Paris, Den Haag and a New Hair Cut!

Hello All!

I have got a new camera charger, and you know what that means! New pictures! Hurrah. I'm just going to put a few pictures up of Paris and Den Haag, so here is the sites so you can see the rest of the photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=61130&l=4498d&id=519280565

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=61151&l=3873d&id=519280565

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=61521&l=af382&id=519280565

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=61694&l=5db26&id=51928056

Here are some photos from Paris:

<- The Louvre

<- Notre Dame

<- View from the top of the Notre Dame

<- Notre Dame

<- Eiffel Tower!

Photos from Den Haag:

<- My weekend host family

<- Den Haag from the Pier

<- Sinterklaas!

<- Zwarte Piet

<- The Queen's Work Castle

<- Peace Palace

<- World Peace Flame, with Sara from Washington.

New Hair Cut!:

Last tuesday I got a haircut! (Above). My friends Lotte and Ly went and got their hair cut too, so I had someone to explain to the hairdresser exactly what I wanted in case I got stuck (Lotte is very good at english) and of course to change their hair style as well.

Last weekend I went to Den Haag (The Hague) on a rotary trip! Den Haag is the government city of Holland (Although it is not the Capital), so there was a lot to see and do there! I was there the 14th to the 16th of November, and it was a lot of fun. Here's the run down of what happened:

Friday I was suppose to leave at 4 o'clock and get there at 6:30, however, driving to the train station, I realized I forgot my phone, so we had to turn around and I missed my train. Trains leave every half an hour from the Hengelo station, meaning I got into Den Haag half an hour later than I was suppose to, and ended up missing all the other inbounds. Also, we were staying with host families for the weekend (Above), and I was suppose to be staying with the girl from Japan, unfortunatly, she cancelled last minute and I ended up staying by myself. So Friday night I went to my host families house in Wassenaar (really close to Den Haag) and ate supper, and after that I went over to Sara's (Washington State) house, because she is spending her exchange year in Wassenaar she was staying in her normal house. Elizabeth and Meaghan (Both from Canada) were staying with her, I went over there and visited them and we hung out and watched Prom Night. At 12 Frans (host dad) came and picked me up and we went home and I had nothing to do, so I went to bed.

Saturday I ate breakfast with my host family and then we were a bit early so Frans took me on a tour of the house and garden, which was beautiful, the houses in Western Holland are much more modern than the cottage-style houses of the east. The house was a large one story very modern looking house witha beautiful garden that included a huge Koi pond and 3 different dining places. After the tour of the house and garden, my host parents took me on a short tour of the area of Wassenaar and Den Haag by car and then we drove to the Museum where I was meeting the group. The Museum was called Gemeentemuseum and it showed modern art and several interactive things. It was quite strange and with many things that you could look at, make noise with, dress up in and play with. After the museum we walked to the Tram station to take a tram to the beach. On the way to the Tram, we caught the Parade for the arival of Sinterklaas in Holland (I'll explain Sinterklaas later), which was cool, because Sinterklaas is very much apart of the Dutch culture. After the Parade we went to Scheveningen (the Beach in Den Haag) where we ate lunch (Croket) and walked along the beach and on the Pier. The beach was beautiful (but slightly cold) and was being used as a Motocross track at the moment, so we watched bikers testing the track for a bit. At 5ish our host parents pick us up and we went home for dinner. Afterwards we were told we were going to a Disco, however it was actually sitting there watching an orchestra reherse and then standing in a small room with crappy music. Needless to say, most of us we pretty angry, we were all very excited to be able to finally go out together.

Sunday we all met at the train station and said goodbye to our host families. From there we took a bus tour through Den Haag, where we saw the Queens Work Palace, The Peace Palace, many of the Embassies (unfortunatly not the Canadian) and some other things.

The Queens work palace (Photo Above) is located in Den Haag and is where the Queen does her official Queen stuff. The Peace Palace (Photo also Above) was built in the early 1900's in an acted of trying to keep peace between America and Russia, unfortunatly the year it was finished, World War 1 broke out. Many countries gave something to the Palace, it's gates are from Belgium, fence from Germany, wood from Indonesia and rugs from Iran among other things. Now the Palace is used for the International Court of Justice (or World Court) and Permanent Court of Arbitration. Near the gates you can also see the World Peace Flame (Photo Above) which is a eternal flame ment to symbolize world peace.

After the Bus tour, we went to the Heart of the Government and were taught about how the Dutch government works, which is pretty much just like the Canadian, with a few small differences. And then we went to McDonalds for lunch, where Rotary reserved a table for us (All the inbounds found that pretty epic). McDolands here is surprisingly a lot better here in Holland than it is in Canada and much nicer. Following that we went to the Mauritshuis Museum where we viewed city scape paintings of the major cities in Holland. Then it was time to say our goodbyes and headed home. Fortunatly me and Kalie got to ride together half way, and I didn't miss any of my stops!

So that was my weekend, lots of fun, Den Haag is a beautiful city, if anyone is going to Holland, it is deffinatly something you have to see (along with me of course :P).

Now as promised, Sinterklaas! Sinterklaas is the dutch Santa Clause, only he's from Spain. The Sinterklaas celebration is held in The Netherland, parts of Belgium and Netherlands Antilles (A group of islands located in the Caribbean the use to be colonies of The Netherlands) and is ment to honor Saint Nicholas the Patron Saint of Children. Every year in November (normally on a Saturday) Sinterklaas comes to The Netherlands from Spain on a steamboat with his mischievous helpers, the Zwarte Piet's (Black Peter's). Then on December 5 people celebrate Sinterklaas (I'm not sure how) and eat Pepernoten, small gingerbread like cookies (which are really good), and end the night but placing their shoes (typically wooden clogs) by either the fireplace or window for Sinterklaas to leave presents in them. Then it is said that Sinterklaas goes to all the houses by night and the Zwarte Piet sneak in through the Chimney (to explain their black face and hands) and leave presents in the shoes. Small children are also told that if they are bad during the year, Zwarte Piet will leave them a bundle of sticks or some salt instead of a presents.

Thats all! Nothings really happening here right now, just busy with school and friends and fencing. However, I switch host families in 20 days, and my birthday is in 23 days:) so some fun stuff should be coming up soon.

Thats All For Now!

Doei!

Jayden

p.s. remember! i love comments, so if you have something to say, or just to say hi, let me know your reading and post it!

3 Months!

Hey!

So yesterday was officially the end of my third month in Holland.

Last month was a lot of fun. I went to Paris (sorry no pictures yet, I will post them ASAP, my camera battery charger is gone.). And to Friesland to visit one of the other Canaidan inbounds, Julianna for 6 days over fall break. That was a lot of fun, we went shopping and horse back riding and ate Chinese food. Those were my two major trips in October.

I also started fencing! Hurrah!!! It feels so good to be fencing again, it's like my little peice of home. Everyone in the club is very nice and welcomed me in with open arms, it was really nice to meet more people and to be the special Canadian again, because I'm not at school anymore.

For those that don't know, I have subconscience issues directing my head toward the ground, making it very difficult for me to forward roll or dive. However, Gym class a couple days ago, I learned how to forward roll! Luckily I wasn't the only one that couldn't do it, Lotte, one of the girls in my class couldn't do a forward roll either. It took the full hour and several friends, but by the end of class we were both able to do a forward roll. Go me!

I am back on my full scheldule at school. Which is difficult because I still have problems understanding some teachers, but it is a lot easier than when I left the classes a month ago. Speaking of school, I would like to tell you some more differences between it here and it in Canada. The most major difference is that almost nothing is for marks. Teachers assign questions, and people do them, but they aren't for marks. No one would learn anything if that was the case in Canada! Also there are no projects, essays etc. just the questions which aren't for marks, and tests. Teahcers don't explain anything either, we do the questions, and then while we are correcting it, they explain it, which I think is silly. Also, thy score things differently, everything is out of ten. In my Nederlands Les I got a 6 on the exam, pretty good for someone who's Dutch is niet zo goed.

In Art right now we have a project that has to do with 'Time'. There was a bunch of different things we could choose, paint a still-life, make a clock, stuff like that. I am doing the project where we were given a word or phrase, and we have to make a piece of art from it. My phrase is "Rat-Race", so I'm doing a drawing of a bunch of Rats in suits fighting their way up a ladder. It's going to be sweet, I'll take a picture of it and put it up when its done.

I think thats all.

Doei!

Jayden

p.s. remember! i love comments, so if you have something to say, or just to say hi, let me know your reading and post it!

Paris

I'm sorry, my USB for my Camera has disapeared from the face of the earth, so no pictures. I will upload them ASAP.

Paris is official my favourite city on the face of the Earth. I LOVE the city. However, that was not my first impression.

We went to Paris by train, and as the Train came into Paris, my first impression was a Graffiti filled, lower class, industrial city. Seriously, it was gross. Then, from the train station, we got on the subway, which didn't change my oppinion at all, that, too was gross.

Then we got out of the subway station, and I immediately changed my mind, I love french architecture. Zo mooi!

From the subway station we went to our youth hostel. For the band trip kids, you know the Hotel we stayed in Vancouver that we all complained about?? Thats nothing. We stayed on the 5th floor with no elevator, and the stair case was falling apart. the rooms didn't have their our toilets and the shower didn't have a curtain and you had to hold down a button to get any water, which was just a trickle. I loved it though, it was an adventure.

After droping the bags off at the Hostel, we went to the Notre Dame, which I loved. The amount of work the French have put into creating and maintaining their own, distinct culture is amazing. I think whoever disigned it was thinking, "I'm going to make a Cathidral that will one day bring in hoards of tourist." and that it did. All the steps in the place were worn down and curved in the middle from people walk up them. After the Notre Dame Cathedral, we had some from time, then we went from supper, had a canal tour, then back to the Hostel.

Tuesday we went to a the Pere-Lachaisecemetary. Which was kind of strange, but I really enjoyed it, which kind of made it more strange. The cemetary had the graves of several famous people, including the remains of Peter Abelard and Heloise (What the French consider their Romeo and Juliet - http://classiclit.about.com/cs/articles/a/aa_abelard.htm) and Jim Morrison. Thats right I saw Jim Morrison's grave, I was pretty excited. The funny thing was, compaired to most of the graves, famous people or not, Jim Morrison's seemed like the smallest and most insignificant. After the Cemetary, we had lunch and then went to a Museum (we went to A LOT of Museums, so I cant rember all of them), had supper, had some free time and went back the the Hostel.

Wednesday we went to a Museum, then had some free time. In our free time, a couple of us went to the Galeries Lafayette, which is this huge, 7 story, shopping complex. This place was no ordinary shopping mall, for one, it didn't go by store but by material, the first floor was Cosmetics and Accesories, second was underwear, third was shoes, etc. (I can't remeber the rest.). Also, everything was Gucci, Prada, Channel, Dior, D&G etc. needless to say, I didn't buy anything. However, I was walking around and I turned around and my group was know where in sight, after spending 10 minutes looking for them, I came to the conclusion that Iwasn't going to beable to find them with out getting lost, so I sat at the escalators waiting for one of them to either call me or come looking for me. Luckily, after about 15 minutes, Ann Marie called me. In that time I started to worry I that they forgot about me and I was going to die there. After shopping we went to the Architecture Museum, which was kind of borring. Then Wednesday night we went to a Ballet, it was to the story of Snow White and was really good (though I was fight off sleep through most of it).

Thursday we went to a museum, the name of which I have forgoten because it was over shadowed by the rest of the day. After the first museum we went to the Louvre, so cool! But they only gave us two hours in the Louvre, two hours!! I know i should be thankful I got to go at all, and believe me I am, but if I could choose one thing I would change about the trip, it would deffinatly be to spend more time in the Louvre. After that we went, althought to the contrary of the rest of the group, to my faviourite museum, the Pompidou. The Pompidou is modern art, from 1850 to now, my favourite kind. I love modern art, it's so much, I don't know, more free, I guess. It can be or mean anything you want it to be/mean, or it can be/mean nothing at all, as opposed to older art, where the meaning is clearer. Thats what I like about modern art. After the Pompidou we went to the Eiffel tower, which was cool, but on European tour, I'm going to take the steps, just so I can say I've climb the Eiffel tower.

Friday we had free time. I went shopping with Floor and Ann Marie. I bought a scarf and a winter coat, a pair of converse and Morgans bday present (don't think I forgot about you!). So the converse I bought have a story to them. We were walking around, looking here and there, and I spotted them, and they were really cute, so I decided to try them on. I really liked them, but decided not to buy them because I had already bought quite a few things that day, and you know how I am, I hate spending money. So I nod to the sales guy, and he interprets that as"Ï want them", and before I could correct him, he handed them to the man at the counter who started bagging them. I went over to the counter to explain I didn't acctually want them, but before I could get that out, the man asked me where I was from. After I responded that I was from Canada, he launched into a full speech about how he loved the Canadians, and how we are so nice and polite and clean(?). So after all that, not wanting to ruin our rep, I bought the shoes.

So that was my week in Paris. I now have new week off, I'm going up to Firesland to visit one of the other exchange students, Julianna, and then its back the school!

Doei!

Jayden

p.s. remember! i love comments, so if you have something to say, or just to say hi, let me know your reading and post it!

Rotary Youth Exchange

I am very sad announce that the Rotary Club of Medicine Hat has no suitable long term exchange candidate for the 2009/2010 year. Considering that this experience is the greatest thing thats ever happened to me (and I'm only two months in), I find it a shame that the experience is going to waste. If anyone 15-17 years old with a 75% ave. is considering an exchange, I greatly recomend it.

Doei!

Jayden

p.s. remember! i love comments, so if you have something to say, or just to say hi, let me know your reading and post it!

2 months!!!

Soooo...as of today I have been in Holland for 2 months!! Wow time moves soo fast!! It's almost mind-blowing how fast it moves, scary even. I can't believe that I'm already 1/5 in. It seems like I stepped off the plane a couple days ago, and yet, it feels like I have been here forever. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, the plane ride seems like a really, REALLY long time ago. Weird.

So, what have I learned this month? Hmmm. Well, a lot of Dutch to start with. I'm no where near fluent, but I have defiantly seen an improvement over the past month. Today I was sitting in art class when Judith asked Dora if she had an eraser, Dora said she didn't have and I, with out thinking, handed Judith mine. Normally, when someone says something in Dutch, I can understand it, but it takes a minute for me to comprehend it. Today, I understood it and reacted as if she said it in English. To say the least I was quite proud of myself.

What else?? Hmmm, a couple more things I guess:
-I have learned a lot about myself, something’s good, something’s that I have to work on.
-I don't like Frikandel.
-I love Kroket.
-I enjoy drawing, it's very relaxing.

Furthermore, the other day I was reading the "You know you've been and exchange student if..." list on facebook, and it really put a smile on my face. How ever number 052 caught me -"Everyone thinks your playing the tough guy when you say you haven't called your mom yet and don't miss her too much." When people ask me if I miss my family/friends/Josh/etc. I have started to lie and say, "Yeah, but I can handle it." because I got the weirdest looks when I said, "No." Quite honestly, I don't miss home! Which sounds really weird, but it is true. Don't get me wrong, I love everyone at home, but one of the things I have learned about myself is I have a great ability to trust. I can be here and trust that everything is ok at home, and when I get home everything will be alright, which is really helping me enjoy my time here.

Doei!

Jayden.

p.s. remember! i love comments, so if you have something to say, or just to say hi, let me know your reading and post it!

Bad Luck

Hello All.

I forgot to mention two week ago that me and my friend, Lotte, went to see the movie Wanted. Do not ask me how it was, because I don't know, we missed the train in Hengelo and missed the movie. This was the first time Lotte has ever missed a train.

So last night we went to see it. Her mom drove us so we would get there on time. So we got there and went to buy the tickets and were IDed, I of course wasn't carrying any. Thats right, I have gone to see this movie twice and still have not gotten in. This is the first time Lotte has ever been asked for ID at a movie. So I have been dubbed bad luck.

So instead of Wanted we went to Mamma Mia. Theaters in Holland are WAY better than in Canada. The seat are comfortable and plush with a couch-like seat in every row for couples. The theater was red with cool lights. At the beginning there was as a laser show and there is a intermission in the middle no matter how long the movie is. A very cool experience.

Doei!

Jayden

p.s. remember! i love comments, so if you have something to say, or just to say hi, let me know your reading and post it!