Jenna is in the NL!

12.25.22 - 1.1.23

This was a very eventful week bc... Jenna was here !! Wow, yay, fun, crazy!

So, Jenna flew from Houston to Schiphol Airport in the NL on Christmas. Mar and I picked her up and then we went home. We opened Christmas presents. I got a necklace, bracelets, and chocolate from Mar and makeup, spicy cheetos, and a bright lamp light from Mom and Dad. My parents and I gave Mar a vacuum cleaner and a diffuser. Mar doesn't do the Christmas tree/ present thing on Christmas Day so it was fun opening presents under the tree. Then, Jenna and I biked to my high school and my bank's ATM to get money. We biked back and then walked to the town center.

After that, Mar and I went to Mar's mom's house for Christmas dinner. It was the typical group- Mar, Mar's sister and her husband, their daughter, Mar's daughter and fiancee, and Mar's mom. I got everyone a small present because I felt so bad they all got me something little for Sinterklaas. It worked out though because I got to do the tradition of them opening presents on the 25th, which they don't do. I gave the guys special beer because they like beer, bookmarks for Anne Louise and her dad because they like to read, scrunchies and bath bombs for the girls, and hand towels that have Houston embroidered on them from Houston for the moms. They loved it so I was happy. We first played this Christmas game where everyone brought small wrapped gifts. You roll dice and if you got a 6, you could grab a present from the middle and if you got a 3, you could pick up a gift and unwrap it. We did that until there were no gifts left. Then, we changed the game a little. If you got a 3 or 6, you could pick up a piece of paper from this tin box and on the paper it would say things like "Steal the gift that has the most purple on it" or "Give one of your gifts to the person to the left of you" or "Pick two people that must swap gifts with each other." There were also notes like a free block card which you could use to cancel out somebody else's note if they were going to take something from your pile or a card that let you keep something from your pile for the rest of the game. Apparently, many Dutch families play this game, but every family's game rules are a little different. The gifts were funny. There was a fish toy that flopped around, a discount book, a cutting board, random purses, hand lotion, chocolate candy, barbells, and random stuff like that. Everyone was getting super competitive and trying to steal other's toys and protect their toys. We played that game for about an hour. But then, after all that time and energy we spent fighting for the presents, when the game was finished, everyone just traded their stuff to get what they wanted. I was like what, we could've just done that an hour ago? But, it was fun and a good time. Then, we had a 10 course dinner that Mar's mom made. We ate salmon, beet salad, green soup, beef, and lots of other stuff I can't remember. I was so proud of myself because we were eating lots of different food that I haven't eaten a lot of before, but then we had lamb and deer and I could not handle it. Something about the texture and taste of those meats, but I tried to eat a few bites. I just kept imagining Bambi and a baby lamb. But weird cause I eat chicken and cow and pig and stuff. Then, there was the grand dessert finale and Mar's mom lit up sparklers on the dessert. The whole dinner was so good.

** deer left, lamb right

** "grand dessert finale" in Mar's mom's words

MONDAY

Okay, so this day, Jen and I went to den Haag. We walked and shopped around the center. I made her try a warm stroopwafel at a stand which she thought was okay. We also went to Sostrene Grene, a Danish store with cooking supplies, art supplies, and accessories. It's such a cute store. Then, we got lunch at this acai bowl place. We both got smoothies and sandwiches. They were average. After, we went to Mauritshuis, the museum with the girl with the pearl earring. We went home and for dinner and did Gourmetten which is something a lot of Dutch families do for Christmas dinner. Basically, there's different meat and vegetables and you grill everything at the center of the table on a small grill. Basically, KBBQ! After, we all watched Glass Onion, that Knives Out movie. I liked this one better, but both movies honestly had disappointing endings in my opinion. Like it starts off strong and then just has a lackluster ending. Also, this was a while ago, but Mar and I watched the 2nd Avatar movie. I hadn't watched the first one, only listened to my school friends' summary of the movie, but I'm not quite sure why several tribes of blue people are dying at the expense of one white guy who turned into a Blue dude. But anyway, it was good I guess.

TUESDAY

Alpaca Day!!! We went to an Alpaca farm all the way in Alkmaar. We fed the alpacas and then had high tea while the alpacas were laying around. There was a fact sheet about alpacas and also a sheet with the names of the alpacas and their personalities. Apparently, alpacas are from the Americas (i think it was that the alpaca's ancestor is from North America and they immigrated to South America). Also, they are prey. Like, they can't even bite because they only have lower teeth. And all they do is spit when they feel threatened. They also lay down when they digest their food. And the main difference between llamas and alpacas are that llamas have a rougher character and they are bigger than alpacas. And also, alpacas were domesticated by the Incas. I guess I am an alpaca expert now. I love alpacas. The alpacas were so, so adorable. They are the cutest things ever. For high tea, they served us fruit, cookies, and sandwiches. We got a cookie in the shape of an alpaca. Then, since we were near Amsterdam, we went to Amsterdam. We walked around and tried to find dinner. Let me tell you, dinner is so hard in Amsterdam. I love everything about Amsterdam, but they do not have great food options. And lots of times, you need reservations. Also, the NL closes super early, so by like 6 pm, all the stores in Amsterdam are closed. But, Jenna and I had to pass time until 6:30 because that's when we can go back with the train discount, so we walked a lot and visited random shops. We finally found a cafe that was super gezellig. I got hot chocolate and Jen got chai latte. We finally could go back to the train station. It was funny because there's a crowd of people just waiting by the ticket gates and waiting for 6:30 so they can use the discount, and then once it's 6:30, there's a rush of people going through the gates.

WEDNESDAY

Okay, this was the day Mar went with me and Jen to Amsterdam. We visited the Rijksmuseum which was also my first time there. In the Rijksmuseum, there was a really pretty library I learned about at the beginning of school in my art history class. It was cool to see in real life. Then, Jenna treated us to acai bowls. Mar had never had one before so this was her first bowl. Then, Jenna and I went thrifting in the Waterlooplein. To get there though, we had to take the tram. We found the area where the tram stop was, but there were two tram stops opposite to each other. We first went to one stop, but we couldn't find the stop we wanted on its map, so we crossed the tram tracks to the other side to check the other tram stop's map. But our stop wasn't there either, so we decided to cross back to the original stop. But we weren't sure the first stop was the right stop so we crossed to the second one again. I think we went back and forth like 6 times. Everyone was staring at us. We gave up and decided to just walk there. We thrifted for a bit. Then, we walked around and made our way to a Thai Restaurant for dinner. The food was so good omg. Then, we went back home.

THURSDAY

Thursday was Jenna and I's relaxing day. We had a movie marathon. Later in the day, we went to the grocery store to buy fruit and snacks. We also went to the crochet store, so I could buy yarn to make cat hats. I decided to make cat hats for me, Jenna, Alex, and Presley. Pretty proud that I made 4 cat hats in 2 days. We also made pasta for dinner.

FRIDAY

Jenna and I went to Utrecht today. We were going to see a castle, but we were a minute late to the train station and missed the train. So we decided to spend the day in Utrecht. We got smoothies and sandwiches at Smooth Brothers which were pretty good. I recommend. They also had acai bowls that looked really good. Then, we walked and shopped around. There are so many cute stores in the Netherlands. There was a store with trinket gifts, a stationary store, many Nijntje or Miffy stores, and this cool store that was like an expensive vintage store. Maybe it's not a vintage store, but some of the items were second-hand. Here's a list of the shops we went to that I liked:

- Catch Projecten (stationary)

- It's a present! (gift trinkets)

- Nijntje museum

- Green Up (department vintage store? not really sure. has cooking, clothes, bags, food, stationary)

SATURDAY

New Year's Eve!!! Jen and I went to Amsterdam. It was crazy busy everywhere and the air was foggy from the fireworks. There was supposed to be a firework show, but it got cancelled because of the weather. Everyone was shooting off their own fireworks all over the place. It was insane. I'm pretty sure fireworks in Amsterdam are illegal this year, but the police officers were just standing there, watching people blow stuff up so yeah. And usually Amsterdam gets pretty dead at 7 or 8 pm, but it was about 9 when we got there, and it was so busy. It was a good time though. Everyone was walking around, being friendly to each other, shooting fireworks, and hanging out with each other. Jenna and I went to get pasta for dinner. We spent like 20 euros because of NYE prices and the pasta looks good in the picture but it was not great in real life.

It kind of felt like the end of the world. It was dark and everyone was running around and shooting off fireworks. Some were so loud and they sounded like bombs. At one point, Jenna and I were leaning against a bridge along the canal with some other people, watching the fireworks go off. Also, at some point in the evening, we sat on the stairs in front of a church and people watched. Across from us, we could see a room with people in their mid-twenties having a small party. They were dancing, drinking wine, and taking pictures. They were really cute and sophisticated. I want to be them when I'm older.

When it was the New Year, people were still partying and walking around Amsterdam. There was this one guy in his forties that hugged Jenna and I and kissed us on our heads and wished us a happy new year. It sounds kind of weird, but he had this warm energy to him so it wasn't scary or anything. He genuinely wished us a new year and I appreciate that. We took an Uber home and the driver was so so nice. Also, I recommend reserving an Uber driver weeks ahead of NYE in Amsterdam because it's so expensive to do it the day of. That's probably common sense, but ya. Anyway, the driver is a student in Amsterdam and he studied last year in Curaçao. We were talking about the differences between the US and NL and Houston and Amsterdam. I told him that driving vs biking/ walking is a huge difference. So is the food and architecture. He said that he's never been to the US before, but he doesn't really have an interest in visiting. We told him that Jenna is also visiting Brussels and Milan to see friends and that it was kind of a competition to see which city is the best. When we told him that, he was like oh, no question, Amsterdam's winning for sure haha.

When we got home, there were still fireworks going off. I should mention, that when we woke up in the morning, we heard fireworks. So, fireworks were happening the whole day. When we were in the shed putting our bikes up, the fireworks were going off in the field next to us. One of them hit my back. It was so loud and kind of scary. We ran inside.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That was my week with Jenna. I thought I would feel homesick when I saw her, but honestly, it wasn't too bad. It was kind of surreal seeing someone from home in my new life. I feel like I was able to see how much I've gotten used to living in the Netherlands and how I've changed as a person. Like, when we were traveling everywhere, I knew where to go and what to do in the train station and in the cities. And sometimes when Jenna and I were talking in public spaces, I would think to myself "we are really loud." I used to not worry about being loud in public, but I feel like Dutch people more keep to themselves in public and aren't that loud. Also, I never thought this would happen to me, but I've become a person who is very time conscious. I remember when I first moved here, I was like "I will never be that person who is always early to everything and who always cares about being prompt" but now I really am. So yeah, crazy. Okay bye bye.

I forgot! Cat hats around Europe. NL, Belgium, and Italy to be precise. :)

- Amelia