Sunday, March 6, 2011

Home Again, Home Again...Lessons Learned

I survived the long ordeal of getting back to Wyoming from The Netherlands. We woke up Saturday and left Jay's room at 7:30 a.m. (that's 11:30 p.m. Friday in Wyoming). We took the train to Amsterdam which is about a two hour ride. After the lines of checking in, customs, and security, my plane took off at 2:00 p.m. My flight "across the pond" took approximately seven and a half hours. I landed in Boston, caught a flight to Salt Lake City (another 5 hours!), and then rushed to my connection to Casper. Luckily that's only a 50 minute trek. By the time I picked up my luggage and got to the hotel in Casper, it was 11 p.m. (That's 7 a.m. in Enschede.) SO, almost 24 hours later, I'm back!

It was a fabulous trip. I was so excited to get to see Jay's new world. There's just so much you can't quite grasp through Skype. It was such an eye-opening experience, and I am so glad I got to meet some of the fabulous people he's become acquainted with.

There were a couple important lessons I learned from the trip.

1. Whenever possible, fly KLM. This is also known as Royal Dutch Airlines. They rock. They are so professional. They treat you like royalty even if you're only in economy class. Seriously, I can't say enough good about this airline!




2. No matter how different The Netherlands seems from America (and it is quite different), it was relatively easy to find some of our favorites at the grocery store. Oreos? Check. Doritos? Check...although they only had Nacho Cheese and Paprika? flavored. In our global society, it really is getting more and more difficult to distinguish between certain aspects of the cultures. The picture below is for an exercise class offered at Jay's school.



This cracked me up because I've done Zumba classes at my gym, and my cousin Britany is a huge fan!


3. Be wary of coffee shops in The Netherlands. I am not a big coffee fan {although I will say that the coffee the Omanis served (see post below) is the best I've had}, so I had no desire to venture into one of the many shops around town. But for those of you who enjoy your cup of joe and are wanting to visit Holland, beware! Apparantly, not all coffee shops there are created equally. Some serve coffee. They would be called cafes. Others serve up "stronger" stuff. If the coffee shop you're thinking of entering looks like the one posted below, sniff the air before you go in!




So, I guess it's back to life on the frontier for now. I'm excited to see everyone, especially my kiddos at school. I will continue to update here, so keep checking back. Jay promised to send me his pictures, so I can share his adventures as well.

Tot ziens!

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