(That means that I take my bike to class!)
Today was another excellent day in Zwolle. It is starting to get a bit chilly here, so biking is a littler tougher, but it's not so bad. What IS so bad is the Dutch we tried to learn today. I am so lucky I took linguistics for 2 semesters with a professor who is Dutch and uses a lot of Dutch examples. I think our professor thought "we don't speak Dutch" meant that we catch on very quickly, because for the first half hour, she didn't say a word in English. You have no idea how hard it is to find page negen when the teacher is holding up 8 fingers. Seriously though, Dutch is a very difficult language to learn, and when you are sitting there for 2 1/2 hours going over things in Survival Dutch that probably won't help you order a diet coke or find a toilet, it makes it even harder. There is just so much to learn in just 20 hours of class in 8 days. I'm sure by the end of it we will all be pros though. And if not, well, I still have a whole semester in Europe and Dutch 3 hours on Mondays to help as well.
After class, we biked to get a picture for our Dutch passports. Why we need another passport, I couldn't tell you, but what I can tell you is that the photographer sure loved 17 American students coming in to get their pictures taken. Afterwards we went off to McDonald's to have a stroep waffle McFlurry-- a must-have according to previous SPICE students. I'm not saying they aren't good, but for 2.50 and half the size of an American McFlurry (also, they used normal caramel, NOT stroep!), I can't say I'll order another anytime soon. In McDonald's we also experienced our first "pay to pee" experience. Obviously none of us cheap American students paid to use the bathroom (saving every eurocent for a better cause). Lauren, LaRae, and I stayed downtown for awhile and did some shopping. Be proud, mom; I said no to EVERYTHING-- even shoes! I am in need of a pair of dark brown boots, but I am putting that off for awhile. What I am extremely pleased to have discovered is that not ALL jeans are super expensive. Yeah, you can find jeans for 150 euros, but that's the same in the states. You can also find jeans for 25 euros or less! Goedso! (Spelling?)
After shopping, we parted ways with Lauren and went home for dinner: the curry chicken and rice and veggies dish we had before, but then a round of "buckwheat," which is something like very heavy oatmeal. This is how you eat it: you put it on your plate, spread it out flat (it is thicker than oatmeal, too), put butter then brown sugar and stroep on top, and eat up! Lekker! Then after that, we finished off the meal with some vla and devotions. Meals with my host family are so great, and getting better as we continue to develop connections and conversations and share various stories. I love it.
After dinner, the plan was to meet up with one of our brother's wife along with our parents and see the ice sculptures. We biked all the way downtown around 7:30pm only to find out it closed at 5. Well, since one of our brothers lives nearby, we stopped by for coffee and hung out there for awhile. When we arrived we noticed he was listening to American music. I don't know why that is so hard for me to adjust to, but everywhere you go (pubs, stores, homes, etc) you hear American music! I guess the music here is a bit interesting (their rap, for instance), but it is just so strange to hear Justin Bieber and Wiz Khalifa around.
Well, since it is a Tuesday, it is a big night in Zwolle-- The Joffer night. What is that? It's a local pub in the heart of Zwolle that is very popular, especially on Tuesdays because there is a happy hour from 11-12. We met up with a few Dutch buddies and went out for awhile. It was a lot of fun and definitely lived up to my expectations. Unfortunately the morning comes at 7:05AM so I am out of time to write for the night.
Dag!
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