Frikandelicious and FAQ!

Frikandel is a typical Dutch food. It's a sausage in a pastry. The first time I ate it was at 6 am in the Albert Heijn To Go in The Hague Central Train Station. Oh, Albert. You never cease to amaze me with the wonderful food you have to offer. But, Emily, you ask, why were you at the train station at 6 am?? Well, I was just coming back from Berlin. Okay, okay, calm down, rustig kinderen. This blog post will answer alllllll those questions that I know are burning deep within you.

1. How was Berlin? What did you do? - Berlin was unbelievable in so many different ways. I was with all the AFS students here in the Netherlands, meaning I hung out with 70 different people from all over the world - Thailand, New Zealand, Belgium, Turkey, Colombia... they were all there! So, not only do I know what the Dutch kids do, I also learned about soooo many other cultures. The nice part is that almost everyone speaks English. Well, that makes me feel ignorant, but pretty lucky because I can talk to everyone. Anyhow, after this year I will speak Dutch! I saw where the Berlin wall used to be, walked everywhere, went to the Checkpoint Charlie museum, ate German curry sausages, (which is funny because the German boy I was with got a hamburger), hung out in a mall, took a boat ride, rode the train, toured a concentration camp (which was really interesting to me), drank a beer (many people are disappointed that I still have never been drunk, but that's their problem), looked around a church, and wore so many layers that I looked like a Michelin Abominable Snow Man. Now I have a ton of new friends who I will definitely be seeing later.

2. What's up with your host family situation? - It just wasn't working out. There are no hard feelings, but I think the right decision was made. I have moved out of my host family's house and am back with my welcome family. However, this is not permanent. Since I want to stay at my current school, I have to ask my classmates if they know anybody who wants an exchange student for the rest of the year who lives near the school (because from where I am currently staying I must travel for an hour by tram). If I cannot find a new host family by the end of November, then AFS will step in and begin to search for a host family for me... but then I could end up anywhere in the country and I must start over again. It will all work out eventually, I'm sure of it :)

3. How's your Dutch? - Nou, ik denk dat het heel slecht is, maar iedereen zegt dat het is ..... beter dan vroeger, hahaha. Elke dag ben ik een stukje beter, maar ik hoor dat ik echt grappig ben, want mijn accent is helemaal Amerikaanse en mijn grammatica altijd rommelig is. Ik kan niet snel praten, en als ik dat probeer is het echt vervalend voor ik, maar niemand is boos op me. Het komt goed.

4. How the heck do you pronounce those words?!!?!? - Good question.

5. How's the food? - Delicious and not very filling. I could eat all the food I want and still be hungry afterwards. There seems to be some sort of unspoken rule that you're only allowed to have one thing on your sandwich. Last time I checked, a "sandwich" consisted of more than just jam. I want a sandwich with turkey, cheese, lettuce, tomato, mayo, mustard, salt, pepper, and pickles. Jammer (It's a pity). But, I know already that I will miss some things from the Dutch cuisine when I return home. Raw herring, stroopwaffles, hot fries, croquettes, Bon Bon Bloc (hazel nut mush filled chocolate), Bastogne cookies, the bread, and Fristi, just to name a few. Also, people here eat with their fork in the left hand and the knife in the right hand for the entire meal. You have to push the food onto the fork with the knife. It's a skill I have yet to master.

6. Is it cold? - Yup. But that didn't stop me from buying a Magnum Gold popsicle after school. It's vanilla ice cream filled with carmel stripes covered in chocolate and caramel. Lekker....

7. How's the Netherlands? - I get this question a lot. It's not an easy one to answer. Let's just say, it takes more effort than I initially thought to make it a good experience.

8. Well.... what now??? - Now I'm going to my friend's house to eat dinner. Then I'm coming back to put the little kids in bed. If you have another question (which I doubt because nobody ever emails me.... *wahhh*) just email me and I'll answer it in the next blog.

Tot ziens,

Emily

Even Wachten (Just Wait)

Hey guys,
Sorry I haven´t posted for a whole week. But maybe that´s a good thing... maybe I should only be posting once a week. I´m sorry, but I´m going to have to keep you in the dark for a while. This is a sort of hectic week for me. I´m not going to be posting any news until after the 25th of October, so check back at the end of the month. What I can tell you is this - remember my welcome host family? The family I stayed with for the first two weeks I was here? I´m living with them for this week, and then from the 21st to the 25th I´m going to Berlin, Germany, with the rest of the AFS students here in NL. That should be exciting. I´ll tell you everything that´s going on in the next post. I just don´t want to say anything too soon because I actually don´t know all the details yet, but I will let you know as soon as I do. Don´t worry though, I´m fine. Just working out a few kinks.
Tot ziens,
Emily

I'm Going to Blog About This on My Blog

A brief overview of my weekend:

Friday: I took an English test at school... It's a little pathetic that I didn't know the answers to some of the questions. I'm going to be embarrassed if someone else got a better grade than I did. After school I went to the ATM, which went a little crazy, beeped incessantly, then slurped up my debit card and shredded it to bits. We called the bank that was supposed to send me my Netherlands debit card earlier this week, but they had accidentialy sent my card to America. Yayy for not having any money! Then I went bowling with some friends. Afterwards they said, "Let's go to the Mac." Yes, Europeans eat McDonald's - actually, the kids at my school eat it more often than my American friends or I ever did. I got a stroopwaffel McFlurry. Wow. They could make so much money off those in the States - it was absolutely amazing. It was awkward, though, when the woman asked me what I wanted and I said a stroopwaffel McFlurry. Because she was like, "Oh, no, here we only have M&M, Kit-Kat, and stroopwaffel McFlurries." .... Uhm, okay, can I have a stroopwaffel McFlurry, then? Oh, sure. Thanks....? On my way home from bowling I bought 5 bags of candy because, well, I was bored and I wanted candy. Now my host parents keep telling me I'm going to get fat. Well, maybe if Dutch people knew what a vegetable was, I wouldn't. Vegetables here are like, some kind of foreign object... "What...? You mean, you eat plants? You're talking about a potato, right?" Okay, so it's not that bad, but I'm not going to get fat, even if nobody here eats vegetables.

Saturday: Went into the city with a friend. We were going to go shopping, but neither of us really had any money, so we just looked around the stores and walked some. I got these fries that are really popular here - nothing special, though. Now I can say I've had them. Anyways, we were in this toy store and I saw a Dora the Explorer doll. I asked my friend, "So... does Dora teach you guys English or Spanish?" She said that Dora talks in Dutch and teaches English. Hahaha, what the heck, she always taught me Spanish! I mean, what about the catchy phrase, "Come on, vamanos! Everybody let's go!"? What is it now, "Kom maar, let's go! Iedereen kom mee!"? Hmm I guess that works, actually. Well, when my friend left, I watched a movie called Ladies Room (which is exactly what it sounds like - women having adventures in a bathroom). It was okay. John Malkovitch was in it. "What was John Malkovitch doing in the ladies room?" asked Justin. I meant in the movie, lol. Then I watched a movie called The Wedding Planner. (Which is exactly what it sounds like - a movie about a woman who plans weddings. And omg, guess what happens? Yep, she finds her soulmate at the end. Because I totally didn't see that coming.) I attempted to put up a poster, but it fell down after 10 minutes.

Sunday: Basically woke up and watched Youtube. I watched a lot of videos about maintaining a healthy weight, because apparently I'm going to get fat. Then I headed over to my welcome family's home to celebrate their son's 4th birthday. It was fun, and really hectic with all the four-year-olds running around and throwing me in jail and all that good stuff. And really good cake, too. I guess those health videos really got through to me, didn't they? Had dinner with the parents, which is always gezellig. Speaking of people, I have no idea who is reading this blog. Blogger stores a bunch of statistics for me, so I can see how many times my blog has been viewed each day, week, and month, and from where in the world it is being viewed. There are people in Thailand reading this, as well as France, Canada, and other random places. So when I say no idea, I really mean NO idea. Oh, and I succeeded in putting up a different poster. It's a Buddha. Apparently it's bad luck to buy a Buddha for yourself.... oops. But I like Buddha... so... I'll hope for the best.

Well... honestly, I really miss home. I just miss having friends, a dog, English, someone to hug me, fun classes, easy days, not being depressed, long car rides, vegetables, Netflix, people telling me I'm pretty instead of fat, teachers who think I'm smart, getting good grades, arm & hammer toothpaste, trips to Ralph's, frozen food from Trader Joe's, sleepovers, texting, my sister's full-length mirrors, everything about my daddy, feeling like I'm worthwhile and not worthless, the craziness of LCHS, school dances, random school events, the sheepskin rug in my living room, huge, comfy quilts, Haley's jacuzzi, reliable internet *see footnote in the PS*, people thinking I'm funny instead of a babbling fool, and just basically everything from my "previous life". Well, now I've spent too long writing this, as it is getting quite late and I have gym class tomorrow. Woopie. Time to prove to all my little Dutch buddies just how fit Americans are. Unless we're doing the high jump again. Then there's just no hope.

Tot ziens,

Emily

PS: *footnote* I started writing this post at 10:30 pm, and now it's 12:00 am. The internet wouldn't let me save it from my host parent's computer, so I had to rewrite it onto my computer to save it for tomorrow when it's working again. I actually spend a lot of time writing these, so I really appreciate any feedback from, uhhh, whoever you people are who are reading this. Alright, I'll just say it straight, I'm more lonely here than I have ever been in my life, and it makes me feel weird to see that 19 people have viewed my blog yesterday but the only emails I'm getting are ones telling me that I can get a free travel kit if I sign up with AARP today. So pleeeeeeaseeee if you enjoy reading my blog, just let me know every now and then, because otherwise, what's the point of me writing it? Thanks :)

Left Overs Don't Exist

That's right. You just throw everything away after dinner. At least in my house.

I'll cut to the chase on this one. I found out who the Taylor Lautner look-alike is. Here's a segment from a wikipedia article about the guy:

Magnus Carlsen (born Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen on 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess Grandmaster and chess prodigy currently ranked number one in the world on the official FIDE rating list... On 26 April 2004 Carlsen became a Grandmaster at the age of 13 years, 148 days, making him the third-youngest Grandmaster in history. (source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_Carlsen)

Here's a pic of him when he was chessing it up, and a pic of him in the G-Star Raw advertisements:

...and you didn't believe me when I said he looked like a grumpy werewolf. I think that's his game face...

Well, for all you AFS staff/volunteers reading this, you'll be glad to know that I've convinced a girl in my class to look into going abroad on a gap year program with AFS. Yayy, spreading the word! Can I have a prize now?

Speaking of AFS, I went to Amsterdam with the other AFS kids. It was fun, we took a boat ride through the canals and my American friends and I ate Dutch pancakes and walked around town. We checked out a few bars, but it wasn't anything special. And no, I did not end up face-down in the gutters of the red light district. Sorry to disappoint you.

Anyways, for some reason we keep playing softball in gym class. Maybe baseball is America's favorite pastime, but I can assure, it is not mine. I got out three times today, but I don't really care. I can hit the ball, I just usually count on people not being able to catch it. Which apparently isn't a very good strategy...

Did I mention the bread here is amazing? Because it really is. You could probably give me two pieces of bread with dirt in-between and I'd think it was delicious. Or as they say here, "lekker". By the way, "lekker" can apply to anything. It doesn't just mean, "delicious cake". Here they say, "It is delicious weather," "He is a delicious man," "These shoes are deliciously warm," and I even see on the back of cars, "You'll feel more delicious in a {insert car name here}". Everything is lekker. Even sleep. "Slaap lekker!"

If this makes you think that there aren't very many words in the Dutch language, you are absolutely correct. The people who play "sports" are "sporters" who are "sportive". You don't go to the dentist, you go to the tooth doctor. It makes the language easy to learn, but also repetitive. Only a little repetitive. Well, I think it's repetitive. Because it is that. Repetitive, I mean.

Well, I'm going to go take a walk with my host mom now. Oh, but before I forget, I have a small story for all y'all:

So, my host parents and I went out to get fast food (yay, apparently people here like chicken nuggets, too....) and while we were in line I saw a music video playing on the TV. Which made me die a little inside. Because I used to listen to this song and feel happy and uplifted and generally blissful and optimistic, especially on a bad day. But now, it makes me ... well, a bit disdainful. The song is called "Just the Way You Are" by Bruno Mars. Now, that sounds great, and the lyrics are beautiful - as you can probably guess, it's about how much this guy loves this girl and doesn't want her to change one thing. HOWEVER, just watch the video and you'll see why not everyone (or practically no one) can enjoy this song while watching it. (Okay, in case you don't feel like watching it, or you just don't get what I mean, the girl he is singing about is HOT, we're talking HOTTT. So normal people like me might be the target audience, but now I'm just sad. A crowd full of sad people isn't exactly the goal, I don't think.) Well, it's a good song anyways, here's the link. Maybe just close your eyes while listening to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjhCEhWiKXk

Tot ziens,

Emily