Hello People,

This blog is going to be a little bit different then others. Everyone here, and also a lot of people in Holland are asking "After two months, can you maybe be more specific about why you like America so much?". And you know, that is a hard question for me. Everytime I don't know what to answer, I can only smile and say "Just because America is awesome." But why? I'm going to try to explain my feeling about America a little bit more in this blog, or maybe more the typical American life, because that's what I like here. It's in English because, I don't know why haha. Maybe because I had to write a short story for English this week what kept me busy this whole day, I justed finished it after I made some pumpkin bread in my break.

America, the county of food, food and... FOOD! Ofcourse that's a thing that I love, but also a thing that is different in Holland. They don't know the trend of 'superfoods' and losing weight is not as popular as we maybe think of America. Yes, there are more people with obese than in Europe, but not as the stereo typicals let us think. The supermarkets are packed with candys, cakes, cookies in every taste, color and size. (well, most of the time they only have size Large of X-Large haha) By the way, supermaket is not the good word for it. Tv's, clothes, bikes, car tires, tables and medicines, they have every little thing you can think of. Even a Macdonalds. And yes I'm not kidding, they sell bikes! You only don't see people on bikes her, not a lot anyway. Not as we do, step on the bike for some grocery's or going to the saturday markt in the city. No, everything is done by car, and on your way, you go to the dunkin donuts/wawa or anywhere for some coffee, soda or a snack. Suprisingly you don't see a lot of starbucks' here. Most of the time there are drive throughs, and if the first one is packed, you ride to the end of the street to go to the same store because everything is everywhere.

The people here are easy-thinking. They decide at the last moment and nothing is far way for them. If you want something then you just step in the car go to the (24-hour open!) store to get it. You want this kind of ice-cream, an extra burger or a sub in stead of home made hotdogs for dinner? No problem! You want to your friend, the football game at the other side of Delaware or to the mall? Why not? We'll bring you." Everyone would offer you a ride, friends, family, neighbours, it doesn't matter. Maybe because they are used go here everywhere with the car, or maybe because they are just different from mind, I don't know.

The people are also very open. They talk a lot more then we do. Everywhere you get a "Hi how are you?" or "Hi, how is it going?" Ofcourse they don't really care if you are ok or not, but in Holland everybody would look weird and be shocked if someone in a story asked you "Hey, hoe gaat het met je vandaag?". I love that all people talk to you, everyone is friendly, it's not wrong to talk to strangers Dutchies over there! Everyday in school I get compliments or questions from people I never saw before. When I start to talk somewhere people immediatly hear that i'm foreign and I get the question "Oh your accent is so cool! Where are you from?" Even when it's in the Macdonalds they start a whole conversation. People are enthousiast and curious. Ofcourse the people in Holland feel the same way, but they are more scared to ask and talk I think. Anyway, not in the same way American people do.

The people in America wear easy clothes. Big shirts, sweat shirts, fleeces, leggings, sweatpants and uggs, as long as it fits easy and keep you warm. Knots, pony tails and no make-up, nobody cares! Big backpacks, because that is the easiest way to carry your stuff. Nobody cares how you look like, they talk to everyone, in lunch, in the supermarket or in the parking lot.

Every morning we start with the pledge on school. America is very important and they take care about it. The news is about America and you barely here anything about the rest of the world. Ok, that's not a very good thing, but it still gives a good feeling. They take care about you, I feel very save here. It's maybe not the right feeling because ofcoure there are also a lot of bad things going on here. On school almost everyone participates somewhere. When there are game-days of a sport, anyone is dressed up, even the teachers. They really pursuit for something. They want to win, they want to reach something. Go to college, the army or be the best in their sport. In Holland you future is not as important as here, because it's normal to go to college, here it's not.

It's still hard to say what I like about America. It's just the way of life. Ofcourse I love Holland, but I didn't expected that I like it here as much as I do right now every single day again. Maybe I can't really say the good things about an American lifestyle, because I live in a half Dutch family, but that's ok. I'm happy that I have something from home here. (Today we listened the whole day Dutch music as "Ga van dat dak af/Loesje/Hoog sammy kijk omhoog en Aan de Amsterdamse grachten") and my stamppot andijvie last week tasted very good! But anyway, I hope you like to know a little bit more about the American culture, I think you you will learn a lot more about it in the next months I'll be here (just as I still learn everyday new things).

Everything is ok with me, unfortunately almost 9 weeks of my American life are over! :( I will write a new blog (in Dutch!) very soon about what I did the last weeks because I have a lot more to tell!

Bye Bye!