Arrival

Flying over New York City has got to be one of the coolest sights ever, with the unbelievable skyscrapers and the Statue of Liberty. For the past two days, I had been staying at the Hilton for another AFS orientation, along with other AFS students departing to Europe from the US. The actual 'orientation' was a bit silly and somewhat redundant, but meeting so many different exchange students in the same situation as me was incredible. It was nice to finally be able to relate my nerves and excitement about my trip abroad with other kids going through the exact same feelings. There are also three other students going to The Netherlands, and we're hoping to get together once in a while. Plus, now I know people in all the countries surrounding me and farther, so if I'm ever traveling it'll be nice to be able to meet up with someone I know.

The flight to Iceland was an exhausting 5-hour red-eye flight. Iceland was cool, literally, and we had enough time to grab coffee and relax for an hour. The airport accepted American money, however they gave back Krona (Icelandic money) in change.
From Iceland was a direct 3-hour flight to Amsterdam, which felt even longer than the flight before due to growing anticipation of arrival. I was seated next to two Dutch girls my age, and they were incredibly insightful on the teenage life in Holland (i.e. how Dutch girls dress in high school, what they do in their spare time...)

When the flight began its descent, below us I could see windmills and LOTS of flat, farmland. A bit different than back home...plus, the screens on the back of each seat read that we were 14 feet below sea level when we landed!

After collecting our luggage, each of our host families were awaiting to greet us outside. Mine were holding up a sign, "Welkom Molly" clad in flowers! My family treated me to a piece of Flay, Dutch pie with fruit, on the way out of the airport! The ride to Bergschenhoek was short, and soon enough I was being given a tour of the house, and my new room. My host siblings are so nice!

For a snack, we had raw Herring, Gibbling (fried cod) and smoked eel...seeing as I love seafood this was perfect. For dinner, Marijke made Wiener-schnitzel (a pork dish), potatoes, and green beans. It was SO good to finally have a home cooked meal! I tried switching my fork to my left hand and knife in the right for most of the meal...it felt so awkward though.

So far, I know 5 or 6 phrases in Dutch...if I have the energy tomorrow I'll start working on my lessons. For now, it just sounds like gibberish. Technically my school (Wolfert Lyceum) starts on Monday, but I might wait a few days to get everything figured out.

I love Holland so far. Granted I've only been here since 1pm, but I love it already. Not homesick yet.

Can't wait for what this year's going to bring,

-Molly

Three weeks...

As of today, I have a 21-day countdown until I leave Alaska. My dad, sister and I will be flying to Colorado on the 15th, as soon as I get my braces off! There, we'll visit family for a week and get Maddie settled into CU Boulder, where she'll be attending college at this fall. On the 22nd of August, I'll fly to New York for the AFS Orientation, and will be in the Netherlands by the 23rd!

In the last few weeks that I have left here, I'll be busy sorting through my stuff and deciding what to take, leave, and give away. Seeing as I am only allowed one piece of luggage under 44-pounds, this could be tough. I still work across the bay on the weekends, however I dropped my online Language 11 Connections class. I figured that I had about a month left to complete an entire semester of the class, and that it just wasn't realistic nor should be a top priority. Tomorrow I have a meeting in Soldotna with Connections, to talk about my graduation plan for when I get back, and what credits I can receive while abroad. Following the meeting, my mom and I are going fishing! Last week we went to Kasilof River to dip-net for Red Salmon (Sockeye), and got 17 fish, so this time we'll be going to the Kenai River instead. Because we're residents of Alaska, we are allowed to subsistence dip-net, and for our family of four, our limit is 55 fish. My mom normally stays on shore to gut and filet the fish, and I stand out in the river.

Here are pictures from last weeks fishing trip:

Lately I have been trying to get together to see friends as much as possible, before my final departure. I don't think everything will really hit me until I'm on the plane out of Alaska. My sister and I will have a going away barbecue on the Saturday before we both leave, as a final goodbye to all of our friends and family. We are also planning on having a garage sale earlier that day, to try to sell a lot of our old belongings (and to make a bit of pocket money). Departure seems bittersweet at this point because I am so eager to leave and can't wait for this experience, yet leaving such important people to me is hard.

My host family and I have been talking a lot! Marijke and Rob (my host parents) have both posted on my Facebook Wall, letting me know what their summer plans are and how excited they are for me to come! Tim, the 16-year-old son, has also been messaging me lately. It's good to get an idea of what him and his brother do in their spare time for fun!

I don't know what to expect for this coming year, but I am incredibly excited.
For now I wait, and make the best of these last 21-days in Homer.

-Molly

Countdown!

ONLINE COUNTDOWNS

Host Family and Location!

I have never been so excited for an email before in my life! As soon as I got this, I was already to my computer logging into the AFS site:

I will be living in Bergschenhoek, with a population of about 16,000 people within an area of roughly 9 miles or so. It's only five miles north of Rotterdam, which is the second largest city in the Netherlands with a population of over 616,000 people. I will be attending a school called Wolfert Lyceum in Bergschenhoek, and as my Host family goes...

I'll have four siblings!

The youngest daughter is 14-years-old, and the oldest daughter is 28-years-old. I'll have two brothers, one being 16 and one being 17. Besides ages of family members, I don't know much else about my Host Family except that they have a pet cat that comes and goes, they have no "Permanent One Religion," and their occupation reads "Geen Betaalde Funktie."

Here is a picture of Rotterdam at night:

Two months left, I'm now counting down the days.

                 -Molly

View from my job across the bay!

Summer '12

 Departure seems closer than ever, as I read through the "Adjustments," "Host Family Expectations," "Fitting in," and "School Life" in the Welcome Booklet for the Netherlands! Discussions at the dinner table these past few weeks seem to always end up with talk of preparation for my year abroad; what to pack, how we'll stay in touch, acquiring high school credits, etc. It seems as if until now, going to Europe had all been talk and excitement due to the fact departure seemed so far away. Now, the necessities that I’ll need to pack are already running through my head and the bittersweet reality of leaving is giving me the jitters. I'm anxious to meet new people and experience such a vastly different culture, but at the same time leaving my friends and family seems unreal. 

My summer goals consist of completing the first semester of a Language 11 course through BYU, and working nearly everyday to save up for spending money while I'm in the Netherlands. On the weekends I work across the bay at the Kachemak Bay Wilderness Lodge (http://www.alaskawildernesslodge.com/). In fact, I leave in less than seven hours to go across for a full workday...so I'll keep this first post short.

Although work and my online class have been keeping me exceedingly busy, I've somehow made time to hangout with my close friends, knowing these next two months will be the last with them for a while. Thank goodness for Facebook and Skype, or I wouldn't know how to cope without them while away for so long! With one of my best friends, Tiyana Hill, she'll be graduated and gone when I come back from Europe, so for our last summer we've created a Summer Bucket List, with about fifty weird and adventurous things we must complete before I leave...so far it's made for a pretty interesting summer.

I have yet to start really focusing on the Dutch language, which is also a priority on my to-do list. Everyone I've talked to portrays it as a very difficult language to learn and pick up, which is making me a bit nervous. I've been researching the Dutch culture, especially that of younger people. Tolerance is emphasized in most informative sites I've run across so far, and from what I've read it won't be too hard for me to fit in amongst their more common political and social views. 

Earlier today in Homer, the temperature got up to 59 degrees, which was i n c r e d i b l e. I'm hoping, more like wishful thinking, that these next two months will be filled with gorgeous days like these. Well, seeing as my alarm will be going off in five hours, I’m going to call it a night. Still waiting on my Host Family Information…the anticipation is killing me!

         -Molly