Just in Case...

Just in case someone stumbles across this...
This is a fake, try-it-out-to-see-if-i-like-it blog. so here is a link to my For reals blog. enjoy

It was just an awkward day all 'round.

So today I had to wake up early and we went to the city office to become citizens. Again. Pretty much, it just took forever, most of the time i spent being bored on the couch. so useful and intense. Then my dad dropped me and my mom off at the Vermillions. Mickey had said sh’ed be viting teaching but that Emily would be home to let us in and play games with us and stuff. We rang the doorbell and waited. and waited. And waited. finally i went over and did the SOS code on their doorbell which happened to be good timing because Emily was out of the shower by then and was therefore able to hear it. She let us in and my mom sat on the couch downstairs while emily and i went upstairs and played Wii for a couple minutes. We came back down stairs and we all played “slamwhich” which is a lot like Egyptian Rat except with some really dome rules added in. but it was still fun. the only thing about me being friends with emily is that she’s really quiet and shy and i don’t know her well enough that i’m loud around her. it makes for some awkward moments. and plus she’s one of those people sho asks if i want to do something instead of just being like “we’re doing this, ok?” and it’s hard to tell what she wants to do sometimes. so anyways, we played games and then her mom came home and emily and i rode bikes to the pool. i don’t like swimming as well as i remember. maybe it’s just because i wasn’t with you guys. but their pool is really cool. it’s indoor and it has a big waterslide and in the main pool, they turn on these big waves every half hour or so. and there’s just cool little side things and it’s just pretty much fun. I held my breath for about a minute thirty until i decided to come up so one of the life guards wouldn’t come drag me up. i wasn’t even out of breath though. Then we went back to her house and made these really good ramen noodles (they were spicy!!!) and i was freezing. and then we played Wii until our moms got back from shopping. my dad stopped by on his way home from work to pick us up and we went back to elst with me shivering so violently that i almost fell off the seat.

When we got back to the house, i ran upstairs to take a boiling hot shower and then i was supposed to go hang out with carlyn and emma hendricks while our parents went to dinner. it was amazingly awkward. we ate dinner and it was pretty much completely silent. i tried to make small talk but i just couldn’t get a conversation going. Carlyn is about 13, is fashionable, has a way cute accent, and is really mature. i feel really dumb around her… Then we watched Devil Wears Prada and it wasn’t so awkward then because we didn’t have to talk or look at each other. then i thanked them and came back here. I really should be putting together my wardrobe, but i’m just not feeling the motivation. i’m just tired, but not…. lazy i guess would be a good way to describe it.

well have a great day! Happy thought for the day: bubble wrap

Last Night was fun....

Ok, so last night I was really tired and i was going to go to bed early ya know? DID NOT happen. I started watching Psych after I finished talking to my siblings and writing my last post. So then i was about half an hour into it when i was dozing off. so i turned it off and tried to go to sleep. But that tiny bit of movement gave me enough of an energy rush that I could not fall back asleep. So I started counting and doing yoga breathing which usually works in the first minute or two. i did that for about fifteen minutes. Then of all things, I started thinking about the unit circle. I’m a nerd, I know. Guess what though? I can remember the whole thing! like the radians and coordinates and everything! It’s so awesome. ok, anyways…so then I read my scriptures and then i tried to sleep again. I counted and at about 225, it became subconsious so I started to work on my plan. By 700 I had it perfect. I then went to work pulling off my clever ruse. I went and took my pillow and blanket to the hallway next to the bathroom so that 1) my parents couldn’t get mad at me for not getting to sleep early, 2) I would be able to sleep more during the day, and 3) I would be able to milk it for all it’s worth. I amaze myself. So finally around 6:20 am, I fell asleep. When my parents woke up soon after they asked if I was trying to be closer to the toilet or the TV. I said the toilet and my mom invited me to go sleep on her bed. So I did. Until noon. It was brilliant!!! Then she woke me up and then we rode our bikes into…”town” and went to the open air market but everything was starting to close down. poop. but at one of the stands there was this REALLY cute kid. He had curly blondish hair and bright green eyes and we made eye contact. twice! It was pretty much cool. Then we walked around and went into the shops and looked around. We ended up buying more hangers and a garbage can. so exciting… My wardrobe came but it’s in three very heavy boxes. I’m thinking I’ll wait for my dad to get home. Now I’m watching Olypics badmitton. that’s about it! I just thought of one more thing. The chocolate milk here is kinda weird. It’s good but it’s a lot smoother than normal. like it’s real chocolate or something. I don’t know how to explain it but it shocks me every time.

Oops...

Well I guess I didn’t get to sleep before 2 but I did do a conference call on skype with Andrew, Jessica, and Mindy. That was fun. Now I’ll probably watch a movie or something until I fall asleep. But Katie should be proud of me because I haven’t fallen asleep in a movie since I left and I’ve watched about 8. ok, well i’m going to go now because it’s like 2:15 am. so have a yourself a wonderful day! I love you!

Bet You Haven't Had A Day Like This in a While

Today. wow. where to start? I guess the morning would be the logical place. So i woke up. and got up. Surprise. And my leg hurt really bad so i took three ibuprofen and then took my computer downstairs where my mom caitered to my every need. Namely a heating pack, breakfast, and just stuff like that. So i checked my email and signed on to skype and had just started playing popcap games when Elder and Sister Funk came to visit. I don’t think we’ve met them before and I’m not sure why they came or how they knew that we were there but apparently my mom was expecting them. So we talked to them for a while and then they left and I ran upstairs and showered real quick and scrunched my hair but even though I rushed, Vermillions got there before I was finished. My mom was giving them the tour of the house and made me show them my bathroom which is very messy seeing as how i have no drawers or anything and not garbage and i had just taken a shower so there were clothes out too. then i hurried and put on some mascara while my mom was giving them drinks. (by the way, the Vermillions are the American family in our ward. Emily, my BHF, or best Holland friend, is the only child.) then we got into their car and we headed to some lady in our ward’s house. She’s actually with the stack young womens as well as in our ward. we ended up getting lost when she Mickey Vermillian accidentally put the wrong friend’s address in her tomtom and we ended up in a differrent town but we got there eventually. It was the lady, i don’t know her name, my mom, me, emily, mickey, yurien, and rusely there. Yurien and Rusely are young women from our ward but i guess they don’t come much. and no, i have no idea how to pronounce Yurien, so don’t even ask. so the youngens played phase ten and then we all did little scrapbooky type things. The stake lady has a Cricket! if you know what that is. it make dye-cut sort of things. it’s way cool. i’ve been wanting one. so i made an elephant and my name

Then Vermillions took us to see the mall in Arnhem. It’s pretty much huge. Like really big. At least compared to our little Cache Valley mall. Or most malls in Utah. It has three stories i think and it has pretty much every kind of store in it ever. from clothes and shoes to groceries to bike repair. it’s awesome. You guys better come visit because i’ve already started a mental list of what to show you and what to do while you’re here. Ok… back to the present. Then we went to their house and they showed us around and Emily and I went and played her Wii. she has Smooth Moves which is that really random Warrio game with the Cheerleaders and stuff. It was pretty fun. I think Emily kinda got sick of me because everything would remind me of MC or you guys. then of course I had to tell her about it. So then my dad came to pick us up to go home. when we got there, my dad put his key in the lock but it wouldn’t turn. Apparently my mom had left a key on the inside which doesn’t allow you to open it from the outside. So we tried the back door and had the exact same problem. (there were 8 flippin copies of that key!) so then we tried the door that leads into the laundry room and we could unlock it but there’s also little things at the top and the bottom that can only be opened from the inside for extra security. Then we tried all the windows, including the one that i had to climb up onto the lower part of the roof to get to. They were all locked. We were about to just break a window when we decided to go ask Hendricks, our friendly next-door-neighbors. Max (the dad) and my dad got a ladder and climbed up on the roof where they proceded to unscrew the skylight, lower the ladder through, and come open the door. Then they got it put back up and it was business as usual. oh, and it was really cold. It’s been a pretty intense day and i’m actually tired for once because i didn’t get to take a nap. i might even get to bed before two! that might just be too weird to handle. we’ll have to see i guess. Katie, get facebook. Tina, borrow jeff’s lappy and talk to me on skype. Katie, also talk to me on skype. Don’t you guys have it? i couldn’t find you so apparentlly not but you need to get it. please. well, good luck with band and high school musical! (i don’t think anyone else reads this so i’m pretty much just writing to you two.)

First Few Days

It seriously seems like I’ve been here for at least a month, but no such luck. Only FIVE flippin days. ok. calm… Well, I guess i should do a little update now. We just got internet which just made everything better. I love the internet! YAY!!!! So Sunday, we went to the church in Arnhem. It’s about 20ish minutes away. The fence around the church is about 7 feet tall and had rolls of barbed wire at the top. Not exactly your typical Utah church. Then when you get inside, the parking lot has enough room for ten or maybe even fifteen cars. You go to Young Woman’s first. We had a record number apparently. Five whole girls! The room was pretty packed. They said only two of them usually come. But it’s up to three now with me there. We don’t split into Laurels or anything. It’s just one, big, happy family. And when i say “big” i mean really, really, small. I found my first friend there though. Her name is Emily. She’s 12 years old from Seattle, Washington. I think she was pretty happy about having another American in the ward. She’s really cute. Then we went to Sunday School across the hall. There was one boy. He was thirteen. The normal teacher wasn’t there so someone from the bishopric gave the lesson. He said it in Dutch and occasionally translated a sentence or two of it into English for Emily and I. I thought that was weird since everyone there spoke at least some English. But whatevs. The bishop came and got me part way through the lesson so he could talk to me and welcome us into the ward. So our family went in his office, which didn’t really look like an office, and greeted us and stuff. He was really young. Then I went back to my lesson and sat there. The chapel has enough seats for about 75 people. It was half full. There are a lot more black people here though which is cool. I don’t really know how that tied in except for that there was a black lady and her two really cute little boys sitting in front of us. The meeting was held in Dutch but we had the headsets and a missionary translated for us. after church we talked to everyone for a while and then went home. I went upstairs to take a nap and woke up 6 hours later when my mom came and got me. We had some spaghetti and then we did something. I can’t remember exactly what it was. I fell asleep in my parents room at like ten but when i came into my room half an hour later, i ended up staying up until 3:30ish. Monday morning i woke up at 5 and couldn’t get back to sleep so I cleaned my room a little, looked through the papers and pictures I brought, took a shower and watched the Olympics. I finally fell back asleep until my mom came and got me up. I got my hair more wet and scrunched it and then my dad came and got us to go to the city hall, the bank, and the bike place. We turned in some papers about something at the city hall, tried to get a bank account from the bank, and got bikes for me and my dad at the bike thingy. Mine is a girl bike so I could ride it even when I’m wearing a skirt. It’s midnight blue and it has a bell. it’s pretty cool. Then we came back and i rode my bike around for a while. The streets and everything here are a lot different. There’s little alley type things that are for walking and biking, and there are bridges and tons of parks. It’s weird. But cool in a way. Then I did whatever until 2:30ish, at which point i fell asleep. I woke up a little after noon today. I had lunch and we rode our bikes to the city center to do a little shopping. We got cotton balls, milk, and fun stuff like that. Then we rode back, which is somehow a lot harder than riding there. We got our neighbors to come and explain the microwave/oven (they’re in the same thing) and the washing machine then we cooked up some frozen pizzas. After dinner, my dad got the internet up and running and that’s what I’ve been doing for the past three and a half hours. It’s pretty…exciting…

Getting here was half the fun. not…

Where to start? ok, so we woke up and did the last little “getting ready frenzy” then i said goodbye to everyone and cried for about forty-five minutes in the car until i fell asleep. then when we got there, a guy helped us load all our eight checked luggage on to a cart. we went inside and started checking in and found out that it was 8:23 and that our flight was leaving at 8:30. needless to say, we missed it. so we got on to a flight that left at somewhere around 9:30 but then should get to Atlanta just in time for us to run to our connecting flight to Dusseldorf. so we got on that just fine and peachy. Then there was really bad weather on our course so we had to go on a detour that took us a lot further north. Then we ran out of fuel and had to land in Knoxville, tennessee. Our plane got refueled and we sat there. Then it flew on to Atlanta. We had missed our flight by now and there’s only one flight a day to Duseldorff so we were either stuck in Georgia for the night or had to find an alternate route. we chose the second option. So we ran to catch a flight that was off to Manchester, England. Aren’t you jealous Katie? It was pretty cool. except weird. but i liked listening to the people there talk. they really do say things like “cheers” and “jolly good” it’s so funny. then we walked down the stairs and down on to the runway thingy to walk up the stairs onto our plane. it was tiny. it had two seats, then an aisle, then two more seats. on the plus side, there was a whole cricket team full of cute boys sitting right behind us. We got to Duseldorff to find that none of our luggage had arrived with us so we just rented a car and went to Elst to find our house. oh, and somewhere in there, i lost my very new, very nice, digital camera. And for the past two days we’ve been shopping for stuff for our house. My bed and wardrobe will get here on Thursday but in the mean time I’m sleeping on an air mattress and living out of my suitcase. fun fun. well, i would check the spelling and make it longer and more detailed but i gotta go. we don’t have internet yet so we’re sitting in a hotel, stealing theirs.