My Week in the Netherlands!

*BEFORE READING THIS BLOG, PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO LEARN LOTS OF NEW FUN THINGS ABOUT THE NETHERLANDS!*

Holy cow. I just lived in the Netherlands for a week. The land of chocolate sprinkles for breakfast, bike riding EVERYWHERE, and TALL PEOPLE! Oh mylanta are the people tall here! I felt petite, and let me tell you what, that never happens!

But really...you put chocolate sprinkles on bread. ALL THE TIME!

We had our longest travel day by bus...11 hours...and traveled from Liechtenstein through Switzerland and Germany to arrive in the Netherlands. I had a great bus date with our token Swedish guy/drummer/badass and rockstar extraordinaire, Robin, and then I had time to talk with our sound technician, Darlene, as well! We drove through some fantastic scenery and finally arrived at our location a little later than expected.

 Scenery on our drive through Switzerland. Oh, I was in heaven!

With my buddy Robin

Darleeeeeeeeeene!

Host pickup! Host Code: Queen Beatrix

I was so excited when I learned I would have a 4-year-old host brother, Daan. Just check out how cute he is...am I right?

A photo my host mom took and had printed in the house

We had a fun photobooth session!

We had a great week of fantastic community impacts and study abroad. I went to a place called GGNet twice that week to work at an institution for mentally ill residents. We did some gardening, cooking, and interacting with the residents through our international costume fashion show. We didn't speak Dutch, but we still had fun!

CI Crew Day #1

CI Group Day #2...fashion show! I wore a traditional costume from Russia

All week we got to RIDE BIKES like the locals! It was so much fun. The bikes are HUGE here for all the tall people, but luckily my host family had a smaller travel bike that fit Jessica perfectly. We enjoyed riding

We had a great study abroad day full of productivity, both academically and shopping-wise! Some of us girls had a great afternoon out at H&M and enjoyed some ice cream!

Study abroad group in our study facility for the day...yup...at a bar!

Apeldoorn was also a very big week for us because we were in a gorgeous performance facility, we were hosting a VIP dinner as a fundraiser for our beneficiary, New Day Impact, AND we performed/mingled with ROYALTY! Yup, I met Princess Margrite and her husband when they came to our show!

Our amazing show facility...the Orpheus Theatre in Apeldoorn

Me and Simone (Denmark), two of the students selected to host the VIP event!

The VIP crew dressed in our fancy clothes!

At my table with some of the ladies

And then we met the Princess. I talked with her at intermission and then we met after the show for a picture opportunity. She's the sister of the current Queen Beatrix (who is resigning April 30th and her son will be sworn in as the new king)

We had a great day on Sunday in Amsterdam, but I'll write about that in another post. The week came to an end much too quickly, as it always does, but we left with a ton of great memories! My host family was fantastic and I loved my week in the Netherlands!

Gert-jan, me, Daan, Marlon, and Jessica S.

A photo collage my host mom made and sent us! =)