So this past two weeks I had fall break. My first week I really didn't do much. We went one day to Hamburg and me, the boys, and Uli all went to place kind of like The Wilderness in the US. They had tons of slides, and not just ones made for 6 year olds. We spent 3 hours there, bought McDonalds, and then headed back home down the Autoban going 85 mph! Our most important task the first week was to get me to customs, and get a pass to allow me to go to other countries. Why you ask... The reason is because for the second week I traved to the Netherlands!
Not only did I go to the Netherlands, but I went alone! So why Holland? I had a great oppurtunity to meet up with some people I haven't seen in ages. In 2007 or 2008 we had new neibhors across the street, and after a while I would be over there almost every day. The family, the Ruiters, were originally from the Netherlands, and moved to the US. In 2010 or so, they moved back... I haven't seen them since them, but when I told them on skype that I'm now in Germany, they insisted that I come and visit, so of course I did.
Friday- I woke up at 4:00 along with Uli (thanks), and I was all alone on my first train to Holland by 4:30. I had a total of 4 transferrs to make, and a total travel time of 8.5 hours. My first transfer was by far the hardest, not only was it my first time transferring alone, EVER, but because my first train was late I had a mere one minute to do it! I got off my train, looked for the track number, couldn't find it, so I just guessed. I got off on platform 7 and needed to get to 8, so I just assumed it was across.
Convient for me, I did jump on the correct train, but that also wasn't flawless. I had so little time, the that door shut on my foot, only to open again a second later. After getting to my final destination, I had an hour to waste, so I just wandered around the airport, saw tons of tourist stuff, and got to see a shoplifter get arrested! After a little bit Leveena (the old neibhor) came and picked me up, and by that time we had to get all the kids from school. First was Thomas (now 6), and after he came out of his shell, he was just saying anything he could in English... and it was adorable, and for the most part understandable. After picking up all the others, we went home, chilled, ate some "leveena food", as she calls it, watched English Tv (I missed this), and went to bed. It's called leveena food because she says it doesn't belong to one culture, it's a mix of everything she knows, but all I know is that it is delicious.
Saturday- Thomas had a soccer game, so I went and watched that. Other than that it was a chill day. I needed it after the stress of many many transfers. That night we had some meatballs, also good, went bowling, and had Dr. Pepper, and ooooohhhh have I forgotten the wonder of Dr. Pepper, haha.
Sunday- Wake up late, and went into town. In town I ate in the best french fry store in the Netherlands, it was actually an award, not like the world's best coffee shop. There we ate fries, and something I still don't know what it was, but one was good, and the other was... interesting. We of corse had to stop for ice cream too, that's what they do in Europe. For dinner we had Chinease food, and that is something I haven't had in quite a long time.
Monday- We again were lazy, and woke up kind of early, and by this I mean 8. For breakfest we went out for pancakes, and in Europe that means very thin pancakes, so really a crape, and also no mmaple syrup. =(After that we went to a science and technology museum, and it was really cool. I didn't take any pictures in the museum part because I really got forgot about the camera and was just enjoying being there. They had everything from solor powered cars (full size), to interactive things. The room that I spent the most time in was the lego room with Sebestiaan. Here they had a place that you could just build with legos, and they had 4 or 5 big buckets just full of legos of all sizes. Both of us liking to build something, made us decide to make a huge tower. This tower ended up being likely around 10 feet tall. The workers were nice and let us stay 5 minutes after close to knock down the tower! Then we got to spend the next 10 minutes cleaning up the hundreds of legos scattered across the room!.To top this busy day off we decided to go full American for dinner, and that means KFC. The cruncy chicken was just as good in America, but I was extremely disappointed when I found out they didn't have the bisquits, I mean it was a KFC right?!?
Tuesday was a lazy day. We played most likely 2 or 3 games of Monopoly, and Laveena learned that when I play Monopoly, the nice Carl disappers and is replaced by a heartless business man, and let's just say I won quite a few of the games. For our lunch/dinner we had waffles! I'm not sure why, but we had waffles with ice cream, I wasn't going to say no!
Wendsday our main event was Sebestiaan had a soccer tournement, so we were there for 5 or so hours. of course with our luck, the weather was absolutely terrible. It was windy, the whole sky was blue... excpet for whatever was right above us. 2 times during that day I walked through one of the buildings. In the 3 minutes that it took me to get from end to end the rail will either have stopped or started. After that we went home and had a nice warm dinner, and played once again Monopoly.
Thursday- This was our final lazy day, after having a tiring day yesterday and expecting a tough one tomorrow, we decided to lay back... well at least Laveena did. While Sebestiaan went out swimming witha friend, Emma and I decided to do something I haven't done in forever, Rollerblading. We needed to go to the shop, so instead of biking there, we rollerbladed there. By the time we went there and back I was getting the hang of it, so we decided to just stay out and blade some more. We ended up going to a little skate park and riding down the easy ramps. After going back home and eating, we went outside and played some field hockey in the street. I've never played field hockey before, and I think that I did just about every single thing that you aren't allowed to do in that sport, but it was still enjoyable.
Friday- This was determined our tourist day. Laveena, Sebestiaan, and I got up early, drove to Amsterdam, and started our adventure. After our 30 minute car ride, we had to take a train ride, and of course all the seats were taken. When we were finally there we were all hungry, so we stopped at a BK, that's about as good of a meal as you can get in a train station. At this point the tourist stuff began, and to the shops we went. In Amsterdam we walked around to see everything, went to shops that just played on sterotypes. The buildings were all super cool, and we got to visit a castle. Sadly it was rainy, and my camera isn't the best when it's raining, but the pictures are still okay. In the castle the lights caused a wierd glare, but all is good. After that was finished I went to buying my tourist gifts. I bought all in all quite a bit. I bought some "wooden shoes" slippers, a magnet, a gift for someone, a couple post cards, and some pants. We did so much that day, that looking at pictures is just the easiest way to sum it up.
Saturday was the day that I was leaving, and I was sad and happy to be going back. I had gotten a call from Lukas halfway though the week, and he made me promise I would come back, so I didn't have a choice. After packing my bags and eating, we went to Emma's field hockey game. It was pretty interesting because I've never seen that sport before, but eventually I had to go back. We went to the train station, said our goodbyes, and then I was off. This time the train transfers were much easier, and all went well. When I got home the boys were joyed to see me, and I was joyed to see me bed.
That crazy week was so much fun, but it eventually came to an end, and then all fun was shattered when I remembered I had a test on Monday! Thank you so much Ruiter family and thank you Ma and Pa. I'm still suprised you let me go! =P
Not only did I go to the Netherlands, but I went alone! So why Holland? I had a great oppurtunity to meet up with some people I haven't seen in ages. In 2007 or 2008 we had new neibhors across the street, and after a while I would be over there almost every day. The family, the Ruiters, were originally from the Netherlands, and moved to the US. In 2010 or so, they moved back... I haven't seen them since them, but when I told them on skype that I'm now in Germany, they insisted that I come and visit, so of course I did.
Friday- I woke up at 4:00 along with Uli (thanks), and I was all alone on my first train to Holland by 4:30. I had a total of 4 transferrs to make, and a total travel time of 8.5 hours. My first transfer was by far the hardest, not only was it my first time transferring alone, EVER, but because my first train was late I had a mere one minute to do it! I got off my train, looked for the track number, couldn't find it, so I just guessed. I got off on platform 7 and needed to get to 8, so I just assumed it was across.
Convient for me, I did jump on the correct train, but that also wasn't flawless. I had so little time, the that door shut on my foot, only to open again a second later. After getting to my final destination, I had an hour to waste, so I just wandered around the airport, saw tons of tourist stuff, and got to see a shoplifter get arrested! After a little bit Leveena (the old neibhor) came and picked me up, and by that time we had to get all the kids from school. First was Thomas (now 6), and after he came out of his shell, he was just saying anything he could in English... and it was adorable, and for the most part understandable. After picking up all the others, we went home, chilled, ate some "leveena food", as she calls it, watched English Tv (I missed this), and went to bed. It's called leveena food because she says it doesn't belong to one culture, it's a mix of everything she knows, but all I know is that it is delicious.
Saturday- Thomas had a soccer game, so I went and watched that. Other than that it was a chill day. I needed it after the stress of many many transfers. That night we had some meatballs, also good, went bowling, and had Dr. Pepper, and ooooohhhh have I forgotten the wonder of Dr. Pepper, haha.
Sunday- Wake up late, and went into town. In town I ate in the best french fry store in the Netherlands, it was actually an award, not like the world's best coffee shop. There we ate fries, and something I still don't know what it was, but one was good, and the other was... interesting. We of corse had to stop for ice cream too, that's what they do in Europe. For dinner we had Chinease food, and that is something I haven't had in quite a long time.
Monday- We again were lazy, and woke up kind of early, and by this I mean 8. For breakfest we went out for pancakes, and in Europe that means very thin pancakes, so really a crape, and also no mmaple syrup. =(After that we went to a science and technology museum, and it was really cool. I didn't take any pictures in the museum part because I really got forgot about the camera and was just enjoying being there. They had everything from solor powered cars (full size), to interactive things. The room that I spent the most time in was the lego room with Sebestiaan. Here they had a place that you could just build with legos, and they had 4 or 5 big buckets just full of legos of all sizes. Both of us liking to build something, made us decide to make a huge tower. This tower ended up being likely around 10 feet tall. The workers were nice and let us stay 5 minutes after close to knock down the tower! Then we got to spend the next 10 minutes cleaning up the hundreds of legos scattered across the room!.To top this busy day off we decided to go full American for dinner, and that means KFC. The cruncy chicken was just as good in America, but I was extremely disappointed when I found out they didn't have the bisquits, I mean it was a KFC right?!?
Tuesday was a lazy day. We played most likely 2 or 3 games of Monopoly, and Laveena learned that when I play Monopoly, the nice Carl disappers and is replaced by a heartless business man, and let's just say I won quite a few of the games. For our lunch/dinner we had waffles! I'm not sure why, but we had waffles with ice cream, I wasn't going to say no!
Wendsday our main event was Sebestiaan had a soccer tournement, so we were there for 5 or so hours. of course with our luck, the weather was absolutely terrible. It was windy, the whole sky was blue... excpet for whatever was right above us. 2 times during that day I walked through one of the buildings. In the 3 minutes that it took me to get from end to end the rail will either have stopped or started. After that we went home and had a nice warm dinner, and played once again Monopoly.
Thursday- This was our final lazy day, after having a tiring day yesterday and expecting a tough one tomorrow, we decided to lay back... well at least Laveena did. While Sebestiaan went out swimming witha friend, Emma and I decided to do something I haven't done in forever, Rollerblading. We needed to go to the shop, so instead of biking there, we rollerbladed there. By the time we went there and back I was getting the hang of it, so we decided to just stay out and blade some more. We ended up going to a little skate park and riding down the easy ramps. After going back home and eating, we went outside and played some field hockey in the street. I've never played field hockey before, and I think that I did just about every single thing that you aren't allowed to do in that sport, but it was still enjoyable.
Friday- This was determined our tourist day. Laveena, Sebestiaan, and I got up early, drove to Amsterdam, and started our adventure. After our 30 minute car ride, we had to take a train ride, and of course all the seats were taken. When we were finally there we were all hungry, so we stopped at a BK, that's about as good of a meal as you can get in a train station. At this point the tourist stuff began, and to the shops we went. In Amsterdam we walked around to see everything, went to shops that just played on sterotypes. The buildings were all super cool, and we got to visit a castle. Sadly it was rainy, and my camera isn't the best when it's raining, but the pictures are still okay. In the castle the lights caused a wierd glare, but all is good. After that was finished I went to buying my tourist gifts. I bought all in all quite a bit. I bought some "wooden shoes" slippers, a magnet, a gift for someone, a couple post cards, and some pants. We did so much that day, that looking at pictures is just the easiest way to sum it up.
Saturday was the day that I was leaving, and I was sad and happy to be going back. I had gotten a call from Lukas halfway though the week, and he made me promise I would come back, so I didn't have a choice. After packing my bags and eating, we went to Emma's field hockey game. It was pretty interesting because I've never seen that sport before, but eventually I had to go back. We went to the train station, said our goodbyes, and then I was off. This time the train transfers were much easier, and all went well. When I got home the boys were joyed to see me, and I was joyed to see me bed.
That crazy week was so much fun, but it eventually came to an end, and then all fun was shattered when I remembered I had a test on Monday! Thank you so much Ruiter family and thank you Ma and Pa. I'm still suprised you let me go! =P