*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