Ik hou van je

The Netherlands. Bicycle country. Winners of the World Cup semi-finals. Capital city Amsterdam. Home of the Dutch. Home of my good friend, Emma Glazener.

Emma was my suitemate at JMU my freshman year. She studied in America for one year, then returned to her home in Laren. She came to visit my home in Texas for Spring break, so now I got the chance to see her family and home in the Netherlands! I had never been there before, so it was a bit nerve-wracking as well as exciting. I had a seriously amazing time!!

Arriving in Schipnol, the airport, I found Emma and we rode the train about 20 minutes out of Amsterdam to Laren. Emma's mom picked us up (Emma STILL hasn't gotten her license...) in a Volvo, which definitely took me back to childhood. The city looked asleep as we drove, because everyone was inside watching the World Cup semi-finals against Brazil. So immediately when we got home, we plopped down on the couch to watch the game, with traditional orange Dutch dessert Tompoes to get us into spirit. The game started off not so well, but after half-time the Netherlands came back and we won 2-1!!

Emma and I then went on a walk around her neighborhood before dinner. Right next to her house was a giant windmill, so I didn't have to go far to see a Dutch landmark (pictured above)! The town was still quiet for a Friday afternoon, except for the pubs. It was nice seeing all of the creative and cute houses, shops, and even a carnival that was being set up. We took her dog Daantje with us, but she didn't enjoy the walk much since it was so hot! Pictured right is Daantje struggling, or just not wanting to, catch up.

Back at the house, we made dinner: excellent Dutch hamburgers with a yogurt/dill sauce, salad, and strawberries. The we just chilled at the house the rest of the night since we were both exhausted. We watched 'August Rush', which was a really sweet movie, with fabulous music. We slept in Emma's old room which was in the attic, and there was a roof window that allowed the night air in and had a great view.

Saturday morning we had a common Dutch breakfast: bread. Emma made fun of me for just having butter on mine, while I made fun of her for having it with cream cheese and chocolate sprinkles. Then we hopped on the top of a two story train and returned to the city of Amsterdam.

With Starbucks in hand, we boarded a boat near the station and took a canal cruise through the city! It was wonderful minus the fact that it was scorching hot (it felt like Texas...). We did get to see a lot of cool stuff though, like Anne Frank's house, Nemo's museum, galleries, ships, a cruise ship, and the arts center. After disembarking, we walked around and saw a condom shop, the Red Light District, the Dam Square memorial to WWII, and a mini football game. We then stopped for lunch at this place that Emma had heard was good from a friend. They had every type of pancake out there: pizza, chicken, salami, chorizo, ice cream, fruit, bacon, and fantasy? Emma convinced

me, however, to try the Kroket, another traditional Dutch meal. I was a bit wary to try it, since Emma wouldn't tell me what exactly was IN kroket, but I had it anyways, and it was good of course:) This is me prior to tasting the kroket...I smiled after, don't worry. After lunch we shopped for a bit, and I bought a shirt and skirt for just 20 Euro woo!

We then got back on the train again, but this time it took 2 1/2 hours to get to Groningen, where Emma now goes to University. She is staying there in a house with 6 other girls from her sorority. This was my first experience riding a bike in the Netherlands. It didn't go so well the first time around. I'm sitting on the back of Emma's back as were riding to her house, and the back of my flat fell into the wheel and got stuck, therefore dragging the rest of my foot into the spokes. We had to stop so I could yank my shoe out, while Emma couldn't believe I had gotten my foot stuck there in the first place. Later that night, my ankle had a huge blue and black bruise on it. Every time I rode the bike again, let's just say there was always quite a lot of space between my feet and the wheel.

So we dropped our stuff off at her house, then got back on the bikes (this time, I got to ride my own, which was much more comfortable) and rode to a big barn that served as the university club party house. The clubs had been working since April on building stuff, decorating, and putting in hours to make it look spectacular for the 10 day long party they were going to have. That night was the night that they were going to announce the winning club that had put in the most hours and got to have a bar to themselves (which meant free drinks). I made it there intact, and met all of Emma's club friends, which was a bit intimidating. Most of these girls didn't like to speak English, so for most of the night, I was mostly just trying to follow conversations by reading body language. I does feel weird when you have 16 girls around you and they are all speaking a different language...But it was still fun being there, seeing the barn, having a few drinks, and celebrating when Emma's club won the bar!

There were two strange moments during the night. One was when we were eating dessert, and the girls were eating these Dutch cookies called Choos. They kept repeating, "Yay, I love Choos! I love Choos!" except it sounded like they were saying "I love Jews!" over and over.

The second moment was when a Dutch guy, obviously a little tipsy, asked me some questions to prove I was American. Here were a few of his questions:

1. Who is the center forward of the Miami Heat?

2. How many stars are on the flag?

3. Who did Bill Clinton sleep with that he wasn't married too?

4. Who gave you the Statue of Liberty? Why?

5. Who was the president when I was born?

6. Wait, when were you born?

7. What is your last name and number?

This had many of the girls laughing and reassuring him that I was American and to go away. The girls were all really sweet, and I am glad Emma is surrounded by fun yet caring people. It had been raining most of the night, which had been nice for me but not everyone else, but luckily it stopped as we rode home. I rode on the back again, and this time I even managed to do a running hop onto the back, since it's hard to start when someone starts out sitting. Success is sweet.

Sunday morning, we had a nice quiet breakfast of cracottes, these thin cracker-like things. I tried something new besides butter, and had this cheese spread and applestroop (like apple jam). Rode the bike one more time to the station, waited while Emma rode back because she forgot her sister's purse, and bought stroopwafels (delicious caramel-like things that Emma first introduced to us at JMU)! Took the train back into Amsterdam, and just as we were eating some small baguettes, we ran into Sarah, Ryan, Leslie, and Judson! So Emma got to meet a few of my new friends as well.

We visited the Van Gogh Museum first. It was different from other museums, because you got to see the changes that Van Gogh went through in his art chronologically, and I thought

that was really neat. These were two of my favorite paintings,

'Almond Blossom' and 'A Pair of Shoes'. This artist truly had an eye for color and detail. He also painted what he wanted; no one dictated what he was supposed to paint. He let himself be inspired, and that is inspirational.

After, we got some wonderful ice cream, called Magnum, good enough to make any bad day great. Then we walked to a market that Emma wanted me to see, but when we got there we realized it wasn't open on Sundays. So we just took a walk along the canals, and saw expensive houseboats and water

gardens. As we were going back towards the train station, we passed a movie theatre, and I laughed, mentioning that 'Eclipse' was already out in the Netherlands, but not in England yet. Emma decided to pop in and see if there was a showing in the next 5 minutes, and if there was, it would be a sign that we should go see it. So we went inside and guess what. There was a show starting in exactly 5 minutes. So we watched the movie, which still had horrific acting but was WAY better than the first two movies. It was also entertaining due to the Dutch girls in the back oo-ing every time Taylor Lautner came on screen or giggling during any awkward scenes. It was also the first movie I've ever watched with Dutch subtitles.

We got on the train AGAIN (what time is this, like 7 or 8?) and went back to Laren, where we had a lovely spaghetti dinner with the whole family. It went back and forth between Dutch and English, but it was nice to simply relax in a calm environment for a bit. The next morning, we continued to have a chill morning, with cups of tea, before I had to leave. It was sad leaving, knowing that I probably won't see them in a long time, or maybe ever. But it was still an amazing weekend, and I couldn't have asked to spend it with a better person than Emma!

*'Ik hou van je' means 'I love you'. I also learned 'Slaap lekker' which is good night, 'Ik heb honger' which is I'm hungry, and one other that would be inappropriate to post.