So..I am in Eastermar (in the Frysan province of The Netherlands)..It is a small village of about 1500 people. I managed to sleep a good solid 8 hours last night so I feel pretty good right now.
About the trip over/First Impressions:
The plane from San Fran to Heathrow was not very full and I was able to move to a row of 4 seats and claim them as my very own. I stretched out for several hours but had no luck sleeping.
Heathrow: Got on the shuttle to go to Terminal 4 and there were a bunch of loud and cute and unruly teens (or maybe they were 18 or so) from Italy. From what I understood, they were all flying to Beijing to study. I thought that was very interesting. Terminal 4 of Heathrow...very dingy and gloomy despite all the trendy shops to buy expensive things in. Not enough windows and light (I'm used to certain big US airports with huge windows, etc .) but at Heathrow: I saw my first Orthodox Hasidic Jew in person and that was cool. Also saw my first example of a woman in full burqua (sp?)...Very nice black material with little rhinestones (or diamonds) imbedded in parts of the cloth. She turned and looked at me (I swear I wasn't staring!) and all I could see were her eyes. It seemed very exotic to me. To cover yourself up entirely except for your eyes, almost seems much more erotic than seeing the rest of your skin, so...anyways, interesting.
On the plane from Heathrow to Amsterdam I loved hearing all announcements being made in English and Dutch. I love the way Dutch sounds. It is so sing-songy.
I got to the Schipol and then there was my first exposure to "passport inspection"...A guy about 4 people ahead of me in line was denied access to the country. Maybe after talking to 3 officers that came and got him he was able to get in, though. I felt like I had done something wrong to begin with even though I hadn't...strange feeling. Stand behind a yellow line until it is your turn. Move forward and hand your passport to a young guy that doesn't smile and thus I don't smile either but meakly whisper "Hello"...He types my name into a computer and eyes me a bit. I just look him dead in the eye with a slight smile on my face. He asks where my destination is..I tell him Ëastermar (and then I tell him the Frysan word for Eastermar but he doesn't speak Frysan) and he goes "huh?"and I explain that it is a tiny village about 2 hours north of Amsterdam. He shakes his head in agreement. I feel like telling jokes but have enough compsure to just be very silent. He asks how long I'll be staying and I tell him about 2 weeks and then he stamps my passport and I am free to go.
I go to the baggage belt and there is my pack, but a box I also checked in at San Fran never made it. It has a bunch of stuff for Tracy and Hans from America. I go to "Baggage Services"only to be told that I need to go to this other office. There are 15 people in line. I decide to go out with my bag and I see Tracy and Hans and I feel tired but so incredibly happy that I'm finally HERE! I tell them about the missing box and we go to info and are instructed to go to Door 16 and push a button. Inside is a man that asks for my passport and baggage claim ticket or ticket stub. I produce these and explain that some of my baggage didn't arrive. He lets me go back over to the office. There are only 4-5 people in line now and I wait a half hour or so before a very young, pretty and sweet blonde customer service lady assists me. I file a report and she tells me that they will find the box and then call Tracy and Hans to schedule a time to deliver the missing box up here in Eastermar, so that's cool. Hopefully they'll find it and send it up in the next 4-5 days. She asked me what sort of things were in the box and I started listing things: special toothpaste, 2 boxes of Kraft Mac-n-Cheese, chocolate chips, baking soda...She looked blank when I said baking soda, so I said ""Do you know what baking soda is?"" She said she wasn't quite sure (we were both laughing) and she said she knew what soda was and somehow she thought both soda and baking soda were related to soy sauce??? I attempted to explain what baking soda is and what you use it for and I still am not sure she understood. She smiled anyway!
The drive back to Eastermar was about 2 hours. Since it was dark with lights in the distance, it almost could have been like driving through central Illinois countryside, until..I looked up and at the side of the road at one point were 3 or 4 HUGE windmills. They struck me as almost "creepy""...Like some huge sci-fi monsters or something. I was either REALLY out of it and sleepy or maybe they ARE creepy at night. Kept trying to sound out in my head (and sometimes outloud) things on Dutch signs I saw and realized that though Dutch and German are very similar they are SO different in many ways and it throughs me off (though knowing German makes learning Dutch a little easier for me, I think)...I couldn't see much but we would pass a house and from the silhoutte I could tell that it was older and brick and just...COOL! We finally drove through the city center of Eastermar. So quaint and cool. Extremely narrow streets lined with little shops and restaurants, butcher, grocery store, post office..all the buildings were brick. I can't wait to walk around there in the day.
Got to Tracy and Hans' and ate a yummy dutch bun with some AMAZING dutch cheese and then Trace made some lamb sandwiches. The cats slept with me. I woke up about 6:45 am and felt awake and went downstairs and made tea. I took a shower and what is cool is that you turn on the sink faucets and get to your preferred temperature and then turn on a switch on the sink and the shower water comes on. The shower is just a brick floor with a shower curtain around it...makes sense. Oh and the toilets...I can see why tracy advised me to put some toilet paper in the bowel BEFORE I took a poop, otherwise the stench (because the poop lands on an "inspection tray) is ICK. Everything in Holland seems small. The beer glasses. The toilet (which is separate from the shower room upstairs, of course)...The toilet seat is really high off the ground compared to what I'm used to but it's comfortable. The tea bags are even tiny, it seems. I love it. I love it. I love it.
Anyways, today we are driving to Groningen (sp?) to check it out. More later (sorry for such details but you wanted FIRST IMPRESSIONS and you KNOW how much detail I like to put in things!)
Love to you from Nederland!
Stacey
