Looking Like a Local

After 8 and a half hours of blissful slumber, Larae and I took our first adventure on our bikes. I honestly could not tell you the last time I rode a bike before this morning, and let me tell you, it showed. Mounting my bike in front of my host parents was mostly successful; that is, I didn't fall of my bike. Our host family directed us towards a shopping center not far from our house and we set off. We followed their directions precisely: 2 lefts and a right down a road that doesn't look like a road... except we missed the right and ended up doing a circle around the neighborhood. Embarrassed, we took the sole right we could find and continued our quest for the shopping center, avoiding passing our house so that our host family could not see that we had failed to follow the simple directions.

We rode by what looked like a shopping district but decided to explore a little more, and I'm sure glad we did. We came across a backyard with a farm of goats, our first canal, and a lot of cute houses. We stopped for a bit to try to figure out where exactly we are. Larae pulled out her Iphone compass and we looked at the map... not much help. So we mounted our bikes again and pressed forward. Well, Larae did anyways. I had a bit of trouble re-mounting and almost fell off. Sounds like a bit of a problem, right? It gets better. Larae and I decided we wanted to cross a fairly busy street to see what was on the other side. We stopped, looked both ways, and Larae led the way. I was getting ready to follow suit, but I couldn't get my footing and ended up almost falling again. I tried again, saw some traffic in the distance, panicked, and sped across the street as quickly as possible-- dodging the traffic by what seemed a mile away. Traveling at light's speed, I kind of forgot that I had breaks on my bike and eyes on my head and before I knew it, I was headed straight for the curb. As I approached the curb, I felt led to announce: "I am jumping the curb!" Larae turned just in time to see my bike carry me inches off of the ground as I successfully jumped and landed the curb. I circled around to join Larae and realized I had a larger audience: definitely some locals observing the American idiots. After a few moments of quoting my now famous lines and a few tears from laughing so hard, we ventured to the shopping center to find a bathroom. At first I was afraid I'd have to pay to use the bathroom, but the lady in the grocery store was nice enough to let me use the employee bathroom in the back. We walked around for awhile and then decided to take on the bikes again.

When we went to unlock our bikes, we were approached by an adorable old Dutchman who clearly did not speak English. After I told him I was American and I didn't understand, he continued to speak Dutch and search for a translator. Finally, he managed to say, "open it." So I unlocked my bike; he smiled and walked away. We had no idea what he was trying to communicate to us, but we rode away only to find what we assumed was downtown. Turns out, we found the industrial part of town and had ridden to the opposite side of the city center. We attempted to find our school, but only found Fiat car company. Around 12:30pm, we found our way back home, weaving through traffic like pros now, and grabbed some lunch. Then our brother took us to the city center for our tour.

We climbed to the top of an old church tower to see the beautiful view of the town of Zwolle. 236 steps up and then again back down is a killer on the legs, especially after all of the biking we did, but it was totally worth it. Looking at the city below and knowing that it is mine to explore for the next 4 months is an incredible feeling, and being with such a great group to travel it with makes it that much better. We then spent the rest of our afternoon touring the city, stopping here and there to receive a bit of information about various aspects of the city. It was a lot to take in, but let me tell you, Zwolle is a wonderful place! At the end of the tour, we stopped at a cafe for the most delicious hot chocolate I have ever had and some Dutch appetizers. I don't know what all of them were, but one was bitterbollen, frikendel, and some sort of deep fried kaas. Mmm mmm mmm. We then ventured home with one of our brothers and mom and had Saturday's meal cooked by Dad: French fries with various sauces, frikendel, and chicken nuggets-- the perfect food for the meal before our first night on the town.

Soon after dinner, we met up with Lauren, another SPICE student, to head to a Dutch buddies' (one of the students at the GH) houses to hang out. We then went to the Flying Horse to enjoy our first European pub experience. It was a blast! Most of the SPICE students were there and lots of Dutch people to meet. We had a great time, but I must admit, we probably don't look like locals, and we definitely don't sound like them, but we are definitely giving the Dutch people a run for their money when it comes to fun! After our night out, we ventured back to our home (got there safely and it didn't even take that long), and I am now ready to call it a night before church and Sunday meals tomorrow.

"Adventure is worthwhile itself." (Amelia Earhart) And so I continue the greatest adventure of my life...