Driving Miss Tulips

Hello my lovely American friends! It definitely is true that you never really know what you have until it's gone! I appreciate America and the beautiful place I call home so much more now that I'm not there!! (I'm so happy I brought an American flag shirt so I can still celebrate the 4th of July all the way over here in Europe!) One thing I definitely miss is the sun! The sun still shines over here but it's blocked behind clouds all day! Hopefully when summer comes around it will shine a little brighter!

So here are 2 fun/interesting facts I've learned today:

1. To get a drivers license in the Netherlands costs an arm and a leg and on top of that its very strenuous and takes a long time. The mother of the family I am nannying for was telling me that just to be able to take the 60 question written test and the half an hour driving test, you have to have taken 40, yes I just said 40!!!!, driving courses. That is way unbelievable compared to the requirements needed to get a license in the states! Also, here you pay taxes on how much your car weighs, which is why I have only seen one truck while I've been here!! That's why almost all of the cars are so tiny!! I now know why you see most everyone riding bikes or walking everywhere.

2. The tulips that holland is extremely famous for, are only seen for about 3 weeks in late spring! Once they've blossomed, they are all cut so the tulip itself doesn't take away a lot of energy being kept alive from the bulb which is then sold. During those three weeks I will try my best to take as many pictures as possible :) I love flowers!

So I think it's safe to say I love it here! Everything is so beautiful and all the people are warm and welcoming! And to my surprise, almost everyone speaks English which is very helpful as I don't have the Dutch vocabulary down yet. Some days more than others I do get pretty homesick, but knowing that this will be a great experience for me and that I'm still able to talk to everyone back home makes this all worth while.