Week 1: My arrival in the Netherlands and First Day in Switzerland

WOW, I’ve now been in Europe for one week and I feel like it has been much longer. I’ve always been one to pick up on accents and expressions quickly so I have to make a conscious effort to not copy the broken English I hear. At work everyone speaks excellent English and there are many Americans and British people so it’s not such a problem here but even then, I try to copy their accents without even thinking about it. Anyway, as for my adventures, there have already been a few… (this may get long, sorry…), by the way, I'm writing this in Switzerland and the whole web page is in German which makes things interesting... The first day was very long: I left at noon on Monday, flew to London Gatwick, and then had a 6 hour layover (that was my fault, I was worried I might miss my flight, obviously I did not.) and arrived in the Netherlands about 6pm Tuesday(9am Tues in CA). That night I enjoyed the hospitality of my family. It was wonderful to see everyone. I have been lucky enough to see the Dutch ½ of my family every year for the last 3 so I am most pleased (and they’re going to be in the states, at my house actually, when I return). Wednesday I took my time waking up, enjoyed reading my bible, showering and eating breakfast. All this was finished by… 3:00 (or 15:00 here. I much prefer 24 hours time, it helps avoid any confusion)! Best day ever! Then my cousin Camille returned from school and we took a wonderful bike ride to visit my Opa. It was so good to see him. It was late in the day so he was alert and recognized me which was very encouraging. He did however, keep talking about his planned trip to Mexico.
Dinner was again with my family; baked cauliflower and potatoes with a yummy meat creation called slavink (literally lettuce finch although there is neither lettuce nor finch) but was really I believe ground pork and beef wrapped in thin bacon. I usually don’t like bacon but this was nice. We had dinner early so I was able to go for a run with Tanta Nicolette and her friend through a park down the river from their house called Elsenburgerbos (bos means woods). Thursday I woke early to meet my friend Zamira at the train station in Den Haag. I took the tram myself from Rijswijk. We shopped and talked from 11:30-16:15 when we met my cousin outside the Hema (a Dutch department store, they’re everywhere). We had “Soft Ice” Dutch soft serve ice cream which, by the way, is FAR creamier than in the US. It tastes more like the heavy whipping cream you put on your pumpkin pie, but denser, colder and on a cone. You need water to eat it. But it was nice. We stayed in the Den Haag together for a while then picked up Indonesian food with the family. Let me tell you, that food is awesome! I need to find a good Indonesian place in the US because MAN, I love it. We had vendang a spice beef dish and a nice chicken one, along with many others from this little family owned shop called Kediri. There was quite a bit of food. We then drove Zamira to the train station, it had begun to rain, and all went to sleep. Friday was another leisurely morning but this one included another run through the park. As an answer to prayer, I managed to wind my way back through the same paths we had taken 2 days prior and did not get lost! When I returned home Tanta Nicolette and I went to the store on our bikes. The stores in the Netherlands are much smaller and with fewer selections in some areas and many more in others. Cheese for example has MANY more selections that in the US. The food however is fresher and they have these cold cuts that are basically ground chicken or whatever meat, with spices and seasonings. SO YUMMY. A typical Dutch breakfast is ontbijtkoek (similar to gingerbread but the consistency of a cake and you can get it with things inside ex. Apple and raisin chunks.) with butter, biscouchits (forgot the spelling of this) which is a crispy biscuit the size and thickness of your palm. They put butter on it and eat it either with sugar, haagel slaag (amazing chocolate sprinkles, also eaten on buttered bread) or with slices of cheese and that meat I mentioned. Anyway, the other big difference between European stores and the US is you weigh your veggies and fruit before you get to the counter. There are electronic scales and you go up and weight the food and either put in the number or press the picture and out pops a little sticker. This way the checker doesn’t have to deal with the different kinds. They just scan it and you go. Also, in the Netherlands they don’t provide bags. You either bring your own or pay at least 30 cents for them (in Switzerland they have a small ones but if your buying more then 3 medium size items you’ll need a larger bag).I was glad to go to the store because I needed to buy Spekulaas (also similar to gingerbread but much better), ontbijtkoek and chocolate. All of which cost me just 4 euros! Finally a deal! Later that evening I rode with Camille to her Street Dance class. It was so much fun to watch and funny to see them all dancing to American music. Everyone in the Netherlands rides bikes. I’m not quite sure how to express to you just how many people do but it is literally EVERYONE. Out side the train stations there are hundreds and hundreds of bikes and most stores have a rather large collection of bikes outside and only a handful of parking spaces, most of which are empty. Saturday was my last day in the Netherlands. I woke up rather early, got to call my family for a bit which was refreshing, I had spoken to them a bit before as well. I was able to go for a walk and tried to take a few pictures of the area outside the house and of the park in which I went jogging. People in the Netherland are VERY active. Along with riding their bikes and walking everywhere they need to go, many go to the gym regularly, go running or for more intense bike rides. Saturday morning there were also many people rowing along the river. Tanta Nicolette and I ran a few more errands, by bike, and met my cousin at his Boy Scout place. The three of us went to visit Opa who, at noon, was just waking up. It took him another 15 min or so to get his eyes open, while we were feeding him brunch because he obviously couldn’t see it. He was not as alert this time and I’m not sure he knew I was there, but I was happy to see him again before I had to leave. We then rode our bikes to the ice cream shop where Camille works. The ice cream was delicious, like everything in the Netherlands and it was a pleasant last stop. My biggest adventure was about to come: I went to the airport and checked in my two bags and it happened. The woman at the EasyJet counter informed me that I have two bags which is fine because I paid the 10 Euro additional bag fee, however, an additional bag does not buy you additional weight, therefore, I need to pay 200 euros for my 20 extra kilos. I was shocked. I had taken EasyJet into the Netherlands from London and had no problem so I had NO idea where this rule came from. Apparently everyone knows this but me. I cried, I prayed, I called my aunt, I talked to a private shipping company and to the EasyJet information people but to no avail. So, I took out my duffel, stuffed as much into it as possible so I could take it on my flight, and checked the other 10 kilos, paying the 99 euros required. Once in the Basel Airport in Switzerland I took a bus then a train to get to Zurich where a Sandra, a member of my church here in Switzerland, met me and helped me get to the flat she shares with 2 other young women. The living conditions in Switzerland are VERY nice and they have a beautiful little flat. They laid out a bed for me in the living room and even had some Swiss sweet bread, flowers, and a water pitcher with a cup all set out for me! I was so encouraged. Their warmth was SO refreshing after my unpleasant encounter at the airport. Sunday I awoke to the smell of bread. Oh yes, fresh, amazing Swiss bread which they calmly informed me is no big deal and that Marleas (one of the 3 women) makes it all the time on Sundays, it's a normal breakfast thing! This bread was fantastic and braided with the egg glaze and EVERYTHING. I’ve never seen such beautiful bread even in the bakery. We ate it fresh, while it was still warm, with jam which, you guessed it, Marleas had made as well. I’m going to do my best to apprentice myself to her next weekend. We’ll see how it goes… I hope they still have a flat when I’m done trying to make this bread. I can’t forget to mention Zora also. She’s so sweet and talked with me the first night, or rather, was willing to put up with me as I talked her ear off. It was nice to have a bit of a long talk with someone because I’d been running around for almost a week. Sandra had been able to contact a couple with a car so they came by and picked us up rather then us walking to church with all my luggage. I was SO grateful. Church was AMAZING! I am always so encouraged to go to services in other countries. Hearing people talk about God in other languages is so cool and it’s the greatest feeling to sing a song you already know but in another language. Another woman Nina was kind enough to sit with me and translate the lesson from German to English so I could enjoy it. I believe her husband is the one I emailed to get in contact with someone I could stay with, and he put me in contact with Sandra. After service another couple was also going to the train station and helped me with my luggage, along with Anna(an American who now lives near Zurich) and Katja(from Denmark I believe, she is on an extended business trip here for 6 months but returns at the end of this month). We all trekked over to the station and tried to figure out what I needed. Eventually only Anna, Katja and I were left but we finally got me a ½ price pass for 2 months so I can just pay ½ price of all my train tickets (150 CHF for the whole year and 100 CHF per month so I just bought a 1 year pass, at least I saved 50 CHF), we got me a payphone card, and some lunch. Then off to Luzern. By the way, for the pass I needed a small picture of myself and had to pay 8 CHF (about $6.50) to take a passport picture. It only comes with 4 so now I have 3 extra pictures of myself, but if you are going to travel some place for an extended period of time you may want to cut out a few small pictures of yourself and put them in your wallet in case you need them. I was surprised when I arrived in Luzern. First because it is much larger then I expected. Also, because the weather was rather dreary and I think the prospect of what I was about to do was overwhelming. My boss, Melissa, met me at the station and walked me to my apartment; she gave me my key and a map and helped me get everything up to my place. I’m renting someone else’s flat while they’re gone. Well, I stay at this first place for 3 weeks and she’ll be gone for 2 of them, then I go to the next place for 5 weeks and I’m not sure how often they will be there but I believe it’s a small family place. When Melissa left I was fine, I unpacked a few things. Panicked because the outlets have 3 holes and the converter I had was for 2, but then figured out it’s similar to the American outlets that have 3 also but many things only require 2. The voltage is different but I already knew that, I figured it out two trips ago, the summer after high school when I fried my really nice flat iron by plugging it in at our hotel in the Netherlands without a converter. I walked back to the train station which as a bunch of shops underneath, took out some money and got groceries (again, tagging my fruit and veggies before reaching the counter) and went home and unpacked. Then it began to hit me, I started to think: “What the heck am I doing here in another country, living by myself, away from everyone and everything I know, in a place with amazing cheese and chocolate but NASTY soy milk, without even a phone or computer at home so I can contact people!!!” I started to get unbelievably sad and lonely. That night was really hard. Monday was my first day of work. It was wonderful to be around people again. People I was actually talking too. It amazed me how alone I felt the night before. Just how much I need connection and contact with people. That feeling of being lost and totally disconnected was pretty overwhelming. During the day I started learning about what I will be doing for the next two months which is a whole hodgepodge of things, which I’ll describe later because this is getting WAAAY too long. I’ll write about work in the next entry. Whew.

Thank you for being part of my adventure and for caring. I think everyone means much more to me now.

Love,
Wildy