What an exciting week it was!!! On Tuesday I went to The Hague and saw the King and Queen of Holland. They paraded through town, King Willem-Alexander presented the budget, then came back to the palace to wave to the townspeople on the balcony. It was absolutely beautiful, intimidating and overwhelming (in a good way). There were hundreds of horses, guards and men and women in uniform. The royal band sounded beautiful and everything was presented with such elegance and grace. Children from nearby schools came to witness the King and Queen as well. They made signs, chanted, sang songs and cheered. It was like a scene out of a movie and I just stood there in awe. I almost forgot to wave to the King and Queen as they rode by in their golden glass coach pulled by eight horses! – fun fact* The completely golden coach is being repaired… This will take around a year’s time. So this year, the King and Queen rode in the glass coach…. Still a beautiful sight. Oh and by the way… When we first got there- Hellen (Teacher) Kelsey (another COST student) and I- got interviewed over 10 times… By Dutch news reporters. There are a couple things that could be the reason for choosing us, 1. Hearing voices of American’s. 2. The bright orange hats we were wearing. Or 3. The fact that we were there 4 hours before anything started. Whatever the reason- it was a great time and an experience I will never forget. After that royal-filled day, it was time to head home and go straight to bed! (I was exhausted). But! The fun for the week doesn’t stop there… I know… CRAZY! On Wednesday at school it was Sports Day. Sports Day is equivalent to end of the year field day where classes spend their whole day being active and playing games outside. The only difference is instead of it being at the end of the year, it’s in the beginning. The kids had a blast, they were laughing, smiling and full of energy the whole time! On Friday we had a street fest! Everyone that lives on Pim Jacobstraat got together in the street and had dinner together. The kids all played with spray chalk and jumped on the blow-up air trampoline that was rented. It was a great time! Everyone brought a dish and Maartje was in charge of the pannekoeken (Super thin pancakes). We made them together and must have done a great job because the kids gobbled them up and we had to go back to the house for more! Although it was a bit overwhelming because there were new faces and lots of Dutch talk, Mark and Maartje are so great at including me and helping me feel comfortable. Oh yeah! It was also pouring down rain the whole time… Little rain never hurt, right? Luckily one of the neighbors invited us all into his garage to stay dry but not long after that I came back to the house and spent the evening with Valentijn. (He had a bit of a cold and wanted to go back to the house and stay in and I thought Mark and Maartje could use a little mental break from translating everything to English). Saturday I spent the day in Amsterdam with Maartje and her sister! It was a blast but I’ll save that story for another time.. Greetings from The Netherlands!
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