Marleigh in Wageningen

Foto's :)

2010-02-18T15:24:00.001-08:00

With Hadewich, my cousin, in Friesland. More family pictures will come later (my cousin has them all...)

Nordic skates! :)

Rutger, Hadewich, and Florian skating on the natuurijsbaan (a.k.a natural ice)

Some of my theatre friends (we were watching the rest of the group do their scene) :)

Dit is voor de gek maar soms ben ik zo dus doe normaal

2010-02-18T12:24:00.000-08:00

In my usual way, I'm not at all packed, my room is far from clean, and we're leaving tomorrow at 12 to start the 8 hour drive to Switzerland. Yay procrastination! (And having rehearsal until 8 pm) We'll stay overnight in Germany and be in Grindelwald, Switzerland by Saturday mid-day :) Aaaaaaaaaaaaah! I am way beyond excited at this point- 6 solid days of skiing in the most beautiful area ever, who wouldn't be?! Not to mention that my mom worked/lived in the same town for 1 year when she was 17- pretty cool! (she's quite jealous...) :)

Hmm what's happened recently...

Indoor skiing of course! If I haven't already told you about it, I went indoor skiing with my school in Bottrop, Germany a couple of weeks ago. While it was definitely a wonderful day, I'd still go for the outside skiing any time :) The most surprising thing for me was how many people had never ever skied or snowboarded before. I guess that's to be expected when you live in a country with only a few hills though... To get to the top of the slope (piste in Dutch) again you had to take this lift that was exactly like a moving sidewalk that you find in airports except tilted at a steep angle and covered in a thin sheet of ice. Scary! I only made the lift stop once and that definitely wasn't my fault. (A boy in my class let go of his snowboard, sending it flying into my legs and causing me to end up with one ski on the moving lift and one on the side, resulting in me almost doing the splits.) Skiing all day made me realize just how much I've missed it in the last two ski-free years and made me even more excited for Switzerland :)

Theatre: I think I've written about this before but I'm part of the theatre group from my school and our first performance of The Tempest (translated into Dutch of course) is in two weeks... EEP! But I'm all memorized :) I'm glad I'm able to keep up with theatre here, I still miss the Thespians though of course.

A while ago all of the AFS students had to take this big Dutch test in Utrecht. It was only reading and listening so not too bad (no writing thank goodness). Just super boring- all the stuff was over manuals and insurance and work and blah blah. But I passed!! So that's pretty happy :)

I passed my half-way mark- can't believe how fast it's gone- and I also passed my 6 month mark (I'm trying to stop counting haha). My parents are in the process of making official plans to come visit but as of now they'll be here for the end of April and the beginning of May. I managed to convince them to be here for Koninginnedag (Queen's Day- the biggest holiday in the whole country- April 30) and for Bevrijdingsdag (Liberation day, May 5, celebrated only in a few cities-one of them being Wageningen- biggest party in Wageningen) so that should be fun :) I'm also planning to go with them when they go visit Vera in Germany which makes Vera and I both super happy :)

Last weekend, my (REAL) relatives picked me up in Wageningen and we all drove up to their vacation house in Friesland (the north part of the country). It was great to see them (the last time was when they came to America a couple of years ago) and it was quite weird (but great) to be able to finally speak Dutch with them :) It was one of those times that made me remember why I had to chosen to come to the Netherlands and it just makes me more excited to go home and speak Dutch with my grandpa! My cousin Florian and I spent a lot of time watching the Olympics- especially the speed skating- and cheering for all the Dutch people. Go Sven Kramer!!! (He won gold in the 5000 meter). They took me skating on natural ice (opposed to a skating rink) with Nordic skates (the skates with the really long blades) for my first time and I managed to avoid completely embarrassing myself and didn't fall once, though the little kids did totally outshine me.... On Sunday, we all went to the huge skating rink (Olympic size!) and did some more skating. My cousins are all very good at skating- way faster than I'll ever be! :) It was a wonderful weekend with real family and I'd love to see their house in the summer (when they go windsurfing instead of ice skating haha).

Oh! This is kind of exciting- there's another AFS student at my school now: Abbey from New Zealand. My class loves her accent and now we're the "foreign pair" haha. She doesn't speak Dutch yet but it's fun to translate stuff in class. And I taught her some animals in Dutch today so she'll be speaking Dutch soon enough :)

Also- a huge thank you to everyone who voted for me on the blog contest: I'm #15 out of 100, not too bad!! Check out the whole list here: http://en.bab.la/news/top-100-international-exchange-experience-blogs-2010

Seeing as it's now almost midnight and I have some serious packing to do, I'll end here :)

Miss you all!

xxx liefjes

P.S. In English, the title says: "This is for the crazy but sometimes I am (crazy) so be normal."

That's a rough translation that makes more sense than the word-for-word one haha (for example 'doe' means 'do' in English but you wouldn't say 'do normal' in English...). It's a line from a Dutch rap song called Broodje Bakpao. Here's the video (it's supposed to be funny...think along the lines of Flight of the Conchords):

http://www.youtube.com/watch#v=0taljOkv_EA&feature=fvw

Vote for Marleigh!!

2010-02-02T10:30:00.000-08:00

Happy February!!!!!

So I was nominated for the Top 100 International Exchange and Experience Blogs 2010 hosted by LexioPhiles (website: http://www.lexiophiles.com/).

Sounds cool, right? So your job as my faithful blog readers (ha) is to vote for me and help me at least get a high place up on the list- I'm definitely not expecting to win the prizes or anything but just as long as I don't get last :)

The voting goes from February 1st (yesterday) until February 14th. You can vote for three blogs at a time and I'm pretty sure you can vote as many times a day as you want (haven't tested this yet though).

Here's the link for the entire list:

http://www.lexiophiles.com/ix09/vote-for-ix10-here

My blog is about 10 up from the bottom- just check the box (and pick two other ones that you like) and submit. Pretty easy! Thanks for voting and sticking with my sporadic blog updates (sorry!) and I'll let you know what place I get :)

(Thanks also to whoever nominated me and all the other AFSers!)

groetjes xx

(P.S. I swear I'll update you guys within the next week!!)

The Second Week :)

2010-01-10T10:20:00.000-08:00

*Read the post below first!!!*

Let's see... Oh! On Monday (28th), we all went to go see Avatar in the Cinemec theater in Ede. The Cinemec theater is one of the biggest theaters in the whole country, complete with a whole bar and eating area on the first floor. The big screen where Avatar was showing (in 3D) was just completed in October too (it has 1000 chairs, if that makes you realize how big it is haha). When you buy your ticket in a Dutch movie theater, you're assigned a specific seat that you're required to sit in. There's also an intermission half way through the movie where you can leave the theater and get snacks- weird, right? (Nienke's reaction when I told her that there was never an intermission in American movie theaters- even for four hour movies- was hilarious). I love cultural differences like that because that's something you wouldn't experience/learn about if you just took a vacation to the Netherlands. Anyway, we all loved the movie and Nienke and I had a great time with the over-sized glasses that made us look crazy.

The next day we had another "Christmas" dinner with Hans' family and another family who they're good friends with. I really like Hans' family- it might be just because the 4 of them are a lot less overwhelming than the 17 people in Janny's family haha. Thijs and Willemijn, my host cousins, are really fun and nice (they're both in college) and Thijs and I chatted about America and cultural things for the whole dinner. The other family was really nice too- they had two younger kids who were kind of crazy, but sweet.

On Thursday- New Year's Eve day- I went over to my friend Anoek's house with Renate and Tessel and we spent many hours making oliebollen and appelbeignets. Oliebollen are basically balls of dough with raisins that are cooked in oil- they're a Dutch New Year's Eve treat. To make appelbeignets, you cut an apple into circles, cover the slices in cinnamon and sugar, and then dip them in the boiling oil like with the oliebollen. So delicious! We made a mess of the kitchen, sang with the Top 2000 (every year, between Christmas and the last day of the year, one radio station counts down the top 2000 songs ever), and discussed how none of us had done any homework yet :)

When I got home that night, another family was over- the same family that celebrates with the Wouters every New Year's Eve. It was a little weird not watching the New Year's Show and the ball drop on TV but the Dutch go crazy with fireworks on New Year's Eve and that definitely made up for it :) We were surrounded on three sides by the fireworks and it seriously sounded like a war zone for a good 30 minutes. Unlike in Oregon, all fireworks are legal so everyone had giant fireworks, including my host dad. For you West Linn-ers reading this, picture the big fireworks that the city sets off on the Fourth of July and then multiply it by giving those fireworks to every person in the city.... so insane. We drank champagne, skyped with Anna (my host sister who is living in America for a year), and wished everyone a 'Gelukkig Nieuw Jaar'.

I have no idea what I did during the weekend but I think it involved a lot of sleeping in and dreading school on Monday... Though school on Monday did start at 9:55, not at the usual 8:30 so that was nice. Oh! On Friday, Hans and I went to Utrecht (big city) and I finally got to pick up my residence permit! So I'm no longer illegal :)

Oh, I forgot to mention this but I discovered something great during the Christmas days: KERSTBROOD :D It's bread with nuts and raisins and this spice spread and it is SO GOOD. I swear I probably ate the equivalent of a whole loaf of it during winter break. Yum.

Okay, enough writing for one day, I caught you up on the important things at least :) I have to do my photo project for CKV class now anyway (that's not a very hard assignment for me though haha).

xx Marleigh

Catching up... again

2010-01-01T05:00:00.000-08:00

So obviously I'm not very great at the "write every week" thing... Sorry :(

Let's go back to the beginning of winter break...
On the last day before break, we only had two classes (!) and then all of 4VWO gathered together in this cafe by our school and we had oliebollen (a Dutch New Year's tradition-more on that later) and hot chocolate and other scrumptious things. It was pretty low-key, just celebrating the end of school, the snow, and the holidays. Santa showed up too :)

On Monday morning, we (as in the family plus Puck) piled all our stuff into the car and were on the road heading north-east to Germany through the snow by 6:30 am. Despite difficulties in the beginning (the Dutch don't know how to handle snow...), we drove safely to Groningen to drop Kees off for work and made it to the harbor with plenty of time to spare before catching the ferry to the small German island- Juist.

Juist is one of the seven inhabited East Frisian Islands located in the North Sea. It's only 10.5 miles long and -at it's biggest (when the tide's out)- is a little wider than half a mile. That's a really small island for those of you who aren't good at picturing distances :) There are also no cars on Juist, meaning that all the transportation is done by bike or horse-drawn carriage (not that it matters really, it doesn't take long to walk anywhere on the island...). The first day Hans, Janny, and I went on a walk down to the beach and it was amazing to see the beach covered in about a foot of snow. There were almost no footprints either so it was almost like we were out in the Artic... Except then there was the sea. It was gorgeous, snowy, freezing, and I took many pictures on that first adventure on Juist. We wandered through the town on the way back to the house and found lots of little stores and finally a post office (that's where I mailed my package to you Americans haha). It was weird being a tourist again and not being able to understand/read any of the things in the stores (okay, some I was able to guess at).

One of the other days we walked to the other side of the island (back to the harbor) and walked around the tip of the island, with the (dune) dike on one side and red German houses on the other. We were lucky that we got to see Juist in the snow, as it rarely snows more than a few centimeters there (if that). We went out to dinner at this fish restaurant by the harbor one night- it was definitely weird not being able to read the menu but the food was delicious and we even found a group of Dutch people there :) Another highlight was when Janny, Nienke, and I went swimming in this huge saltwater pool (inside of course!). We had the pool almost to ourselves and it was cool to look out one window and see the North Sea and then look out the windows on the other side and see the Wadden Sea and the harbor.

We spent a lot of time walking the beach, putting together a puzzle (1000 pieces!), watching movies, and reading books. Quality relaxation time :) We didn't really do anything for Christmas Eve- except listen to Christmas music on the computer. We took the ferry back to the mainland on Friday (Christmas) and then drove 3 hours back home. We stopped at this nice Dutch restaurant for dinner and though it was a little weird to not be home on Christmas, it was certainly nice to be back in the country where I could understand everything :)

While the Dutch do celebrate Christmas, it's quite different from how Americans celebrate it. For the Dutch, the holiday of Sinterklaas (Dec. 5) is their Christmas- it's the holiday that little kids wait all year for, the whole month of November is spent preparing for it, and it's a time for family and presents. Because Sinterklaas is the big Dutch holiday, Christmas means to them a week off from work (two weeks off from school) and another reason to eat and drink too much and spend lots and lots of time with family. Not that that's bad of course, just different :)

On Saturday (the day after Christmas but the second day of Christmas for the Dutch), we started frantically preparing for Janny's family to come over that night for Christmas dinner. I also gave my family all the gifts from America that my mom had sent and we had a little gift giving celebration, which was really nice- It made it seem more like Christmas to me :) I think we were 15 people altogether, so we had three tables pushed together and of course a LOT of food :) Three courses plus the mandatory coffee/tea and chocolates afterwards. After everyone left, we all went to bed exhausted and slept in late on Sunday.

I'll write about the second week of break in another post, but I promise it'll be done tonight :)
Liefjes xx

SNOW!

2009-12-17T15:08:00.000-08:00

Photos!!

Snow = Sneeuw My road
That looks like about 3 inches, right?

The cemetery

My house! (from the other side than you usually see it in pictures)

Me and the yard and my bike :)

Love

Tradition...

The view from my house (looking towards the city)

Riding back from school

Riding to school- see the difference? (snow didn't actually melt, they're just two different spots haha)

Snow snow snow

Yes, I am still alive

2009-12-17T14:17:00.001-08:00

In fact, I'm doing very well :) This week has been really great, partly due to the fact that everyone is so eager for two weeks of vacation and we haven't done anything in school this whole week. I'll catch you up on the (entire) month of November soon and I mean it this time because I have one day left of school and then two weeks of...well, nothing. No school at least- we're going to the German island, Juist, for 5 days next week then we'll be home for Christmas. Hopefully I'll do something fun in the following days and then it'll be New's Year Eve and 2010! And then back to school...

Monday: Finished Christmas shopping for America- finally!!! A really good Dutch day for me- just one of those days :)

Tuesday: My class got together and did a Christmas dinner/party thing together. Most classes went out to eat but our class decided to cook and eat at school (I don't know why we didn't want to go out but it was fun and less expensive- always a plus!). We made mini pizzas on gourmetten (these great Dutch inventions that are like mini double level stoves) and then for dessert we had cream puffs (ijs soesjes) and the candy canes that I'd brought (thanks Mom for sending them!). Everyone ate too much and we all got a little silly and I had a really stupid moment that my classmates will probably tease me about for the rest of my life (not going into details on the world wide web) but it was a really fun night and I love feeling like part of my class :)

(This is a what we cooked our food one, the top layer is where we put our pizza dough and then on the bottom where the little trays are, is where we put the toppings for our pizza and such.)

My class :)

The temperature also drastically dropped on Tuesday and everything froze over (frost not ice) and it was quite gorgeous.

Wednesday: Very very cold again (-2 degrees celsius or colder) and we even got a few snowflakes in the afternoon. After school I went with two girls to the Albert Heijn so they could get doughnuts and it was quite a adventure (including many scary bike problems as usual) and I also mailed my package to America (FINALLY!!). I'm currently finishing my Christmas cards (because printed materials mailed together send faster) and crossing my fingers that everything gets there on time.

Thursday (today): SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW !!!!!!!!

If you haven't already guessed, it snowed today. 3-4 inches. An absolutely beautiful bike ride (and it wasn't even that scary riding in the snow!). Some people at school thought that I had never seen snow before because I was so happy about the snow. What can I say- the first snow of the season is always the best. Not to mention that it makes me feel a lot happier because now it feels like Christmas can actually happen (even though it'll still be weird). It continued to snow the entire day and hopefully it'll snow tonight/tomorrow. I took many pictures of course. I only had two lessons today and didn't feel like going home right after school so I took this different road and passed many snow-covered fields and cold ponies and eventually ended up at this old-ish cemetery, where I explored and took more pictures. Pretty neat, I've always been a fan of cemeteries (I blame you, Mom). I was still on a "snow high" after dinner so I walked with the dog through the forest and said hi to all the horses in the adjacent fields. And didn't get lost :)

Friday (hasn't happened yet...): I only have two lessons tomorrow and then all of 4 VWO is gathering for a party thing hosted by our teachers. And then... WE'RE FREE!!!!

Snow pictures in the next one!!

Liefjes

Berlijn, Duitsland, School, en Halloween

2009-11-01T07:02:00.000-08:00

* Berlin, Germany, School, and Halloween (You should've been able to translate that on your own though!) :)

I left Thursday night (22nd) for Berlin with 70 other AFS-ers who are currently living in the Netherlands. We all rode on one bus overnight (only 9 hours for me, more like 12 hours for those that got on the bus at the first stop) and got to Berlin about 8 am on Friday. The first day was spent touring the entire city- in the freezing rain- and we were all so exhausted when we got to our hostel that night. The hostel was suprisingly nice- each room even had it's own bathroom/shower! Highlights from Friday: Going to Checkpoint Charlie, seeing where the Berlin Wall had been (but not the actual wall... yet), going to a really neat museum about the Berlin Wall, going to the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin-it was very very cool, and seeing other famous sights like the Reichstag (despite the fact that we waited in line outside for two hours in the rain to get in.... not so fun). Most people were so tired that they crashed when we got to the hostel but some partied (and drank of course) in the Hostel's bar until the early morning....

On Saturday we got started pretty early and took the bus to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. Much of the camp was destroyed before it's liberation so it has less original buildings/structures than other Concentration Camps today but it was still enough to make you stop and think about had happened around you more than 60 years ago. I'd like to go back some day without a big group of kids and be able to actually look at everything.

Later on Saturday we got to go shopping (at H&M of course!) and I got a new bag for school and then at night we went and finally got to see part of the Berlin Wall. It was very pretty and many many photos were taken :) Berlin is an such a historical city! At 11 that night, we were told to meet in the lobby of the hostel but the volunteers wouldn't say why...When we were all there, they started saying how they had found alcohol in the rooms (which wasn't allowed) and that if the people who bought the alcohol stepped forward, no one would get in trouble. Then they smelled everyone's breath to see if they had been drinking and making people walk in a straight line etc. (Note: we were allowed to drink in the bar at the hostel and out in restuarants but we were not allowed to have alcohol on the bus or in the rooms of the hostel).
So... turns out it was all a joke, they had just wanted to scare us haha. I totally fell for it too!

On Sunday they let us sleep in a little later but then we were off to go on a boat ride down the Spree River (the big river that runs through Berlin). It was kind of boring but still nice to see the city. After that we did some more touring and ended up back at the Berliner Dom where we took a final group picture and then got free time to wander through the street market or just lay on the grass. Then we all went to the "shopping district" and had MORE free time.... I did some souvenir shopping and my little group eventually ended up at an ice cream restuarant, yes- an actual restuarant where you sit down and order and everything- and got the best ice cream ever!! Yummy :)

We said goodbye to Berlin at about 8 pm and got back on the bus for the looong trip back. Luckily, I managed to sleep a little but was still extraordinarily tired on Monday so I skipped school and slept for the whole day :) It was a super fun trip in all and I'm happy I went! I'm certainly glad to be home though.

School, school, school. The week was pretty easy; in most classes we just went over our tests (remember toestweek?) and talked about what we would be learning for the next toetsweek. Halloween was pretty low key, just hung around home with Nienke and some friends. Janny and Hans did get me a little red pumpkin though :) '

That's all for now. I'm going ice skating this weekend with AFS-ers from my region so that should be really fun and I'm going to a professional ballet tomorrow night with my classmates for CKV (art class), hopefully I won't be too tired!!

Knuffels

Pictures!

2009-10-21T12:11:00.000-07:00

To make up for the fact that that post took waaay longer than I expected to write and put it on here, I figured I'd share some pictures from the last week and this week:

At the beach!

My friend Tessel and I :) I talk about her a lot so now you can see who she is!

Renate, Anoek, Tessel, Anne, and I after lunch on the last day.

Vredepaleis- it may have been boring but it was definitely beautiful!!!

Three of my classmates in front of McDonalds with their Happy Meals and balloons :)

That's all the pictures for now, otherwise my computer will die! The rest (including zoo/A-dam) will be up on Facebook shortly :)

Liefjes

Echt Super Leuk Week!

2009-10-21T09:45:00.000-07:00

Hi there!

I got back from Werkweek, my 4 day trip to Den Haag with my class, on Thursday and have finally finished writing about it! :)

Let's see.... Basic background about school/Werkweek:

- Grade levels are separated into classes. My grade level (4 VWO) has 4 classes.

- I am in 4 VWO 4, or class #4.- Nienke is in the same grade but a different class (she's in 4 VWO 1) but her class also went to Den Haag so we saw each other a few times

- The only grade that does Werkweek is 4 VWO, so I really lucked out :)

- My class includes 26 other people and we have two "mentors" (teachers in charge of our class)

- Werkweek is supposed to be a learning week in addition to just a vacation. They do this by including visits to museums and official buildings and such. I consider stuff like this to be fun so... no complaints there :)

Alright, back to the fun stuff:

Maandag

Nienke and I biked to school together at 9:30.... getting my fat bag to stay on the back of my bike was quite a feat. I was also carrying my mattress and sleeping bag in a bag in my hand. THAT was a wobbly bike ride. My class packed our bikes into this big truck and then split off for our different ways of transportation to Den Haag (I rode in the car of a classmate). Our car got to the "scouting house" first and well, it was kind of like being back in Girl Scouts. No beds, 1 shower, 4 toilets, small kitchen, and it was freeeeeeeezing (luckily the heaters worked)! Here's a picture(note all our bikes!):
We sat around for a while, setting up our beds and exploring our new home, while we waited for the people who had taken the train to arrive. This is when I decided to bring out my WLHS Yearbook from last year that my mom had recently shipped to me… I knew they’d be excited about it but WOW- they were so incredibly ecstatic about every aspect of the yearbook/my school/Amerika. The girls spent a lot of time looking at people’s pictures, laughing at the ones they found funny/weird and pointing out the boys they found cute. They were extremely excited to see the cheerleaders, the ski team, and just all the other teams. I got the “how many teams can you join? I want to join all of them!” thing many times…. Very cute. So thanks AFS for telling me to bring my yearbook.

Anyway, after everyone had arrived we got on our bikes and headed for the…. BEACH! It was about a 1 hour bike ride but we finally got to Scheveningen and just ran around and splashed in the water (brr) and drew in the sand and took pictures (well, I did at least). Three girls from my class even went swimming in their bathing suits!!! I don’t know how they didn’t die, it was soooo cold! After that, we went to the Sea Life Museum and spent a couple of hours looking at all the cute baby jellyfish, turtles, and sharks.

Nothing much the rest of the day except my classmates taught me how to play a game called Set, which I failed at, natuurlijk.

Dinsdag

We spent nearly 6 hours in the Tweede Kamer (literal translation: Second Chamber) which is the lower house of the Dutch Parliament. I found it pretty neat actually. A lot of the government stuff they fed to us went right over my head because of the vocabulary but it was still interesting. We got to meet with one of the representatives and ask her questions…. What else is a silly little American with limited talents concerning Dutch grammar supposed to ask a Member of the Dutch Parliament then a question about President Obama? Yeah, that’s right: Wat vind je van Obama? (What do you think of Obama?) It went as well as it could have gone: I didn’t die, she had an answer, I understood her answer, and my classmates only teased me about my pronunciation for the next few days (HA).

We also got to see the actual room where they hold their sessions and that was pretty interesting (and official!). This is a picture from wikipedia of what it looks like:

Oh yeah, we also went to McDonalds for lunch. Dutch kids LOVE MacDonalds- it's quite funny. We did a bunch of other activities concerning the government and the Tweede Kamer but I won’t mention them because they’ll probably bore you to death :)

New word of the day: Boender (plural: boenders), meaning a hoodlum. But more of the sketchy, creepy, dangerous type. (I learned this because we encountered some… then I also got to see my first undercover Dutch police :) )

Woensdag
We went rock climbing at this health club near the scouting house in the morning! It was a lot of fun, despite the fact that I am not a huge fan of heights (or rock climbing for that matter). Later we had some free time in Den Haag and Anoek, Tessel, and I went shopping (and to McDonalds of course!). We then separated into our groups depending on where we were going on that day. I was going to the Nationaal Archief- which turned out to be a lot cooler than I thought it would be! The people there were “warned” that I was American but had Dutch ancestors and they had managed to pull all of the files of the ‘de Roo van Alderwerelt’ family. It was sooo cool to see all these old and official documents about my family history and such. You don’t realize how much fun looking at old records can be until you start recognizing names of people :)
Everyone crowded into an Italian restaurant for dinner that night and then we went to see a performance called (Dante’s) La Divina Commedia. It was about Dante and his travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise and it was… weird. Haha. It wasn’t too hard to follow but it was just plain weird. There were only three actors and one did all of her lines in English, nice for me!! :)

Donderdag
We cleaned up the scouting house and packed and then went altogether to the Vredepaleis (Peace Palace). It was… boring. Our tour guide seemed to hate her job and well, the place just wasn’t that interesting. We were then released to go do whatever we wanted- in my case, shopping! Anoek, Tessel, and I got lunch at Albert Heijn and then ate outside and danced on the sidewalk. After that, everyone gathered back at the scouting house and people started leaving in cars. I took the train home so I was in one of the last groups to leave. While waiting to leave, the boys in my class managed to teach me a handful of “useful” sentences and swearwords in Dutch (thanks guys!).

It was super nice to finally be home (and shower!) and I got my English test score- an 8 haha. Which is kind of embarrassing but I wasn’t able to do the translating of English words to Dutch words section, so I knew I wouldn’t get a 10! I also took my physics and math tests last week but for some reason didn't get scores back for those.... Grr.

A quick review of the past few days:
On Friday I just slept in, did laundry, caught up on life, and just took it easy. Nienke, Tessel, and I made a cake for a sick friend and took it to her, woo! Also: TWO MONTH ANNIVERSARY! It has gone so so fast!

On Saturday, I went with Janny and Hans to the Kroller- Muller Museum in Otterlo (a nearby city). It was an art museum with both paintings and outside exhibits. And it of course featured a lot of van Gogh (and even some Picasso!).

On Sunday, I went to Nienke’s hockey game with Janny and took lots and lots of pictures with my long lens. I then had a conversation (in Dutch) about cameras and camera lenses with a random Dutch guy. Woo! That night everyone went out to a pannenkoeken restaurant- yum yum. For those of you who don’t know, pannenkoeken are like huge pancakes that you can put anything on. I’m glad that I chose a country that finds eating giant pancakes for dinner to be 100% acceptable :)

On Monday, Kees (my host brother) took Nienke and I to the Burger’s Zoo in Arnhem (Burger = citizen in Dutch). I love the zoo! The zoo had CAPYBARAS! And manatees! And weird big cow-like animals… It was fun just to run around with Nienke and Kees for a day :) That night, I met one of Janny’s sisters and her husband for the first time and then altogether we went to watch the korfball game that their son was in. My very first korfball game!! Finally. Korfball is closest to basketball. Except you don’t dribble, the ball looks like a soccer ball, and the teams are ALWAYS co-ed. The two teams were really really good so it was fun to watch.

Today (Wednesday) I went to Amsterdam with the family. We went to the Anne Frank Huis and just did some walking. It was a really nice day. Hopefully the rain holds off for four more days so Berlijn will be dry.... I leave for Berlijn at 10:30 pm tomorrow night because all the kids will be on one bus and we'll (supposedly) sleep all night and then wake up when we arrive and start doing things ASAP. It's going to be craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazy!!!! :)

Liefjes <3

PS- (I just skyped with Sydney, who took me around the theatre building at WLHS to say hi to everyone. I'm sorry my camera is slow and you couldn't hear me but I love you all and you have no idea how nice it was to see you!!!!)

Finally!

2009-10-06T05:33:00.000-07:00

I apologize for the fact that I haven't written anything in - gasp - almost three weeks. I'll catch you up on my life....

Operation Market Garden Reenactment (Saturday, September 19)
(here's the link so you can brush up on your history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Market_Garden )
I got some really great pictures from the parachuters and it was so cool (for lack of a better adjective that really explains it), to see thousands of people parachuting from planes at once. Planes would come in groups of four and then stagger themselves so the first plane would drop it's men, then the group from the second plane and so on. By the fourth plane, you'd have people jumping from the plane and people already landing. So neat!! Some of the people who jumped from the planes that day had been fighting and had parachuted down during the ACTUAL Operation Market Garden in 1944! Also, for those of you who don't stalk me on facebook here's the link for my September album which includes photos from the beach, Operation Market Garden, and everything else: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=113246&id=537228319&l=3b9b15e3e3

Scheveningen (Sunday, September 20)
AKA the beach! :) My first trip to the beach since I've been here but when I was 12 and my family went to the Netherlands, we went to the same beach. So it was funny to be back :) We just walked down the beach and I collected numerous shells and my host dad Hans and I ended up watching some sailboats. We went and got drinks and snacks at a little restaurant on the beach (yes, ON the beach). It was a little windy but temperature wise, it was okay. Nienke and I walked to the pier (of course) and wandered around. The grown ups wanted to head back so our day was kinda rushed and short but it was just so nice to see the beach again :) Random fact about Scheveningen: During WWII, the pronunciation of Scheveningen would be used to identify German spies, as they would pronounce the "Sch" differently than Dutch speakers :)

Another week of school... I mailed my first package back to Oregon for a friend's birthday (and it got there safely and on time), went to a (Dutch) movie with a (Dutch) friend and understood it quite well, recieved lots of letters (!), and had my meeting to acquire my permit/visa in Utrecht (I have to wait until December to see if I get to stay here but at least I can travel out of the country now).

Amsterdam (Saturday, September 26)
I don't really want to write about Amsterdam... So I'm handing you off to someone else who wrote a great description of the day: my American friend, Maya from Alaska (hopefully she doesn't mind...) :) Read her "Day Tripper" post at: http://mayalaska.blogspot.com/
I luckily didn't have to wake up as early as she did because I'm only an hour away from A-Dam by train. I came home at 4 because I was super tired and had plans to talk to the 'rents via skype. It was a really good day, albeit a little rushed, but I love all my foreign friends very much! And I had the best ice cream in the whole entire world :)
My pictures from A-Dam: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=113240&id=537228319&l=f8698a789a

On Sunday, Nienke and I had some friends over and we just sat around gossiping and we made lasagna (ha!) and took many many pictures.

Another week of school... the last week before Toetsweek so everyone was kinda in study mode. We got back our math tests that we did in partners the week before and we got 9.3 on ours!!!!!!!!!! :) That's essentially an 'A' because the highest score you can get is a 10 (with the lowest possible grade being a 1). More on grades/scoring etc. later. I also had my Digitale Fotografie class on Tuesday. Everyone else in the class is an adult (of course), but it was fun and they talked to me in Dutch. The teacher is a pretty nice guy and basically just chatted about form and structure for an hour (Yes, I understood!) and then we were free to go take pictures around the building. The class is 14 times - every two (or so) weeks until March (ish). I'll miss the next class though because I'll be on my class trip... Friday was the 20th birthday of my host brother, Kees. My first family birthday, wuhu! It was... really relaxed. Nothing special really, he had some friends over that night then headed back up to Groningen before I was awake the next morning to party with his friends at school.

On Saturday, I was supposed to attend a potluck with the AFS kids in my region but the province of Gelderland is rather big and where the potluck/meeting was going to be held was two and a half hours away (by train). My host dad is currently in Morocco and took the car to the airport (?), since my host mom doesn't drive anyway, so a 5 hour round trip didn't sound so appealing... I decided to skip the potluck in favor of saving money, time, stress, and getting more sleep :) I figure I'll see most of them in Berlin in a couple of weeks anyway. On Saturday night there was a birthday party for our friend Iris. It was her Sweet 16 Party and her theme was "Around the World". So I went as American. Of course. There weren't a lot of people there and we ended up leaving early but it wasn't too bad over all. Just... awkward because everyone was just sitting around. Sunday was relaxing. We had dinner at a neighbor's house again to give my host mom a break since she's been having to cook for the past week.

I cooked dinner last night!! I was so proud of myself :) And no one has died yet either! Okay, well I'll save Toetsweek/school/education system stuff for the next post. Which I'll hopefully do tonight or tomorrow since I don't have class.

Groetjes!

Anniversary time!

2009-09-18T12:13:00.000-07:00

I have been here for exactly... ONE MONTH!
What a crazy rollercoaster of a month. Some (okay, most) mornings I wake up, get ready for school, and still find it completely surreal to be biking to school past horses and fields of corn. It doesn't truly hit me until I arrive at school and the people around me are speaking a language that I can't understand. Then it's...wow...I really am still here.
I'm taking it one day at a time and focusing my mind on exciting things in the future to hold off the not-so-happy thoughts when they hit. I have my negative spots, natuurlijk, but I've handled them them pretty well so far :).
Amsterdam next weekend will help me make it through this next week and Werkweek and Berlin will get me through the next month :)
I find that I don't usually miss certain people (sorry Mom and Dad!), it's more of that I miss feeling comfortable and confident. I miss home. But then again, there are so many new things around me that I don't really have time to make lists of what I miss. Instead, I make lists of funny translations/things my Dutch friends have said in English. And believe me when I say that the list grows everyday :)

Tonight I babysat for my neighbor's three kids again. They're absolutely wonderful and I learn more with them than a day at school (because they of course don't speak English yet). And I get paid too :)

Tomorrow we are going to watch parachuters jump out of planes as it is the anniversary of something from WW2 (or at least that's what I understand...). I will take many pictures!! And... drumroll.... on Sunday we might go to the BEACH!! :) The Netherlands is trying to cram in some last minute sun and warm weather before the days of rain begin and I am quite happy with it :)

Well... that's all. I also hope to enroll in a photography class this next week, we'll see if it actually happens...

Liefde <3

Dutch kids :)

2009-09-15T10:42:00.000-07:00

Our wonderful AFS Nederland staff (they were impressed by how well-behaved we were, no joke!). And a group picture- there are soo many of us!!

Foreign kids + Dancing + Stories= A Good Weekend

2009-09-14T11:21:00.000-07:00

This marks the official completion of my first full week of Dutch school.

This past weekend I had my AFS orientation with all 73 kids that are currently in the Netherlands. The largest "group": 16 kids from Italy. The Americans came in second place with 10 people :) We stayed at this hostel/camp place and I feel sorry for the people who were vacationing there... sorry! I lucked out because the camp was only about 20 minutes away from where I live, while some kids had to travel 2-3 hours. I am very grateful for the great family I'm with after hearing all the not so great stories this weekend. Such a good weekend!

It was soo nice to:
- See my American friends again
- Meet tons of new people from all around the world
- Be with people whose first language is English
- Hear/share stories from everyone about well... everything!
- DANCE!

What we did:
- Played various games (most were Dutch)
- Language work but I didn't really learn anything new (it was very easy stuff)
- Went over the AFS rules AGAIN.
- Danced a lot in the bar both nights (though we weren't allowed to drink alcohol the whole weekend)
- Ate lots of bread, cookies, chocolate, and everything yummy and Dutch
- Spoke with AFS Nederland Volunteers (who were great!)
- Got NOOOOO sleep
- Smiled for/took millions of pictures!
- Talked about cute boys (cough the Belgian boys cough)
- BONDED
- Talent show (the Brazilians beat us all)

Upcoming Travel (WOO!)
Let's see... AFS is planning a day tour around Amsterdam on Sept 26, so I'm very excited about that!
In three weeks I have toetsweek (test week) at my school- aaaah! Right after that, we have werkweek (work week) which is when classes travel. And my class is going to... Den Haag (The Hague)! We'll be doing some culture things like seeing theatre (!), museums, visiting Delft, and also some fun things (like going to the BEACH!)! I love my class and am pretty happy to be traveling with them. Nienke is in another class but hers happens to be going to Den Haag too, which means we'll get to do SOME things together. :) Short story: Today in Mentor class, when our mentors were telling us about the trip, some girls wanted to know my age. I told them 16 and they giggled and commented (in Dutch, but I understood...). So now I'm the one who is going to buy alcohol for my class when we're in Den Haag because I'm the only one who's 16 :) Hahaha. Those girls make me laugh.
And the big trip.... BERLIN! I sent in my form on Saturday, so hopefully that will be soon enough to get me a spot. The Berlin trip will be from October 22 -26, which falls under the Fall Break at my school (which is GOOD). The plan is to tour the city and see museums and even visit the Sachsenhausen concentration camp (which I'm excited about because of my obsession with learning about that time period). Hopefully my lovely Vera will be able to show up "accidentally" in Berlin so I can see her :)
And... I'm going to Switzerland with my family in February! We'll be staying in the town of Grindelwald, which is actually hilarious because my mother stayed/worked there with her friend when she was 17/18. Small world! And we'll be skiing every day, which I'm pretty happy about :)

School
I'm stealing this idea from Maya and Patrick, two fellow Americans and bloggers. :)

Dutch
Well... we had a Dutch (grammar) test today and my teacher made me take it. She was then surprised when I only answered one question. That sort of sums up how I feel about that class... the teacher is the least willing to help me out of all my teachers. I usually just do my Dutch worksheets from AFS in that class and then have Tessel check them (aha!).

Physics
Physics is going alright. I guess. Okay, not really. It's tough. I can't understand anything but I successfully did most of the questions that were assigned to us :)

English
My favorite. Of course! I love laughing at my teacher's British accent and reading the British magazine that's our homework. We read articles from the magazine and then answer questions in a booklet. We'll be tested over the stories and vocabulary during toetsweek. Today in English I found out a boy in my class who I'm kind of buds with has 4.5 fingers on his right hand. He blew his index finger up with a firework last year. I hadn't noticed before... Haha.

Math
Math hates me. I write letters to people during my math class :) It's not that I have trouble with the math parts of it, it's the Dutch part. They're doing probabilty (kans) for the first time right now. Probability = long word problems. Oh well... I made a new friend in that class too :) We're going to a movie next week (Be happy Mommy!!!!!).

Biology
In biology, we just did a lab/experiment thing using pill bugs. It was actually hilarious because everyone was so afraid of them ahaha. The first week when the teacher was going over the syllabus, my friend who translates things for me in that class said we'd be working with cockroaches. I was happy today when i realized they were only pill bugs. We had them walk around in little plastic containers and do different things to alternate their environment (make the bottom wet, make one side dark etc).

Informatica
We learned how to make our own website hee hee. I love it! The computer commands are in English, which is helpful to me. The teacher has been helpful and the girls in that class are nice :)

CKV
CKV stands for: Culturele en kunstzinnige vorming. It essentially translates to culture and art. It's been a super fun class so far. For class this week we had to buy a binder and decorate it with our favorite culture. I printed out pictures from shows I've done/seen and made it pretty :) My friend was jealous that I've seen Rent :)

Gym
Just like American gym. I have it every Friday. Last week I rode with Nienke to school and we parked our bikes and went to go look at where I had gym... turns out it was going to be outside that day (despite the fact that it was FREEZING!). Nienke freaked out and we ran back outside to see if there was anyone around to take me to the outside area. Well, we found a boy from my class (named Stijn hee hee) but I couldn't ride on his bike because he was already taking another boy. So then I had to run back and get my bike and then i followed Stijn on my bike to the fields. yeah... we were late but some people came even later, so i didn't feel so bad. But yeah, drama of the day. We played Softball. And the Dutch kids kicked my butt. :)

That's all for now!

Eerste dag van school!

2009-09-05T12:55:00.000-07:00

I started school last tuesday... at 10 am! It was wonderful :) Nienke (my host sister) and I rode our bikes with her friend Iris to school and then we were separated into "classes". VWO 4, the "grade" that I'm in is separated into 4 different groups- called classes. I am in 4 VWO 4, or the 4th class of VWO 4. Still with me? Nienke and Iris are in different classes but Nienke's other good friend, Tessel, is in the same class as me. She was an absolute lifesaver this past week!!

Anyway, there are about 27 kids in our class and we have two mentors. Everyone got their "rosters" (aka schedules)...except me haha. I ended up getting mine on Wednesday.

Then we had GYM! For two hours haha. It was teamwork, leadership building, not sweat-producing fun. Like, I swear I've played the same games at one time or another in America. And then... we were done!

The rest of the week went alright, Biology was a tough one. And Dutch class of course was tough. But I'll improve I'm sure :)
Here's my schedule:

*the study hall periods (aka period 3) are only 40 minutes but mandatory, the other periods that I have in a day are 70 minutes. Some days, I don't have all 6 classes. Noted by the "FREE". I like the mornings when I don't have to be at school until 11 :)

** I'm working with a teacher about whether I can have private Spans (Spanish!) lessons at school. We get together during my Nederlands study hall, so I won't have that class for a couple of weeks.

Maandag (Monday)
Nieuw Nederlands (Dutch)
FREE
Scheikunde Ond (Chemistry study hall- but technically just study hall for me because I'm not taking Chem)
Natuurkunde (Physics)
Mentor period (Don't ask, it's too hard to explain)
Engelse (English!!!!!)

Dinsdag (Tuesday)
Wiskunde-B (Math, the hardest level I can take)
FREE
Wiskunde Ond (Math study hall)
FREE
CKV 7 (It's art? I haven't had it yet)
Biologie (Biology)

Woensdag (Wednesday)
FREE
FREE (But I'll have a class here in 6 weeks)
Engelse Ond (English study hall)
Biologie (Biology)
Engelse (English!)
FREE

Donderdag (Thursday)
FREE
FREE
Natuurkunde Ond (Physics study hall-when I had it this week, we did absolutely nothing.. haha)
Informatica (AKA computer programming. Not too bad of a class actually)
FREE
FREE

Vrijdag (Friday)
P.E (Yes, they have P.E.)
Informatica (Computer programming)
Nederlands Ond** (Dutch study hall... but not really for me, see above)
FREE
Nieuw Nederlands (Dutch)
Wiskunde B (Math)

Maybe that makes a little teensy bit of sense? It's crazy.... My favorite day? Wednesday. Or Thursday because I only have two classes haha.

Boat Day!

2009-09-04T13:50:00.001-07:00

*I apologize in advance for my poor grammar skills. Or anything of the sort. My english skills are fading.*

Time for stories from what I call Boat Day!

On Monday, my last day before school started, I went with my host dad Hans on a sail boat funded by the Water Museum/Government of the Netherlands. To my understanding, it was a fundraiser to raise money to keep the old traditional boats in good shape and also to support the water museum(s). Several companies were asked if they wanted to participate in the Botter Boat race, one of them happened to be the company that Hans works for: Provincie Gelderland (they promote renewable energy!). 8 people who Hans works with + Hans + Me + 1 Schipper ("captain") and 1 young woman who is like a pro sailer = the people on our sailboat: BU 33. So these boats are super old and uber traditional and overall, really really neat. It was a race between the 8 boats to go around this big island and back but well...we knew as soon as we started our boat that we were going to lose... It was pretty bad how slow the boat was... But it was a really fun day and an opportunity that I am SO glad I didn't pass up. It's one of those things that is a big part of Dutch culture but not a touristy thing. AKA once in a lifetime thing!

Anyway, we came in dead last but we did win a trophy (and a small bottle of beerenburg)for being the first boat to cross the starting line. Which I found hilarious. Afterwards, all the teams got together and they fed us lots and lots of food and there was some crazy drunk dancing involved (not on my part!).

Oh, a funny story from the day is that people on our boat wanted to know how long it would take to rescue someone if they went overboard so a big buoy was thrown into the water and well, long story short, it took us 20 minutes to retrieve it. I was pretty happy I hadn't been that buoy...

Yes. I went on one of these. Intense, right? I thought so.

I'm on a boat. No T-Pain though... hmmm. :)

Hoi! The boat and me in my wonderful free shirt! :)

My host dad and I! I'm sailing the boat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woooo!! I swear I am not that fat in real life. I was just wearing many layers. I swear.

Beerenburg... Ugh. Grossest stuff ever. It burns your throat. Old men in Friesland drink it. And always have. Bleh not again for me though haha...

Some of the boats that beat us were waiting to cheer when we finished. We were dead last...

Our trophy! We won "first boat to cross the starting line" hahaha

Last note: I've been here for exactly TWO WEEKS!
A post about my first week of school will come soon! I promise!

Groningen

2009-09-03T05:51:00.000-07:00

Hoi!
Don't worry, I'll tell you all about school but my trip to Groningen and Boat Day deserve their own post. Not to mention that there's a lot to say about both!

Okay, Groningen!!

So on Thursday of last week (the 27th) Nienke and I headed allllll the way north to Groningen, where Kees attends the University. We biked to the train station in Ede
and then bought our 20 euro tickets (and that was the discounted price!). We were on that train for 30 min and then switched in Amersfoort to another train for two hours until we got to Groningen. Kees met us at the train station and took us through the city to his apartment. For a college boy, it was a very nice room! I enjoyed looking at all the American movies he had (with Dutch subtitles of course) and we had lunch in his room while watching field hockey on tv :) We then left to tour the city and eventually ended up in the center of Groningen. Funny enough, there was a carnival thing going on with all the cheesy rides and games that you see at American fairs. Nienke and I went on a rollercoaster, which was fun(ny). I was mostly laughing at the fact that they were playing American Pop over the sound system (Lady Gaga or Katy Perry anyone?). We sat outside of a restaurant and had drinks and then we wandered over to an old church: Martini Toren... And like any other European church I've seen, we of course had to climb all the way to the top and admire the view of the city :) Flat flat flat flat flat! Lots of churches in the distance too. We wandered around the city and Kees took us to this big park. Another festival was being set up in the park- it was a theatre festival! (of sorts) The basic idea was that there were box car-sized boxes lining the path and a different show was going to be performed in each box. I thought that sounded very cool. We ended up at an Italian restuarant known for it's pizzas and had dinner. Then we hung out at Kees' apartment again and then headed back to the train station. Nienke and I were both exhausted but managed to stay awake for the 2 hours on the train. Once we got to Ede, Hans picked us up so we wouldn't have to bike in the dark. Which was really nice!!! And that was my wonderful day trip to the land up north :) Here are some pictures:

Our train!! And a train conductor person...

This is Kees, my host brother.

The church we climbed up and the big ride next to it :)

Ringing the church bell. And looking crazy. Woo!

Just realized....

2009-08-28T09:28:00.000-07:00

As of today, I've been in The Netherlands and with The Wouters for exactly a week! Woo! It feels like I've been here a lot longer... Only three more days of holiday too :(

I just got back from a 16th birthday party for a friend of Nienke. It was just like get-togethers in America: we watched scary movies and had cake. The only difference: ALCOHOL! Haha. Everyone had at least one drink and the parents were nonexistant... haha. I think one of the boys was older than me but otherwise everyone else was 15 (or had just turned sixteen haha). Anyway. Good day. Lots of biking and fun.
Tot ziens!
Marleigh

Now for some written news!

2009-08-26T13:17:00.000-07:00

Hallo!
The past few days have been rather busy. Less time to get homesick I guess. I've done only a little exploring of Wageningen, but then again it is a little town. I went to Albert Hein today, which is the biggest grocery chain in the Netherlands. Very popular. Today my host dad and I also went to my school, Het Pantarijn (see pictures below), to talk to my "mentor" and decided what classes I will take. I still don't completely understand the system but we shall see how it works out. We also took the cats to the vet today (woo) and then we went to the center of Wageningen to talk to the "govt." and show them that I am a good person etc etc and should be allowed to stay here. Essentially. That went well and everything got approved but now I must go to Utrecht or somewhere else to get my actual permit... SIGH!

Let's see... On sunday the little kitten, Timon, got stuck in a tree haha. Then he jumped the whole way down! Silly poesje. He's okay, still cute :) I also went to Nienke's [field] hockey game. Fun to watch, she's the goalkeeper of her team. I expect many more hockey games in my future haha. We had another barbeque that night too, with some neighbors. They were super nice and knew about Portland, Oregon (actually, seems like if any Dutch person knows of Oregon, they know of Portland. Which makes sense I guess.) Haha. We chatted about Politics, American views, Obama, and the fact that there are 50 states (not 51 like they thought). Oh, and we talked about marijuana of course.

The next day Nienke and I went into town for school supplies and well, nothing much else haha. That night a neighbor came and visited. She spent a year in Port Angeles, Washington when she was 18. Small world I guess. The next day it RAINED and I did NOTHING! Haha, it was great. Organized my room, did some Dutch language work, wrote letters etc etc.

And then that brings us back to today... I should go to bed now, Nienke and I are taking the train(s) up to Groningen to visit Kees (my host brother) and see the town. I'm excited :) And on Friday I'm going to a 16th Birthday party of one of Nienke's friends. Should be interesting :)
That's all for now! Enjoy the pictures :)
Tot ziens!
Marleigh

A Couple of Busy Days!

2009-08-26T08:53:00.000-07:00

Prepare for lots of pictures....

I forgot about this picture... this is the ten people who are from the USA and are now in the Netherlands. We were waiting in the hotel in NYC for so long that we managed to bond haha

This is my school: Het Pantarijn. A wonderful 6 minute bike ride from the house :)

This is the inside of the school... Big. White. Modern. 4 levels!!!!

This is my friend, Pikachu. He guards my bike :)

For Vera: They sell Oreos in the Netherlands!! Haha now you'll really have to come visit :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

Dogs drive in the Netherlands. Cool, right?

Nienke! The only picture of her. So far :)

Dubbel Friss is my new favorite thing. Best stuff ever. It's basically just lime juice. Then Nienke and I added liqueur hahaha

Cats in a box! They were like this for the WHOLE day.

So I guess I'll write about the past few days in the new post... this one is getting a bit long...

Ik kan het niet geloven!

2009-08-22T12:09:00.000-07:00

Translation: I can't believe it!

Hallo! After a long (almost)three days of traveling, I finally am here safe and sound in the Netherlands with my new family! I left super early on Wednesday morning and flew 4(ish) hours to NYC. Then I met up with this girl Claire who was also with AFS (she's from Salem and going to Belgium). Together we navigated the airport and eventually met up with a group of about 20 other AFS students. We then proceeded to wait at least 2 hours for a shuttle bus to take us to the hotel for orientation.... ugh. That was the worst part of the whole trip: waiting in the fab NYC humidity trying not to fall asleep. Finally, all of us got to the hotel and met up with all the other AFSers going to Western Europe (Hungary, Switzerland, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Belgium) and had dinner. We had some orientation that night but were allowed to go to bed early, I ended up being in the same room as Caitlin, a girl from Ashland, OR going to the Netherlands for a year. There were/are 10 of us going to the Netherlands from the USA.

The next day (Thursday) we had some more orientation stuff in the morning than people started leaving by country (aka kids going to Sweden would leave, then kids going to Belgium....etc). The 10 of us going to the Netherlands were last to leave... as in we waited 6 hours by ourselves in the hotel until we could go to the airport... we bonded to say the least.... We finally left the hotel and went through airport stuff/security etc. with no glitches. A VERY successful flight, considering it was 7 hrs and 45 minutes. I watched I Love You Man and slept :) We landed safely in Zurich and hung around listening to people speak Dutch and laughing at the european bathrooms. Everyone was tired, smelly, and nervous. And excited of course :)

We made it safely to Amsterdam, no one's bag was lost, and then we didn't even have to go through customs. We literally just walked through a door.... Into a group of host families waiting for us!!! I met up with Janny, Hans, and Nienke and then checked in with AFS people and got some Dutch learning stuff from them. I have orientation in three weeks. We drove an hour to Wageningen.... here are some pictures:

This is Cody, the mother of Timon (the little kitten I named)

This is Timon, my little Dutch poesje :)

This is Puck, de hound :) He finally stopped barking at me today.

This is my house!!! So un traditionally euro.... very modern

For Sydney. Horsies right by the house!!! :)

Mijn fiets!! It cost 100 euros, i thought that was expensive for a secondhand bike but Hans said it was good... the other bikes were too big for me hahaha

So today we went and bought a bike for me and took a tour of Wageningen and got some Ijs (aka ice cream) and went to the outside market the town has on Saturdays. Yum yum! Tonight we had two families who are hosting students in our area over for dinner. One girl is from Turkey and the other is from Thailand. Two more people I'll know at orientation in three weeks I guess!! I like listening to Dutch but my brain is kinda dead now... busy day! Nienke and I also labeled everything in the house with sticky notes with the dutch words on them :) good fun. It helped her practice her Dutch spelling too hahaha.
Anyway, it is almost 12 here... eep! So I need to sleep. Nienke has a hockey game tomorrow and I hopefully I will go.
Liefs!
Marleigh

5 days left in Oregon!

2009-08-13T23:52:00.000-07:00

Hallo!
I managed to get a lot of stuff done yesterday and today, mostly running around and getting last minute things that I need. We're truly in my last days in America! I can remember being excited that I had 2 months left, then 1 month, then 4 weeks, then 3 weeks, then 2 weeks, then 1 week, and now I only have 5 DAYS!

Today I also went to the Dutch Store out in Beaverton. It's a wonderful little place :) We picked up lots of Dutch treats for my going away party on Saturday.

This is a good time to do a little background on my host family:
I will be staying with the Wouters in the small university town of Wageningen. My host-mom is Janny and my host-dad is Hans. They have three kids: their son Kees (19) is attending the university in Groningen, their daughter Anna (17) is going on a foreign exchange program with AFS for a year in Arkansas (she has now been there for about 4 days!!), and last but not least, Nienke (15) will be the one who lives at home with me and luckily we'll go to the same school :)
They have many cats (good for me!) and one dog, named Puck. They love to travel, in fact they just returned from 2.5 weeks in Hungary. Hans and Janny both work for the government and Hans actually works to promote renewable energy (like my dad...). They live in an old family estate (which from pictures I can tell has a large backyard- a rare thing in Europe). They all love sports and Nienke loves hockey a lot.

Anyway, that's some basic information. More to come when I meet them I guess :)
Liefs en tot ziens!
Marleigh

Less than two weeks to go!

2009-08-08T16:46:00.000-07:00

Hallo!

I leave on August 19 to live for a year in Wageningen, the Netherlands. I'm traveling in connection with the organization, AFS Intercultural (www.afs.org, www.usa.afs.org). I received a scholarship and as part of accepting the scholarship, I've been asked to set up and maintain a blog during my year abroad.

I'm a high school junior from West Linn, Oregon and for the past three weeks, I have been taking Dutch lessons and am now even more excited to speak this language for the next year. I have 11 days until I leave and so much to do before then! I will try my best to maintain this blog and update it as much as possible, but bear with me when time is scarce :)

We've hosted several foreign exchange students and I have wanted to be a part of the exchange program for many years now. I have always had a love for travel and I chose the Netherlands because of my family's connection and my desire to learn Dutch. I am so excited to live in a new country with a new family and culture for a year. My host sister is a year younger than me, so I finally won't be the youngest member of the family! :) My other host sister is going on a foreign exchange from the Netherlands to Arkansas, also for a year, and she actually leaves this Monday!

Liefs en tot ziens, Marleigh :)