Maria Visits Amsterdam

March 9, 2006

Hello everybody! sorry for not having sent a report this past month, I've been very busy, plus here in France we had a two week break, and then there was a problem with the house computer's internet and after 3 weeks it finally started to work again, sorry... Anyways, my new school is really fun and I like the people there!! my friends are really nice and I've to meet a lot of new people. I love my host family too! I love my brothers like I love my own brother and sister back home,  there isn't one day that we are not laughing and teasing each other, especially with Theo the 12 year old. But my first host mom gave some bad news: my third host mother had a breast cancer surgery so they are not going to be able to host me because she is going to have to take chemotherapy and she won't feel confortable with me there and not being able to give me a lot of attention or take really good care of me, and I think that if I went there I wouldn't enjoy going through all that... but the problem is solved and they already found a third host family and it's good because I know them already because they were my friend's first host family and they are really really nice! =D and I am really happy they decided to host me and take me into their family.

So three weeks ago we had a two week break from school and I called my cousin that lives in Holland and asked him if I could go there and spend some time at their house. So I went to the Netherlands for 2 weeks and it was amazing! my cousin lives in Den Haag; the first day I visited that city and it's pretty amazing how countries totally change even though they are right next to each other.The next day I went to Amsterdam and I was amazed with the architecture, the houses are incredible and look very old from the outside but are really modern in the inside! oh! and some of them are tilted, you would be able to see it on the pictures I am sending; while in amsterdam, it was really funny because my friend and I got lost in the Red Light District which is a very particular zone but I am not going to go into details of what it is ... if you know, you know what I'm talking about hehe. I think Amsterdam is the city that has the most museums I have ever seen! they have a museum for the craziest things you can imagine, and it is really interesting!. The following day we went to Delpht which is really famous for their tiles, they make them with  a special blue and white material ( i forget the name) and it's really pretty. The weather was really crazy over there because it really cold and it suddenly started snowing, then it stopped came out and then it started snowing again and so on...oh! and by the way the snow was really cool because  my cousin's house is by the beach !!! and because I am from Flordia, I still can't get over it when it snows and I love it!.  I am a big fan of soccer and I got the chance to go see a soccer match: Ecuador vs. Netherlands in Amsterdam and the ambiance was amazing! because there was a good  amount of ecuadorians there and we were all cheering for our team even though we lost 1-0 but it was a lot of fun and we played really well.

Right now, I'm just enjoying myself while I'm here, and the eurotrip is coming up!! I am so excited and I can't wait for it, plus I'm also happy because winter is almost over because the winter here has been so long and I can't wait for spring!!! but it's really weird bedcause from day to day it just ... snows... and we're in march now...

Well, I think it's all for now, and I will be keeping you informed with what's up with me while I'm here.

Bisous!