Adventures in the Low Countries!

Well, just a little update on my travels!

Last Saturday I went to Antwerp, Belgium with some of my fellow interns for the day! I wasn't sure how it would go because I didn't really know the people that I was going with very well, but it ended up being so fun! There is a new intern at OPCW who lives with her boyfriend in Antwerp so they met up with us and gave us a tour which was so kind of them and really added to the experience! But it's crazy that she lives there! She has to commute like 2 hours EACH WAY to get to work every day!

Anyway, Antwerp is a beautiful city with a cool history (which involves a myth of cutting off the hand of a giant which is why they now have chocolate hands for sale there!). The food there was wonderful and the weather was fantastic. We saw great architecture and I ate a chocolate truffle (hello, had to have some Belgian chocolate!) AND I had a belgian waffle with speculoos and chocolate on it. SO. Good.

The famous Antwerp train station. It's beautiful in there.

Because no European city is complete without a horse-drawn carriage
 over cobblestones being tailed by a car. 

I may be a little too excited about this waffle.
It looks like my jaw has come unhinged!

Inside the historic train station. Take a look at the tall figure on the left

It is a stand up of a Scottsman selling gin or something

Isn't the architecture great?

Statue of the giant slayer (the one who cut off the hand)

Bridge!

Castle!

Water! Friends! 

This Friday I went with some interns to a festival in Leiden. It was pretty epic! So apparently its this annual huge party commemorating a long time ago when basically not everyone died in this siege of the city by the Spanish. It lasts two days and they have amusement park rides and games and food trucks and lots of live music! It was so fun! It got a little bit less fun into the evening when some drunk teenagers next to us started hitting on my friend and then started breaking glass bottles and trying to get in a fight with our guy friend. At that point we walked away. And I didn't like the smell of smoke and pot everywhere. But other than that it was fantastic! I went on these two rides with my friend Jaime. They were legit rides, not like, backyard of the school fair rides. One of them was a scary one that spins you around in the air backwards and forwards. Up in the air you could see the whole city laid out with the fair everywhere and then an old windmill in the midst of it all. So beautiful. The other one that I went on was one of those round swing ones that lifts you up in the air. Except that this one went WAY up in the air. Like above all the buildings! It was cold up there at about 12 am but so beautiful! I also got a chocolate waffle and some nice dutch fries :) I found some cool jewellery there as well. Overall, such a fun night! And I love my fellow interns.

me and Nabila. I think she's pretty cool.

They have these cake ball things there! Quite good.

Beautiful canal in the city

look at the ferris wheel! So cute!

Me and Jaime conquered this. 

It was pretty epic.

Food stalls everywhere! Getting fries in a cone like this with
sauce (usually just mayo) dripped on top is so typical. This time I tried a spicy sauce. Was good! 

The swings up in the sky at midnight!

So yeah! That's what's going down lately in Jennyland. P.S. "The low countries" is the term for the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg since they are small enough to be grouped together and geographically have a very low altitude.

Superwoman: Level One

I did it! My first ever running event! It was kind of terrible but also awesome at the same time! I’m really glad that I did it! 

I was so proud of this medal! I wore it all day!
And I even put it back on after my shower just hanging out at home by myself!

See, I’m not a runner or an athletic person at all but I wanted to get in shape when I got home from my mission and running is something that I think is cool even if I never really did it myself. So I took a “jogging” class last semester. Turns out that was one of the hardest classes of the term! But I got way better at running and it feels really good to have more power in your body. 

So as I was contemplating moving to the Netherlands I started looking for things that I could do for fun here (it was my way of dealing with the uncertainty of whether I would have any friends). I discovered the Peace Run and had it on my list of things to do for awhile but wasn’t sure if I would really get around to it. Turns out I did!

I didn't realise that Ashley was there at the beginning snapping these photos!

I have only run the distance of a 5k a few times in my life but as I have a really active lifestyle now that I bike everywhere and since one of those times was in the last couple weeks I honestly didn’t think it would be that bad. 

It was actually SO HARD! Haha, I just kept telling myself, I am not going to walk. I am not going to walk. And somehow, incredibly, my will held out. I stopped for .5 seconds to get water at the halfway mark but besides that I jogged the whole time. I felt terrible as I neared the finish line. But then something really wonky happened which is that as I rounded the corner I got super fast! Like I just started booking it! 

Right before the finish line!

When I had crossed the finish line and gotten to the point that I could stop I pulled over to the side and literally (and very involuntarily) peed myself a little bit! Apparently that’s a thing! 

Luckily, my new friend here in the Netherlands, Ashley came to support me. She even brought me a flower! So that was really nice because she was able to get pictures and congratulate me afterwards. When I first finished I was like NEVER AGAIN but then I started to get that runners high/adrenaline rush that people talk about it and I was like …that was cool.

And then I walked around the Hague for a few hours with Ashley and got very tired! 

Me and Ashley and the flower she bought me!

But yeah, I’m a runner now! I just need to keep at it! But I can do it! I just ran more than 3 miles straight! And I want to keep getting better! Next step: 10K! 

It’s amazing what the human body can do- even mine! 

So proud! 

P.S. This entry wouldn't be complete without saying that I ended my amazing day by finishing my Dr. Who Marathon. I've binged watched all the modern seasons available on Netflix within the last few months. It's a bittersweet relief to be freed from the addiction! Hopefully I can use the time more productively now!

Shipping Off

Shipping off to see the Shipps that is! This weekend I took an overnight bus to and from London so that I could meet up with my sister and her family for the day! 

I wasn’t sure at first whether it would be worth it to drive like 16 hours for about 12 hours actually WITH my family but then I saw pictures of my nieces on facebook and realised that WHAT is the point of both me and my sister being in Europe if I don’t use the opportunity to become BFFs with her darling little girls? I can have a meaningful relationship with Laura over the phone but Ellie and Christine aren’t old enough for that yet and I want to be a presence in their lives. 

Also I really wanted to be with Ellie when she first saw Big Ben.

So after work on Friday I packed up and biked to Den Haag Centraal station. From there I took a train to Amsterdam and then a bus from Amsterdam all the way to London. I made friends with the bus driver who made a point of telling me that he wasn’t married and with the girls sitting behind me. One of them was Scottish and the other Croatian and they were pretty much groupies following the farewell tour of their favorite band. They were really nice and the Scottish one and I talked a lot and the Croatian one and I bonded over the fact that we both love Dr. Who (yep, brought that up). 

How does one drive to the British Isles? One might be wondering. Well, it’s pretty epic. I’ve taken the ferry before but this time when we got to Calais our bus boarded a train and then we went through a tunnel to England.

On a bus on a train in a tunnel!

Yes you read that right. I was on a bus in a train in a tunnel under the ocean IN EUROPE. That happened. 

Well, I got to London way too early for any normal person—like 6 am. It was still dark out! I was going to just hang in the train station but then someone asked me for money and I realised I probably wouldn’t get left alone. So I went to Parliament where I was meant to meet up with my sister a few hours later. I figured maybe I could watch the sunrise over this incredible landmark. But then on London Bridge this drunk guy made a point of talking with me (not a creepy drunk guy-a really dapper one). But once again it made me realise that sitting by the river on my own with my blanket (yes I was carrying a little tv blanket around London) wasn’t a good idea. 

So then I borded a bus and wandered around Camden town and maybe Oxford Street or something. Finally when Starbucks opened I went in, grabbed a drink and watched Dr. Who on the free wifi as I waited for the appointed time to meet the Shipps. 

Getting to see Laura filled a need in me I hadn’t realised had grown so huge! When I saw her I just started talking talking talking because finally I was around someone that I could be totally open and weird with! Someone that I didn’t have to have small talk with! It was great! 

Aren't they cute? They match!

At first Ellie was really shy around me but then she got over it and we had a great time looking at Big Ben, having a picnic in Hyde Park and exploring the Tower of London. After that we went to the Rain Forest Cafe for dinner. I loved being in London but more importantly I loved being with my family and getting to know my nieces (who have always lived far away from me) better. They are so adorable and so funny! 

they were more interested in the pebbles than in the changing of the gaurd

lunchtime snuggles

love her

the Tower of London residences-doesn't this just look so British!?

Saturday night the Shipps set sail and I went and found my hostel on my own. I feel like a real world traveler now that I can just do that without being freaked out of my mind! 

On Sunday my big plan was to attend the singles ward in London but that wasn’t until later in the day and on Saturday I had discovered something too good to pass up- Churchill’s War Cabinet Bunkers in Westminster near Big Ben! It was too expensive and museum-y to take little kids to so I went back on my own. 

And it was SO COOL. I loved it! I got to see where Churchill directed the war and there was even a cool little churchill museum all about his life and his speeches and his quotes and I got to talk with this adorable elderly lady who gave me her WW2 booklist and let me try on a Churchill hat replica! I also may or may not have bought a lot of Churchill/WW2 paraphernalia there….

Getting my Churchill on

After that I went to church determined to meet my husband there. As I walked up the street towards the Hyde Park chapel this incredibly handsome young man with an English accent walked up next to me and said “are you going to church?” I was like “…..yes?” totally in awe. He explained that he recognised my BYU backpack and I was like ‘my name is Jenny’ gearing up to fall in love. He was like ‘I got married a couple months ago.’ 

Uganda be kidding me! I told him congratulations. 

The bus trip back from London was good. I was able to sleep a fair amount of the journey and I even made friends with the cute Dutch girl sitting next to me! Our bus got delayed so we talked a lot and then when we boarded the ferry we found a secluded place to lie down under the stairs to nap! (It was like a refugee camp on that ferry-people were sleeping everywhere!). I’m glad I had her because she woke me up when it was time to go-somehow I was sleeping through all the noise on the boat! 

me and my new friend getting ready to sleep under the stairs

I got back to the Hague with a couple hours before work. I figured if I didn’t have time to nap I would at least have time to shower. So I got into the bathroom and then, lo and behold, the shower didn’t work. 

My kitchen floor is now all torn up and I had to take a shower at work today!

 Every day is an adventure!

Splinched

I've been splinched! That's the only way to describe it! Let me start at the beginning.

It's Tuesday morning in The Hague, Netherlands. A beautiful girl who does not take very good care of her appearance walks down the steep staircase from the second floor onto the street. She unlocks the new (used) bike That She brought` home just yesterday. It's a bit small for her, making it feel like a clown bike but its ok Because she did not dress to impress this morning. She is wearing black exercise capris and a large, loose, blue polka-dot shirt. Like any good superhero She Has packed her true identity in her bag (in the form of an adorable blue dress). 

This is miracle number 1. She was not wearing the beloved dress When the incident occurred.

Well, this beautiful but unkempt girl cycled down the street towards work just like any other day. After the big circular fountain she Reaches of the familiar crosswalk where (though it is the wrong side of the street), she is obliged to cross due to construction on her side of the road. Though she only moved to the area recently, She Has traveled this route to have enough Considered, The Possibility of crossing back over to the other side of the street after passing the construction site. She knows now-which of the branches of this strange, rambling dutch street are hers. She considers crossing on this fateful day. But there are about 15 bikes waiting in line at the main intersection to turn from the other direction and it would be very kettle to make the sharp right turn Necessary to join them. 

So she continues, just like She Has most days. Just like her guide Showed her on the first day of work. But the path is extremely busy (most likely a function or leaving for work Earlier than usual). It's like a mob coming towards her. She expertly handles the first crisis zone. But then as she maneuvers through the next phase of the crowd That Suddenly she sees two feet directly in front of her is another woman on a cycle. The path is packed and there's nowhere to swerve. There is just enough time for the registry to the girl, 'this is happening and then the two collide with a spectacular crash and the girl falls into the street where, luckily, she was not hit by a car. 

This is miracle number two. She was not hit by a car. 

Slightly embarrassed and in shock, the girl jumps up, grabs her bike and gets back on the sidewalk. A few people have stopped to make sure the two parties are ok. A man makes his way back into the crowd, Clearly connected with the woman. The woman stares wide-eyed at the girl. Everyone checks That everyone is ok. The girl says she is fine and then is told thatthere is blood trickling from her lip. She Reaches up to wipe it away. The woman and the girl continued to stare at eachother and the girl is toldthat she needs to be careful in this busy area, that the woman could not see her. The girl nods and says That Agrees and it's not the woman's fault and That she should not have been on That side of the street and that's She Has learned her lesson. With the uneasy union born of two strangers not killing each other, They part. 

This is miracle number three: The girl kept her cool.

The girl does not really hurt but she is a bit shaken and Decides to go find a bathroom where she can cleanse herself. When she gets to the bathroom she wipes off her elbow and her knee but is alarmed When She sees how deep the hole is beside her kneecap. It looks similar to When She split her skin open hiking and had to get stitches. Now, she is truly Concerned Because wounds are too deep That do not hurt. She Decides to call the one number saved in her contacts-an old friend and current co-worker. Hey instructions Ir her walk the rest of the way to work and get medical help from the on-sight doctor there. 

Look at that face-Clearly in shock!

It's difficult to see how deep it is from this picture.

The girl locks her bike, sets her determination and begins her long walk. With conscious Attempts to Regulate deep breathing, she tries not to concentrate on the image of the hole in her leg. Now would not be a good time to go into shock or start hyperventilating. 

This is miracle number four: The girl does not pass out on her twenty minute walk the rest of the way to work. 

When she gets to work she tries to act nonchalant about wearing sweats into a nice office building. She makes it to the 4th floor, Explains her situation and is bandaged by a nice filipino woman. She is validated to hear That the cut is deep but in fact That everything will be ok. Her jaw hurts and she is've've given painkillers. When she finally makes it downstairs to her division, her supervisor makes an Appropriately big deal about the white bandage. Her boss just comes in and gives her a mini case of ice cream. 

This is miracle number five: The girls co-workers have an opportunity to serve her-which scary managers a greater bond between them.

What the banage looked like by the end of the work day. I mean who would not take pity on that?

The re-done bandage the first night. It just kept getting bigger.

It was only later the girl That Realised what must have happened. It's a common problem for people trying to transport themelves quickly while on an adventure. And the shape of the indent in the girl's leg was so unique. It's not a long scratch or a line. It's a hole. Like a drill was applied to the first few Millimetres or flesh. Part of her body was simply gone. 

There is only one explanation: the girl HAS BEEN splinched. In the process of traveling from one part of space to another, a portion of her body has gone missing. Just like it did for poor Ron Weasley When he and his friends were running away from Death Eaters. 

It was That  dramatic

The girl May never know where her missing bits of flesh got off to. But, just like Ron, she too had kind people around to apply essence or Dittany and care to her wounds. 

The covering really does just keep getting bigger!

So this brings us to miracle number six: People are kind, accidents happen and the best way to deal with them is to imagine that you are part of an epic, fiction-worthy adventure- Because you are! 

Oh, but really, miracle number seven? I still looked awesome in the simple blue dress. 

Going Dutch

Well I have officially survived my first week here in Nederland! 

I'd say the craziest thing about my time here so far is how surreally normal it has felt! Maybe it's because I spent the summer in Uganda or because I have visited the Hague before and so knew what to expect out of my environment but I feel like I am adjusting really well. Like, yeah I live in Europe now! Great! One of my goals with traveling though is to never lose my sense of awe at discovering or living in a new place so I don't want to get too comfortable!

Well, a quick recap of my adventures so far. My first weekend here I went to fireworks with Sameer and Natalia like I mentioned in my last post. Then on Sunday I braved the public transportation system and found the English ward here. This took two hours due to my own incompetence. The ward was very nice and the bishop's family had me and some other people over to lunch afterwards. 

Monday was my first day of work! I was pretty outwardly calm about it but subconsciously nervous. My sweet roommate who used to intern at OPCW woke up early so that she could guide me by bike to the building. This was very nice as it took me a few days to become comfortable biking around the city. It was raining that morning so for my ID photo I've got a bit of a puff ball for hair but whatever. 

The first day was actually pretty comical. I went through security outside the building and when they asked for my passport it was the one thing I had forgotten at home. So I gave them my void drivers licence and they didn't seem to notice. Then when my guides came to collect me in the lobby (you can't walk around alone inside until you have your own badge) they took me to this really fancy meeting room to sign my papers. I realised  that my hand was actually shaking as I sat there, pen in hand. When they finally took me to meet my supervisor he was like, "I DON'T NEED ANY MORE INTERNS!" 

Really. He was

So Then They overtook me upstairs and I've been in Entitlements and Benefits (E&B) ever sense! I'm supposed to transition to recruitment soon but in the meantime my officemates are really nice so I don't mind! Although it's a lot of spreadsheet work....

On Thursday I went with some of the OPCW peeps to jazz in the canals and then on Friday I went to a Brazilian grill and fireworks and then on Saturday I had an incredibly blissful time just cycling around on my own and exploring the city. Then I went back to the jazz concert and read my book there like a weirdo. It was wonderful.

Also my house is incredible! A really great location and a landlord who is like santa clause-seriously I came home to find new furniture magically appeared yesterday! 

So, while I realise its still rather early to make a definitive call, I'm going to say Holland = good choice. A very good choice indeed.

The Suite Life

Greetings from Den Haag!

So I have a goal to blog more and document my blessed life so I'm going to try to update more frequently with perhaps shorter posts.

Well on Wednesday (or was it Tuesday? It's hard to keep track now) I left Provo for the big wide world with the help of my old mission companion's mom, Kerri Crane. She's great! She took me to the airport! The flights were great and the airport was totally fine because I got to watch Dr. Who which I am unashamedly obsessed with right now!

The only problem was that when I got to London they ended up cancelling my final flight to Amsterdam. So then I had to go through customs, pick up my bag, and wait in line for about 40 minutes to talk to costumer service (but it's cool guys, Heathrow has wifi so I just watched more Dr. Who on my phone).

Reason number 1.35 TRILLION that I know God loves me is that the next flight they could get me on from Heathrow was the next day! Oh no! A night in London! Whatever shall I do? ;)

Well, I got free shuttle passes, a free hotel room for the night and free dinner and breakfast. It was great cause I love just BEING in England even if I don't do anything cool and it was nice to finally get out of the airport. And the hotel was way nicer than I expected it to be!

My hotel room 

So I just had an unreasonably fun time basking in the luxuriousness of my own hotel room. What did I do besides eat chocolate cake at dinner? Well, I watched Dr. Who of course. I even took a bath and watched it. It was glorious. And sometimes I just love being by myself.

This morning I slept in by accident but it's cool cause I still got to the airport with plenty of time after eating three (count them! Three!) chocolate croissants for breakfast.

I flew in to Amsterdam and then took a train to the Hague which was really easy. When I got off at Den Haag Centraal Sameer was waiting for me at the platform and then we got in his friend's car and drove to my new apartment! I really like my apartment. It's close to the city center and the girl who is staying here right now is really nice. Her name is Natalia and she is from Madrid. She may end up living here this fall. It just depends on whether she gets hired back at her job.

So we chatted for a little bit, Sameer managed to procure a bike for me and we went to the beach for drinks and fireworks with other young Hague expats. (And when I say drinks I mean ... pineapple juice for me. And sprite, haha).

It was good! The other people there were from EVERYWHERE and everyone is very friendly and by some miracle I was able to be pretty normal and outgoing and not overly tired. Some examples of where people come from are Singapore, Malaysia, London, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Spain, Iraq and more. It's incredible how diverse it is!

"Welcome to the Hague Jenny!" say the fireworks

Natalia and I and some nice dutch fries with mayo on them

So life is great! Biking around is really fun although I have an irrational fear that my skirt is flying up in the back and I don't know it. I also don't know how on earth I'm going to be able to find my way around without Sameer or Natalia...but that's a problem for another day! For now, though I sadly had to leave the hotel in London, I'm still living the Suite Life! :)

First World Problems

I'm pretty sure that experiencing PTSD for something you've never even been through counts as a first world problem. Let me explain.

Last week Lori and I went down to Kampala for our Safari. We were really excited and were treating it as our Africa vacation. The only problem was that I wasn't feeling well before we left. And usually my health tends to get worse when I travel. So I got a priesthood blessing from the elders here and we set off on the post-bus early on Monday morning. It took about 6 hours or so to get from Gulu down to Kampala and then from there we walked to the craft market so that we could pick up some gifts etc. That was really fun and afterwards we were able to take the shuttle to Red Chili Hideaway- the headquarters for our safari. We spent the night in a dorm room and the next morning we left early in our safari jeep. We were paired with a couple young women from California who were on a work trip (they study malaria prevention) as well as a German mother/daughter duo who were very nice. To my surprise our driver, Noor announced that it would take us about 7 hours to get to our destination. I was like WHA? I had thought it would only be like three or four hours. As we drove I was starting to not feel my best again but it was whatever.

We finally arrived at the first leg of our safari which was Kalinzu Forrest Reserve where we went chimp tracking! After an early morning and long day in the car I wasn't quite in my peak hiking condition. But I was super excited to go into an African forest and see chimps! So our guide lead us into the woods and at first we were just on this beautiful path going up and down hills. I imagined myself as some sort of fictional character- Katniss Everdeen, or Jane from Tarzan-- someone epic!

Then, in our attempts to find the chimps, our guide starting off-roading it. We got to a point where we were literally bush-whacking. The guide had a machete up in front of us and was just hacking away at things and we were following and tripping over logs and stones and ferns and running into branches. I kept falling down-it was very humbling. We saw giant millipedes the size of tiny snakes and I got my bun stabbed by a branch at least once. The guide was going SO fast that it was all I could do to keep up with him and not fall down. I couldn't even enjoy the beauty around me! I was just so focused on not holding everyone up!

Well, we did get to see chimps which was pretty awesome (and a good opportunity for me to take a swig of water!). They were climbing in the trees above us and we got to follow them pretty closely for a little bit. It's crazy to think that they were just wild chimps with nothing between us and them! (Although they are practically domestic considering how well those guides know them).

Somewhere throughout this I started to not feel good. I felt like a weakling because I couldn't keep up. And then I started suspecting that it was more than just being out of shape. But I wasn't sure if that was an excuse or not. I started thinking things like ...."if I had diarrhea right here would it disturb the natural habitat?" I thought about having the intern-guide-girls take me back to the start. It was not fun anymore.

At some point on the second half of that journey I realized what character I was actually playing out as I stumbled, exhausted, through that forest afraid I was going to be sick. It all really solidified as we finally emerged out of the trees at the end of our path and I asked to hold the guide's machete and gripped it in my hand.

I kept myself together for the next couple hours as we drove to our campsite and received our orientation. I was talking with everyone and acting totally normal. But my temperature was increasing and I felt achy. When we finally were able to go into our safari tent I went through a sudden and kind of terrifying transformation that freaked Lori out. As soon as we got to our tent I immediately laid down on my cot and just started crying-more like sobbing actually. I was so cold even though I had so many layers on. I started hyperventilating. I had no appetite. I felt disgusting. And I finally told Lori what that trek through the jungle had reminded me of- child soldiers.

I've done a lot of research about the child soldiers kidnapped by the Lord's Resistance Army in Northern Uganda. I've interviewed a lot of former child soldiers and heard first hand accounts. Natural empathy combined with exhaustion and the fatigue of fever brought out a small portion of the horror that those children experienced for me in a new, un-ignorable way. I had heard their stories, but I have a talent for keeping things theoretical and academic. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to work with a post-conflict population. Now, in a very small way, I was feeling their stories.

That day, hiking through Kazinga forest, things got a little more real for me and I experienced in the slightest, whitest way what those brave, desperate children went through. I carried a 1.5 liter water bottle in a backpack-the girls in the LRA carried their own babies on their backs through the bush. I felt sick but was embarrassed to hold others up- those children could have been beaten or shot for stopping. I was here in Uganda eating unfamiliar food that upset my stomach- they were living away from home off stolen crops and foraged morsels. I held branches back for the person behind me- they held machetes. I paid a lot of money to be there-they were kidnapped.

The Lord's Resistance Army wasn't in southwestern Uganda where I went on this hike- they operated up north. But once they were kicked out of the country they've hidden a lot in the jungles of the Central African Republic or the Congo. Laying in bed, crying in that fancy safari tent, it hit home to me once again just how unfair life is. Why is it that I was born into a life of so much privilege while others inherit so much suffering? We are all children of God and any blessings I have come from Him- have I been honoring the privileged circumstances that He has given me to lift others?

I don't know how any of it works. I don't know how it is decided who will be born where or what trials they will face. But I do know that the Lord was and is acutely aware of the people in Northern Uganda. And, as Lori reminded me, I know that through the atonement of Jesus Christ all that is unfair in this life will be made right. The atonement isn't just for sin. It is for all pain and injustice--it's for children who've had their innocence stolen from them. It's even for weak little me who can't handle one small hike in the forrest.

I don't really know what I can say that won't be cheesy so I'll just end by saying this: Evil is real. Though my direct exposure to it has been small, it is undeniable. But, because of the atonement, goodness is stronger. And in that I rejoice.