Our first two days

After a good (short) night sleep in the Van der Valk hotel in Amsterdam we arrived at Schiphol airport to check in. There was a little stress because some of us (the girls) were carrying more weight then allowed in there suitcases so we had to divide the weight.

After dividing the weight there was still to many in mine. I crabbed my toiletry and the weight was correct. Unfortunately I forget about all the liquid inside (hairspray, after sun, facial crèmes). The customs at the Schiphol airport have a nice collection of toiletries since my check in!

Well….  Don’t make choices in stress situations (the lesson of the day).

In the eleven hour flight we watched a lot of new movies and took the time for some catching up with the team members.

The plain left at 10:00am and we arrived at 21:30pm (Dutch time). In California it was 12:00 in the afternoon (lunch time). It was a weird situation, we were ready to go to bed but the they started here in Cali.

After explaining why we were here, leaving our fingerprints at the customs we met the first Rotarians, we immediately felt welcome. The were enthusiastic and excited to see us and we were excited to see them.

They took us to the Double Tree Hotel in Orange, gave us a nice snack and we got in our wonderful hotel rooms. In the afternoon we got visited by the current en future governor of the district Rotary. And again the enthusiastic and exciting atmosphere.

The horrible stories about American people being conservative, no sarcasm or teasing is not true. We felt welcome and like home.

Despite our tiredness we wanted to take a swim in the pool and the Jacuzzi!!!

Afterwards we went to our hotel room for a good night sleep (20:00pm Californian time, 04:00 at night Dutch time).

In the morning some of us went jogging (California is a very sportive and healthy state despite al the fast-food restaurants).

After a nice breakfast at the hotel our first host families picked us up.

I m at a lovely family called the Alvarez family. The father is a real estate developer  who loves and practicing cycling, mom is working as a fond raiser in the social welfare for children (we have a lot to talk about), the youngest daughter is a high school student and a cross-country runner and the oldest daughter is a college girl who works at Disneyland. I got to spent the afternoon with Mike (father) and the lovely Abby (youngest daughter) after we had a nice lunch with Mike’s wife (april). April brought me an interesting book about the conditions of children in Orange County. We picked up Abby from here school. This is a high school we have seen in the movies. They have this gigantic field with different kind of sports (football, baseball, athletics and more), Again California is really into health and sports.

After picking up Abby we went for some shopping (it’s a shop Walhalla) and Mike took us to the old part of the Orange city. When we got there, there were preparing this weekly ceremony by a beautiful fountain. There were lots of Veterans who served in Vietnam. Every Wednesday evening the ‘retire the flag’ in honour of all the soldiers who are serving in the different wars world wide. There were veterans, wifes and family of soldiers who are serving. Mike told them about my boyfriend (paratrooper) and they thanked me for his support. They gave me a gift. I have to give it to my boyfriend for honouring his hard work for the country.

Its amazing to see how proud and involved they are. It was very impressive.

In the evening we went to our Welcome-Party in this huge house of the governor of the Rotary. We met everyone’s host family and talked about the program. Thom (our team leader) started with a speech and later on the team members started introducing themselves within the presentation. It was a nice evening.

Tomorrow we have a tour at the Chapman University, doing a presentation at a Rotary Club. And in the afternoon a vocational activity. I’m going to visit a psychologist who works with children, I’m very excited.