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.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Sunday, March 30, 2008
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).
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
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Leuk dag!
I'm editing this post for 27 March right now and it's really late (23:44 as I start this), but I want to do it because if I don't do it tonight I'll be even more behind because Saturday will be pretty busy.
Yesterday we went to Scheveningen. But first Joep and I rode to school on bikes, which was very fun! It is a lot different and more hectic when riding over here, but it could have been a lot worse had we been in a larger city.
We walked from the school to a bus stop and just got on the bus. I really love how simple and easy the public transportation is here, more on that later.
We arrived in Scheveningen and we made it to Scheveningen Prison, where we were going to get a tour. The man that gave us the tour was very informative, and I really like the Dutch prison system because it reflects the Dutch outlook on society. The system is a lot different than America, because near the end of an inmate's sentence, they are put into the open system which helps them transition back into the real world. The open system helps the inmate secure employment, and then they are actually allowed to leave the prison for work and return to prison after work. On the weekends they are allowed to return home. The Dutch are very relaxed about this and they hardly have any trouble with people not returning to the prison. The Dutch system is also very different in that if an inmate escapes, it is not a crime for him to do so, so the prison sentence just continues when he is captured and no additonal time is added unless the inmate commits a crime while escaped. The prison is home to the International Criminal Court and has a U.N. Detention unit, which has housed infamous prisoners such as Slobodan Milošević, the former Yugoslavian president convicted of war crimes. A very unique thing for us was that we were actually able to go inside a prison cell that was used by the Nazi's when the Netherlands was taken over. The Nazi's kept some Dutch prisoners there, and they were executed nearby. In the cell there were poems written on the wall for their loved ones and tally marks for the days that they had been there, very chilling. This cell is actually only open a couple times a year because it is owned by a organization for the family members of those executed, so it was even more unique for us. There is much more to tell about the prison, it was very interesting, but as of now I can't really think of more to type.
After the prison tour, we made our way to Scheveningen Blvd. where we ate lunch at a seaside restaurant (it was cloudy and raining). I had an "aged cheese" sandwich, which was very good and my brother Daniel had kroketten, which I wish I would have gotten now that I know how it tastes.
We then got on a tour bus to Hoek van Holland and Maeslantkering. The Maeslantkering is very interesting, we were able to observe it and saw a demonstration of it on a small scale model. It is used to block the opening of the port of Rotterdam during very strong storms to fight against flooding. More can be read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maeslantkering
After coming back to the school, we rode our bikes home in the rain, (fun!) and soon after we decided to go out to get something to eat. So Joep, his father, and I drove to Leidschenhage, a nearby shopping mall, to get some food. We went to HapSnap (a common snack shop that sells kroketten) and McDonalds (theirs is a lot nicer and the food is really good, actually the salad menu is a lot bigger over here than in America) and we brought the food back home for the family. We ate, Joep and I played some poker online, and that's about it.
We walked from the school to a bus stop and just got on the bus. I really love how simple and easy the public transportation is here, more on that later.
We arrived in Scheveningen and we made it to Scheveningen Prison, where we were going to get a tour. The man that gave us the tour was very informative, and I really like the Dutch prison system because it reflects the Dutch outlook on society. The system is a lot different than America, because near the end of an inmate's sentence, they are put into the open system which helps them transition back into the real world. The open system helps the inmate secure employment, and then they are actually allowed to leave the prison for work and return to prison after work. On the weekends they are allowed to return home. The Dutch are very relaxed about this and they hardly have any trouble with people not returning to the prison. The Dutch system is also very different in that if an inmate escapes, it is not a crime for him to do so, so the prison sentence just continues when he is captured and no additonal time is added unless the inmate commits a crime while escaped. The prison is home to the International Criminal Court and has a U.N. Detention unit, which has housed infamous prisoners such as Slobodan Milošević, the former Yugoslavian president convicted of war crimes. A very unique thing for us was that we were actually able to go inside a prison cell that was used by the Nazi's when the Netherlands was taken over. The Nazi's kept some Dutch prisoners there, and they were executed nearby. In the cell there were poems written on the wall for their loved ones and tally marks for the days that they had been there, very chilling. This cell is actually only open a couple times a year because it is owned by a organization for the family members of those executed, so it was even more unique for us. There is much more to tell about the prison, it was very interesting, but as of now I can't really think of more to type.
After the prison tour, we made our way to Scheveningen Blvd. where we ate lunch at a seaside restaurant (it was cloudy and raining). I had an "aged cheese" sandwich, which was very good and my brother Daniel had kroketten, which I wish I would have gotten now that I know how it tastes.
We then got on a tour bus to Hoek van Holland and Maeslantkering. The Maeslantkering is very interesting, we were able to observe it and saw a demonstration of it on a small scale model. It is used to block the opening of the port of Rotterdam during very strong storms to fight against flooding. More can be read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maeslantkering
After coming back to the school, we rode our bikes home in the rain, (fun!) and soon after we decided to go out to get something to eat. So Joep, his father, and I drove to Leidschenhage, a nearby shopping mall, to get some food. We went to HapSnap (a common snack shop that sells kroketten) and McDonalds (theirs is a lot nicer and the food is really good, actually the salad menu is a lot bigger over here than in America) and we brought the food back home for the family. We ate, Joep and I played some poker online, and that's about it.
Me at Scheveningen
Old gate of Scheveningen Prison
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Travel / Eerste Dag
We arrived early today at Schiphol with no problems. Both flights went fine, they were just pretty long and boring. Daniel left my Slaughterhouse-Five book on the first flight :O So that is why I don't trust him with things like that, hahaha...
Upon arriving, we got our luggage and met with Vivienne and some Dutch students that didn't have exams. We got on a nice bus and travelled to Leidschendam-Voorburg. The ride there was about 45 minutes, and it was really cool seeing the Dutch landscape.
We went to Dalton School Voorburg and we got talked to by the headmaster, observed Dalton hours, and went to a couple classes. We then had lunch with all of the Dutch kids hosting and the other travelers. Note in the picture below: that is only approximately a third of the bicycles parked at the Dalton school.
After we took a short walk to the Vlieger, an original windmill from the 1600's. We got a tour of the inside of it and got a little history of it. The coolest part though was just seeing the Dutch landscape with random canals and little rivers all over the place, and a ton of biciclists.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Almost....
Less than a week now! Getting pretty excited...
While I'm over there, I'd like for people to respond, if you want, to my blog entries. If you want to leave a comment, click below an entry on the comment number. You can leave your name or you can do it as anonymous and identify yourself in the comment.
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