Sleepover! (or whatever the official term is here)

Hey,

This blog is about something that happened 3 weekends ago, but I didn't write anything about it, but I am doing that now.

On friday, March 22nd I went to Jukari's house on a different bus than I usually take. Apparently his busdrives speaks a bit Russian and has a good sense of humor. When we got to his house it started out by trying to get a gigantic television upstairs so we could play on it with the xBox. However, the televisio was too big to just go up the staircase (and too heavy) so we had to figure something else out. After 2 hours of trying we gave up because there was no possible way that that monster was going to be able to go upstairs. Instead we just took a smaller television and put it on the ground so we could still play :). Nothing really notable happened after that because we mainly played games.

The next day we got up and did some stuff and then we went to Sarah's house to do another night of sleepover. Emma came too. We went to see Sarah's horse and since there was still snow (sorry, I did not choose to mention this word either, but it was there) so we had some fun with that while Sarah was trying to do something with her horse. We watched two movies in the evening and then went to bed. In the morning Jukari and I got pranked by Sarah and Emma (we expected it, but who cares?). The only problem was that after half an hour I got sick and basically was sick for the rest of the day + the following 2 days. Sarah and Emma tried to prank us again by putting toothpaste in oreo cookies, but I already saw it coming because Sarah told me she did that to Justin once. I even told Jukari: DON'T EAT IT! and what did he do...? He just ate it because he thought it was "mint flavoured oreo".

That was basically what went on in that weekend :)

Have yourselves a good morning/afternoon/evening (depending on when you read this and what part of the world you are positioned in right now).

~Yannick

last day &The way back

Hey,

The last day we went to Miami!!! We went to Miami beach to be more specific. The last part of the journey was kinda hectic because of traffic, but definetly worth it! The water is as blue as it can be. We had lunch in a little cafe on the corner of a road. They had gigantic croissants!! So I just had to order one of those croissants with nutella and it was delicious! Lots of skyscrapers were all around. We went on the beach and I was genius enough not to put off my shoes and just walk into the water with my sneakers on :3. Good thing the water was really nice and warm. On the way back we wanted to go to the everglades and do an airboat ride, but unfortunately they were closed already. I got to the everglades nevertheless!!

Ofcourse nobody wanted to return to walden, but we had to. The way back was the complete opposite of the way to Florida. We went through the states in reversal and the trees went from living to dead. We went through Washington D.C. (I don't think we went through here on the way to Florida (or I slept at the time)). I saw some memorials, but no white house to be seen :(.
We stopped at a motel for one night and did 13 hours of driving on the first day and about 7 on the second day. We got back to Walden around 5:30pm.

Today I will include some pictures and make you guys happy with the pictures :)

~Yannick

Universal studios!

Hey,

There is a lot to say about yesterday, but I'll keep it short.
Yesterday (wednesday) we (Carolyn, Sarah, Ainsley and I) went to Universal Studios Theme Park in Orlando, Florida. It's a theme park that's based on the movies that are made by Universal Studios. So was there a transformers ride, minion ride, Men in black ride and many others. They were all inspired by 1 or more of the movies in the series. The men in black one was specialized in the movie: Men in black Alien attack. In the ride you had to shoot aliens with your own "alien zapper" and whoever scored the most points won. The transformers one was a generalized one and had to do with all the transformers movies.

We were in Universal Studios the whole day. We were gone from about 6:40am to 12:15pm (which is a long time ;-).)

Today (thursday) not really much exiting things happened until about 8pm. At 8pm we went to play a couple of games like pool and tablesoccer (or fußball as they call it sorta). After we were done with that we played blackjack (not with real money, dw mom & dad).

Well, that was a quick summary of the past 2 days :).

If you have any questions, post them below :).

~Yannick

Tuesday in Florida

Hey,

Today was Tuesday March 31, which meant that it was Sarah's birtday and, ofcourse, it was a very sunny and nice day. I started off by some sitting around the pool and then swimming in it for about an hour ( I think it was an hour). After that we (Caroly, Sarah, Ainsley and I) went to the mall, where I ended up buying nothing :). In the evening we went to Palm Beach and we had dinner at "The Cheesecake Factory". When we got back we gave sarah her birthdaypresents and all had a cupcake :).

~Yannick

Florida!

Hey,

My blog is written today from a very special location, namely FLORIDAAAA!

For the upcoming couple of days I will be doing a daily blog of our trip to Florida.

Starting on Friday after school, we started driving down here. I think we spent about 21 hours in the car counting the trip + traffic jams. We had 1 overnight in Virginia, where it started snowing as soon as we got on the road.... It's interesting how you can see plants and other kinds of vegetation change as you get further south. Everything starts to get greener and greener. Every state has its own sign too (as we have that with countries, and most provinces). When we got to Florida the first time they had a welcome center which was "open for business", BUT only from 8am to 5pm, so not too open at all.

Today I hung around the pool and sunbathed, in the hope that I would not get a sun burn because I did not have any sunscreen yet. At about 5pm we went out to do some grocery shopping and we went to Olive Garden for dinner. It is about 75-80 degrees (23- 28 celsius) here and I actually have sunscreen now :).

Today I did some more hanging around the pool, just because I can and I love the weather down here. Today was/felt about 29 degrees celsius (77 in fahrenheit, but it said it felt like 87). So that was lovely. Furthermore nothing really happened today haha.

Grandpa & Grandma can expect a translation on the mail soon :)

~Yannick

Another story from another person / Een ander verhaal van een ander persoon.

Hey,

Part 2 of my "stories from others" storyline is here. This week's person is: Carolyn Baker, who is my hostmother. Here is some things she likes (to do):

1. Family is really important to her and very close. Not only brian and the girls, but also her parents and her brother and niece. She wants to be with her family. She misses her parents, who have been in South Carolina for the past couple of months. Her mother likes to bring the family together and Carolyn thinks she got that from her. She likes to seeks out a member of her family to be with more than anything else. Her mom likes to celebrate things like St. Patricksday, even though they are not Irish just to be together. She'd rather be with people than be alone.

2. Travel has always been important to her and her family. Her parents would bring her somewhere just to move around and go somewhere. There were no real distractions in the car back then, so they would actually look out of the window. She brought traveling to Brian, but he was not a traveler. She "converted" him and now he travels a lot too. She is not good at being in the house, but she'd rather be out of the house. She's been from Maine to Florida, and to the Mississippi river and to California. She's been to Europe and to Hawaii once. She likes to go to Cape Cod and when she is retired she wants to live in Cape Cod, but not until Ainsley finishes her school. She likes the sounds and the smells of the cape, and also the foghorn in the distance.

3. Exercise & Zumba weren't always a part in her life. She would ride her bike with Brian while he was running, but she was never into exercising. She started Zumba 4-5 years ago and she got hooked on that. She loves the music, the beat and how it makes her feel. She found a person named Lily and she loves the Zumbaclasses she gives. She never wants to miss a single class, and even gets upset when she has to miss it. She had a little mid-life crisis when she turned 50 and she wanted to do something with herself. So she decided to change and start exercising because she told herself she had to do something. Bootcamp "popped-up" at that moment and she joined that for 8 weeks and she took another bootcamp for another 6 weeks. Exercising is a part of her now and she doesn't want to stop doing it. It changed how she feels emotionally and the rest of her feelings about herself.

4. Being a (science)teacher is something that came along quite early in her life, but her initial decision was that she wanted to be a nurse. Her parents were both educators and she noticed that nursing wasn't her calling. She decided to go in the direction of becoming a teacher. She loves having her own classroom and passing on her knowledge and telling them how important Valley Central is to her and to them. She has been a science teacher for 29 years and she still loves it. Science is a fascinating thing for her, but sometimes it is hard to teach. Teachers have became sort of the scape-goat of all the things that are wrong with society. 6th grade is her favourite grade because they are just old enough to share things with and have thoughts go around in the classroom and have some fun.

Suprise!! No translations to Dutch this time! Oh no!!! So everybody who's reading this can improve their English reading skills :).

~Yannick

Stories from others / verhalen van anderen

Hello everybody,

Another new path of doing my blog today and for the coming blogs. I have decided to start making my blog by interviewing the people around me here in the US and ask them what they want the world to know about them. The first person I have interviewed is Brian Baker (my hostdad), so here is his story:

1. Brian loves his family, to be with his family and to do stuff together. If it were possible he would do everything together. Breakfast together is a key point because it is BEFORE everybody goes in his/her own direction of work or school. No together lunch, because everybody is at school or work, but a dinner together happens every evening. His family is definetly number 1 in his life.

2. He loves to run and compete too. He doesn't only run to stay fit, but he loves to run for competition too. He runs races in a lot of different towns/cities. He does marathons, half-marathons and other distances. The combination of him racing and a vacationhome in Massachussetts is a good one, because there is qutie a few races in Massachussetts he runs.

3. Honda would be another thing that is very important to him. Most people that he knows, he knows through Honda. He likes everything in Honda, but he likes the S-cars and related the most. Secondary Honda-items would be the Honda tractors. He is one of the few people in the whole US who actually does something with (Honda) tractors.

4. On top of all that he likes to have a healthy lifestyle. He is a vegetarian/vegan and eats organic whenever possible. His healthy lifestyle also includes getting up superearly in the morning and doing some fitness with Carolyn. They usually go out in the morning for a run. He runs in the morning, while Carolyn rides her bike next to him. Also does he love to go out on his "ElliptiGo", which I will include a picture of since nobody probably knows what this is.

5. Last but not least would be his enjoyment for travel. That is one of the reasons he has a vacationhome in Cape Cod (Massachussetts). He races all over the place. In the Walden area, but also in the Falmouth (Massachussetts) area. He also has a yearly race in Delaware.

That was it for now, hope you liked it. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think of this idea.

~Yannick

Goeiedag allemaal,

Ik ga de manier waarop ik mijn blog maak maar weer eens veranderen. Ik heb besloten om voor mijn blog de mensen om mij heen (hier in de VS) te interviewen en te vragen wat zij nou willen dat de wereld van ze weet. Iedere blogupdate is er 1 persoon aan de beurt. Brian Baker (gastvader) is deze keer aan de beurt. Hier is zijn verhaal:

1. Brian houdt van zijn familie, om bij zijn familie te zijn, en om samen dingen te ondernemen. Als het mogelijk was zou hij alles samen doen met zijn familie. Het gezamenlijke ontbijt is een belangrijk punt, want dat is VOORDAT iedereen naar werk of school gaat, dus iedereen is makkelijk samen te brengen. Avondeten is altijd gezamenlijk, maakt niet uit hoe laat (er waren maar een paar uitzonderingen). Zijn familie is duidelijk zijn nummer 1.

2. Hardlopen doet hij maar al te graag, en vooral competities. Hij doet competities in vele verschillende steden en dorpen. Hij rent marathons, halve marathons en welke afstanden er dan ook maar zijn. Het is maar goed dat hij een vakantiehuis in Massachussetts heeft, want er zijn behoorlijk wat competities in de buurt daar.

3. Honda is ook zeer belangrijk voor hem. Niet alleen zijn eigen bedrijf, maar de meeste mensen die hij kent, kent hij via Honda. Hij houdt van alles wat met Honda te maken heeft, maar vooral de S'jes. Zijn tweede keus in honda zou zijn: de grasmaai tractoren. Hij is een van de weinigen in de hele VS die iets met die grasmaai tractoren doet.

4. Bovenop alles vind hij het ook belangrijk om een gezonde levensstijl te hebben. Vegetarisch zijn hoort daar bij. In de ochtend staat hij immens vroeg (05:00 of eerder) op om een stukje te gaan hardlopen. Carolyn gaat altijd met hem mee, maar zij gaat op de fiets. Hij vind het ook helemaal toppie om op zijn nieuwe bevinding de deur uit te gaan. Het noemt zichzelf een "ElliptiGo". Ik zal er wel een foto bij doen, want waarschijnlijk weet niemand wat het is.

5. En als laatste vind hij het helemaal geweldig om te reizen. Dat is een van de redenen dat hij een vakantiehuis in Massachussetts heeft. Hij doet ook, zoals al eerder gezegd, al die competities in verschillende plaatsen. In het gebied waar ze wonen, rond het vakantiehuis en hij heeft zelfs een jaarlijkse race in Delaware (wat ongeveer 5 uurtjes rijden is).

Dat was het weer voor nu. Laat maar even een berichtje achter om te laten weten wat je van dit idee vindt.

~Yannick

You've all been waiting for it / jullie hebben der even op moeten wachten

Hey,

From now on I am going to do my blog in English first and then translate it to Dutch (opa en oma, Nederlands staat onderaan).

You've all been waiting for it, and as expected, I am not that good in keeping my blog updated.
I had a talk with Mark (from Ayusa) yesterday and he gave me some ideas for my blog, so hopefully I will update more often now.

I am going back all the way to Christmas. On Christmas eve we went to Carolyn's parents, where we had dinner. After dinner we opened a lot of presents. Christmas is definetly a whole lot more of a deal in the US than in Holland! I think you can compare Christmas here to "Sinterklaas" if you think the tree away and make Santa somewhat slimmer. What we call "surprise" in Holland, they call "Secret Santa" here. I had a secret santa in my Spanish class.
On Christmastday we woke up and then had breakfast. After breakfast we made a fire in the fireplace and we had even more presents! (Pictures of presents will be included when I have uploaded them all). I bought everybody a present too :). Brian got a movie called: GMO OMG, Carolyn got a couple of scented candles. Sarah got nailpolish and Ainsley got a necklace. Carolyn's father got golfballs and Carolyn's mom got mix for cupcakes and cake. Hannah and James both got a $10 iTunes gift card. On Christmasday we had a nice dinner at home.

The day after Christmast we went to New York City, where, ofcourse, I took a lot of pictures. The best pictures will be included when i uploaded them. If you want to know about the traffic: walking was faster in some parts of Manhattan. I have seen a lot of hotspots, like the big Christmastree, the freedomtower (ground zero memorial building). Ofcourse there were a lot of those yellow cabs you see in every movie that plays in NYC. Walking wasn't too fast on popular places like Times Square because it's packed with people. Apparently there was an M&M's world, which I just had to visit!

In January we had a lot of snow. The snow we get in Holland in a year is the equivalent of what we get here in 12 hours on some days. Just last week there was a big blizzard coming our way (it even reached the Dutch news) and life stopped litteraly. Public transport was closed, some states even made it illegal to drive! New York City closed streets. After all, we didn't get much where we are. Instead of the expected 2 feet, we "Just" got 4 inches.
January was the first time I ever showshoveled(or as we invented yesterday during dinner: snoveled) snow on a whole driveway. We have to "snovel" every time when we got snowfall to keep it safe and clean. Last week I made pie according to grandma's recipe (even using Dutch mix she sent me), which, ofcourse, turned out really well. Thanks Grandma! Right now it has been snowing for the past 14 hours and it's still continuing. We already have an accumulation of about 10 inches, but more is coming.

That was it for today :)

Have a good day and drive safe (if you got winterweather)

~Yannick

Hey,

van nu af aan ga ik mijn blog eerst in Engels doen en daarna vertaal ik het naar het Nederlands.

Jullie hebben er even op moeten wachten, maar hier is het dan. Als verwacht ben ik niet zo heel goed in mijn blog bijhouden hehe.

Gisteren had ik een gesprek met Mark (Van Ayusa), en die gaf mij nog een idee voor mijn blog, dus hopelijk ga ik mijn blog nu vaker updaten.

Oke, dus ik ga helemaal terug naar kerst (dat is een tijdje geleden he). Op kerstavond gingen we naar Carolyn's ouders waar we een heerlijk avondmaal hadden. Na het avondeten gingen we terug naar de woonkamer, waar we heel veel cadeau's openden. Kerst is hier veel groter dan in Nederland. Ik denk dat je kerst hier wel kunt vergelijken met sinterklaas als je de kerstboom wegdenkt en de kerstman wat slanker maakt. Wat wij surprise noemen, noemen ze hier "secret santa".
Ik had een "secret santa" in mijn Spaans les.

Op kerstdag (geen eerste of tweede, want dat kennen ze hier niet) werden we wakker (Gelukkig) en hadden we ontbijt. Na het eten hebben we een vuurtje gestookt (Stelletje pyromanen dat we zijn) in de open haard. Bij de openhaard hadden we nog veel meer cadeau's! (foto's zal ik erbij doen zodra ze zijn geupload). Ik had ook voor iedereen een cadeautje gekocht. Voor Brian een film: GMO OMG, voor Carolyn een paar geurkaarsen, voor Sarah nagellak en voor Ainsley een ketting. Voor Carolyn's vader een doos golfballen en voor haar moeder een pak cupcake mix en een pak cakemix. Voor Hannah en James had ik een $10 iTunes gift card gekocht. In de avond hadden we nog een heerlijk diner thuis.

De dag na kerst zijn we naar New York City gegaan waar ik natuurlijk veel foto's heb gemaakt. De beste foto's zal ik uploaden en op mijn blog zetten. Als je wat over het verkeer wil weten: belabberd. Lopen is op sommige plekken in Manhattan sneller dan de auto. Ik heb een heleboel bekende plaatsen gezien zoals de grote kerstboom en de "freedomtower" (9/11 nagedachtenis). Natuurlijk heb je hier heel veel van die gele taxi's die je in de films altijd ziet. Lopen was niet snel op sommige bekende plekken als Times Square. Er zijn gewoon heel veel mensen. Blijkbaar was er een m&m's world waar ik natuurlijk naar binnen moest!

In Januari hadden we gewoon belachelijk veel sneeuw, maar dat is normaal hier. Wat we in Nederland krijgen in een jaar, valt hier op sommige dagen in 12 uurtjes. In het begin van vorige week was er een flinke storm op komst die zelfs het Nederlandse nieuws heeft gehaald. Het leven lag letterlijk stil. In sommige staten was het illegaal om met de auto op pad te gaan. Openbaar vervoer lag stil en in New York City hadden ze de straten afgesloten. Alle heisa was voor niks, want we kregen maar 10 centimeter in plaats van de 60-90 die voorspeld was. In het oosten van het land is op sommige plekken wel een meter gevallen. Ook was januari de eerste keer dat ik een oprit moest sneeuwvrij moest maken met een schep. En dan meteen ook zo'n lange oprit. Afgelopen week heb ik ook appeltaart gemaakt met oma's recept en oma's mix die ze opgestuurd had. Gelukkig was hij erg goed gelukt en smaakte hij bijna alsof oma hem had gemaakt! Dankje Oma! Op dit moment is het al 14 uur aan het sneeuwen en hebben we al 25 centimeter sneeuw. Er komt voor de komende paar uur nog steeds sneeuw uit de lucht vallen. We hebben wel mooi een dagje vrij van school :D.

Dat was het voor vandaag :)

Heb nog een goeie avond!

~Yannick