Vacation!

This past week I was off of school and had vacation. The vacation was a lot more busy than I anticipated, but I am glad it was because it sure was fun. On Saturday (the Saturday before last Saturday) I met up with one of my good friends who is an exchange student in Amsterdam. Getting to Amsterdam was quite an adventure to start off. I went by train, but they working on some tracks so I had to take a bus from one train station to another. Normally it takes about 2 and a half hours to get to Amsterdam and on Saturday it took about 4. At least 500 people were waiting for the busses to come by and take us to the Hertogenbosch train station. So for about an hour I was standing outside in 40 degree weather and of course me being me I was not dressed to appropriate for that weather. And to make matters worse that day, before I took the bus I was on the train and my mp3 player broke. Now it works again, but I pretty much had nothing to do for 4 hours except look out the window of the train which I find quite nice especially being in such a beautiful country. When I finally arrived in Amsterdam I met up with my friend and his sister who was visiting from Germany. I was in Amsterdam for about 6 hours before coming back. We spent about an hour in Amsterdam looking for a Turkish restaraunt which was definitely worth it after the search. After the long search and a great lunch we decided to go to a bakery. I try to make it a tradition for myself to go to a bakery every time I travel just because the food is so good. After that we went to the red light district. I don't think it is as bad as what people make it out to be. What goes on there isn't necessarily good, but I think seeing and experiencing it is a good thing. Then the next day, my counselor and his family took me to Cologne, Germany. My goodness that city is absolutely beautiful. Cologne has the oldest cathedral in Germany. It started being built about 600 years ago and since it is so old it is still being worked on constantly. I think it is so awesome that such a beautiful city in another country is only an hour away by car. I am so thankful that I have people that do these kind of things for me because it is all a great experience. Then Monday through Friday, my host family took me to Duinrell which is a holiday park near Den Haag (The Hague). Duinrell has a small but exciting amusement park and a really great indoor water park called the Tiki Bad. I am pretty sure that I went on every ride in the amusement park while I was there and almost every water slide in the waterpark. On Wednesday we went to Madurodam which is Holland in miniature size. I found it to be quite exciting and I am so glad we went because it was on my to-do list for while I am here. Now that I went there, I can add more things to my to-do list because most of the stuff that was there, I did not know of. Thursday we went to the sea and had some snacks and drinks by the sea as well. After the sea we went back to Duinrell for a few hours and then went out to eat where I had the best spare ribs I have ever had. On Friday we went to Corpus which is a really nice interactive musuem of the human body. Unfortunately I was not able to take any pictures during the tour of the human body, but it was really cool. On Saturday I was back from Duinrell, but the fun did not stop there. On Saturday I had a baskteball game. We didn't win but I still thought we played well as a team. Later that day I went to a party that I was invited to. It was really fun and I am glad that I have the friends that I do. Sunday was more of a rest day which I needed desperately. I will update again soon.