Netherlands Exchange YearNetherlands

Ok… so this is my first post so excuse me if its a little rusty. So you may laugh to hear that I like many other people am tarnished by the stereotypes of the Western society and how we view other countries. I chose Holland out of pure wim (Chocolate on their bread, and friendly people who just love us Canadians… what more could I ask for– and of course younger drinking age). Netherlands was actually my second choice but you didn’t hear that, many people are shocked to hear that my first choice was none other than Germany… how weird is that.
But anyways. I left Pearson airport on a Saturday afternoon, August 5th 2006 (to be specific) at 6:30 on a plane headed for Frankfurt. Amazingly I made all of the stupid weight restrictions and made it through the security check… first time flying alone I was a tad bit freaked about it. But the goodbyes they say are always the hardest part. For me the hardest goodbye was my grandma and grandpa… because they live right across the road from us they always know what is going on in our lives and are always there when I didn’t wanna deal with mom or dad or just needed another perspective. They also cried the most (the must be where my mom gets it). But there tears were proud ones where they hugged me smiled while their eyes gradually became redder. I love them so much. Of course when I got back home from saying goodbye I had to put on the dark sunglasses so that my brother and sister would stop asking questions (somehow younger siblings always have so many questions on things that some of us just take for granted), but now I miss them dearly… after all it has been 2 months without them– time flies doesn’t it. At the airport I was surprised at how well everyone held themselves together… and myself I only cried once when my mom did (love you mom!), and then I was on my way.
Ends up there was a group of us rotary exchange students travelling together on the same plane… all headed for either, Finland, Holland or Germany (most were going to Finland though), but on the plane they separated us all… some switched seats, but I was oblivious to this and stayed. I ended up sitting beside this really cute German couple who only spoke a very small amount of english so I didn’t talk to them much, I ended up I don’t remember now how funny is that… I remember I watched the movie Over the Hedge and I think I might have listened to some music and that was really it…. Oh no! my memory is going hehe. From Frankfurt I was separated from Dee (the other Canadian going to Holland) and made to wait 2 hours at the airport I read the whole time so it wasn’t that bad. But it was really confusing at the airport because I thought my flight had been changed so I walked from one terminal to the other back and forth again… which was crazy… then to make it even more stressful on little old me I had to wait another 20 minutes for another plane because the plane I was supposed to go on to Amsterdam didn’t pass the safety inspection (really impressive eh?) Long story short I made it to Amsterdam… went out wrong exit and ended up wandering out the airport trying to find my host family… but I finally found them… thank God they sent me pictures before cuz that is how I recognized them… helped so much! So now I have been in Holland for pretty much 2 months… and there are so many other stories I have to tell… so far behind