Coffee-Shops, Red Light District, and KFC, what a weekend!

Hey everybody it's my birthday today!(or yesterday I just wrote the beginning of this post yesterday) I have hit the big 25, I'm now in my late twenties, how weird is that. I don't think it matters very much as I don't look a day over 16 still. I have quite a lot to share with you guys so this is probably going to be a fairly long blog post as it sums up my entire weekend which was pretty full all things considering. So today I was sung happy birthday on my own dutch fruit tart cake, that tasted a bit like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, anyway it was very different. Sorry I cant decide on a font, I prefer handwritten fonts to the usual. And sorry I know this post is super late but I wasn't in the mood for writing yesterday, it was my birthday after all and I didn't want to.

The Dutch's happy birthday song, but very cool. Sunday my host parents took me out to a restaurant that we all thought was an American Restaurant here in the Netherlands as literally that is there theme. When you walk in there its like walking into a jungle safari place with American places, themes and the likes plastered everywhere. They even have a replica of a 1950's convertible car hanging from the ceiling. The place was called Yankee Doodle(very yank huh?) but it was far from American.

The hosts and cooks there spoke dutch(I'm getting quite used to perfecting my blank stare, it's pretty sad actually) and the food well it tried to be American but it tasted dutch. The Dutch do not season their food like Americans, but I'm not going to do yet another post on that particular subject. But I must say everything closes way too early here, but more on that later. Also today when I went to go get a postcard for my dad I was told after the store clerk spoke dutch to me that I didn't look like I spoke English because every other person who look like me..(ie black!) speak something other then English. Now if only I can understand Dutch, it would be so much easier I think. Alright so that was Sunday, now on to Saturday.

Saturday I went out with what I am calling my new friends Robijn, and Ria, they're both students and of course they both speak dutch and English but neither are their native tongue. Ria is from Aruba and Robijn is well I forget actually, but I know she's not from here. Anyway they took me to Groningen City Centre which is the place to be. It's similar to Baystreet in Emeryville only it's..like 10 times as big. It's huge and gosh everything is so bloody expensive here!

Before that I had my dutch class its every Saturday morning from 10-12, and I actually dont like it as much as I thought. But I'll get over myself I think. I wish I could understand a bit more and I wish I didn't feel so behind all the time. I take the class with two other Au Pairs, one is from Thailand who has been here for 6 months already and the other is from South Africa whose language is very similar to dutch. She actually understands Dutch but she just cannot speak it back. As you can see as I've only been here for almost two weeks, I feel very behind like I'm constantly playing catch up.

Also that Saturday night I feel this is important as I love KFC, I really do and I'm totally depressed now as I write this. We went out to KFC here, and I found out that the one in the Netherlands ONLY serves Corn and Coleslaw as their sides...no mac and cheese or potaoes etc..*sobs* Alright and if that wasnt bad enough they only have breast, wing, and drumstick...I'm still trying to figure out where the hell did the thigh go, thats my favorite part of the chicken. But on the plus side, they sell this amazing chicken wings, they call it spicy but its not, and they have french fries as well, of course you have to buy your ketchup!They have every fast food place they have in California except for Taco Bell, that's not here. Matter fact there isn't any Mexican places over here, and I can see myself craving a burrito later on, and I'm already sad about that. Oh yeah and one other thing I totally found out this Saturday.

My Host mom had given me a brief explanation but Robijn and Ria, had explained it even more. Okay when you see a place that's called a Coffee-shop, it's not an actual place to truly buy coffee. If you want to buy that, you have to go to a Cafe, as the word Coffee-shop.

 Well that is code for Cannabis/Marijuana, as each place has a bit of the plant that symbolizes what weed is, I'll show you a few pictures of what I mean. Each person here if they want can go into these 'Coffee shops' and get a certain amount of the drug per day, because that's all legal here. I'm not into that, but it sounds a bit fun to eat a brownie with it...when in Rome and all that, but then again that's not my scene!

Also, we made our way(my host mom and I) on total accident into the red-light district of Groningen which I was told is fairly small considering Amsterdam’s! I was uncomfortable as was she. There were women in windows, and if you made eye contact they would smile at you and then start giving you a show. I didn't look, the minute we started passing these red lights, I was looking elsewhere I was extremely just not ready for that. You know since prostitution is legal here, and they have to pay taxes and have to take a few medical exams a month. So now it's a 'good' job. I'm not one to judge, but it's not for me.

Saturday is also where I learned that while mostly everything is expensive here(I brought two things for my hair that would have cost me $8 in the States, it was 16.90 euro here, which is $23.12) Yeah if I didnt need it, I wouldn't have gotten it. But I digress what I was saying was tax is always included in the price, its' their law. So I got a hat and mitten's set from H&M and it said 5 euros so I was trying to get some tax out and my friend is like no, its already included and it was, I was stunned. Everywhere you go, including the traitorous KFC is tax included!

Today which is Tuesday was pretty mellow, I took care of Brian in the morning again, and then when he had his morning nap at 11am, I went out for a 3-4 mile bike ride, I'm not sure how long to be honest but I was gone an hour. I went around the parts of the neighborhood and bicycling path I was shown just last week. I'm trying to commit it to memory. Another exciting thing, my cell phone is supposed to arrive tomorrow. I don't know why I'm getting all excited as I have no friends over here really. Gosh it kind of feels like I'm a kid all over again trying to make friends, only now you have the internet for that.

I'm afraid this post didnt have a lot of pictures I keep forgetting my to bring my camera out with me, not to mention it takes horrible pictures at night even with the flash. It's time to upgrade that is for sure. They have some strange animals here, I saw a cross between a duck and a geese, not sure what it was to be honest and my host mom didn't either. This post wasnt as long as I thought either. Oh and one more thing I thought worth mentioning, in America they do not have Lipton sparkling tea, they do here, and Dutch people love the stuff, I like it too, but its very fizzy so I prefer it without. And on that note with my randomness, I am finished! Until next post guys!