Odds and Ends

July 11

The beginning of a new week and, if you know me, I had plans for this whole week and the next five to come! Today I took the train (what an awesome system if you know how it works and if you have a discount or student card) to my aunt, uncle and cousins. I had a great day visiting with them, and trying to get to know them in the little time that we had together. At the end of the day, after a pot of home-made spaghetti, I took the train to my "home" on the east side of the ocean.

July 12

SHOPPING!! Well you can only guess what this means for a girl in Holland. In the morning, I did a little shopping in the village where I "live", but that was not enought. My cousin picked me up after lunch and after 3 hours we stepped out of our last clothing store with several bags, sweaty feet and we both looked like we had run a marathon! I had changed into probably 50 shirts, skirts, blouses etc, walked 50 kms and spent...(well I wish) 50 Euros! We headed to her house and after supper spent the night chatting to a few of my relatives.

July 13

The intention of this entire trip was to not only visit family but also spend three weeks in India. I had never met any one of our travel group, besides my 23-year old cousin. Tonight was the night that we decided to meet and greet. We also had to make plans about what to take, how much to take, who was going to bring us away, what sort of games and activities were we going to do for the children in the orphanage and so on. Since the weather here has changed from hot, blazing sun with temperatures of 27-29 degrees to pouring rain and 15 degrees, biking is not the best option. I was allowed to borrow the car from my oma. Hmm...driving in Holland is fairly different than in Canada. RULES: Most of the time bikers have the right of way, people coming from the right hand-side often do too, watch out for the several round-abouts in one block, and drive the speed limit. Well, I thought: "I can do this", so I walked to my oma and first drove with her. I love my oma dearly, but please remind me not to drive with her! Just think: an old lady in the passenger seat and a grand-daughter driving in an unknown land.......

Later on at night I took the car to where we were going to meet. We had Indian food, chatted about each other and then got to work planning our trip and the activities and games for the orphanage.

July 14

Weather does a lot when you're on holidays. I wanted to visit the Oude Veluwse Market here in Holland, because of the rain the activities were cancelled. Although I did stroll through a little part of it, it just wasn't the same. After spending a lazy morning doing little things here and there, my cousin and I packed our bags, put on our ponchos and made our way to the train station, a 20-minute walk. We caught the train to Zwolle where my aunt picked us up. After quickly unpacking our belongings, we headed to the grocery store to buy the ingredients for supper. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing at my aunt and uncle.

July 15

With holidays comes sleeping in for some of us...including me! I never was much of a "sleep-in" person, but today it was 9:15 before I stuck my foot outside (the right side!) of my bed! Currently, I sleep on a mattress on the floor....within two nights I will lay in a comfortable hospital bed. Breakfast was slowly eaten, the off to the market again! After making a few purchases (not as many as the first shopping trip!) we headed back to my aunt and uncle's house. My cousin and I cleaned their car and then we three went to town again. A few hours and a ice-cream later we were back at home and then before we knew it we were sitting in Peter-Pan's pancake and burger restaurant! Yum!

July 16

Since this is our last day at my aunt and uncle it was time to pack up and head home. Before heading home, us four went to visit the smallest city in Holland: Bronkhorst. You can't be in Holland and not eat a kroket, so we stopped for lunch to eat exactly that! A little after 4:00pm and we were back "home"!