Czech This Out!

I have been deemed responsible for all the world's pain and sadness because of my last blog post, so here I am to make up for that.

Right now I'm in the Czech Republic, sitting in the hotel restaurant, drinking hot chocolate (not as good as Dutch hot chocolate) after 2 hours of snowboarding. Today was my second lesson, and I'm not.... terrrrible, but it was sort of depressing to be sitting on the slope after a fall and to see my six-year-old host sister pass me perfectly on skis. But hey, you just gotta get back up and keep going. It was my first time on a slope, and I made it down the second half without falling. Granted, I was holding my instructor's hand... which is fine, because Carla predicted everything perfectly (except the falling in love part.... not that I was expecting that). Nahh, he's just really cool. We're so funny together (when I'm not on my face in the snow).

Me: "I think I have a lot more learning to do."

Him: "Yes... like how to stand and how to walk."

Me: "....I guess I picked the wrong day to stop crawling."

Czech is a really awesome language. I only know how to say "I like snowboarding" in Czech, because I asked, but it looks and sounds really cool.

I'm reading a book called Everything is Illuminated. I'm not very far, but it's pretty good. It's written a bit strangely, but that makes it sort of funny.

I think I will practice more snowboarding either tonight or tomorrow morning, before my lesson. I will only be here for a few more days, and I would like to be able to go down the slope by myself.

Before we got here, my host family and I went to Matthias' parents to see the rest of his family in North Holland. I had been there before, but this time there were presents and a lot of people. I believe I was given the coolest bed in the house. I was shoved into a small corner next to a small, foggy/mossy window, on the second floor. (No, I'm serious, I loved that spot.) The house itself is cool... it used to be a sort of barn where they would hang cheese on the walls. It's not huge, but sort of spooky. Think of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre house without the chickens hanging from the ceiling and no deranged butchers in the closet. Basically just really cool, made of wood, different and old. Dinner was vegetable soup and plum (Christmas) pudding.

After that, we went to Carla's parents house in Belgium to see her side of the family. The house was huuuuuge and when I told that to Carla's mom, she said, "Oh, no, this is a pretty typical house for Belgian people." ............. Anyways, there were tonsssss of little kids running around, and also presents to be opened (there are 2 days of Christmas here, and there too I suppose.) There were snacks on the table, and I didn't really want any, but someone offered me one so I took it anyways and it was seriously the most delicious thing I have ever eaten. It was just prepackaged, store-bought salad cheese balls, but it was amazing. Dinner that night was foie gras, soup, lobster, octopus, deviled eggs with caviar, shrimp, and raw salmon.

My host dad had to explain this to me. I didn't understand why it was so different. He said that Dutch people are just content with what they have. They don't ask for a lot, because many Dutch people are religious and they feel that a modest way of life is more accepted by God. This way of living has permeated throughout most of the country, even to people who aren't religious. Belgian people really like to live and be happy. They party and eat delicious food because they want to, and it's fun. So, in case you thought that all of Europe was the same... it's not. Not even two countries that speak almost the same language. BUT.... Dutch bread is about 12,000 times better than Belgian bread. So there.

Well anyways, after a 15 hour car ride, I'm in a different part of Europe. Most of the drive went through Germany. I've been to Germany twice now, (once in the car), and for some reason whenever I'm in Germany I have the desire to listen to German heavy metal. We didn't have any in the car. My internet knows where I am at any given moment, and keeps translating pages into Czech for me. Thank you, because I totally speak Czech. It's kind of funny, actually, because the six-year-old really loves to read, and she is unhappy because she can't read any of the Czech signs. But I love to speak Dutch here, because I think nobody will understand what I'm saying. Not that I say bad things, but I've never been able to do that before. It's always happened to me, when people are speaking another language in an airport or somewhere and I don't know what they're saying. That's what Dutch is - my airport language.

Speaking of which, I was told that Christmas was the turning point for AFS students - that their language skills increased a lot by the end of December (four months into the exchange). I've noticed that.... I can really talk to the kids now, and understand other people. It's more difficult in a big group of people, when everyone is trying to talk at once, and quickly, but one-on-one conversations are way better now.

My host mom just bought me another hot chocolate. I've been in here for an hour now.

Czech guys are really good looking.

That was random.... just happened to cross my mind. Good-bye, Spanish lessons. Hello, Czech lessons!! Just kidding. But not really. I really want to learn a lot of languages now. Nearly everyone I've met can speak more than two languages. That's really cool. I find it unfortunate that the American culture does not really emphasize learning another language. But it makes sense if you think about it. What are we supposed to learn? English is the language of the world.

I'm watching this Czech movie right now. It's on the TV in the restaurant. I don't really know what's going on... but I think it's a romantic comedy. (This is important information for you to know.)

Since my hot chocolate isn't gone yet, I'll take a moment to talk about Czech food. It's different than Dutch food. (OMG no way!!) Their soup isn't thick, but a bit greasy sometimes. They like stew, too. Well, I've only been here two days. But, this morning, I wanted a cookie to go along with my breakfast. It was the most delicious thing I have ever eaten. (Maybe I'll assign one of these to each country.) It had this hazelnut paste inside.

Hey wait a minute... I've already seen this scene of the movie!! I think it's on a loop. But I didn't see an ending! What's going on?? Well, now I'm really confused, my hot chocolate is up, and I must return to our room/house thing before dinner. So,

Tot ziens,

Emily

Attitude is Everything

My host mom said she'd like to read another post, so here it is.

I saw some people pulling their children to school on sleds. I thought that was pretty cool. But kids are heavy, and when you have to do it yourself you realize that. But I liked pulling the kids on sleds, it was nice.

The two-year-old, Anne-Laure, was walking in circles and singing in the kitchen while Carla and I were talking. But then Carla told me to stop talking and she pointed at Anne-Laure. I listened to what she was singing. It was "Happy Birthday" - in English. I had always thought it would be hilarious if one of the kids just randomly started speaking English without knowing it, but I didn't actually think it was possible. So that was a surprise. Turns out she learned the song from her six-year-old sister who is just starting to learn English in school. I wish I had started learning another language when I was six...

Have you ever woken up with your eyes glued shut? I hadn't until this morning. It was weird. Now one of my eyes is pink. But I don't think I have pink eye.

The lady at the chocolate store was mean to me. Well, not really mean, but annoying. She didn't like the fact that I had gone in there "just to have a look." She thought that I ought to be looking for something. Which I was, actually, I just didn't know what it was called, and I didn't feel like asking her because she was so grumpy, so I left without buying anything. To all you store employees - be nice to your customers, because then they will buy stuff. If you're mean, they might hold a grudge and never go to your store again.

Yesterday I spent twelve straight hours on the computer. Granted, a chunk of that time was spent doing college applications, but still. It's a bit pathetic. I watched two movies back to back, which meant staying up until almost four a.m. My internal clock is set for nine hours of sleep, so I woke up at one, with a headache.

Apparently it isn't normal to wear sneakers in the snow.

You know... whenever I write these blog posts I'm usually in a pretty good mood. But I should probably mention that at least once every day I think to myself:

"Why am I still here? I want to go home. I miss America. I'm miserable. This was a waste of time. I had a good thing going for me and now I don't."

Well at least I'm more appreciative of my home, I guess. But this has been going on for the last four months... yes, I've been here for four months and I'm still homesick. I don't think switching schools is going to help anything. I'm still going to be alone. When my host family is here, it's great. I love my host family. But they aren't here all the time, which means I'm just by myself. And maybe that's my own fault, but a lot of things are my own fault.

I guess this sounds pretty depressing, and you probably weren't expecting that. I've come really close to writing a depressing blog post twice, but the first time it didn't save and the second time someone told me to be optimistic so I didn't post it. But I'm going to post this one, because you're here to know how my year abroad is going and I haven't been honest about the fact that I'm usually unhappy yet.

The thing is, I've thought about doing something productive... like working out, reading, researching, cleaning, cooking..... I already do those things, but I could do those things with a lot more enthusiasm back in California, because at least there I have a lot of friends. I really miss my dog, too. I miss his fluffy face. And really random things about my family. Like the way my dad laughs out loud randomly at the breakfast table about a joke he heard two weeks ago and the high pitched voice my mom would always use when she read Dr. Seuss to me as a bed time story. And I miss my sister's eyes.

Oh, stop it, Emily, just keep your head up and stop complaining, you may as well be happy because you're here now so make the most of it.

If you want to hear some good news, I've gotten used to the Netherlands. (This might sound contradictory to what I have previously stated, so please allow me to explain.) I understand people when they speak Dutch. I can speak it pretty well, too. My host mom said that sometimes she forgets that it isn't my native language. My host room feels like my own room. I know how the trams and the trains and the busses work. I know my way around places, and if I don't I can usually figure it out or I just ask someone. I guess this means I have become more independent. That's true. I was sort of forced into that. But that's a good thing. It used to be I was scared to do some things on my own, like call banks and things like that that I wasn't too sure about. Now it just seems like something that I will eventually have to do so I may as well do it now. It helps to be apathetic, sometimes, because then you aren't scared - you just go with it. Things don't always have to be perfect and sometimes sh*t happens, but as the Dutch say, "alles komt goed", or "everything will be alright".

Tot ziens,

Emily

You Can't Take it with You

Why not?

Because it's too heavy.

This was a conversation between a father and son over a snowman.

Thaaaaaaaaat's right! It started snowing again. I woke up this morning, looked at the time, realized it was already time to leave, leapt out of bed, threw on some clothes, rushed down the stairs, flung open the front door - and stopped. I just stood there for a moment. Then I said, "....Oh, man..." because this snow was just ridiculous. It was really coming down. By the time I got to school, my jeans were soaked from half my calf down, my scarf had frozen over, and my backpack had become white. I don't know exactly how deep the snow is, but maybe it's 4 or 5 inches in my backyard.

Today was my last day of school before the Christmas break, and also my last day at that particular school. I didn't go to the Christmas dance yesterday because I had a cold. It's okay, though, because I got to watch a movie with my host parents, and today was the Christmas breakfast potluck at school, which I did go to. I brought mandarin oranges. There were also brownies, cookies, crackers, croissants, chocolate milk, donuts... basically everything more desirable that fruit. My teacher brought these little crackers with fancy mayonnaise filled quails eggs and caviar on top.

I might go to Amsterdam tonight... I'm not sure though. For one thing, I'm still sick, and something about walking through the snow at night doesn't sound like a good idea, and for another thing, I feel like all I'm going to do is walk, sit around in bars, talk to cool people and be cold. Talking to cool people is always good, but the rest sounds sort of.... "been there, done that." I'll think about it.

Mmmmm lekker! Why do I love Dutch food so much? I think when I go back to the US I won't want to eat anything.

"What would you like to eat, miss?"

"Do you have whole, raw herring covered in onions on roll?"

"Uhm......No. We only serve normal food here."

"Well then I'm leaving."

We'll see how it goes. Maybe I'll create an American Dutch fusion restaurant. But what would I sell? Stamppot pot pie? Cream filled oliebollen? Bacon and egg croquettes?

Never mind, all of those sound pretty gross, so I think I'll just keep the two cultures separate.

Vrolijk Kerstmis and tot ziens,

Emily

I Feel Good (Duh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh....)

I knew that I would! (Here's hoping you know that song.)

I went to Gouda last weekend. I love it there. I'm going to go there more often. Two of my good friends from AFS live there, too. You know, I didn't have too many expectations when I came to the Netherlands, but if I had any, Gouda would have fulfilled them. It's this cute place that has a downtown and a country side, and the kids bikes to school between two small lakes. There are sheep and geese and the air isn't polluted so much as it is in Den Haag. And there are these great bike paths that go through the woods if you just want to escape for a while. The houses aren't mashed together, and there are huge lakes that are good for skating in the winter. It's funny, because I'm probably one of the only students in the history of AFS who ever wanted to be placed out in the country, and one of the "lucky few" this year who got placed in a city. Oh well, both have their ups and downs. Anyways, it only takes me 25 minutes by train to get there, or something like 2 and a half hours biking, which I'm seriously considering doing if the weather is good.

Speaking of which, today I went on a one hour bike ride, just because. I didn't put much forethought into it, I just decided, "Let's go." It was nice. I got lost quite a lot (if you are either of my mothers - host or real - this doesn't surprise you), but I eventually found my way back. It was really fun, actually, I am going to do that more often. A couple of people got mad at me because I didn't signal that I was turning (since I made up my mind at the last minute) but anyways, I know to do that now. I got rained on, then snowed on, then the wind blew in my face, but I was home before it became dark outside. As I was biking on a busy street, I heard "Silent Night" playing. It made me feel sort of European.

I'm getting a cold. But tomorrow I'm going to check out a school that will maybe take me after the Christmas Break. Also, tomorrow I'm going back to Gouda (Yes!) for something called "The Evening of Little Lights" which is where the entire town turns off their electricity and instead uses candles to make it glow. I'm pretty excited for that, and to see my friends, too.

I also went to the zoo the other day. I would hate to be an animal in a zoo in the Netherlands. If it's bad weather, they have to go inside, which isn't nice, since that's boring, and it's almost always bad weather. I went with one of my friends from Argentina, and he said something funny while we were looking at the giraffes. He said, "You know, they kind of look like those girls with a lot of sass that chew gum all the time. Just look at how they walk and how they look at you while chewing as if to say, 'I'm so cool'." Oh Fred, you are too funny.

Anyways, I'm feeling generally content right now. Even though I'm sick. But did I mention that I'm going to the Czech Republic to go snowboarding during the school break? No, I don't think I did. But I am. So now you know. I've never been snowboarding, so that should be fun. My host mom is convinced that I'm going to have some kind of fling with one of the hot Czech ski instructors, but we'll see how that goes. Just kidding... she always thinks I'm going to have a fling with any boy I meet.

"You talk on chat with that guy a lot. I think he has a crush on you..."

"Ooooh, that friend you had over today was so cute!"

"He probably loves sitting next to an older, American girl."

Oh man oh man oh man. Tjonge jonge jonge. Carla. Why are you so cool?

Time to clean the tosti machine. You know what that is? It's like a toaster, but for sandwiches, like to make grilled ham and cheese. Really handy. Makes my life delicious.

Tot ziens,

Emily

Today

I dissected a pig's eye.

Tot ziens,

Emily

*Photos*

I know I've been writing a lot lately. I just feel like telling all y'all about my life. Do you want to return the favor? No? Fine, I'm over it at this point.

My host father found the hamster. So you don't have to worry about him anymore.

Oh, and by now pretty much everyone else knows, so I may as well make it public: I'm switching schools in January. I'm going to go to a school closer by, so I'll actually be able to bike there like a normal Dutch person. And avoid the commute.

You know, sometimes I regret coming here. I was told that generally, AFS students like their exchange countries better than their home countries, but everyone I've asked doesn't like the Netherlands that much. And what am I going to do with this difficult language once I actually learn to speak it? Also... sometimes I feel like I'm moving backwards, you know? Because, when I was in America, I managed create the following good habits:

1. Never watch TV

2. Stop treating online chat as a form of friendship

3. Eat lots of vegetables and fruits

It's not possible to continue doing these things here, because the culture encourages the opposite lifestyle. The thing is, the people here are geared towards exploring other parts of the world, like, getting out of NL and going on a real adventure, while keeping their own land gewoon gezellig. Which is great, I mean, I think it's great to explore, but uhmm... that's what I was sort of trying to do by coming here. For instance, this girl at school said to me the other day:

"I would really like to go to Africa sometime."

"Why?"

"Because I think you really have to go there to see how the people live, you know? I mean, I can pretty much assume how people in Germany or America live because it isn't that different from us."

"...........Right."

But every time I start feeling down, someone always manages to make me optimistic again. So I'll just make the most of it. Plus, it's not all bad, obviously. I'm learning how to live on my own.

I've also become crazy about learning Spanish. I read the textbook for fun. The kids at school don't understand simple Spanish phrases like they do in California, so sometimes I just mess with them by saying random things that don't make sense, like:

"Ay, chico, claro que siiii, es la verdad verde, porque hablo espanooooool."

".......uhm....ja?"

And then I laugh and speak Dutch with them again.

You know, I laughed so hard one time, because my family was like:

"We have company coming over for lunch."

And I guess I sort of expected our special lunch to consist of bread, but I just had to laugh when I was right. It's like,

"Today we're going to eat something special. And by special, I mean we're going to eat the same thing as always, but we're also going to put croissants on the table."

Hahahahahahhaha, SORRY Dutch people, I think you're all awesome, I just don't understand your eating habits. Oh, on the subject of bread, this woman said to me once,

"You know, I think it's good that we eat so much bread, because it fills you up and then you don't want to candy."

(It's a verb, I promise), but I just thought to myself....

'Do you not realize that you put your candy ON your bread? Jam, Nutella, sprinkles, powdered sugar, butter, thick apple syrup, caramel paste....... and you say you don't "candy"?'

Here, here's something for you to look at:

Oh man, those pictures of me are from when I first came here, when I was still skinny, wahhhh. You know, I've been trying to put up videos of my house, old house, school, street etc... but Blogger never lets me actually do it. Sorry about that.

Another thing I learned is that I want to live in a place that is always warm. Always. No cold, no snow, no scarves, no cracked hands. Warm and full of fruits and nice people.

Good thing I'm learning Spanish.

Adios,

Emily

Nog Een (Another One)

If you haven't read my first blog post from this morning, go ahead and read it now. It's okay, I'll wait.

.....

Well, now that you're back, I have a few more things to mention.

If you happen to ever have contact with me, please remind me to do the following:

1. Get more exercise.

2. Eat less candy.

3. Never drink coffee again.

4. Put my clothes in the wash.

5. Go to bed earlier.

Thanks. The combination of these bad habits means I have a headache, stomachache, backache, and eye ache. Plus my clothes smell weird.

The hamster has been missing since this morning. I'm going to try and find him in a bit.

Last night I learned just how loud the 2 year old can be. I woke up because she was wailing, as usual, trying to get one of her parents to come to her. Since everyone is sort of used to this, nobody came for a little bit. But then she just started SCREAMING, I mean, she really went for it. It sounded like someone witnessing a murder. Then I heard running footsteps, (one of the parents, of course, probably just as freaked out as I was), and then she stopped. But really, wow. That was a wake-up call. (I'm so punny, I know.) :D

Today we had company over, because December 5th is "presents evening". Imagine 6 children, their parents, and me, all in the living room. A couple of zwarte pieten also came over to give me and the little kids presents. These are similar to Santa's elves, except they're basically slaves. Actually... this whole holiday seems like it's all happy and nice, but it's really not. It's scary. There's this cute, upbeat Sinterklaas song that we have on a CD, and one line goes:

"Whoever is sweet gets yummy treats, whoever is naughty will be hit by a rod."

And the kids sing along. Nice.

And if you're really naughty, the zwarte pieten come in the night, steal you from your bed, throw you on the steamboat and take you back with them to Spain to learn how to serve Sinterklaas alongside them as a slave.

And yet nobody is afraid of these guys....

Oh, here's a picture:

My host mom said that the ones who came over today were pretty good-looking, and that I was lucky to get to sit on one of their laps. She also said that I should be really bad so that I could run away to Spain with them ahahaha.

Well, after the presents and cookies and bread and marzipan, I pretty much just did puzzles with the two year old all day. Which was fine. Oh my, she's crying again....

These kids cry a lot. I don't know why. Sometimes it's for a pretty strange reason too... like this morning, Sebastiaan said, "Emily, someone will come to the door soon with presents!" and Elise said, "Not that soon, it's presents EVENING, not presents MORNING." And Sebastiaan just sort of stopped, looked at the ground, groaned, hit Elise on the arm, started crying, and ran out of the room to his mom. Maybe he just doesn't like to be corrected. Dutch kids are pretty different from American kids. Here the kids are the bosses and HATE to be told "No". Anne-Laure started crying today because her dad told her to stop running with the scissors and give them to him.

On the subject of kids, I was next to this little boy on tram once, and we passed the halt called 'Monstersestraat', and he said to his mom what I had always thought, which was: "This is where the monsters are!" I thought that was pretty funny, because I think everyone has the same thought when the tram passes that stop. Whenever someone gets out there, I assume that they turn into a witch or a werewolf in the full moon.

Just kidding. If you want to live with the monsters, I have nothing against your life choice.

Right... did you know that melting snow has a sound? It does. It's sort of like a crackle.

Tomorrow after school I'm going to buy some new gloves and a new jacket.

Oh my, one of those random explosions just went off. I really have no idea what they are. But it's probably the same person doing it every time, because it always sounds like it's coming from the same spot.

You know what I hate? When people don't believe me. This wasn't recent, but at our orientation camp we had to play these games to learn Dutch. One of them was to match the name of the animal to its picture. And one example was a squirrel. And a few of my friends didn't know the word for it. So they were like, "I don't know... maybe it's 'vos'?"

And I said, "No, that's 'fox'. Do you want to guess again or do you want me to just tell you the answer?"

"Just tell us."

"Okay. It's 'eekhoorn'."

"Uhm.. hahah no it's not, that's what a squirrel eats, duh. So what is it?"

"...."

"I think it's 'vos'." "Yeah, that's probably it."

(Dutch volunteer steps in): "'Vos' is fox."

"Oh. So what's squirrel then?"

"Squirrel is 'eekhoorn'."

"Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh. That makes sense."

Me: -_____-

I know I shouldn't let things like this bother me. It just seems to happen a lot. I could go on. But I'll just get worked up about it.

Let me see did I have anything else to add...? No, I don't think so. Except I really don't feel well, so maybe I'll go try and find the hamster, then sleep.

Tot zo,

(Oh man, switching it up on you!!)

Emily

It's Funny Because I Used to LIKE to Breathe...

It doesn't really matter where I am or what time it is. If I set foot outside of my house, it's very likely that I'll increase my chances of dying from lung cancer. Don't yawn at 7 am at the tram halt, because chances are the guy next to you is smoking and the wind is blowing it straight into your face. Don't enter a bar unless you want to come out smelling like cigarettes, and running up the back staircase of the school is also a bad idea. Bleehhh.

Wow my hands are ridiculously cold and my feet are ridiculously hot, because I'm typing in bed with my legs under the covers. So this might take me a while to write because I'll have to stop and warm my fingers occasionally. Anyways...

I went to Amsterdam with 7 other AFS students a couple of days ago. Three of us decided we would just spend the whole night there, because the trains and trams and busses all stop running around 12 am, and we didn't want to go home then. Basically all we did was sit around in bars, talk, play in the snow... yeah. And at two bars the eight of us sort of tried to dance but it was kind of awkward - well, for me anyways. The kids from South America were just tearing up the dance floor, but I was just like.... ughh... I can't dance. I actually really like dancing, but the thing was that we were the only people dancing in the whole place. If there were 30 people doing it, then I would have been like, "WOOOO!"... but not when everyone else is watching! So that was weird. (I know these are lame excuses, or "smoesjes".) But anyways, later a few of us went into a gay bar, which was really interesting. The people there were all really nice, they were like, "Yeah, I'll take a picture of you guys, but only if my friends can be in it!... No, YOU - SMILE! Smile or I won't take it! There you go! Okay, great, have a fun night!" I wish everyone was as nice as these guys were. Oh, and I forgot to mention that it was COLD because it was SNOWING so hard. Well, at about 3am, the three of us (me, a girl from New Zealand, and a boy from Costa Rica) decided it would be a good idea if we slept for a few hours, so we went on a search for a youth hostel. We found one, but it was full, so we stood around talking for a while. Just then, this guy on a bike with a sort of tent on wheels attached zipped up to us and asked, "Taxi?" And we sort of stared at him then said, "...yyyeahhh.... do you know where there is a cheap youth hostel?"

"Yeah, there's one pretty close by that's one of the cheapest in the city. It's big, but I can't promise there will be a room right now."

"Can you take us there? How much would the ride cost?"

"For the three of you.... 10 euros."

So we squeezed onto the bench inside the tent on wheels and went on our merry way. We found out the guy biking us was Irish and had been living in Amsterdam for 5 years. He said something sort of funny and true, which was, "This is so typical for the city. Nobody here is Dutch."

We finally arrived the hostel and got a room. By 4:30 am we were sleeping, but we had to wake up at 9 because we didn't want to miss the free breakfast (which was fantastic, by the way - I just love eating bread every day). That's normal though... you get free bread, hardboiled eggs, meat, cheese, and spreads at youth hostels and that's about it. At really nice ones you might even get cereal or juice.

Well, apparently it's going to stop snowing today. I guess that's good and bad. It was sort of nice but sort of not. In any case, my family will probably go ice skating on a lake soon. Well, I should probably go now... I have to take a shower, clean my room, make sure my family knows I'm still alive, all that good stuff. Tomorrow back to school....

BLEHHH I just put my face down on my bed and got a nose full of the smell of smoke - not kidding. Next time I go out for a night, I'll change my clothes before taking a nap. Until then....

Tot ziens,

Emily

Zero

I was standing at the tram stop the other day, and I looked up at the digital clock across the street. It said 8:59. Then it switched to the outside temperature, which was 0º C. I thought, "Oh. Hmm............WAIT WHAT?!?!?? THAT'S FREEZING!" I couldn't believe it. It didn't feel that cold. It wouldn't even be so cold if it wasn't for all the wind. But anyways, I saw snow fall from the sky for the first time in my life. It sort of looked like feathers, and when it falls on the tram windows you can watch it melt in a couple of seconds. Speaking of tram windows, I was staring at the scenery on my way to school, and I saw some birds standing on a lake. And I thought, "Oh. Hmm...........WAIT WHAT?!?!??!? ON THE LAKE?!?!!? This has to be some sort of new, holy species!" But then i realized that the lake had been frozen over. That made more sense to me. After that I wondered why the birds weren't frozen. I asked someone and she told me that ducks have a lot of fat to keep them from freezing. But what if the lake, like, froze around the ducks while they were sitting in it? That would be unfortunate... It feels cool to walk on frozen grass and snowy sidewalks. But don't walk on the ice, because that's really slippery.

Today I wanted some fries before I went home, so I bought some at the central station. The only problem was that I wasn't wearing gloves. So while I was eating them and waiting for the tram, my hands practically froze over, but they were really good fries, so I kept going. Oh well, it could be worse, I could be in Serbia, where the snow means death instead of cold hands and a pretty landscape. So I'm not letting it get to me very much. And I would choose snow over rain, because if you stand in the snow you don't get wet.

I realize that it must sound like I practically live on the public transportation system, but I don't, really. Well, it does feels like that sometimes. On the other hand, it also provides some amusing stories, as you might have noticed. And now I know which stops are the most popular, and I can tell if the next tram is going to be jam packed or completely empty before it arrives. When there's a glitch in the screens that say which halt is next, I know how to correct it in my head. And I can sort of "surf" - I don't have to hold on to the rails because I know the movements of the tram and I just shift my weight accordingly (don't worry, Mom, I still hold on, just to be sure), because sometimes there are these lurches that you can't expect, and people go flailing and yell, "WAAAAHH!" for about 3 seconds and then they stand up straight again and act like nothing happened.

And now I'm going to burst your bubble. For all y'all in my hometown Los Angeles - you are #2. Sorry to break it to you. When I ask people here if they would ever want to go to America, they almost always say, "Yeah, that would be nice. I would love to see New York."

"Do you think you would ever want to go to LA?"

"Maybe. I'd rather go to New York, though. LA would be my second choice."

I don't know why, but the West coast just isn't too appealing to the Dutch. Maybe it's too hot. Yeah. That's probably it.

Speaking of hot, I have found a new love: bakery stands. They are all over the place, and they have these great donut like delicacies that fill me with joy. Actually... a few people are starting to recognize me at the shopping mall because I am such a frequent customer. For example, the woman at the fish store always knows I want my two shrimp croquettes to-go. (Uhm... I eat healthy things too, by the way. Even thought it doesn't sound like that from my blog, I just like to try the yummy Dutch food, too).

I went to a concert in Amsterdam with my Italian friend. I didn't like it that much, but he had the time of his life so it was alright. Do you know the band called Foals? Well, it was their concert, and there were actually a lot of people there.

Today I almost laughed and cried out loud simultaneously in class, but I didn't want to seem like a psycho so I refrained and just smiled to myself instead. The reason was... well, we had nothing to do in class today so the teacher put on a movie. The movie was called, "Ik Ook Van Jou" (I love you too), and it was one of the movies I had rented while still in America to get a head start on my Dutch. But it was just so... WEIRD that I never got past the first 15 minutes. So when I realized which film it was, I just thought, "AHAHAHAHAHAHH I guess I'll be forced to watch it now!" We didn't finish it... but I was right - it is a really strange film. There is a lot of sex in it (remember what I said about censoring in the Netherlands? Yeah, that doesn't exist) and just strange in general. It was actually sort of hilarious. Plus, I could understand what they were saying this time. Although there wasn't a whole lot of talking.

Speaking of school, I went to detention yesterday. It was sort of ridiculous, really. I've never been to detention in America. The reason I had to go was that I came to school too late and I didn't have my "kaart" with me. Which is sort of like a blue card of shame. You have to show it to the office every time you're late, and they write down the time and date on it. The lady was like, "Look, if you show me your card before school gets out, I'll let you off the hook. Otherwise you'll have to go to the discipline hour." Now, you and I both know quite well that it would be impossible for me to go home during lunch to retrieve such a thing, given my distance from the school, so I settled for detention. Which really wasn't that bad. It was basically me sitting in the computer lab, copying 2 pages of a textbook word for word while someone kept an eye on me. What they didn't realize was that I didn't mind, because it forced me to learn more vocabulary words. Maybe I should be late more often... just kidding.

Speaking of Dutch, they have some very strange verbs here. Here are two examples of perfectly acceptable sentences:

"Can I call you back? My family is table-ing."

"I really shouldn't candy so much."

There you have it.

Ugh, I turned on my heater an hour and a half ago, but all that's coming out is cold air. Turning it off now. Now I'm going to take a shower, put away the dishes, listen to music, work on my college apps, and watch "When Harry met Sally". Just to keep you in the know, you know?

Tot ziens,

Emily

PS: Really random fact, but when Dutch people write the number 9, it looks like the letter g. "Can you write your phone number down for me?" "Oh, sure. It's 123-456-gog."