Biking in the Wind

So, it's extremely windy today. I hear the weather's not much better in Canada. Here it's not extremely cold, although we were originally supposed to have a winter storm with snow and hail. But, we only got the wind - and a lot of it. Biking to school this morning was crazy. As I was going over the fiets brug (bike bridge) I had a whole lot of difficulty staying on the side of the road. I kept blowing to the centre of the road - which is slightly problematic if there're buses crossing at the same time. Fortunately, there were only other bikers. It took me 10 minutes longer than usual to get to school though, and I was late for class. But, my class has four people in it so no one noticed (cough, cough). On the way home I, again, blew into the middle of the road - this time on a busy road. That was not much fun. It's pretty scary because you don't really have a whole lot of control. I think it's my new fear.

So, that's the wind+biking for you. Not a whole lot of fun - especially if you're biking against the wind or you have a lot of wind on the side. Biking with the wind, on the othe hand, is amazing.

P.S. It's also the Queen's birthday today. So gefeliciteerd with the birthday of Koningin Beatrix to all. She's 70. They don't make a big deal of it here, which kind of surprises me. 'till next time.

Trains and Other Experiences

I guess I haven't written in a while. Time is starting to fly by. I have a feeling my classes are going to be pretty busy, with a whole lot of out-of-class stuff to do. But, we also have a whole lot of class excursions, so it probably won't be too bad.

This weekend I visited family. It was the first time I took the train on my own - it was a bit intimidating at first, but you need to do everything once in order for it to feel "normal" or for you to get used to it anyway. In the past 3 days I've been on five different trains, and there's definitely a difference between the trains here. The first train I went on (from Zwolle to Rotterdam) was an older train, but still fairly comfortable overall. The next was a stoptrein (or GoTrain - from Rotterdam to Maasluis) which was a bit more crowded (mostly b/c of the time of day I think), and not really as comfortable as the first - totally different interior. Next I went from Delf to Leiden. It was a two-level train, old, and extremely crowded. I had to stand for some of the ride because there were no seats left :(
From Leiden to Utrecht I just caught my train, since the one
.....(some bikes by the station)...... before that was late. It was also a two-level train, but not quite as full, and a lot newer. My train from Utrecht back to Zwolle was probably the nicest. It was quite new, comfortable and roomy. Anyway, I won't bore you any longer over talk about trains...

On to other things... I didn't only ride the trains this weekend. I also visited my family. I have a feeling I'm going to be doing things non-stop every time I go to visit. I went shopping with two of my cousins (Marije & Anniek) in Rotterdam on Friday, and afterwards we headed to their house for supper. Then I went to my Opa and Oma's. On Saturday I visited my other Opa and Oma, watched my cousin Tim's soccer game (he won 5-4), did a bit of school shopping, went to the bank, and to the Timmerwerf to look at paintings. In the evening I visited the Tante's with my Opa, and after coming back we played Mexican Train with Tante Nel, Oom Henk, Marije, and Opa en Oma. That was a whole lot of fun. I laughed so hard at times. On Sunday we went to church, and afterwards I went to my Tante Nel & Oom Wim's and taught Bart, Anne, Rinze, and Simon how to play Wizard and SkipBo. Lots of fun, but quite busy.

And now, I'm back in Zwolle again. I just came back from Dutch class, and am going to write some words about the future (in Dutch!). 'Till next time.

Paleis Het Loo

Well, the introduction week is over and classes are beginning. Now is when everything really starts - or so I've been told. I'm kind of looking foward to really starting. Should be fun.

Anyway... I thought I'd add a few pictures from this weekend. We visited the Paleis Het Loo in Appeldoorn. It was pretty neat to see. It's a palace that's now a museum because the upkeep was too expensive. And the best part was that I got in for free! Yay for museum cards.

Above is Marloes, posing as a princess in the gardens of the palace.

Lights at the entrance of the palace

The back of the palace with the gardens

The Dutch flag

Zwolle & Surroundings

I feel like I haven't really told a lot about what I've been doing or even really where I'm living. So, for that I apologise.
Anyway, I'm living in Zwolle, in a wijk (or district) called Stadshagen. It's about a 30 min. bike ride to the school in downtown Zwolle. Biking is quite wonderful. I love biking. Even if it's raining, which is good because it rains a lot.
A bit about my family:
My family here in Zwolle (a.k.a. my host family) has been living here for 7 years. They've been participating in the SPICE program as hosts for 6 or those 7 years. The parents are Jan & Antje, and the kids are Marloes (18), Jeroen (16), and Jelle (13). I like them a lot, and if you're ever in the area in the next four months you'd be most welcome to spend the night.
I just finished my introductory week at school. It wasn't all that exciting - specifically the 'Survival Dutch' which consisted of learning how to count, the days of the week, and that sort of stuff. The best part was probably the scavenger hunt we did yesterday to get us better acquainted with the city. We had to do stuff like get our picture taken at the supermarket closest to the shool, buy a specific train ticket at the train station, and collect 15 bags from 15 different stores. We could also trade items to get other items - we ended up getting cat food out of that. Unfortunately no one in the class had a cat at home.
So, yeah... I don't really know what else to write about. I'm really enjoying it. I bike to school with other girls from my neighbourhood (Kiley, Annie, and Marlene) which is nice. That'll change a bit next week when classes start, but I hope I'll still see them a lot.
But, I think that's about all for now. I'll write some more another time.

Panoramics of Zwolle

So, I figured I should add some pictures from Zwolle. So here they are. I honestly haven't taken a whole lot unfortunately. I figured I'd have 4 months anyway.

This is Zwolle from the top of the Peperbus. The Peperbus is a tower (kind of like the clock tower on the Dom in DeLier). It took ages to climb and it was very clutrophobic going up (and down). But, it was definitely worth the sore legs for the view we got.

Zwolle is surrounded by canals and such. These are some of the boats in the canal. They still work today (meaning these boats are used for carrying produce and such).

See the building with the purple and yellow flags on the roof - that's my school - the Gereformeerde Hogeschool. They say it's small (and it isn't really all that big), but I'm pretty sure it's bigger than Redeemer.

That's all for now. Maybe I'll add a few more later. But at the moment I'm going to bed.

Feeling Stupid

So... I experienced my first bike accident tonight. My host sister Marloes and I were going to a Bible study, and she mistakenly thought I knew the way. We were nicely driving sided by side - she on the left and I on the right. Forgetting to say we had to turn right, she turned and I drove straight, causing a collision. The front wheel of my bike is now an odd shape and doesn't turn very easily... so we'll see what happens with that.
On the plus side, the Bible study was great! It was a lot easier to follow than the church service this morning. I understood most of the service, but they use a lot of non-everyday language (as I'm sure we do too). But, the Bible study was definitely a lot of fun and really easy to follow.

Yay for Arriving!

So... I'm in Zwolle now. And it's rainy and windy. Apparently this is typical Dutch weather in the winter. Wonderful. I'm sure it won't be too bad, and I'll get used to it.
My first day I visited with a whole lot of family - which was really quite wonderful. Yesterday, I went shopping in DeLier (for a bike lock and gloves!), and then headed back to Schiphol to meet with people to go to Zwolle by train. Quite the adventure already.
Later today I get to go for a tour of Zwolle. From what I've seen of it, it looks pretty big. And my host family keeps saying it's not very big... so we'll see.
Speaking of my host family, they're pretty nice. The kids are fairly typical teenagers, but I think we'll get along just fine. Anyway, I think we're having lunch now... so I'm signing off for now.

Beginnings

So... in two days time I'm heading off to the Netherlands for the semester. I'm quite looking forward to it and hope it'll be a wonderful experience. My roomate from this past semester convinced me it would be a great idea to post the goings on in my life over the next few months on a blog. So here I begin, hoping that I'll be able to keep this up. I can't say I'm great at keeping in contact with people (I'm actually quite horrible at it), so we'll see how this goes.
'till next time.