Brinner with the fam

Every week my friends and I have a family dinner. I love them and feel very blessed to have met such wonderful people with my program. This week we decided to have breakfast for dinner. Julie made blueberry pancakes, I made a giant omelet, and Andy made crepes for dessert. Jess brought the blueberries, bananas and WHIPPED CREAM, and John provided the kitchen and orangensaft.

Much whipped cream was consumed during our brinner.

You can even eat it with a knife.

Andy was so excited for crepes that he did a little dance. It doesn't really look like he's dancing in this picture, but when he dances in real life, it still doesn't really look like he's dancing... just kidding, I love your moves Grandy.



Yum yum yum yum yum. We gets REAL excited for cinnamon.

Look, Anna, I'm not the only one with a grumpy face!

Autumn in Aberdeen is beautiful.

The mixture of sun and rain, the yellowleaf carpets softening the treacherous cobblestone streets, the noisy raven visiting the tree outside my kitchen window, the vines on the buildings turning crimson. What a vacation from life. I feel like I'm in a dream. Hope College, Taco Bell, the Chillicothe Public Library, Nicoliolshkins, everything is so far removed.

I'm in love with my classes. One of the Birth of Modernity lectures last week was about David Hume's problem with not knowing who we are, because our experiences shape who we are, and we are constantly changing. The professor gave an example of an old janitor and his broom. The janitor has been using the broom for years and over time has needed to change the handle, and then change the head of the broom, and then the handle again, etc. So is it still the same broom? I've been having so many new experiences lately that often I feel really disconnected from myself. The Ella that boarded a plane September 4th is much different from the one sitting here typing right now. But this is a good thing. I came here to grow.

I don't know if teaching is just different here or if I just got lucky choosing classes, but my mind is so full right now and I'm learning so many new things. This history Birth of Modernity class is amazing. As is my Literature, History and Thought: 1848-9/11. I am just realizing how much our lives are governed by culture, and how silly it all is sometimes, and how much there is to learn! I feel sorry for the people coming hundred of years after us, they will have even more to learn. But I suppose by that time humans will all have little memory chips embedded in their brains and won't have to take time to go to lectures and read and think. So my history class is about Europe and Enlightenment and Romanticism and stuff that I've only had hazy conceptions about. My literature class is also taking a whole new approach for me. We are focusing more on literary theory (right now Russian Formalism and Marxism) and historical and social context and less on just reading. Everything is so interesting and daunting and new, I feel like my mind is going to explode (in a good way). And when that happens, I have good old straightforward ancient Greek to study. I love learning new languages.

Four Friends Have an Adventure

One fine Saturday in October Ella, Andy, Hannah, and John took a train to Stonehaven. They wanted to hike t0 Dunnottar Castle.


They passed many beautiful cliffs on their way to the castle. Andy and John thought the cliffs were so beautiful that the two boys decided to climb one instead of taking the path.

After they reached Dunnottar castle, the four friends went exploring. Ella's camera died and she couldn't take very many pictures. But Dunnottar was a beautiful ramble of ruined buildings that Ella thought would be perfect for playing hide and seek in.

Nobody lives in Dunnottar anymore except for hundreds of happy snails. John and Andy wondered if the snails were truly happy, but Ella knew better because she was a snail-whisperer.

The End.

Hiya

It's October!!!!!! Oh happy month. Crunchy leaves on my way to class, cold wind blowing through my thin, not-so-flannely shirt. I love it. Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I knew this would happen. Once again, I have many stories that will never make it here and maybe no one will ever hear. Oh well. I have successfully(?) completed my first week of lectures! That's right, I have nothing scheduled on Fridays. Three day weekends every weekend. Which is good because then I have more time to travel. Annnnd there was a conflict with my King Arthur class tutorial (all the classes here have a lecture and then a separate tutorial in a smaller group) but I figured everything out, by dropping my Lexis/Semantics class and picking up History, Literature and Thought: 1848-9/11. Also, Jess and Julie are both in my new class. Yay.

Last weekend Jess, Julie, John, Hannah and I went to the Isle of Skye! It was gorgeous, and many exciting things happened. My favorite part of the trip was going to the Faerie Glen. Rounded green hills with ferns and trickling streams and sheep (magic sheep?) and rock circles and coins and marbles and little trails. It was amazing. I wished I could play fairy princesses there with Nicole. It would've been the ideal location. There were even the stone ruins of an old house there, all covered in green moss and overgrown with trees. I also saw lots of hairy highland cows during our trip. I even got to pet one, named Hamish. He is a bit of a celebrity, standing around, getting his picture taken all day and eating fresh veggies from doting fans. Apparently those kinds of cows are usually butchered at 3 or 4 years old, but Hamish was saved from mouth and hoof disease years back, and now he is just a pet cow really, and 16 years old. I think. I also bought myself a "Teach yourself Gaelic" book during the trip. When spoken, Gaelic is quite gutteral, not unlike Dutch, but the way its spelled is just gorgeous. All the signs on the roads and in the towns on Skye and in the Highlands were in Gaelic and then English. It was amazing. So someday when I'm not trying to teach myself ancient Greek, I will tackle Gaelic.

Soon I will be meeting up with my friends and three other Americans for dinner. Funny how we Americans seem to stick together, and I always thought it was odd when the foreign students at Hope are always hanging around each other. It's just easier I guess. I did spend some time with my flatmates last night. Kim, Rebekah, and ____ (I feel really bad but I still don't know how to say/spell the Bulgarian girl's name. eeek!) and I all went to the Aberdeen Sports center together last night. I bought a month long membership (18 pounds! inspiration for working out) and we spent 45 minutes in the "Engergy Zone" (cheesy, i know). It's pretty amazing there. The weight/cardio room is ten times bigger than the Dow's, and it was all just built. So you can bike/run on the treadmills, etc, and you get your own personal t.v. screen attached to the machine. I hadn't realized you could hear without headphones (i hadn't brought mine) so I watched some silent soccer.

Until later, cheers,
Ella

I love Scotland

So far, everything has been really great here: my flatmates, my new friends, the Scottish weather, the Mars bars, the pubs, the churches. I'm sure I won't be on a happy high for the next three months, since soon the weather will get wetter and colder and darker (11am sunrise-3pm sunset=yikes!) and classes will actually start and I won't be able to hang out and chill 24/7, but I'm having an excellent start to this semester. Yesterday I met with my adviser and here are my classes: New Testament Greek Language I, Words and Meaning: Lexis and Semantics, Birth of Modernity: Politics, Culture and Science in Europe 1700-1870, and (this one is going to be my favorite) Arthur in Medieval Welsh and Gaelic Tradition. Yup, that's right, a class all about King Arthur. :) :) :)

There is still an empty room in my flat, but I'm starting to get to know my other flatmates. There are three Scottish girls, one from Edinburgh, one from Glasgow, and one from Aberdeenshire. Another girl moved in last night from Bulgaria. In the flat across the hall are girls from all over: England, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden, France, and somewhere else. There are soooo many international students here. It is really cool. And it's so weird when you meet up with other Americans. The other night, at a free dinner put on by the Aberdeen University Christian Union and local churches, I talked to a guy who was from Chicago. It was really weird.

Fresher's Week is crazy. On Saturday night, our whole Scotland Program group went out to dinner for Hannah's birthday. On our way back to Hillhead (where all our halls are) there were tons and tons and tons of people out going to the clubs and pubs. (There is a club called "Tiger Tiger" and I don't like clubs, but I think I'm going to have to go there once before the term is over.) And everywhere on the street were people handing out flyers and speaking on megaphones, trying to draw you out to their clubs. I have accumulated quite the collection of flyers. Tonight some friends and I are going out to a "Pub Quiz" with the Christian Union. Yes, that's right, the Christians here drink together. It is so weird not being on a "dry campus" like back in the states.

Well, I'm in Scotland Now

I don't know where the time went. One moment I was sitting in Tante Jos en Tante Bep's parlor trying to explain that I was Leo Vandervlugt's daughter, the next I am on the other side of the North Sea, wandering around Aberdeen and trying to find a store with bedding so I don't have to sleep on a bare mattress in my new room. If you want to find out about my visit to the great aunts or my Kermis experience, you'll have to ask me in person the next time I see you, because too much stuff is happening and I need to start recording my Scotland adventures.

Jess and I were supposed to meet Edith, the program director, at the Aberdeen airport. But we didn't. Our flight from A-dam to Heathrow was about 30 min late, and the lines to get through border security were really, really long. So we missed our connecting flight by about, oh, ten minutes. Because annoying airport lady wouldn't let us go in the shorter line or cut in the long line, even though we explained that we were going to miss our flight. But I shouldn't have gotten angry because everything worked out and we got on another flight to Aberdeen 2 hours later. We had to pay for a taxi to get to Hillhead, and we missed lunch, meeting with the group, and important information. But so far, we are not suffering from any repercussions because of that. It was only annoying that we had to venture downtown (a forty minute walk) to find bedding for my bed, and we did not know where the shopping was downtown, only a vague direction. And it was getting late, 5:30, and we weren't sure when the stores closed. But we made it to Primark and I found some cheap sheets and a duvet in time. Jess and I also had a near death experience when we tried to cross the street and looked in the wrong direction and a car came zooming at us out of nowhere. The little green man light at the crosswalks is now my new bestfriend.

On friday our whole group drove to Arbroath, to see the ruins of Arbroath Abbey. It was amazing. There are pictures on my facebook, check them out.

All the trees of the field will clap their hands

Yesterday and today have been very busy, but now Jess and Ome Maarten en Tante Coby and I are all sitting in the living room, relaxing and watching Andre Rieu on the television. There is a creepy lady singing opera and dressed up as a doll. Angelee, this could be your future. Just kidding. You'd better be reading this, Ang, because that is the second special comment I've made just for you.

Well, yesterday Jess and I ventured off alone to Amsterdam (No Plan in Amsterdam '09). And we sat on some really sketchy seats in the train because we weren't sure what we were doing. But we got there, we bought a map, and we set off, without consulting the map. Well ok, I exaggerate, we did look at the map, but we didn't settle on a destination. Our strategy for the day was to wander the streets until we came to a church or large ornate building, then consult the map to see where we were, and set off again. We did find our way to the Anne Frank house, because we both wanted to see that. It was amazing. It's been at least ten years since I've read her diary, but the museum had excerpts painted on the walls, which was really cool.

Ok Ang, we just decided that you are more like the lady who is about to sing on t.v. now. She had voluptuous dark hair. On second thought, maybe not. For those of you who were wondering, she is singing "The Earth Song" and there are little children in white standing behind her for backup.

But the Anne Frank museum was really great. I wanted to cry a little when we got out. After that, we decided to go to the botanical gardens. To get there we walked through many streets, walked past many "coffee shops," and saw many people. The gardens were amazing. Jess and I were really excited about all the trees and ran around the greenhouses like children. But it was awesome because there were little paths and bridges and a catwalk up in the trees.

Today Jess and I were supposed to go on a bike tour with Gert en Joke, but the wind was too strong, so instead, we went to the dunes to hike. It was beautiful. Sand and trees and grasses. The leaves were starting to fall, so it was crunchy underfoot. And it smelled good. Leaves are probably the only things that smell good when they decay. And while we walked, we could hear the distant rush of the ocean, until the trees got thinner and shorter and dissapeared. We hiked over a giant sandy dune, and then we could see the beach. Jess and I took our shoes off and jumped over the waves and stole shells from the sea. It was so beautiful. I love the ocean. Then in the afternoon we went to Warmond with Gert and Joke and took a boat tour around some lakes and stopped at Kaag island where a little village was.