My Autobiography: Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

I’d like to say that when I got used to the Netherlands, I was charmed, but no. I thought that it was a gloomy, rainy country. I slept until three in the afternoon the next, and I woke up by myself. And I then asked my mom what time was it was, (I thought it was lunch time,) and she said that it was three o’clock!

I played for the rest of the day with my Legos, superheroes, and other toys that brought on the plane. For the first since I heard the news, I felt excited!

I was tired when I got into bed that night, despite sleeping in for so late, and I looked forward to some interesting few weeks of unpacking and exploring.

If the day after we came to the Netherlands was a day of rest, the next day was a day of work. The air shipment had come along with lots of things like clothes, a little food, and other things. Looking back on it, we could have found everything we needed in the local stores, but we weren’t settled in enough yet.

We spent the few weeks exploring and unpacking. We would stay home for hours, sorting our things and trying keep order and then we go outdoors into the rain, wearing matching brightly colored raincoats, which we quickly figured out that the Dutch did not have.

One of my favorite places that we went to was Naarden. It was raining, of course, but I loved the fact that is a fortress town, with a huge canal serving as a moat and the hot chocolate! In a café there the best hot chocolate ever which you made by dipping a chunk of chocolate into hot milk. It was sweetened by amazing whipped cream that others drank in their hot chocolate, but I just ate plain!

It was a little scary when I first came, I got used to the rainy country. I started to like out neighbor, I liked the caramel waffles, I loved the crepe-like pancakes with the thick syrup and powdered, and I liked all the fresh air that came with biking.

After two weeks, my Auntie Em came with our beloved dog, Barnabas!!!!! It was great to somebody from home, and it was great to see Barnabas too. The sea shipment also came and we spent several days devoted to unpacking. However, we still didn’t have our beds, and most of our furniture assembled so, even when Auntie Em left, we still had to work on making the Melkpad home.

A few weeks after Naarden, it was my birthday. We went to a castle called Muiderslot. I loved it when I went to it, but at first I didn’t want to go. We had had brunch at Bagels and Beans, one of our favorite breakfast restaurants that served fresh bagels, homemade cream cheese, and freshly squeezed orange juice. I put up quite against going, but Mom and Dad insisted I go. To this, day, it is one of my most favorite places to visit.

Life was still crazy, the Netherlands was still rainy, and I missed my friends. But I had gotten out of the sinking sand and had found some firm ground to stand on.

Rome: The Early Days to the Fall

My First Post: Alexander the Great and Romulus and Remus

My Autobiography: Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

The issues basically started as soon we got to the airport. It was hard to say goodbye. With our dear friends surrounding us, including our Grandpa and Grandma, we set off to security and to our gate. But there was a problem: our flight got delayed for a long time, and I needed to save all the interesting stuff to do for the flight. What was a guy to do? We waited in the waiting room until we couldn’t wait any longer.

Finally, my mom took us to get a snack and by the time we returned we were beckoned into yet another waiting room and from there we landed onto a depressingly large plane. I ate candy that my faithful grandma had packed me and was (so my sisters tell me) more involved with it than the dramatic exit a chapter of my life was taking. It was fun at the beginning (by that I mean the first ten minutes), and the candy helped but after that, we were all so tired that we fell asleep.

As soon as I woke up, I got my first view of the Netherlands, and I thought it looked wonderful. An hour later we landed at Schipol, the main airport in Noord-Holland, and we were greeted by not much security, Daddy (who had left three weeks ago), and a Real American Starbucks. We picked up our luggage and went outside to wait for a cab. Due to circumstances beyond our control we had to wait a little bit for the cab and finally we reached Melkpad: the home of our dreams.

I thought it was perfect for us. All the doors were shut, and it was very dark inside, but Daddy explained that he wanted all the rooms to be a surprise. As we walked in through the door, Daddy showed us the small room on the left: a tiny toilet room with a minute sink. Ahead of us were two doors, and the right was the kitchen. We went into the kitchen and they were dazzled, I was anxious to see my bedroom.

Finally, after we toured the main floor, we got up to the second floor and we explored the toilet room, the bathroom, Ella’s room, and FINALLY mine. My first thoughts were “It’s so small!” and “Why do I have girl bedding?” and I had good reason to think these! My bed-adorned with a flower printed duvet- was rented but still, I wanted my masculine essence at least acknowledged! And as for my bedroom size, if I tidied it everyday it would suit my purposes, but it was small!

The exploration of all the trivial or “other” parts of the house was rather dull and so was the unpacking of all of our baggage, the air shipment arriving not ten minutes after our arrival. The really interesting part was when we went into town, which was a three minute walk. We snacked on “gevulde koeken” (round cakes with almond paste in the middle) and admired everything. The first thing that we admired was ABN Amro (the bank) which we found out to be pronounced as Ah-Bee-En Ahm-roe. In one word? BORING. And it took FOREVER. 

By the time we had walked around the whole of the town central, we were all exhausted (from the plane and from the walk,) and we were thoroughly tired of discovering new things. Every inch of the country seemed to scream at us "Welcome to the Netherlands!"

My Autobiography: Chapter 1

LAST BUT NOT LEAST

By Abe A.

(With Mia Susan)

Dedicated to my favorite (stuffed) friends: Scurvie and Pup

CHAPTER ONE

Hello. I was born into a family of girls. Was I happy about this? NO. But I’ve grown used the realty of my sisters. I know that some of my story will seem crazy, but I’ve grown used to it.

My story starts on a certain day. It was just a normal Friday pizza night. That night we were having my favorite pizza: New York Pizza. We were going to watch The Sound of Music and we jokingly called it “The Sound of Moo-sic” after a book involving cows. We were very happy that night, because my parents had just come home from the Netherlands and we had missed them.

The movie ended soon and my mom told me to go to bed. They took Ella, Sadie, and Mia into the office for unknown reason. Suspicious? I think so! Well I was somewhat thirsty, so I went downstairs to eavesdrop, or “get a drink.” I snuck to the office and started to listen.

They seemed to be talking about something important: I could tell it by their tones, and then I started to make sense of it: We were moving to the Netherlands for three years! I crept back to my bedroom and tried to make sense of it.

How did I feel? I didn’t want to go AT ALL, but then I always wanted adventure, and wasn’t this the perfect chance? I went to bed full of questions, but technically I wasn’t supposed to know so who could I ask?

The weekend started out to be pretty boring except for that evening when we went to Chick-Fil-A. I ordered chicken nuggets and as usual I ate whatever anyone couldn’t finish. I loved Chick-Fil-A: it spoke to me. We were just leaving when my family started talking about our move. They were trying to talk about it without having me know that we were talking about it. For instance;

“What will we pack for our short little vacation to the Netherlands?” Sadie asked.

“Well, because Holland is far away and because we are staying there three yea-… I mean weeks, of course we will pack a lot.” Mommy replied

“ I can’t wait to see how our little poochy-kins will react to our move, I mean trip of course…” Ella gushed.

See what I mean? Partly because of sin nature and partly because I wanted to show them how smart I was, I put in:

“Can I bring my toys to the Netherlands? Or will I outgrow them in three years.”

The shock was more that evitable. They stared at me as if I had just turned green. “You know?” They said in unison. He-he. I love a good joke. Soon we were all laughing and discussing room decorations. An hour later we were all gathered around the computer looking at bedroom textiles and one month later we had found the perfect house: Melkpad (which literally meant “Milk Path”)

There was only one slight issue: I had a bedroom the size of my mom’s old closet. I love toys. I have a lot of toys. What can I say? They are a lot of fun, and I spend all day playing with them. My current room was by no means big but wasn’t small. Plus we had a basement, and the basement at Melkpad was unfinished. Where would I keep all my toys? And plus, what would I do? In America I played spies with my sisters. And the backyard was big and spacious at home. I could spend hours getting the basement messy and we could not clean it up for days! But here every section of the house is occupied by someone at all times and thus we are inclined to do a daily scouring.

I had my doubts about this move. I was a little but afraid that I wouldn’t make any friends. What could I do, though? A thousand sleepless nights wouldn’t change the fact that we were indeed moving.