maritiem Museum

Ahoy there!  Kim and I decided to make use of our new Rotterdam Passes last Thursday and go to the Maritiem (Navy) Museum.  I should probably explain what the Rotterdampas is.  It's a card that allows to do all sorts of cool things in Rotterdam for either free, or with a discount.  Normally it's 60 euros, but since we're students we got them for only 12,50!  We found the Maritiem Museum without too much trouble (on our bikes of course).  Although actually getting there proved slightly more challenging because there happened to be a canal in the way... and the way around the canal was under construction.  But we got there eventually.

 

I am definitely envious of Europe's history.  In Canada we mostly learn about the natives, and the fur trade, and then natives, and the fur trade, and just in case we weren't thoroughly sick of learning that yet, we get to learn them again in high school.  Oh, and with a few weeks of the world wars thrown in for good measure in grade 11.  Just when it starts to get slightly interesting we graduate. 

 

But anyways, it was super cool to be able to learn about Dutch navy history in Holland!

 



We saw some rather scary-looking old fashioned  rifles.  I think I would be just as scared to shoot one of those as to be shot at by one.  They don't look very reliable and I'd be worried it would blow up in my face if I pulled the trigger.

For my brother Jared's benefit: an old army dirt bike. 

 

And Kim and I found a phone in the museum... which happened to strongly resemble mine (minus the duck tape).  They were even both Nokia!  But it texts and calls so I'm happy, even if people do sometimes laugh a little when I take it out of my pocket.

 

On one of the floors of the museum there were guys in camo setting up some sort of new exhibit.  Finally I got up the courage to ask them what they were doing and if they were real soldiers.  Turns out they're the real deal- soldiers in the Royal Dutch Navy.  I talked to them for a while in a mixture of Dutch and English.  Turns out they were put in charge of doing a special exhibit for Rotterdam Museum Night, a night when all the museums in the city have special things to see and do.  One of the soldiers told me I should come because there would be ten young soldiers there who would love to show a Canadian girl around Rotterdam after museum night (which ended at 2:00 AM).  An interesting offer perhaps, but I think I'll wisely stick with my friends from church.  That's a bit safer than gallivanting off with soldiers.

 

I did get a picture with him though.  (I've always liked uniforms).

 

So that was the Maritiem Museum!  It made for a lovely way to spend part of an afternoon.  For the next hour afterwards we looked at several little stores because we found an area of town with dozens of little shops.  I found the cutest dress in one of the stores and I'm thinking about buying it because it would make a really cute costume for a camp I'm going to next month.  Kim and I did a little photo shoot too, but I'm not going to post the pictures because if I get that dress it has to be a surprise at the camp! 

 

After shopping we found two by the road and just sit and relaxed for a while.  The sun was shining and it was warm.  It felt so good to just sit and enjoy the sunshine and watch people walking and biking everywhere along the road.  So yes, it was a very good day indeed!

 

 

A Wonderful Weekend!

Last Friday I was invited to a birthday party!  My very first party in the Netherlands!  Naturally I was quite excited, especially when Rob and Sander kindly offered to bike there with Kim and I.  I'm very grateful that they did, because Kim and I most likely would have gotten hopelessly lost, or taken a very scenic route.  We generally like to call it the scenic route, because that is more optimistic.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Friday afternoon I got to babysit!  Two adorable grandchildren of the Macleans were over, and they had to go to a funeral so I got them all to myself!  Evie is about five years old I think, and Benjamin is almost two.  Benjamin was sick, so he slept for a long time, which gave Evie and I a perfect opportunity to bake cookies!  She had never baked before, and didn't even know what a mixer was.  Well, we had a grand time together, us two, and made some very delicious chocolate chip cookies together.  Benjamin woke up just as the last batch went into the oven.  Considering he wasn't feeling well, he was quite cheerful.  He needed a diaper change rather urgently, but that was not problem.  I've done enough of those in my lifetime that I consider myself almost an expert.  And then the three of us made a fort downstairs and gave Benjamin some lunch and a bottle and had a very good time until the Macleans came home.

So that was my Friday afternoon.  The evening was even more exciting because of the party!  Us teenagers there played a game very similar to UNO, but with a regular deck of cards.  I had my turn skipped an awful lot of times because somebody decided it was fun to do that, or make me pick up five cards at once, or change the direction right before my turn.  But thankfully I managed to get him back... sometimes.  I still lost.  I seem to be on a loosing streak here in the Netherlands, but I don't care.  I just love to play games.
Kim and I also showed the Dutchies a bunch of card tricks.  They didn't know any, so they were quite impressed with our simple ones.  Later on we chatted and goofed off in a mixture of Dutch and English.  Sander stole Rob's hat, so then I stole the hat from Sander's head and put it on.  Well, they thought that was funny so they took a picture.  And then Rob called me by my most dreadful name which doesn't suit me at all, AND posted it on Facebook.  Unfortunately I couldn't understand the Dutch on his phone enough to change the post.  *Sigh*.  Me and my lack of technological skills.

But it was a fun and exciting night indeed.  I even drank a tiny bit of beer.  When I say a tiny bit I mean a half inch in the bottom of a glass. (I won't say how much the guys drank, but they can handle it).  This time the beer wasn't too bad.  It still tasted like a bucket of bubbled weed water, but it was slightly better weed water than last time. 

Oh, for those of you who don't have facebook this beer thing does require some background.  Here is what I posted last week:

"Survived my first beer.
I think it's an acquired taste that I have not acquired yet."

And here is what people responded:

Alana Dykstra Don't acquire it - I didn't. :) PS. it's cheaper.

 

Sander Grunewald Bravo!

Jen Flokstra Not sure what to say.

Jonathan Jones Don't have to acquire it :) nothing good comes from drinking

David C Turkstra I found the same thing out with wine :P

Marcie Thurston Flokstra That's my girl try a different kind. When you get back I will take you for one.

Renee Maclean ooooo Jen Flokstra what is she doing ? Probably wasn't at my parents place

Kim Devries Hahaha Kim must have taken her out... ;) (except that kim isn't a huge fan either, so don't worry too much mother:)

Valerie Flokstra Oh dear everyone, just because I had one beer doesn't mean I'm going to start drinking like a fish!

Kim Devries Hmm, is a whale a fish? ;)

Henny Munroe No doubt...you are a very wise girl with a good head on your shoulders....trying a beer is not a bad thing...lol

Yedam Cho well there's a first...

Shawn Meints Valerie, fish don't drink, they breathe water, so I think your lungs would appreciate it if you stuck to your word. :P

Who knew one beer would cause such havock?  Well, everyone can rest assured that I am quite determined that I shall not get drunk.  But at the time I drank the beer I was a bit tired of drinking chocolate milk in bars with a group of people all drinking beer.  It's kind of weird to think that when I go back to Canada I'll be back to underage.

Anyways, we returned from the party quite late (or should I say early in the morning?)  And I tumbled into bed with a huge smile on my face and my mind swirling with lots of exciting memories of a fun evening with my fantastic new Dutch friends!


Saturday I had a lovely evening with several ladies from Zaaier (young peoples society).  We got together with five of us for a ladies night.  We ate a delicious dinner of bagels with mozzarella cheese, and pizza, and smoothies.  The mozzarella cheese here is very different from Canada.  It's more the texture of feta cheese, except even moister and softer.  It was very delicious though!  Better than in Canada. 
After dinner we watched a movie, accompanied by a delicious smorgasbord including much chocolate. 



We didn't manage to eat nearly all of it, but what we did eat was sure good.  And the best part is that calories don't really matter when I do so much biking here every day!
And the best thing about the evening was that we spoke Dutch almost the entire time, and I could all of a sudden understand it!  Almost everything that was said!  It's one of the coolest feelings ever to all of a sudden be thinking things in Dutch and just absorbing what people say.  And it was so good to just have a lovely night with ladies, watch a chick flick, and then talk about girly things like weddings and dresses and flowers and pretty things, in Dutch of course.

And then there was Sunday.  After two late nights in a row it may have been rather difficult to keep from nodding off in church.  I did not fall asleep, but between the Dutch and my sleepiness I probably didn't get as much out of the sermons as I should have.  Oops.  I will definitely try to do better next time.  Maybe I should start taking notes.  That always keeps me awake.
And another very nice thing happened on Sunday.  Andre asked if Kim and I had been to the beach.  Well, we hadn't.  So plans were made that he and Rob and Kim and I would drive to Hoek van Holland to the sea!  Not the ocean- the sea.  I learned the hard way that there's apparently a big different.  The beaches were gorgeous and included sand dunes and a pier where we could watch all the big ships coming in!  We're going to go there again when it's warm enough to go swimming.  I can't wait!

So that was my busy and wonderful weekend.  I will admit though that I'm not very good at lasting long as a party animal.  I think it took until Wednesday to catch up on sleep!  Or maybe I just need more practice...

A Bit of My Life in Canada

I'm having a fantastic time here in the Netherlands, but in order to come here I had to leave behind the best family in the whole world (at least in my opinion).  Mom's been sending me very much appreciated pictures every now and then, just so I don't forget what everyone looks like.  Not that I would anyways.  I've got a family pictures on my desk, and five pages of my favourite pictures in a binder for if I ever need to look at them. 

 

But lest anyone worry that I'm terribly homesick, rest assured that I am having a grand time here in the Netherlands.  I get plenty of exercise biking, and I've made some wonderful new friends here from the church which really helps!

 

This blog is mostly to keep people in Canada up to date, but for people in the Netherlands, here's a bit of what life looks like for me in Canada:

 

This is my family (well, everyone except my mom who took the picture).  From left to right the people are:
Nathan, who apparently had the nerve to just get taller than me.
Me!
Stacy, my one and only sister.  The best sister ever!
Micah, the one who loves dogs, and has a puppy which is probably bigger than he is now.
Jared.  Just because he's tall doesn't change the fact that I'm still the oldest.
Caleb, my one brother who doesn't have red hair!  (Everyone else does)
My Dad.
Luke, the youngest, who is three years old and very cute!

 

And here is a beautiful picture of my mom and dad.

 

 

Here is Luke. When he saw the picture of me wearing Klompen, he had to put his on too!

 

And a few more photos:

 

 

 

And this is the house, during one of the rare moments when we had snow.  At the beginning of this week it snowed and school was cancelled!  Nice for Jared and Stacy.

 

 

And when it snows everyone has to play outside!  The trampoline is fun in summer and winter.

 

And there is a new chicken barn being built right now.  It's almost finished I think!  There will be chickens in it when I get back. 

 

 

So that's a little bit of where I live in Canada.  And to all my Dutch friends, remember that you're very welcome to come and visit this place someday!