Groeten van het strand

Hello! I apologize for the severe lack of blog updates and failed uploaded photo albums. Spring has sprung in the Netherlands and the weeks have been filled (mostly) with gorgeous weather of the kind that causes sun burns. Last weekend Zach, Matt (the newish trainee here from Niagria on the Lake, ON) and I travelled to Schoorl to see Dustin and the new 'trainee' Janelle. We departed after supper on friday night and arrived only at 10pm. Although riding on the train is an extremely tiring experience for me, I absolutely love travelling through the country and seeing all of the fields that are bursting from the black soil. Saturday was again a beautiful day which we spent strolling through the little town of Schoorl, and walking for hours along the beach watching the dozens of kites dive and flip in the strong winds. The area around Schoorl feels very much like the prairies once you actually get to the sea. After the bike through the dunes to the sea, you're spit out in a field that lets your eyes wander as far as they can see. If you climb up the dike and look to your left you see fields forever, dotted with little farm houses, cattle, sheep, or camels (I know, I know, I have no idea why there are camels there). To the right is the never ending sea with hazy windmills seemingly floating in the distance. And straight ahead? A combination of the sea and green fields, with the sand and dike you're standing on as a divider. I can't even begin to accurately explain the beauty of this, although it's a sight that often you have to quickly experience because the wind is often so strong atop the dike that you have to brace yourself so it doesn't blow you over. So after spending hours walking along and enjoying a drink on the beach we returned back to the broederschaphuis and began our task of the weekend: American cake! When I attempted to explain this to my co-workers they asked multiple times if I meant tart, which I definitely did not.

Our cake...was made succesfully by five of us, although ahem, I think that 3 of them really just provided the music (soundtrack to Robot Unicorn Attack 'tuurlijk (obviously)). Dustin and I were quite taken aback and humored when we poured the batter into the pan and it was a layer about 2 cm thick. We realized that this was actually a good thing since we both couldn't wait very long for the cake to be baked. Well, it baked in about 5 minutes which was only enough time to make icing! Thankyou mother for those countless times you let me/asked me to make icing and I was grumpy about it because it made my arms hurt. In multiple situations I have been the only person who knows how to make icing from scratch. Anyways, since the cake was so thin, most made a cake sandwich out of it with a thick layer of icing in the middle as well as the on the top. We took a piece to a man we know and Dustin's coworker Hans, who thoroughly enjoyed the cake which was a surprise since the Dutch aren't found of extremely sweet things like we are (or maybe I am ha). Sunday was our Canadian breakfast. I quite appreciate that Dustin's co-workers are willing to try what we make no matter how strange it sounds to them ('what??? potatoes for breakfast????').. We finished the day off in Alkmaar walking through the streets since it was shopping sunday. For the most part we looked for flip flops for matt but I found an awesome pair of kicks for only 9 euros. I definitely regret not purchasing them. Naturally a stop was made at Bagels & Beans (by far our favorite coffee shop similiar to Central Perk), and although the entire place was full we managed to all cram into a corner in the back (and used the baby changing table as a seat actually). It was wonderful.

The sun is now waiting for me! Enjoy the snow for me :)