Last weekend

Where am I going? Calvin College? – That is exactly what I thought when I got in a train from Swolle to Steenwijk in the Netherlands. Everyone looked so much like Calvin people!

I went to Steenwijk to visit Margaliet, a friend I met three years ago in California when working at a summer camp. Margaliet and her family are Dutch and they are one of the cutest families I have ever met. I got to experience the real Dutch way of living and I loved it.

Margaliet’s dad had asked me to prepare some real Salvadorean food. I have to confess that I don’t cook unless I really have to! Haha so here I was thinking I needed to make pupusas in The Netherlands. Well we went and found flour (not corn flour!) we found cheese (not exactly the cheese you would normally use) and we bought tomatoes for the salsa. Well to make the story short, we made Dutch-Salvadorean pupusas and it was great! They liked them a lot, we all ate two and Michael ate three.

I also have to confess that I do not bake! And I was taught to bake this really typical Dutch dessert. The dessert turned out great, it was delicious.

As soon as went upstairs, Michael room’s door was open, I saw this black light bike. I soon realized he was into biking. He told me that was his winter bike, and that he had another race bike, so he showed it to me and he said: “try it” AH! I was so excited about trying it. Well that is not the best part, we have the same shoe size so he let me use his cleat bike shoes. This was a carbon fiber bike and I have never wore cycling shoes before (I have always wanted to) so I was nervous about not being able to unclip the shoes on time. I did great though, I got the hang of it right away, well Michael grabbed his mountain bike and said: “wanna go on a 5 min bike ride?” well it turned out that we ended up biking 20km. He showed me the road he usually bikes when he trains. He told me his cycling story and how he is in this team and he is the youngest one (he is only 16) but how he loves cycling with them. I told him, my bike’s name and he laughed he said: “yeah, we, cyclists are weird”. Michael gave me a huge amazing cycling catalog/magazine he had (I have looked at it almost 3 times now, this in one day)–This bike ride has made want to save my money so I can buy the shoes in MI as soon as I get there. The pedals, I will buy here because they are cheaper.

Margaliet took me to Geithoorn, a small ancient village in the Netherlands. Here no cars are allowed, you travel by boat and there are many little shops around the village. We rented a boat and I got to steer it, it was a ton of fun, it was such a nice cute little place. Later on Saturday, we all went to the movie theater and watched the new Ice Age movie on 3D!!!!!!!!

Sunday, we got up early to go to Church and I loved it, we sang in Dutch and in English. I did not understand the sermon at all, because it was in Dutch but it was still good to be there. It was raining and we rode bikes on the way bike, so I rode on the back of Thirza’s bike, this while wearing a dress! haha

It was Thirza’s birthday (Margaliet’s sister), we had a typical Denmark meal. Then the exchange of presents came, this part was interesting and really cool too. Her parents gave her a card saying she gets to go climbing a mountain! Then Margaliet offered an adventurous weekend. I think it is really cool that they offered adventures that will bring memories and that will probably never be forgotten.

It was really sad to leave, I enjoyed my time so much. The Dijkstra family are just so cute and great and I loved spending a weekend with them. On the train, I opened my bag and I found a bag full of Dutch candies!!!! It made my ride together with the cycling magazine which has 919 pages and not 500 as I had told some of you.

Ps. Margaliet is getting married on October 30th in California to Mateo, one of my good friends from California! I was the first one (outside the family) who got to see the beautiful dress!!!!