Hellooo Dutch and American friends and family,

I have a lot to tell you (again haha). That means this is going to be a long story.

A couple weekends back Cassidy and I had a pool party at our house. We had such a great time! Just like all the other days here, the weather has been great. It was a beautiful sunny day. After we played volleyball in the pool, we played Twister and pool inside. Playing pool was hilarious because none of us were actually good at it. In the evening the girls stayed for the sleepover which was also really fun.

Last Saturday Debbie, Cassidy and I went to Mc Cormick (it’s a park). Andddd guess what?! I RODE A HORSE! It was awesome and so relaxing. The horse ride lasted an hour and the view was so pretty. There was so much green and the only things we heard were the horses walking, the wind blew through the woods, the water floating in a small stream and the birds chirping. My horse was named Oreo, just like the cookie haha.
After the horse ride, we had a picnic in the grass. A little further were little kids playing on a swing or going down a slide. Next, we went on a hike through the woods to see a small waterfall and cave.

FOOTBALL GAMES! Football games are awesome! Every week there’s a football game and the whole school dresses up. The first game the theme was ‘Safari’. Cassidy, Hannah and I went to Goodwill (a shop were they sell clothes that have already been worn). It’s a really big store and they have all sorts of things. I bought my safari themed clothes there and together with my hat I was ready to go to the game. The first game was a Home Game. All the students sat together in the student section and cheered on the football team. The Monrovia High School cheerleaders were also there. They looked great and did some awesome tricks in the air. Unfortunately we lost the game.
To make up for the loss of the first game, the Football team did great last Friday and won with (somewhere around) 82 -7 from Cascade. This time we dressed up in overalls. It is so fun to stand on the tribune, take funny selfies and laugh with everyone. It really feels like we’re one group and together we sing traditional songs to cheer on the team.
It’s really fun to watch the game and see how everyone tackles, dives and jumps on each other. I might not understand the whole game, but when I see someone from our team run for his life with the ball tightly in his arms, I start cheering and clapping even more. As soon as there is a touchdown all Monrovia fans freak out and everyone is like “YEAHHH Bulldogs, yeahhh, wooohhhooo”.

We’ve had a couple volleyball games already and it was awesome to be in the court. My team hasn’t won any games yet, but I’m positive that will change soon. We are getting better and we are play more and more as a team now. I am really happy I’m in the volleyball team, because I got to learn a new sport, I made new friends and together we have a lot of fun. I also got to experience my first ride in the Big Yellow Smelly School Bus with the volleyball team last week. It was so much better than people had told me it would be haha. It wasn’t smelly, the couches were comfortable and I had enough space. Well, maybe my opinion about the school bus will change when I’ve taken a few more rides in it, haha.
(For the Dutch people the schoolbus is a huge thing, but for Americans it’s the most normal thing in the world. That explains why they thought it was funny that riding an American school bus was on my bucket list J )

Something completely different that happened last week is that I didn’t wake up alone. Okay stop, it’s not what you’re thinking right now. I woke up with a dog next to me. Didn’t see that one coming did you, haha. Ziva came to my room at night and walked around in my room. I tapped on the bed, she jumped on the bed and stayed there for the rest of the night. Ziva is quite a big dog, so she took a lot space, leaving me just enough space to sleep (without moving haha).

Yesterday, Debbie Cassidy and I went to the animal shelter to volunteer again. There were quite a few visitors looking to adopt a cat or dog, so Miranda (the supervisor) didn’t really have the time to explain us everything about the cat room. We led the dogs out to play outside and did the laundry. There wasn’t that much to do, so most of the time we just pet the dogs (Debbie and Cassidy) or pet the cats (ME ME ME ME of course). There are so many young kittens in there. They are adorable! All three of us have said that we wish we could adopt all the animals.
Afterwards we went to Walmart. I finally bought a SIM card, so from now on I am not using my Dutch SIM card anymore. I also bought some clothes, which made me very happy.

Today (Sunday) we went to church for a little while, but Cassidy isn’t feeling well, so the rest of the day we stayed home. It’s nice to have a lazy day once in a while J. Get well soon Cassidy!

This was my update for today!

Love,

Tasha