Heey everyone!!

Time is going so fast over here. I can’t believe I’m here already for 2 months next Monday. After my last blog I didn’t have much time to write my blog because I did a lot! Maybe I had one day time to write my blog but I was really tired and didn’t feel for it to write it. I try to make this blog not too long but I can’t promise.. Because I really did a lot of fun stuff!! I hope you will enjoy it!

I went Sunday 14 September with the family to The Morton Arboretum. This is like a really big garden where it is really nice to walk around. Here I got also the change to make really nice pictures of squirrels. I’m really happy with those pictures. I also saw some other animals, including the really cute chipmunk which didn’t want to go on the picture..

That week I joined the Cross Country team of my school. The Monday they had a meet so I just went there and watched. Unfortunately they started at 4.30, the time my bus left. So I only saw the warming up. I got every day after school a Cross Country practice. Most of the time we run like 2 or 3 miles I think. I’m not sure. After that we do sometimes some core, hill sprints and stretching. Most of the time I have to go home on the 4.30 bus on Tuesday and Thursday. Then I leave a little earlier. This is because I also have skating practice. I will be home around 5 on these days and at 5.15 we already have to leave to skating practice. So I’m really busy over here. I already did some meets with Cross Country. At the first one (2miles) I got a ribbon. : ) The first 20 people got a ribbon so I’m proud of myself. Later I did two times the 3 miles at a meet at our home course. I ran pretty good I think. The second time was better than the first one. So it is getting better. At a meet you’re competing against other schools. This is something  new for me and I like it. In the Netherlands I’m not used to sport teams at school, so I’m not used to the meets between schools too. We have a pasta party with the team every Friday before the meet. This is really fun. We are going to someone’s house and eat pasta together. I’ve been to three pasta parties and there is one left. I think the Cross Country season ends after next week. I’m not 100% sure.

I’ve also had the AFS camp/orientation. It was really fun to see everyone! I drove there with Alli (Finland), Elin (Iceland), Ilka (Flemish Belgium) and Natcha (Thailand). I think it is really nice to be together with so many different cultures. I know I could speak Dutch with Ilka but we didn’t speak Dutch at all. Maybe one sentence like ‘We kunnen ook Nederlands gaan praten’ (We could also speak Dutch) when all the Brazilians spoke Portuguese. The free time at camp was the best. Here we played football and volleyball and we just talked. In the evening we watched a movie. Ana (Brazil) and I were so smart to take our pillows down so we were more comfortable with laying on the ground. It was only  a little too comfortable. So when we almost fell asleep we just walked around and watched at other people who weren’t watching the movie too. When we wanted to get our pillows again some other people fell asleep on it. We didn’t wake them up because we had one extra pillow in our room and Ana did bring her own pillow.  My roommates were: Ana (Brazil), Monica (Portugal), Ramsha (Pakistan), Christy (Nigeria) and Kristin (Norway). It was really fun. Everyone was tired so we slept early. I did try one of Ramsha her headscarves on. It was really warm but a nice experience to try. Ramsha also gave me a really cool phone case. The next day I learned Ana to count to ten in Dutch and I learned to count to ten in Portuguese. For me it was hard because there are more people who spoke Portuguese and they all pronounce it different. I didn’t remember a lot of the counting… (Sorry Ana.. Hope you remember the Dutch counting 😉 ) We also divided into the groups again and talked about rules for traveling and fun things we could do. After all the talking Ramsha made a henna tattoo by me and Ana. I really liked it!After that we (Ramsha, Ana, Christy and I) made some pictures. There were some nice ones. The nice thought with it is that we’re all from another continent. That is pretty cool, isn’t it? After that the camp was already over and we had to say goodbye :(.

Micah picked me up and we went home. In the noon I went to skating practice. This wasn’t a good idea. I was really tired and started to feel really dizzy on the ice. So I stopped earlier and waited till Hannah was done.

The next week at school was spirit week. This because homecoming was the Saturday. Here the spiritdays:
Monday: Pajama day
Tuesday: Crazy hat day
Wednesday: Decades day (freshman 80’s, sophomore 70’s, juniors 60’s and seniors 50’s (Think it was like this))
Thursday: Tacky Tourist day
Friday: Class color day (freshman white, sophomores grey, juniors black and seniors blue)
Every day with lunch periods were like little competitions. It was every day different. They had a day with pie eating, sack racing, water balloon fight and more. I don’t know them all anymore..

At Monday I was still really tired and dizzy so I stayed home from school. I did some homework and I did sleep. I really wanted to rest. This was maybe a day I had time to write my blog. But because I didn’t feel well I didn’t do it. Unfortunately I missed pajama day..
Tuesday I did bring a ‘Wilhelmuts’ but I didn’t wear it because there weren’t many people with crazy hats. With the decades day we also had the powder puff game. So we wore our team shirts all day. Our team was really motivated with the game but we lost the game against the Seniors. It was only one touchdown difference and I think we were pretty good. The teams were even. The Thursday was Tacky Tourist day, I took this really serious. I looked awesome!! Haha At lunch Michelle and I made a really nice picture 🙂

Friday I wore a black shirt, because I’m a junior here. After school there was an assembly. I didn’t know what it was exactly but I found out it is amazing!! I really liked it. All the classes are together. So There was a part in the gym which was white of the freshman, then a grey part of sophomores, the black part with the juniors (including me) and the blue part with the seniors. There was a lot to see, like cheerleaders who perform, dancers, flag people (they dance with flags and throw them, it looks pretty cool) and more. Even our principal joined the cheerleaders and  was on the top of a pyramid. Isn’t our principal awesome?!
That evening I went to the Octhombrefest of Hannah her school. Every student wore crazy clothes and they sang. It was really fun to see!
The Saturday was homecoming. In the morning I had a meet from Cross Country (my first meet). At the meet I did buy an awesome hoodie. It is bright yellow with the text: Illinois, cross country. I like the hoodie. 🙂 When I came home from the meet I still had to find a dress for homecoming. I watched all the dresses the family had and I chose one (the fact that I’m wearing a dress doesn’t mean I like dresses!) . Later Becky and Hannah did my hair. The first things they tried didn’t work out but after 2 hours they finally finished my hair. It was fun to go to homecoming, but I don’t know if I would do this again. I promised my dad to put a pictures of me in a dress on my blog. So here it is:

I also did the practice ACT test. This is a test all juniors are allowed to take. I wasn’t that good and couldn’t finish all questions. I think because it is in English and with reading texts in English I’m a little slower than other people. The test had an English, Math, Reading and Science part. I don’t know yet how my results are. But I’m sure I don’t have a really high score.

Last weekend I had a Cross Country meet on Saturday. When I woke up I saw snow outside. I didn’t believe myself because it was October. But it was really snow. It was just a few snowflakes, but it is still snow. At the meet it was really cold so I wore a lot of clothes and a hat. I only had to run 2 miles. The first mile was really good but the second wasn’t that good for my feeling. My legs just didn’t want to go anymore.. Our school was 4^th with the Junior Varsity (the part of the team I’m in). This is pretty good.

Later the day I played Settlers of Catan with Hannah, Leah and Eric. I played really bad. I couldn’t even build my 3^rd house. So when I saw I couldn’t do anything I helped Hannah to win. She won so I still won for a little bit.. haha
Brandon, Ethan, Jan-Eric and Colleen came also over. It was really nice. We played basketball boys vs girls, pool (the thing where you have to hit balls with a stick and try to get it in one of the holes) and we ate pizza. I failed in pool, I couldn’t even hit the ball normally. I also played a table tennis/ping pong game to Micah (hostbrother). I got 1 point and I was really proud of it (I lost with 11-1). Micah is really good in table tennis. We also watched the movie Avatar. When the movie ended Hannah and I waited until Ethan was picked up and after that we went to sleep.

Sunday Hannah and I went mountain biking with Brandon. First Jan-Eric would also come but he had something else. The course was wet so I got a lot of mud on me. After mountain biking we ate lunch at Jan-Eric’s house. They had the best brownies ever!!

In the evening Hannah and I made pannekoeken (Dutch pancakes). We ate them the way I like them the most: with Nutella. Everyone liked it so I was happy with that! I think the next Dutch thing we will make are poffertjes.

We only had 3 days of school this week. So I can finally take some rest in my long weekend and write my blog again. Monday I don’t have school because of Columbus day. So I got a 5 day weekend and I’m really happy with it. It was my dad his birthday Tuesday. So I did send him a nice postcard with Hallmark. Yesterday morning there was a lunar eclipse. I did set my alarm at 5am to see it and to make some pictures. The moon turned red and it was pretty cool to see, I took some nice pictures of it.

Tomorrow I will go to the Silence parade, it is a parade of fire trucks to honor the firefighters and civilians who lost their lives either in fires or the line of duty. And guess what, I will be in a fire truck. 🙂 That is so cool!! 😀
Saturday and Sunday I will have a shorttrack meet. I have no idea how it will go because I’ve been really tired the last weeks. So I will see, but I’m sure it will be fun!

I think I’m up to date again. So I will upload this and then I’m going to sleep. I’m sure I will experience also a lot of new and funn stuff again the following weeks. I don’t know when my next blog will be because I’m doing a lot of stuff here and I don’t know when I have time again. It could be soon but It could also be in a month. But I try to share short updates on facebook. I hope my English was good, I’m pretty tired so I could have some more faults than normal.. If you have any questions about my experiences or about my exchange, feel free to ask! 🙂

One last thing: I ordered the most amazing running shoes today. They have a lot of bright colors and I can’t wait till they’re here. I think they will arrive Monday. So I just have to wait for a few more days!  Watch my facebook to see a picture, I will post it as soon as my shoes arrive!

Heey everybody!

Exactly one month ago I arrived at Chicago O’Hare for my year as an Exchange student with AFS in the US. The time went so fast until now, I can’t believe it was already one month ago. It feels like I’ve been here for a really long time, and it also feels like I just came here. I updated my blog 3 times since I am here because I’ve done a lot. They are all also really long, if I had to write all in one time it would be impossible to put everything in it. I want to try to share a lot with my blog so I try to keep it up to date. 🙂

My other 3 blogs here were still in Dutch. But I will try to make it in English now. Sorry if there are faults in it because my English is not perfect (yet).

At the end of my last blog I said what I was going to do that weekend and I told I would go to a football game again (on orange day) that evening. The weather wasn’t that good so I really hoped they wouldn’t cancel the game again. Luckily they didn’t do this. I went to the game with Micah (hostfather), Becky (hostmother) and Micah (hostbrother). At the game I went to the people of my school. There is a special place for the students were we all yel. It is really fun to be there. I thought we would win our second game. One minute before the end we were in the leading position. But the other team made a touchdown and we lost (I didn’t go to the game yesterday, but if I understood it good we lost again… Hope we will win the next time). I went to sleep around 12.30 am and the alarm was set on 4.15. So I didn’t sleep much.

Last Saturday I went with Becky and Hannah to Holland, Michigan. It was really nice over there. When we drove there I slept much because I was tired of the short sleeping time that night. First Becky and I watched at the meet of Hannah and Nicole (and the rest of their school). After that we (Becky, Hannah and I) went to Panera to eat something. Then we really went to Holland. Becky her brother (David) lives there so we visited him. We went with them to the Holland beach. On our way there I saw the street signs had all tulips next to the name and I saw some Dutch souvenirs shops. It was fun to see this here in America. The Holland beach was really pretty. There were a lot of kites in the air. We went also on the pier. The waves were really big here and splashed on the pier. Ofcourse Hannah and I wanted some fun pictures so we went sitting on the pier and we waited till a big wave came. We have some pretty cool pictures. The only bad thing is we were wet and I didn’t have an extra shirt. I could borrow a shirt of Lynette so I luckily had a dry shirt. 🙂

After we visited David and Lynette we went to the ‘Dutch Village’. It was fun to be here. You saw all Dutch names and you could see how people make wooden shoes or cheese and stuff. We went watching by the wooden shoes. Here was also a map of the Netherlands including Wanneperveen. After the wooden shoes we just walked around. We went to the ‘school’ where Hannah tried to pronounce Dutch words (she is really bad (sorry Hannah 😉 )) and we went to something with the witches. I don’t know how it is called but they measure you weight and with that they can see if you are a witch or not (I was not a which). When the park closed we went to the café and shops. Here we could order some Dutch food. So Becky and Hannah tried a kroket, a sauzijzenbroodje and erwtensoup. We also did buy some food so we have it at home. We did buy Koopmans pannekoekenmix (a mix for the pancakes we normally eat, it is just a thin pancake), beschuit met muisjes (I told when there is a baby people eat that in the Netherlands. We got it so the family could try it), speculaas (a kind of cookie which is really good), stroopwafels (also cookies which are really good. Hannah loves them) and ontbijtkoek (kind of cake).

Later my father found out when he was watching my pictures on facebook the village Holland, Michigan is founded by A.C. Van Raalte. This man was born in Wanneperveen (the village I live in the Netherlands. So it was special. In the Netherlands I live in a really small village and the US is really big. (http://www.sleyster.nl/zwc890527.htm)

Sunday I tried to sleep as long as possible. When I woke up I thought it was 10.30 and when I was dressed I saw it was 8.30. It was really weird. I went in the morning with the whole family to the church. In the afternoon I had a picnic from AFS. It was really nice to meet people I didn’t meet yet and to meet new people. Unfortunately I had to leave earlier for an ice training (which is also fun). But I had a really nice time at the picnic.

After the ice training I asked how to write guards (because I needed that word for my snapchat). Someone from my team asked why I needed to know that. So someone else explained English is my second language and I come from the Netherlands, which is in Europe. The one from my team said like: I know they speak French in Europe. So I told I speak Dutch. His answer: ‘I thought Dutch was a country’. It was really funny haha

I had more funny things people asked me this week. Someone asked me if we have cars in the Netherlands and someone thought Brazil was also in Europe (when I told I lived in Europe).

This week was just a normal school week, no (extra) late starts or early dismissals. The little special things in the lessons/week: The ice training started (Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday), I hold a snake with Zoology (and a ferret, don’t know sure if I already said this), I had another Powder Puf Football practice, I made my first pictures with Photography and we did cut in a sheep heart with Anatomy.

Wednesday after school my parents called me to tell bad news. Granny (the hostmom of my mom) passed away. My parents flew the next day to Houston for saying one more time goodbye to Granny. I promised her I would call here somewhere this year and now I’m not able to call her anymore.. I’ve been to Texas 4 times to visited her and the family and I had really nice times then. Last time was last year and I had an amazing time. I will miss her.
I love you Granny!!

This was my blog for this time again! Byeee!!

* Translation button on the right side -> *

Heey iedereen! Hier ben ik weer! 🙂

Vorige week had ik mijn blog upgedated en ik had gezegd dat ik jullie zou laten weten hoe mijn eerste football game was. Ook zal ik jullie laten weten of ik in het team van Powder Puff football zit. Dus bij deze update ik mijn blog van alles wat ik deze week heb gedaan.

Vrijdagavond gingen Hannah en ik naar school toe voor de wedstrijd. Omdat Hannah niet precies wist waar het was en ik ook niet precies wist hoe we moesten rijden hadden we de afslag gemist. We zijn ongeveer 10 minuten doorgereden voordat we er achter kwamen.. Dus toen hadden we de auto gekeerd en hebben we de goede weg genomen naar school. Bij school aangekomen was het moeilijk om een parkeerplaats te vinden. Hierdoor kwamen we te laat bij de game. Toen we eindelijk binnen waren liep in één keer iedereen weg. Wat bleek: Het onweerde in de verte dus we moesten later starten. Dus we waren maar naar het field house gegaan. Hier was Diane uit Zwitserland (die ook met AFS hier is) ook, het was leuk om haar even gesproken te hebben. Na ongeveer een half uur gewacht te hebben kregen we de mededeling te horen dat de wedstrijd was afgelast en verplaatst was naar Zaterdag. Dus toen zijn Hannah en ik maar weer naar huis gegaan.

De volgende ochtend moest Hannah 4 mijl hardlopen. Ik was met de fiets meegegaan en had de afstand bijgehouden. Later zijn we nog met Leah (die dit weekend thuis was omdat Micah en Becky weg waren) gaan fietsen naar een molen of zoiets. Daar was nog een evenement waar ze dingen uitlegden over de geschiedenis. Ik denk dat dit was omdat het Laborday weekend was. Toen we terug fietsten kreeg ik het voor elkaar om 2 lekke banden te krijgen op hetzelfde moment. Ik deed niet eens erg raar met de fiets.. Jed had ons hierdoor opgepikt en toen zijn we naar Panera Bread gegaan om wat te eten. Weer thuis aangekomen had ik beide banden vervangen.
’s Middags gingen Hannah en ik weer naar school voor de wedstrijd. We reden nu in 1x goed. Het was echt super leuk om een wedstrijd te zien. Ik weet nog steeds niet wat de regels precies zijn maar iedereen sprong op elkaar om de bal te krijgen. Helaas hadden we heel dik verloren met 14-41 (per touchdown krijg je 6 of 7 punten, dus het was 3 touchdowns verschil). ’s Avonds had ik alle foto’s uitgezocht die ik had gemaakt en Leah, Jed, Hannah en Micah hadden kolonisten van catan gespeeld. Ik had alleen gekeken.

Toen ik zondag wakker werd zag ik berichten van mijn vader dat hij mij had proberen te bellen op skype. Ik was niet online dus ik vond dat best knap. Ik had toen skype maar opgestart en toen had ik even met mijn ouders (en Dukky) geskyped.

Leah en Hannah waren tijdens het skypen niet thuis omdat ze naar nursery waren. Toen ze weer thuis kwamen waren Hannah en ik samen met Ethan en Brandon (van schaatsen) naar Oak Brook Mall geweest. Dit is heel dicht bij mijn huis hier en het was leuk om daar te kijken. Ik heb zelf niets gekocht.
’s Middags ben ik gaan mini golfen met Leah, Hannah, Brandon en Micah. Toen we hier waren waren we ook nog even naar het speeltuintje geweest (die erg leuke speeltoestellen hadden). Met mini golf had ik niet verloren! Ik was 4^de. Ik had zelfs de tweede helft heel goed gespeeld. 🙂

’s Avonds waren we van plan om een kampvuur te maken met Leah, Hannah, Micah, Eric, Ethan en Brandon. Dit was helaas niet zo’n succes omdat we nat hout hadden. Dus toen zijn Ethan, Brandon, Hannah en ik maar naar binnen gegaan.

Maandag kon ik uitslapen. Het was LABORDAY! Ik weet nog steeds niet precies wat dit voor feestdag is. Maar het is een vrije dag van school. We hebben niet heel veel gedaan omdat we niet precies wisten wat we moesten doen. We hadden boodschappen gedaan en we zijn naar Leah haar huis gegaan. ’s Avonds hadden we lekker gegeten. We hadden aardappelpuree (gemaakt door Leah), sweet potato fries (Ik kan me niet herinneren dat ik eerder sweet potato had gehad. Het was erg lekker) en geroosterd brood met gesmolten kaas. Die avond was ik niet te laat gaan slapen omdat ik moe was en Dinsdag moest ik weer vroeg naar school.

De rest van de week was een normale schoolweek. Dinsdag had ik mijn eerste zwart/wit foto gemaakt met Photography en heb ik samen met 2 anderen uit de klas de fred toegewezen gekregen bij Zoology. Later deze week hebben we een brochure over de fred gemaakt. Ik heb ook de mijl gelopen met gym. Ik had er 7 minuten en 9 seconden over gedaan (volgens mij), dit is best snel en de gymleraar zei dat ik misschien mee moest doen met de Cross Country. Hier ben ik nog over aan het informeren. Gister hadden we een early dismissal omdat het open house was op school. Ik had ’s middags lekker rustig aan gedaan. Ik was nog naar de schoolnurse geroepen omdat ze dachten dat ik een vaccinatie miste. Gelukkig was dit niet zo en is alles goed.

Gister was Becky ook jarig. We hadden ’s avonds Thai food gegeten. Het was echt heel lekker! Na de Thai food hadden we nog chocolate cake. Becky haar ouders waren er ook. Het was leuk om hen te ontmoeten!

OOhh vergeet het bijna te zeggen. Maar ik zit in het Powder Puff Team! 🙂 Woensdag hadden we onze eerste training. We hadden vooral geoefend met het gooien en het vangen. Ik was er niet heel goed in maar ik hoop dat het de komende weken beter wordt. Op 24 september (volgens mij) hebben we een wedstrijd en daarna is het ook al afgelopen. Ik hoop dat we op dat moment een super team zijn! 🙂

Vandaag was het wear Orange day op school . Dus ik had mijn oranje AFS shirt aan. Het is echt leuk om (bijna) iedereen in dezelfde kleur te zien lopen. Het was al helemaal leuk omdat het nu oranje was. De nationale kleur van Nederland! Vanavond is weer een football game. Ik ben van plan om er heen te gaan. Het weer is niet super. Ik hoop dat het niet weer afgelast wordt.

Morgen zijn we van plan om naar Michigan te gaan. Hier gaan we eerst bij de Cross Country wedstrijd van Hannah kijken en daarna gaan we even bij de broer van Becky kijken. We gaan waarschijnlijk ook nog naar het plaatsje ‘Holland’. Hier hebben ze nog een soort museum(?) met Nederlandse dingen en er zijn restaurantjes met Nederlands eten zoals erwtensoep en kroketten. Ik heb er zin in!  Zondag heb ik een picnic van AFS. Daar heb ik ook echt super veel zin in! Zondag beginnen ook mijn ijstrainingen hier (volgens mij). 🙂

Jullie horen later nog wel een keer van mij! Groetjes uit Illinois!! 🙂