just another day in the life

1-4 october

i think i have finally settled into a sort of routine here. trying accomplish homework, spending time with new friends, biking to run errands all done with a deep love for this city. 

this week wasn't too eventful.
monday was just taking care of errands and getting the chance to skype my coffee girl! unfortunately her mic or something wasn't working so i couldn't hear her but she could hear what i was saying and type out responses. it made for an odd kind of conversation but i was so glad to finally get to talk to her! after talking to her for about an hour i also got the chance to speak to ej! it was wonderful to see his face and to hear what he has been up to. only 3 months until i get to see him again!
tuesday and wednesday were simply classes and tackling homework. wednesday night headed over to K's house for dinner and then went out with the girls to grab some dessert. we couldn't find any open gelato places so we cruised by the grocery store and picked up a carton of ice cream and a sort of pie that as the box described "smiling from under a blanket of crumbly goodness" or something of the sort. after yummy desserts we all snuggled down to watch The Emperor's New Groove.
thursday morning i grabbed coffee with my good friend that i went to the concert with and met with my group to tackle another of our many papers. That night was a big night out but not too big because the next day we were headed to BRUSSELS!

cheers to the freaking weekend!

28 - 30 september

woo!
this weekend certainly deserved a cheers or two! the fun started friday morning biking with two of my friends to study in the Peace Palace. the Peace Palace is the home of the International Court of Justice and is an amazingly beautiful landmark complete with breath taking gardens {not open to the public so don't even try to go wander through them} connected to the actual building is an extensive library with many old books especially on law.

so amazing

statue by the library - no idea why a cat but it was cool!

the Peace Palace!

before settling down to study we wandered through the short display about the history of the International Court of Justice and then through security. because this is such an important place it was necessary to have photo id. I thought rather than taking my passport i would take my new residence permit even though it has a terrible photo. they won't really look anyway, right? WRONG. after the seemingly sweet security officer checked my id he asked to see it a second time and then burst into laughter. not wanting to keep the source of his mirth a secret he showed it to my friends asking if they had seen it yet. of course it is such a terrible photo my friends couldn't contain their laughter either. and not wanting to leave anyone out he called over his fellow security officer, who until then had been minding his own business, that he had to come see this! my word i think i deserved them taking a photo to put on the wall as worst photo of the year!

after making everyone's day with my specter-esqe photo we made our way to the library after meeting up with a friend from one of the other girls' classes. as we were walking across the grounds to the library i couldn't help but think i picked one of the greatest cities in the world to study in. 

the library was very large and very quiet. we settled in a room with a couple of couches and large old paintings on the wall. after a couple of hours everyone's stomachs were growling so we figured a bite of ice cream was in order. but first we had to check out the flame that is united from countries all over the world. 

around the flame are stones from each country. the united states was a sad looking little stone that looked like the top half had been taken away by an adoring fan but it was cool to see anyway. we savored our ice cream and conversation sitting in grote markt but scarttered for home when the rain started to fall. once home and fed i had the pleasure of skyping with my dear friend in London! seeing her made me 1000 times more excited to finally visit her.

with the afternoon drawing to a close it was time to head out to spend time with the cool peeps i call friends. we met up and then headed over to a friends house who had just scored and gotten two free sofas so there was finally enough room for all of us to sit! after a fun evening a few of us headed out to a new place where there was a 90's theme night. sadly they hardly played any actual 90's music but we had fun anyway.

saturday was quite a lovely day as the sun decided to stay out and play making the day warm and enjoyable. after a chill, homework filled morning my girls and i met up to go to the market for kilos of fresh food for cheap. just as we were climbing on our bikes laden with fresh veggies and baked goods we had gotten for that nights supper, two other friends called and invited us to lunch with them. 

at the market

we biked back to the centre to drop off our goods and then meet the other two for a yummy lunch of Italian pizza. after the delicious meal and conversation everyone split to go their separate ways for the rest of the afternoon. i met up with a different friend  to check out the British and American import store, Kelly's. walking into the store filled with specifically American food i realized just how many products i hadn't even thought about or hadn't noticed were not on the shelves of the grocery stores here. and the really funny thing was i hadn't even missed them. sure they are tasty and what i am used to but not necessary or a craving. after getting a couple of things we stopped by a sweet little eatery for a cup of coffee and mozzarella sticks. the waitress was even able to convince my friend to try bitterballen {a dutch specialty} which he was convinced was some sort of unmentionable, don't fret it wasn't.

after a delightful afternoon i headed home to do some homework until dinner with friends. this is quickly become a habit which i enjoy. we made a lekker {translation - delicious} supper of spaghetti and veggies which we finished off with speccalaas  from the market. sadly i don't have an oven so i can't make these treats myself!

this evening was a big gathering for our friends birthday the next week. so we all went to celebrate with him. there were loads of people there including a smattering of new faces. its is always interesting to meet new people from all over the world come together in one place. it was a great evening and we all had a really fun time.

the next morning my friend and i made our way to the American Protestant Church for service. the sermon and worship are all in english here and it was lovely to be back in a body of believers praising God and reflecting. the service was more of a traditional sort and the hymns were all ones that are well known and loved. i'm so thankful that i have another friend here that holds the same beliefs that i can talk to and discuss matters of faith with.  after church it was time to head home and prepare for the coming week. after a fun, busy weekend it is nice to spend a day in resting, reflecting, and preparing for the next week.

jet lag may try to kill you

25-26 august

Ah the first morning in my new country....

....was spent asleep. 

now before you start judging me thinking i'm just a lazy person, let me just say that jet lag will sneak up on you and just destroy you. after getting to bed at 2 am the night before i opened my eyes at 9:30 only to close them again until 2:30 in the afternoon! 

the night before everyone would ask when i had arrived and when i said just that afternoon. they would always be shocked and ask if i was tired from jet lag. i'd respond with an "oh no i'm great!"
yeah it definitely caught up.

well i thought sleeping til 2:30 was enough sleep for the time being so i got up and tried to figure out what i should do with what little time was left in my day.
i needed food and had found a list of libraries that would be open so i took off towards the city center.
just before i left i figured just in case i don't find internet i should just bite the bullet and send my parents an expensive text to tell them i'm alright. so i turned on my phone to see i had no service! so to seek out the library it was.
the library address said it would be the same street as the place i had gone the night before so i figured i'd just head that way. well the street kinda ended and suddenly i wasnt so sure of that decision. but i thought how hard could it be to find?
next thing i know i'm lost. and i just kept going thinking maybe it's this way until i decided that was very much not right and had to figure out a way to get back to the area i knew. all of a sudden i came out in a shopping area. and as i looked around there was a grocery store and oh my word! the library! so i made my way in and figured out how to pay to use the computer. i plunked down and started typing emails to a couple of people and was even able to fb mom for a bit.
after finally letting them know i was alright i picked up a few groceries and came out to pouring rain and a small sense of the direction i needed to go. luckily there were signs pointing which was to the Holland Spoor station and that it was only 1 km. the rain even stopped about halfway home which was lovely.
the rest of the evening was simply spent relaxing and getting to know my roomie a little better. and going to bed plenty on time!

couple of views from my walk to the centre. the canal.

the little eatery i can see from my room. through the arches is the school.
i have such a long 30 second walk to class everyday. 

Sunday wasn't very exciting as i spent most of it either wandering the way i knew to the center to pick up some things i had forgotten/was too tired to worry about as well as just relaxing.
i thought i would be all up and fine especially after that first night but i needed the time to chill and slowly absorb into the timezone and city. so it may have been rather quiet but it was nice to explore the city. so don't worry about just taking some quiet time alone in a new place. you'll meet people soon enough and then you'll wish you had this time to reflect and sleep!

HOLLAND

23-24 august

AH! i still can't believe sometimes that i am living in Den Haag! i already have loads of stories to tell from my first week here. settling in, exploring, meeting new people! 

i started typing this post when i was about halfway to Keflavik, Iceland and then didn't continue it until a week later.... oops. i've also been trying to write things down every night so i have my own journal of thoughts but i'm also a few days behind on that. anywho! without any further ado or excuses lets begin with a week ago thursday! 

{ oh and a huge thank you to all for the many well wishes and prayers! each and every single one is appreciated and cherished.}

 my family and i left lynden late in the morning and grabbed a quick lunch on the way down. 

on the way to the airport

just a shot sara got the night of the goodbye party :)

once arriving at the airport it was a simple matter of pulling out my two underweight suitcases and saying goodbye to dad and tonka. check in was simple and the only next step was security. so final goodbyes were the last thing before security. hugging tim proved to be ok and then brooke wishing her a great start to the school year and to skype often with any/all questions. i only had the slight glimmer of tears until i stopped hugging her and looked at mom.

oh let the waterworks begin!

she was already close to crying so hugging and farewells only made it worse. tears were streaming and more hugs before it was time to turn and move forward. wiping tears away i continued to join the line for security to fly solo for the first time. security was no issue and it was simple to move to the tram to get to my gate. i was there plenty early and exchanged texts with mom and eric before it was finally time to board. i got my boarding passes for my two flights and then just waited for them to call my section. 

14c was my seat for the first flight, which was an aisle seat. when I found it {just 4 rows after the important people seats} my row-mates had already arrived. we did some seat switching and not caring where i ended up i got middle. 

each plane was named for a different mountain or volcano in Iceland - this was mine for both flights

during taxi until about an hour into the flight we chatted. such sweet people and all of us complete strangers! the sweet lady to my left was retired and traveled about twice a year. she was headed to Paris to visit her college roommate then to tour around France to see all sorts of exciting things. the gentleman on my right was doing research down in California and was headed home just in time for his sons birthday. 

the flight was about 6 1/2 hours in total through the night. yet we were flying into the morning so we kinda skipped darkness, we got maybe two hours of it but i couldn't sleep of course being on west coast time and whatnot. we even got our own little tv screens in the seat in front of us. there was tv shows, movies, music, and flight updates available on it. 

this was where i was when i started to type this. 

this would have been super handy if i haven't packed my headphones into my luggage by accident. 

oops. 

no matter i just browsed through one of the thick magazines i had gotten from thoughtful family members and then figured i'd attempt some shut eye with the nice blanket and pillow that had been on my seat. I got some rest off and on but thanks to my family jinxing me there was a small child who was non to happy to be on the plane for the last hour or two. really it wasn't so bad the flight attendent loved walking the little guy around. 

we landed in Reykjavik, Iceland about 6:30 am in that time zone. it was just a quick stop through customs. they do customs there to get into all of Europe rather than for each country. then an hour wait for the plane to be fueled up. i munched on some yogurt and a candy bar i had brought with me and chatted with an older couple on their way to Amsterdam before boarding the flight. 

this was only a 2 1/2 hour flight and i slept through 2 hours of it! so that was lovely. just minutes after waking up i landed in Amsterdam, Holland! 

woo! i made it! 

i gathered my luggage from baggage claim and exchanged money into euros before heading into the rest of the station to get a ticket for the train. so far so easy. then down to catch the actual train. hmmm. it should have been easy and it was for the most part but Den Haag has two stations and most go to the Central Station which is about 1 kilometer from the school. i needed the one that stopped at Den Haag Holland Spoor which is right in front of the school. i missed the one that goes right there so i hopped on one to Leiden and then switched there to go right to Den Haag HS. 

if i could give one piece of advice: DONT TAKE MORE THAN ONE SUITCASE. 

it's a pain in the neck to try to get those things up and down stairs. i don't care if they are only 35 lbs. 

ok tangent. sorry. 

so i made it to the correct station. from there i had to walk outside to the tunnel that goes underneath the station. 

this goes under the trains to connect without having to go around the long way.  its also how to get up to each separate platform.

cross the street looking out for cars and bikes and trams. down a little more roadway and ta da! 

the university! 

it's a really large building and really really cool. the water you can see right there in front of the bike parking leads down through that concrete {where the people are walking - have to watch your step or you'll end up in one of the waterways} and into the canal. it's really pretty. from here just keep walking under those glass bridges and around the corner to my housing. 

the red tower is the apartments for students with the main office on the ground floor for student housing here and throughout the city. i don't actually live in the red tower but that tan strip connected to it. 

just so you can get an idea here is a shot of the university. the station is the Station Hollands Spoor (HS). the main part of the university including the photo i included is the one marked Ovaal (OV) it's *super* cool inside and i'll show more photos later. the glass bridges connect it to Slinger (SL) which holds tons more classrooms, offices, etc. Ovaal also connects to Strip (ST) and it's the same things there. Rugzak (RZ) is also connected. Basically it's a HUGE building all connected. it's really simple to get from one to the other. i've ended up in the Strip without even realizing i'd left Ovaal! The red tower is also marked and you can see how close it is. my section is basically connected there to the school. and at the top is the city centre where all the shopping is and etc. 

back to this very long story. 

i signed my paperwork in the office and they gave me my keys to my new home for the next months. i lugged my suitcases to the elevator to get to the 3rd floor {which they call second because they count ground as zero}. Down the hallway....

they have this glass tiling every other section of flooring! 

and into my room! 

my roomie was already all moved in but not there. there was a box of kitchen items they provided for each student and my bedding. all from ikea as you can see :) 

just walked into my room! welcome home. 

not yet set up. 

bedding...

everything from ikea!

so i set up my half of the room. putting away clothes in my half of the wardrobe and just getting situated. but i needed to run into the city centre to pick up an internet cord because they provide internet but we have to have our own cord. 

lookin good :) 

so i got directions before heading out to get to media markt. i picked up a cord and thought about finding a place to eat but they would be closing soon and i wasn't sure where a good place was so i simply headed back to my little apartment. while i put on a pot of water to cook some of the pasta that mom thoughtfully packed i looked to plug in the internet cable. hmmm i wont bore you with the details but basically my roomie had set up a wifi already. so i put the cord i had gotten away for now. i couldn't figure out which wifi was ours and they all needed passwords anyway so no quick email home to tell everyone i was alright. instead i just munched on some pasta and read another magazine until my new roommate got home. 

She finally came home and i got to meet her. her name is Sue and she's from South Korea. she's rather nice and soft spoken because she is unsure of her english. we got to know the same basics about each other and she invited me to hang out with some girls she had met that day on a city tour. she also gave me the password for the internet but it wasn't working so we couldn't use it until monday when we could call for it to be fixed. so i took a short nap and then we headed out to meet with the others. They were really sweet girls from Germany and Austria. it had just started to rain so we walked quickly to the International Pub which is a big weekend hang out for the students. we hung out for a few hours and i met loads more people which was great. finally at the end of a long couple of days {which i'm sure has taken almost as long to read about} we headed home to shower and sleep! 

so there is my whole travel and first day in a new place! sorry it's so crazy long!

Busy Busy Bee

Oh boy! It has been awhile hasn't it? Well it has been a fun two weeks so I will give an update for the few of you who would like to know! 

Two weekends ago, I spent a good 5 hours in stop and go traffic to get down to Newburg, Oregon to visit one of my lovely friends :) It was a lovely weekend getting to see her family and hometown. She took me to a lovely little coffee shop named The Coffee Cottage. We enjoyed fun drinks such as the Grasshopper, Golden Zebra, and Snickers. I really had fun meeting her family and spending time in Oregon :)
Then after that fun trip, Eric came to visit for President's Day!
It was wonderful to see him and spend time together.

We enjoyed a walk to Fremont to get yummy Blue Moon Burgers and Starbucks for me. He even stayed to watch the Bachelor with us!
Following this eventful weekend was just a busy week. Typical and of course boring to talk about.
THEN this weekend. Another trip down to Oregon but this time to watch the SPU Speech and Debate team in a tournament at OSU. It was really enlightening to watch the speeches and debates. As well as to understand more about what events I hope to be competing in next year!
And on the same page of making decisions.....

I'm headed to the Netherlands next year! I'm going to study abroad in Hague and I am so excited!

 I can't wait to go see the world and hopefully go on some exciting sightseeing adventures. Oh and of course get an education!
Well I think those are all of the exciting updates for me!