09/21/08 Two Borders in a day

Ahhh! Mi estomago no trabaje para mi! Necesito trabajar para mi escuela y mi diario. Mi estomago es descansado en la carretera. El estomago de Ahmee es descansado tambien.

We headed out early this day to have yet another day of complete traveling. We wanted to get to Amsterdam before nightfall, and it was quite interesting going from eating breakfast in France, to eating lunch in Belgium, to eating dinner in the Netherlands. The first two meals we spoke French, and the last one we had to speak English.

In Belgium all the little towns we passed through reminded me of Hanover. Actually no, I take that back. They reminded me of the towns in the Great Plains. So many of the towns out there had little to nothing in them. Belgium was a difficult place for Poppy to find an atm and a difficult place for us to find a restaurant. When we did get to the town where we had lunch we were astounded at the shops and banks that were so close together. There were literally five banks within a one-block radius. Here we ate at a local Chinese Restaurant where I had what I think was rice cakes, wan tan soup (great when you've got a cold-I'm working on another one), and noodles. Ahmee and I got the noodles while Poppy ate his rice and soup. It reminded me of the time when my cousin Kelly babysat me as a kid when we were at my Dad's house. We went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant (twas my favorite) and Kelly didn't want to eat anything that was on the menu. She ordered just plain rice. I was shocked that she was so picky. I had never known that she was picky. Now were in Belgium and we're doing practically the same thing. Difference is this: Poppy and I aren't feeling good so we need the soup and something else (we were both full from the soup but to make sure we didn't get hungry we ate a little more).

Again, my stomach refused to work with me. I didn't mind it so much this time because I was enjoying the scenery and daydreaming.

I think that it was in Belgium that we started seeing all sorts of signs that weren't in French. Once we reached the Netherlands it was all in Dutch. As Ahmee and Poppy navigated their way to another Hotel Ibis, I was reading all the signs I could, trying to figure out what the essential words would be in case the Dutch were like the French and were stingy about their language. Even after we had dinner where the waitress spoke to us in English I still wasn't convinced that we needed to learn a small bit of Dutch so that while we were in the Netherlands and in Amsterdam we could make our way around. Once we got to the hotel though my fears slowly evaporated. The man who was at the desk spoke English, and so did several of the other hotel employees. If the Dutch were as stingy about their language as the French then most of the people in the hotel would've been speaking Dutch instead of English. Another good sign was that a lot of the signs I had seen had had English writing on it. Seeing the English gave my brain just about as much of a shock as the Dutch did. I believe I've gotten quite used to seeing all French on road signs.

As usual, I took a shower while Ahmee and Poppy checked their mail, then got on the computer and used up an hour and 15 minutes of my time on the computer typing to people. We'd bought a total of three hours for the computer that would last us a couple days.