Arrived in the Netherlands

So we are in the Netherlands now, but before i get to that, let's go back to Dubai.

Our last day in Dubai was spent mostly in the Mall of the Emirates, which you have all probably heard about, if indirectly. It is the biggest mall there, and there is the famous ski slope in this mall, which I was dragged on to by a few members of the Hill family. Now, as most of you know, I don't ski. I have never really learned. I went skiing once as a child, and once a few years ago and that's that, so I didn't really want to ski in the desert. But I was practically made to. My first couple runs were a little shaky of course and I was not having fun, but then i started to get the hang of it rather quickly and I started to have fun slicing through the snow. And now I have bragging rights, so here I go: I SKIIED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DESERT.

After skiing, we ate some food and wandered around the mall for a while before catching a cab back to our hotel to get ready to leave. We had some dinner then headed off to the airport to catch our midnight flight. Night flights are bad. I find it difficult to sleep on them in the first place, and THIS particular night flight had the added benefit of a screaming 2 year old child in the next row. Now, he wasn't crying, he was screaming. It wasn't exactly pleasant. But the plane did have individual TVS for every seat, so I sat back and watched Bridge to Terabithia, hoping to cut out the screaming child and drift off to sleep.

And then we arrived at the Amsterdam Airport at 5:30am. We caught a train to Leiden, and a taxi to the Yarnell's, the people we are staying with here. Taxis are pricey here. Like, ridiculously pricey. Anyway, once at the house, I was introduced to everyone and they seem like a great family. I can see why Brandon and his family are friends with them. They are great. After introductions and talking, I headed up to our room and took a nice long 3 hour nap to catch up on lost sleep, then woke up around noon, got ready, grabbed one of the bikes we are allowed to borrow, and Brandon and I biked in to the downtown part of Leiden to explore. We ate some food and wandered around, and Brandon showed me a church, I forget what it is called because it is a dutch name, but it was the church where the pilgrims last prayed before heading to the Americas. The architecture is gorgeous in the city, and it is exactly as I imagined it. Oh, and its funny because I was informed by Brandon that most people here can tell North Americans right away, yet, everyone was talking to me in Dutch, so they all thought I am a local. Ha. I fooled them, except for the fact that I really don't speak dutch. Just "hi", "thank you" "bike" and "cheese", really. And I can say "I love..." (yesterday I was claiming that I love the Netherlands in Dutch). So I get a bit stuck if people speak to me in Dutch. But no problems, they all speak English too. Anyway, so that was yesterday, first day in the Netherlands.

Brandon and I are heading in to Amsterdam today, checking out the Anne Frank house for sure and anything else we feel compelled to do. We'll be there the whole day, and are leaving in just a few minutes.