I have arrived

Hello everyone. apologies for the lack of posting lately, but I have been extremely busy, as you can imagine would be the case when a girl packs up and moves to a different country for three months, registers in a new university, gets to know the lay of the land, makes some new friends, and breathes a little. It has almost been one entire week that I have been in Scotland, and because of this way to much has happened that I cannot post it all, but I'll try to cover the basics.

It all started off as I should've expected it to start off.

I have a curse. This curse is the curse of move in day to college. Let me tell you about it.

Move in day freshman year goes as follows: Jess wakes up with one side of her face being the size of a bowling ball due to an infection post wisdom teeth removal. While packing her belongings, the electricity goes out in the house for many hours and does not come back on. After packing up the vehicle with all her belongings and getting in the car to drive to Michigan, the car decides to die. After repacking a new vehicle, the Chicago-land area decides to take part in a massive monsoon thus highways are extremely flooded which causes quite a bit of traffic.

Move in day sophmore year isn't quite as bad. However, the person that my roommate and I bought our loft from jipped us so we didn't receive all the pieces of the loft. While my loving mother did her best to put it together or find kind young men to put it together, she had a bit of a meltdown in thinking that I would have no where to sleep.

Move in day junior year (to Scotland) is by far the best. Jess and Ella hop on their plane from Amsterdam to Heathrow without a problem. 5:00 AM they're at the airport and on their way. Upon arrival in Heathrow they realize they don't have much time to get to their second flight. They decide to walk rather quickly. When they get to their next destination, customs, they realize the line is EXTREMELY long. They try to ask a incredibly kind airport worker who incredibly kindly declines them the ability to go in a quicker line because they're "just" students. They miss their next plan by 10 minutes. 3 hours later they are on the next plane to Aberdeen. Because the time of their arrival just magically decided to coincide with a lunch outing that the whole group and group director were going on, they had to fend for themselves for the rest of the day until the following day when we would met the group for campus tour, etc. But alls well that ends well. They hopped in a taxi, got to campus, got to their flats (however Jess was in a temporary flat for a few days as hers wasn't ready), walked downtown which the distance was unknown to the two of them, and got some food. Quite the eventful day!

I am finally settled in my new room. It's nice and cozy and I like it. There's a big window that gets lots of sun and since it has been so nice out lately I have been able to keep it open to get a wonderful breeze. It has only rained one day since I have been here, which really contradicts my expectations! However, I have been reminded that this will definitely not last. Our group took an excursion to the ruins of Arbroath Alley which was founded in 1178 by King William for a group of monks. The ancient stone walls were breathtaking and it was so cool being able to walk around and see where the monks slept, lived, etc.

On Sunday some friends and I decided we wanted to go to church. We didn't know anything about any churches around, but we heard that there would be churches outside our central building who would walk with us to their separate churches. We didn't know which one to choose since we didn't know anything about them but we chose one called New Life International Church. It ended up being a wonderful time with wonderful music, a great message, and even soup and bread and cookies after. We actually got to talking to some of the people our age and there is an age 18+ retreated in two weekends that we are going to go on! I forget where in Scotland it is, but they all said it's extremely beautiful and just a great time.

The Christian Union here at the uni is quite awesome. They hosted an international meal last night and there were TONS of people there and tons of delicious food. My friends from my program and I decided that we wouldn't talk much with each other, but would really make our best effort to meet new people. I met some amazing new friends and I'm really excited to get to know them better! Yesterday I met someone from Palatine and someone from Elmhurst which is SO close to Park Ridge, which is crazy. I also met an amazing lady named Tracy who is a practicing doc here in Aberdeen and she has 2 little boys aged 2 and 5 so hopefully I will get to play with them in the park soon.

This post is getting way too long, but those are some cool things that have happened lately! Here's the low-down on my flatmates. I have 2 from Scotland- Lauren and Camilla (she actually lived in South Africa til she was 7), one from Ireland- Bri, one from Hungary/France- Nikole, and one from Germany- Jana. I haven't talked with them all very much since we never all seem to be in the flat at the same time, but have had some good conversation with Nikole and Jana. Nikole loves salsa so I'm going to take classes with her and also help her with her English and she's going to help me with Spanish because she can speak many languages! Jana is really sweet and she just moved in yesterday, so I'm excited to talk more with her. It's extremely strange not living with good friends, but I really think it will be a good experience.

One more thing.. I finally got to register for classes today! I am taking "Literature, History, and Thought: 1848 - 9/11", "Romans, Celts, Druids, and Warriors", "Moral Philosophy", and "Psychology for Neuroscience and Sports Studies". I am so excited about all my courses. They all sound interesting and will all end up transferring as credits back at Hope and will help me meet my requirements from gen. eds. and my psych minor!

Everything here in Aberdeen is really good. I can't wait to begin classes next Monday and also for my trip to Isle of Skye this weekend. I am going to continue to meet new people, figure out Aberdeen, and trust God. Life has been so good and I am thankful for it every second of the day.

I love you all!

(pictures will hopefully be posted soon)

Every end is a new beginning

We have payed our last visit to a dutch bakery and made our last bike ride into town. I took my last glimpse of Teylingen and said goodbye to all my Voorhoutian friends. As my time in Holland comes to a finish there's nothing else I can be but thankful. What a wonderful ten days I have spent here. I have seen so much and learned so much! I have met some extremely wonderful people and have been shown amazing hospitality. While eating poffertjes (little dutch pancakes) at Kermis (the festival in town) with our friends Marijke, Petra, Sandra, and Anton, Ella and I mentioned how we really liked the mugs that we were drinking our hot chocolate out of. The next day... Anton and Petra brought us 2. Anton also brought me a little surprise of a container of poeder suiker (powdered sugar) because apparently I was scrapping the last bits of it off of our plate of pancakes ... and he noticed :) People are just extremely kind here and I have felt very welcomed.

Although I am truly going to miss Holland and everyone I have met here, I am soooo pumped to start my next adventure in Scotland! Tomorrow we are getting up at 4:15 AM to be picked up at 5:00 AM for our flight at 7:20 AM. We will move in to our flats and meet with everyone in our program for lunch. After that I think we have the whole afternoon free to explore! Ella and I will go grocery shopping and hopefully get a little bit of a feel for Aberdeen.

Thanks everyone for reading along my journey and I hope I haven't bored you too much yet. You should probably leave me a comment or four so I know what you're thinking about. I really do miss most of you. Well, probably all of you. Wish I could give you real life hugs instead of world wide web ones. (that was for you, Gus).

Well, take a look at the Nederlands Part 2 pictures in the link to the left! enjoy enjoy enjoy.

mucho amor,

Jessica Linn

Photos are up!

halllo.

my photos are now on the left side of my page if you scroll down a bit you should be able to see them! Ella and I have been busy hiking through dunes, frolicking in the North Sea, being Nederlanders and biking into town and going to the market, eating Dutch pastries and candy, taking boat tours to little islands that don't have grocery stores but have a grocery truck that comes through, running around castle ruins, visiting Great Aunts were not expecting us, who don't speak English, don't know who we are, but who bring us in and have a cup of tea with us. Life is good in Holland and I am learning a lot about a lot. It is very exciting. God has given me so much. I am very blessed. I can't wait to take all this knowledge to better serve His people.

miss you all. hope you like the pictures :)

my blogger homepage is in Dutch.. .good thing I can read Dutch...

hello hello hello!

some people are confused as to why I am in Holland (The Netherlands, same thing- remember?) So I thought I'd inform the general public. The reason being because I have a friend from Hope named Ella Vandervlugt who decided that Scotland would be her destination for a study abroad experience as well. Ella's father was born here in Holland so she has family here and while she was growing up she visited her often. She decided that since our semester starts fairly late and we will be going to Europe anyways, she might as well make a pit stop in Holland and brought me along as well :) So that is how I got this amazing opportunity to visit Holland before Scotland. It's really great though because family and family friends have been taking us all over and showing us all the great spots to visit since they know best. BUT, Our first solo adventure went down today...

No Plan in Amsterdam. That's what we called it.

We knew that this was a city that we must visit, so we went. Ella had actually never been to Amsterdam before, so it was new for both of us. We hopped on a train and about 45 minutes later were in Amsterdam's Central Station. The only thing we knew that we really wanted to do was to visit Anne Frank's house. This was an incredibly amazing experience. I couldn't believe I was actually standing in the room that for TWO whole years 8 people stayed in hiding. Can you even imagine not being able to breath in fresh air or hear a bird chirp or even go to a friend's house for two years? I definitely cannot even fathom that. My favorite part of the museum was that when Anne Frank was in hiding she had one magazine and a sticker book and she put some pictures on her wall to make it more cheerful and they were still there! That was so awesome to me. I learned so much about the German invasion in The Netherlands and how the Jewish people had to live. It was really a great experience and it was worth our whole trip to Amsterdam just to see that.

Afterwards we walked to the Hortus Botanicus (Botanical Garden). We spent lots of time there looking at all the plants, green houses, and just sitting in cozy little spots and people watching. It was such a beautiful place, I loved it. After this we went to a grocery store, bought some food, found a place of solitude amidst the chaos of the city and ate our dinner :)

I really loved the two main things that we did there. They were amazing. As for the city... not my favorite. Streets are extremely narrow, it is extremely crowded, people and more people and even more bikes whizzing past at all times. Usually I love cities, but this one.. not so much. There were some beautiful things to be found there like the canals (obviously) and some of the larger really old buildings, but the atmosphere there is not what I am usually looking for, to say the least. If you have exact places you want to visit like museums, etc., then it is fine- but as for just walking around, I think here I'd rather go to a quaint dutch village like Delft. so far my favorite. Even though that was the case, our time there today was wonderful and I am really happy we went. Anne Frank's museum was so interesting and the gardens were the best I've ever seen.

Still sending love from The Nederlands,

Jess

P.S.

Details like this will probably not be the case once everything starts getting busy...

P.P.S

It takes way too long to upload pictures on my blog, but once I do upload pictures on my facebook I will be able to post a link here and even if you do not have a facebook you will be able to see ALL of them which will be a lot more than I'd be able to put here.

Nederlands

helllllllo! I am currently sitting in the room Ella and I are staying in at her Tante (aunt) Coby and Ome (uncle) Marten's house. Before I begin discussing things any further.. I have a clarification to make for those that I misled. The Netherlands is to Holland just as America is to The United States. I wasn't really clear about that.. but now I am! There are provinces here.. I don't know how many, but the province we are in is South Holland... which doesn't really make sense to me because we aren't even that far south in Holland. But there is a North Holland province and a South Holland province and obviously many others, but we are in the South Holland province. The town that we are in is Voorhout. Tante Coby and Ome Marten's house is in the country with flower bud fields all around. There is also a couple goats (is that how do you pluralize a goat?) and the biggest bunny rabbit and a horse and many other creatures next to the canal that is right next to us. They have a HUGE garden behind us with the most beautiful flowers, all samples from Ella's dad's business Dutch Gardens. Flowers are huge in Holland... everyone has gardens and really awesome flowers. There are canals everywhere here. Parallel to all the roads and drive ways and such. The reason being because Holland is LOWER than sea level. Interesting, huh? This is probably the lowest altitude I'll ever be at... which is cool, maybe the air is richer here or something? So the canals have something to do with the low altitude and how the sea is higher and they help so the country doesn't flood or something to that extent. I haven't really got the science nailed down, but I mean it's really beautiful so that's cool.

Where to start where to start? From the beginning, I suppose. My apologies for those who aren't looking for something long to read .. there's just so much to tell and I enjoy writing! Also, apologies to my friends because I know my family is interested in lots of details.. so maybe everyone else should just skim? or skip to when the pictures start popping up?

SO, the flight here went really smoothly. Went through security, customs, etc. without one question from the grumpy workers. It was fabulous! The only problem we encountered was a 30 minute delay on the first flight because of leaky water or something, but that all got straightened out and we were on our way to Heathrow/London. Quite an interesting event occurred there! First of all, I was barely conscious as we made our way through that airport to our next gate because I took drowsy inducing dramamine way late in our first flight because it was through the night and I couldn't sleep and I thought that would be an important thing to do, but I took it with only 3 hours left in the flight which led me to be drowsy for many hours post landing. With all that said, we got to Heathrow at sometime the next day and when we found the gate and sat down Ella saw a girl with a sweatshirt on that read the word: HOPE. Not many people go around wearing hoodies that say things like HOPE ....UNLESS.... you go to Hope College! So she was kind of sitting crowded by many other people and since I was not in a good state of mind we just kind of like laughed about how ironic that was that we would see somebody from our small college in Michigan in a HUGE airport in London, but after the flight when we were getting our luggage (I was much more awake at this point) we saw her and I asked her if she went to Hope College and she was like Yeah! and then we noticed that she was wearing Dance Marathon pants and we were like oh man this is crazy. And it was. And we asked her what she was doing in Amsterdam and she said she is on her honey moon and that she is half dutch and has never been there so she came! God is really good at reminding you where you come from when your thousands of miles away... He always tends to show up :)

I already have written way to much and I haven't even made it to Voorhout..

Basically since our arrival we have been taking lots of walks and have taken 1 bike ride with many more to come. EVERYONE here rides bikes, and I honestly mean everyone. There are streets for bikes next to the normal streets and even some busier intersections have stop lights for bikes. The lifestyle is SO active here. I have yet to see one person that is obese. There are so many beautiful towns around here today we biked to Lisse and Sassenheim. We walked to this castle called Teylingen which is about a 10 or 15 minute away walk. It was built in the 1300s... it's beautiful. It wasn't open so we couldn't go super close so we are going to go back there on Wednesday so we can walk around it more. We also saw another castle on our bike ride called something like D'ever. 2 castles in my first full day here. Later in the day we went to Delft which is an AMAZING city with ancient buildings, beautiful canals, tons of terrace style restaurants, and so much diversity. I loved it.

My time in Holland has just begun seeing as we have 10 more days here. I'm really excited for everything and will definitely keep you guys updated. My memory card adapter card thing is in the bottom of my backpack under a lot of stuff and I haven't worked up the energy to get it out, but when I do I will upload pictures and then my stories will make more sense.

Thank you everyone for your prayers and support and love in sending me here on my first journey in Europe. Ella and I are now jamming to Sufjan Stevens and trying to wind down from the excitement of our internet working... I'll keep you as updated as I can.

love from The Nederlands,

Jess