Short break

Hey everybody!

I'm taking a little break from writing on here as I'm pretty tired and have to get up at 5:45 tomorrow morning. Today was a calm day as I helped Amy some more with the move of her work, and watched CeCe's lacrosse game.

Sorry for the lack of details! I'll be back on the writing track tomorrow.

Xx

Eva

A day out in the sun with Jock

To say that I was ecstatic to finally have some really cool photos to show the homefront would be an understatement. I've been wanting to take more photos last week as well, but for some reason it just felt strange doing it! Honestly, I think it has something to do with the fact that I'm not really here as a tourist. I mean, I am. Just differently... So taking photos all the time kind of feels strange and a violation of people's privacy and comfort zone. It might all just be in my head, but it is how I've experienced it so far. Until today. I kept my camera in hand, or at least in short reach of my hands, at all times. Today was the day I joined Jock, DeWitts father, on his regular Tuesday.

I got up early, before the clock had even stricken 6 AM, because he would be there to pick me up at 7. So that's what he did! At first we went to fill up on some gas for his car and after that we stopped by at Dunkin' Donuts across the street. The slogan states, "America runs on Dunkin'", and that probably couldn't be more true. People stop by the shop every morning to get their correct dose of coffee and donuts. (or bagels, they have those, too!) Anyway, I got a small (much to their surprise) hot chocolate. Which, put shortly, tasted like heaven in a cup. Jock picked six donuts in 3 different flavours and then we were all set to go.

Our first destination that day would be "Plum Island", which is a nature reserve near the Atlantic Ocean. Jock is part of a volunteering-group there that spend their time catching birds in nets as they come in from different places around the world on their migration. These birds would then be given a small ring, and they will keep a database with all kinds of information they can detect from this bird, before it is put back into nature. Sadly, however, I didn't get to see this part happening today. The day started out very cold and windy, making it very unlikely for any bird to enter the nets. They're basically nets that are so thin, I couldn't even see them! Yet because of the wind you could see them more easily as they flared up, which would make it less attractive, to say the least, for the birds to fly into. So I didn't get to see that process, alas. However I may give it another try Thursday morning.

After birding we went out to the head-building of this bird-reserving institution. Jock showed me around in all the classrooms they have in there for children to learn more about nature, and especially nature on Plum Island, at that. After showing me around I took a couple of pictures, saw a squirrel, and we headed out for lunch. At Starboard Galley, which I figured out the name of the restaurant was, (As Jock kind of pronounced it as a mumbled "Starbrd" and I kept thinking we were going to Starbucks) we met Nancy, who is his wife, and we ordered some seafood for lunch. I had pasta that was so greasy it wouldn't stay on my fork, but it was good though! For dessert Jock suggested I should try Key Lime Pie, which is a 'very American' dessert according to him. I tried it and I liked it very much! Mum, if you're reading this, it's kind of like the lemon cheesecake you make, only a bit stronger. You'd like it!

When lunch was done we drove to Newburyport, which is where he and his wife live, and took me to see the oldest, still-active boathouse in the country. Right next to his house. It was a beautiful boatshop. Absolutely beautiful! I guess I have a new favourite aesthetic, sun that shines through windows on unedited wood. Something about it was just breathtaking! They were actually busy creating a boat when we came in there, and we saw some other current projects as well. It's amazing what they can create with wood. The people working in there were all very young, to my surprise. But thinking about it for a little while, I reasoned that it is exactly the place to find young people. With fresh visions on how to develop new types of boats in a boatshop that is so old. One of the boats they were currently working on was a very large rowing boat, which would be able to carry an entire class of kids for example. It was still in the making, but they'd already decided that they were going to oil it instead of painting it, so that they would be able to have it used in things like movies in a different time setting as well. Which I thought was very interesting! Downstairs in the shop was a small museum with some of the very old boats that were made there, as well as a model ship of which the real one had been built in there, donated to them by DeWitts mother. She was the previous owner of that model. It was so pretty! I took advantage of the great weather and spammed my camera with photos of the little yellow boat floating out on the giant Merrymack River. I'm so glad with how they turned out!

Back at Jock's house we relaxed for a bit on his deck. Wow, does he have a house with a view! It was stunning! When he told me how the sun sets right above the river where he could perfectly see, I could definitely imagine what that would look like. I told him there, that if I had a view like that... I probably wouldn't ever be inside.

At the end of the day I joined him to an Ethics Committee that he's voluntarily a part of. It's basically what we always talked about in Science & Society class. They had me sign a confidentiality contract, though, and as I didn't entirely read it I think it's best if I don't mention anything other than that. ;)

So, to sum up, I had a terrific day! How was yours?

Xxx

Eva

Kingsday from afar

Happy Kingsday Dutchies! Or, actually... I'm writing this when it's no-longer April the 27th over there... Anyway, I hope you all had a good one!

I must say that I hadn't really missed home until I saw all the photos and videos from Kingsday on Snapchat. Do you know that feeling you get when you know people are having fun without you? I kind of had that, which is strange because I never truly celebrated King's- or Queen's day before. I guess that, once you're abroad, you start thinking of your own country in a very different way. At this point, I don't even remember most of the school things that I was worrying about only a couple of weeks ago. Right now all I'm thinking is, I can't wait for all the sunny days in the Netherlands this summer! Genuinely, I am already making plans in my head for when I get back. I hope I can keep up that positive feeling towards the home-front once I get back into the school-rhythm... But enough about that for now! I'm still in the United States, so let's focus on that so long as my trip still lasts. :)

Today I had less healthy cereal for breakfast, Carson's favourite, and boy was it good! Like a sugary cinnamon taste on cornflakes. Yum! I just realised how varied my breakfast has been this past week. Like, in the Netherlands I would have the same everyday. Bread with cheese. For breakfast and lunch. Here I've had something different every day! And lunch is mostly warm, which I really enjoy. Again, I'm standing behind my statement that we should have warm food for lunch at our school as well. I would be so much more capable of staying awake during my last periods, not even joking!

So yeah, then I had breakfast and joined DeWitt to his office where I helped him with another database task. What I'm doing there is basically helping him get ready for sales and marketing, so updating his databases in e-mail- and post addresses. Today I learned just about all the states of America by having to look up what the abbreviations meant. I feel a whole lot wiser on that front, I guess the next step would be to figure out where to find each.. ;)

For lunch we popped into Crosby's and I got a turkey wrap with swiss cheese. We ate that at home as we refuelled for the rest of the afternoon. So back to work we went until around 4-5'ish, when we went to go pick up Deuce from school. We hung out for a while in the living room, watching Drake & Josh on TV and I caught up on what my friends had been up to. For dinner we had chicken from the grill, rice, garlic bread and asparagus. And then for dessert it was time to celebrate the King's birthday. So Amy stuck some candles in the left-over carrot cake from the night before, and we had our own little King's Day in Georgetown.

Tomorrow I have to get up early and leave the house at 7, because I'm joining DeWitt's father with some volunteer-work that he's into. It has something to do with birds coming in from a different place and they are given a ring here by these volunteers. That should be really interesting! He's taking me out for the entire day, even for lunch! He might also show me one of the oldest boathouses in the country, that still creates wooden boats, which he lives almost next-door to.

I also heard that later this week, on Friday, Donna is going to take me out to Cambridge with her so that I can see some sights and visit the Harvard area! That's so cool! And I might join her daughter to some dance classes as well later this week. Overall, I'm really excited!

Goodnight everybody!
xxx

Time off

I wasn't really sure what the title should be for this post, as I don't see my 'internships' here as something like work or school that I have to go to. I love experiencing it all! Today was just a day with nothing planned for me to do, so I could use that time to relax and hang out around the house. So I grasped that opportunity with both hands and slept in this morning. I had a slow start, chatting with my family back home, taking a shower, making myself some breakfast and things like that. Honestly, I spent the rest of the day on the sofa where I'm staying downstairs. I wrapped myself up in a blanket and surrounded myself with my laptop, a book, a magazine and my phone and just had some quality leisure-time. Understandably, there's not much for me to write about here.

For dinner the Purcell's had guests coming over. They were Paul, Donna and Jilly, and I forgot about their last name. They live in Georgetown as well, and CeCe and Jilly used to go to school together until they both went their separate ways. However, Jilly goes to a dancing school in Boston six days a week, so they hardly see each other. Today was a lucky day for them all that they were able to have a get-together and I was glad to be a part of it because I had a really good time. I really liked that they talked about subjects such as books and films a lot, because those were definitely conversations I could join in. That is, rather than sports, which I can only listen to.

So that about sums up my day. A very simple day, but lovely nonetheless!

Goodnight, all!

xxx

University by day, High School by night

French toast for breakfast seemed like the best way to wake up this morning, because with yet another early start it began to get more and more difficult to get out of bed. We got ready to leave the house at 8:30, and got onto the highway headed for Maine. Today would be a college visiting day for CeCe at UNE, or University of New England, and I got to tag-along. During the car-ride we got to watch almost all of Brave, as it took quite a while to get there. For some reason I liked that movie better now that I've seen it for the second time than I did for the first time! When we got to campus we were first given an introduction/presentation and then all of the potential new students were divided into smaller groups for the tour-guides. We were put into Angela's group, one of the seniors at the University, and she was a really good public speaker! Like, I always feel like there's a very high make it or break it factor when it comes to people trying to promote a programme or school, and she definitely made it! CeCe to really like this school, despite the fact that they still used chalkboards in the classrooms. Personally I got a bit of a double feeling from this school. While they were offering some very promising and interesting programmes, the looks of it reminded me so much of primary school! Like, the colours used on the walls and doors: Old green and yellow. And the amount of times that there were posters hanging on the walls, with supposedly insightful information on them, all typed in Comic Sans. That is just cringe-worthy for me.

What was cool about this school, though, was that it was situated right at an estuarium. This meant that because it is directly connected to the ocean, the school offered a very broad oceanic/marine-studies programme as well. So at the school itself there were very large aquariums for example, and giant basins full of fish. I thought it was very cool that this research all happened at the school itself.

For lunch we stopped at a place called 99, if I remember correctly, and I had some shrimps with fries. Continuing the road back home to Georgetown, we watched a bit of Frozen together.

After having arrived back home I chilled for a bit as CeCe and Amy went out to the hairdressers, and I even skyped with my mum which was nice. :) About then it was time for me to get ready for the semi-formals at Pingree that night, so I put on the blue dress which I'd bought at Forever 21 yesterday night and put on my make-up. With light snacks for dinner, and final preparations we were ready to go to the dance. CeCe's boyfriend came to pick us up (his name is either Bryan or Ryan but I'm still not sure which) and he'd bought CeCe one of those pretty flower-wristlets you see in American series like Pretty Little Liars, and he'd gotten me some flowers as well. I thought that was so sweet! We took our photos and hopped into the car looking all fancy. The dance itself, however, was nothing like I was used to. There was a photobooth, which was fun! And there was loads of candy and pastries... However, not loads of people. Coming from a school with 2000 students, at least, of which the majority show up to the Christmas dance each year I was used to something a bit more lively and crowded than what I experienced here. According to CeCe this was like 90% freshmen, and 10% sophomores. I've learned, by the way, that I would be a junior in America. Somehow their entertainment-span was shorter as well, because we left the dance about an hour after we got there. It was fun though, getting to experience something like that! Back in the car I wasn't informed about the following plans, but it turned out we were going to Justin's house, who is one of (B)Ryan's friends. I just went along with them. Justin and this girl, who I think was his sister, had baked cookies which we could eat, and we played pool in their game-room until we were picked up again.

There's nothing on the planning for me tomorrow. All I know is that this family will be visiting the Purcell's. I'm really glad that I don't need to set my alarm for tomorrow morning, and that I can just stay in bed for as long as I want. Respectfully, that is.

Goodnight everyone!
xxx

American Friday

With an early start again today, waking up with a bowl of cereal, I got to join CeCe to Pingree once more. With the same ritual as the previous days we were taken to the bus-stop, hopped on the yellow bus and were dropped off in front of the school. On Mondays and Fridays, Pingree starts the schoolday a little differently. All the students gather in the auditorium for morning-meeting; usually set up around a theme. Today's theme was Chinese New Year, even though that was in February. The woman announcing it claimed that it was belated because of the numerous snow-days they had had during the winter. First of all, the teachers gave kind of a silly, Chinese fashion show, which the students could laugh about. Then a video was played about several Chinese facts, and it was created by students as well. The 'silly' thing kind of continues onto this. After the video was shown, twenty people were called upstage to go against each other in a kind of game-show quiz idea. It was quite fun to watch! Last but not least, they had people come up to stage to race against each other in the 'chopstick challenge', wherein every component had to move three popcorns from one plate to another by the use of the chopsticks. After this the bell rang, meaning that the classes would soon begin.

It's kind of strange that I can't remember this, but I don't really know the order in which things happened today anymore... :p I think we started with Chemistry, where there was a guest-teacher trying out for possible job at Pingree. He was a very friendly teacher and very enthusiastic about teaching as well. Even though I didn't understand a thing about the chemistry, I'm sure he must have been enjoyable for the class. After this, again if I am writing this correctly, CeCe had like an hour off, so we had the time to get a drink, finish the last bits of her project and get me a Pingree sportshirt. I'm already starting to think that I've the order of today all messed up, but I'll just leave it like this for now. ;) When the time came for a short break we had tortilla-chips with chili-sauce, and it was awesome. Like, I wish we were just provided snacks and drinks and lunch out our school in that way. After this CeCe had another free period, which we used to go see the dance-class. They were practicing for their spring performance, and because they were almost finished I couldn't join, but I still got to watch and that was fun as well! So after that we had lunch. (this is a mess, nothing about this is correct, I'm so sorry!) Quesadillas and ice-cream. I was in heaven. Wishing that such a thing could be possible at our school as well. After that was Spanish and History, and I am quite certain that those were the last classes, so at least I'm sure about that ;) CeCe would still have two hours of Lacrosse practice, so Amy picked me up and dropped me off at the house where I read in Since You've Been Gone for a little while. I'm really starting to love that book already! At 4:30 Amy, Carson and I went to go pick up Deuce at a friend's house and then CeCe and Bryan (her boyfriend) from school again so that we could go to the mall. CeCe, Bryan and I had dinner there at Chicken-Fill-A while Amy, Carson and Deuce went out for dinner and a movie elsewhere. After food we popped into Forever 21 in search of a dress and shoes to wear to the semi-formals which will be tomorrow. It's quite funny how their dance starts at around 7 and finishes at about 9:30, while in the Netherlands 9:30 would kind of mean the beginning of it! It probably has its reasons. ;) When we succeeded in shopping there we looked around in a shop called the Brainstore for a very long time. It's this really cool shop where they have all kinds of interesting games and puzzles to get your brain-flow going. They had everything! It was one of those shops that both kids and adults would get lost in. Plus, you could like try almost everything in there out for yourself! So we spent a very long time goofing around in there. Just before closing time we went to go get a frozen yoghurt at Tutti Frutti, and it is soooo delicious. I honestly think that I will leave America all blown up by food because there's just so much good stuff that I love to try!!

So tomorrow I'll be travelling through the states with Amy and CeCe to visit the University of New England in southern Maine. A university situated directly at the coast, which should be nice! And then at night we'll have the dance. I'm really looking forward to it all!

Goodnight!
xxxx

Helping out at Breuer & Co.

I was very thankful to have my alarm set for 7 o'clock today, and even more thankful that I slept the whole way through to it. Starting the day with a good night's sleep and toast with eggs and bacon for breakfast made a huge difference for the rest of it. So today was going to be the day I joined Amy to her office. Firstly we had to drop off CeCe at the busstop in Boxford like we'd done the day before, and then Amy and I continued on to the highway to get to Wakefield. Her office building was situated in a park called Edgewater, and she informed me that it used to be an amusement park until somewhere in the 1960's. So it actually used to look like this:

And now it looks like this:

At her work she first gave me a tour of the very fancy building, and I was introduced to many of her colleagues. They were all very friendly, and interested in my being from the Netherlands and all. ;) Breuer is the name of the main company that Amy works for, but that can be divided under two subgroups. One of which is Veracross, and that is the one situated in this building, and so the one Amy works for. It is a company that creates software for international preparatory schools. So for example, Pingree is one of the schools they work with, but the International School of Amsterdam is as well! After introductions and a tour we got coffee and tea and started a much needed task. As the company had just moved into this pretty new building (I'm telling you, marble in the lobby, golden elevators, fountains, you name it!) There were still a lot of things that needed to be unboxed and sorted out in the building, so I was glad to help out with that. I actually like organising things, so long as it's not my own room, so I quite enjoyed doing this with Amy and her colleagues. For lunch we went downstairs into a large cafeteria and ordered a wrap and some fries. We ate it looking out to this big pond from he windows in the lunchroom. Not long after lunch and some more organising DeWitt and Carson came to pick me up, and we drove back to Georgetown together. While all the guys went out for a couple of hours, I met with miss Flynn again, who came to clean up the house a little. She was upset about missing her soap operas due to a trip to the doctor's, but was glad that she could still see her talkshow (of which I can't remember the name at present). She knew all the make-up do's and don't's, and so got to say 'didn't I tell you so' each time after the 'expert' on tv showed us on her clients. We talked about dressing and shopping some more, and right before she left I took on some reading in Since You've Been Gone. I'm really enjoying it so far!

Thereafter I went on a short shopping-spree to Crosby's with DeWitt to get the last things for dinner and dessert. Because, I don't know if it's just because I'm here, every day is a dessert day here! For dinner we had spaghetti with meatballs, garlic-bread, salad and grapes. Dessert was brownie and ice cream for me <3. When dinner was finished I helped CeCe a little bit with her history project, as she needed to make a big poster and I could lend a hand by cutting out some pictures and texts. Tomorrow will be another day at Pingree for me again, so I'd better go to sleep!

Goodnight!!
xxx

My First American Schoolday at Pingree

One has to show some dedication when you want to experience an American schoolday. My alarmclock was set for 6 AM, and yet my stupid jet-lag woke me up even earlier than that. We had breakfast and then left the house by car at 7:10, in order to arrive at the bus-stop on time. Over there CeCe and I were picked up by a small yellow schoolbus, driven by a very friendly woman. Once I got inside, the girls sitting in it were really excited to meet me. Most of them were friends of CeCe's, and what I noticed about them the most is how open they were. Like, nothing was held back by these girls. They sang, talked about their classmates in a very respectful way, and gave lots of compliments to each other. It was in the bus that I was first introduced to the word 'cleats', which are kind of like hockey-shoes in the Netherlands. However, these weren't for hockey, these were for Lacrosse. A game that I had never seen being played live in front of me until today.

Once at school, which was 8 o'clock, we went to a room with some old sofas in it for a day-starter called 'advisory'. It's kind of like what we would call our mentor-hour in Holland. Pingree has this interesting tradition of sending out an e-mail to all of the students each morning, stating the announcements of the day, the birthdays among faculty and students, the games that will be played that day, as well as interesting things that happened on that day in history and a daily quote. This is basically what was being discussed with the advisor-teacher as well. The little group of students, around 6 if I remember correctly, could use this time to bring up anything they wanted. Out of advisory we went into history, which was quite a fun and interesting lesson actually! Pingree is a private school, and I could really tell the difference with what I'm normally used to. The classes sum up to about 13 people, and this makes it possible for there to be a real conversation with the teacher. That is, instead of a teacher just throwing information at you and skipping questions because there is no time. And I say that coming from a school where lessons take 65 minutes. Over at Pingree, one lesson lasts 45 minutes. Although I thought that was very short when CeCe told me, with this way of teaching it seemed like the perfect amount of time! History, though, was what they call a long hour at Pingree today. Meaning that the lesson took 65 minutes. Mrs. P taught the class about World War One and I was glad that I could kind of participate in that. Sadly, I didn't remember much of what I'd previously learned. Which I always think is a shame! While the class discussed things, she passed around a box of Dunkin' Donuts multiple times. Which I accepted gratefully, of course. Walking through the school after that I kind of discovered a pattern in how the chairs and tables in the classrooms were situated. Most of the classrooms had them in a circle, once again really enabling class-discussion. I thought this was super interesting, because it truly did seem to work. It creates less of a distant feeling between the teacher and the student, as well as between one student and another.

The next class we went to was Spanish, and it was in the old, original part of the building. The majestically large school used to be an old farmhouse, with loads of rooms where the workers would sleep at night. Those rooms were now classrooms, and they had a beautiful, beautiful view over the lake and forest. Spanish was sadly done by a substitute teacher, meaning that the students only had to finish their homework. As I don't understand a word of Spanish, I couldn't really participate in this... But I had a good time looking at photos of my cat on my phone. ;) There was a small break after Spanish, and when we got to the cafeteria CeCe asked me whether I liked goldfish. I had no idea. I mean, I knew she didn't mean actual, live fish. I'd seen the boxes of crisps in my barbie collection when I was younger. So I had some typically American Goldfish crisps then. :)

The following thing on our schedule was chemistry, which I didn't understand one bit of, but the teacher was a very nice and friendly woman so I made sure she got the feeling that I was paying close attention. English class started after that, and it was taught by a man who was kind of nuts, and it's probably okay that I call him that as he called himself a whackjob. The class was busy with a book called the Odyssey, and their task was to write their own Odyssey. Even though I had never read this book, the teacher tried really hard to get me to write one as well.

For lunch we went to the cafeteria and had fritata, bacon, sausages and French toast. French toast kind of tastes like Oliebollen without the raisins, I discovered. My plate was overloaded, because I kind of wanted to try everything, but once I finished CeCe gave me a little tour around and in the school. It's amazing how large the property is! There's a long lane leading up to the school, the main building, an athletic centre, an ice-hockey ring, multiple sports-fields going from tennis to lacrosse to soccer to American football... And then this school is very special as well, because it has a great deal of a forest as well, including a big lake. We took photos together and checked out some more things until CeCe had to go get ready for her Lacrosse game. I watched the whole thing from a bench, practice included, and got so incredibly cold and tired that I thought I was going insane. The game was great! But I almost couldn't enjoy it because of the cold wind that had started gusting from the moment they hit the field. The jet-lag is definitely kicking in now... Fatigue is taking over my body, sadly. So I will call it an early night tonight and see what tomorrow will bring when I join Amy to her office.

Goodnight!
xxx

Starting out small

Wow, that's probably a word I've used a little too much today. Almost all the time because of things that are unnecessarily big. My work placement I started out small, though, which was perfect for a day spent still a little bit tired from the time difference.

For starters, I woke up with a message from my mum, asking me if it was okay if she'd call. Knowing that calling would cost 2 euros a minute, I suggested that we'd skype instead. It was lovely seeing her, and speaking with her for a moment. Shortly after that I went on a little research as to how to work the shower, which didn't appear to be so difficult after all. For breakfast I had a bagel with cream-cheese and some sort of Danish dessert. It wasn't anything I'd be allowed to eat for breakfast in the Netherlands, I'll have you know. ;) I was also so relieved to discover that the milk tastes the same here. It is such a pet-peeve of mine to be in a country where the milk just tastes like it came from anything but a cow.

After breakfast I joined DeWitt to his office, and I helped him out with his contacts-administration until it was time for lunch. This was my first trip to what they call a 'small' grocery store here. It's not small, at all. In fact, I think it may be bigger than our regular supermarket in the Netherlands... Or at least equal in size! However, the aisles or stuffed in a way that I've yet to experience in Holland. Every squared centimetre is put to use here. I wish I'd taken a photo! Back at home for lunch I met miss Flynn (I hope I spelled her name correctly), she's a lady who's been taking care of the children in the house ever since they were little. So when their parents were out, she was always there to pick them up from friends or to take them to sports-practice and other things like that. We chatted shortly about how glad we both were that summer clothes were getting back in stores, and she made me my first, real-American, grilled cheese. Boy, was it delicious. I'm actually really glad she did that for me, because when DeWitt told me I could have anything for lunch I didn't really know what to do. I mean, I had my sandwiches, but not a thing in the fridge seemed to be a thing fit for putting on them. At least not with my vision. So now that I know how to make myself a grilled cheese, I suppose I will be binging on those for lunch the next couple of weeks.

Recharged by my warm sandwich we went back to the office where I finished my task and waited until we could go back to the grocery store (which is called Crosby's, by the way) for dinner. I took a little longer strolling around this time, and noticed the humongous variety of beer and wine they offered. Like, I thought we had a great deal of brands in Dutch stores... But this was just aisle after aisle after aisle. For dinner we had casseroles, which is kind of like risotto. It's rice in a thick batter, with chicken and peas, with salad and garlic bread on the side. Over dinner I was kind of told what the plan was for the rest of the week, and I'm really excited! :) Tomorrow I will join CeCe to Pingree, which is a private school. This does mean that I'll need to be ready to leave at 07:10 to make it to the (yellow!!!) schoolbus. On thursday I will join Amy to the company she works for and I'll help out there. Then on Friday I will be at Pingree again. Saturday is going to be a very special day, as I will be joining CeCe and Amy as they go check out a College. After that we're gonna go shopping, because I'm allowed to join CeCe to a school dance that night! They call it a semi-formal, and I'm really excited. :)

I kind of wanted to type more, but I'm really tired and I still need to look some things up about World War One so that I can more easily join the history class tomorrow. The little (big) things that I wanted to mention here as well I'll leave for another day.

Goodnight!
xxx

I made it!!

My first blogpost from the United States! Let's see how I'll maintain these ;) Wow! What a day! I underestimated how long an 8 hour flight would feel. I actually just accidentally typed 8 flour height, so that about sums it up!

Let's start from the beginning. At about 11:30 I took off for the airport with my mum, brother and sister. At this point I was already very nervous. The first things at the airport, such as finding the right departure area, I could luckily still do together. After that, however, it all came down to me. I will admit that I had a bit of a panic attack when I only had to leave for a couple of minutes to get my suitcase checked in. That first moment alone was somehow the scariest! I still got to walk back to say my last goodbyes and luckily that wasn't too loaded. We waved until we could no longer see each other, and then I was really on my own. That was a very strange feeling! Leaving your family behind like that. I was nervous more than I was sad, although I'm sure that I will start missing them after a while!

Anyhow, the customs service people in the Netherlands were very friendly. Strict, but friendly. They made sure to keep the atmosphere kind of light so that you wouldn't be too nervous. Which was very nice! The guy who helped me genuinely was interested in what I told him about why I was going to America. Not just in a sceptical way. Safety check and hand-baggage check was okay as well, nothing that bothered me about it! After that I didn't need to wait long to board the airplane. However, the waiting for the plane to take off did seem to take so long! We stood still for a very long time, and even when we started moving we had several kilometres to drive to get to the right lane. Finally, eventually, we went up into the air. And from that point on I can sum the flight up in three things: Getting stuffed with food and drinks, watching movies and calculating when it's the right time to go to the bathroom. If there's one thing I've learned from this trip by myself, it's that a window-seat is not worth it when you're travelling by yourself. It's so annoying when you have to ask your sleeping neighbour to move out of the aisle because you've been holding it out for a little too long trying not to wake him up. Like, if those were my friends or family I wouldn't mind. But of these people I didn't even know what language they spoke! Another thing I've learned for next time: Ask a flight attendant how to turn off the air-conditioning. That thing is so cold, so loud, and made my face itch so much during the flight. It was really getting on my nerves. Funny thing is, I couldn't really hear what the flight-attendants were saying because of this. So every time they were approaching with food and there was a choice I tried to listen from the rows before me what they could pick between. However, one time I understood: Strawberry or vegetarian? And I couldn't see what we'd get as it was in a little box, so I chanted 'strawberry!' Only to get a ham-sandwich afterwards, with chocolate mousse. So I guess I must have kind of confused her there.. ;) I watched two movies on the flight, Into The Woods and Interstellar. Both of which I found really good! And for the rest I watched Once Upon a Time. Sleep was non-negotiable in my seating placement, so I'm glad that I'll be in a different seat when I return home at night in two weeks.

As we descended into Boston Logan Airport, the first thing I saw when we reached beneath the clouds was power-plants. Followed by houses in all kinds of different colours, typically Boston, I hear. When I got off the plane the biggest difference was the way I was treated at customs. At first I had to go to a little self-service point, where you had to confirm your ESTA information. This service point then also took the freedom of taking a beautiful photo of my 8-hour-flight-face. One eye bigger than the other and my face red with spots because of the stupid air-conditioning. It actually allowed me to take another one but I just laughed and went ahead. It printed a little customs-pass for me which I then had to take to a customs-desk. The already-bitter-looking man asked how I was doing, but obviously didn't care as I was immediately told to put my fingers on the screen so that he could check my prints. It was such a big difference with the customs in the Netherlands! He basically asked the same questions, but did it without a single glimpse of friendliness. That must be such a tough and awful job to have! Out of customs I went to look for my suitcase, which, of course, had to come as one of the last so I spent the entire time nervous and thinking it wouldn't have made it. But there it was, and so was I, so I could make it to the exit. Over there I met with DeWitt and CeCe, who greeted me with open arms and took me home with them.

In Georgetown I was welcomed with a nice pink banner made by Carson, and Chloe, the dog, immediately came up to lick me. It's incredible how welcome this family makes me feel! For dinner we had steak, which was lovely but a little heavy on my tummy as in my head it was supposed to be past midnight. I'm currently ready to sleep in a big double bed in my own bedroom in the basement. I even got a welcome gift, with shampoo, conditioner, soap, a notebook and a novel! So sweet :) I was also really glad that they loved the gift I got them <3

Well, I'm about to go find out just exactly how many layers of blankets and pillows there are on this bed and get ready to sleep. It is currently 21:50 here in Massachusetts and so almost 4 A.M real feel.

Goodnight!
xxx Eva

9 More Days!

Although I'm still having a hard time believing it myself, I'm going to have to get 'round to realising that there are only 9 more days left before my plane takes off to the States!

It's amazing how quickly time flies, and it kind of makes it all that bit more scary. I will be travelling to Boston all on my own on the 20th of April, making it my first ever solo-trip. How exciting!! I'm really hoping to share my experience with you all while I'm there, which will be until the 4th of May. This also means that I will be sharing my birthday, on the 2nd of May, without a single family member! Still, I'm optimistic and sure that I will have a terrific time with my host family and that they will take great care of me. It's going to be amazing!

Wait a minute... Did I even tell you all about what I'm going to do there and why? I think not! Well, here it goes:

I've been following a bilingual programme at my school in the Netherlands since I was 12 years old. This programme requires all of the students to go on an international work placement for at least one week. It's really awesome, because over the next couple of weeks my classmates and friends will be all over the world! Some are going to America, some to England, others to Africa and the Himalayas or Australia and New Zealand! It's insane! For my work placement I will be joining the girl I will be staying with in America to her private High School in South-Hamilton. How cool is that? A real American high school! Let me tell you, my expectations are super high! ;) Then for the rest of the week I will probably join her mother to her work to help the company she works for with a great move. The next week is completely up for fun, exploring and meeting other people. So basically, these promise to be some very special weeks for me! :)

Strangely enough, it's the travelling by plane itself that makes me the most nervous. I've only ever flown on a plane once, and that was with about 30 of my closest friends for a class exchange. However, this time I will be flying absolutely solo. It's not exactly the flying itself that I'm nervous about, rather the things that I need to do at the airport in order to get on the right plane! :') Finding gates, going through security and whatnot. I genuinely believe that I will become a whole different person after this experience. So much more independent and world-wise than before.

Fingers crossed for a safe trip and that I won't forget to pack anything important!

Lots of love, and I will keep you updated!

Eva