Last Day and Travel Day

Back in America, but I'm going to finish this blog.

On Friday we went to Duinrell, an amusement park, with the group and all of the hosts. We spent most of our time at Adventure Mountain, where we did some archery, an obstacle course, went on a zip-line, and some forest scavenger hunt thing. It was pretty fun, but I would have rather spent much more time at Tikibad. We went to Tikibad after we ate lunch. Tikibad is a waterpark inside Duinrell. There were some really fun slides, and it was actually really hot inside. I lost my glasses on one of the slides, but I have them now thanks to Annemieke :D 

After Duinrell, we went to the goodbye party. There we had a potluck dinner and there were performances by the Americans and the Dutch. Everyone had a fun time, it was a nice way to end the program.

The next day we left early to meet the bus at the school. We said goodbye to everyone there,
which was pretty sad. While I'm sure it won't be the last time I see Joep and Matthijs, it's possible I might not see some of the other Dutch kids again :( 

We went to Schiphol by bus, and check in and everything at Schiphol went really smoothly. The flight to Atlanta was fine, just a bit long because there was some headwind. The layover in Atlanta was pretty terrible though, because just as we were about to take off in Atlanta the captain told us there was some malfunction, so we had to get off that plane and get on a different one. So we ended up leaving about 2.5 hours late.

Overall, the trip was amazing. I had a wonderful time in the Netherlands, and it made me want to live over there even more! Actually the past few days in America I have already started researching ways that I could study in Holland, whether it be as an exchange student or as a full time student at a Dutch university or hogeschool (university of applied sciences).  I only really have two negative things I can say about the trip: the travel (not the actual act of travelling, but the airline, I will fly KLM next time if I have a choice!) and the length of the trip. It was way too short!!! There wasn't enough time for us to hang out with our hosts and their families. I really enjoyed staying with the Kaisers and it would have been nice if there was at least one more full weekend.

The Kaiser family and I

The Dutch hosts and American visitors

THANKS AGAIN KAISER FAMILY!!!

School/Den Haag and Delft

This will most likely be my last post before I leave the Netherlands, because tomorrow is the last full day and we will be late with the goodbye party, then after I need to pack.

Yesterday all of us went to Dalton Voorburg with our host students to observe their classes. I really like the school, and I like how laid back the atmosphere is. I observed Joep's economics, Dutch government, and english classes.
After observing some classes, we went to the Hague to see some sights. We observed the Houses of Parliament, and we also went to a museum about torture and jail in medieval Holland. We then were able to shop, and Daniel and I found Joep who was shopping with a friend for a new bathing suit for himself for tomorrow's swim day at Tikibad.

Today, we went to Delft. First Joep and I went to school "op de fiets" ("on bike", I think that is correct). Joep was able to take the day off school to come with us to Delft, along with many others of the Dutch students, which was nice. We went to a bus stop with the group, got on the bus, then a tram, and arrived at a Delft blue pottery factory. We observed how the pottery is made and saw some of the painters painting the pottery.
We then made our way to the center of Delft, where it was market day. We had about 2 1/2 hours of free time, so Daniel, Joep, Stefan, and I walked around to find some food. They got some haring broodjes (herring on bread) and I got --- (I totally forgot the name) which is piece of meat shaped like a sausage, and after I ate it Stefan told me what it had come from: it is basically a mash of many cow parts, including brains. It was quite good actually, Daniel eventually had some. If you are grossed out, an american hot dog isn't really much different.
We then walked up the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church, even though it's still quite old). We paid to be able to climb the tower. This was quite a hike, it took us about 10 minutes to climb the longgggg spiral staircases, which were extremely narrow and cramped with short steps. It was very good exercise actually, although I bumped my head quite a bit in the small stair space. We got to the top and saw a great view of Delft and we could see Rotterdam in the distance.
We eventually made our way back to school, where Joep and I got on our bikes and rode back home. Joep's father brought home some Israeli food for dinner, which was veryyy good. It was basically a lot of different meats which I forgot the names of, and some pita type bread.
After, Joep, his sisters, and I rode our bikes to Leidschenhage, a shopping mall. We met Joep's father there and we went to Aktie Sport where I got the Netherlands national football team's official jersey for the year, which is really awesome and will be a collector's item for me. We then went to a candy store and loaded up on candy, which I am going to try to save to bring back home. Today was a very nice day, one of my favorites of the trip. Tomorrow should be very fun, I'll try to update tomorrow night but I doubt I'll have time.

Amsterdam

The schedule is getting a lot tighter as the trip comes to a close, so I am not going to have time to put any pictures in these updates. Sorry if the explanations seem short, I am really crunched for time, I am staying up late to do these as it is, so just email me if you want more specifics, but you can also just wait until I get back home.
We went to Amsterdam yesterday. We arrived at Amsterdam Centraal and we began our tour with Joost (a teacher from Dalton Voorburg) guiding us. We first gradually made our way to the Anne Frank Huis, with Joost giving us the historical background of many things we saw along the way. The Anne Frank Huis was very interesting, but not very time consuming so we were finished there in about 45 minutes.
We then found a central location to make a meeting place, then split up into groups to go shop and have lunch. Daniel, Enrique, and I went to a pannenkoeken place for lunch. We shopped a while, although most of the tourist stores were pretty much the same thing, a bunch of T-shirts saying something about the sex or drugs in Amsterdam. I got a pretty nice shirt though, it just has a Dutch license plate and it says Amsterdam on it. I wish they had more tourist-type shops in the other cities, because I would much rather have gotten shirts for Rotterdam and Den Haag. About the typical stuff one things of when they think of Amsterdam, I'm not going to even discuss because I really don't like it that such a nice city has received such a bad rap because what the tourists have done. Even though I agree with the decriminalization and everything, I don't like the stereotype that has been placed upon the Netherlands because of it. But as Joost told us, "what the tourists want, they get" Oh well...
Next, we went to the Amsterdam Dungeon. This was pretty fun, it is sort of a haunted house type place but it is full of actors and it gives you knowledge of the bad times of Amsterdam.
For the final part of the day, we went on a canal boat tour of Amsterdam. This was my favorite part, because I, and most of us, were pretty tired. It was a nice way to relax and see a ton of the city. After we went to a pancake restaurant (I've had 5 pancakes during the trip at this point) and had a nice meal.

(Mostly) Sunny Day

Today was nice, a little rain and clouds in the morning but the sun came out for most of the day. Today we went to the American Embassy in Den Haag (The Hague). It was interesting, although the embassy in The Hague isn't complete, because the consulate is in Amsterdam.

After came back to Voorburg and we ate at a typical (I think???) restaurant for lunch. I had kroketten met brood (krokets with bread) and some Chocomel (brand of chocolate milk). It was very good.

Next, we went to have a meeting with the mayor of Leidschendam-Voorburg in the town hall. He gave us a quick overview of the Dutch government, at the national, state, and municipal level. We received some gifts, a bag with some really nice wood pens, a DVD of interesting things in Leidschendam, a sports bottle, among a couple other things.

After we walked to the Huygensmuseum Hofwijck, a very interesting garden and house that was designed by Constantijn Huygen in the 1600's. For more see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofwijck

So I am really liking it over here... I definitely want to live, and/or go to school here someday, it's not a matter of if but when and how. I'll need to practice my Dutch first. Well, we go to Amsterdam tomorrow.

Sunday

Today was pretty nice. It rained all day, but that's fine. Today I woke up at about 8 and caught up on my blog entries (3rd post today!). It was nice having plenty of time this morning. I had a croissant stuffed with ham and cheese and some yoghurt with raisins, corn flakes, and cocoa pebbles (haha).
We went to Madurodam, which is a cool place that is outdoors and has tons of miniatures of sites in the Netherlands. It was really nice to see a lot of the places I won't be able to see and some of the places I will see in advance.
We came back home and hung out for a bit, then we went out to a really nice Greek restaurant, called Kretos. The food was amazing, much better than the "Gyro 'N Kabob" place back home. I had sort of a meat sampler dish, which was great. And of course I washed it down with Spa Rood and a Coca-Cola. That Coke was actually my first soda of the trip, I was trying to stay Dutch as long as possible, so I had been drinking sap (juice) of different kinds, like sinassappelsap (orange juice); as well as melk (milk) and Spa Rood (carbonated water).

Family/Rotterdam Day

Yesterday I had quite a fun day in Rotterdam. First, Joep and I went to Matthijs' house to get him and Daniel. We then walked through the Rijswijk market, basically a farmer's market type thing where they had cheese and stroopwafels and stuff. Then Matthijs' father took us to Rotterdam in his car. We went on the Euromast with him, a tall structure that allows you to see a great view of Rotterdam. We could see the Pannenkoekenboot below us, the Euromast is across the street from it actually. We started to see van der Poel's forming near the boat, so we went down to meet them.

After a lot of hugs and kisses, we got on the boat. We could recognize who was a van der Poel or not by the "Poelen nose" as Matthijs called it. It was very interesting speaking to the family, some who had great English and some who could not speak it at all. I do wish I would have been able to say more in Dutch.

In the boat we had pancakes, we could have as many as we want and put anything we want on them, ranging from fruit to meatballs to cheese. Matthijs showed me the best combination, a pancake with spek (bacon) and stroop (syrup).

The boat sailed through the Rotterdam Harbor, we saw plenty of containers and we went underneath the Erasmusbrug. We saw the place where original Dutch immigrants to America sailed from.

Overall it was great seeing all of the family. Daniel and I received a picture book from the family to take home and remember our day and family. After taking pictures and final goodbyes, we went in a van driven by my cousin André (Rina's son) with his girlfriend, Ron, Rina, Joep, Matthijs, Daniel and I. We went to the original van der Poel house in Rotterdam where my father and all his siblings were born. Very interesting to see!

André dropped us off in Rotterdam Centraal, and we said goodbye to them. Joep, Matthijs, Daniel and I then just strolled through Rotterdam Centraal, looking at shops and stuff. We ended up walking in a huge circle through Rotterdam, because it had been awhile since Joep had been in Rotterdam so he was not exactly sure where the train station was, but we found it fine and it was a nice experience to walk through my family's city!

When we got home, we had a nice dinner (schnitzel) and played some poker after. A friend of Joep's came over and we watched a movie and then I went to bed at 1:00AM (would have been midnight but the time changed).

Daniel trapped in a phonebooth by Joep and Matthijs

A view of Rotterdam from the Euromast

Us on the Euromast, very windy!

The Pannenkoekenboot from the Euromast (zoomed)

My first pancake!

The family!

The van der Poel Huis

Rotterdam Centraal

Antwerpen

On Friday, we went to Antwerpen with the group. But before I say that, I should explain how I got there. First, Eus (Joep's father) and I walked to the bus stop around the corner from their house. We got on the bus and took it to a light rail station. We got on the train, which then converts to a streetcar at a certain point. Then we got off and got on a tram to Den Haag Centraal Station where we met the others. That was where we got on the train to Antwerpen. So basically I experienced three forms of their public transportation in the matter of a half hour, awesome!

So in Belgium we went to the Diamond Museum, ate at an Italian restaurant, went to Rubenshuis, walked around a bit, and that's about it. No need to go into further detail, us Dutch aren't fond of the Belgians (they were actually rude to me) It's Antwerpen, België (Antwerp, Belgium) so this is actually an offtopic post anyway. It was still pretty fun, I would have rather done something else in Holland though.

At Den Haag Centraal Station

Antwerpen