Arrival

I lied a little bit about keeping the blog updated with pre-departure trip information. Whoops. I touched down in Amsterdam today at noon, about an hour before schedule (praise the Lord). The previous day, having awoken at six in the morning for an 11 pm flight, was spent packing and panicking and repacking and panicking and repacking until I had finally condensed my luggage to a manageable size. Mom convinced me to see a movie later in the afternoon to kill the sluggish hours until it was time to go to the airport. Finally, finally, at 7:30 (a mere 13+ hours of waiting later) time to leave for the airport. Quick drive through downtown and into the new international terminal. Security was a breeze - despite the agony of waiting all day, that is a major perk of flying red-eye. Aboard the airbus, right on time, I made my way down the aisles cursing my bulky backpack and scouting out the local talent in hopes of a normal seat mate. No such luck. He may have been a first time flier, or tweaking on crystal meth. Either way, homeboy spent all of pre-departure twitching around in his seat and having absurdly animated reactions to the text messages he received. Occasionally he would audibly suck on his gums, making a truly delightful smacking noise, perhaps to pull the last succulent meth crumbles (does meth crumble? I'm not really sure, probably should have done my research...) from between his teeth. His piece de resistance was the panic attack that occurred as the plane started to pull onto the tarmac. Frantically scratching and scrambling about his person, all I could hear was a slew of profanities whispered in an accent known only to those born and raised in the deep south. After watching the mounting distress for a minute, I asked if he was alright.
"Lost my sleepin' pills"
"Oh no," I replied and made a half effort to glance around our seat until his hand plunged under himself and with a look of sheer relief he pulled forth a packet of little blue pills.
"Want some sleepin' pills?" he offered as the plane reached a 45 degree angle.
Now, my mother always taught me never to take candy from strangers but she never said anything about "sleepin' pills" so I said "Heck yes, someone give me a whiskey to wash these bad boys down!"

Obviously, I'm joking. I politely declined and went back to my book as my new friend popped all four pills with the gusto of a fat kid who has spotted a box of Ho-Ho's.

The rest of the flight was fairly uneventful, save for a spot of turbulence about halfway through. It was actually the first time I have ever been scared for my life on an airplane. We might as well have been on a roller coaster for the way that wind whipped us around. But the pilot was able and Jesus on our side and we made it through just fine.

We arrived in Amsterdam to a bustling airport, filled with signs written in English, thank goodness. I breezed my way through customs, collected my bags, and called my host family to let them know that I would be on the 13:30 train to Ede. As the train took me farther from the busy streets of Amsterdam, the fields grew larger and greener, the farm animals more plentiful (including a whole field just covered in chickens, which I was disappointed to only get a glimpse of), and, of course, the windmills larger and larger. Save for the smallest of panic attacks when we reached Uricht (I wasn't sure if I was supposed to switch trains and couldn't read any of the instructional signs inside the train car so I decided not to move) the ride to Ede was smooth and uneventful. Upon my arrival to the train station, I was greeted by part of my host family - the father, Hans, the son, Lennart, and the daughter, Janne (pronounced 'Jenna'). After stowing my belongings in their car, they showed me Marnix College, the school where I will be teaching.

After navigating back to the train station, we drove to their home in Renkum. A beautiful little house with a garden out back. My room is at the rear of the house and is slightly disconnected from the rest of the living quarters but, one wall is covered entirely with windows where I can overlook the garden and the family's chicken coop. I've spent the afternoon unpacking, getting my act together for internship, and fighting jet lag. Tomorrow I will begin my internship with Marnix College and be introduced to all the teachers. It's exciting times all around!