playing catch up

Claiming Marnix for our own 

Finally a moment to breathe. Actually, a moment that doesn’t quite exist, but I’m taking it nonetheless, otherwise the memories are going to start to fade.

Let’s recap:

Thursday: Open House

Cue “put the American on display” jokes. Well joke’s on them because Indira and I claimed Marnix College for the States.

that one time Marc and I were twins 

Lucy making sure GB was represented too 

Friday: Pub Quiz

Third place champions 

Cue frustration. The magic of not being able to understand the conversation has finally gotten to me a little bit. And let’s be honest, sitting in a squash facility come bar, needing a translator for each question that some cheesy bartender come trivia officiator rambles out does not exactly mesh with my crippling need for independence. Oh yeah, and apparently all the sports complexes also have bars in them. So as the teachers of Marnix answered questions about tv theme songs, men in their sweaty athletic short-shorts wandered past to go knock a ball around for a little while. So there’s that.

But anyway, I’m working on my Dutch, it’s slow progress and most of the time I feel like I’m five years old again. But, I’d rather catch a little bit and feel like a progressing five year old, than not grasp anything and feel like an ignorant tourist.

Pub quiz (get it? like “pop quiz” because it’s for teachers. clever, right?) was fun though, despite the fact that mistakenly said that Obama was the 46th, not 44th president and forgot the last “T” on Massachusetts, (whoops. I got the other questions about America correct, I promise) we managed a third place medal.

Saturday: Amsterdam

on top of the Nemo

Cue walking. Shawna (the American teacher from Marnix) and her husband, Hans, took me around the city all day. We started off with coffee and apple pie – which is apparently a thing here in the Netherlands, they love their warm drinks and apple pastries… I ain’t complainin’ and then proceeded to cover most of the horseshoe city on foot. We did duck into a "coffee" shop, but defied all stereotypes by only ordering actual coffee. She said that I had to have the experience of going in one, which I agreed with, but putting all things smoke into my lungs is terrifying so we sipped our espressos as we watched the stoners do their thing. Fairly amusing if I do say so myself.  Shawna got her masters at the University of Amsterdam, so we got to visit all of her old haunts, which was the perfect way for me to get my bearings before I go visit on my own. Up and down the canals, we looked at the houses that had been bowing to passersby for years and gawked at the architecture of old.  We stopped for lunch right next to one of the open markets, needing to recharge with some Dutch pancakes, which are like crepes with the fruit/cheese/meat baked inside of them. mmmm.

After dinner in Chinatown, we went to one of Shawna’s favorite haunts when she was in college to have a beer then decided we needed to head back toward home. As we made our way there, we walked through the Red Light District. Not my favorite place in Amsterdam. I think the whole stretch is a little sad. Luckily for me, we were there at a time when all the windows had their curtains drawn so I could gawk at the spectacle of the glowing florescent advertisements but didn't have to witness the more, erm, "physical" advertisements. 

Before making it all the way back to Renkum, we stopped in Utrecht on our own little “bar crawl” home. There, we went to a bar called “The Big Lebowski”, a loud little bar that was trying really hard to be American. All the waiters and waitresses had on Little League and sports themed jerseys. I think I scared our poor waitress when I had a conniption over her Braves t-shirt because she definitely was just given the shirt as part of her uniform and had no idea who they were. Whoops. 

[here is a sampling of photographs from the trip, I'll be uploading the whole lot to facebook this week so if you're dying to stalk me, you can find full documentation there]

me and Shawna in the I am Amsterdam sign 

outside the mall

in front of the canal

because, Holland.

everyone's proud of fatty for eating her whole
bowl of noodles 

the canals in the evening

"sorry for being so weird,
but can I take a picture with your shirt?"

Sunday: Utrecht

Cue babbling Americans, and a little relief. I was starting to feel the strain of having been without people who were really familiar with my culture. I know it sounds like a weird thing, but after being away for a while, not being around people who understand/know the culture that you’re a byproduct of kind of wears you down. So, meeting the other COST interns could not have come at a better time. Almost like it was a divine plan or something, if you catch my drift. There are two other girls here in the Netherlands, one from Ohio and one who goes to the University of Georgia – never thought I’d be so glad to meet a Dawg. Our COST coordinator invited us to meet at the Central Station in Utrecht. After gravitating toward the American accents near the central hall ticket office, we grabbed a cup of coffee in an old church that had been repurposed into a restaurant then wandered the streets of Utrecht where Hans, our coordinator, shared lots of historical facts that I totally still remember. We made our way out of the city center to his house where he cooked us dinner and dessert, giving him time to get to know us and us time to get to know each other. Praise the Lord Almighty, the two other girls seem really normal and down to earth. We swapped phone numbers and whatnot and have not so planned plans to see each other again after spring break.

The rest of the week has been school and home. Today was Janne’s birthday, so we celebrated that tonight. It’s the week before spring break and Marnix has a funky pre-break schedule where we have a teacher work day tomorrow, school on Thursday, and break begins on Friday. So naturally the kids are super well behaved and very eager to learn……….