It's July!

Hello! Just a quick update. Tomorrow is my last day at de Regenboog (the elementary school). I printed out some pictures of me and gave the kids my home address in case they want to send me a card or anything. I'm also going to give them little chocolates and I baked a sort from spice cake for the teachers to eat during the break. :) koffie pauze..

Today Harmen, Janjaap and 20 other people biked Rondje Ijsomeer...250 kilometers or about 160 miles, and yes, in one day. :) Race cycling. They're tired, but they made it the whole way! Hoera!

Esme Busch, the person that I'm sharing an apartment with this coming school year, will probably be coming to the Netherlands for a weekend. She is in Belgium right now, so we're going to pick her up with the car! But....before that....
This coming Wednesday I leave for Germany! Rutger, Paula, Harmen and I...the same group that I went to Paris with last year. I'm really excited. We'll be in Germany for 10 days, so most likely I won't have the internet. Weird! :) Oh well, we're going to be camping and we have train tickets for 6 days with the train in one month.

The school trip was fun. I went on a small roller coaster twice and also another ride that was like the YoYo. Chairs that you sit in and you're up in the air going in a circle. After going on the rollercoaster twice and the yoyo thing twice, my stomach was a bit upset. So I sat with the teachers and drank coffee and read a book. Echt gezellig! :D

Well, I have to go to bed. I've got a busy day tomorrow. I just wanted to let you know that I'm still alive and it's going well.

I tried to upload pics, but it just doesn't work, so I'll just have to print them off or email or something. :) Komt wel goed. Now, until the next time! I hope everything is going well! Byyyeeee!!

Update No. 2

Oh let's see where to begin. Well, I'm super busy here, haha. I have something to do basically every day. I'm doing volunteer work at an elementary school and now there is an American boy in the class that I'm helping with. He's a cutie, but a bit quiet. I copy lots of papers and help out in the class. The kids are really nice and if I don't understand something they explain it. The other day I did an art project with the kids, haha. We made a soccer player with a soccer ball for a head, it was really cute. I got my hair cut too! It's pretty short, but really easy to do! Yesterday, Harmen and I went to Den Haag, where Parliament is in the Netherlands. We saw government buildings and where the Queen lives. We also went into a large church, that was no longer used as a church, and there was an exhibition "Stop Child Labor". That was pretty interesting, but I was more interested in seeing the parts that were actually of the church. The weather here is pretty crazy. Today it was sunny, and then all of a sudden for 5 minutes it was pouring down rain and very windy, then it was sunny again. Since I've been here, I've read 6 books.....all in Dutch, haha....the Shopoholic series and a couple other books (Romantic books, there is always love in them!) Haha, it's like watching a chick flick, but instead I'm reading it.
I think almost every day we eat potatoes with dinner, but they're always delicious. :) Haha, I still don't have pictures to put on the site, because my laptop battery is dead. But I'm going to charge it tonight, so hopefully later tonight or tomorrow I'll try to put some pictures up. Well, I've got to go now. I hope everything is going alright there!

Hello! Long time no update! :) Haha......oops! I never have been very good about keeping up to date. I've been in the netherlands now for 3 weeks and one day! Life is a routine. Monday and Tuesday mornings I help out at an elementary school with Group 5 (8/9 year olds). Wednesdays are mainly random things and Thursday I go the whole day to the elementary school and Friday usually in the afternoon. Luckily, school doesn't start until 8:45, but I have to bike about 20 minutes to get there :) It's really amazing here! I don't really have any pictures yet to add, that'll come later :) I've gone shopping a lot too, haha :) Who can resist? Oh yeah! I celebrated my birthday in the Netherlands! It was crazy, the whooooole day people came, but it was really fun! :) Sitting around drinking coffee, talking, everything plus tons of presents :)

Marloes (the sister from Harmen) and I also babysat 2 of their cousins, it was fun! We stayed the night, so after the kids went to sleep we watched a chick flick, hehe, hooray for girls' nights!

Well, I think that is all I have to report for now. More will come later :) I'll try better to update once a week. Oh! One more thing, Harmen, Rutger, Paula and I are going to Germany in July for 10 days! Hoorah, vacation! Okay, now, I will update later (in more or less a week) :) Bye! :D

From D.C. to New York City, baby!

Hello Again! Spamalot was amazingly funny! haha, it was like the Holy Grail movie, but it had quite a few added twists and a lot more music! hahahaha...but D.C. was amazing, we hit up quite a few museums and everything was FREE!!!!! :D:D:D However, tax was a bit high, I think. hehe. We went to the National Archives and saw the Declaration of Independence and went to the National Museum of Natural History, which was filled with fossils and skeletons! :) hehe. The metros in D.C. are fantastic. Almost as good as Paris. They said how long until the next metro and everything was CLEAN! *Added* :) When we were in D.C., Harmen and I decided to walk to the metro station.....which we thought was 6 blocks away, and instead, we got on the right street toward it, thought we were on the wrong one, went back to where we started, and then got on the wrong street, walked for a while and then asked a local....haha, so it took us 2 hours of walking to find the metro! :) Then we went to our first Cocktail party. This was a Christmas Eve Cocktail party. Haha, it was fun, just stand around and eat and drink and you're good. The food was awesome! :) Kyle, Nick, Harmen and I went around at night and saw the National Monument, the Vietnam Memorial, the WWII memorial and the reflecting pool. It was quite cool! :D I forgot to mention, haha, but Harmen and I also walked by the White House and we also saw the Lincoln Memorial! :) All of us hung out at Tony and Michael's place a lot and had awesome food that they made! :D yuumm....(They raise turkeys and we ate one on Christmas Day)...haha....Hmm..Oh yeah! Marissa, Kyle, Nick, Harmen and I all went to the zoo in D.C. It was cool! But probably the coolest thing was seeing the baby cuttlefish being fed! They had these long anntenna-like things that came out of their mouths and snatched the shrimp! There were also Pandas and Pygmey Hippos! haha...also these weird rodent things, elephant shrews, armadillos, oh, just about everything! Well, I just woke up so I'm going to have to wait until Harmen gets back to remember everything we did in D.C. :) So more will be coming later!

Now we are in New York and the subways are pretty gross. Luckily, it's not summer, so the urine smell isn't very noticeable. Hooray! Harmen and I walked around Central Park today and went to a 9 floor Macy's (department store) completely filled with designer clothes....crazy! (and expensive!) Well, I'm definitely never going to live in New York, but it's fun to visit.

More in Boston

Hello Hello...so we were in Boston for two days and in those two days, we went grocery shopping and visited millions of restaurants. Okay, not millions, but quite a few, haha. We took the "T" which is Boston's form of a metro and proceeded to explore the city. Although, friday, I decided to drink Soymilk that was probably expired and combined with eating too much food in one day...I got sick! I threw up all night and it continued on through the next day. Not to mention I had to sit in a car for 8 to 10 hours to get to D.C. while I was sick, haha. But now I'm better and I am no longer throwing up. We arrived in D.C. at two in the morning and slept until 11 :D Yay! But tonight we are going to Spamalot at the National Theatre! But, I've got to get going now, so I'll updat more later.

Hallo Hallo....zo wij zijn twee dagen in Boston geweest en in die twee dagen hebben wij boodschappen gedaan en zijn we naar heel veel restaurants geweest. Wij hebben de "T" genomen. Dat is de "metro" van Boston en daarna hebben wij de stad verkend. Maar, vrijdag heb ik sojamelk gedronken die over datum was en toen ben ik daar erg ziek van geworden. en heb ik vijf keer overgegeven. Maar daarna hebben wij 8 -10 uur in een auto gezeten om naar Washington D.C. te gaan, en was ik de hele weg ziek. Maar nu voel ik me beter. Vandaag gaan wij naar een toneelstuk bij de National Theatre. Het zal leuk zijn! Maar ik moet nu gaan. Later ga ik meer updaten. Doei Doei!

Arrived in Boston

Hey everybody, haha.. Well, I'm in Boston now :) Last night, Kyle, Harmen and I went grocery shopping at 11 at night and ended up going in a circle without finding the grocery store :D Haha, but we did finally find it! aaannndd...I got a Shaw's card...like a safeway or Albertson's card. :) hehehehe....it saved me like 10 bucks, so that was nice. So, Monday, the day before we left for Boston, something exciting happened...I slid off the road! haha, it was crazy! I have some pics, but I haven't put them on my comp yet, so I'll update them a little later. Harmen and I were leaving his place, and the roads had just been plowed, so there was 2 inches of ice that I didn't know about. So I slid 20 feet and ended up with my back end down a slope and my front still on the side of the road. :) So Harmen's host-dad George came and towed us out! :D hehe, then we were on our way to pick up Kyle and now I am here! Well, Kyle, Nick, Harmen and Nick's friend Tommy are all playing Wii right now..haha, then we'll probably go check out Marissa's school. I'll update more later. Merry Almost Christmas Everbody!

Week before Finals/ Week voor finals

Hello Hello. It is the Friday of dead week. Next week finals begin. haha! Buuut....I only have two, and they are both on Tuesday! Crazy, no? Plus, if I get a bullet proof B in Chemistry, I don't have to take the final! (I'm hoping for it)....but yeah, I only have a Chemistry final (at 7:30 a.m.) and a Sacred Journey final at 10:00 a.m. Wish me luck!

After finals, I have to work Saturday and Sunday, then Tuesday, Kyle, Harmen and I are leaving for Boston! Wooohoo! While we are there, we're going to visit Uncle Tony in Washington D.C. and go to New York for a couple days. It should be pretty cool. I've never actually been to the East Coast. Oh! An update, for those I haven't told. I am going back to the Netherlands this summer, but for 3 MONTHS instead of 3 weeks :D I'm excited! Alright, well, that's about all for now. Now, I'm going to attempt to write this in Dutch :D hahaha......See you all!

-------------------------------

Hallo Hallo allemaal, Het is de vrijdag voor studieweek...volgende week begint finals. Maaaar...ik heb alleen twee finals. Hihi, en als ik een "B" in Scheikunde krijg, dan hoef ik niet de toets te maken :) Dat hoop ik wel. Mijn twee finals zijn Scheikunde om 7.30 en "Sacred Journey" om 10.00 uur...ja, zij zijn beide op hetzelfde dag! hahahaha :D Gek, nee?

Na finals, moet ik werken op zaterdag en zondag, maar dindsdag vliegen harmen, kyle en ik naar Boston! Woohoo! Terwijl wij daar zijn gaan wij mijn Oom Tony bezoeken in Washington D.C. en ook naar New York voor een paar dagen...Ik ben nog nooit naar de OostKust geweest..Oh ja! En voor de mensen die ik niet verteld heb, ik ga vanzomer naar Nederland nu voor 3 MAANDEN en niet alleen 3 weken :) Ik heb heel erg veel zin erin! Oke, maar dat is alles voor nu. Tot horens! Plezier!