Merry Christmas from NL!

Hello and Merry Christmas-eve from the Netherlands!  I have had quite the journey the past couple days and am enjoying my time here so much!

On Wednesday, while I was still in Spain, I went to school for the last day of the year.  For the first hour-ish, we all had chocolate y biscocho (their thick and delicious version of hot chocolate and a pastry to dip in the chocolate!).  We then all went over to the community center for the Christmas celebration, where all of the classes sang a song in Spanish and in English, and awards were given out to 2 students from each grade.  Before all of this could happen though, the Reyes Magos (Three Wise Men) came to collect letters from the kids and ask what they want for Christmas :).

Los Tres Reyes Magos :)

My favorite class singing their song in English.  

After the assembly, all of the teachers went back to the school and had some food and drinks and then headed off back to Villarrobledo to continue getting ready for my trip.

Hours later, I was off to Madrid, and after a few hours snoozing and wandering around the airport, it was off to the Netherlands!

Nicki picked me up from the airport in Amsterdam and hung out there for a few hours before heading to Nicki's place in S'Gravendeel.  Here is the classic picture of the Amsterdam sign, complete with flying pigeon!

We also went to the Anne Frank house--wow, it was so powerful.  I want to describe it with all of these adjectives like 'wonderful', 'cool', etc, etc, but I can't, because in reality, it wasn't a wondeful thing that she and her family had to go into hiding there.  It was surreal to be there though, It was very moving to be in such a known place.

We walked around Amsterdam for a little while longer, had some dutch pea soup and cheese, hot chocolate, walked around more, and headed back to Nicki's place.

Today, we went grocery shopping, and got to see Nicki's town, and met her dad, mom, aunt, uncle, grandma, and her aunt's very fat cat.  Loved it. :)  Then, we came back and made some Wet Burritos.  In the Netherlands.  They were very delicious, here is Nicki enjoying them!

Well, that is it for now!  I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!!

Mary