this is the end

So that’s it. The end of my four months in the Netherlands has come.

I’m writing this from the long plane ride over the Atlantic, and as expected, this has brought a mixture of emotions.

Am I excited to be home? Of course.

Am I sad to be leaving? Of course.

Will there be things I miss? Sure! The people I’ve gotten to know, the ability to travel so freely, biking everywhere, and many little Dutch treats, just to name a few.

Are there things I’ve been longing for at home? Sure! My family, my friends there, my mom’s cooking, Alterra coffee, the ability to understand the primary language, etc.

And it’s bittersweet, just as I knew it would be. But even knowing isn’t enough preparation.

And I find it hard to balance the sadness of leaving with the joy of being home. I guess that’s a good thing, though, because it proves that I had a great experience abroad. It turned out to be everything I had hoped for, and these are memories I’ll cling to, probably for the rest of my life – there may even be stories for the future grandchildren in there somewhere!

How can I even summarize it? How can I explain all of the new things I experience and learned without taking days on end? We’ll try some quick facts, maybe:

TOTAL TIME GONE: 4 months, 1 week

TOTAL COUNTRIES VISITED: 9 – The Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, Austria, Lichtenstein, and Switzerland

FAVORITE COUNTRY VISITED: Austria – beautiful mountain views all around, cute and colorful towns, and really wonderfully nice people.

TOTAL SURVEY OF DUTCH COUNTRYSIDE: All the way north to the island of Texel to the very opposite corner to Maastricht and many places in between.

AMOUNT OF DUTCH KNOWN: Just above 0. I can understand a decent amount of basics and can translate most restaurant menus. But I still get laughed at every time I try to say something in Dutch to my Dutch friends.

FAVORITE DUTCH WORD: “Doi!” (‘DO-ee’ meaning something like “See ya!”)

FAVORITE DUTCH MEAL: Stampot – like loaded mashed potatoes.

CLASSES TAKEN: British Literature, American Film, and Electricity and Magnetism

ARTICLES OF CLOTHING ACQUIRED: A couple dresses, a couple shirts, a skirt, some shoes, and too many scarves.

SUITCASE WEIGHTS: To Amsterdam – 54 lbs. To Milwaukee – 44 lbs.

PEOPLE WHO CAME TO VISIT: My Family (Mom, Dad, and Becky) and My “Second Family” (Sarah Sufferling and her mom!)

HARDEST MOMENT: There's a couple contenders - (1) the first few days in Amsterdam when everything was completely brand new, and we were hungry and had yet to find the grocery store (2) when my family left after their visit (3) my physics final.

A FEW HABITS TO BRING HOME: Coffee every morning, bringing my own bags to the grocery store, taking opportunities that present themselves, being very intentional in my relationships, biking all the time

THE MOMENT I FINALLY FELT LIKE I HAD ARRIVED: At one point, I was standing in line at the grocery store watching some foreigners in front of me fumbling with the system. So I helped the cashier ease the situation and shuffle them on through. Then it was my turn. And she began a conversation with me about it in Dutch. I had to ask her to speak in English instead – this was too much for my very limited vocabulary. And she apologized and said she was sorry she had spoken Dutch to me! I was so excited and assured her that it was nothing but a compliment to me. It meant I understood the system and seemed to her to be a local.

A COUPLE IMPORTANT LESSONS LEARNED: It’s better to ask questions that might be stupid if it saves you from looking stupid later. Biking in a dress or skirt is not impossible. God is orchestrating everything – every opportunity, every circumstance, every interaction.

As this journey comes to a close, I’m excited to learn what God will do with me next. 

Until then - 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. 

[PHILIPPIANS 1:2-6]

[And as an addendum seeing as I'm obviously publishing this well after I wrote it: Life back at home is great. I walked out of the terminal to find a welcoming party composed of my dad, older sister, and four of the best friends any girl could ask for. They brought me flowers and made a sign and were SUCH a welcome surprise. Oh, and did I mention that my room was absolutely decked out and that they were the culprits of that as well? It's wonderful to see those that I love that I have so missed this past semester, and those hellos are not nearly finished. Hopefully I'll have a chance to say hello and catch up with you soon! And thanks again for coming on this journey with me!]

the final countdown: the last month at a glance

I'm going to justify the delay of this post by saying that I was too busy doing things to write about to write about them. Whether or not you buy that is up to you. But maybe wait till the end of this post to make your final decision.

APRIL 30 :: Koninginnedag (QUEEN'S DAY)

It was a national holiday celebrating the monarchy, but this year it was extra special - the queen abdicated the thrown and her son was coronated. Part of this holiday is essentially a city-wide garage sale. And many people go out on boats. And EVERYONE wears orange. I joined all of these traditions: wore a neon orange soccer jersey, went out early in the morning to walk through streets of sales, watched the queen give a speech (even though I didn't understand it), and spent the afternoon on a boat. 

MAY 4 :: Harlemmermeer Museum

Bike trips always sound wonderful - until it comes to the departure time and the wind is blasting from the very direction you're going toward. This was one of those days. It took us 1.5 hours to get there, and only half that to get back. More importantly though, after visiting this museum exhibiting a drained region of the Netherlands where the airport is today, we discovered a bowling alley right next door. So of course we did some bowling! And I'm terrible and always have been, but it's such a fun activity. And on the way home, it was beautiful, and we found a random field with a beautiful swing that was a perfect set for a photoshoot! 

MAY 5 :: Day Trip! (Keukenhof and Utrecht)

Keukenhof is essentially a huge garden exposition displaying Holland's beautiful flowers. So many flowers that were so well placed and maintained. I even got a fresh flower headband to wear! Then I continued on to a city called Utrecht. It boasts the tallest church tower in the Netherlands - 90 meters high for a total of 465 steps, all of which we climbed. The only thing is, we had a bit of trouble with dinner - there was some menu confusion. But it just contributed to a laughter-rich day.

MAY 9 :: Serve the City

At this point, I'd been in Amsterdam for 3 months. I really appreciate this city and have had many awesome experiences here. But I felt like all I had done was take from the city, and I wanted to have a chance to give back. The need is there, and I wanted to be a part in meeting it. One of the days I was feeling especially convicted of this, an opportunity was brought up in church, so I signed up to bake and deliver cookies to homeless people. Honestly, I didn't get to have much interaction with the homeless people because I didn't speak Dutch like the rest in my group. The experience, though, was really enlightening, and it was good to be able to encourage some of the local people who do these things on a regular basis.

 MAY 11 :: Halfweg Pump

Another bike trip! It wasn't windy, luckily, but it was pretty wet and rainy. These are the kinds of things you get used to when living in Amsterdam, though, and it was not even close to ruining our day. We got to see some steam pumps in use to pump water as it was done back in the day. For engineering friends reading this, they even had a temperature-entropy diagram on the wall that we deciphered! Afterward, we were invited over to one of the Calvin girls' relatives house in the area. They fed us lots of typically Dutch food and helped us play some Dutch games. Ask me later, and I'll teach you how to play. 

MAY 12 :: Day Trip! (Maastricht)

Maastricht is in the very southern tip of the Netherlands, peeking out into Belgium and Germany. Because of this, the landscape is completely different. We took the train, and for almost two and a half hours, everything is completely flat unless it's a dike. Then all of a sudden, it raises and there's hills! It's almost as if you're not in the Netherlands anymore. But it was really a cute city! We got to go into the underground tunnels created from limestone excavations - a network of 8,000 different tunnels (and it used to be even closer to 20,000). At one point, our guide turned off all of the lights to demonstrate the utter darkness; we walked along the wall, and pretty soon our fingers were covered in chalk and beginning to wear. We also went to the top of a hill and got a nice view, went to a fun interactive museum, ate Vietnamese at a carnival, and looked at old Spanish gate ruins.

MAY 13 :: Learning How to Fence

It turns out that one of the friends we made in our physics class fences, like the gentleman's sport most popularly known from it's appearance in the Parent Trap. Not only does he know how, but he also offered to teach some of us how! It's a really unique, physically and mentally demanding sport. It's not quite my thing due to my lack of hand-eye coordination, but it was still  very fun. And I ended up beating my friend in the end. He might have let me win, but I try not to think about that. ;)

MAY  18-19 :: Northern Roadtrip

For our sustainability class, we've gone on a number of excursions to bolster our in-class

experience. This was one of those. But for me, it served a secondary purpose. One other student and I planned and coordinated the entire trip in order to receive honors credit for the class. Seriously, best honors credit ever. So what did we do? We began at a living museum showing life in the past along the Zuiderzee (Southern Sea). It was essentially a replica town made from different abandoned buildings along the coast.

Then we took a ferry over to an island called Texel along the northwestern edge of the Netherlands. After a brewery tour showcasing the local beer, we had a delicious three course meal at a nearby restaurant, and headed out for a walk on the mudflats of the Northern Sea. We ran into a little mishap with the starting point, but we arrived late but just in time to continue on the walk. Then it was to the beach to camp in our 25 person tent! Too bad the temperature dipped below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. If I had not been sharing a mummy bag with another girl, it would have been an especially rough night.

But we recovered! Sunday we drove across the longest dike in the world (30 km or 18 miles long). We continued on to a nature reserve where we saw some wild horses and lots of other wildlife! For dinner, we ate a restaurant where they brought out a plate of raw meat for you to cook on the small grill set in the middle of the table. It was a great experience! The city it was in, though, was created on some of the new ground created by pumping out the water. It was built from the ground up by engineers - what a dream! It was the weirdest city I have ever been in. It was so completely unnatural, and I felt like it was something that I literally had come up with for myself in a dream. All in all, it was a great last hurrah with our Calvin group!

 MAY 24-28 :: Rendezvous in France

Over Christmas break, one of my best friends (Sarah Sufferling) and I came to a realization. Her mom was planning to visit me while on a European business trip and had told Sarah suspiciously to keep those very dates free. Turns out, they were both coming! I had been excited about this visit the entire time I was in Amsterdam, and it did not disappoint. It was awesome to be reunited, and in Paris of all places! We had a great time seeing the sights - Hotel de les Invalides, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, etc. In addition , we took a little day trip to Epernay - capital of Champagne country - to visit some of the Sufferlings' family friends. It was absolutely wonderful! They served us a 4 course meal for lunch and a 3 course meal for dinner - all delicious home cooked typical French food. We went on a champagne tour, saw the church where all of the French kings were ordained, caught the end of a choir concert in a basilica, and saw some breathtaking views of the French vineyards. After spending a day with these people, I felt like I knew them well and was completely comfortable with them - they were truly amazing and so extremely hospitable. And did I mention that I love french foods and especially breads/pastries?!

MAY  29 :: Tour Guiding in Amsterdam

Sarah then continued on to Amsterdam to meet me, and I got to show her some of the things I love about Amsterdam, including introducing her to many of my friends! It was so fun to be able to share my life for the past 4 months with her!

MAY 30 :: Final Exam for Physics

Oh yeah, and during all of this, I was supposed to be writing final papers and studying for my physics final. I ended up getting just about enough studying in, but the exam was really difficult. Hopefully I passed anyway? Cross my fingers?

MAY 31- JUNE 5 :: Austria Adventure

To wrap it all up, some friends and I rented a car (with a full roof moonroof) and drove to Austria for a few days! We stayed in a beautiful, spacious, luxurious apartment with a mountain view from our very own porch. I'm not sure it could have gotten much better. We took a day trip to the castle in Bavaria, Germany that inspired the Walt Disney castle, took a day trip into the city of Innsbruck, another day trip into Salzburg to reenact some of the Sound of Music, hiked into the mountains a bit, and even played in the snow on the top of the Untersburg. And on the way home, we drove through seven different countries! Austria is incredible. 

JUNE 7 ::  Home Again!

The day of the flight home has come. Three hours of sleep the night before due to packing procrastination and making time for goodbyes, but it all was finished. It's sad to see the time come to a close, but I've had such an incredible time that it's hard to be too sad. 

So there you have it. That is what I have been up to in the past month! So much adventure. So good.