Happy Thanksgiving Canada!!

I hope that everyone having celebrated Thanksgiving this past weekend is recovered from the Turkey comas.

Unfortunately the Netherlands has no typical autumn celebration like Thanksgiving. But that didn't stop me from cooking up a storm with a Canadian friend of mine on Sunday afternoon.

We gathered with some friends of ours and gave thanks for many things, the great weather being one of them. Everyone is in shock over how nice it has been here lately. All weekend and even continuing to today. The air definitely has a crisp fall feel about it, but the sun is shining and the sky is blue. It is perfect biking weather :)

For our Thanksgiving meal we were not able to locate a proper turkey, so we had chicken instead. Served with carrot soup, mashed and sweet potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce and salad. And I even made Apple Crisp for dessert. One tradition we definitely followed, was eating until we were stuffed.

It was a busy weekend for me as I also visited a Dutch friend of mine I had met in Rome. Saturday she took me to a dutch them park called Efteling. We rode all the roller coasters and enjoyed an atmosphere or kids running around freely, which reminded me a lot of Disney World. I also had dinner with her family Saturday night and it was such a nice experience to sit around a table and be immersed in dutch language and feel part of the family. It brought me back to my experience as a Youth Exchange Student.

I attended my first Rotary meeting last week and was introduced to the small International Club here in Amsterdam. I will return to make a presentation in the new year. But, for tomorrow I have my first official presentation at my Host Counselor's club and I will even attempt to say some of the presentation in dutch.

Tonight though I will be going to see Holland play against Sweeden as a Qualifier for Euro 2012. I know it seems like a long way off, but they definitely take soccer that seriously here. Both teams are undefeated so far, so it should be an interesting game.

All the best from sunny Amsterdam :)

Laura