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.
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
Monday, March 10, 2014
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.
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!
Thursday, March 6, 2014
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:
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...
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:
Marcie Thurston Flokstra That's my girl try a different kind. When you get back I will take you for one.
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!
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
Shawn Meints Valerie, fish don't drink, they breathe water, so I think your lungs would appreciate it if you stuck to your word.
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...
Saturday, March 1, 2014
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!
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!
Monday, February 24, 2014
Schminken for Romania
Schminken. Isn't that one of the coolest words ever? It means face painting in Dutch.
On Saturday there was a big bazaar to raise money for Romania. Kim and I happily allowed ourselves to be recruited for face painting duty.
We set our alarms for quarter to eight so we could be ready on time. We sure didn't want to be late for such an important event. Just as I rolled reluctantly out of my warm bed, the phone rang and Tante Joke called up that it was for me. So I dashed down the stairs as fast as my legs would carry me and found out that it was Stacy! It was so good to hear from her, as always, even though I still sounded like a croaking toad because I'd just woken up. She had stayed up until almost 11:00 for a chance to call me. I felt very loved, but I also felt terrible because I had to cut it short to a piddly ten minutes. It was not nearly enough time for a good chat with my sister, but I really had to hurry then to go off to the bazaar. Thankfully she's also very forgiving and still loves me.
So at exactly quarter to nine Kim and I pulled our bikes out of the shed and set off for the high school where the bazaar was. We were blissfully biking along when suddenly Kim exclaimed 'That's Hannah!'
Hannah is a friend from church (and our fellow schminker), and she was biking in the opposite direction from Kim and I. That meant that we were going the wrong way. Oops, it seemed we had biked right past the road we needed to turn on. Well, we sure were thankful that we ran into Hannah! She was more than happy to lead us in the right direction.
Thus we made it just on time, and happily assessed our many lovely face paints that we would get to work with all day. There sure were a lot of colours! And glitters! I experimented by painting a lovely little design on my hand.
I think some of the kids were a bit intimidated by my not-quite-up-to-par Dutch, but I did my best. And Hannah also helped sometimes with translating. We had lots of pictures to copy the designs from, so I could just get the kids to point at what they wanted. Almost all the girls wanted flinders (butterflies) so I did about seven of those.
When face painting business was slow there was plenty of time to walk around and look at the rest of the bazaar, and also to buy food. I got a hamburger, but it wasn't quite up to par with our Canadian hamburgers. It sort of tasted like a frikendel (hot dog). Other than that everything was very delicious though!
Elisabeth was one of very few girls who wanted something other than a butterfly. I'm not sure what that design was supposed to be, but it was on one of the pictures and it was the one she wanted. I showed her her face in the mirror when I thought I was finished and she told me in much surprise that I had forgotten the lips. The model had blue lips, and I'd been planning to ignore that part, but apparently that wasn't allowed. So she got her blue lips!
It was a long day, but very good too. Especially since the bazaar raised over 5000 Euros! In Canadian dollars that's over $7000.
But the activity of the day wasn't over yet. Kim and I were invited to a friend's house in the evening. So we went there at about 8:00 and played games with Rob and Sander. First we played Ligretto, which is exactly like Dutch Blitz, except with different cards. I lost very badly, but had a wonderful time playing. Kim creamed us all mercilessly. Then we played Dutch Settlers of Catan, and then Rob and Sander endeavored to explain the highly complicated Dutch school system. Kim and I think we get it now, but it's a bit intimidating how many different levels they have.
We didn't end up leaving until after midnight, and much laughter had been had by all. It was a good Saturday indeed.
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