twenty-4

June 24th, 2010

Day 24

Today I woke up and finished packing and met up with the group at 9:30 to head off to the airport. Everything went smoothly through security, but when it came to the flight it wasn't so easy. During take-off it seemed that the pilot yanked the plane so that the whole take off was quite shaky and jerky. As usual I slept most of the 45 minute flight up until the pressure on my ears became far too uncomfotable. As my family knows I have had issues with strong pain in my ears during landing and thats exactly what happened. At least there wasn't crying involved! Our luggage came promptly and out the door and into Holland we headed! First of all we were quite surprised to experience 72 degrees Ferenheait that felt like 85! I know Landon will be jealous to hear that outside of the airport entrance they had a grandstand full of people and a jumbo-tron across the road for everyone to see. Welcome to Europe during the world cup! 

Another sweet surprise was that we are finally back to people driving on the right side of the road! With this comes the drivers seat is on the correct side of the vehicle! Life is perfect again.

We were warned that we are staying at a 'European Hotel' and weren't warned about what this meant. Basically it just means we have a room similar to a dorm room(minus bunk beds), but thankfully we have our own miniature bathroom. Sarah and I were roomed together which works perfectly for us since we are sharing the computer and other things. It's also really nice to know that I don't have to worry about being roomed with some of the annoying/dramatic people on the trip. 

A few of us went exploring the city to grab some food and realized that this might be a little tough. Stores, Signs, and the people speak Dutch. It probably didn't help that we went to a thai restaurant. My chicken with mushroom in a garlic sauce was amazing. Oh yeah, and my 2,80 Euro($3) miniature water was too. Apperently many places you have to order a small bottle of water which means no refills. 

Supper was about as exciting as the night got. We went to bed early since we were dealing with yet another time-change. It's now 7 hours later than home instead of 6.

Traci

I was so sick of carrying my heavy backpack around for so many hours so I didn't take anymore photos for the rest of the day. on the far right you can see part of the TV screen. On the left you can see a glimpse of the grandstand. Here is most of our group waiting for the shuttle to take us to our hotel.