Hey everyone!

I know you haven't heard from us in a while. We've been very busy catching up on people last-minute and preparing for our adventure in Memphis. All went well, we've arrived safely at the University of Memphis. It's now our fourth day here and we're loving it so far. We've made some new friends and hope to meet more people soon :)

In this blog, we'll update you on our Memphis adventure. Sometimes we'll put together one blog for the both of us or individual blogs, but we'll be keeping you updated for sure! The reason we chose to do this in English is because we want our English speaking friends to be able to read this as well :) We are considering putting up a Dutch blog too, but it depends how much time we have to update both. So, let us tell you what we've been doing…

LENA: The past few days have been quite exhausting, but FUN at the same time. We're actually surprised that what we've heard about the States is true. Everything is bigger here, the cups, the portions of food, the cars, the buildings, everyone drives a car, there are hardly any bikes (not to mention bikelanes) and walking anywhere is pretty much a no-no. Thank God for our friends with cars!!

Anyway, when we arrived at Memphis Airport, our good ol' friend Donald picked us up at the airport and drove us to the University. Before we left the airport, though, he was kind enough to mention that he hadn't driven a car for eight months! NICE! So, we all hung on tight with our seatbelts on and made it to the campus alive…{#emotions_dlg.tongue_out} We checked into our apartments, the Carpenter Complex (note: we'll be getting a P.O. box for y'all to send any mail to! ;P) We've been told that these are the nicest apartments on campus and I think I agree. We share our apartment with three other people and there's two bathrooms. So, not bad, huh?

On Friday, there was orientation day where we had Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast (how American!), we got our paperwork done and made our way to Walmart to get our primary necessities (read: pillows, blankets and food!), because we had none at our apartment. Twas a good day for Walmart, let me tell ya that! Every international student carried an average of twenty plastic Walmart bags to fit their stuff. Lol! It was so funny to see. Later that night we met up with Alex, a girl who we met during orientation (she was one of the teamleaders). She took us to a salsa club called Rumba Room at downtown Memphis. It was so much fun to see people enjoy salsa dancing. I tried, but let's just say that dancing's not for me.

On Saturday, we started our day with lunch at a pizza place and then went on a tour through Memphis. We stopped by the main locations, such as the Stax Museum, the Lorraine Motel (where Martin Luther King was assassinated), Sun Studios (where Elvis Presley recorded music) and the famous Beale street. Pictures and videos will be up soon! That night, we also had a dinner party organized by V.I.S.A., an organization that welcomes international students, which was very fun! Lotsa food and we met nice and interesting people there. On Sunday, which is gonna be one historical day for me, I cooked my very first home-cooked meal in the States after we shopped at Target. Yep, trying not to get fat :D Hehe!

Anyway, that's it for now, more posts will follow soon. And as I said, pics and vids will be up soon as well! So keep ur eyes open and check back regularly :P See you soon!

-Lena-

JESPER: The last week before arrival was an exhausting week as we met with many people in Holland before we left to the States. Our original idea was to take it easy and get well prepared for Memphis and that is exactly what we did, but we couldn't refuse to hang out with some of our good friends. Even though, we didn't had the chance to meet with all our friends we still had great fun. The last two days were crazy as I started to get more and more nervous coz my mind was in the States while my body was in Holland. Everybody around me noticed that coz what will happen? How will it be? Did I pack everything I need? What else did I forgot to do? And so on!

We left Thursday morning at 07.20AM and had an emotional moment by saying bye to our families. We love both of our families and we appreciate it that they came with us to kick our butts at A'dam Schiphol airport to USA!:-) American Airlines is great and are good in what they do and we didn't have any problems at all during our flights from A'dam to London, from London to Chicago and from Chi-town to Memphis, TENNESSEE! I noticed that Lena was nervous for the whole idea mostly coz she will miss her family and don't know exactly what to expect as she didn't ate almost anything while I was eating A LOT! AnyWHO, after some immigration problems from a cranky immigration dude in Chicago, our good American friend Donald picked us up and drove us to the Carpenter Complex on campus of the University of Memphis. Lena and I are at the same building so this was a great benefit for us that we are as close as it gets. After a short unpack-session, we decided to eat at some kind of restaurant grill bar called 'TRACKS' with the other international students (they come from Germany, France, Japan, Mexico, Sweden, China and more) and NEW American friends we've met in a short period of time. I ate a huge burger with huge fries and I simply loved it…

…last Friday was our orientation day where we did all the things we needed to do when we talk about pay the first fee for housing, talked to the VISA organization, get our student ID card and get ready to go to the first major thing: WALMART! It was amazing coz we were like up to 25-30 international students and we went to Walmart with an average bus and it was our first huge shopping moment so we ended up with at least 20 bags full of materials and food excluding the pillow, trashcan and sheets we needed to purchase. I enjoyed it very much and this is not something I will forget soon. Anyway, later that evening we went out with Alex who helped us out earlier that day and some of our international friends came along. We went to a Salsa club called 'RUMBA ROOM' where they teach salsa for the first half of the evening. The other half was basically showing your skills what later on became a hiphop night with a dance crew and all…it was a fun night, while we took dinner at 11.30PM…amazing!:D

Saturday was a beautiful day like all the other days. We are talking about 35 degrees Celsius (around 90 F) so I'm definitely working on my tan over here. We did a short tour with all the international students where we got to see all the things Lena mentioned before. AMAZING! Unfortunately, we could only get a global view, but we plan to visit this in our Memphis time, because they were all GOT-TO-SEE-THIS-THANG places. Later that night, we went to a house party from a girl named Amy who is the founder of VISA (Visitors and International Student Alliance). Probably, up to 40 -50 students were at that house getting to know each other and it was beautiful. Typical American home and typical burgers from the BBQ and we got to meet a lot of people who are from around the world…PRICELESS! I played some soccer with my friend from France to feel back home, but I felt already home the entire time…I really love Memphis and the people in it. Met some great Americans like Anna, Anaya, Caroline (from VISA) and many more. We talked about life, the world, USA, God and so much more. After that, I went out with some of my new friends and went down town to the famous Beale Street. It was SOOOOOOOOOOOO crowded but SOOOOOOOOOOO much fun. I took a 'Call-A-Cab' cocktail drink and showed my moves in a club called '152' and met + got to know nice people during that night. Thanks to Brian for taking us there. Btw, never expect to party with an American (Brian), German girl (Vanessa) and 3 Japanese dudes, it was off the chain…GREAT FUN!;-)

Sunday was a perfect day to do some shopping with the help from the people who works for VISA. Again, we did a lot of shopping, but it was really necessary. I probably spent over $400.- in 4 days, but it was worth it. Later on we ate a home cooked meal with Donald, Anna and Lena's roommate all made possible by Lena. A BIG APPLAUSE FOR THIS LOVELY MEAL! That's about it for now, later on this week I will post what I did from Monday - Thursday.

Check out many pictures relevant to this blog…keep yourself updated…don't be afraid to comment and do whatever…love from MEMPHIS, TN!:-)

-Jesper-