"Where are you from?" "America" "I'm sorry."

Getting to Groningen was a long journey, but we made it here 2 hours earlier than we had expected. Phil and his girlfriend Marlinda came and picked us up from the train station and off we went to Phil's apartment. We dropped our bags and went out for pizza. Did I mention the Dutch had just won their world cup quarter final? They were all going crazy. After we ate we walked to downtown Groningen (which was a sea of orange), met Ingo along the way, and found some of Phil's team mates who had had a little too much to drink. They were hilarious. Everything you've ever heard about the Dutch and how they drink and party is true. They were so much fun! And very happy they had won. They're so sure of themselves that they already have shirts that say "2010 World Champions". You go Holland, you go. I was told "we make up for our small country with our big egos."



After parting ways with Phil's team mates Phil, Ingo, Sam, and I walked Marlinda to the train station. From there Ingo gave us a tour of Groningen which included the red light district and coffee shops. You wouldn't want to miss those. Groningen's a pretty small town, but it's cute. All the people here are really nice. And the sun is up until 11pm! And then goes down and comes up 5 hours later. 4am and the sun is back up and shining. Only 5 short hours of darkness. It's so strange and disorienting.

Yesterday Phil took me skating in Heerenveen with his team. They were all so nice! And the ice rink is really cool! They have blow up pads. I really wanted to test them out, but 'unfortunately' I remained up right. I loved skating again. It was a nice change from drylanding and inlining. The best part? Phil hates running. So instead of a cool down jog we went to the building next to the oval where there's a training room for the athletes. And who did we stumble across?? SVEN KRAMER. Best thing that has ever happened to me. For those of you who don't know who he is, he has a million world records, olympic medals and is on a Dutch pro team for speedskating. He was the one who didn't switch lanes in the 10k and lost his gold medal.



After we got back from skating, Sam and I went into town. There was a market in the middle with all sorts of fun things. They had clothes, wooden shoes!, food, and a lot more. I tried on some of the wooden shoes and thought they were pretty cool. Too bad I can't really get them home. We went to the fish market, too. Sam found a full herring and ate it with onions. It looked gross, but he claims it tasted good. The sign even advertised it's health benefits!



Holland's pretty cool. I can do dryland here without feeling dumb. And It's awesome being some where where speedskating is not only KNOWN but is appreciated! It's sweet not having to explain myself when people ask. In fact, I'm apparently a 'big deal' for being a skater from the USA. Strange. Pretty neat though :)

I'm here for the next few days and then I'm off to Berlin with Matt. Hopefully I'll be able to go skate again by then.

Wish you were here!