The Netherlands/I Attempt to Make Up for Never Blogging

Hello All!

Since my blogging skills have been going downhill at an alarming rate, Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah. Two blog posts in one week. Also note that this post doesn't have strange highlighting like the last one! Huzzah!

This weekend, my friend Dani (the one who I talk about a lot on here) came for the weekend from Berlin. A seven hour bus ride proves true friendship, I think, especially since it's only four hours by train. We spent the day in Münster, one of my favorite cities, only a train ride away from Coesfeld. 

Here's the Schloß (castle) in Münster at the university, complete with an artsy pose. After touring the Altstadt (old town), we shopped a little and then met up with some of my friends for dinner at a delicious pizzeria with painfully large portions. It was when we got our tab that we realized that two Starbucks drinks and a sticky bun cost almost as much as a pizza, brochette, and two waters (Water isn't free with dinner here) which was slightly scary. We both pledged to cut down on Starbucks, which will probably fail. Anyways, after a train and a bus back to my village, we went to sleep.

The next day, after breakfast with my host family, Dani got the supreme bike tour of Velen. The castle is under construction, which is disappointing, but it was nice nonetheless. 

We returned home, and after getting our purses, drove to Coesfeld to catch a train to Enschede (that's in the Netherlands, just by the way) No passport needed, no customs, just a train ride. I'd been to Winterswijk a couple times, another small town. Dani hadn't been out of Germany though. So, after a 50 minute train ride, we saw this: 

And were exposed to the *interesting* Dutch language for the first time:

 There are lots of double letters. Lots and lots. Anyways, everything was open despite the fact that it was Sunday. This, I discovered, was because almost all stores in the Netherlands are open on the first Sunday of each month. This weekend was also Frühlingsfest in some towns back in Germany, meaning that stores were open there as well on Sundays. This sort of thing doesn't happen often but it is nothing like Oktoberfest, unfortunately. Anyways, Dani and I explored Enschede for the day. It has about 150,000 people, so there's plenty to do. The town square was adorable. 

Welkom op de Nederland! (Thank you, google translate, for your contribution)

We also saw the other, er, perks of the Netherlands. Everywhere.

**SIDENOTE: Of course, nothing was consumed. Don't worry, Mom.

There was also a street market going on, selling everything from antiques to 1€ makeup to the very famous "Speciale Pommes" Which are french fries with ketchup, mayonnaise, and onions. We stuck to regular ketchup pommes though. Unlike many germans, I'm not a huge fan of Mayo on my french fries.

Note the Dutch flag. There were also interesting fast-food vending machines, which we did not get to try.

There was a kitchen on the other side that placed hot food in boxes. When money was inserted, one of the boxes would unlock and you would get your meal! However, we stuck to Cafe Extrablatt, always the go-to restaurant when indecisive. Afterwards, we listened to music in a little pub called Molly Malone, pictured above. The crowd was very enthusiastic about two songs in particular: The first was "Country Roads" by John Denver and the second was "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding. It was hilarious! So unexpected and made for a really great day. 

As our day in the Netherlands came to a close, we headed back to the train station. There, we saw another exchange student from our organization, Adriana, who just happened to be in the Netherlands at the same time. We waited for the train together. And waited. and waited. Until, 40 minutes later, we realized it wasn't coming at all for some reason. The others waiting were just as confused, and we eventually had to catch another train, switch trains and wait a bit longer in another town. So figuring out how to get back to Coesfeld was entertaining. But eventually we were back, and then back in my village. It was a very, very full weekend to say the least, and Danielle left early the next morning

Monday, (oh wait. That was yesterday) was overall normal, except for 5th grade English. Yes, I help out with a 5th grade english class, and I completed my ambassador's project, something required by my organization. This involves a presentation of some sort that helps to share american culture with germans. This could be singing american songs for a retirement home or baking american food for a kindergarten. I made a slideshow for the 5th graders. I talked a bit about the U.S.A, then showed them pictures of my town back home and my school. We finished off with a quiz. I was a bit nervous beforehand, as my German grammar is far from perfect, but it turned out to be awesome. After every sentence I said the students all burst into applause until the teacher encouraged them to stop, as it had taken about three minutes to say 10 sentences. But anyways, that's all that's going on in Germany at the moment. Spring break is very, very close, and I've got major plans that I couldn't be more excited for. So, of course, I'll write about them afterwards. Thanks for reading, everyone, and feel free to comment below. Until next time!

Tschüss,

Katy