Nethergorgeous

My weekend was eventful to where I am now exhausted on Monday morning.

Saturday:
At approximately 10am, Roger came to pick me up from my apartment to head to Zeeland! Zeeland was about an hour and a half drive - long distance for most Dutch people and very short distance for Americans. However, I did end up napping on our way there. I'm just a horrible passenger driver - I ALWAYS doze off.

We arrived at Neeltje Jans - a Delta Park where there are different exhibitions, shows, rides that deal with the water. Dutch people are definitely creative when it comes to dealing with water. I'm quite impressed actually. Roger and I first slid down this awesome slide, played at the water park for kids to show different ways of pumping water and controlling water. Then, we went inside this massive aluminum whale where there were abundance of information about whales. After the whale exhibition, we went inside an aquarium. I love aquariums. I sometimes wish that I was a fish - they look calm and content with their lives.

After the aquarium, we had lunch where Roger had mussels (I was craving oysters but they didn't have any) and I had some kind of meat with french fries. I can't get away from meat and french fries. One of my favorite dishes. :)

We also watched a seal show where four seals showed tricks and made me extremely happy. We also went to this other exhibition where I saw how people prevented major floods from happening again. It was pretty neat. Then, we tried to get on this ride at the Moby Dick site, but it was closed. We rode the train around the park as well. :)

To end our day in Neeltje Jans, we slid down the big slide again. The second time was definitely way better than the first time.

We stopped by Zierikzee, another island. Since it is a small town, the stores were already closed by 17:00 on Saturdays! We did grab a drink - I had the white beer again and yum. We also walked around the town, took pictures, and stopped by Albert Heijn so I could grab some beer and milk. Great combination, huh?

Before we got to Rotterdam, we stopped by Barendrecht where my interview will be. We figured out how to get there by finding the nearest bus stop. It was really nice for Roger to take me there to show me where it is. When we got back to Rotterdam, we had dinner at a Chinese-Indonesian restaurant that was really nice. I ordered the chicken soup and some kind of steamed meat ball.

And after a long day, I finally got home exhausted. I checked my bank account, still nothing there, and my heart dropped because I felt that I was lied to. :(

Sunday:
I arrived at Annemarie's right at 9 am and we headed to Efteling with the whole family and Borris' friend. It was a 45 minute drive to Efteling, an amusement park. I don't know what I was expecting, but I sure wasn't expecting a lot of people. As it turned out, Efteling is like Disney World. It was great. On the way there, Borris taught me the numbers 1-100 in Dutch. It was great.

Efteling was huge. I was greeted with three guys dressed up in costume, and we had a great time taking pictures with each other. The boys wanted to take the bigger rides while us girls went to the fairy tale theme rides so that Rosa who is 4 years old could enjoy the park.

It was really nice being with Annemarie and her family- and it was refreshing to think that I had great people to occupy my last Sunday. I rode a roller coaster - nothing compared to the US - and it was so much fun. I did get a headache after though. We also rode this water ride all together, and I ended up buying the picture that was taken of us - just as a reminder.

While at the park, I noticed that little kids had numbers on their arms. I thought that Annemarie was the only one that did this, but apparently it's a Dutch thing. In case, a young child gets lost, someone can call their parents. if they are found by someone else. It's a good strategy, I think.

I also received interview tips from Annemarie's husband because he hires a lot of people.  I found out that starting teachers here make 1600 euros a month after taxes. That's equivalent to $2000 a month, and sadly enough, that won't be enough for me to live off. My dad told me to be smart about my finances and write down all of my expenses. It's either I work in the US to pay off my loans or work in The Netherlands to take out more loans. Ugh, we'll see what happens.

When I got home, I cooked myself dinner. :) I really do enjoy cooking, I have to make sure not to leave the kitchen or else I forget about cooking. I also talked to my mom because apparently a check was sent to my house from Anthony. Since I didn't know what was going on, I called Anthony. He never picked up before with my Skype number, but apparently he picked up now because it said unknown number. Ugh. We discussed the check and other things. I ended up talking to him for an hour.

I don't know anymore. Within that hour of my life, I've realized things that I don't want to accept. I'm torn. I'm ready to sit down with him and tell him everything. It bugs the crap out of me that because I talked to him, in that one hour, I turned into my old self again. Insecure, self-conscious, judgmental, jealous, and full of accusations. I lost focus. Anthony became the center of my life in that one hour, and God was put aside. I'm still weak. I still haven't let it all go, and let God. I still have a lot to work on. :(