Monday, December 31, 2007

Since I've Been Home...

I have been home now for 2 weeks and have been having a lot of fun. The first day back I was hanging out with my friends but was really tired the whole time. The friends that I was hanging out with were all from my church and school so I know them really well. Since then I have spent a lot of my time with friends and a little with family. The two big things that I have done with them is Christmas eve/day and the Nutcracker. My Christmas this year was sooo cool because it was the first time I was away before Christmas so it made things more fun to come home. I got some really cool stuff like a long board (a really long skateboard), a new cell phone, new shoes and clothes and some other cool stuff and I got to give really cool gifts from the places I have been. I always like giving gifts. The big things I have done with my friends is go cosmic bowling (for those of you that don't know what that is it is when you bowl from 10:00 to 1:00 or for some of you 22:00 to 1:00 while listening to really loud music, with flashing lights and fog systems going off sometimes), go to Q-zar for laser tag, and just hang out till 12 or 1 am a lot. That all changes now because now I have to start school again. I dont really want to but I have to get back to it so that I might get to start driving around and get a job.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

The Plane Ride Home to America

Well, I am home in California for the few people that don't know that already.

The plane ride was quit long but I got to eat and sleep so it worked. I had a stop over in the Philly airport. The first ride from Amsterdam to Philly, all that I did was sleep and eat but the second flight I stayed up so that I wouldn't be so jetlagged. It has been fun to be home and see some of my friends but I can't wait to see them all. I dont know if I am going to keep this blog going or just let it sit in syber space but whatever I choose I will let you know as I go because I have no doubt that I will be back traveling soon. I plan to go back to Europe or go to Africa with my Aunt depending on where her job takes her and if I have no doubt I will write while I am there. Well I hope you liked reading my blog and I hope you will continue!

Monday, December 17, 2007

My last week in Holland

Well its my last week in Holland/Europe. (at least for now...I might come back and live with my Aunt again).

It was very hectic because we had to clean the house (have I mentioned that my Aunt is a clean FREAK), make a LOT of Twiga food, pack, and work (well only my Aunt actually had to work).

Tuesday I had to go to a hearing at my Aunt's work. Part way through the hearing the security came over to me and told me to stay awake and I said "OK" because what else was I supposed to do, but I was very confused about why he said that because I was staying awake. I was also very scared that my Aunt would KILL me after the hearing. She sits in the courtroom and here is bullet proof glass that separates the people in the courtroom from the observers in the gallery....but the Courtroom looks out onto the public gallery, so she sees everything that I do.

After the hearing my Aunt told me to go home so I did and right when I got there I e-mailed and said that "I am going to do my work" because i thought that this would help calm her down if she was mad at me but when she got home she wasn't mad at all, so I was scared for no reason.

On Wednesday I started doing Twiga food but then lost track of time and cooked it for 5 hours so I ended up with a free day watching TV, until my Aunt got home and I was sitting in the same place the couch watching TV as when she left me. She was SO mad at me I thought she might kill me for doing that. She yelled a LOT, and told me how much work we needed to get done before we left to go home and how hard she was working at work that week and how irresponsible I was, etc. etc. etc. I mean, she was right, but I was a little surprised she got THAT mad. We did need to cook 4 more batches of food for Twiga for the week, so that meant that the next few days were nothing but cooking food for Twiga.

On Wednesday night we had to go to Judge Blattmann's house (my Aunt's boss) for dinner in celebration of my Aunt signing her new contract at work. I was worried that I wouldn't like the dinner because it was cheese fondue but I really did so it ended up working really well. Judge Blattmann's wife is swiss so she brought back the swiss cheese to make the fondue with and it was really really good. It was pretty interesting to have dinner with them, Judge Blattmann told me about his days as the Minister of Justice in his home country of Bolivia and he told me about the time when he started to run for President in Bolivia (he pulled out part way through the campaign).

The next day I had to go to the store to get more Twiga food so I could keep cooking. I ended up spending most the day cooking and cleaning a little. Thursday night was a BIG night in my life. I told my Aunt that I would give her complete power over my next haircut, and that she could choose what to do with it. She looked on line for a perfect hair cut with her friends, and Josy picked out the winning haircut. My Aunt took me into the city to the Aveda spa and I got my haircut and then after the haircut we met up with Pilar and went for one last sushi dinner (as usual, I did NOT eat the sushi!!) As I sat in that chair in Aveda and watched all my long hair getting cut off, I was VERY nervous. But, my Aunt did ok....its actually a pretty good haircut! You will have to wait until I get the photos developed to see my new haircut. But, I will post it soon!

Friday was my last day in The Hague. I went to youth group. The youth group was having a Christmas party so we were playing games and talking and just having fun but I had to leave to finish packing so I didn't really get to say goodbye so I am sending an e-mail to them after I write this and saying good bye like that. It was a fun way to end my last day. After that, I headed home.....finished packing and went to sleep because we had to be up pretty early to head to the airport for our flight home for the holidays. I can't believe my first time living abroad is almost over!!

Saturday, December 15, 2007

The Third Day of Oslo

Our last day in Oslo was all about shopping for gifts for people and seeing Al Gore. Yes I saw Al for those of you who wanted to know. He was in Oslo for the Nobel Peace Prize events. He won the Nobel Peace Prize this year for those of you who have your head stuck in the sand.

It wasn't that amazing, He walked out waved once got in his car and left. Sadly, I forgot my camera so I don't have a pic of him but I still saw him so that's good enough for me.

I had a lot of fun looking around and actually found shoes I liked. They are Timberlands and they cost $300 in Oslo. We got on line at the hotel and found the same shoes in the States for $90. So when I get back to the states my REALLY COOL aunt is buying me them...ya my aunt reads this.

We spent most of the time walking from one side of town to the other but I ended up getting a new hat that is really cool...but not as cool as my aunt. We also bought gifts for other people...but I won't talk too much about that since Christmas is just around the corner.

Sadly we had to leave today :( I love Norway and had a great time on this trip! Now, just 5 days till I head back to California for the holidays.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Oslo day two

The second day in Oslo started the same way as the first. An excellent breakfast!!!

When we went outside to start our day, we went to the docks to go on the fjord boat trip that stops at museums. This provides a twofold purpose - we could visit the museums and also be out on the Oslo fjord. We had to wait for a while until the boat left, so we went into the Christmas "village" and I thought it was kinda cool. Santa Claus was playing the accordian! And, it snowed while we walked around, so that was pretty nice.

The boat trip was cold but but very cool. It was great to be out on the fjords again, though the fjords that we were on this summer when I was in Norway were a lot cooler in my opinion. The tour gave everyone that wanted it a Norwegian porridge (because it is the Christmas season). I had tried the porridge last time I was in Norway and didn't really love it so I didn't have any this time.

Once we stopped at the museums my Aunt and I went in to the Kon-Tiki museum. We both learned a lot while we were there. For example, when we were talking about the museum before we went in we had thought that Kon Tiki was a person. But actually it was an expedition to see if people in the past could travel from Europe to other places abroad with a reed boat. A reed boat is made out of small reeds all bundled together and tied, rather than a boat of wood or plastic. The Kon Tiki expedition was done in order to find out if a reed boat could make it across oceans, in order to see if early societies, such as Egyptians etc. could have made it on to the sea and travelled to other continents. The leader was a Norwegian and he wanted to prove that early societies travelled on boats to other continents and islands, and then lived there and populated those places. It was all very interesting.

After the museum we sat at the cafe there while we waited for the boat to come and get us and take us back to downtown Oslo. When it got there we went back to the city and went ice skating for a little which was fun to do in Norway. They have an ice skating rink all set up in the center of the city and it gets dark there so early, so it was pretty fun to ice skate in the middle of Oslo in the evening. After that, we got some hot chocolate, walked around and shopped a little and grabbed some dinner. Then, we headed back to the hotel.

All and all it was a really fun day.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

PS

Photos to come! My aunt's digital camera broke while we were in Oslo, so we had to take photos with my camera that I use to practice photography with. It is a film camera....so we have to get the film developed before I can post any photos up here....but I'll get it done soon!

Check back for the photos next week!

Oslo day one

So...on Friday after her work my Aunt and I got packed up and headed to the airport because we were heading up to Norway (Oslo) for a weekend of fun before we head home to California for Christmas.

When we got to Oslo it was already around midnight....so we just got on the express train to the city center, got a cab to our hotel (he did not cheat us and my Aunt behaved very appropriately to him....so I thought the world had returned to normal again).

Saturday morning we got up and got ready to go out and look around Oslo at Christmas time. First though, we headed to breakfast at the hotel...IT IS GOOD. The hotel serves as good a breakfast as a breakfast restaurant would, except it is free and buffet style which made me VERY happy.

After we filled up, we started out into the cold outdoors. We headed down to the docks at the harbor where there is this Christmas "village" thing but we didn't go into it right away, because we were trying to get to the fjords boat trip. We went to talk to the boat tour operators, and learned that the Christmas market that they have at the Norwegian folk museum was going to close on Sunday. My Aunt and I both wanted to go to it so we thought that we should go on Saturday because if we wanted to go back to get something then we could so we changed our plans around a little and went to the market on Saturday instead.

The Christmas market is held at the Norwegian Folk Museum which is an outdoor museum of how Norway was a long long time ago. We first visited it this summer....you can look back to my blog here, where I talk about the museum.

The Christmas market was really cool but also really cold so we kept going inside to get out of the cold. There were a lot of stands where they were selling different gifts for people for Christmas. The restaurants were also open so we could go in and get something to drink when it got too cold. They also had fire pits all around, so we could warm up while we stood around in the mud. At the old Stave church they were holding a church service in Norwegian and my Aunt really wanted to go to that....so we did. It was pretty cool. We did the whole church service in Norwegian (with the help of a handout). And, they had an accordion player who played Christmas carols (apparently in Norway, accordions are very important). My Aunt bought me a candy apple....I had one bite and had to throw it out (it was SOOO sweet it was kind of gross).

Around the end of the time we were there we went to the beer brewery. It was a little weird because they were brewing beer old school style, and the stuff didn't taste very good at ALL. My Aunt was trying to be polite because the people were telling her all about how they brew the beer while she had her sample....you could tell that she hated it. ;-)

After we had our share of the freezing cold experience, we went back into the city and to our hotel and warmed up a bit. We actually took a nap at the hotel, and then went out into the city and looked around for a little while. We went to Pepe's pizza for dinner and I will leave you with this final observation of our first day in Oslo....I got a personal pizza and a 7-up, my Aunt got an appetizer nachos and a 7-up.....and the bill was $74.90!!!!

Friday, December 7, 2007

The Cab Driver

SO last night my Aunt and I went in to Den Haag for a little to meet Eleni for dinner and do some other stuff. Dinner was really good; it was at this Japanese Sushi place but I got beef because I don't like sushi. After the nice dinner we went back to the central station to get a train but we just missed it so my aunt said we should take a cab instead of waiting 30 min for the next train. when we got to the cab my Aunt said Voorberg (where we live) blah blah blah and the driver starts driving and I notice that he put the cost up from 350 to 450 right when we got in the car but I thought that was just the price. Then I see that we are driving in what I thought was the wrong way. Then we stopped at a stoplight and my Aunt and I both notice that the meter was going up like every ten seconds even though we weren't moving. When the light turned green he turned right and went up to the next stop light then turned right again so really he drove us around the block and then when we were about right back to were we had been he turns us back around again and at that point my Aunt turns around and says "We have driven around the block and it has cost me ten euros" then at the stop light my Aunt turns to the driver and says that "it is ridiculous that I have to pay 10 euros to go around the block and that this has never happened when she has taken a cab from there before" and the cab driver has the nerve to say "did the other cab drivers fly over the train station." Now that pissed my Aunt off so much that she told him to pull over and let us out - the whole time the cab driver is telling us that we had never been in a cab here because that is how much it costs.

So my Aunt gets really outraged and starts yelling at the cab driver...I am in total shock in the back seat, because I've never seen my Aunt behave like this in public. She forces the man to pull over by saying she will call the police if he doesn't....and then refuses to get out of the cab until she writes down the cab number and I wrote the licence plate. Finally, we leave the cab and start walking away and the cab driver gets out of the cab and starts yelling at us - so my Aunt gave him the finger and yelled "*&#%#$ off" at him, and we kept walking as he kept swearing at us and yelling. I was a little shocked to hear my Aunt say that, but realize that she must be REALLY mad at the cab drive. I actually thought it was funny but we had to walk home in the wind and rain...It was worth it.

Monday, December 3, 2007

The Christmas parties

This is the last weekend in Den Haag before I go home (I will be in Oslo, Norway next weekend),I went to two different Christmas parties and had a lot of fun at both of them. The first one I went to was the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia)Christmas party which was held at a church and not even a cruddy church but a huge old fashion church. On the outside it looked like a miny castle and on the inside it looked like it was Gothic. The party was so fun though because it had music and dancing and drinking and food. There were even gogo dancers on each side of the party. When we first walked in I thought it was a little dumb because they had brake dancers in the front that all sucked but when they stopped it got a lot better. I went to this with my Aunt (duh), Eleni, Cynthia and her husband, and his brother. Both Cynthia's husband and his brother loved to drink (I think that the Dutch are big drinkers) so they got a lot of beer, Cynthia (she's from Costa Rica and LOVES to dance) had less then her husband and his brother but more then my Aunt and Eleni, my Aunt had 1 wine or something and Eleni had orange juice. I had a few beers, but my Aunt cut me off after 3. One really funny part of the night was when a REALLY drunk lady got up with the dancers on the side and started to dance with one of the guy dancers. That was really funny to watch. At about 11 my Aunt said she was bored and left but she let me stay with Cynthia so I ended up not leaving till 1. I had a lot of fun at that party.

The next day we went to a Christmas party at Cynthia's house. It was just one of those house Christmas parties so not as much fun as the church party the night before, but it was still ok. It was an all day sort of party which started at 1 and went till around 9 or so. We went late so that we wouldn't have to deal with the little kids that would be going to the afternoon part. When we got there there were still a few kids, but they left almost right after we got there so we sat and talked and ate a little and then around 10 we left. She lives only 3 doors down from us, so it is pretty easy to go to her house. It was a nice last weekend in town because I got to see a lot of people that I won't get to see again. Now, just two weeks till I go home. I'm excited to go home for Christmas, but I will be a little sad to leave Holland and the people that I've gotten to know here.

I have been Tagged

My Aunts friend Bradi has tagged me so I guess that means that I have to say weird and random facts about me so here goes:



1. I like to run for long periods of time because I feel happier after But I don't mind running short distances if it is fast



2. I put Soy sauce on a LOT of the food I eat but I don't see why my family thinks its weird because it tastes really good



3. I have to eat things in pares or at lest I have to split it as evenly as possible and have it on both sides of my mouth



4. I love junk food but I don't like vary many different kinds candy and yes I am a vary picky eater but that is fine with me sadly that's not the case with my family



5. I like Taco Bell so much that the whole time I have been in Europe I have been looking forward to when I got to get home and eat there that is something me and my aunt definitely agree on and can't Wait till the 15Th of December to get





Now that I have told you weard/random things about me...TAG YOU'RE IT

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the rules of tag...



1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.



2. Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.



3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.



4. Let them know they are TAGGED by leaving a comment on their blog.