Okay. I don't feel like writing everything that has happened the past month and a half so I'll just give you the highlights.

Step One: I feel like I left some loose ends in that last blog post about missing my parents, Mac and Cheese and Bloody Mary's. Really, what else do you need in life ya know? BUT I don't want this turning into the TV show, Lost, where all you have is confusion and more questions. SO. My parents brought me Kraft Mac and Cheese with all its processed cheese goodness. AND I got one of the most thorough care packages from the coolest person I know, Mr. Cory Hart, containing everything I needed to make a Bloody Mary. The world is full of heroes. I am forever indebted to him.

Moving on. Want me to tell you what's weirder than walking through Amsterdam's Red Light District with your parents? NOTHING. Seriously. If you had me asked me at any point in my life if I'd find myself in that position I'd have laughed for about 15 minutes. FABULOUSLY, OF COURSE.

AWKWARD TRANSITION

We also visited Anne Frank's house. The Frank family had moved to Amsterdam from Frankfurt, Germany because they thought they'd be safe there from the Antisemitism that was spreading throughout Europe. As you walk through the house, you start in the lower floors where Otto Frank and Hermann van Pels ran their business. Otto Frank had to transfer the business into Jo Kleiman's name so it wouldn't be taken. As you go up the stairs and walk through the hidden doorway, you enter the Frank family room. Through another door is Anne and Fritz Pfeffer. On the walls, are pictures and comics from magazines that Anne put up to brighten the room. Up the skinny, steep staircase is the living room, kitchen and bedroom of the Van Pels family. Eight people went into hiding, after they were betrayed all but Otto Frank perished in camps. Miep Gies (one of the office workers who helped hide and provide for the people in the annex) had saved all of Anne's journals, diaries, and papers and gave them to Otto Frank, who had them published.

What I didn't know, was that Anne had wanted to be a journalist. In publishing her diary, her father fulfilled her dream of being a writer. Today, her diary has been translated into more than 60 languages. I'm going to be completely honest, when I was her age my thoughts were not nearly that complex. To be fair, our life experiences were vastly different. Visiting her house had a profound impact on me and it really isn't possible for me to explain it, so I'm going to stop now before I begin to ramble.


Rotterdam (the city I've called home for about three months now) is a much more modern city compared to Amsterdam because it was bombed pretty heavily during the war. By "bombed pretty heavily" I mean the only building left standing in the center of Rotterdam was St. Lawrence's church and even that was heavily damaged. Now I'm not a huge history buff by any means, but I think its pretty cool. Throughout Rotterdam, are red lights on the sidewalk showing the place where a bomb hit during the Rotterdam blitz on May 14th 1940. I think it's pretty neat.

After showing my parents around Rotterdam, we flew over to the UK. We landed in London and I immediately wanted to re-watch every movie set in London ever. In the meantime, I settled with sharing Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks with EVERYONE.

BLEGH. Okay. That's all I've got on our UK adventures. I've noticed that the longer I leave things the less motivated I am to write about it. Sorry?

The cold makes biking to school interesting. Any part of that is exposed is like

But then all my layers have the rest of me like

So there's that. 

Sometimes I get to school right when the elementary school students are being dropped off next door. Now at home in the US, that means parents and their minivans with kids piling out, but we're in Holland so its a little different here. I saw one mom with a toddler in a seat on the front of her bike, a kid on the luggage rack, and another one on a trail-a-bike behind her. There are also three wheeled bikes with an area for cargo i.e. children. It's amazing.

Now that the students know I'm leaving they're throwing out more random questions for me:

• Is that your real hair color?
• Is there lots of crime, like on tv?
• Were you a cheerleader?
• Looking at a map of Minnesota How far is it from here to New York by bus? 6 hours?

After three months, some of the students still don't believe that I can't speak Dutch, so they try to test me by asking me in Dutch if I can speak Dutch. Now I've learned enough that I know when they're doing this, so I tell them the truth, "No. I can't speak Dutch." But I understood them asking me and responded with a contradictory answer, so now I've created a vortex of confusion that they are unable move beyond. 

Welp. This is my last post from Holland! It's been real. 

I really suck at goodbyes.

(I have decided that I am going to write about this past month in separate posts because its easier for me to focus and get everything down that way.)

Alright. It's been over a month since I've written, so grab a snack and settle in for what I assure you will be a wild ride. When I last left off I was missing my parents and Mac and Cheese and Bloody Marys. Let me tell you all of these need were fulfilled and I will tell you about them in due time.

PARIS

Allix and I went to Paris for the second weekend in December. It was honestly one of the most surreal experiences of my life. I never imagined I would ever find myself in this beautiful city. Since I'm writing this a month later, I've had to check out Allix's blog for some fact checking (myeuropeanadventuresab.blogspot.nl/  if you're interested). We arrived late Friday night and took the Metro to our lodging for the weekend. After being in the Netherlands and experiencing their public transportation, we were spoiled. A one hour ticket in Holland is 3 Euro. In Paris it is 1.70. You get what you pay for, folks. We are staying with a young couple that Allix found through AirBnB. It's a site kind of like Couchsurfing, only you pay for it. It's still way less than a hotel and you get a bit of the local flavor from your hosts.

First stop Saturday was to the Louvre, where we saw the Mona Lisa. It was pretty cool, but pretty underwhelming and anti-climactic. We saw the Venus di Milo and a lot of other iconic pieces that I'm not going to go into detail on.

NEXT STOP. Notre Dame Cathedral. I wanted to throw myself on the steps and shout, "SANCTUARY! PLEASE GIVE US SANCTUARY!" but Allix wouldn't allow me to, so I just sang The Bells of Notre Dame in an obnoxious manner. Classic.

Okay. Back to business. From the top of Notre Dame we saw a Christmas market so we stopped there next. The most bizarre thing was that there was a man dressed as Santa who was greeting people as they entered. We expected a jolly "HO HO HO MERRY CHRISTMAS!" Nope. Santa said "Bonjour!"

It was awful weather so Allix and I planned on visiting the Arch and the Eiffel Tower the following day. After dinner, we picked up a bottle of wine or two to take back and drink at our lodging. We decided since we were in the city we wanted to see the Louvre all lit up. When we got there we could not only see the lovely lights of the Louvre, but also the Eiffel Tower in the distance. Long story short, we trekked the two miles to the Eiffel Tower, grocery bags full of wine in hand. It was worth it. Strolling by the Seine with the city and tower all lit up was unforgettable.

The next morning was foggy so the top part of the Eiffel Tower was obscured from view, but we saw the Arc du Triomphe in all its majestic glory! On the walk we had an authentic French croissant, and I'm now ruined for life. It was so buttery and flaky and delicious.

Even though we were only in Paris for two days, both Allix and I agreed that we missed "home". We were spoiled by the beautiful public transportation and English speakers in Holland.

Coming next....Momma and Poppa O arrive