Day Two: Goede Morgen

   I have finally found a place that I am a morning person. It is 8:00am and I have been up for a few hours already! I obviously have not done much today since it is so early, but I decided I could elaborate about yesterday a little bit more. My activities from yesterday consisted of napping, taking a short walk to the Rhine River, and then having a delicious dinner. At first when I saw everybody setting up their plates I was a little iffy about the meal, but after some contemplation I decided that if I was in a forgein country I can't go without at least trying their food. The meal consisted of speklap (a meat that is very similar to bacon except it is cut thicker), boiled potatoes, beets, and green beans (all of the vegetables were home-grown!) While this may seem like a pretty normal meal, the way they combined the food was what I thought of at first as an odd combination. First, they mashed the potatoes and scooped the beets on top. Then, add onions, mustard, and gravy. Lastly, mix it all together and enjoy! I will be sure to find out how to make it.
   The house structure does feel a little strange to me. Back home in the states all of the houses are short and wide while here they are very tall and narrow. The bathrooms, which they call water closets, are very much that- a closet with a toilet and sink in it! In the upstairs bedroom, there is not much distinction between the shower and the bathroom floor. The light switches are not actually switches at all but little squares that you push up or down, which I think is actually better than an actual switch. I do have my very own bedroom here that even has its own television. Believe it or not there are even channels that have English on them! They put the subtitles in Dutch, which I figured would be the other way around. I hear that is very common though unless you watch a child's show.
   That is about all of the excitement that I have for now. I will be sure to write again later today about my adventures this afternoon.
     XOXO
 PS- The only thing that I am not enjoying about this trip is that I wish I could share it with more of my family and my friends. Maybe next time?

Day One: Arnhem

Today was my first day in a foreign country! The trip was surprisingly easier than I expected, especially since I slept most of the way. They fed us dinner (pasta and meatballs, a salad, roll, and brownie) and breakfast (blueberry yogurt and an apple danish) on the plane. We arrived in Amsterdam around 7:30am roughly and quickly got our luggage and headed to the car. The drive was across the whole country, but only took an hour or so! The oddest thing so far for me is the lisence plates, instead of different states like Illinois and Missouri you see Netherlands, Germany, and Poland. I'm getting used to not always being able to understand everybody, and even learning some words for my own. Today and tomorrow are going to be mainly relaxing days and then on Friday we will be taking the train back to Amsterdam. That may mean that today and tomorrows posts will be very short and very boring, but hopefully it will be enough to keep everyone entertained. I forgot my cord for my camera in my dorm back in Carbondale so tomorrow I'm hoping that I will be able to find one so that I can upload pictures with each post, if not I will make sure to add them as soon as I possibly can. I hope everyone back in the states are having a wonderful day, but it is 8:00pm here now and I am quite exhausted from the trip. I will talk to everyone tomorrow.
     XOXO