Now I don't mind getting stared at, but it's just funny to watch them stare at me.
Okay, let's start at the beginning. I am living in the small town of Brunsumm, the Netherlands and working on the Brunsumm base. I have five camp counselors working with me, and they are all AWESOME girls. I feel so blessed. Already, I know that this summer is going to rock. We are staying in a family owned hotel called Hotel Rupenerhof. Jack and Yolando own the hotel and they are so awesome. They make us breakfast every morning. For example, yesterday morning I had a traditional breakfast in the netherlands: coldcuts and cheese:
But let's back up and talk about living situations before I get too involved in food... I am living upstairs above a pub in this little hotel. I have a roommate named Jamie, who is also from Oregon and she is doing CDC (little babies through toddlers). I would say its going pretty well so far.
And this is our room:
and our tiny european bathroom:
Our first day we met our POC (Point of Contact), Allison and she showed us around the base a little bit and Brunsumm. We went grocery shopping and Jamie and I decided to get bananas. We grab a bunch just like you would in America and continue our shopping. We get to the front, and this nice Dutch woman checks us out. She gets to the bananas, holds them up, looks at us and says something. Now I didn't know what it was, but it was pretty accusatory and we both know we had done something wrong. Our response: blank stares...
She laughs and calls someone over who takes our bananas away. Maybe they don't let Americans buy produce in the Netherlands.... But she soon brought them back with this sticker on them saying the price. You have to get the sticker somewhere in the store, and this place is a complete mystery to me...COMPLETE MYSTERY. We laughed it off, but now I am afraid to buy produce. Where did that sticker come from???
Now this is for my dad. On this same night, we decided to go for a walk. There is a traveling fair in town and we headed on down to see what it was all about. Of course, being as jetlagged as we were it was pretty late when we got down there and everything was already closed except this little food booth. The only word I recognized was friet, and immediately had a flashback to my father and his cyclocross races and the kids always talking about getting friets. For the first time that day I had every confidence that I knew was I was doing, and so I got some friets and ketchup: mmmmm.
Here are some parting thoughts for you. I am doing a teen camp this year instead of daycamp, and I am excited for a new challenge. Although this change has been frustrating because I have known nothing of our camp situation, I am excited for next week to start doing what I actually love to do. This is so different from last year, and in a way, I'm not as excited as I was last year, but I think that will come with time.
Good luck to all you in the states. Don't forget those stickers on your produce!
Doi Doi
