Best. Week. Ever.

Once upon a time, 4 of my very favorite people at westmont went to England semester. And last weekend, all was made right with the world when Hayley and I got to see them! After getting off the train, we pretended like we were going to shop and look around the city for approxamently 3 minutes before finding the closest starbucks and sitting and talking for 3 hours. Repeat for lunch, repeat for dinner. It was a fabulous day of catching up on summer with Morgan and Stephanie and learning about one another's semesters thus far. (Madeline also pointed out that I referred to seeing Hitler's house as "fun"... touche English major. some of us write these for our mommies!) anyways - if you are interested, the 4 of them have a shared blog where you can hear about their program/travels: 

http://babesinbritain.blogspot.co.uk/2012_10_01_archive.html

all of us at starbucks. just like home!

belated birthday girl!

Maddie, me, and steph

and onto london... :)

all i could think was "i'd like to make a collect call" (p trap)

view outside the National Gallery 

...

in front of the national gallery

european picture faces... (they don't smile)

the Royal Philharmonic. Fun fact: Morgan (mentioned above) is a music beast. i had zero interest in this performance (it was the night before a 9am midterm, worth 40% of our grade) until she was really excited about us seeing it. Turns out - they were amazing (shocking... i know;))

Corrine, Jess, me, Hayley

Brianna and Devon

Corrine and I

Literally ran by this - how cool?!

Wicked intermission with Sophi, James, and Hannah. 

Most of our group went the night I saw Le Mis, and Hannah and I ended up on a date just the two of us. Her father tracked down and AMAZING restaurant nearby and we had one of the best dinners I've had thus far. 

And Wicked. OH MY GOODNESS. I tried to talk myself down before the show. You know - just in case it was bad. I wanted to be realistic and not get my expectations too high! But my mind was blow. The story line was so captivating... I felt like a 5 year old. Unfortunately for everyone on the trip, I've been singing the music since :)

The English Speak My Language

London so far has been lovely... here's why:

We can read the signs/know where we are going.

The weather has been fall-ish and perfect.

We found pumpkin spice lattes!

There are parks everywhere.

9 days is long enough to settle in :)

Kyle lives here. 

Jess and I have clean laundry. 

The coffee is GOOD. 

Shows are awesome. 

It's safe to run! (and get lost!)

and all of this in the midst of midterms... London for the win. 

We had a midterm on Thursday morning (it went well!) and another one this Wednesday (we will see how that goes!)

Jess and I took our laundry a few blocks away to clean it. And we realized how thankful we are to have laundry machines in our homes. We've made a pact to never complain about carrying laundry across the dorm at Westmont. Several hours later - my suitcase is no longer full of strange-smelling clothes!also - can you tell by my outfit it's laundry day? i'm wearing Jess' clothes... the only ones she's not washing... :)

Dinner the first night in London. We had been traveling all day and ate at 8 (9 our time) after lunch at noon. So the place we ate was good... but it seemed like the best meal of our lives at the time. Look it up - Grace... in London. 

WE FINALLY FOUND THEM! fall has arrived. 

British Museum 

Right outside the Globe Theatre

Kels, Emily, Corrine, Jess, Lauren, me, Emily

Inside The Globe - we saw The Taming of the Shrew. It was a huge blessing to see... but we were a little exhausted from all the travel and studying :)

But Friday night... Corrine and I went to see Les Mis! It was absolutely incredible... We went on a date and it was the night on the whole was perfect. Fabulous conversations with Corrine and amazing show! And I think we might try to squeeze in Wicked next week!

Today we went to Cambridge. It was a beautiful little town that I really loved... I'd go back in a second if I'm ever in England. But we also have another midterm on Wednesday and not too much time to study, so we found a coffee shop and buckled down for about 2 hours. 

you know... studying at cambridge ;)...

King's college cathedral 

Inside St. John's 

Princess Diaries anyone? 

The pub where C.S. Lewis hug out. No big deal. 

Corrine!

Cam - bridge... get it? :)

Jess, Beth, Corrine, Amanda, me, Emily

Headed to see Steph, Annie, Maddie, and Morgan tomorrow :)

If You Ain't Dutch, You Ain't Much

Firs of all, let me say that my people rock.

Brugge was wonderful... we spent three nights at a classy, normal people hotel (opposite the prison in Geneva), and the city itself was canal-filled and cozy. There were chocolate and tea shops everywhere - so I fit right in! 

Unfortunately, we spent a large portion of our time in class, and getting to and from our expedition to Brussels. It shouldn't have taken too long, but we ended up spending about twice the amount of time traveling than we spent at the European Parliament. We got a chance to speak to an employee of the EU, which gave us a different, and appreciated perspective on our classes, but it was a long haul for a little time. 

And then we came to the land of the best people on Earth. It doesn't hurt that we have another beautiful hotel (with normal beds (as opposed to cots/bunk beds), USA-sized towels, and the most wonderful breakfast in the world. We are staying in Harleem, and traveling to Amsterdam each day we spend here, so when we arrived, we leapt at the chance to explore this city (since we won't have a lot of that!). Harleem is a much smaller city than a Paris or a Berlin, but its a nice middle between our time in Normandy and city life. 

The first thing I did was buy Muisjes and Stroopwaffles. (Don't worry Dad... you raised me right!) and make everyone I was with try them. I also learned that "my people"are tall, friendly, and I can pass as a local. All wonderful things. 

Hayley and I (I hear I have Deforests reading my blog? Either way I've taken it upon myself to make sure that they know Hayley is alive)

Jan and I at the North Sea

OUR PEOPLE!

Bikers everywhere. 

Oma's and Opa's Street!

:)

Place where lots of family dinners used to take place... sadly it closed down last year :(

Marianne and Denys' house!

The fish pond in the back of the house that I remembered from last time!

The next morning, Jan Maarten picked Scott and I up from our hotel and we spent the afternoon traveling around the parts of Holland that my Oma and Opa grew up in. First we went to the North Sea,  saw the Dunes, then went to the streets where their houses were and the church that they grew up in. Surprisingly, a lot of the places that we traveled to when I was in elementary school came back to me as soon as we saw them, which was wonderful because it gave me a sense of familiarity that I hadn't felt since we left! We also got a chance to visit a "typical Dutch house" (aka- you can look right into the living room from the small street next door) where Jan's friend Jose was staying. We just dropped in on Jose (which I'm learning is normal in European culture) and said him! Thankfully, he was extremely friendly, offering us coffee and showing us his place, and explaining that he works in Holland and lives with his wife in Spain. We got his card and he told us to call him when we're there in a few months! After stopping at Jan, and his wife Jun's, house the "program" as Jan called it began and we visited his sisters and mom :)

First we went to Marianne and Denys’ house and had coffee. We stayed in their house back in the day and it was fun to remember the staircase, the driveway, and the pond in the backyard. And I got to hear stories of their kids and grandchildren… one of which had fallen into the pond a few days prior!

Then we headed over to Yoke. We talked about our trip and the traveling she has done in Europe and she explained that her sons live in Rotterdam and she gets to see them every two weeks or so, and she showed me where her daughter lives on the way to dinner! (I also LOVED her kitchen!)

Then we took a break and headed back to Jan Maarten and Jun’s for some super yummy lunch before going over to visit Jan’s Mom! She only spoke Dutch, but Jan translated for us, and it was so much fun seeing her and looking through all the pictures she has of the family going back to the 19^th century! She even had some of our family, and it was really cool to see how connected we all are with this place!

Scott and I spent a little time walking around the town shopping and then by the sea, before heading back to Jan and Jun’s. From there, we went to a wonderful restaurant on the beach. Dinner was so relaxing and fun. The owner of the restaurant thought that I was Yoke’s daughter, which was funny(and made my miss my Aunt Yvonne)! And it was fun to get to talk about life and get to hear more about JoraVision and their travel plans for the next few weeks… We ended the day by going back to their house and skyping my parents.

It was one of the best days of the trip so far. Everyone was so excited to see us and welcoming to Holland, that it felt home-y… we were extremely blessed to have a day of being taken care of, the de Raad’s were all excellent hosts! And I have to say… all of the bragging that we de Raad’s do is completely warranted: our people rock.