first rye camp !

last weekend, i got to spend the weekend with the other youth exchange students that are in the netherlands for rotary youth exchange this year. There are kids from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Italy, Spain, France, Finland, Switzerlands, Romania, and the US.

This was my first time taking connecting trains to get to the camp. I was doing great, nailed the first two train transfers, but then I took the train at platform 2 instead of the subway and then backtracked back to Gouda. That's when I started freaking out. I asked a janitor to help me and she told me to press this blue button on a pole, so I pressed the blue button and started talking to it which i'm sure looked so stupid. i finally figured it out after asking like 3 different people and got to camp an hour late which is crazy late for Dutch standards, but it was alright cuz other kids got lost at the train station too.

the first night was a lot of asking everyone their names, where they're from, and so many selfies. we did introduction games and then ate dinner- pasta that the Italians made!

the next day, we went to rotterdam and went on rental bikes exploring different landmarks in the city. The Spanish kids cannot bike. they were crashing into everyone. the locals were def annoyed at us. But, it was fun! Our group was losing, so we decided to stop at a farmer's market and we ate kibbeling, fried fish. also, while we were biking around the city, the weather was so chaotic. one second, it would be pouring and then the next it would be sunny. it was pretty brutal.

we all met at a food court that is very similar to The Post in Houston. I finally got to eat sushi! there was also an asian market that reminded me of H-mart at home. it was so great to see all the asian snacks and food. will definitely come back soon !

we biked back and got to have free time hanging out with all the kids. we made a tiktok that the Rotarians and Rotex were very impressed by. We even made it to their instagram page

at night, we played games that had to do with popular Dutch music, dutch history, and the language. I was nervous because i thought my Dutch was bad, but there are others that are way worse so now I feel more motivated to learn which sounds kinda bad.

On sunday, we went to Kinderdijk and visited the windmills. It was pouring the whole time and very cold. great bonding experience though.

other fun/funny things that happened:

- when we were biking in a field of cows, avery called a sheep a cute baby cow

- the europeans absolutely roasting americans for not knowing geography

- rotex showing us Dutch club music

- a few of us got split apart in the train and we were frantically trying to figure out when to get off, speaking in a mix of Dutch, English, French, and Spanish. all the dutch people around us were laughing at us.

- when we had to leave, tomy from argentina was waiting for the doors to open automatically, but you have to press a button, so an old woman reached over to Tomy's side to push the button and gave him the funniest look.

- playing chubby bunny but with pepernoten, a dutch holiday cookie, instead of marshmallows- the record was 37 cookies !

- cooking dinner together and listening to music from all over the world!

- playing the Mexico version of bingo

- finding someone who knows the Aces, one of my favorite bands ! Jamie from California :)

- getting to brag that Girl in Red spit in my face :)

- showing the exchange kids Fergie's version of the National Anthem (they thought it was hilarious)

that was the weekend. super fun, super cute. everyone is so nice. i can see us getting very close over the year. i'm planning to meet a few of them in den haag for ramen! excited for that :)

bye,

Amelia