Rotterdam: unexpected but awesome

Okay so I'm an idiot and just wrote about half of an update and my time ran out and it all got deleted. But I can't buy any less than an hour more so now I have lots of time and will try to write it all again.

I think I left off before supper at Pieter's (graham's relative) house. Having a home cooked meal was incredible. I find in Holland they eat a lot of meat and a lot of cheese: two things I like a lot! :-) It was probably the best meal I've had since I've gotten here. Even better than the greek food, and that says a lot! After supper we walked to the dyke, about 800m from their house. I didn't know this, but I guess most of Holland is actually below sea level, so they have a huge dyke all along the coast. When you stand on it it's really cool because the level of the water on one side of it is actually higher than the level of the ground on the other. I don't think the pictures are going to turn out, but it was really really neat.

By the time we got back to the house, more family members had started to arrive. The evening was very amusing. There were in total about 15 people there: 4 (us) didn't speak and dutch and about 5 didn't speak any english. But they were all very friendly and even the ones that spoke very little english tried really hard and were very patient with us. I learned how to say a few things in dutch, but I won't attempt to spell them. Even after the huge meal we had just had, the food just kept coming! Tray after tray of different cheeses and meats and crackers and then when those were done, out came bowls of snack food! It was a great night. By the time everyone went home, I was exhausted, so I was the first of us to head to bed.

Early to bed, early to rise. The next morning I was the first one awake and got to experience life in Holland unlike the rest of them did. I had breakfast with the family. Can you guess what it was? Of course, more meat and cheese! It was basically a table covered with different breads, meats, cheeses and spreads. Unlike any breakfast I've ever had, but so so good! After breakfast, the others still weren't awake, so I got to get to know the kids a little better. Renee (7) and Arne (5) were so much fun to play with! I helped them with their chores, which involved feeding the chickens and Sloeber (the bunny). I miss Winston so much! But Sloeber was a very nice bunny. After that they showed me around their place, played on the trampoline and played with the kittens. Their cat Fleur just had them in May so they are still pretty small, and SO cute. Their names are Bloen, Schneush and Hanke (I have no clue how to spell them, just how to say them). We even played on the computer for a while (paddington bear in dutch... Renee basically had to play for me) before the others started to get up.

Once they got up it wasn't long before they had had breakfast, we had gotten packed up and we were off to the train station (with a packed lunch). The train system is absolutely amazing here. It's easy and quick to get pretty much anywhere. We arrived in Sittard less than 2 hours after we left and after a few minutes of searching found the person we were looking for. First stop: Jules and Mil's house. They live in a very nice house that is in a town, but still has a big yard with chickens and a nice vegetable garden and everything. They also have a very happy, very rambunctious chocolate lab called Mielus. Reminds me a bit of Ellie, but not quite the same! I miss Ellie!!

After visiting with them for a little bit, we were off to Jules' mother's house for supper. Another evening of people who can't really communicate very well. But we had had practice and were getting better and getting our point across in the simplest way possible. The family at this party were a lot older than the other party but still very very friendly. Supper was, once again, amazing. The main dish was this fish platter with probably at least 4 types of fish on it. It was SO good! Jules' mother (same relation to Graham as Elizabeth) doesn't speak english, but showed me a lot of the weaving she had done. You can do amazing things with weaving!!

It turns out there was a little bit of a misunderstanding and they hadn't realized that we were planning on staying for the night. I couldn't find us a place to stay in Amsterdam for the night, so we decided to go to Rotterdam for a couple of days. So after the party, it was back to the train station and off to Rotterdam. Again, I love the train system, and it was really really easy to get there. It was fairly late when we arrived, but I had gotten directions to the hostel, so we got there pretty easily and still got a good night's sleep.

Next morning we grabbed breakfast at the hostel (the best hostel breakfast we've had yet) and were off to see the city! I really really like Holland a lot. Of all the places we've been I think I would most like to live in Holland. Not that I haven't loved the other places too, but I couldn't really live there. It probably helps that we've been places other than the tourist hubs and big humungous cities, but even Rotterdam, which is the second biggest city in Holland, is beautiful. Where most places we've been are filled with really really beautiful, old buildings, Rotterdam got pretty much flattened when it got bombed in WWII. So the majority of the city is less than 100 years old and there is a lot of really cool architecture. Also, there are a lot of sculptures randomly places throughout the city. Modern stuff, like one, as Tim explains, that looks like someone ate a Dr. Seuss book and threw it up. We spent most of the day wandering around the city enjoying it, but also took in the big modern art museum. It was my favorite modern art museum yet. It did have all the normal stuff that the other's we've been to have, but it also had a bunch of stuff that was a lot different. It was really interactive and made you use more senses than just looking at things. It's hard to explain but it was really really cool. We were there for a few hours and only saw about half of it, but I really enjoyed it a lot more than any of the other museums we've been to (except the natural history museum of course).

Later in the afternoon we split up so that Justine and I could do a little shopping :-) When we got back to the hostel, Justine and Graham called it an early night while Tim and I hung out in the hostel playing pool and meeting other people. I got to play a little soccer with some people, but don't think I learned where they were from, and we met some german guys that go to architect school.

This morning we slept in, checked out, grabbed some food and came here. Now we're headed to the train station to make our way to Amsterdam. I have to run because Graham, Justine and Tim are all waiting for me. I'll talk to you soon!
Kaila