It has begun!

Hey everyone!

I have made it to the Netherlands which marks the official start of my gap year! I got here yesterday morning at 8am (about 2am USA time) which was a little rough...

Came "home" (strange to call it that) and saw the house for the first time. Mom, Dad, Chris, & Paul are all pretty settled, there are very few boxes left which is impressive. 

Yesterday consisted of me sleeping and unpacking, sleeping some more, and dinner with the family which was FINALLY a 5 person dinner in our own house which has not happened in a long time! 

This morning, jetlag woke me up around 6am and mom & Chris & I rode our bikes into town to get me registered as a resident. I knew biking was a big deal here, but I mean it's extreme. Bikers have their owns paths right next to the road, separate from pedestrians and (drum roll please), we even have our own traffic lights!! You know how for people it's a little person when the light goes green or red, well instead it's little bikes! Haha so entertaining... I have already learnt that you have right of way almost anywhere so just go for it and cars should stop for you. Let's see... after I got registered, we went to the bank, which is closed on Mondays until mid-afternoon which then led us to discover that the entire town is basically shut down on Monday mornings until 1 or 2. Which made our morning of errands pretty challenging :) But we went to Bagel Alley where I did a critical comparison to Einsteins. Verdict: bagel was really really really good but about half the size of an Einsteins bagel, and it cost twice as much. So I won't be going there quite as regularly as I did Einsteins :)

Then we went to buy cell phones and I CAN CALL & TEXT THE USA but it costs me a euro a minute so we shall see how often that gets put to use...

Tomorrow, Chris & Paul start school... it's earlier than most kids here because at the American School the new kids start a week early for orientation and placement testing etc. I'll be going to the orientation/open house tomorrow morning and I think I'm actually more excited than Chris because I've been reading about his school and it is AMAZING! Field trips all over Europe, global faculty, INSANELY diverse student body, basically my dream school...

Well dinner's ready, dad just yelled up the spiral staircase to my 4th floor shoebox where I live so I'll write more later!!

Missing everyone but having a great time!!

~Rach