DINSDAG: tuesday, we went to the zoo. it was miserably cold and rainy, but that was not at all going to impede my complete enjoyment of the zoo. we took the train there, which was an adventure in itself. i love trains, and i got a window seat so i spent the entire hour long train ride glued to the window watching farms, grass, and cute little dutch houses. also, i saw my first windmill! debby suggested i take a picture :P AND I WOULD HAVE, had we not sped past it so quickly :C
anyway, i've decided that what i really like about dutch housing [besides everythng] is that all the windows on the first floor are really big. they're all these cute, ground level little houses with huge windows. i dunno, they're pretty whimsical, even the ugly city houses.
we also saw so many farm animals. i think i have seen more cows and sheep and horses in the three weeks i've been here than i have in about three years in america.
anyway, we got off the train in arnhem. i'm in love with it. it's full of pretty little ornamented appartment houses all smushed together. its quite a pretty place. it reminded me a little bit of a compressed european providence c:
then we took the bus to get to the zoo. it was a very long journey. en route, i was trying my very hardest to say "bataaf lyceum" the most correct way possible, and obviously i failed pretty hard. so some boys were making fun of me for that. it's really an endless loop, you know. my accent is terrible so people make fun of me, which makes me speak less dutch, which makes my accent remain terrible. etc. and like, its so different when you're american trying to speak a different language. when exchange students come to america, nobody makes fun of their shitty english. but here, everyone laughs at you when you speak wrong, because you're a stupid american.
but i must keep going, if i ever want to speak dutch! cos its not gonna be easy.
ANYWAY, so we got to the zoo and it was ffffffffffreezing, so we beelined for the part of the zoo that's indoors. we went to the ocean part and saw sharks, and all the fish from finding nemo, and rays and eels and everything, which was swell. then we did some other stuff, and then we went to the monkeys because debby is in love with monkeys. they were really cute, and one of them had a little teeny baby monkey :3
we had a good amount of extra time that we didn't want to spend outside trudging around the zoo, so eventually we just navigated to the swanky zoo cafe and got coffee and snacks. it was really swanky for a zoo. they tried to doll it up like some eclectic luxury lodge, which was hilarious :P
after we finished at the zoo, we went into the town center to do some shopping. since i'm dirt poor [i've spent more money than i'd like to express on food] i didn't buy anything, i just shopped around.
after shopping, the rest of the kids went back to hengelo by train, but debby, suzan, i, and one of the teachers took the train 45 minutes to utrecht. to get starbucks coffee. because thats the closest one. we were legit there for like half an hour, all we did was drink coffee lol. i got a chai latte, it was completely heavenly. they don't have my teas here, so it was nice to get something that i missed. also, i bought pretty much THE MOST DELICIOUS sandwich ever? it had mango chutne in it. i don't even know what that is.
aaaaaaand then we took the train the bajillion hours back to hengelo, and i biked home.
WOENSDAG: hike up your sweatpants and put your hair up, its camping time!
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| y'all ready to get woodsy and adventerous? |
we got to school at nine, and then we had to bike to the place where everything was happening. which was an HOUR AND A HALF by bike. oh sweet jesus. we were like "i think when we finally come to terms with the fact that we are just never ever going to get there, we'll be there." something about biking in the freezing cold is that it is absolutely impossibly to be comfortable in what you're wearing. because before you bike, you want to be wearing a snowsuit. but then while you're biking, you want to take everything off and just wear a tshirt. but then of course when you stop biking, you're like THAT WAS A SHIT IDEA, and you have to pile all your layers back on.
when we finally did arrive, we met up with the people who came by car. who, in my exhausted state, i vaguely recall wanting to set on fire. ANYWAY C:
the first thing we did was high ropes. i'm sort of a baby about these sort of things, but i put on my brave face and my harness and got ready to do some serious climbing.
i'm really really afraid of ladders, so even before i got on the actual course i was scared shitless. i'm going to skip the boring parts where i was just walkin' along, right to the part where i was 20 feet off the ground on a rope the thickness of my thumb, crying. because that's the interesting part. i was feelin' pretty okay, like maybe i could magically ford the course and not fall and get wicked harness crotch burn. oh, how wrong i was. there was one gap where there was a foot rope and an arm rope, and then at the other side there was no platform, just a tree and a different rope to walk on. the idea of switching my harness without a platform made me want to die a little bit. but anyway, i started crossing it, and halfway through i realized that, being really really short, i wasnt going to be able to reach both the hand and foot ropes at the same time. i promptly started to cry.
i figured that it was an equal amount of suffering to go back the way i came, and i wouldnt get to do the zip line, so i kept going :P the rest of the course wasn't that hard.
debby said she had a mad panic attack too, cos she fell off one of the nets. so at least i wasn't the only one XD
after that fully traumatic experience, we had a picnic. which was wonderful and full of sandwiches and bananas, and made me forget about the horrors of the day thus far :P
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| i don't remember anything before this moment, sandwich. |
debby, suzan, and i, being grumpy lazy people decided that we wanted to leave and take the train home c: so we did. but first we had to bike to the station at the center of enschede. which wound up taking an hour anyway, because we got mad lost. also, something to remember in the future: you have to buy an extra ticket for your bike if you want to bring it on the train. that ticket costs 6 euro. :C this is why i'm poor.
the good part was, i got to get off the train in borne, so i didn't have far to go after that.
it was one of those days that wasn't good, but at least it was an experience :P
DONDERDAG: sidenote: best day name ever? yes.
today was horseriding. basically, i didn't want to wake up this morning. and after i did, i just wanted to go back to sleep. first, i biked 50 minutes to the place where the horses were. it was really sad cos we kept biking past farms with horses, and we all got our hopes up, but then it was like JK THIS IS HOLLAND EVERYONE HAS HORSES KEEP GOING. D:
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| these are not the horses you are looking for. |
then i biked home and bought like ten packs of instant soup and a giant ice tea and set up camp on the couch. because nothing is more fulfilling and mentally stimulating than binging and watching room-raiders and super sweet sixteen.
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| truly enlightening. |
also, i had like 4 servings of granola cereal today. that shit is the best. omg so good. also like 3 apples.
mm i'm pretty much planning on going to sleep nowish. i have to go to school tomorrow and do nothing for a few hours, and then i'm going to the weekend long AFS camp. woop :D
<3 <3 much love, angela.
p.s. people here don't quite understand how i use the word "cool" here. cos i use it to mean "okee-doke", but here it means "that's super awesome!"
and usually conversations sort of happen like this:
"what are we having for dinner?"
"i don't know, we still have to decide"
"cool."
"... is it?"
:/ lol
p.p.s. i'm not really thinking coherent or interesting thoughts right now, so forgive me if this is extremely long and not very full of content. i'm havin'a rough week, ladies and gents.
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