From Holland to Canada

This is it. It is my very last blog. I am the world’s worst procrastinator but I am trying to change that so here it finally is.

I have thought about this last blog countless times and every time I am in a different mood and it always changes. Sometimes I just want to be back in Holland with the people I love but then other days I want to stay here with more people I love. Life isn’t always easy and I have learned you can’t always take the easy way out either.

I have been home for a month now. I can’t believe it. It has been a fast month but it also feels like a long one too. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think of my life in Holland. My first three weeks home were crazy because we were moving and there was so much to do. It was so weird moving from my home in Holland to my home in Canada and then to another foreign house that is now almost my home. Changes. Life just keeps moving and when I first arrived home, it was very evident. Every time I drive to town, which is a much longer drive than from the other house, I think of Holland just because for almost half of the road, either way you look there is a field or a farm on either side of the road and I always laugh to myself and think of the crammed but cute Holland and how you would never see that there. However the downside is the wind blows and it smells awfully like cow crap and it’s not the smell I really desire but oh well.

Biking was a daily part of my life in Holland so when I came home I was really eager to go biking however after going once, I already had a flat tire so I finally went again yesterday, after a friend fixed my bike tire. It wasn’t the smoothest ride I have to admit but my bike performed marvellously nonetheless. 🙂 I still really miss my girl bike I used in Holland though, I have to get used to swinging my leg over the seat instead of just gracefully sliding on and off.

If my host parents read this, I have to tell them that the peanut butter is 100 times better in Holland than here! I never noticed before but when I tried it at home, it didn’t taste so good so now I’ve eliminated peanut butter from my diet. :p

Another Dutch thing that I have brought here is only using one comforter in bed other than a sheet and blankets. It is much too annoying to have the sheet and it falls off my bed every night anyway so it’s a lost cause I guess.

Every Sunday I am always thinking back to Holland. I still haven’t fully adjusted to my church but it is getting better. When I was in Holland, I loved my church but I was looking forward to my church back home too but now that I am home, I really miss my International church. I guess you never know what you got until it’s gone.

I still have stuff to organize in my head since I have been home…such as finding my place here and in my family and with God, because sometimes it feels I left Him in Holland but everything will work out in time.

I hope that everyone in Holland is well. I miss you all and hope to see you in the future.

For all my friends reading this, see you around.

Lots of love,

Bec.

 

.thoughts.

There are only three weeks left of this experience and when I was thinking about what to write this week on my blog I wasn’t sure what to say so I think I am just going to post some random thoughts of this experience and my homes, both here and in Canada. I am not really sure what I will be writing about but this will be one of the last posts.

First of all, I love Holland. I definitely think I could live here and make a permanent residence however what stops me is my family and friends. Holland is really far away from Canada so if something bad happened and I needed to go home, it isn’t always an option to just fly over because it is a long flight and expensive. If I was just starting here by myself, it may not be possible to fork out 950£ to fly home. My family means a lot to me so I don’t know if moving so drastically far away from them is right for me.

Another thing that I have discovered here in Holland is who my best friends are. Keeping in touch with people isn’t one of my best skills but I do try. My very best friend is my sister, she is basically my diary and I tell her and God almost all of the same things. And even though she isn’t with me, I don’t think I could have made it through this experience without her. It is the same with God in my life, except He IS with me all of the time, I could not have made it through this without him either, especially at the beginning when I was having such a big transition. God has truly blessed my life.

For a little bit of Holland…transportation. It’s official that I STRONGLY dislike the bus system, however I love the train. I had mastered the bus system up until a week ago when the bus schedules were completely changed. Saturday night I was checking my bus schedule home and there was no schedule so I wasn’t too impressed and then later than night I was talking to a friend and I commented that I haven’t been in a car since June, so I haven’t worn a seatbelt in a month. The following day when I was going to the bus stop to go to church, a different bus came to pick me up and it turns out that the bus I have been taking for the past 6 months, the 100, is no longer going to Hilversum anymore and I now always have to walk to the bus station to go on the bus and take the 320. Walking to the bus station isn’t a big deal but just takes more time and a bit more planning. So when I arrived at the bus station, the bus driver told me I had to wear a seatbelt, a new feature added to the new buses and the driver wouldn’t start driving until my seatbelt was on. I was not too impressed I must say.

Another form of Dutch transportation is the bike, the ‘fiets’ in Dutch. People use the bike everyday and it is hardly used for leisure purposes however I try to go for a bike ride once a day with the dog but it has been raining for the past week. So I have been itching to go biking and yesterday was the first dry day so I was really excited to go biking again so I went as soon as I could with the dog and it was so nice. It had only been four days that I hadn’t been on the bike but it felt like so much longer. That is something that for sure never happened in Canada.

Now I am brought to the weather. Holland is known for it’s rain however I would say that it isn’t what everyone thinks. Yes, it does rain here but it is more spontaneous rain and it could start raining when the sun is shining, completely unexpected and then stop and then 10 minutes later, you could have a 5 minute hail shower. The weather here is just unpredictable, always changing. My dad emailed me and was telling me about the weather in Canada, how hot it is and that they haven’t had any rain and only 2 mm worth in a month or something along those lines and that the A/C is working full time. However here is completely opposite. It rained for almost a week straight and we have had enough rain in a week that we usually get in a month and it is not hot here now. Sometimes it gets warm but it usually only lasts for a day. Arnold even put the heater on this week so we really are completely opposite. However this spring was basically summer here, almost up to 30 degrees and then in Canada it was still in the negatives with snow. I remember talking to my parents and there was snow outside and I was in shorts and a tank top. All of this unusual weather.

I have to say that I am looking forward to coming home. I can’t wait to see my family, friends and my dog because it seems like it’s been a really long time yet it has gone so fast. I am excited to play the piano again, that is if I still can because I haven’t found a real piano yet since I have been here. There have been some keyboards but I must have been too spoiled with real pianos all my life so I can’t play on keyboards. I am looking forward to Saturday Dunnville trips with my sister and doing the dishes at night with a family member and singing to some awesome music, not that I want to do dishes every night but I am looking forward to doing them. I can’t wait to drive again, I won’t be the best driver at first but I’m sure I will get it right fast enough.

I will miss Holland too though. My host family here is fantastic so I will miss them a lot. I will miss the smallness of Holland, I have been in almost every province of Holland since I have been here and I have not travelled Canada at all but I do hope to change that when I get home. I will miss the ‘safe’ option of biking everywhere. There are bike paths everywhere and bikers have the right of way, even though you still watch out for cars, you don’t have to wait at a road crossing for 10 minutes for cars to stop. I love the oldness of all of the houses here and the preservation of trees in villages. Holland is really clean, at least what I have experienced. There are street cleaners like in all large Canadian cities but also here in the small ones and about once a month, workers come around and clean up around the trees cut them back gently if needed, they just do a really good job. I will miss the friends that I have made here, they have all been so amazing and have made my experience so much better. My church here is really great too and I will miss the worship there too. Another fun thing I will miss is the markets every weekend, they are so much fun just to browse and they are so much cheaper, it’s so great.

I am sure everyone is familiar with the youtube video, ‘Charlie bit my finger,’ well the boys here are very familiar with it too and it has become a bit of an obsession with them. They are always try to talk in an English accent, copying that movie but it doesn’t work so well because they have their own Dutch accent but it is so funny. Yesterday we were on the trampoline and Tim was hurt by Daan and then Tim says in his best English accent and says, ‘Daan, that really hurt.’ Now it is an ongoing joke every time someone is injured, which happens a lot with two boys but it seems to help ease the pain.

So three weeks to go and then I will be home.

Tot straks,
Doei.

Bec

weekends.

Once again, my apologies for not blogging. I skyped my family this weekend and they said that I should blog more frequently however I am home a month from today so the urge to blog/email people isn’t the same as when I first arrived here because I know I will be home soon but enough of this, I will tell you all about my Netherland adventures. 🙂

On Canada Day, two friends and myself, one being a Canadian, went to Amsterdam to celebrate Canada Day because there was supposed to be a bar that celebrated it however when we arrived at the bar, they hadn’t heard of Canada day until that day so the plans fell through a little bit but we definitely made the most of it and still had an amazing night and we even met a few Canadians too. That night I missed my last bus home so I had to stay at a friends house and we weren’t in bed until three and then we had to get up the next morning to go back to Amsterdam and do some souvenir shopping with another friend so I had my first coffee that morning! However, I wouldn’t really qualify it as coffee because half of it was sugar and milk but it did work tremendously.

While souvenir shopping, I did pick up some pretty cool things such as new sunglasses but I only got one souvenir and it was for my sister’s boyfriend so he should feel pretty special. 🙂

Sunday after church, a friend and myself didn’t feel like going home and we felt like going on the train so when we got to the train station we decided we’d take the next train out and we ended up in Utrecht! So we walked around and walked through the market and had a lot of fun together but I had to be home at 5.30 to skype my parents so the plan was working smoothly until on my bus ride home. There was a fair in a town the bus driver had to take a 10 minute detour and then I had to walk home another 10 minutes so I was home late and my parents weren’t even there yet! They had some troubles of their own though after church so all was forgiven, no worries.

Now we have moved on to the next weekend already and this one was again a blast.

I received a text this week saying I needed to top up my phone here or the account would close. I wasn’t too impressed about that because I haven’t put any money yet on my phone since my arrival and I was hoping I could last until I leave so I just bought a 10€ card and when I put it on my phone, I found out that with the company I have, it matches the amount you buy free. So I bought a 10€ card but I now have 20€ on my phone. I wish we had that in Canada.

Friday night there was a wedding at my church so a friend and myself went to it just so I could experience all of Holland and go to a Dutch wedding. This wedding was so nice, it was small and cute and I just loved it all. When the bride and groom went out we blew bubbles for them and it was simply a beautiful wedding. After the wedding we went to my friends house and went for a walk in the park and in this park, there are cows that can just walk around wherever they please and they are pretty much only there as lawn mowers, certainly a little different from home. On our way back from the walk, we saw some people fishing and had actually caught a fish so we watched as they were reeling in the fish and it is now official that Holland guys, at least the one’s that were there are wuss’s and here is why. When they picked up the fish, they used a towel so they wouldn’t touch it with their hands and THEN they used pliers to get the hook out of the mouth so they wouldn’t touch it again! I was going to go down there and show them how it is done but the smell of marijuana was rather strong so I decided against it, all the same though, they aren’t real men if they don’t touch the fish with their bare hands.

Saturday we headed to Delft and went to the market and all the shops there and then to Den Haag to go to the beach. We first looked through the market and I found the coolest item! It was a brochure for  people from the Netherlands to come to Canada by boat. Unfortunately I didn’t find a date on it and it was really expensive but it was amazing to just stumble across it at all. In Delft I got some more souvenirs and some more stuff for myself and I am starting to wonder weather or not I will be able to fit all of my crap in my bags to come home, but I will worry about that when the time comes. On Saturday I was allergic to steps it seemed, I tripped on every one, and in one restuarant we went to I actually fell down the stairs so it made the day really interesting.

We went to the beach in Den Haag and it was hot but really nice. When we were at the beach, there were lounge chairs everywhere and wind breakers too so we just laid on them but about a half an hour later, someone approached us and said that the chairs were only for rent. We had to pay 10€ per chair and another 5€ for the windbreaker so we were like, ‘no thanks,’ so we walked down the beach and layed on a different company’s chairs and we were on them for almost an hour before we got kicked off. After we were fried in the sun, we went for a walk and watched people bungy jump over the sea.

God was good to me this weekend.

See you all in a month. Tot straks,

Bec

p.s I turned into a super women this weekend 😉

Celebrations

Summer has taken a break here and has switched to rain and colder temperatures but the boys energy level doesn’t go down with the weather so it’s been very busy here. Tomorrow, June 25, the boys celebrate their birthday’s so the energy level has increased about 75 percent due to excitement.

Tim is more of a dramatic boy but of course he loves to have fun and whenever it’s not raining, we always go on the trampoline. He is also more of a boy who follows the rules and should be a policeman. Daan is a bit of a sparky one who loves to accept any challenge but he also enjoys being a challenge so between the two of them, life is never boring.

Just before Father’s Day, we were talking at the supper table and Daan said, we have Father’s Day but when is kids day? And a couple weeks ago, I wasn’t having a really good day so when one other thing went wrong I sighed and said, ‘oh this really isn’t my day’… Daan quickly asked me, ‘well what day is it then Rebecca?’ 🙂

This week we were having breakfast and I am leaving soon so Madelon and I were talking about the next new au pair (still to be determined) and Tim looked at me and said, ‘I don’t want you to go Bec, I want you to stay.’ At that point in my life I would have to say I was speechless. I didn’t know what to say to him.

Since my sister had been here, Tim has decided to carry on the name Bec. My family here always called me Rebecca, and they all still do except Tim, now it is different all the time but typically it is Bec or Rebec. He doesn’t seem to like the ca.

Celebrating birthday’s in school’s here is a big production. This morning I got up early to make some strawberry milkshakes for Tim and Daan’s whole class and teacher. Here in the Netherlands when it is your birthday, you bring a treat for the whole class and everyone celebrates with you and for your birthday party, you don’t just go to their house, you go to an amusement park for kids of some kind of workshop for kids so it is a big deal. When I came to school with Madelon to bring the boys their milkshakes, Tim and Daan were waiting outside, as pumped as ever. When we came into the classroom the whole class sings happy birthday and then the class comes up and dances around them and they get cards and go around the whole school to each classroom and all the teachers give them something and the boys give them a chocolate so it is quite the celebration here but certainly a lot of fun.

Tomorrow is their actual birthday so I get to give them their birthday presents, a whole bunch of water games so hopefully the weather improves so we can use them.

I hope everyone in Canada is having a great summer and I will see you all in 47 short days.

Rebecca

 

Pinkpop

Hello Everyone!

First of all, my apologies for taking so long to write this blog but it’s been really busy around here in the Netherlands. There is once again too much to catch up on so I will just give a rough run through of the past three weeks and then I will jump to the Pinkpop.

My parents came on May 15 and left on the 25th. If you read my last blog, you probably noticed it was a little bit obsessive with awesome Lindeboom materials which was one thing we did when they were here. We also went to Amsterdam, Maastricht, Urk, Laren, Utrecht and we had a fun time together. When I was with them I also completed another achievement, I have used all public transport in the Netherlands. I have used the plane, bus, train, water ferry, taxi, and with my parents I completed it with the tram. It was pretty exciting. The Tuesday they were still here, I took part in a town walk with the boys, the ‘Avondvierdaagse’ where you walk 5K for four nights and the kids eat a lot of junk food. It was a lot of fun and their were so many kids, it was great. I even got a sweet medal for doing it. 🙂

The next week the boys were off school so we were busy together and on Thursday my sister came for a visit so we were busy together too. Friday she slept really long due to her jet-lag so we did some tanning and then went to a nearby town to do some shopping and it was quite successful. Saturday we headed off to Utrecht and climbed the Dom and did some more shopping and it was a great day. Sunday the rain came so we went to church and hung out around home and she helped me with the boys when I had to work so it was really great.

My sister left on Tuesday and on Friday I went to Hilversum to sleep at a friends because we were going to leave early in the morning to get a good campsite at the Pinkpop Festival. The plan for the morning was to leave at 8 to be there around 10.30, giving us an hour and a half of extra time just in case traffic was bad or something. In the morning one friend was sick so we sadly had to leave her behind but Kat and I were pumped to get the weekend started. Everything was going smoothly until we were about an hour and a half in and there was an accident on the highway and the highway ended up being closed down so we had to wait for an hour for things to start moving again.

Once the accident was all cleaned up, we kept on going however it went slow because their were so many people going there. We didn’t arrive their until one o’clock, 5 hours later. We didn’t get the good campsite. There were 4 different sections, A-D and we could take C or D so we took C because we thought it would be closer but it was oddly the farthest away from the actual place where the bands played, it was a 35 minute walk but their was free busing and it wasn’t too bad. It was raining when we got their but not too hard and when we were going to set up our tent, it was really confusing, the instructions were in Dutch and we had no idea what the tent was supposed to look like because it clearly wasn’t a normal one. After asking our neighbours to help and our neighbours asking some more neighbours for help, 6 people finally figured it out. It was great.

Once we made it to the festival area, with the help of our great neighbours, we saw some bands, Lifehouse, Simple Plan(Kat’s favourite), Elbow and Coldplay. All of the bands on Saturday did an amazing job and it was a packed audience. We went to the stage an hour early so we could get a good spot for the performance and it was definitely worth it. During the day we met some really nice people, it was a lot of fun because whenever you are waiting in a line people hear us speak English so they ask where we are from and it was a lot of fun having lots of random conversations with people and then you never see them again. It was fun. That night however was the coldest night ever. It went down to 6 degrees and I am pretty sure my face got frost bite, it was aweful but the weekend was worth it.

On Sunday there weren’t a lot of bands that we knew so the day felt a little longer but it was a lot of fun that day none the less. In the morning we made it to the first perfmormane at the main stage, Hurts and we got front row so we decided we would try to keep those spots until the Kings of Leon performance at night but that didn’t last long, we didn’t even watch the whole Hurts show. That day we went to a lot of different bands because we didn’t know many of them so we jsut kept bouncing from one to the other and heard an odd few songs that we knew. Sunday we saw Hurts, Hanson, Tim Knol, Cage the Elephant, Wolfmother, Laura Jansen, Avenged Sevenfold and Kings of Leon. Once again we got good spots at the last concert, Kings of Leon and we met a couple people there while waiting. One guy I was talking to from Belgium asked me where I came from and I said Canada and he said, ‘oh, isn’t Canada really small?’ I guess he doesn’t know his geography too well. That night we went out with our neighbours and had a blast!

Monday morning we woke up pumped for the day because their were bands that we knew. Monday morning we packed up the inside of our tent and brought everything to the car and then we were going to leave the tent for later in the day. In the afternoon we heard Scouting for Girls and then saw Plain White T’s, Eliza Doolittle and Go Back to the Zoo. After that we went back to our campsite and we took down our tent and brought it to the car because we were leaving right after the last concert that night because I had to work the next day. When we came back we saw the Script, Kaiser Chiefs, Thirty Seconds to Mars and then we got a spot for the Foo Fighters. We weren’t big fans of the Foo Fighters so we only stayed for one song and then left and as we were walking away, it started raining so it turned into a bit of a run. We made it home at one and went straight to bed which was a huge improvement from the ground and I then had the pleasure of getting out of bed at 6.30 to get ready for the day with the boys because they were off school.

So now the Pinkpop has come and gone and it was a lot of fun. I would definitely do it again next year if I lived here but that most likely isn’t going to happen.

On the Saturday of the Pinkpop, the two month mark passed so I now have less than two months here and I will be in Canada! I am not too sure yet how I feel about that but see you in two months.

Thanks for reading,
tot straks.

Rebecca Lindeboom

.Lindeboom.

Hello all.

So there has been a lot of things going on this week. My parents have arrived safely here from Canada and to be honest, I didn’t recognize my mom at first because her hair was a different colour but it is nice to see them.

I have done quite a bit with them but I am just going to tell you my highlight right now because honestly I can’t wait until the end because it is just so exciting.

One word sums it up really well, I hope you are ready for it.

Lindeboom

Oh yes.

One more time just so you can get the full effect,

Lindeboom.

First, for those who don’t know, it is translated as a Linden Tree and, there is one growing outside my house on Lindenlaan. Isn’t that just awesome? Well, there’s more. Friday we were going to head down to Limburg and get some Lindeboom beer but little did we know that the day would turn in to much more. We went to Maastricht and did some window shopping and walked through the market and we went into the very large grocery chain, the Albert Heijn looking for Lindeboom beer because you can only get it in Limburg. You may wonder why you can only get Lindeboom beer in Limburg, I will tell you, it is just too amazing, the rest of Holland can’t handle it’s awesomeness. That’s it. But back to the weekend, we couldn’t find the beer in the Albert Heijn, they were smaller stores so they don’t carry too many choices of alcohol. Then we passed a little beer store that my mom pointed out and we found Lindeboom beer, we bought three bottles. We weren’t fully enjoying Masstricht so we decided to head down to the Lindeboom brewery and I just happened to have the address in my purse.

While we were driving there, we passed a Lindeboom restaurant and that just got us more excited. When we went were at the store of the brewery we told the guy there that we were Lindeboom’s so we got coasters and balloons for free and they all said Lindeboom on them. We didn’t get the beer for free but that doesn’t matter. We bought a few more beers and they had the new label on them so that we exciting too. After the excitement died down we asked the guy where a nice place to go and to look around, we ended up going to Thorn. In Thorn we walked around the town and it was really nice. We decided to stop at a little pub there and to our surprise, they had Lindeboom beer, three beers were ordered and when the waitress found out we were Lindeboom’s, she really hooked us up with some sweet stuff. We ended up leaving there with an amazing Lindeboom flag, more coasters with a Lindeboom coaster holder, a Lindeboom apron and Lindeboom cups and we had a picture with the Lindeboom gear and the waitress even brought out a Lindeboom umbrella! We left that town with a tonne of joy.

So that’s it. It’s been a good week and my parents really like it here too. It has been a lot of fun and my sister is coming on June 2, more to look forward to. On Wednesday I have exactly two and a half months left here, I can’t believe it. So much has happened and it has been a lot of fun here.

See you all in August.

tot straks,

Becca

het leven is goed

This past weekend I had the pleasure of hanging out with a Canadian, again. We decided we would go to Keukenhof, even though I’ve already been there. There is supposed to be a field of tulips of all different colours and the first time I went there, it wasn’t in bloom yet so I hoped to see it this time. However, we were too late and the tulip field was already dead due to the crazy weather we are having. It was so hot on Saturday so we weren’t really in the mood to walk all day so we only stayed at Keukenhof for a bit. I didn’t take any pictures either because I was NOT having a good picture/face day so there are no pictures to show of me. Our bus took us to the aiport where we had lunch and cooled down in the AC becasue the bus we were on was about 40 degrees because so many people were packed into it. Then we decided we would go to Amsterdam and have a look around, we just made our train. When we got to Amsterdam we decided to go on a boat tour and our boat driver was a 75 year old lady and to be honest, I was concerned at first. Things went smoothly though until…we hit another boat. We all survived though with no casualties, just some new dents.

When we decided to head home we almost missed our train again. We first went to the wrong platform so we had to literally run to the other side of the station to catch the right one. We got our exercise for the day.

The 11th of May is a rather important day; first, it is my best friends birthday and it is also exactly three months until I leave on August 11. It’s pretty crazy. It also was a really fun day with the boys.

My bike sadly has a flat tire so I haven’t been able to bike for a week but Daan had soccer yesterday so we had to bike there. I had to use Arnold’s bike and the seat was up to my waist and it couldn’t be lowered. When I finally got on the bike, I could barely reach the peddles, not to mention, the ground. That was an adventure. When Tim and I picked up Daan from soccer, Tim sneezed and then wiped his hands together than grabbed my hand to hold it. Great. I even thought he would do that but that’s what soap is for. 🙂

Tim gave me the cutest note yesterday. He tried to write it in English:

He alavjoe ent hit is Tim hie alavjoe Rebecca veriemats. 

Translation: Hey. I love you and it is Tim. He loves Rebecca very much.

Adorable.

So this weekend is going to be awesome. I am seeing Robin Mark at my church and I am going to Kinderdijk AND my parents are coming on Sunday! I can’t wait. However, that does mean that I have to clean my room and that is going to be a challenge. 😛

In my Dutch class we learned about the provinces down in the Netherlands and while I am here, Iwill be visiting 9 out of 12 of them! That’s more than I have visited in Canada and we have less provinces.

That’s all for now.

Thanks for reading

Rebecca

ninety-nine days

As of today I have 99 days left in Holland. I cannot believe it. I’m down to double digits and this Saturday marks my four months here.

Wow.

This past weekend was Queen’s Day. It is the day of the previous queen’s birthday, April 30 and it is Hollands most celebrated day of the year. In Amsterdam they expect 10,000 people and I was one of them. On Friday my friend Kat and I started the celebration early in Amsterdam and we were going to come home later and sleep at Kitty’s house in Hilversum.  We were really scared that in Amsterdam we were going to be pick pocketed because of the huge amounts of people and we couldn’t use the lockers at the station and we had our backpacks and purses. We were going to meet Eric and is friend, two fellow Canadians travelling Germany and Holland and hang out in Amsterdam. When we met up, neither of us had a plan so Kat and I took them through the Red Zone and had some dinner and drinks. It wasn’t as busy as we were expecting so we didn’t get pick pocketed, thankfully. Then we decided to find the I Amsterdam sign but it turned out to be on the other side of Amsterdam it seemed. So we walked for 45 minutes and we didn’t find it. We sat down for a few minutes on an artificial grass hill and then we had to leave to be back at the train station on time so we turned the corner and there it was! We found it around 10.30 so the pictures aren’t the best.

While we were walking back we saw a group of older people maybe in their 60’s and they were really drunk. They were stumbling around and laughing and it was hilarious.

I’m being a little bit scarce on details here because too much happened to write it all down.

Saturday morning came around and Kat and I were awake at 7.30 AM. We weren’t too  impressed about that but we also didn’t think we were allowed upstairs because Kitty’s families kids were still home so we just took some quizzes on my ipod and we came up with some extraordinary data; I will live to be 103 and Kat has a golden brain! It seems we are exceptional people. 😉

I’m not usually this happy in the morning…

After sitting in Kitty’s room for two hours we were getting a little bored and hungry so we didn’t hear anyone upstairs anymore so decided to go upstairs until just as we were going up, the door opened upstairs! We ran back into Kitty’s room and it was only Kitty saying we could go upstairs if we wanted and that it didn’t matter. That was good to know after two hours of doing nothing but it was fun anyways. So we had breakfast and then worked on our tans outside and I went on the trampoline with Eric and got my morning exercise so it was nice.

We went back to amsterdam in the afternoon and on the train I realized I forgot my camera! So I have no pictures to show you of the huge masses of people in Amsterdam, you will have to wait until they are uploaded on fb by my friends. But I have never seen so many people before in my life and everyone was wearing orange, it was awesome.

Walking from one square to the next was a slow process so we didn’t go very far and the roads were covered in broken beer bottles and cans and garbage so I got beer all over my feet. It was too busy for us so we went back to Hilversum in the late afternoon to grab some dinner. The following day was Kitty’s birthday so we all got a drink that night and cheered on Kitty. I didn’t really want a drink because they were so expensive but I had to for Kitty so I got a 6 € cocktail and I was expecting it in a big glass but no. I got a dinky plastic cup that was filled half way with ice and I wasn’t too happy about it, however, it tasted good and it was for Kitty so it was worth it.

Sunday we were awake early again so we headed off to church.

I have half of this week off because the boys are at the cottage with their Oma and Opa so Eric and Brad paid me a little visit on Monday. We had planned to go to the beach because I live close but it was cold that day. It was really windy so I was wearing my sweatpants and sweater zipped all the way up with the hood on so their was no way I was going in that freezing water. I think I am just used to the hot weather, not cold. Eric went in the water though so Brad and I just watched from the shore because there was no way I was going in. We went back to my house and then to town in search of a homemade stroop waffel for them but we didn’t succeed. However they did get some Dutch mother’s day cards so one less thing to do in Canada. They left at 5.30 that day and I will see them again in three months. It was so nice being with other Canadians, especially from my hometown. I was sad to see them leave but I am seeing the Tammings tonight so more Canadians just keep coming. 🙂

As a side note, you know you are in Holland when you can go to Mc Donalds and get a McKroket and Mc Flurry that is stroop waffel flavour. It is awesome.

Back to my week though.

Tuesday I had to say goodbye to a really good friend. She had to leave earlier than planned so this was our last weekend together. My friends and I met her at the trainstation and then wished her well before she left. It didn’t and still doesn’t seem real to me that she is gone. I will see her in June again but she will still be really missed. I’m blessed here with great friends so it was one hard goodbye with more ahead.

-don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened-

Three months to go, four down. God is good to me.

Just a shout out to my friends in Canada who read this, gefeliciteerd (congratulations) on being done your first year of uni/college or who graduated!!

God Bless.

Tot ziens,
Becca

Easter

I hope everyone had an amazing Easter. I certainly did. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures this weekend so this blog won’t have many.

On Friday morning I joined Madelon and the boys for some shopping in town. One of our last stops was at the shoe store to buy the boys some Birkenstocks. Obviously I was super jealous but I didn’t say that. We found shoes for both the boys and Madelon and then she said, do you want a pair, I’ll buy them for you. I was so stunned and after she reassured me it was fine, I got my first pair of Birkenstocks!!! 😀 (and probably last) Sooo exciting! I was and still am so happy that I finally have a pair.

Friday afternoon I hung out with a friend. First we went to the store to get some orange accessories for Queen’s Day and then we went down to the beach. It was so hot so we went to the pier and I got a nice burn. After that we had some dinner and ice cream to cool down and we made our way to church for the Good Friday service. It was a service that I had never experienced before. When you walked in, their were two people singing up front with just a guitar and their were tables set up around the sanctuary with two people sitting at them. We just sat down in the normal chairs and then their are Bible verses on the screen. You can go to the tables whenever you want and I went up to the pastor’s table and they prayed, went through the Easter story and they prayed again for me. Then you are free to leave or stay. It was a nice service but I still prefer the traditional ones. After church we headed home and met again on Saturday.

Saturday afternoon I headed to the church to volunteer at the kids Easter Party. When I arrived at the church I was supposed to help out with the Easter Egg hunt but their was nothing to do there so I just wandered around and helped wherever needed. When the party got started I switched to the refreshments table with two other people but then I got bored so I wandered around and socialized with other volunteers. I met a girl from Ireland who was really nice so we got some cotton candy and made some awesome paper creations. It was a lot of fun. Then I had to actually help out with the Easter Egg hunt and it was a little bit difficult because I could hardly understand the kids so I grabbed someone to be a translator for me. When the day was over and we had to cleanup, I wasn’t too excited. I helped for about an hour and then I left. There were so many people and I wanted to hang out with my friends so a friend and I headed out and we went to Almere.

When we arrived in Almere we were picked up and we went to the nicest house I have ever been to. It was right on the water and the house was gorgeous and my friends room has a balcony. We had dinner and then went kayaking! They had two kayaks so away I went with one girl and it was awesome; I was kayaking with swans swimming around me. It was like a movie. Then another girl was going to go but she didn’t want to go by herself so I went again except on the other kayak. It was so much fun. That night we just hung out and enjoyed each other’s company. When we were going to go to bed, I had the pleasure of sleeping on a bed and guess what? It was an automatic bed! I loved it, probably the coolest thing, ever. In the morning I could finally eat chocolate again but I wanted to wait till after church. So we had breakfast and then headed for church. Right after church I grabbed a chocolate and it was so good. Lekker. 🙂 I came home after church and went for a two hour walk with the dog. It was really hot outside. At night we had an Easter dinner and Arnold made me chocolate mousse for dessert. 🙂 That was also lekker.

My friends back yard, if that’s what you want to call it…

Sunday night I talked to my family on skype and the first thing my mom and sister said was, what are you wearing?! I was wearing a tanktop because it was hot but I guess they never actually believed me when I said it was hot here. 😉

Monday was Easter Monday and I didn’t have to work again so I went to a fair in Hilversum. It was really hot and I got really badly burnt but it is turning into a nice tan and it was a nice day. Tuesday I had to work and I got more flowers from Daan. So cute.

Arnold is in Paris golfing this week and Madelon has to work later because of the long weekend so I get the pleasure of putting in some serious overtime. It is fun though and today is my last day of the week so tomorrow I am starting my Queen’s Day celebrations early and I’m heading off to Amsterdam. I am so excited. Saturday is the real Queen’s Day so their are going to be lots of bands and people so I will still be in Amsterdam and it will be awesome!

Hope you all had a good Easter!

Goede Dag!

Rebecca

.:half way:.

This past weekend I missed my family. It was a slow weekend because my friends were either at home or had to babysit so I was home too.I don’t have a problem with being home once in a while on the weekends but it just reminded me of the weekends in Canada that I was home. Saturday I went to town and did some shopping however that failed because all of the clothes are really expensive in my small town. For example, there was one t-shirt for 104 €  which is 144$ Canadian. That is crazy.

This past Friday though I had the pleasure of working and it was a lot of fun. On Fridays, the boys are done school at 12 and they have tennis at 1:15 so we have to quickly eat and then bike to tennis. Of course I always pray before I eat and I try to keep it shorter for the boys; however, on Friday I took about three seconds longer than usual and Tim whispers, “Rebecca,” I don’t look up. “Rebecca, we are going to be late for tennis.” Of course we were early for tennis but young boys don’t have a lot of patience. Then on the way to tennis, we were talking about what the boys are going to do for their birthdays this year and they want to go to a special park. So I asked if I was going to come too and they said, “Yes! You are family!”

I am so blessed.

On Sunday I planned to be at the church early because I am always late. There are only two buses that I can take and I am either really early or really late. This week I was determined to be early so I was up and ready on time and as I was eating breakfast I was thinking about the bus and for some reason I was planning on taking the late bus again! I had 5 minutes to catch the early bus so I ran upstairs, literally, up to the third floor and ran outside but I missed it so I was going to be late again. When I got on the second bus I had to take, the bus driver said something to me but I didn’t know what he said and he couldn’t ‘speak english so he let me pass. Thankfully, there were some people on the bus I knew so I asked them what he said and as it turned out the bus wasn’t stopping at my stop because of the City Run. We had to walk for 5 minutes from another drop off. Thankfully those girls were their to tell me but I was even later for church. I made it just in time for the sermon.

After church a friend and I were going to go to Haarlem and walk around at an outdoor bazaar thing. I’m not sure how to explain it because as far as I know they don’t have them in Canada it is kind of like a sidewalk sale except not. So after church we needed to go to the train station but we only had one bike so we thought we would try one person on the back like I did last week. So since I did it last week, I thought I could do it again. However, it didn’t work out so smoothly this time. While my friend started sitting on the back of the bike, I didn’t realize it so I dropped the bike and she fell off, backwards. So we decided it was best to walk to the station. We made it to Haarlem though.

That bunny is made entirely of flowers.

This week so far has been amazing. A high of 23 degrees but if you are standing in the sun it was more like 25 or 26. I love it. I didn’t have to work yesterday because Madelon was home so I did some homework outside and then basically tanned all day on the hammock. I really think that being an au pair is a great job.

The boys gave me a little bouquet of flowers.

Madelon and Arnold asked me of I wanted to be adopted by them. They only gave me one condition as well, I can’t go to school unless it is as night so I can take care of their kids. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me but it isn’t going to happen.

This Easter weekend is going ot be a busy one. Friday their is church so I am going to that, Saturday their is an Easter program for kids to go to with games and an Easter Egg Hunt so I will be volunteering at that with a friend. After that, we are going to Almere and hanging out with the rest of my friends and I am going kayaking, which I am really pumped for. We are sleeping there and heading to church the next day. Monday I am off again for Easter Monday and I am going to the sea. It will be a fantastic weekend. God is good. Saturday also marks my half way point of being here in Holland. I can’t believe I’m half way over this adventure.

I hope everyone has a blessed Easter with their loved ones.

Rebecca