It’s that time once again! I have been receiving some emails from a few friends of mine asking where the hell I am and what the hell I have been doing. So I have decided to once again write a long story about my adventures in Holland.

Integration!

Integration has become a large part of my daily routeing. I have devoted my self to becoming an American chameleon in hopes that one day I will understand what it is to be Dutch.

My latest integration course was the Sauna. Now I have talked about this Sauna before! It is a place of relaxation where individuals go to get naked and enjoy there day. While paying a flat fee you have the entire day to relax. I like to start my day off with a Turkish bath then I am off to the sauna which is around 80 degrees C. Then I run under the cold shower (hate this part) then it is off to the hot tube and from there I might dip my feet into the foot pool or cruse on back to the sauna. This is a great thing to do with people you don’t mind being naked in front of for example your partner or a good friend but what about the parents of your boyfriend. That’s right…I went to the sauna with Marks parents. I have been avoiding this situation for about a year now. But when they asked a few weekends ago I just couldn’t refuse. Mark and I had talk it over for about an hour before I finally said, “Fuck it, I going to have to do it sooner or later so I might as well get it over with, but I am not going to hang out with them the whole time we are there!” and so the guide lines where set and we where off to the sauna. At first it was a little weird. The rules are that you must shower before entering into the sauna. Of course this is a large communal shower. So…we showered together and while I was try to keep my eye contact and look cool, inside I was laughing my ass off. I couldn’t help it, the situation was too funny. There I was naked, standing in front of my boyfriend and his parents talking about when we are going to have dinner. Once the dinner time was decide I dashed off to start the race at the Turkish bath. Time went by and Mark and I enjoyed each other company. We laid in the sun, went swimming and had some soup. Then it was dinner time. Now when sitting down for a meal you must wear your robe. This makes no sense to me! While you are sitting at the dinner table you can see nakedness everywhere! So why not eat naked to! Perhaps they are afraid of pubic hair. Dinner was great. Then they asked us to join them in the sauna and once again I thought, “Fuck it! I am here…why not!” everyone was very excited for the next sauna because they where doing something extra that night. They where going to throw water with essential oils over the scorching coals then take a towel and fan everyone down so that you sweat every last bit of water out of you. This is very heavenly but not when you are cramped into a tine room with about 30 other sweating bodies waiting to get fanned down but the man with a beer belly. Once the painfully long 15mins of fanning is over it’s outside for a popsicle and some cold air! At this point I was thinking wow that wasn’t bad. In fact I really liked it but I am happy it is over. I was sitting away from the 30 naked people who where all chatting about how nice the smell was of the essential oil. Then suddenly Mark is telling me to, “hurry up….it’s time to go back in for round 2” my reply, “I not done with my popsicle! Go ahead with out me!” in the end the Bouman family convinced me to head back into the blistering flames of sauna-vill. Once the 2^nd and final round was done I felt great! I decide I would cool down by sitting on a bench outside. It was at this point when Mark informed me that I had to go to the cold bath. If you know me well I hate cold water. Mark went on to tell me that I had to do it because it is very bad for your head if you don’t cool it down quickly. So I went with the entire family watching me as my face went from relaxation to I will kill you for making me do this.

Queens’s day!

Every year the Dutch celebrate the birthday of there Queen. This year was no different! They dress up in orange and parade around the city with beer, pot, mushrooms, and any other drug they can find to celebrate there very own Queen. I had the chance to work this lovely holiday (O yeah, I got a job as a bartender at a club in Amsterdam). In the time period of 3 hrs. I filled some billion cups of beer and saw so many great outfits! Then Mark and the gang picked me up to head off into the overly crowed city. We hitchhiked our way on to a boat to cruse the canals and then it was off to some party and by the time 9pm came around it was bed time! Queens’s day is a great time but next year I am not going to walk the entire city but just simply stay in one spot and watch all the craziness pass me by!

May 5^th

Is a day of celebration! It was on this day about 60 years ago that the Netherlands was freed of the Nazi grip! On the 4^th of May at 8pm there are two minuets of silents. The Queen lays flowers at a memorial and then the entire country goes back to the way it was. I watch in amazement. No one seems to care. I live and sleep in a house that was built before the wars. Think of the stories it could tell me. I can see the bridge that so many fought for and died for. I live next to a veteran’s memorial and I have no clue what it says. Are we so self absorbed with video games, computers, music, fashion, money that we don’t notice how important it is that the Nazi’s didn’t win. If they had won Holland would not exist. German would be spoken through out Europe and maybe even in the States. I live on an old battle field and I don’t even notice just like the rest of Holland. How modern of me!

That is it for integration. I will now leave you with a photo to show how I have been integrating into the Dutch culture. And a link if you would like to see more!

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bellaveraksc/album?.dir=a3bfre2&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/bellaveraksc/my_photos

Miss you all!