My Dutch Family
Trip Start
May 30, 2010
1
29
31
Trip End
Jul 14, 2010
Spakenburg, Utrecht, Netherlands
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Janine took me to have some traditional Spakenburg food too, we had raw fish and fried fish fillets for lunch. It was delicious! I also managed to eat the tail of the raw fish, which Janine remarked I must have a very strong GIT :P It as funny to see Janine's reaction when I ate it and hey I am still alive now, so I must have a strong GIT.
After lunch Janine showed me the Spakenburg museum and I was really impressed. Spakenburg started off as a fishing village and with farmers. Because of the harsh environment (flood, and cold weather), people had to embrace hardship and they worked very hard. I think both Janine and Jordi have also inherited and Spakenburg spirit, both of them work very hard and they are so resilient, it's just inspirational to me. And I really see them as my role model, and I feel so lucky to have them as friends and also getting to know them.
Riding around Spakenburg was probably the most unforgettable experience I would have during my whole trip. It was so beautiful and it was the Netherlands which I have imagined. Thanks to Janine, we saw beaches, lakes, fields, cows, sheeps, horses, and more then more cows. We had a biking accident though and I felt so BAD! There we were, almost at our destination, riding along this narrow bike path. Then some stupid lady on a bike riding in opposite way had to hit Janine's bike and literally knocked Janine off her bike, sending her flying, I kid you not, flying! It was scary! Luckily Janine had landed on the grass, not the concrete road. She had some bad grazes and cuts on her elbow and knees. The bike was also a bit stuffed, so we were there in the sun trying to fix up Janine and then the bike. I only had my alcoholic sanitizer on me and no first aid kit :( Luckily the other lady had some bandaid. Being almost a doctor, Janine was pretty calm and she was like "don't feel bad William, it's the stupid lady, and at least I am not dead". So we had to cut our excursion short, and quick ride back to her house, 13KM away from where we were. This time I was riding in the front, trying to prevent and intercept any potential collision on our way back. Janine jokingly asked me how I felt witnessing her falling off bikes twice in the period of 5 days and insinuated that she's clumsy. Nah-uh, Janine's not clumsy, that girl has got some crazy fine motor control skills, she's be a great surgeon if she wants to go down that path. It's all that stupid lady's fault.
After Janine cleaned up the wounds her parents and sister were home and they were so nice to me, treated me just like one of the family. We had the usual chat and bantering over BBQ. Janine's dad is so cool, why? He's the gadget man of the house, he's got everything, he has saying "I don't have money, but I have stuff" Hahahaha. He's got the iPhone, the iPad, camera! Hehehe. Jordi was obsessed with the iPad, he was playing with it the whole evening whenever he got a chance. I think now I want one too. Just so easy to use and not really necessary :P Janine's dad is also going to China in September, so they thought all Chinese people were polite and nice like me XD I told them I was an exception and I was a bit different :P I also took a lot of photos of the Smit family, terrorizing them with my giant lens, trying to stay inconspicuous. Obviously that didn't work. Over dinner we talked about so many things, from the medical system of the Netherlands and Australia to traveling around the world. I had a great time, I hope they have also enjoyed my company.
Jordi drove us home from Spakenburg, doing 130KM/Hr on the highway, that was pretty cool, it didn't take long before we got back to Utrecht, and he showed me all his weird music collections in the car and good thing was, I was also into those stuff. We shared a similar taste in music, so now I have like 6GB of new music from him. Yay! Thanks for sharing. For disclaimers, yes he has got all of them on CDs which he purchased.
Alright, time for a shower, be back next time!
