Visiting friends and exploring some of the Netherlands!

As some of you already know I spent this past weekend in the beautiful country of Holland (the Netherlands, whatever you want to call it!) For those of you who like to have an idea geographically of where the Netherlands are in comparison to Belgium they're pretty much located directly North of Belgium. I began my weekend on Friday after school by taking the metro to the train station where I caught the "slow" (but yet 10x cheaper) train to the Den Haag station. To give you an idea of how "slow" the train was it took me just under 2 hours to get there. Plus, it worked out in my benefit to do it this way so I could stop in Den Haag to spend the night with the Edwardson family. For those of you who don't know the Edwardsons they're a family that I met when I was working at the Kindergarten Center at the end of last year. I had their oldest son, Thomas, in my class so through talking to his family I learned that they would actually be relocating to Holland just a few weeks before I moved to Belgium. It's crazy how things work out like that, huh? I also find myself very fortunate to know such a nice family that's so close to me. They've been great about making sure I know that they're close by if I ever need anything. It feels very comforting to know that people care about you like that and I am very thankful to have met them and have them in my life. Once I had gotten off the train it was about 7:45 PM and Toni came to pick me up. We quickly began to catch up in the car as we drove down beautiful streets filled with adorable Dutch houses until we got into an area that reminded me of a forest. Their house was down a few windier roads surrounded by beautiful trees. Directly across the street from their house was a really pretty brick church. As the bells of the church rang to indicate 8:00 we pulled up to the house. Thomas and Will greeted me as I walked in and then resumed watching their downloaded American TV show like any 5 or 7 year old boy would do. The rest of the night consisted of eating some amazing homemade Veal Stew and heading to the wine bar right down the street after the boys were sleeping. It was really nice to hear all about how living in Holland has been from Toni and how it's similar and different to me living in Brussels. Things are definitely a bit more relaxed in the village that they live in and feels a bit more like home whereas Brussels definitely has more of a city feel to it. 

Saturday I spent the day enjoying a nice breakfast with Toni, Bryan, and the boys before it was off to their first soccer games! Both boys were really excited about starting soccer and Bryan was a proud coach who was great at keeping the kids engaged in the game. Although Will didn't really love it in the beginning and kept trying to quit when someone else scored a goal or he didn't get the ball he left with a smile and having scored a goal! Thomas loved it from the beginning and was a really good player. He worked hard to get the ball and really focused on the game, scoring 5 goals himself! After soccer we went back to the house so the boys could relax a bit. At that time Toni and I walked down the street into the village and had a delicious lunch at Bagel Alley. The village was super cute and really close to their house which is a nice plus as well! Later in the afternoon the whole family drove me about 35 minutes away to meet my roommates in Amsterdam. Amsterdam was a really pretty city that is full of canals and lots of little tourist attractions. I didn't really spend too much time there because from Amsterdam we took the train to Rotterdam to stay in a hostel for the night (Amsterdam is really expensive to stay) and we wanted to go shopping in Rotterdam the next day. I only really bought a scarf but it was really fun to spend some time with the girls looking around in the different shops. 

All in all I must admit that it was another lovely weekend that I feel lucky to have been able to do. I've been back to work this week and it's definitely getting busy with my after school art class that started today and the staff babysitting that I'm doing Tuesdays after school. Plus, tomorrow is parent night so I won't get home until around 8:30 or so. Good thing I'm going to be stationary to relax a bit this weekend! Alright well here are a few pictures from my weekend as well as the link to my facebook album if you want to see more. I hope everyone is doing well. Lots of love to you all and thanks for reading! 
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2067632&id=59201520&l=5c36f90df5 

Also, Happy Birthday to Christina (Sept. 14th) and my dad (Sept. 17th). I hope you both had/have great birthdays!! :)