Things I Learned Whilst On a Plane...

So, airline food is not as bad as everyone says it is. It's about on par with a frozen tv dinner, not bad at all. There was chicken and mushroom over rice, a salad with lettuce cucumber and tomato, half a sliced apple, individually wrapped cheddar cheese and club crackers, lemon cookies, and cous cous. I enjoyed it.

Getting on the plane wasn't as hectic as everyone said it would be. We checked our bags, went through security, then waited for the plane. It just took a long time since there were 80 of us. The plane ride itself wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I was still a little scared. I tried to sleep but I don't think I slept for very long. The drinking age is NOT 18 in the air, regardless of where you're traveling, which I discovered when the person in the seat in front of me tried to order a drink. That was amusing. Also, the in-flight movie was pretty cool. There were actually like 20 movies to choose from, and they were all free. I ended up watching The Ex, but it wasn't very good. Terrible actually. There were also video games and music videos and such, even shopping with the duty-free section... I bought nothing, it seemed too expensive for me. I ended up sleeping for maybe two hours when we began to land and I woke up with an explosive pain in my ears. I got some gum and it helped a little but wow. Ow.

I have now been in The Netherlands for 9 hours. I've yet to find the phone to call home. I thought I found one, but it was for local calls only. After I've gotten my fill of internet (which was just hooked up moments ago after being checked for viruses and whatnot) I'll go explore and find one. So far we haven't done much but unpack and eat lunch in the dining hall (which is adorable and looks more like a restaurant than a cafeteria) and listen to the staff tell us stuff about the program.

The grounds are gorgeous. Everything is so green and pretty. There's horses across the street and obscure birds everywhere. Mom was right when she said the ducks looked weird here... they're enormous and kind of ugly. They're white with black spots and red-ish beaks. There's also white geese that everyone is saying are swans. They are geese.

Our room is really nice. We've had a bunch of people come in and express jealousy. I haven't explored the other rooms yet. We didn't get a tower room but it's just as nice. Our enormous windows look out onto the moat and part of the garden. We can see the ducks and GEESE swimming around. We're on the lower floor which was wonderful since Heather and I packed as much as we possibly could using all four types of baggage available to us. My one mishap so far is that a bottle of hair oil I use religiously on my hair (Biosilk!) leaked. About half of what I had is gone and pooled at the bottom of my suitcase. Thankfully, there were few casualties. I had my clothes in plastic vacuum bags so they were completely fine. It was just annoying to clean. There's a lounge for us to chill in that sells food and beverages (including beer and wine, limit 3) in the evening and has a piano and guitar for the more musical among us to dabble with. I haven't seen much else in the castle, but I'm going to probably explore before dinner if I'm not too tired.

Dinner is soon and I need to find a phone to call mom. I will update again, hopefully with some pictures of my room and such.

Miss you all and love you lots!