IKEA, shopping & driving a stick shift! Watch out Holland ;)

Sunday was the day when Marielle and Erwin’s neighborhood was having their scavenger hunt/lottery to rename the name of the street in which all of them live.
We woke up, showered and headed out to the pub where everyone was waiting for their assignments and directions.

Marielle and I were assigned with another woman, and our job was to wait around the children’s school where Marielle grew up and went to school. Each group or person got two letters for the scramble that at the end of the hunt, the neighbors were supposed to put together and figure out the new name of the street.

We dressed in pigtails and also put freckles on our cheeks to make us look younger. We had chalk, jump rope, bat gamin, and bubbles to play with, along with very good Dutch gummy bears that we gave out to the kids who came by.
I drew on the sidewalk, ‘Shannon loves Holland’ hehe and Marielle and I played bat gamin, and blew bubbles around the kids when they came by.

Once everyone was finished, the groups got back together and went into the pub together. There were lots of people sitting at round tables already, so Erwin, Marielle and I decided to stand around one of the tall bar tables with some other older folks.

I was basically the only person in the whole room that didn’t speak fluent Dutch, so I felt out of place for a while haha. It was all right though, Marielle and Erwin would help translate for me, or if someone would talk to me, they would translate what that person was saying as well.
We got many rounds of beer, I had to change to diet coke after a while, partly because I didn’t like the beer hehe. Erwin can put back a lot is all I have to say haha!

Once we had had many drinks, mini foods like sausage rolls with bacon, chicken wings with dipping sauces, cheeses, crackers, cake, etc. then the lottery started.
Each person bought a number of tickets with numbers on them. Marielle let me be in charge of her tickets as well as mine, since she had to help pass out presents and help draw numbers. So Erwin helped me with the numbers since the lady named Annet would call them all out in Dutch haha.
And I ended up winning lots of stuff!! I usually never win anything, especially when it comes to anything like BINGO or lottery games, even in school haha. So I have to admit that the numbers that I were winning were mainly from Marielle’s tickets but, she gave them to me so technically they were mine hehe :D

There was also this elderly gentleman who kept trying to talk to me, and when the chicken wings would come back towards our table, he would say “McDonalds” all the time, even though the chicken wings looked nothing like McDonalds chicken nuggets haha, I just smiled and nodded. So anyways, this man decided to give me this huge flower pot that had a very pretty orchid in it, and said that I was supposed to give it to my mom. Then he won another one and gave me the other one to keep too! I started to laugh because of course I couldn’t take back these plants with me, so I just left them at Marielle’s house. Other things I ended up winning were 2 plants, a hand towel set, a giant plastic pen, a bag, a t-shirt that talks about safety in Dutch, a huge Beer Mug hat that was orange, a book on the Dutch NASCAR men, but was mainly of half naked NASCAR race women (which I ended up giving to my brother as a present haha), some thank you cards (in Dutch) and a gift voucher (gift card hehe) to a restaurant around Made. So, I cleaned up well I thought!

Later that night we went out to the local Made pub for drinks. We met Marielle’s friend Annet and her boyfriend. We stayed there for a while, talking with her friends, and this crazy old man who kept saying Kicker, which I think means frog in Dutch..? He was funny, and was telling people how he was going to dress up as Celine Dion and wear a wig, at this local party that Made was having soon in May, where this crazy guy was going to be the DJ for the party. Marielle and Annet were telling me that they were going to try to convince him to not dress up because it would be too gross of a sight haha!

After the pub, we walked back to Marielle’s house, hung out there, listened to music, and some of Marielle’s friends came by because they saw us in the window of her house. We started a dance party and by the time they left, we were all soo tired.

On Monday, Marielle and Erwin both had to go back to work, so I got to go shopping with Marielle and Erwin’s mothers. We went to IKEA in a town between Made and Amsterdam. I decided to play this pencil game that my British friend James told me about that he and his sisters play when they’re at an IKEA. You’re supposed to go around the store and collect the most pencils, and whoever has the most pencils by the time you exit the store wins.

The pencils are like golfing pencils and fit very nicely into my purse haha. So I just went along IKEA, do do do do do, stuffing pencils in my purse. Both Marielle and Erwin’s mom’s helped me too haha! I’ve never been to an IKEA before and thought it was pretty cool. I liked the kitchens, and had them take a couple of pictures of me in my favorite ones haha. There were tons of stuff in this store, it was cool! I just wanted to have a house so that I could decorate and design it. I ended up buying some coasters for me and my friends, so that we all would have matching coasters (different colors) and they would be from Holland haha :D
We got a snack in the cafeteria on the third floor and I got a hot tea and a kind of fruit pie, which was very yummy haha. After lunch we finished in IKEA and we went shopping. Oh once I was in the car I counted all of my pencils, and I had a total of….121 pencils!!! I still don’t know what I’m going to do with them all haha!

We ate lunch at Subway haha felt like home, and then looked around the shops. I ended up getting some skinny black jeans, some bracelets, and a top from H&M.

When we were done shopping for the day, Marielle’s mom took Erwin’s mom back to her house, and Marielle’s mom and I went to her farm where she lives and where Marielle grew up. She has a barn with a tall brown horse, lots of black and brown sheep, some chickens, and a black cat. Her house is very cute too! It’s very home farm style, kind of ranch style as well. She let me use her internet while she started to make dinner for Marielle, Erwin and me.

When Marielle and Erwin got off of work, they came to pick me up. I got to drive Erwin's car (stick shift) over to the farm!! It was interesting. I was a little nervous when I actually was on the road It took me a while to get out of the driveway in the beginning haha. I kept having to restart it since I wouldn't switch my feet fast enough to change the pedals! So frustrating, but I finally got the hang on it ;) I still much rather would drive an automatic any day :D

We went over to Marielle’s brother’s farm for a while in between dinner. He showed us where there were new born baby lambs, I got to hold one who was on a block of hay and sectioned off from the others. I named him Babe, because his mom didn’t want him and shoved him out of the way when it came time to feed, so he had to be in his own sectioned cage. He was soo cute, and his little bleat was soo funny and sad too.

Next I got to see where the dairy cows got ready to be milked by the machines. He has 109 dairy cows that need to be milked twice a day!!! There are huge tanks that the milk goes into. The machines that get put around the cows, is in tune with these necklaces that the cows will wear and the machines tell the milk machines how much milk the cow can have taken out of them. Pretty cool I thought. We walked along the stables, and I came close to getting head butted by the bull cow!! He had the biggest head, he looked like he could eat me.... if cows ate meat that is hehe.

Then we washed our hands, said goodbye to Marielle's brother and his girlfriend, and went back to Marielle's mom's home to eat dinner.
We were served homemade sausages with potatoes and spinach. Pretty good too! Then after dinner Marielle, Annet and I went to their local pool to go to their workout class. It was very low key stuff, but since I hadn't been swimming in a while, it gave me a good workout.

Annet said that if they knew ahead of time that I was that good of a swimmer, they probably wouldn't have invited me ;D Oops, but it was fun ;) I missed being back in the pool. We just did some laps, swam different strokes. I had to demonstrate how to swim butterfly, which was towards the end of the practice, not smart really haha I was very tired by the time that came along. We practiced diving, swimming underwater width-wise, and other strokes.

After swimming, we stopped by McDonalds, haha and enjoyed some french fries. Then Annet dropped us off and we watched My Best Friend's Wedding and crashed on the couch.