Vacation Update

I just talked to Susanne over Skype.  For some reason, no matter whether I'm calling home or somewhere in Holland, the connection is always bad.  There's a lag, and also both parties in the call get cut off mid-word often.

It was a ten-and-a-half-minute phone call, and we managed to sort out the confusion about church.  Apparently, her daughter is in the Rotterdam First ward, but she goes to Spijkenisse.  *shrug*  The people in the ward here were nice enough anyway.  One girl translated for me in Relief Society, and then they had someone translating over headphones during Sunday School and Sacrament Meeting.

Susanne asked about my plans for the rest of my vacation, and I told her I didn't really have any, that I've been kind of making them up as I go along--which is true.  Pretty much every morning, I get on my computer here and go through the (short) list of places Grandma recommended to me to see where I want to go that day.  Then I look up and write down directions from either the hostel or the nearest train station to that particular place.

Since the connection was so bad, and we'd been talking for more than ten minutes, we both hung up after saying goodbye.  She said to have fun and be careful, and that if I need help I can call her.

Now, I think I'll go upstairs and get my blanket--it's chilly down here, and I can work on my story without needing wireless internet access.

Okay, so that wasn't her ward.

Those of you not religiously inclined, please feel free to skip over the next five paragraphs.

I called Grandma last night, and she said that Susanne actually goes to church in Spijkenisse, even though the Meetinghouse Locator at LDS.org says that she's assigned to the Rotterdam First Ward.  Whenever I search anything in Hellevoetsluis, it always comes up as Rotterdam First Ward--doesn't say a single thing about the Spijkenisse Ward, even though there is definitely a meetinghouse there, and it's about halfway between here and Hellevoetsluis.  Weird.

Yet, the people at the church today knew her name when I said it, so they've probably at least met her, which is even more puzzling.  Grandma thinks that the building I went to today is the Stake building, but it's so tiny, how could it be?  Sure, the Stake President was there today, but that could have just been because that ward was getting a whole new bishopric.

Oh, well.  At least I packed my Kindle (which I have copies of the scriptures and the hymns on)--not even my mini-quad and my mini hymnals would have fit in either bag I packed for this trip.

Anyway, I got up and got dressed, surprisingly, at 8 a.m.  One of the other people in my room snores, so I figured it would be easier just to get up, especially since I had a long walk ahead of me.

After breakfast, I headed out, and it was pouring down rain.  I had that umbrella I bought at Madurodam yesterday, but the wind blew so hard that the umbrella turned inside out, and half of the extender arms broke!  Both my jacket and the bottom half of my dress were soaking wet by the time I got there.  The rain stopped long enough for me to get back after church though.  Oddly enough, their meetings are in reverse order of the ones back home.  We had Relief Society first, then Sunday School, and then Sacrament Meeting.

So now I'm back, and I'm hoping to do some laundry later, because I didn't pack nearly as many t-shirts as I thought I had, and I've run out of clean, full-length pants.  In other words, all I'm left with are warm-weather clothes, and it's pretty chilly here right now.

Or maybe I'll try calling Susanne in a little while, and do laundry tomorrow.  Though that might not be a good idea, for the same reason I just said above.

I didn't take any pictures while I was either walking or at the church, since I was just trying to stay warm, and my camera was inside the jacket.  Opening the jacket to get the camera would have been dumb--not to mention, my hands were already pretty frozen as it was, carrying the umbrella and the Kindle.

That's about it for now.  Maybe I can get some more of my story typed up or something.

Good thing I got new shoes . . .

Right after I posted last night, I decided to take a walk.  This time, I went west, instead of east like I'd mostly done the day before.  This was around 7:30 p.m, I believe.  I took 61 pictures before I got back to the room, including some pictures of the hostel.  I discovered that, if I leave the camera on/open while I walk to the next place I want to take a picture, the next photo will not save, and I'll end up with a blank file on the SD card.  So I've gotten into the habit of closing it after each picture--or group of pictures.

Anyway, I got back around 9:30 or 10 p.m.  Wasn't it dark by then, you ask?  Not even close.  The sun sets very late here.  I think around 10:30.  It's certainly starting to get dark now, and it's just past 10:15, so I guess that's it.

Why did I walk so long?  Why, to see the windmill, of course.

Yes, I know that is the first picture I've posted on this blog, and I've been in this country four days already.  However, I've taken at least two hundred pictures already, and I'm posting them on Facebook as I go.  Before I even think about posting anymore here, I want to make sure that 1) they're all turned right-side-up, and 2) I can get them on PhotoBucket and into their own slideshows, so I'm not cluttering up blog posts with just pictures, pictures, pictures.  Make sense?  I thought so.

Anyway, on to today's adventures.

I think I got a sunburn with all the walking I did in the sun today.  I haven't passed a mirror yet, so I can't check though.

I got up and had the free breakfast here at the hostel, and then brought my computer down so that I could get directions to the various places I planned to go today.  After that, I walked to Rotterdam Centraal train station.  It didn't take long, and I was able to board a train for Den Haag.  You know, those train schedules are a lot easier to understand when you're not sleep deprived and jet lagged.

Got there around 1 p.m, and then walked to Madurodam, which is this theme park-type place.  It's a city, but the entire thing is built in miniature scale.  There are also educational videos (I only saw a couple of these) and some interactive bits, like "How many cheeses do you weigh?"  I weigh five cheeses. :)

I thought about getting the stroopwafels, chocolates and cheese that everyone wants back home in the Madurodam gift shop, but then I remembered that it would all have to stay in the guest kitchen until I'm ready to leave, so I figured it would be better to wait until probably Wednesday afternoon, just so I don't forget it on Thursday morning.  Instead, I bought an umbrella (so I wouldn't be caught without one here when it rains) in a pattern of Delft blue, and a set of three souvenir pens.  I almost bought a deck of souvenir playing cards (I like decks with different backs) but I couldn't decide which design I liked better, and I couldn't afford them all.

After having walked 30-45 minutes from the train station to Madurodam, and then all around Madurodam itself, I decided to take the tram back to the station.  I needed to sit down for at least a few minutes.

From Den Haag Centraal, I then traveled to Amsterdam Centraal for even more walking.  I walked to the Anne Frank house, but the line to get in was so long I decided not to wait.  I did take pictures of the outside though.

Next stop, Dam Square.  I had hoped to find a hot stroopwafel vendor here, but no dice.  I did, however, finally get some poffertjes!  I was so excited, I even took a picture before I started eating it.  Silly, huh?

I also so a lot of herring carts, but there's no way I was going to have some of that.  I can probably stand the saltiness, but I just wasn't in the mood for it.  Besides, before the poffertjes, I'd already stopped at a hot dog stand, so I was pretty full anyway.

From Dam Square, I headed to the Rembrandt House Museum, but it was closed when I got there.  Looks like it closed even before I left the Anne Frank house.  Took pictures of the outside there too, and then headed back to the station.

I hopped on a train back to Rotterdam Centraal, and got there about twenty-six minutes too late to catch the tram back to Vasteland, which is the tram stop closest to the hostel where I'm staying.  So, I walked.  I got back a little after 9 p.m, and called Grandma over Skype before uploading pictures to Facebook and typing up this post.

Tomorrow, I think I'll see if I can catch the Peppels at church--if I've got the right building.  I just hope I wake up in time, since I was hoping to use my phone as an alarm clock on this trip, but it won't even tell time here since it's outside its service area!

Ah, well.  I've at least been getting up on time for the free breakfast, which is between 8 and 10 a.m. every morning.  I think their ward meets at either 9:30 or 11:30, so if I get up for the earliest part of breakfast I will hopefully make it.

Is this day one, day two, or day three? I'm confused.

Any way you count it, it's the first full day I've been in the Netherlands.

Last night, I went to sleep very early, and only got up once to check the time and answer the call of nature.  I couldn't find my watch, and my cell phone doesn't even show the time here--so it's useless as an alarm clock--so I went downstairs to ask someone in the lounge what time it was.  It was midnight.

Woke up around 8:30 a.m. (that's 1:30 a.m. back home) and got dressed before going down to the lounge for the free breakfast.  No poffertjes or lamatjespap (not sure how to spell that one), but it's summer, so I figure they wouldn't make those right now anyway.  They did have cereal, bread (plus toasters), coffee, various juices, jam, chocolate/hazelnut spread (a.k.a. Nutella), CHOCOLATE SPRINKLES, and some sort of cakey square thing which I'm sure tasted familiar but I can't quite remember the name of.  I didn't have one of everything, but I ate enough.

After breakfast, I went up to get my money and stuff before heading to the supermarket.  I needed bottled water and some lip balm.  I'd lost the tube of Blistex I keep in my backpack--and found it again after I'd been to the market anyway.  Started taking pictures on the way to and from.

Back from the market, I got my stuff together and rented a bicycle--8 euros, plus a 50 euro deposit per day--then headed out to see the cube houses.

I forgot to mention yesterday that, in all my frienzied, Monday night packing, I knew I was going to forget something.  Odd thing is, it wasn't something I missed until I got to Rotterdam Centraal yesterday: the Netherlands road map Grandma lent me.  It would have been nice to have, but I can live without it, even though the Rotterdam City map the receptionist at the hostel gave me isn't nearly detailed enough to be 100% comprehensible.

Anyway, saw the cube houses, then went back to the hostel for lunch.  Ate that, and then brought my computer downstairs to look up directions to the Peppels' house.  Walking would take over 5 hours, and biking about 1½, so I'm not sure I want to do even that.  Instead, I looked up where their ward meets for church.  Turns out, they're in the Rotterdam 1st ward, and their building is just a 9-minute bike ride away . . . if you don't get lost 3-5 times along the way, that is.

The biking directions I got online (at http://www.fietsersbond.nl/fietsrouteplanner/) were so convoluted, and I couldn't see many street signs when I went past a block or two, so I kept getting lost on the way to the church.  I finally got there though, and took the straight route back to the hostel.  Now I know how to reverse it and get to the church without trouble.

I decided that was enough biking for the day (it was 3 p.m), so I turned in the keys for the bike locks (got my 50 Euros back, too) and decided to bum around the hostel for the rest of the day.  I've been on the computer since about 4, and got my list of NPCs for the RPG I'm going to run this summer typed up.

I thought of typing up the new scenes I'd written for my fantasy story, but this chair is hard, and I need some dinner anyway. Right after I hit the "Submit" button on this post, I'm logging off.  Pictures are in my "Vacation in Holland" album on Facebook!

Maybe I should do some more Rosetta Stone tomorrow . . . nah.  I'd look silly talking to my computer in the middle of the lounge (wi-fi doesn't reach to the 3rd floor).

Sunday

I tried to watch the Smallville episode from this week, but two things prevented me from doing so:

1. The cable company was having trouble (due to the weather) with their sattelite feed from the CW.
2. The tape I'd taped it on was old--as in, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: The Series first run OLD.

So, the sound was really bad, and the picture was all fuzzy, and the whole thing would just cut in and out for no apparent reason.

In order to see the episode, I have to download it from Limewire--the download is running now. I got a 160GB external hard drive yesterday (after I ran my errands for the next two weeks) with season 1 of M*A*S*H, and seasons 2 & 3 of MacGyver (they didn't have seasons 1, 4, or 5 at Best Buy, and those are the only ones I need now).

Went to church today. While I was sitting in sacrament meeting, I decided that every Sunday, I'm going to write down all of the scriptures we look up on all three hours of church, and put the references in this blog, plus actually quote my favorite for the day.

So, here are this week's scriptures:

• Doctrine & Covenants 107:23
• St. John chapters 3 & 4
• Mosiah 5:2 & 7
• Moses 6:59-60
• Matthew 25:40
• Alma 7:11-12

AND, this one was actually quoted first, but I liked it the best:

Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.

Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with
promise;)

That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.

And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the
nurture and admonition of the Lord.

(Ephesians 6:1-4)