This is a picture in front of the Rijksmuseum and the Iamsterdam sign. This is the museum quarter and it is really pretty with the museums and the big grass areas all around to have a picnic lunch or hang out with friends. Friday 7 friends and I rode our bikes to the beach for the opening party of one of the clubs at the beach. The event was called Woodstock so of course we made a lot of references to the Woodstock of 1969. It took us about an hour to travel the 5 miles or so to the beach. We did not want to pay for a taxi and the party ended at midnight so we planned on not drinking too much and then biking back to Haarlem.
We walked in and it was like spring break with house music playing. However, it was freezing. The sun was still up, but on its way down and I knew it would only get colder and the event was completely outside. We were all in our coats...me wearing my gloves since my hands were so cold holding my heineken. The music was alright to dance to and once we went into the middle of the big crowd of people, we could not feel the cold wind anymore and then the temperature was fine. We definitely got a workout in with the dancing on the sand and the 45 minute bike ride home at the end of the night. It was a fun night with friends at a cold beach party, but a fun dutch experience. We practiced on Saturday and the weather was fantastic! The sun was shining and it was probably high 60s, which was nice when running around. After practice we had a "sponsor day". We met our sponsor which is a local language company. They far surpassed my expectations. They gave us a tour of the building, had an ex-olympic gold medal field hockey player talk to our team about mental toughness and how to win as a team, etc and then they had the owner of the company talk about the history of the company etc. The team qualified last year for a big international European tournament in Venice in August. So the sponsor thought it appropriate to give us an Italian lesson. It was fun and of course the girls ended up making it funny by saying in italian that they had kids and crazy pets like tigers and lions etc. After that, they fed us pizza and lots of chocolate all throughout the several hours we were there. It was awesome. It was also nice that my assistant coach is completely fluent in english because she was sitting next to me translating everything. I thanked her a lot for that because I would have been zoning out hardcore.
Yesterday 6 teammates and I went to the beach. The town of Zandvoort is about 15 minutes by car. We sat at a restaurant on the beach and most of us busted out our bikini tops or just pulled up our shirts so they covered as much. We sat there for a few hours just having a few drinks and chatting about anything and everything. The weather was probably mid 70s with some wind. We sat at a restaurant on the beach behind the wind blocking glass walls.
We sat in our bikini tops etc and enjoyed the sun. Then me and 2 others napped on the sand and read our books for a few hours. Then Marije called us and told us it was already 6pm. Oops, we had dinner plans with them at 7 and still had to take the train back to Haarlem. We walked to the station and caught the 650 train to the city. It was Meike, Solange, Dana, Marije and I that went to Nagoya for all-you-can eat Japanese food. Mostly sushi and then they had the big stove things right at your table so if you ordered fish or some other kind of meat they cooked it right in front of you and tried to add some flair to it which was fun. The deal was that there were 5 rounds for getting food. Each person could choose up to 5 items each round and if you ordered something but did not eat it, then you had to pay 3 euros extra for the uneaten food. That led to a funny story of Marije and Solange where they ordered too much food in the past and they had to call Dana to help them finish eating their food. The food was fantastic!! I ate a lot over the 2.5 hours we were there but it was fun. By the end I was ready to sleep. The girls were surprised when they asked if I wanted to get ice cream and I said no. "You really aren't an American are you?" said Marije. Apparently the Americans they have had play for their team before never turn down ice cream or more food. They tell me often that I am not a typical American and that most of their Dutch things they do don't phase me at all. I guess I am becoming more European every day. I like that.
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