The Russell Family: Trip to Holland

Day 1:
Paul and I are heading to The Netherlands. Paul for work and me for pleasure! Well mostly! First let me tell you the reason for our trip. The College of Business at ECU has partnered with a university in Holland to work together and help each other in various aspects. The university in Holland is starting an online program for their business school. SOOOOO, long story kind of short…Paul and one of his co-workers, Maggie, were asked to go and teach classes to the professors to help them learn to efficiently teach online. So today is the day we are heading out! Our flight was supposed to leave Raleigh at 2:50, it didn’t leave until about 4:15, YUCK! What a mess! We ended up missing our connecting flight in Newark, but the airline was super nice and we got on the next flight which was just an hour later. The flight over was not that bad, it was only 6 and a half hours. Paul and I both took sleep aid to try and help us sleep on the flight. It worked perfectly for Paul, me not so much!

Day 2:
We are here. We have arrived in Amsterdam and have met up with Maggie, Paul’s co-worker. When we arrived it was our time 2AM, but Amsterdam time it was 8AM, so we had to get our morning started. No time to rest, right?? We dropped our luggage off at the hotel and headed to ride the train into the city. Once we got into the city, we visited the “I Amsterdam” tourist information center. It was a big help. We got 48 hour subway passes with the city, so we can use them tomorrow, too. Then we headed to grab a bite to eat. We ate at a little Irish pub! Then we headed to the Heineken Experience. Although I do not drink beer, it was neat to see how it was made. The museum was very well put together. Next, we went to the Van Gogh Museum where there are over 200 painting done by Van Gogh. There were TONS of people there so we moved through pretty quickly. We decided next we want to see the ‘Red Light District’. It was very interesting. Everything you have ever heard about this is probably a little over the top or at least from what we saw. I won’t give you the gory details. As we were walking back to the train station we saw the canal river boat rides and decided to go ahead and do that since we had plenty of time. We mostly decided to go ahead and do it because a hail storm came up all of a sudden and the river boats were completely enclosed. After the river boat cruise, we grabbed some dinner at an Argentinean steak house and then headed back to the hotel to CRASH! Busy day tomorrow, heading to Nijmegen. There are TONS of bicycles here. Everyone rides bicycles from place to place. They even said that there are 2.2 bicycles for each person in the country! WOW! Maybe that is how they stay so skinny! LOL!

Day 3:
Today we finished up our visit in Amsterdam with a visit to the Anne Frank House. Words cannot even describe this experience. What a feeling to actually step behind that bookcase and see where those eight people hid for two years. The museum was very well put together. I bought a couple books and I hope to bring them back to my classroom. The message Anne wanted to get across through her diary was: ‘We don’t have to be friends with everyone, but we can be friendly’. I couldn’t agree more! After that, we grabbed a late lunch at the Travelocity’s best-rated restaurant in Amsterdam, The Pancake Bakery. Their pancakes weren’t like ours are in the US. They were very thin and more crepe-like. You could get them in sweet or savory. Paul and Maggie got pancakes and I went with an omelet. It was all very good. Then we headed back to the train station for our ride into Nijmegen where we are spending the rest of the week. We got settled in our hotel and then Jan (pronounced “yawn”) from the University and his wife, Ella, came at 7 to take us out to dinner. They gave us a tour of the city first. Nijmegen is great - much more my speed than Amsterdam. Amsterdam is such a HUGE city, I was very overwhelmed. Nijmegen is more like Raleigh or Greenville. The city is very historical and the buildings and streets are so beautiful. The city was actually accidentally bombed by allied forces during World War II and over 800 people died as well as much of the city was destroyed. Despite this fact, much of the city was salvaged and there are buildings that date back to the 1600’s - very neat. They took us to a magnificent restaurant on the river. It was very ‘fancy’. We, of course, couldn’t read the menu, but the waitress was very patient and translated most of it for us. Paul had a veal dish, while I tried the vegetarian pasta with spinach. The appetizers they chose for us were magnificent, including a chicken egg roll, soup, etc. The best part about the entire meal and evening was that Ella was a teacher! YAY! We had lots to talk about! She was a teacher in their ‘village’ for 22 years in primary school. Now she works at the University with Teacher Education. Despite the language barrier, I think she does something equivalent to our student teaching supervisors. It was great to hear about schools here. They go to school around 8:30, leave around 12:00 to go home for lunch and to play outside, etc. Then students return to school around 1:30 until 3:30 or 4:00. WOW! Wouldn’t that be nice! It must be very nice to be able to eat your lunch in peace as a Dutch teacher! LOL! I am supposed to be going to a school Tuesday morning which is an English program, where Dutch students have been studying English since they were four. I cannot wait!!

Day 3:
Today is Monday and they have the market in town. The University gave Paul and Maggie the morning ‘off’, so we could go into down and check out the market. It was very much like what we call a flea market. We didn’t buy anything, although it was interesting. They had everything from fruit, veggies, spices, dog treats, fabric by the meter, antiques, etc. Paul and Maggie are teaching a session today from 2-5 at the university. It’s raining and very chilly outside, so I decided to take the afternoon ‘off’. After all I am on holiday! LOL! Today, I have been messing around the room, playing on the computer, and reading my new Nicholas Sparks novel, Safe Haven. It is really good! I love Nicholas Sparks books. I could read books by him over and over again! Paul and Maggie should be back around 5:30 or 6 and we will go out for dinner!  Tonight we went to Pinocchio, a pizza restaurant just a short walk into the town. We also checked out the grocery store. Anyone that knows me knows that I MUST have a Diet Mt. Dew in the morning. I don’t drink coffee or tea so that is my excuse. Here in Holland they don’t have Diet Mt. Dew so I have had to settle for Coke Light (Diet Coke) or Coke Zero. These are very expensive in the hotel so I wanted to get some at the grocery store. We have a fridge in the room. While at the grocery store, I also picked up a half loaf of bread, salami, gouda (in Holland, it’s pronounced ‘how-da’) cheese, and mustard. This way, I can make sandwiches for lunch while Paul is out at the university during the day. I only spent about 4 Euros which will hopefully save us money and be more convenient than me trying to find something around the hotel during the day.

Day 4:
Today I went and met with Vincent, a professor of Education at the University Paul is working at this week. He came and got me at the hotel and we walked to his house. I was excited to see a ‘real’ Dutch house. It was very modern! Vincent discussed with me the educational system in Holland. We discussed teacher education in college as well as student behavior in schools and technology. It was a very informative session and it was really nice of him to take time out of his busy schedule to meet with me. After that, it was really cold and rainy so I decided to take yet another afternoon off and hang out in my room. Dinner Tuesday night was at an old military arsenal that has been turned into a restaurant in downtown Nijmegen. It was a four course meal and was delicious. I started with tomato soup that was simply divine with so much flavor, then I had beef stew and French fries. For dessert I had ice cream. When we got back to the hotel we bought my train ticket for tomorrow morning! I’m going to do a school visit tomorrow, and I cannot wait!

Day 5:
Today I got up and headed by train to a primary school in the village of Ravenstein. I started with the younger students around age five and then went up to the students that are eleven and twelve which is also the age of the students I teach. The teachers were so very friendly and I enjoyed getting to know them and hearing about their educational system. There are similarities and difference between school in the US and in Holland. The students in Holland seemed to be so free. In other words, the teachers’ expectations were much lower than our expectations in US schools. They go outside every day. Even though it is only 15 minutes, the kids are allowed to run, play, yell, and scream (basically be kids). I am hoping that we can work something out and Skype with the classes there in my classroom. This afternoon I’m kind of taking it easy, planning to head out to dinner when Paul gets back from his work at the university. Tomorrow I am going to visit a Montessori School within Nijmegen.

Day 6:
Today I visited the Montessori Dukenburg school in the city of Nijmegen. I rode the bus to a stop and then was supposed to be able to walk to the school. When I got off the bus I saw no school in sight, so I stopped a lady on a bicycle who had her two children were with her. That couldn’t have been more perfect. She was headed to the school to drop her kids off and she herself was a special education teacher a different school. She was VERY nice - sometimes things just work out! I got to the school and found Marian Lesson. She was the teacher that I was going to spend the morning with. She had students ages four, five, and six. Also, while her children went to centers she gave me a tour of the school. The school was very interesting and I left in time to get back to the hotel and grab lunch before I had to check out. Tonight, the people from Han University are taking us to dinner in GERMANY, which is only a 15-minute drive from Nijmegen)! YAY, so exciting! We went to a little café in a border city. I got the Schnitzel and Paul got wild-boar served in a pumpkin. See pictures below! The people from the University were so nice and we really enjoyed getting to know them. Tonight, we are headed back to the Schipol airport area because we are flying out in the morning. We again stay at the Citizen M hotel where we spent the first night. The train ride was around one and half hours from Nijmegen to Schipol airport, but when Paul and I looked at the map we saw that we had traveled almost all the way across the country of Holland. Paul and I are ready for a train in North Carolina like that. So we can jump on and be in Raleigh without having to drive!

Day 7:
Today we got up early and walked to the airport to catch our flight home. We had to leave a couple days earlier than Maggie because we cannot miss the ECU vs. UNC football game tomorrow! When we got in line to check our baggage they offered us $700 each to wait and fly tomorrow. Paul was seriously considering it (believe it or not) until we realized that the money was in vouchers through United Airlines, not cash money! We will be in Raleigh tonight with friends, then the game tomorrow and then hopefully, if all goes well, home directly from the game Saturday night! So Sunday we will be HOME!