first few days summary

the netherlands is great so far! have only taken 265 pictures. thursday was spent exploring haarlem then me and nikki got up early and met the girls in amsterdam. went through the anne frank house for 8.50 euros and it was pretty cool! a lot bigger than i expected actually. i took the train from amsterdam to heemsteede alone and sat across from an unfriendly dutch couple. when i got off the train, my distant cousin erik was there to meet me. we recognized each other from facebook pictures so that was kind of cool and fun! had dinner at their house which was very big and beautiful. a couple other relatives (gert and his daughter fleur) came for dinner as well. for dinner, we had an indonesian dish - a dutch colonial heritage dish. they really liked the gifts i gave them and charlotte (another "cousin") gave me the top 100 dutch songs! i went to a gymnastics competition this morning for kiki, gert's 7 year old daughter. then i went to leiden which is a university town and met up with all of the other girls and sean, the guy who they are staying with. its been a long day of walking through the streets and the market but it was fun! ill probably be sore tomorrow. definitely be sore tomorrow.