I came back to eat, sleep, and smile some more!


Well, I am back at it! After my trip last year to four European countries, making new friends across the pond, and working for CRV, I had to return to the land of fun!

I flew in to Amsterdam on the 21st on a non-stop flight with Delta. This was the best flight ever. I fell asleep immediately after we were served dinner. I fell asleep so fast, I was still holding my tea in my hand and the flight attendant had to pry it out of my grip while I was knocked out. Yes, I had tea because I felt euro-festive and wanted to jazz up the flight J Anyways, I fell asleep right a way and woke up just as they were serving breakfast 35 minutes before landing in AMS. Therefore, I was bright eyed and bushy tailed upon arrival.

I first took the train to Deventer assuming the train would go through major metropolitan areas with loads of people and crossing windmills along the way. Wrong. Instead, this train went through some gorgeous countryside with tons of canals/waterways and small town after small town. FYI, the Netherlands are basically under sea level and the duchies have found every single way to divert the water and still have productive land. 


 Arriving at Deventer, the train station was quite nice, clean, and filled with bikes! Oh dear goodness, the bikes! Dutchies love their bikes; it is said that there are more bikes than people in Holland. I, at first, felt like us Americans we just lazy again, but when the grocery store is only 4 blocks from your house, and your house is only 2 blocks from the train station in Holland, why wouldn’t you bike? Everything is so close knit and village-like here, unlike the spread out and vast US. 

 Upon arriving at the farm of the kind-hearted people who are hosting me in Bathmen, my breath was literally taken away at how pretty it was. This old farmhouse was partially built in the 1500s and the other part in the 1800s. The walkways in-between buildings are original cobblestone/laid brick dating back to the 1800s. Even cooler is a round barn building on site in which the horse or cow in the olden days would walk around in order to churn the milk to make butter and cheese. Talk about authentic and cool.

People in these areas are quite proud of their roots and the buildings that come with it. Therefore, the rich people that come from the city and buy farmland and tear down old farm buildings are not well liked. Also interesting is when someone moves into the neighborhood, the new member of the neighborhood must ask his/her neighbors if they will be their neighbors out of courtesy. If they do not, the neighborhood won’t invite them to birthdays, dinners, parties, or anything. Just a different way of doing things!

The family I am staying with is so sweet! Christiaan, the dad, works for CRV and is also an alumnus of the U of M; Bobbi, the mom, along with the two boys are so much fun and very welcoming to the strange American. Without having been at their house for a few hours, the pigs got out! Since the pigs are Christiaans project and he is off to Ireland for business, we had to round them up and fix the fence. This was the point that I was proud I paid attention during round robin and MN Royal showmanship! And, I was happy I listened to my dad the countless times I helped him “quick fix a fence” back at home  J

After all this traveling and rounding up pigs, I was quite famished. Since the weather has been gorgeous, we enjoyed the homemade lasagna, arugula salad, French bread and bousin, and two types of wine outside. I was in heaven. Nothing was out of the ordinary, but it tasted just right and the loads of fresh tomatoes and cheese made me weak at the knees. 


 Following dinner was a to die for shower (look at the picture of the rainfall shower) and eating some strawberries and cream with chocolate. I never knew how much a hot shower plus strawberries and chocolate could make me feel like bliss. I fell asleep easily thereafter, but only to be awaken by the strangest dreams I have ever had from the jet lag. No joke, in one dream I was running away from spiderman while calculating the economic impact of the Euro and applying sunscreen to the bald head of a professor.  This was easily the worst nightmare of my life. Wish me luck so I don’t have bad dreams again!


11:22 PM | |

 

1 comments:

kimberlyhacker said...

Glad you're loving it so far! Round Robin was the best.....NOT! But either way I'll take a little credit for your pig herding skills.

May 23, 2012 at 5:29 AM  

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