Europe Trip

***Warning: This is a looooong string of thought entry that was meant to be a reminder for me of events, so I could go back and fill in a more eloquent account of Europe later. It never happened. So please excuse this post.***

Thursday – get off work at 3pm, get formal notice of absence from Fred. Go home to pack. Philip takes test at 5pm, doesn’t finish until 7pm- comes over to finish test. Sadie and Fred stop by to drop off African souvineers, chat, meet Philip. Philip takes test, I pack up stairs, print off itenirary, etc. Philip goes to drop off test, comes back to go to store at 2am? Finish Wal-mart trip at 3am- leave for airport- late, for Philip’s 9:30 am flight. Speed to airport, drop him off, go to Fred Meyer’s to buy batteries, voice recorder, etc.
Friday- go to grandma and grandpa’s, leave Philip’s car, ask grandpa to take me to the airport at 9am. Get checked in, dazed from no sleep, fly to Las Vegas. Lay over for a few minutes and then fly to Cincinnati- sit by cowboy man from Kentucky, calls me m’aam . Grumpy flight attendant, Buy a salad on the plan for $8. no salad dressing. It didn’t taste good. L Watch the soloist. In Cincinnati, Layover for 30 minutes, and then board flight to Amsterdam. 8 hours. Sitting by member of the church who are Dutch and have family in Holland. Talk for a bit, sleep most of the flight. Watch Simpsons about Homer’s temptation, Friends episode where Chandler can’t smile. TV screen a bit broken and grumpy Dutchman in front of me that keeps turning around and glaring at me every time I move. He has the exit row with leg room to the front of the plane. I have 2 inches from his head in my lap.
Saturday Morning= Europe time
Finally get to Holland. Collect my bags, relived they didn’t lose my backpack. Figured out how to use the kiosks to buy a subway ticket with my debit card. Victory #1. Get on a train from Schipol airport to Amsterdam Central station. From Amsterdam Central, discover I need to buy a tram ticket and find the place to do it in the bookstore next to all the trams. Victory #2. get on Tram #17 to Bloomstraat street (victory #3)where our Christian hostel is and I’m supposed to meet Philip. Thanks to the good directions on the website, find it with no problem, about 11am Holland time. See Philip through the window. Perfect. Check in, leave our luggage, freshen up for a minute. Head out on the streets.
Amsterdam- First impressions….small cars, people zooming by on bikes like it’s serious business. Crowded. Philip wants to eat herring by the whole so I allow him to indulge as I watch and listen to him squirm. Think about taking a canal tour. Want to see the Anne Frank museum and other cool stuff but Amsterdam is too congested and busy. Decide instead to get out of town and come back into town later. Head to where the lady on the plan said there were lots of windmills. Walk to central station and stop along the way to buy a sandwich and some quiche, get on a train to another train, to another bus out to the windmills. Get there about 6pm. Look at the windmills for about an hour. Come back to Amsterdam exhausted. Walk home and accidently head directly into a red light district while looking for food/a grocery story. Grab philp by the arms and swing him around in the opposite direction. Get to hostel another way, about midnight. Sleep into silent slumber.
Sunday- get ready for church at 9am. Take a taxi to save time (instead of renting bikes) and pay $20 euro. Get to church right as it’s starting and go first to relief society. Translated into English by a cute girl in the back and we all listen to head phones. Lots of other foreigners there for the conference. The lesson is good- on missionary work. I comment twice and they translate. Everyone speaks English except for the older ladies. Meet up for the “English Sunday School” class and a guy from Morocco with long dread locks and a thick accent teaches. His words are refreshing and real and makes you think of the gospel in a different light. Then come together for Sacrament meeting and Wendy Watson and Sheri Dew are there. How lovely. The meeting is again translated. A sister missionary speaks and then a member woman on the joy that comes from the power to have children. Then both Wendy Watson and Sheri Dew speak to us for a few minutes. Sheri speaks about how she still bears the heartache from never having borne children or having the privilege to marry. Good woman. Good meeting. Afterwords there’s a munch and mingle and we drink a coffee like beverage and eat bisquets. Meet Julie Slater and Sharon slater- previous president of UFI, and Chandra Brown, also there for the conference. Also find Arjean, and talk to him for quite awhile, which is a joy. He tells us a little about how to get around the city. Meet up with Michelle as well, who had emailed me about the conference, and her friend Clare. We all leave together and Philip talks to the girls about a recital in the New Church. I call Tanta Nell about coming to see here and we head out of town, Philip with hopes of meeting up with the girls at 8pm, me with the hope of going to Sheri Dew fireside at 7pm. We take a train out to Ede and it takes about an hour and a half because we miss our last stop, have to turn around and come back, realize we only paid the fare for part of the way and were out of cash. Get back on track and into Ede about 6pm. Stay and talk to Tanta Nell. What a joy. She shows me pictures of my great Opa Bore, whom I was named after, a silversmith in Holland, and also a puppeteer. She shows me pictures of my grandma and missing pictures that my mom had stolen. I never realized before that I look like my grandma schoening sometimes. And that my mother was so beautiful when she was my age. Tanta Nell serves us tea and bisques even though she herself has no sense of taste anymore. She keeps eating because she knows she’s supposed to.
Philip takes off to go to the concert but has a hard time finding the girls. Calls me to see if I head anything. Good thing he memorized my phone number. Tanta Nell feeds me a dinner of a kind of potato salad and rolls with cheese (my favorite with cumin) and butter. She also gives me 2 packages of stroopwaffles, one for me and one for Philip. She asks me why I’m not married to Philip. I leave about 8:30 and get back to the hostel around 10pm, right as Philip returns. We plan to get up and leave for the conference about 8am.
Monday
Actually leave for the conference about 9am. Hop on a tram, transfer to another tram- wearing skirt and dress shoes. Get there about 9:30, debate about volunteering vs. paying the entry fee. They give us our name tags and we decide to decide later. Go in the opening session, meet up with Thomas and Michelle. After first session, go with Thomas and Philip to a little shop for lunch. Meet Rachel Sheffield. Get back in time for first break out sessions.
Sessions? Who knows. I recorded them all so I’m sure I’ll go back and look at those later.
After the conference we decided to all hang out together with all the other people there we knew. So that meant we went back to Sharon and Julie’s room, changed clothes, and headed out to a traditional dutch restaurant. After giving us a hard time (our group was huge, 12 people!) the cook brought us out a house special. We each paid $17.50 for all you can eat mean and potatoes, carrots, salad, and bread. And we sat around having a good time the whole night.
Someone asked me how long I had been married earlier that day on the tram. I said, I’m not but I’d love it if you arranged it. Then again at the table, Sharon asks how long I’ve been married. I again say that Philp and I are not married, we’re just travel friends. A third time that night, one of Sharon’s friends asks how long I’ve been married. By now Philip I can tell is feeling weird, although I’ve made it very clear we’re only friends. We all enjoy our dinner, make fun of Thomas for his eccentric interactions. Sharon asks each of us our story and passion, Philip wiggles out of any questions, and we leave the restaurant. Walking back we look for a canal tour but it’s already 10pm and we’re a group of 12 so it didn’t happen. Pablo wanted to show us some latin dancing so he pulls Chandra into a little bar where they put on some salsa and we all watch as they dance. So fun. We split about 11pm when we can’t find a canal tour, and Philip and I go back to the hostel and everyone else goes to the Holliday in by the RAI center. Meanwhile, Philip is quiet and distant and apathetic and I knew that the marriage comments got to him. Plus he was interested in Julie and Chandra and wanted as much space from me as possible. Enter drama.
Tuesday I wanted to go to a leadership seminar, or had thought about it, but then decided I’d rather sleep in and go later. However, Philp and I planned to meet and leave at 7am. After getting up and waiting for him until about 9am, I went back up stairs and back to sleep. Slept until about 10:30, it felt great. And I felt like it wouldn’t be the end of the world if Philip squirmed about where I was a little. I also really needed to spend some time with my Heavenly Father and get some footings after feeling that Philp was embarrassed of or by me and that he wasn’t so much going to stick around and be my buddy for the conference. So I had a great nap/scripture study and I showed up to the RAI about 12:30. started talking to Rachel Sheffield at her Heritage Foundation booth. Philp found me and the day went on. We each went to separate sessions and didn’t really talk most of the day. He spent most his time with Chandra and Julie. I try to not let it bother me. Attend sessions with Thomas. Tuesday evening- there’s a special reception for Elder Russel M. Nelson who’s just arrived at the conference, at the Holiday Inn. We all head over there and are fed fancy food in a small room. The YSA’s all swarm around each other. After we change and decide to watch demographic bomb. I am ready to go after. Want to leave with Philip but he wants to hang out with the girls. When it’s clear everyone’s going to bed, we head home. Stay up all night planning Irealand, buying train tickets to Brussels, looking at hostels, etc.
Wednesday Get up early for leadership meeing at 8am after 3 hours of sleep. Philip late again. I leave early to get to conference. He spends day with Julie/ Chandra. Comes to last leadership conference. I stay out and plan Ireland some more. Go to closing session where Elder/Sister Nelson speak. Listen to Dutch delegates debate the WCF letter we present for policy initiatives. Then we all take pictures with Elder Nelson. Decide to look for a market together, and Philip and I pack up to go to Brussels. Find a cute market. Realize at 8:15 we’re late and gotta go! Take a taxi to the station, split for a second to manage luggage, and I miss the train.