Hello Holland!

So. I'm here. I have reached my home for the next three months. In order to keep my blogs interesting, I plan to highlight my daily successes and also my ignorant mistakes as I learn how to live here. I will try to keep exposition to a minimum.

Day #1: I arrive

Even as I was de-planing I recalled why I appreciate European men. Seriously. Do they just do squats in their downtime?!

Anyway. One of my cooperating teachers picked me up and took me to the place where I will be staying. It is an apartment that a couple that rents out on the ground floor of their home. I have my own kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom. For all intents and purposes, I live alone.

The host lady took me on a bike ride around the city. I managed this with minor incident. Apparently I did not start quickly enough when the light changed and annoyed a Dutch man. From what I'm told, that happens to people who live there as well, so I shouldn't feel too bad. Let me say, biking in the city is very different than biking in River Falls or Inver Grove Heights.

Day #2

I was not required to report to school until the afternoon, so I slept in until noon. Jet lag had woken me up at 2AM and I was up until 6AM. 

The biggest success of this day was figuring out how to take the tram (light rail) to and from school. (Thanks Google Maps)

On my walk home from the tram station, someone yelled out their window at me in Dutch, something about American...do I really stick out that much? It was dark. I think I'm glad I couldn't understand.

So, I was talking to the teacher who had picked me up from the airport. We were at the grocery store and I mentioned I had brought peanut butter from home because it was hard to find in Europe. She told me why that was and I thought I'd share it with you. A long time ago, people would make butter out of things other than milk in order to lower costs and raise profits. They had to pass a law saying that if its not made of milk you can't call it butter, so they had to rename it. Logically, you'd think they would call it peanut spread, like Nutella is hazelnut spread. NOPE. Want to know what they call it? Are you sure? Peanut cheese. YUP. I like peanuts and I love cheese....but the implication that they are mixed together might be too much for me to handle.

Day #3

Today I met some students. They were the first years (12 years old). After I introduced myself, I said they could ask me questions if they wanted. Two classes asked how old I am. In the second class they started guessing things like 16, 18, and 20. I didn't respond until a student said 72. "Yes. I am 72." And that was the end of question time in that class. Some of the other questions were:

1. Do all Americans like donuts? What about cops?

2. Is there a Starbucks on every corner?

3. How many McDonald's are there?

4. What is Target?

5. Do people say ain't? (and then she dropped the N word "n_____ ain't shit but hoes and tricks")

This is going to be an adventure.

Alright. That's all I've got. Have a lovely afternoon and evening friends!!!