third stop: Holland

I had my interview with my school in Wageningen and surprisingly it went well. The school was very different to my one in Australia. There were 2 main buildings. Senior and junior. I will be in the junior building in the bilingual class. the school I am going to is a bilingual school meaning they speak and teach in Dutch and English. I will be in year 2 in secondary school. The teacher who gave me my interview and tour told me everyone in my class rides to school together. If I’m being honest I thought that riding to school with your friends sounds like the opening to a movie. My class is a total of 24 people, including myself, there are 15 boys 9 girls. School starts at the end of August and 8:20 in the morning to 3 or 4 in the afternoon.

We are doing lots of resting in the Netherlands because we are coming back for a longer period. When we arrived at the house we were staying in Wageningen, the owners had so many bikes. We were allowed to use them so we did! The first ride we went on we had to ride to my school for my interview. It was 20 kilometres there and back. It was sunny on the way there. The way back was a different story. It was very rainy. So we arrived home soaked and freezing. The reason why we rode everywhere was that Holland is known for being very flat so we could go everywhere on a bike. 

My family and I were craving some Indonesian food because that’s what we usually have at home, so we looked around Wageningen and found a few Indonesian restaurants. The reason why there are so many Indonesian restaurants in Holland is that the Dutch colonised Indonesia in the 17th century. So they do have some Indonesian culture here. The food that they had was the same at all of the restaurants we saw. All the food they restaurants sold was all made, displayed and microwaved. Yep, they microwaved their food and then sold it. Most of the restaurants didn’t even bother hiding the microwaves. The food wasn’t that bad but it wouldn’t be my first choice. My mum can make friends very easily so she made friends at every Indonesian restaurant we went to.

We went to an art museum in Amsterdam called the ‘Rijksmuseum’. It held paintings from artists such as Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Vermeer. If you are anything like me and you have no idea who Rembrant was or is, let me inform you. Rembrandt was a Dutch painter from the 17th century and is considered the greatest painter of all time. The reason he was considered a master was that he introduced quite a few painting techniques and the range of art he would do. The museum had one of his most famous works. Nightwatch. The Nightwatch had a laser-sensing machine in front of it to try and identify what the original colours were because overtime the colours have changed. We didn’t end up seeing the Van Gogh self-portrait because we couldn’t find it. We will be able to see a painting by Picasso when we go to Barcelona.

When we went to Amsterdam we met up with two of my primary school friends. Oscar and Georgie. We went with our families to a square with a sculpture of Nightwatch in the middle. Marijuana is legal in Holland so that’s all we could smell in the square. Unfortunately, we didn’t go to the Anne Frank house but we will go when we come back. Also, my brother turned 18 while we were in Amsterdam. He’s so lucky! We also had Dutch pancakes. Which are sweet and savoury. My mum and I had savoury, they would call them salty, pancakes for lunch. Our pancakes had bacon and apple on them. It doesn’t sound that appetising but it was so good. 

The reason we were in Leiden was that my dad had a conference there. My mum and I went to the university to meet dad to get some food. In the uni, they were giving out free muffins, cookies, coffee and tea. My brother went with my mum and dad to Leiden 14 years ago. They wanted to go to the same spot where they took this photo. So we did, since my brother wasn’t there I took a photo in the same spot.

Fun fact! Rembrandt was born in Leiden. While we were in Leiden we visited some family from Toraja, where my grandparents were from, who lived in Gouda. It was Kirana’s 5th birthday and we were there for her party. When we were there, Arnold, Kirana’s dad, showed us the canals and the system. I found out that Holland is actually 3 meters below sea level and if the Dutch weren’t so good at building dams then all of Holland would be underwater. Next stop Switzerland!