Highlights

I had some particularly memorable moments on the trip. I will recap a few here...

- Being the only girl in class. Not only the only girl, but the only one from the US to ever attend the class. And everyone repeatedly pointing it out. As if I didn't notice.

- Part of the class would go out to dinner as a group in the evenings. It always sounded like the beginnings of a joke. There was a Dutch guy, a German, a French, a Brit, and an American girl....

- Watching a 6'8" Czech imitate Snoop Dog

- Showing up at a ball in my work clothes. I happened to be in town the same weekend as the annual 'Young "Insert Company Name Here" Ball' and was invited by several in my training class to attend. Thinking that crashing a party was better than sitting alone in my hotel room, I decided to go. I also mistakenly believed that European women are much less judgemental than American women, and no one would even noticed that I had on pants and a sweater. I was sadly mistaken when I took off my jacket and three women on my left in their fancy ball gowns began to whisper and stare. However, it was worth it just to hear a Dutch band singing Diana Ross.

- I tried to blend in as much as possible while alone and I apparently did an excellent job. Until people spoke to me. In Dutch. One man in particular seemed insistent in starting up a conversation Saturday evening on the train on the way back from Amsterdam. He asked what I had seen in the country and I told him I visited the beach earlier in the day. OF COURSE he had to ask which one (Scheveningen) and then corrected me three times as I attempted to pronounce it. Which I still can't get right. There is a reason the word was used to out Germans attempting to pass as Dutch in World War II.

- The boy had to write a sentence in school starting with the word Mother. Here is what he wrote:

"Mother Mother Mother
Mother My Mother
Went to Apster dam.
by, the boy
need need need
I need you."