After a harrowing 24 hours in two planes and a minivan, my family and I finally arrived at my Oma and Opa’s* home in the Netherlands. Our first stop of our year long journey. It was a long and tiring week, so I’ll just tell you about my three favorite days of the week.
On Tuesday, I went with Aba (my dad) and Yanai (my brother) to Madame Tussaud in Amsterdam, while the rest of the family walked around. Madame Tussaud was amazing. Even though the wax people on display weren’t really mad of wax, but some kind of plastic, it was still fun to pose with the statues that had uncanny resemblance to the real people. My favorite statue to pose by was Marilyn Monroe. I got to wear a dress that looked exactly like hers, and a short blond curly wig. And when I stood on the podium next to her, a wind blue from the floor and the dress blew upwards, just like the dress on the statue was. I also liked posing next to Messi, and George Clooney. The only letdown was the statue of Barack Obama, because it looked nothing like him! I loved Madame Tussaud and I hope to have a statue made of me someday, but then again who doesn’t.
The next day, I went to a prehistoric village in Eindhoven with my Safta**, and my uncle aunt and two cousins from Israel. There were many interesting activities. All the houses looked like the houses would in the prehistoric periods. At first we went to the blacksmith station. There was a man there that demonstrated how to make different tools that people used back in that time. It was very enticing to watch and we watched for half an hour. Then we tried out some old fashioned outdoor games. My favorite was walking on stilts. It made me feel so tall! Next, we all went to learn how to make fire from scratch. You have to take a piece of flint-stone with a sharp edge, and a flat piece of iron and rub them together to get sparks. Then you have to catch the sparks on a piece of fabric and wrap it in bark so the bark will catch fire. Then you throw the bundle of flames onto some sticks in a fire. Of course, I was the first to succeed. In fact I succeeded before the leader had a chance to finish preparing the fire pit! After that, I went with my dad to a station were you can make thinks out of natural clay, and the rest of the group went to sword-fighting, and archery. On the way to the clay station, we past the stinky pig pen and an icky hole in the ground full of wet clay. After I made an amulet out of clay, my dad and I went canoeing. The canoe was filled with water and his butt was wet for the rest of the day! I had a very educational and fun day at the prehistoric village.
On Saturday it was Milo’s 7th birthday! It was a pool party at my Oma and Opa’s house, and my family from the uncle, aunt and three cousins from the Netherlands were there. As well as some family friends we will be traveling to England with next week. We kicked of the party in the pool. I had a fun time swimming with my cousins and friends. After a while, my Oma told us all to get out of the pool and sit on the grass. She opened the garden gate, and a clown walked in. He looked like any other clown with his huge shoes and red nose, and he was rolling a big metal suitcase. The clown showed us a bunch of funny magic tricks and in the end he made us all balloons. After the clown left we went to eat cake, and when we were all finished we started a treasure hunt. The prize was a version of my brothers favorite stuffed animal. I had a great day, and I’m sure my brother did too.
This week was the first time that ALL my direct family had been together, in one place at the same time. Having all my family together was a bit difficult because one side speaks Dutch and the other side speaks Hebrew. I think it was a good start to the trip because I will be spending a lot of time with them on the trip, so this week I really got used to being with them almost everyday for the whole day. I do wish we would have saved all the sightseeing for the next week and just rested this week, but I still had fun even if I was dead tired most of the time. This first week of the trip was definitely a good introduction to the coming year and I am excited to visit England next week and hopefully acquire a British accent!
Dag!
Liv the Explorer
P.S. Visit my moms blog at: dominiquelevin.tumblr.com
*Oma means Grandma and Opa means Grandpa in Dutch
**Safta is grandma in Hebrew
On Tuesday, I went with Aba (my dad) and Yanai (my brother) to Madame Tussaud in Amsterdam, while the rest of the family walked around. Madame Tussaud was amazing. Even though the wax people on display weren’t really mad of wax, but some kind of plastic, it was still fun to pose with the statues that had uncanny resemblance to the real people. My favorite statue to pose by was Marilyn Monroe. I got to wear a dress that looked exactly like hers, and a short blond curly wig. And when I stood on the podium next to her, a wind blue from the floor and the dress blew upwards, just like the dress on the statue was. I also liked posing next to Messi, and George Clooney. The only letdown was the statue of Barack Obama, because it looked nothing like him! I loved Madame Tussaud and I hope to have a statue made of me someday, but then again who doesn’t.
The next day, I went to a prehistoric village in Eindhoven with my Safta**, and my uncle aunt and two cousins from Israel. There were many interesting activities. All the houses looked like the houses would in the prehistoric periods. At first we went to the blacksmith station. There was a man there that demonstrated how to make different tools that people used back in that time. It was very enticing to watch and we watched for half an hour. Then we tried out some old fashioned outdoor games. My favorite was walking on stilts. It made me feel so tall! Next, we all went to learn how to make fire from scratch. You have to take a piece of flint-stone with a sharp edge, and a flat piece of iron and rub them together to get sparks. Then you have to catch the sparks on a piece of fabric and wrap it in bark so the bark will catch fire. Then you throw the bundle of flames onto some sticks in a fire. Of course, I was the first to succeed. In fact I succeeded before the leader had a chance to finish preparing the fire pit! After that, I went with my dad to a station were you can make thinks out of natural clay, and the rest of the group went to sword-fighting, and archery. On the way to the clay station, we past the stinky pig pen and an icky hole in the ground full of wet clay. After I made an amulet out of clay, my dad and I went canoeing. The canoe was filled with water and his butt was wet for the rest of the day! I had a very educational and fun day at the prehistoric village.
On Saturday it was Milo’s 7th birthday! It was a pool party at my Oma and Opa’s house, and my family from the uncle, aunt and three cousins from the Netherlands were there. As well as some family friends we will be traveling to England with next week. We kicked of the party in the pool. I had a fun time swimming with my cousins and friends. After a while, my Oma told us all to get out of the pool and sit on the grass. She opened the garden gate, and a clown walked in. He looked like any other clown with his huge shoes and red nose, and he was rolling a big metal suitcase. The clown showed us a bunch of funny magic tricks and in the end he made us all balloons. After the clown left we went to eat cake, and when we were all finished we started a treasure hunt. The prize was a version of my brothers favorite stuffed animal. I had a great day, and I’m sure my brother did too.
This week was the first time that ALL my direct family had been together, in one place at the same time. Having all my family together was a bit difficult because one side speaks Dutch and the other side speaks Hebrew. I think it was a good start to the trip because I will be spending a lot of time with them on the trip, so this week I really got used to being with them almost everyday for the whole day. I do wish we would have saved all the sightseeing for the next week and just rested this week, but I still had fun even if I was dead tired most of the time. This first week of the trip was definitely a good introduction to the coming year and I am excited to visit England next week and hopefully acquire a British accent!
Dag!
Liv the Explorer
P.S. Visit my moms blog at: dominiquelevin.tumblr.com
*Oma means Grandma and Opa means Grandpa in Dutch
**Safta is grandma in Hebrew