Let me try to rewind and pick out the most memorable moments from the past 3 weeks of my life in the Netherlands...
Day One:
After landing around 7:00am Amsterdam time, I was met by Fiona, my gastmoeder (host mother) with a lovely painted sign made by her and the kids the night before. From the airport to home, I realized how amazingly green--and flat--the landscape is here! It was quite beautiful. After meeting the three and a half year old twins, Paul and Frank, I was given a grand tour of the 3-story attached house. (Attached, in case you don't know, means that we have two other neighbors whose houses are attached to ours. It's very common here in the Netherlands as there are 16 million people squeezed into a land area slightly larger than Maryland.)
Although I was thoroughly impressed and excited with my house and my host family, I was feeling the jet-lag. I took a three hour nap and felt even more terrible when I woke, but decided to take Huub, my gastvader (host father) up on his offer to show me Hilversum's city centre. To make my first day truly Dutch, Huub decided we would go by bike. I, exhausted and extremely nervous about my first bike experience here, bit the bullet and cautiously followed along. No broken bones or humiliating falls, so I considered it a success.
The rest of the day is really a blur. I remember eating Chinese takeout for dinner (leftovers from the Sunday's traditional dinner), falling in love with stroopwafels (see picture), hanging out with the family, then sleeping for a very long time.
Since that was so long winded, let me just bullet-point the rest:
- Exploring the outdoor market and eating some kind of traditional Dutch fish that is raw and soaked in something that makes it slippery. Not a fan.
- First glance of Amsterdam and first train ride when I met John (amazing friend from Bloomington days) for dinner. Delicious food and drinks were had.
- Meeting Opa (grandpa) and Oma (grandma), who have now become my extended grandparents because they take care of me like their own. Love them.
- Cooking Mexican food for the family--and them loving it.
- Meeting and schmoozing with the neighbor's and friends of the family's at Fiona's 38th birthday party.
- Witnessing Paul dance around the house to girls' pop group, K3 (see below for video), pant-less and in his mom's high heels. SO cute.
- Canal cruise in Amsterdam. Fell in love with the houseboats (seriously, people live on the canals because of the lack of space) and decided that day that I will live in one at some point in my life.
- First night out in Amsterdam at Trouw, a very cool venue. Saw The Field, drank a lot of free beer (thanks to John!), mingled with some Swedes, and topped off the night with some delicious chicken shawarma.
- Beginning my Dutch language courses with seven other au pairs from around Northern Holland. Poured down rain my entire bike ride to the train station, and so naturally, I had mascara all over my face. Old man behind the ticket counter wiped it away for me without me even asking--sweetest thing any stranger has ever done for me!
- Welcoming Sinterklass as his boat arrived on the old canal next to our neighborhood and waving to him as he rode around Hilversum on his white horse.
- Visiting Utrecht, Holland's most central city, and seeing all the beautifully old architecture.
There's so much more to all of that...but too long of gap to explain everything! I hope to update as much blog-worthy stuff as possible in the next year, so stay tuned!
And with that...I leave you with this masterpiece:
