Nethertwodays

So I kept forgetting to update all of you with my lives. Two days have passed, and you haven't read about my life. How sad, right?

Well, the rest of Tuesday was both relaxing and stressful. I rushed to the school to meet with Magdalena and try to come up with a plan B for Romania. Since my flight to Cluj from Milan wasn't cancelled or at risk, I was trying to catch a train to Milan from Rotterdam. After stressing about the price, I received an email from my airlines about a risk of the flight being cancelled. So I just decided to cancel my trip overall, and just rebook another new flight on a later date.

Hm. For a while, I just put the thought of missing Romania aside. I was really bummed about not going, and I was so negative about being in Rotterdam for another week. I thought that I just wanted to sit in my room and sleep the rest of the time I was here.

I had a talk with Annemarie while she was doing canteen duty. She invited me to an amusement park on Sunday. I denied because I thought I would be intruding. Then, I waited for Magdalena to be finished with classes to check out the park that her son and his friends will be playing at. It's a really cool park - kids can play in the mud, sand, run around, have a campfire, build things with branches, etc. It's only .50 for kids and 2 euro for adults. It's a nice place to sit and relax - and that's what Mag and I did for the rest of the afternoon.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous. It was a bit windy - like always - but it wasn't too cold to sit outside for an hour or two. Mag and I talked about friendships, Romania, life, God, and everything else that came to mind. I will truly miss Mag's companionship and kindness. It's weird how attached I became with both Annemarie and Magdalena - I would consider them as two of my closest friends and they're both older and have families already. Steven kept forgetting that Mag and Annemarie have families and kept wanting me to invite them to go out. Ha.

I was really glad that I spent the afternoon outside and not in my room sulking about my missed trip to Romania. When I got home, I couldn't help but search for flights to Romania at a later date. I did find one for a cheaper price than I paid before but I would have to catch the train to Germany since the plane takes off at one of their airports. I was really excited, called Mag, and told her what I discovered. I would have to leave on Thursday night to catch the Friday morning trip to Romania, and Helen was super excited about it. However, after all the discussions and debate with my parents, Mag and Frank, and myself, I decided not to go because
1) I didn't have enough money (although Mag and Frank offered to help)
2) there's a chance that my flight to Romania would be cancelled because of the volcanic ash
3) there's a chance that I might get stuck in Romania because of all the chaos and miss my flight to the US

So for the first time of my life (haha), I listened to my parents and decided to play it safe. I dreaded telling Helen that I will NOT be coming to Romania, after she already showed my picture to her students, after she set up a program to have me give a speech about the importance of learning a foreign language as a young student, after she already made arrangements for me. I just hated disappointing her and I felt like I shattered her hopes. :(

As you can probably tell, I'm very disappointed and upset that I didn't get to visit Romania like I planned.

Wednesday:
I was very productive. I bought wine, groceries, and a box to send home to the US since everything wouldn't fit. I bought so much food for the next week that it's a bit ridiculous. Sometimes I wish I didn't eat so much, then I would save a lot of money. Eh. I do cherish my relationship with food, though. And for the wine, I originally just wanted to buy boxes to put the wine that I already bought - but the guy said he only sells the boxes with a purchase of wine. So I ended up buying three bottles of wine - one for my Costa Rica group for our get together, one for Mag, and one for Annemarie. Then I used the boxes for my Polish wine and vodka. :)

As I carried all of these things in my hand (groceries, wine, and big box), I realized just how much I missed my car. I had to take the public transportation and everyone could tell that my hands were def full - and I kept hitting people with the box. It was a amusing but a bit embarrassing. When I got home, I cooked spaghetti and took a nap.

When I finally woke up from my 2 hour nap (only supposed to be 30 min), I decided to go to the shoe repair shop to get my black boots repaired. I've worn it so many times that the heels were so worn out. I took the metro and right when I exited there was a shoe repair shop. It wasn't the one I originally wanted to go to but it was closer and cheaper. I paid 6.95 euros to get my shoes repaired! I will have to take my other boots to get repaired as well.

As I waited for my shoes to get repaired, I walked around the center of Rotterdam to look for a souvenir shop or a shop that could fix my glasses. My glasses is so ghetto now - it's all taped up. It broke like this before, but I was hoping that someone could fix it and not say 'we can't fix this.' That's exactly what happened though. :(

I also ended up going to HEMA, this store that sells almost everything. They have really good apple pies and I thought that it would be expensive. Well, it was only 5 euros! So you know I had to get one. That makes two apple pies for me - one from Albert Heijn and another from HEMA. Whoa.

As soon as I picked up my shoes, I went home to eat my apple pie. I finished half of one and soon felt happy and disgusted at the same time. I have to take advantage of eating as much Dutch apple pie as possible during my remaining days.

The rest of the day was spent on talking to people on facebook, calling my parents and my family, sorting out souvenirs, packing my box, and just being lazy. I debated about going to the school to pick up my bike, and ended up not going. However, I did go to the gym to do weights and cardio. I always forget just how much I love going to the gym until I get there. I also bought my little sister chocolate chip cookies because that's what she wanted.

After working out, I bought laundry tokens and washed my dirty clothes. I was just going to pack it in my suitcase and wash it at home, but it'll save me time at home to do laundry now. While I waited for my clothes to wash and dry, I watched movies, cleaned the apartment, ate, etc. It was a good day.

Thursday:
Today, I'm at school. I will be teaching at least one class today. It's a bit embarrassing to see all the of people at school again after telling them good bye. It was already hard enough to say good bye, now I have to do it all over again next week. Roger, a Latin teacher, offered to take me to Zeeland this Saturday so that gives me something to do! How exciting! Then, Mandy, an economic teacher, told me about a program that was going on for the day. There were different activities for the 6th years gymnasium level. 


I surprised my 4h4 class, and they were excited to see me at least one more time. :) They had a literature test, so I couldn't really talk to them. I did go to Zumba class at school! Taught by Mandy and another teacher. It was simple. I've decided that I want to be a Zumba instructor during my free time. I want to dance and get paid for it - and it's appropriate! 


After that, Mag and I talked about the lesson plans for the next 8 support classes that's left in the school year. We were very productive and I was surprised that I could come up with such good ideas. Then, a teacher came and told us that there are drinks and treats in the canteen. 


Sure enough, the drinks were alcohol. How I love this school - not because I'm an alcoholic or anything like that but it's just nice how relaxing it is to drink with colleagues and talk. I sure did take pictures. 


I also had to teach my support class at 2:55 and there were only 4 boys that showed up and we had a great time together. I really like the small class setting. We get a lot done and everyone gets the attention they deserved. I was also very relaxed while teaching. 


Then, I went home with Mag like usual Thursdays. When we got to the grocery store, she realized that she forgot her purse at school. Luckily enough, her husband got it for her. I helped her cook food, and talked about everything. This night, Mag was the one that put the kids to bed, and I finally went upstairs of her house. Her house is huge compared to the other Dutch houses that I've been in! She has so much room, and the kids' rooms are super cute. While she put the kids to bed, I cleaned up after dinner. It was the least I could do. 


Then, we finally relaxed and talked about everything. My conversations and discussions with Mag can go on for days. Goodness. 


I got home pretty late and I got on the phone with my family. My mom is hilarious. She had me changed her password so that nobody is commenting without her knowledge. Ha.