Hi all,
Wow I'm writing a post a week and a half after the last one, impressive right? Well this last week went so fast and had so many memories that I don't want to miss any of the important details.
The Italians were on the bus the whole day of Saturday but when we first met them, they were somehow still full of energy. We decided last minute to go out to the center of Deurne to see if we could find something to do with the other Italian/Dutch pairs. But by the time we had very little time left so we decide to go home to sleep.
We had the club championship for athletics on Sunday which Andrea sadly had to sit through, there was a little bit of a disappointment in the 800m in my opinion but instead I performed very well in the 100m and Shotput (surprising for a cross country runner). This meant that I was second place overall. That night we went out to a pannekoeken restaurant to show Andrea typical Dutch food. After dinner, we went to watch the Juventus v. AC Milan with other exchangers and luckily Juventus won.
Andrea's first 'Pannekoek'
Monday was a day in both school and the town of Griendtsveen. We went on a hike through the Peel and then we stopped for lunch in the town. It was very nice to talk to many of the Italians and that day was the start of some cool friendships. That night we just hungout in the center of Deurne and talked.
The big day of the week was Tuesday which was when we went to Amsterdam. The worst part was waking up early in the morning to get on the bus for two hours, but at least I slept most of the way there. Unfortunately we didn't get to take a group picture at the IAMsterdam sign because we were to late and had to go to the Van Gogh museum. Maybe because we were all tired, or maybe because we are teenagers, we became bored very quickly in both the Van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank house. The rest of the day was spent touring Amsterdam and showing the Italians as much as we could including the Dam, the Red Light District and Kalverstraat, while walking into every shoe store we could find. Then the bus ride back and nice sleep rounded out the day of fun.
Wednesday was a short day at school of making cards for the families followed by making a funny video with our small group. It took many takes, but the bloopers turned out just as good, if not better than the video itself. We then went home and Andrea made Spaghetti for us which was very good! Then we rested until we went to The Ocean, the local disco. We had lots of fun with all of the Italians and even the Spanish students came too, although they were young and not as fun as the Italians. The music here is so nice, it's easy to dance to (although people don't always dance in discos) and when a good song like 'Year of Summer' or 'Talk Dirty' comes on you can feel the whole disco become energized and everyone is having a good time. We came home at 12:30 because we had to be at school the next morning to go to Maastricht but the three and a half hours were satisfactory.
Maastricht is also an hour drive at least, so we again slept on the bus, but once we got there we walked around the Zonneburg caves which were limestone mines that helped build Maastricht and also churches across Northern Europe. The tour was in english, so at least I followed it. Still, the history wasn't quite as interesting as one could've hoped but the rest of the day was better. We spent some of the day at the McDonalds eating Stroopwafel McFlurry's and the rest of the day walking around Maastricht. Then we went to the Albert Heijn to buy Dutch foods to bring back to their families like stroopwafels, drop and hagelslag. Mattia, one of the Italians, even bought Skittles because you can't find them in Italy.
Friday was the day that we toured Deurne with the group and saw all that we hadn't seen, but that wasn't much. We sat in the center of Deurne and drank Chocomel with a few of the Italians for an hour, then each ate a Frikandel which are basically heaven from Deurne. We then toured the Church that rises of the town and took some nice pictures of the town from above. Then we had a going away party at the school where we watched all of the videos (our's was the best) and the Italians gave their cards to the families. The night finished with a party at the Ocean and many memories.
The big day of the week was Tuesday which was when we went to Amsterdam. The worst part was waking up early in the morning to get on the bus for two hours, but at least I slept most of the way there. Unfortunately we didn't get to take a group picture at the IAMsterdam sign because we were to late and had to go to the Van Gogh museum. Maybe because we were all tired, or maybe because we are teenagers, we became bored very quickly in both the Van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank house. The rest of the day was spent touring Amsterdam and showing the Italians as much as we could including the Dam, the Red Light District and Kalverstraat, while walking into every shoe store we could find. Then the bus ride back and nice sleep rounded out the day of fun.
The Dam in Amsterdam with Sergio
Wednesday was a short day at school of making cards for the families followed by making a funny video with our small group. It took many takes, but the bloopers turned out just as good, if not better than the video itself. We then went home and Andrea made Spaghetti for us which was very good! Then we rested until we went to The Ocean, the local disco. We had lots of fun with all of the Italians and even the Spanish students came too, although they were young and not as fun as the Italians. The music here is so nice, it's easy to dance to (although people don't always dance in discos) and when a good song like 'Year of Summer' or 'Talk Dirty' comes on you can feel the whole disco become energized and everyone is having a good time. We came home at 12:30 because we had to be at school the next morning to go to Maastricht but the three and a half hours were satisfactory.
The Actors: Jay-Jay, Ramzi, Me, Loone, Maud, Ludovico, Giovanni, Andrea, Christian and Domenico
We were bored making cards
The view from the Church
The Ocean for ASP :)
Sadly, we had to say goodbye to all of the Italians on Saturday morning very early. It was a sad moment, but it's good to know that in six months we'll be there with them and in the mean time we will keep in touch.
I have more I could say about but I think I'll save them for stories to tell once I come back to the US of A next summer.
Til next time,
August
Hey August! Im so excited that you're back home! You must have had so much fun on your trip. See you soon XD
ReplyDelete