'Real' Dutch

This Saturday I went to the town of Holland with Deb en Carrie. First we went to the Dutch bakery where we bought some bread and banket. We also drank coffee/tea with an Amandelbroodje. The size for the drinks were written in Dutch. The baker himself moved to America at the age of three, so he still spoke a little Dutch.
After that we went to downtown Holland and the farmers market. Downtown Holland is one shopping street and does have a Dutch feel to it because it is kind of 'Gezellig' (cozy).
Our final destination of the day was a visit to the Dutch Village. We didn't actually go in but we could go into the stores and got to see some of the 'klompendansen' (clog dancing). Here we also had a little lunch. Deb and Carrie got erwtensoep met roggebrood (pea soup and rye bread)and i had 2 kroketten with bread and mustard. It was great and I had to do it now, because they close October 1st.
At the village I was talking to the lady in the Dutch clothing and she tried to remember some of the Dutch things her grandmother used to say. at that moment some guy came in, started talking to the lady in Dutch, hoping she would have no clue of what he was saying. Then I started to talk back to him in Dutch and he was kind of surprised. He was from Aalsmeer, but he did have an American accent so he must have lived here for a long time.
So we had a very fun Dutch day and I also bought some Dutch pancake mix and Stroop (Dutch Syrup) so I can make real Dutch pancakes!
For more pictures of Holland go to the link 'More Pictures'.

Student Theatre!

Last Friday some of us Leaders went to 'The festival of Plays', at JHS. This was a great evening in which students preformed scenes from plays and scenes they had written themselves. The first was a scene from Niel Simon's The Good Doctor, called The Seduction. It is about this man who seduces married women through their Husbands. It is very funny and the actors were really good. The finished with a scene from the Broadway Musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Which again was very funny and full of very good acting and singing. In the fall the will preform a play and at the end of the year they will preform the Musical Annie.

BOWLING!

To start the YL season we had an all area bowling night on Monday. Kids and YL leaders from several high schools were there and it was a lot of fun.
Although I bowled a couple of times last year I still suck at it! I got 86 points and only had one strike, and no spares at all, that is really bad. But I still came in second in my group.
I think something like this could be a great idea for YL in the Netherlands, to start with a bowling night or playing pool.

Gym Supervising!

Today we've been in the Gym of JHS for a week. Finally last week on Wednesday we could start the gym supervising. The Kids can come in to the Gymnasium during their lunch breaks and shoot some hoops or play a little volleyball. It is great fun. one of the games they play is Lightning. You all stand in a line and you have two balls. The first person shoots from the 3-point line, If you miss you go get your ball and try to get it in a soon as you can from any spot. You have to get in in before the person behind you gets it in, or else you are out. There are a few girls in the gym so I try to play with them and I've gotten to know about 7 girls now.
It is also good for me to play a little basketball, because I haven't been exercising as much as I used to back home. But the weather is better again, nice and warm, so I swam to the little island that is in the lake behind my house yesterday.
That is good practice because my host brother Eric and his friend Josh want to do the Lifeguard training so they can be lifeguards at a YL summer camp next summer. I'm thinking about Joining them Because that sounds like the best job to have at a summer camp. Both Josh and Eric swam to the Island on Sunday and I was spotting them in the kayak, to make sure they wouldn't drown. They were having a pretty hard time doing that, so I will be able to help them with their swimming technique and train with them.

Leadership weekend at Timberwolf

This weekend I went to the YL Leadership weekend at Timberwolf Lake. Timberwolf Lake is Young Life's newest camp and it is in Michigan. About two hours north of Jenison.
All YL Leaders from two regions were there. It was a lot of fun, they did funny sketches and the clubs were also very interesting. One of the sketches included Dr. Phil and some guy named Joel Osteen, very funny, but you had to be there.

Saturday afternoon we had free time to do all the fun stuff they do at YL camps.
First I did the Zip Line, where you get hooked on to and then slide down and end in the water of the lake. There is also 'The Blob', which is a big air cushion where one person sits on the end of and then the next person jumps on the other end from about 12 feet (3,6 m) high, and than the first person goes flying up in the air and into the water. That part can be fun except I just flew straight in to the water and didn't go up at all. But before that, I had to jump on it to send the person in front of me flying, but when I landed on the blob I fell back and My neck got this whiplash effect and my neck is still a bit stiff today. So that was my first and probably the last time on 'the Blob'. After that I went on the rope swing and that gave me a big bruise on my wrist, but next time I will try that again, I guess.
The last thing I did that afternoon was Tubing. That was so much fun, I fell off twice and that wasn't really comfortable but still it was awesome.
So all in all I am a bit bruised in some places but it was worth it. I can't wait for the fall weekend we'll have at Timberwolf in November with the Highschool kids.

My first week at the school!

Last week was the first week of school at Jenison high school. School started on Tuesday Sept 4th. With the team of YL Leaders we went to the school at 6.30 am. Yeah that was pretty early! we went to open the doors for students and welcome them back to school. You could see some of the students thinking "who are those people what are they doing?" Others were saying 'Hi' to us or just walked by, not saying anything. After opening the doors we went to have breakfast at Daryl's house with all the YL Leaders of Jenison middle and high school. I'm really starting to love those big pancake breakfasts with bacon and sausages and stuff like that.
Daryl and Joe and me went back to JHS for the Lunch breaks. We are supposed to be the Gym Supervisors. Kids can go in to the gym and play some basketball and volleyball. But there also needs to be a teacher present in the gym and as of yet they still don't have a teacher for one of the lunch breaks. So in the meantime we are standing in the hall talking to the kids and trying to get to know them.

Wednesday it was my Birthday and there was a YL Regional Staff Meeting, which took almost all day. But in the evening some of the leaders and people on the YL committee came to my B-DAY party. I had picked out a chocolate cake, which was a very good choice, if I say so myself.

On Thursday and Friday I also went to the school for the lunch breaks. On Friday I talked to an exchange student from the Philippines. So that was some nice level 2 contact work. (in YL, level 1 is being seen, level 2 is talking to kids, and level 3 is doing fun activities with them)

Labor Day Weekend

My Second weekend in Michigan was Labor day weekend, I know I'm a bit late with posting this but I wanted to tell about it anyway. With my host family I went to their grandparents cottage in Northport. Northport is located at Grand Traverse Bay in the North of Michigan. It was Grandma's 70th. birthday and on Friday night the family organised a surprise dinner at the country club. After we got back from dinner they build a nice campfire in the backyard.
On Saturday morning I woke up early and took some pictures of the sunrise over Traverse Bay. Grandpa Prepared a big Breakfast with pancakes and bacon and sausages for the whole family. After breakfast I went for a swim in Travers Bay with one of the cousins. The water was much colder then the water in the little lake behind the house I live in, but it is very clear. After that we went to play tennis in Northport. My host sister Jenna players tennis so She is pretty good. I, om the other hand stink at this game. But I love to watch it so I better stick to that (I haven't seen anything of the US Open by the way, who can tell me the who the winners are?).
After lunch we went to Leland. Leland is a place where many tourists go in the summer. My host sister Carrie worked there in clothing store during the summer.
In the evening after dinner we went to play some beach volleyball. Luckily I'm better at volleyball then at tennis. Our team lost the first set, but with uncle Jim coaching us, we won the second and third set.
On Sunday we went to a cute little church in Northport, with the whole Kennedy family there it was pretty full, but in winter, when all the summer guests have left it must be only half full.
In the afternoon we went out on uncle Jim's speedboat and swam a little in the deeper water of Grand Traverse Bay, which was pretty cold.
On Monday after cleaning up, we went back home to Jenison.

My First American Football game!

On Thursday night (Aug 30th) the Jenison High school Varsity Football team, The Wildcats, played their first home game. For me it was the first football game I've ever been to. We went with a couple of the YL leaders and met a lot of the kids that go to Jenison high school. So this was also my first real contact work for young Life.
Football games can take a long time, but when we arrived it was at the end of the second quarter, the other team was one point ahead of the Wildcats, but luckily in the end the Wildcats did win this game.

I took a lot of pictures with my regular camera, so it will take a while to get them developed but when I get them I will post some of them!

Young Life at GVSU

Last week on Tuesday night (Aug. 28th) there was the first Young Life Club at Grand Valley State University (GVSU). A lot of students were there. Basically what they do at a night like that is sing some songs together, there was one song I actually knew and that was the theme song of the sitcom "Friends". After that they will do some funny game. First time they made 4 groups, each group had one person picked out to be the balloon man. we all got a lot of those small water balloons, the ones that are pretty hard to blow up. After we blew them up the balloon man had to put as many of those balloon in his clothes, the guy with most balloons won! Simple yet funny.
After that we sang an other song and than we split up in to smaller groups to discuss some questions they had handed out. Afterwards we were just hanging out and meeting new people.