Thursday: We left Paris and drove to a a little bakery in the county side. I ordered some bread and a pastery in FRENCH - arent you all proud of me :) Then we drove most of the day to Den Haag, Netherlands. Along the way we drove through Belguim! The scenery is beautiful. There is alot of rural farm lands and cool old windmills. We arrived in Den Haag by the evening and Brooke and Camille were already at the Hotel. We went to the market festival and listen to some local bands. My favorite was CROWD!
We had great Chinese food for supper and had a great evening together catching up. The peopl e here think I speak funny Dutch. Someone asked me if I was from Aruba - app. the Dutch in the Antilles sounds close to Afrikaans???? or at least the pronunciation ?
Friday: We took the trams to the NATIONEEL ARCHIEF. Learnt some interesting things about the VOC (Dutch East India Company). Then we went to Zoetemeer - the temple is there - it is gorgeous! Camille and I waited for the others and walked around the city. We discovered a new singer called SHAWN MCDONALD - he's a Christian singer and he is amazing. We found this huge cheese shop and I was in Heaven :) bought some wedges of Dutch Cheese. YUM!
Saturday: Packed up and headed to Amsterdam. We walked around the city. Went to the Anne Frank house - THE SECRET ANNEX. This was a enlightening experience especially after reading her diary in High School. I was very glad we were able to go. Then we went to an outdoor cafe along the canal. It was so picture perfect. The boats were going by, people were chatting, music was playing - I actually felt like I should be in France :)
On our way back to the station - while in search for some souveniers - we walked on a road then was somewhat more typical of Amsterdams reputation - not pretty.
Then we drove up to Groningen - along the Dyke! This is cool - the sea is high on one side and there is fresh water on the other - much lower! Who knows about the reclamation that took place in the Netherlands - vey interesting! We arrived at the Gouts (a family from Brookes mission) around 10pm. We met their family who we are staying with for the next few days.
Sunday: Had a typical Dutch breakfast - I think - bread with jam and cheese. (mommy remember you told me about apricot jam and Gouda - well that must be a dutch tradition that survived from Ouma Groetjie).
We went to Church here in Groningen - in Dutch! It was great - some peoples Dutch was more difficult to understand than others, but Im not doing too badly. They had these headphones that Dr R and the others (except Brooke who served her mission here) used and it was a live English translation, that i listened to at times, but I tried to figure out most of the stuff myself. After church we had a wonderful meal with the Gouts and their extended family. Then Ninka (a friend of Brookes) came over adn took us out for a bike ride. I love the bicycles here! (As a kid I always thought these bikes looked dorky but I love tehm now:) We cycled for about an hour (12km) adn then walked aroud this cute little town. We came to a church and there were some men practising a latin cantata or somthing (i recently took music 101 so if that is wrond - oops :) anway after they were done the church was empty so i nudged Brooke who also sings - hey lets go sing.
We sung for a bit before singing with Camille and Ninka - our best song was "Nearer My God to Thee" in a four part harmony - just accapella and totally spontaneous! It was so much fun. The church had amazing acoustics and we had some people stop by and comment on our great sound. It was wonderful. By the time be got back to Groningen we were "saddle sore"thirsty, hot and sweaty!
Then Linda and Raphael had their friend Chris Weening come over and we talked for a few hours adn went for a walk and I saw the only hill in Groningen - or was it the Netherlands (its very flat here)
Monday:
FIFTY DAYS!!!!!
This morning we learnt about Dutch research in the FHC in at church here in Groningen. A sister for teh wrd who has been doing research for yeras gabve us some great tips and methodologies and she fed us a great lunch.
Afterwards we took the train to Loppersum to meet Dr Ryskamp and his wife. We went to the little church there and learned about the history and the architechture adn paintings on the ceilings. We also sang again. Then we had a gorgeous supper. Very fancy - with an appetizer, starter, main and dessert! The potions all looked so small, but this was definitly QUALITY adn not Quantity, but after all the courses I was FULL! Dinner landed taking 3 hours!!! no one seems to be in a ruch around here.
Oh adn we also bought some cute things in the little shops here. One is called a flesselikker (speling?) Its a thing you stick up a bottle of tomato sause or something and it had a plastic head that is round adn basically srapes the rest out! It is so cool . I also got a Beautiful turqoise blue green braclet from India! I love it - it makes me smile - I love this colour!!!!
Anyway, tomorrow we are back to research and then we drive up to Leeuwarden in Friesland and then Rotterdam the next day before we make or way down to FRANCE!!!
Again I had confirmation that I should go on a mission :) ------ so here I am, send me!
posted by Jacqueline @ 10:40 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home