The past few days have been busy as always! Later I am going to do on a blog on some of the differences between Iowa and The Netherlands, but for now I'm hoping to just quick get caught up on some trips. Saturday afternoon I wandered around Hattem for awhile..
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This bunker is on our bike route to school.. didn't even really realize what it was the first few days. Apparently a lot of the locals want them, there is two of them, to be taken down, but they are still standing for the history as of now.
There used to be four of these if I remember right, but this is the only one still standing in Hattem.It is part of the original city wall and was a defense tower.
A massive image of the church in the middle of Hattem.
One of the cheese shops! My sandwiches to school consist of wheat bread and a slice of gouda cheese.. I have eaten more sandwiches here than I did my entire childhood.
Another glimpse of the old city wall and moat.. I also had the opportunity to go up into the Hattem windmill but not to happy with the pictures from that so I needa head back. Speaking of which, I miss my computer and big monitor I have at home in Iowa dearly! Editing on a laptop screen is brutal when I can't see the details.. so I apologize and will be re-editing a lot of images when I get back home!!
Saturday afternoon I biked to Brian's and we rode with his host brother and a friend down to Einhoven for a soccer game- PSV vs ADO Den Haag.. two teams within the Netherlands. We ate at Mcdonalds before the game, Brian and I had a coupon two big macs for 5 euros.. so about 6 bucks.. We got to the game plenty early and noticed a lot of things! The seating is awesome! It is a lot more staggered than I have ever seen.. so even a seven foot guy sitting ahead of me and I would have been able to see the whole field without a problem!
Walking around before the game- most people don't come in until about fifteen minutes before the game starts. All of the seating was covered by the overhang.. thankfully because it started to rain later! and also there was a massive row of heaters on the overhang which you can see at the top of the picture, so it did not get to cold even!
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| An amazing shot for goal.. |
The second half PSV, who thankfully we were cheering for, scored six goals in front of us to win 7-0. Good game!
I started taking video.. and they scored! The atmosphere was awesome to say the least. I got called "paparazzi" by some not english speaking individuals for taking pictures.. haha. But there was continual chants and cheers around the stadium . lots of security guards in front of the section with the drum! And the guards had the one section of visiting fans surrounded at a 1:1 ratio.. presumably for their own safety!
The fans all were continually looking at yelling at the visitors section.. It was crazy to see how much tension there was between them! The visiting fans were escorted to and from the stadium by police! A link to a highlight video from the game- http://www.footytube.com/video/psv-ado-den-haag-feb02-156480
After we got home Brian and I joined the rest of the SPICE students and had a long night of fellowship.. until it ended quite dramatically around five in the morning. While biking home Michael and I went to cross the road.. as the car was a half mile away... but he came on a lot faster than normal and ended up hitting the back of Michael's bike!! Yes- he is fine he didn't even fall over. The taxi driver driving home a van full of drunk people was going extremely fast.. way over speed limit.. so we underestimated and he didn't even slow for the light. The cops had a great time beating the drunk guys into a new taxi, and Michael and I have a great story to tell out of the deal!
Michael and I made supper for the host family the other day! We slaved over the bubble pizza (thank you Mother for the recipe!! ) but it turned out amazing, and the host family loved it! Desert was provided by my spectacular family via a care package with some cookies, which they also thought were amazing :) And before you ask.. no we were not rude and forgot glasses.. they do not drink with meals, and really have no side dishes either.
AMSTERDAM
For class we went on an excursion to Amsterdam on Tuesday It was a extremely fast, fun filled day with lots of pictures but I will try to cover just the highlights for now! I can't forget one thing though, and that is the morning commute to the train station. When Michael and I left it was sprinkling rain, which turned into pouring rain, then sleet, then HAIL, which did hurt out faces.. a LOT. This was followed by thunder and lightning.. and then a blizzard, yes a blizzard complete with high wind and huge snowflakes.. all of this on our way to the station on our bikes. Ten minutes on the train and the sun was shining! And before I forget, one of my favorite quotes of the day- "It's like we are on a safari!"- CoriAnn. On the train there is a lot of random animal farms along the tracks which provide a lot of entertainment.
The train station grand entrance
We walked through Chinatown and then the Red Light District early in the morning, on a Tuesday.. for obvious reasons. There was still lots of people in the windows, but as a Christian group we were able to talk about their situation from a Christian outlook, and our guide told us about some of the groups reaching out to the girls and men and are down there. It was a crazy crazy experience!
The group was always moving so it was hard to get pictures and not get left behind.. but the "magic mushroom" sign was to cool to miss!
More than 100 km of canals in the city..
We took a tour on a canal boat. The amount of houseboats in the water was crazy! They have water sewer and gas even, if they are legal ones that is. The old ships turned houseboat with garden was awesome.
Seven bridges all lined up, squeezing the boat through them was quite hairy!
We were in to much of a hurry to pay to get him to move sadly.
The Royal Palace where the queen will hand down the crown to her son this year, along with it being The Netherlands 200th anniversary I believe? Sadly I am going to be down in Italy during the celebration though..
Epic bagpipe guy outside the palace.
Combined with the jazz players.. and it was a sweet sound!
The Rijksmuseum was awesome!
Lots of interesting things to see..
Like Rembrandt's Nightwatch! It was absolutely massive!! There was probably around fifteen other original Rembrandt's.. most of them were biblical scenes which surprised me.
Our last visit was to the Anne Frank museum.. no pictures are allowed inside though. This was the church bell that she talks about hearing.. literally 50 meters down the street. A statue of her is outside it. We went inside and toured her hiding place which they had set up extremely well.. walked one through the progression of her life and the war until her death and her story afterwards. Extremely humbling.
When we returned to Zwolle we ate in a Pancakeboat with all of the buddies.. pancakes filled with cheese and bacon in a canal boat...
It was an awesome night! Well that's it for now! I know it was long but lots to cover! Still missing family and friends back home.. especially when my friends.. and my cousin Jen are all getting engaged!! So congrats to them.. hopefully ill be around for the weddings! Off to Leiden tomorrow and Belgium this weekend!
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