Ok...so I wanted to think of something interesting to do this entry on instead of just rambling about my life. How about lists?! Everyone loves a good list.
THINGS I LIKE ABOUT THE NETHERLANDS:
1) Sweet food! Too bad we have NONE in our house. Except for the chocoladevlokken - which are SO good. These little sprinkles you put on your bread for breakfast with butter...except my host family is not down with the sprinkles so we use these chocolate FLAKES! Delicious way to wake up.
2) Temperature. I am not such a fan of hot weather in America. Once it starts weighing down on me in July I'm ready for fall. I also have an issue with the snow. Leaving my conflicted soul nowhere to go - correct? Wrong! There's the Netherlands! Here it barely snows and never gets super super hot. My kind of weather. Lately it's been pretty chilly (I found out that we're about as far north as Northern Canada (right!?)).
3) I guess this goes with sweet food but I love Diksap. I know it's called syrup or whatever syrup is in Dutch but our bottles say Diksap and I'm 12 years old and think it's hilarious. Either way, Diksap or syrup...is a fruit flavored syrup that you pour in the bottom of your cups and then put in normal water, mineraalwater, or whatever, and it makes it delicious! I guess it's similar to grenadine but they have more flavors. Like appel-zwarte bes (apple blackberry).
4) The biking. Although I am sometimes bitter that we have to bike places (mind you I'm writing this BEFORE I start biking 5 miles to school everyday), I think in general I really enjoy it! My bike is a little bootleg but that's what you get for €75. But then Lord knows you need a €30 BIKE LOCK (they're crazy) plus a €9 kick stand because yours doesn't work. I'll make sure to get my money back at the end of all this. My host mom says I'm getting "fit" and it's not something you can tell yourself. Dank je wel!
5) I wanted to make it an even five of things I like here. But let's face it. I've been here less than two weeks and I've been having a rough time anyway - I'm lucky I squeezed out four!
On to my life: Learning Dutch has moved to the forefront of my home life here in the Netherlands. Birgit and Erik pound me with words nonstop and sometimes it just makes me shut down because I just want to eat my dinner without being quizzed on Dutch silverware names! But sometimes it's manageable. I just can't wait to get to school and have something to do here. These past two weeks have been ridiculous. What did AFS think I'd be doing? Silly silly silly.
There isn't much else to report. Like, take yesterday, for example - I left the house for about 45 minutes total because we biked to the flour mill (not gonna lie, pretty cool) to get flour. It was actually a water mill and stuff! Too bad it was pouring out. The bright side of that, you ask? I got to wear the rain jacket I brought! Goed! Then we went home and I chilled with Into The Wild (something I'm quite frightened will end before schools gets ahold of me. Without a book what am I to do?!).
Today I want to run errands in Veldhoven or Eindhoven or something. I'm supposed to be calling this kid my host parents want me to hang out with so we'll see if that can be made to happen. Here's my list of stuff I need: PILLOWS (here I'm sleeping on like a flat couch pillow and some beanbag-ish thing, not so comfortable), Books (yeah like I said, I need some new ones, and I really doubt my parents want to furnish a trip for like three or four more of my books at home to take a trip to Europe), and a phone card (no money to text or call here in the land of Nether). So homeboy here will serve a dual purpose: companionship and a guide to my domestic needs (how am I supposed to know where to find a pillow?).
And finally, we got word yesterday officially about our trip to BERLIN (gaaaaah)! It will be Oct 22-26 and should be a bucket load of fun! It's only €200 which, for the Americans, shouldn't be that big a deal. Now say...you come from Italy, I guess it may not be worth it (that's like us putting up a stink for a trip to like...Chicago, cool, but not always necessary). I suppose that's good though! The Italians comprise 15 of the 70 kids here right now! That's a lot! We're the next with 10 Americans, and then something ridiculous like the Wallonians (French Belgians)...That's like..."Oh hey guys, yeah I'm going away for a year, I'm doing this thing called foreign exchange in Western Pennsylvania."
crappy quality. I know. But it's the flour mill!
1 comment:
hahaha your blog is great :) it'll get better! although school can be a drag. but it gets easier after the first week. but i read this and i'm laughing cause it's all true! keep it real, see you friday, yes? i'm excited.
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