PLANES, TRAINS, CARS, AND BUSSES

Arriving to the Netherlands was not a short journey, but luckily I was on the same flight as my roommate and best friend, Mackenzie. The adventure began with a flight to Philly. Everyone was excited for the Super Bowl, but I was ready to get to our new home in the Netherlands. After a layover that felt like it would never end, I boarded my flight to the Netherlands and tried to nap until the plane made its final descent. I enjoyed every minute of my window seat, even when we were flying over the ocean. Once we landed in Amsterdam, we were reunited with our bags that luckily were not left behind in Texas. We bought train tickets and made our way to track 6 to hop on the train to Delft. In Delft, we met up with Mr. Rimmelzwaan who drove us to our housing in Den Haag (The Hague). The housing is a cute, three bedroom condo close to several bus stops. The six of us living in the condo ended up at the equivalent of a Dutch Chuck E. Cheese for dinner, complete with a bunny mascot in a vibrant, graphic tee.

After a good night’s rest, I woke up early Sunday morning and went for a sunrise run. An amazing aspect of our condo is only a short walk to the beach. I rarely get to go to the beach, so I take every chance I can! Getting to see the sunrise my first morning in the Netherlands was incredible; in that moment, I felt so at peace and so lucky to be part of this trip. I took a couple pictures of the sky, the waves, and the shells before starting my run. I don’t think I’ve ever had a more peaceful run--I was so absorbed in my surroundings that I ended up running a little further than I expected. I started running towards a pier and lighthouse and was determined to reach it; turns out, it was a little further than I anticipated but I was committed to getting all the way there. 10.7 miles later, I ended up back at my condo. I got back right when my roommates woke up, so no one even noticed I was gone.

Once we headed out, we hopped on a bus to the city center and explored our new home. We found some shops that we don’t have at home and strolled down the cobblestone and brick paths. After a while, we sought out a budget friendly lunch spot downtown. We passed so many cute spots that we are going to go back to, but ended up grabbing a nice, warm (and cheap) tomato soup at Eat Company. We are still getting used to the cold weather, so the soup hit the spot! After the soup, we made our way to a really interesting concept store--part bike repair shop, part boutique, and part coffee shop. We looked around the store and settled in at a table with a nice cup of Dutch hot chocolate.

We took another bus home and stopped at the beach again on the way home. It started to snow as soon as we stepped our boots into the sand. As we were walking back to the condo, we found the steepest set of stairs and decided to see what was on top. We ended up getting an amazing view of the area surrounding our condo--worth the steps.

The day ended with some grilled cheese sandwiches made with dutch bread and cheese. We walked 32,800 steps, and going to bed early was much needed. I’m excited to see our school tomorrow!