Rememberance Day (May 4th)

A great start to our week in Wassenaar, thanks to the members of the Rotary club of Wassenaar. Today the people of the Netherlands remember the lives of soldiers lost in past wars. Our GSE team was honored to take part in the annual walk of silence and place a wreath at the memorial statue. Pictured to the left is retired Luitenant General Ted Meines saluting the memorial statute.

Following the event, we had our photographs printed in 2 local newspapers, regarding our participation in the ceremony. We were even recognized by a local resident the morning the newspapers were printed. I think we deserve a parade from Rotary district 7620 when we get back for being the best GSE embassadors :-)

The Keukenhof

You have to see the Keukenhof garden to believe it.

The End of Week One

It has now been a week since we have been here. It's nice to have three more weeks and not feel rushed to see everything as I often feel when on vacation. We're learning a lot and we're exhausted. Yesterday we switched cities, host families, and host clubs. We are now in Wassenaar. The club in Delft had a nice little farewell party for us and the new club picked welcomed us with great energy. To transport us here, they sent a van for our luggage and a separate car for us! ha! As soon as we arrived, we met our new families and then attendd a classical concert performed by young students from the conservatory. This morning we went to the Keukenoff, which is a huge garden with thousands of different types of flowers. We also visited some of the flower fields which are just amazing. Today is Memorial Day here which remembers those who died in World War II. We were asked to particpate in a cermony at the local memorial. We marched to the statue, had two minutes of silence, and then laid a wreath at the base of the statue. The mayor and several other prominent leaders in the city were there and a reception followed. Tomorrow is liberation day and a day of celebration.

We have had several vocational visits, which have all been very informative. I have visited two colleges so far and have learned a lot about the education system here, which is quite different than our system. Students choose an education path at the age of 12 (or maybe 14, I have it written down somewhere). I can't imagine knowing what subject I would like to study at such a young age. We also visited several homes for the elderly and learned a lot about the healthcare system here. Tomorrow we are going to a bioscience center and then to have high tea and then we have another presentation to give. There is very little free time...which leaves little time to blog. I'm off to bed but wanted to add a picture.

Farewell Delft

Our team had a wonderful time in Delft. This was certainly a great experience to introduce us to The Netherlands. Our host roatry club, Delft-Koningsveld put together an excellent program, from which we gained much information on a variety of health care and education topics, as well as cultural visits and experiences. The rotary members here were warm and hospitable, and will always hold a special place in our hearts. Thank you.

Eykenburg and Limburg Homes for the Aged

We were hosted on this visit by Anneke Augustinus on our visit to Eykenburg and Limburg homes for the aged, in The Hague. While on this visit, we learned about the problems facing the aged in the Netherlands, such as the growing shortage of physicians, skilled nursing staff as well as startegies to increase interest in this part of health care. We were given formal presentations on dutch health care policy and prevention as well as the relatively new Dutch heath insurance plan. We then toured these 2 facilities and learned about their quality management system. We later had the opportunity to interact with a few of the clients at these facilities. We had a very productive day thanks to Anneke and her colleagues.

Oude (Old) Delft

Lisa and I stayed with Frits and Janny during our week in Delft. They lived in a historic home on one of the canals that ran through the village. We enjoyed our stay here immensely. They both enthusiastically shared the history of their home as well as their village.

At the end of each day, Lisa would laugh as I staggered breathlessly into our room after climbing up two rather steep flights of stairs. Frits never seemed out of breath when he did it!!! I guess that was my cue to get more exercise. Thanks for the inspiration Frits :-)

Orange Day in Delft

On Orange Day, the day Queen Beatrix celebrates her birthday, Lisa and I (Monique) were guests of our host Frits and Janny at a reception honoring Delft residents who received a national service award. Yanny had received the award two years earlier. We briefly chatted with the Mayor of Delft, G.A.A. Verkerk (pictured with us), and mingled with long time residents of this historical community. Interesting note, the royal family's official resting place in Nieuwe Kerek (New Church) in Delft. The mayor has the important task of annually inspecting the graves. Lisa and I were curious when he did these inspections, but he laughed and said, "that is my secret, the reporters would love to know".

We spent the next few hours exploring Delft and soaking up the excitement of Orange Day. There were so many people out along the canals enjoying the day. At times it was scary because the canals that run in the middle of the streets have no guard rails, and I feared someone would fall in at any minute. No one else seemed worried though, I guess falling in would be apart of the fun.

Canals Cars Cycles

This is an incredible sight, canals, cycles and cars co-existing...on the edge.

What day is it again?

Wow. There is so much going on that I can't remember what day it is. When I found out today is Wednesday, I was surprised. We've only been here three days? It feels like at least a week. We have had very busy and long days.

Monday morning, we went to the flower auction. When they told us we were going, I thought it would be kinda like a fish market. You know, with tons of flowers everywhere in bins and people bidding on them. No, not at all. The flower growers bring the flowers to the auction house and they are processed. They go through the cooling room, into the auction room where there is an auditorium of men waiting to buy them. There is an auction clock. They are all waiting on who will make the first bid. The person who makes the first bid pays the most, but the person who makes the last bid may not get any flowers. It's very interesting. It looks like the stock exchange in a way. Once the bidder has selected his batches of flowers, they are organized onto carts and placed in a holding room. The buyer often buys several different types of flowers and so their "train" of flowers is very colorful. The room is huge (like several football fields huge), American music is playing throughout the building. A lot of this is done electronically. It's neat to see huge crates of flowers moving around the floor by themselves. With the colors, the music, and the choreography of the trains of automated carts, it is like watching a ballet of flowers. I had no idea what all a flower goes through before it reaches its destination.

Monday night was our first presentation. There were some minor glitches, but overall it went well. The group was very friendly and asked us great questions. I've also had some very interesting conversations with several people. It has mainly been about the presidential election. They all want to know what we think and who we want to win, etc. They are excited about the change in our leadership and how it will help their country. They have a saying over here that says "When two dogs fight for a bone, a third one runs away with it." I found it very interesting when it was related to the election by one of them. There have been several comments that generalize Americans like "You all own three cars, " etc. but otherwise they generally seem to like Americans.

Today was Queen's Day which was the celebration for the royal family. It is supposed to celebrate the Queen's Birthday but she chooses to celebrate her mother's birthday because it's in a warmer month. However, while it may be warmer, it is not warm. Our first day brought great weather, but otherwise, it's been pretty cold and rainy. No wonder I'm sick. Anyway, last night was Queen's night eve and we went to The Hague for the festival. I have never seen anything like this. It was like Mardi Gras on speed. We walked and walked and there were still people in every direction. There was music, food, the smell of marijuana, and lots and lots of orange. The royal family is from the house of Orange and so everything is over the top in bright orange. Today was no different. There were the same things mentioned above plus lots of "flea markets." We walked around until around 3ish and then headed home to change. We had a house warming party to go to.

The house we went to was gorgeous and was along an old canal. We parked so close to the water that we were afraid the car would roll into it. You definintely want to make sure you use reverse when leaving! The older section of the house used to be a gin factory and was now an art gallery. It was very modern and everyone was very nice. Once again, their English is very good. In fact, the majority of the time I don't feel quite like I'm in Europe. It is very "Americanized"over here. There are so many American things (Domino's, Burger King, movies, radio music), that I feel like I'm in New Jersey (which is like a foreign country to me).

I have to comment about my host family again, Yet and Guus. Yet is the most amazing caretaker. I sneezed today and had a box of tissues on my bed. I came back from our afternoon trip and my shoes were lined up in a perfect row. The woman never stops! and Guus just keeps getting better and better. I found out last night that he is also an inventor. He showed me some of his inventions, which were great of course. We asked them to adopt us. They said sure.

Well, I haven't quite figured out how to upload pictures yet and I don't want to ask to install a program on their computer. I need to do it through our laptop which is currently not chargeable due to a plug in problem.

Okay, they are calling me with hot tea waiting (which means there is also some sort of cookie). I have never had so much tea in my entire life than in the past few days. Anytime I ask for water I get a weird look and then "coffee or tea?" Now I'm just saying tea to begin with. It's even hard to find water in stores!

K, I'm off for tea and some sort of yummy surprise!

Who needs to sleep? Let's shop.

We have arrived! The weather is wonderful, the people are great, the food is fanstastic, and I've already seen fields of tulips. Oh yeah, some sleep would be nice. It is almost 9pm here (3pm in the US) and we have not slept since the night before we left. I am too tired to calculate how many hours that is without sleeping, but it's a lot. I'm so tired that their English is actually better than mine right now.

We were greeted at the airport by the GSE coordinator for our Delft visit, Tawny (that's my English spelling of her name), and Marcel, the secretary of the GSE group. When they saw how much luggage we had with us, they asked for an additional person to help drive us. Four women and I believe 9 suitcases. Try fitting that into a Eurpeon elevator...it ain't happenin. I know I personally had 84 pounds of luggage. We'll see what happens on the way home.

We leave the airport (in three cars) and drive to Delft which is about 45 minutes from Amsterdam. Everything is much closer than i thought. The Netherlands is probably about the size of Connecticut. We drop of all of our luggage at Tawny's house. We get aquainted for awhile and rest (I slept for about 45 minutes). We head to the supermarket to pick up items for lunch. The supermarket was surprisingly the same as most of ours. The only thing is, it is obvious we are American. Tawny said I look the most American because I have long hair and big sunglasses. I'm not really sure what that means or if it's good or not. There's no hiding it. I'm a tourist.

Lunch is fresh bread, meat, cheese and fruit. Oh, and there is every type of juice you could possibly imagine. I recommend the mango juice. It's quite tasty. The cheese is AMAZING and at one point I had to request it be placed on the opposite side of the table from me. We also had some wonderful cookies that look like waffles and have syrup in the middle.

After lunch, we were off to the Delft porcelin factory. Delft is known worldwide for its wonderful pottery, tiles, and porcelin products. It was all very beautiful. Let me just say this. I took out Euros from the bank today and I believe most of it is already gone. Although, that may be more the value of the dollar right now than the price of what I bought. Either way, my sisters better like what they're getting. ;)

It's time to meet our first family for the week. Their house is absolutely adorable. It looks like it is out of a magazine. The walls are covered with paintings that our host, Guus, has painted. There are fresh flowers everywhere and the smell of something baking. We sit out in the back garden, which Guus has filled with tulips and other flowers, to get acquainted. We're offered an apple tart and again 10 choices of juice, coffee, tea, or wine. I'll tell you how tired I am. I did not have the glass of wine. I drank water. The wine would've knocked me out upon first sip. The weather was beautiful and I enjoyed talking with everyone. I'm extremely impressed at how great everyone's English is and how much they know about our country. I mean, I knew they could speak English well, but the extent of their vocabulary is very impressive. I can now say about 5 words in Dutch. One of them is cheese (kaas).

Dinner was an unbelievable meal. Let me tell ya, if I never eat a Lean Cuisine again, it'll be too soon. Here's what we had for dinner: meatball soup, lamb, potatoes, a delicious brown sauce of some sort, green beans, salad, and fresh fruit salad for dessert. This is one of the things I love most about Europe. The food is so fresh that the taste is magnified. Our hosts are awesome. They are 73 and have been married 46 years. Guus looks like Anthony Hopkins and is such a free spirit. He rides motorcycles (at 73!), travels, reads, writes, paints, gardens, cooks, and is so in love with his wife. It is so sweet. He tells me the secret to living to be old. "Keep your mind busy with the things you love. Oh, and a glass of red wine with dinner." By the end of dinner and my glass of wine, I'm once again starting to fall asleep sitting up. I decide it is far beyond time for bed. I decided to stop and write anyway..good thing I type quickly. I would upload a picture from today, but that would take away some sleeping time.

Tomorrow we are leaving very early for the flower auction, visiting the Delft Technical University, and giving our first presentation. I'm off to sleep...