Ready for school
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Montana
24 Augustus 2015 | Verenigde Staten, Costa Mesa
August 14-24
After a few days of pure loneliness I could visit my cousin Annieck for a three day weekend in San Diego. After a three hour drive (yes, it was a friday) I picked her up from her work, which is right on the beach. After we found a parking spot we walked around along the beautiful beach (Mission Beach) and sat down on a roof terrace. The restaurant was called ‘Cannonball’ and it was placed beautifully. We had a bite to eat (spicy edamame, sushi etc.) and enjoyed the sun, which was burning that day. Boy it was hot!
After a little more walking around we drove to her home-stay family. Fortunately I was allowed to sleep there as well. The next day we went to Fashion Valley and literally shopped ALL DAY. When we had seen the entire mall, we finished were my car was parked nearby. It was around noon and we were both hungry, so why drive somewhere when we could eat at the food court? So we walked all the way back, it was at the far end. Then back to the beginning, because we missed a store. Then, when we were ready to leave again, we looked up where the movie theatre was. It turned out, all the way back to the far end. So after waiting for another hour, we watched the movie ‘Vacation’ (pretty funny, I recommend it). And then how about dinner too? Nope, the Cheesecake Factory and every other restaurant was full.
Going to the movies here in the States is an experience. First off all, the food. So many things to choose from! We just bought a normal popcorn. Wait no, it wasn’t normal. It was completely yellow, covered in butter! Ugh. Then we couldn’t find our seats and asked for help. “We can’t find our chair numbers on the ticket.” “You can sit anywhere you want” “Anywhere???” “Anywhere”. Ok, wow that’s weird, but not the weirdest thing yet. When something funny happens in the movie, people giggle and hold back their laughs in the Netherlands to be polite to the other viewers. Here, people laugh with a tremendous sound, overpowering the speakers. Some laughs were funnier than the joke. People even cracked up when it wasn’t even funny. So weird.
The next day we went back to Fashion Valley. Yes, one day wasn’t enough. Annieck bought a ‘Lounge Bra’ at Victoria’s Secret and now the whole family wants one. Afterwards we went to the beach, driving around and around, but no parking space. Then a different beach, driving and driving to find that there is a line of cars driving in circles for a parking space to open up. Maybe the harbour? Nope. We chose a really busy weekend for the beach, as it was really hot and still summer vacation (apparently people from Arizona love San Diego). We decided to go downtown San Diego, but didn’t really know where to. So after more driving, looking for parking spots, driving, Annieck thought of a nice place to go for lunch: Little Italy. A street full of Italian shops/restaurants. We had the most delicious lunch (I finally got to leave the driving wheel). After all this mess we decided to just go home, stop by a grocery store first and make our own dinner. When we got to her place, no one was home. She had the password for the alarm, but sadly, it was typed in wrong. I remember the sound of our alarm. You kind of miss the sound of ours back home if you hear this one. It’s so incredibly loud and so annoying, it gives you a headache in 0.2 seconds. When it finally stopped, we heard sirens and thought the police were coming. Luckily not for us, but we were really worried. So not the best day, but I really enjoyed my time with Annieck. I’m really grateful to have family around (whom I can speak Dutch to!). The next morning I dropped Annieck of at work and drove back home, this time in 1,5 hours.
Then when I got back at the apartment, there was a strange boy sitting on my porch, smoking something *uhum” that’s illegal here but legal back home. After being completely alone for days in that apartment I got stressed out. “Did someone break in?” Shock number two came when I opened the door. “What’s that? O my gosh this room was empty when I left. Who put those couches and table there?”. Suddenly, the biggest and emptiest room was filled with stuff and it felt strange to me. Then Sarah walked in, the girl I will be sharing my bedroom with. She told me he was her friend and we ended up putting her Ikea bed together. My bed was done in 20 minutes. Her bed took 4 days. I really didn’t plan on building a fort my whole day and it wasn’t really going anywhere so I just stopped. The next couple of days several other people helped out, but literally, nothing happened. After three days the bed still looked like how I left it. On day four, another guy came along to help. He set up the entire bed, without any help because she didn’t offer any. He got one glass of water as a thank you. I felt sad for him.
The details of my days have been pretty much the same. Wake up early (damn those curtains), stay in bed for another two hours, eat breakfast, shower, go to Vons/Target/Ikea, go to the common room for some Wifi (which sucks) and occasionally go to Starbucks to download a movie for the night. Pretty exciting, right?
On the 18th I had an International Orientation from 9.00 till 15.30. Yay! An activity! When I got there (early) I noticed that most people already had a group of friends. Like, how??? And as I expected, mostly Asian people. I met three Japanese girls (Nanami, Aoi and Yui), a girl from Brasil who is in the Tennis team (Pietra) and a guy I met before when I was taking placement tests (still not sure if he’s French or Russian. He has a french accent but was talking Russian to other guys). The orientation was pretty informative and it was nice to be among people who were here with the same purpose.
Two days later I had Softball Orientation. I had no idea what to expect, just that I would meet my teammates. They all seemed very nice, but women can we quite ‘awkward’ when they don’t know anyone around them (including me). We had to take a (personality) survey , talked about several things like nutrition and we went on a scavenger hunt. We were separated in groups and had to take selfies at several buildings in a specific order (of course we didn’t take the selfies in that order, but sent them in the right order to save time).
Roommate number two was starting to move in this week too. The place was filling up, but I would still sleep alone at night. She stayed with her mum in a hotel and the other girl stayed at home. I could finally throw away the plastic utensils I stole from hotels!
I’ve been pretty depressed and missing everything and everyone. I’m scared, but I still don’t want to go home. I haven’t really been sleeping well either so out of pure distress I asked my pitching coach Courtney for help (something I wouldn’t normally do). She’s incredibly nice. We talked a lot and she showed me this Asian Market. A grocery store with Asian products, but also food ready to eat. What are you buying? I don’t know. There are crazy symbols on everything. We had a snack. Well, that’s what she kept calling it, but I call it a big ass lunch for just $10. I’m probably going to this place at least three times a week in the future. The food was really good and I like the fact that I don’t need to prepare anything.
My first class was Softball, which was exciting. At the orientation there were about eighteen girls present (a few missing!). This made me really nervous for my first practise. As a pitcher you need to prove yourself in order to play. But after talking to coach Courtney, I found out that there are only three pitchers, myself included! Wow, so I guess I’m definitely playing.
The training was though. The warm-up was really short compared to back home, I didn’t have much time to stretch. Then we had the longest throwing warm-up ever! Everything is much more strict. While throwing, we had to stand in a perfect line, as if we were in the army. So different from back home, where everyone does their own thing and one finishes before the other. I was so nervous to pitch, my hand was shaking. Everything was going the complete opposite. Normally I’m a low ball pitcher, this day I was a high ball pitcher. I left the Netherlands with a good curve-ball and a bad rise-ball, but today it was the complete opposite. All ready I have to leave things I learned back home behind. Our ‘unofficial’ pitching coach has offered to work on my pitching an extra day in the week. He is really nice and funny, I enjoy working with a pitching coach one to one.
So Math class, one out of three night classes (unfortunately). I’m taking Math A180, Calculus. For the first 30 minutes, the teacher kept saying: “If you didn’t take Math A170 you’re going to fail.” Stress stress stress! But as soon as he started talking (a review about A170) I already knew everything he was saying. I think I’ll be just fine.
After a few days of pure loneliness I could visit my cousin Annieck for a three day weekend in San Diego. After a three hour drive (yes, it was a friday) I picked her up from her work, which is right on the beach. After we found a parking spot we walked around along the beautiful beach (Mission Beach) and sat down on a roof terrace. The restaurant was called ‘Cannonball’ and it was placed beautifully. We had a bite to eat (spicy edamame, sushi etc.) and enjoyed the sun, which was burning that day. Boy it was hot!
After a little more walking around we drove to her home-stay family. Fortunately I was allowed to sleep there as well. The next day we went to Fashion Valley and literally shopped ALL DAY. When we had seen the entire mall, we finished were my car was parked nearby. It was around noon and we were both hungry, so why drive somewhere when we could eat at the food court? So we walked all the way back, it was at the far end. Then back to the beginning, because we missed a store. Then, when we were ready to leave again, we looked up where the movie theatre was. It turned out, all the way back to the far end. So after waiting for another hour, we watched the movie ‘Vacation’ (pretty funny, I recommend it). And then how about dinner too? Nope, the Cheesecake Factory and every other restaurant was full.
Going to the movies here in the States is an experience. First off all, the food. So many things to choose from! We just bought a normal popcorn. Wait no, it wasn’t normal. It was completely yellow, covered in butter! Ugh. Then we couldn’t find our seats and asked for help. “We can’t find our chair numbers on the ticket.” “You can sit anywhere you want” “Anywhere???” “Anywhere”. Ok, wow that’s weird, but not the weirdest thing yet. When something funny happens in the movie, people giggle and hold back their laughs in the Netherlands to be polite to the other viewers. Here, people laugh with a tremendous sound, overpowering the speakers. Some laughs were funnier than the joke. People even cracked up when it wasn’t even funny. So weird.
The next day we went back to Fashion Valley. Yes, one day wasn’t enough. Annieck bought a ‘Lounge Bra’ at Victoria’s Secret and now the whole family wants one. Afterwards we went to the beach, driving around and around, but no parking space. Then a different beach, driving and driving to find that there is a line of cars driving in circles for a parking space to open up. Maybe the harbour? Nope. We chose a really busy weekend for the beach, as it was really hot and still summer vacation (apparently people from Arizona love San Diego). We decided to go downtown San Diego, but didn’t really know where to. So after more driving, looking for parking spots, driving, Annieck thought of a nice place to go for lunch: Little Italy. A street full of Italian shops/restaurants. We had the most delicious lunch (I finally got to leave the driving wheel). After all this mess we decided to just go home, stop by a grocery store first and make our own dinner. When we got to her place, no one was home. She had the password for the alarm, but sadly, it was typed in wrong. I remember the sound of our alarm. You kind of miss the sound of ours back home if you hear this one. It’s so incredibly loud and so annoying, it gives you a headache in 0.2 seconds. When it finally stopped, we heard sirens and thought the police were coming. Luckily not for us, but we were really worried. So not the best day, but I really enjoyed my time with Annieck. I’m really grateful to have family around (whom I can speak Dutch to!). The next morning I dropped Annieck of at work and drove back home, this time in 1,5 hours.
Then when I got back at the apartment, there was a strange boy sitting on my porch, smoking something *uhum” that’s illegal here but legal back home. After being completely alone for days in that apartment I got stressed out. “Did someone break in?” Shock number two came when I opened the door. “What’s that? O my gosh this room was empty when I left. Who put those couches and table there?”. Suddenly, the biggest and emptiest room was filled with stuff and it felt strange to me. Then Sarah walked in, the girl I will be sharing my bedroom with. She told me he was her friend and we ended up putting her Ikea bed together. My bed was done in 20 minutes. Her bed took 4 days. I really didn’t plan on building a fort my whole day and it wasn’t really going anywhere so I just stopped. The next couple of days several other people helped out, but literally, nothing happened. After three days the bed still looked like how I left it. On day four, another guy came along to help. He set up the entire bed, without any help because she didn’t offer any. He got one glass of water as a thank you. I felt sad for him.
The details of my days have been pretty much the same. Wake up early (damn those curtains), stay in bed for another two hours, eat breakfast, shower, go to Vons/Target/Ikea, go to the common room for some Wifi (which sucks) and occasionally go to Starbucks to download a movie for the night. Pretty exciting, right?
On the 18th I had an International Orientation from 9.00 till 15.30. Yay! An activity! When I got there (early) I noticed that most people already had a group of friends. Like, how??? And as I expected, mostly Asian people. I met three Japanese girls (Nanami, Aoi and Yui), a girl from Brasil who is in the Tennis team (Pietra) and a guy I met before when I was taking placement tests (still not sure if he’s French or Russian. He has a french accent but was talking Russian to other guys). The orientation was pretty informative and it was nice to be among people who were here with the same purpose.
Two days later I had Softball Orientation. I had no idea what to expect, just that I would meet my teammates. They all seemed very nice, but women can we quite ‘awkward’ when they don’t know anyone around them (including me). We had to take a (personality) survey , talked about several things like nutrition and we went on a scavenger hunt. We were separated in groups and had to take selfies at several buildings in a specific order (of course we didn’t take the selfies in that order, but sent them in the right order to save time).
Roommate number two was starting to move in this week too. The place was filling up, but I would still sleep alone at night. She stayed with her mum in a hotel and the other girl stayed at home. I could finally throw away the plastic utensils I stole from hotels!
I’ve been pretty depressed and missing everything and everyone. I’m scared, but I still don’t want to go home. I haven’t really been sleeping well either so out of pure distress I asked my pitching coach Courtney for help (something I wouldn’t normally do). She’s incredibly nice. We talked a lot and she showed me this Asian Market. A grocery store with Asian products, but also food ready to eat. What are you buying? I don’t know. There are crazy symbols on everything. We had a snack. Well, that’s what she kept calling it, but I call it a big ass lunch for just $10. I’m probably going to this place at least three times a week in the future. The food was really good and I like the fact that I don’t need to prepare anything.
My first class was Softball, which was exciting. At the orientation there were about eighteen girls present (a few missing!). This made me really nervous for my first practise. As a pitcher you need to prove yourself in order to play. But after talking to coach Courtney, I found out that there are only three pitchers, myself included! Wow, so I guess I’m definitely playing.
The training was though. The warm-up was really short compared to back home, I didn’t have much time to stretch. Then we had the longest throwing warm-up ever! Everything is much more strict. While throwing, we had to stand in a perfect line, as if we were in the army. So different from back home, where everyone does their own thing and one finishes before the other. I was so nervous to pitch, my hand was shaking. Everything was going the complete opposite. Normally I’m a low ball pitcher, this day I was a high ball pitcher. I left the Netherlands with a good curve-ball and a bad rise-ball, but today it was the complete opposite. All ready I have to leave things I learned back home behind. Our ‘unofficial’ pitching coach has offered to work on my pitching an extra day in the week. He is really nice and funny, I enjoy working with a pitching coach one to one.
So Math class, one out of three night classes (unfortunately). I’m taking Math A180, Calculus. For the first 30 minutes, the teacher kept saying: “If you didn’t take Math A170 you’re going to fail.” Stress stress stress! But as soon as he started talking (a review about A170) I already knew everything he was saying. I think I’ll be just fine.
-
26 Augustus 2015 - 02:35
Dianne:
You are super brave Montana! It takes time to adjust to such different surroundings, look at me and Patrick, 15yrs in NL and still couldn't speak Dutch properly! -
26 Augustus 2015 - 06:25
Marina Meijer:
Hi Montana, Thanks for sharing your stories, love reading them, very insightful. I know you will be totally fine! Take care and enjoy. -
26 Augustus 2015 - 08:50
Mama:
Daddy and I are so proud of you sweetheart. You are a strong woman and will overcome your homesickness now that you are so busy. What a tough regime! Don't forget to have fun. Love you -
26 Augustus 2015 - 09:10
Oma Anneke:
Lieve dappere Montana,
Wat een lang verhaal, fijn om weer wat meer van je te horen.
In ieder geval heb je in no time leren shoppen van Annieck. het was echt een shop till you drop lijkt mij,
Je bent wel direct in het diepe gegooid , maar je kan goed zwemmen en je houdt gelukkig je koppie nu goed boven water.
Heel veel doorzetting wens ik je toe, het wordt alleen maar steeds beter en gezelliger als je eenmaal in het dagelijkse school- en trainingsritme zit
Hier gaat alles gewoon zijn gangetje, heel wat minder enerverend dus dan jouw leventje momenteel.
Ik ga mij vandaag voorbereiden op onze golfreis naar Wales. Vrijdag en zaterdag viert Winterswijk Volksfeest. Dus dan worden de bloemetjes (in Winterswijk die vreselijke gladiolen) buiten gezet.
Bij jullie is dan het straatfeeast geloof ik.
Heel veel gezelligheid bij tante Emy.
Heeeeeel veel liefs, ook van Opa, Oma Anneke
-
26 Augustus 2015 - 09:40
Bob:
I red it twice. I wish I could be there with you.
Love you. -
27 Augustus 2015 - 01:49
Tante Emy:
Ha Montana
Las net al je reis avonturen. Leuk geschreven,hoor.
Wat jammer dat we er niet waren, toen je het juist zo eenzaam had. Maar ja, dat
hebben we ook niet verwacht.
Je hebt het uitgezongen, en nu wordt het steeds beter.
Vrijdag komen jullie alle drie bij ons. Gezellig.
We boekten lunch voor 8 ( 2 mannen met 6 lieve dames!!! in het Hotel del Coronado
in Coronado.
Als je niets beter te doen hebt, moet je het maar even googlen. Het is een heel beroemd hotel, aan zee. We zitten buiten.
Zo, dat isiets om je op te verheugen.
Bel ons op, als jullie vrijdagin de buurt
Hugs
tante Emy -
30 Augustus 2015 - 11:06
Ruud Huyssteden De Wit:
hallo Montana,
Ja dat is wel wennen daar in dat Amerika.
maar ik blijf natuurlijk aan je denken hoor.
ik probeerde je verslag te lezen maar Engels is nou bepaald niet mijn sterke kant.
Het zal daar anders aan toe gaan dan hier, denk ik.
Maar ik weet dat jij een sterke wil hebt en doorzettings vermogen, dus dat komt best goed met je.
Volgende keer schrijf ik je hoe het gaat met mijn team.
nu staan we nog eerste met 8 gespeelde wedstrijden en 16 punten.
Ja natuurlijk Almere op de tweede plaats met 8 gespeeld en 12 punten.
Gelukkig hebben wij een keer al gewonnen van ze met 13-5.
Ik hou me op de hoogte van je avonturen en we schrijven elkaar wel.
Heel veel groetjes
Ruud -
27 Oktober 2015 - 08:19
Nanny Kiwi:
Hi Montana,
I looked up your address and read some awful comments on it about your apartments having lots of cockroaches and termites & spiders. Would that be correct.
How are you managing with your other flat mates. We are getting ready here for a long hot summer.
I am looking forward to seeing Aunty Dianne and Uncle Patrick and girls when they stop over here in Gisborne around Christmas time. They can only stay for a couple of days.
Stay well Montana.
Big enormous hugs from Mark and me. xx
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