March 31: Amsterdam-New Mexico

Home Sweet Home

by Scott & Joi



An exhausted but happy group

223,001 steps in all. That’s how many steps our students took while exploring Paris and The Netherlands and getting back home to the states. That is approximately 22 miles in 13 days! Amazing to think of how much we walked!

 

The last two weeks has been enriching and rewarding for our students, they got to explore, experience and discover. They were able to taste, see, smell and feel different things around them. They had the opportunity to sample many things such as snails in Paris, pancakes in Amsterdam, crepes in France, stroopwafels in The Netherlands and who can forget those Dutch fries with mayo.

 

Our students have embarked on an adventure that they will never forget…flying across the Atlantic Ocean to many exciting things that happened.  Some of the kids were talking about many different kinds of transportation that they experienced in the last two weeks. The list became very long but here goes: airplane, car, van, tram, train, bus, boat, metro, bike, taxi, escalator, elevator, and not to mention walking and running!

 

They now know that the world is now a bigger place, they saw the sights, history, architecture, museums, scenery, factories and many more. They got to learn travel skills, how to be flexible, how to adapt, and how to communicate with people who do not sign/speak either ASL or English. 

 

Families greeted the kids at the airport and many hugs were exchanged and they all were happy to be home.  More stories will be shared over time with you all, we are sure of it.

 

Until the next trip....

 

*****

Jen's Note: Although I did not go on the trip, I can speak for everyone that we are truly happy the group enjoyed their trip very much and got home safely. Their trip back to New Mexico went smoothly. Welcome home, everyone!

March 30: Amsterdam-Zanse Schans

Zanse Schans Day Trip

by Augusta

This morning saw us up bright and early to leave on the 7:59 a.m. bus! After hopping off the bus and onto the train, we kept a close eye out for our stop at Zanse Schans. Upon arriving, the first thing we noticed was the pungent smell of chocolate in the air. Sure enough, when we asked a passersby about the smell, we found out that there is a chocolate factory right there in town!

We walked through town all the way to the huge canal with windmills and the original town of Zanse Schans on its banks.

The way the mills were operated and the different products that were produced at the mills was fascinating to explore and watch!

Next we walked through a wooden shoe shop, museum, and factory. The history behind the making of shoes was amazing. In the past, the Dutch made shoes for purposes of all kinds: peat-digging, walking across ice on the canals in winter, everyday walking, going to church on Sundays, or going to a wedding. In fact, there was a wedding tradition built around the wooden shoes. The future groom had to make his bride a pair of wooden shoes to show how much he loved her. He would carve the shoes  and then decorate them with carvings of different symbols and designs. According to legend, the longer the toe hold on the shoe was, the greater the groom's love for his bride!

We ate lunch at a restaurant that served fresh orange juice made from real oranges, cold cuts of meat and cheese, and the traditional dish of pannenokoeken (thin, large pancakes with some kind of topping such as ham, cheese, or chocolate melted on top and served piping hot). They were delicious, and there was even a gluten-free option!!

After lunch, we rented bikes and went out for a ride around the countryside. It was a  beautiful day, with golden sunshine,  white, fluffy clouds, blue sky, and lush green fields. We passed goats, chickens, and ducks on our way around. A few of us quit after an hour and drink some warm tea at the restaurant. After we all met up again,  As we went to a chocolate shop around the corner and watched a demonstration of how to make chocolate and made our own cup of hot chocolate and bought some chocolate to taste. :) The chocolate was yummy.

We walked around, exploring and admiring the small green houses and little canals wending their way out to the big canal. My mom and I passed a crane bird and stopped to watch him, taking pictures.  As we walked away we saw him catch his dinner of a small, silvery fish. We walked up to the front entrance,  where we had all agreed to meet. Vergena, Estefany, and I fed pumpkin seeds to the ducks that were hanging out by our feet. They were very trusting and didn't seem to be afraid of us. We had two choices: go to Amsterdam and eat at a traditional Dutch restaurant, or go back to the hotel and eat. Most of us voted to go back to the hotel and eat and also get an early start on packing up to come back home to America.

We went to the train station to catch the train back to the hotel. Something happened to me as we were waiting. There was a train that pulled up that we thought at first was our train and then the others realized wasn't.  I got on the train, expecting the others to follow. I sat down, and when I noticed that no one of our group was next to me or on the train,  I walked to the nearest doors and looked out. Seeing the group, I pushed the gold button to open the doors, but it was too late and the train began to move in the wrong direction, taking me with it. Those were two of the longest minutes of my life, but I knew what to do. I got off at the next station and waited for someone of the group to catch up with me. I was nervous,  but I knew I'd be okay. Scott and my mom arrived about 10 minutes later,  much to my relief! We boarded the train going back to the Zanse Schans station where the rest of the group boarded.

The rest of the trip back to the hotel passed without incident and we ate a scrumptious dinner and discussed our travels. It has been a great trip for everyone, and we are sad to leave, but happy to go home and see our families tomorrow!

March 29: Amsterdam-Haarlem

Art and Tulips

by Vergena

Today we went to Rijksmuseum to view different kinds of paintings from different periods of history. We mostly viewed artwork by Dutch people. It was a good day to go to the museum as it rained all morning.

We saw a lot of work inspired by the Renaissance period from  Italy during the early 15th century. The Renaissance means 'rebirth'.

We saw three art works by Van Gogh. His work is in the Impressionist style. He is one of the world's  most famous artists.

We saw one of the most famous Dutch paintings, "Night Watch," painted in 1642 by Rembrandt van Rijn.   It is a painting to show the union between the Dutch Protestants and the Dutch Catholics. It is a huge painting, and takes up a whole wall!

Another famous Dutch painter whose work we saw was Johannes Vermeer. He is well known for many paintings such as "The Girl with the Pearl Earring." The painting was the inspiration for a book and a movie that many have already seen. Vermeer is famous for using saturated blue color and pearls in his work.

Here's a short and interesting fact about the use of dogs in paintings by Dutch artists: Dogs symbolized warnings to people or for people to be more vigilant.

 After lunch, it became sunny and it was the perfect time to go and see Holland's famous tulips. We went to Keukenhof Gardens to see all kinds and colors possible.

I asked everyone to comment on their visit to the gardens.

Estafany: The Keukenhof  flowers are really beautiful. Dang, that not all the flowers have bloomed yet. I wish it all bloomed fully and it would really feel like spring! Also I wish I can take those tulips home with me.

Alex: It was fascinating and very cool to see different colors. And I enjoyed the maze at the park.  We enjoyed our time at the Keukenhof flower garden.

Margaret: The flowers are very beautiful with a lot of purple and pink.

Lucllie: Keukenhof flowers are cool. My favorite flower and color is pink and they are really beautiful.
Vergena: I think that the Keukenhof flower garden is awesome to me because it's a really different place than our home. There are lot of the flowers with colors.

Augusta- I think that Keukenhof garden is very beautiful.  Wow, I was impressed because there were a lot of various colors among the flowers. The flowers smell very good and there were many different paths for us to enjoy walking and viewing flowers.

We went to dinner in Haarlem . It was a good dinner. Unfortunately, we missed our train home. We managed to board the next train to Uitgeest Station (our hotel area) at about 10:55 pm. It was late and we found out that the last bus to our hotel was at 9:20. We had to take a taxi back to the hotel. Whew.

Tomorrow is our last day. We will visit old towns where there are windmills. We will ride bikes and enjoy the views.

March 28: Amsterdam-Delft

The Royal Delft Factory

by Estefany

The roadrunner group took public transportation (local bus and train) to small cute town called Delft. Delft is a very quiet, and beautiful town. We noticed many stores were closed today, we don't know why. It could be their own holiday or something else (Jen's note: The Easter holiday undoubtedly affected shop hours). The town was beautiful with river canals all over the place with many bridges and many people were using their bikes on the street. We saw a lot of green grasses and plants. Then, we went to the Royal Delft factory.  That's where they make porcelain table are using old traditional ways which is similar to making pottery.

 

We were  fascinated with their master artist who is an expert for drawing on porcelain with black ink made from something with similar properties as charcoal which will turn into blue when exposed to heat.  The black powder has natural cobalt blue properties. The porcelain is put into the oven to harden the clay and it becomes shiny blue and white which is their famous trademark look. It's a lot of work and a long process to make one piece with so many details! We saw all kinds of designs (flowers, modern, places, people, and many more!).

 The Roadrunner group had comments about our visit to the Royal Delft factory.

Alex: "I was fascinated that porcelain made from pottery with black ink. Also, I realized that those figurines were made from mold cast."

Augusta: "This is an amazing process of creating and the process of making various shapes of plates, cups, and all that is very complicated. It's challenging to paint on porcelain and seeing black ink change  to blue. It's interesting that they have been doing this throughout 360 years."

Margaret: "It was neat to watch the porcelain with black ink change to blue when baked in the stove with high temperatures."

Lucille: "I learned that they made pottery from clay with black ink and it changes into blue and white. They used different kind of tools and supplies during this process. I also liked seeing Johannes Vermeer's painting  "Girl With a Pearl Earring" on porcelain.

Vergena: "Royal Delft  is a cool place to see different shapes of porcelain. I am fascinated with how they remade the picture of "Girl With a Pearl Earring" on porcelain.

Estefany: "I am surprised that they have a lot of processes to make porcelain with different art lines and work. I thought it would be much easier to make, but actually it was tough and takes a lot of time. Porcelains are beautiful to display."

After lunch and factory tour, the Roadrunner group went for shopping for short time. Some of them bought Holland's famous cheese to bring to America. We decided to go to our hotel to rest and get ready for other long fun day! :)

March 27: Amsterdam

A Wonderful Sunday
By Augusta

Us at the Anne Frank House

Today, we went to Amsterdam to  Anne Frank's hiding place until she and her family were betrayed in August of 1944. We arrived around 12 noon and hiked to the back of the line that stretched all the way back behind 2 buildings!

It being cloudy and very windy; we jogged in place, checked out a cheese store and souvenir shop, and pushed each other around to keep from freezing completely in the cold air. :)

After waiting for an hour and a half,  we finally entered the museum's entrance. We got guidebooks explaining each room in detail as we moved throughout the secret annex.

 Life in the Secret Annex was stressful! The 8 people living there were not allowed to move around, shout, peek out the windows, or go outside for fear of being discovered and deported to the concentration camps. Otto Frank was the only one to survive the war, making it to the grand old age of 91.

He fulfilled his daughter's dream of publishing a book about her experiences in the Secret Annex. Her diary has and continues to inspire millions to rise above despair and firmly believe that life will get better and has meaning!

After we were finished with the tour, we went to a pancake house and ordered pancakes. The pancakes were humongous!! They were the same size as the big plate they arrived on. We tried a variety of sweet and savory panakoeken.












Next,  we walked through Amsterdam, stopping to look at candy in a chocolate shop before walking to Centraal Station (the train station). Once there, we grabbed some snacks for dinner since we didn't want to buy dinner at the hotel.  We barely made it inside before the rain predicted all day started dumping buckets of water on the town. We took the escalator upstairs and stood waiting for the train at which turned out to be the wrong place. When we realized it, it was almost too late! We could see our train waiting down the rail line and we all ran as fast as our pumping legs would carry us to jump on the train before the doors closed. We made it just in time (whew!).

 

The train took us to the bus near our hotel, then the bus took us the rest of the way home. This is the first day since embarking on our adventure that we arrived back before daylight faded, which was so nice! We arrived and saw the most BEAUTIFUL rainbow and relaxed for the evening.

March 26: Amsterdam

Saturday March 26
By Margaret, Alex, and Lucille

We went out to Amsterdam today. We noticed that the buildings looks different from France. The houses are tall and narrow. They were all lined up by canal/water ways.

There are many bikes here in town. This town is famous for bikes. There are few cars and many more bikes! We have to look out for cars, trams, people walking and bikes when we cross the streets!

We had some Dutch fries which are famous here. All fries are always eaten with Mayo. Most of us liked eating this.

We enjoyed walking around and seeing this new place.  We also went to the center of town and took pictures with the "I AMsterdam" sign. It was big and many people got on it or stood by it for pictures. We sat out at park and relaxed a bit and chatted before going back to our hotel. We all were very tired and wanted to go back early to get more sleep!

March 25: France-Lux-Germany-Netherlands

4 Countries in One Day!

by Scott and Joi

 

 

 

 

783 kilometers. 12 hours on the road. One small CRV/Van filled with 6 people and some bags. One car with three people and oversized luggage. Countless potty breaks. Four countries in one day. At last, We made it to Amsterdam, Netherlands.

We rented a van and car to drive up to The Netherlands via Luxembourg and Germany.  The drive was beautiful outside of Luxembourg. We enjoyed the sunset out in the countryside where everything was green and lots of tall trees. All this was something we don't see everyday in New Mexico and it was a nice change in scenery.

We look forward to more beautiful scenery in The Netherlands over the next few days until we return home.

March 24: Rouen

Rouen- A Medieval City

 by Estefany

 

 

Medieval cities had a lot of color!

Tower where Joan of Arc was imprisioned.

 

Joan d' Arc

A Medieval (Gothic) Cathedral

In the morning, the Roadrunners went to the train station to go to Rouen. We went to the Jean d' Arc museum to learn about her history. We enjoyed looking around and seeing the old buildings. There were many houses with wood beams and many are still standing from the Medieval times.

The houses are supported by beams built inside the walls and you can see them from the outside. We were fascinated with them.

The Eiffel tower with Belgian colors

 

Yummy dinner!

After Rouen, we went back for our last night in Paris. We went to see the Eiffel tower at night and we saw the Belgian flag colors on the Eiffel tower.

To end our visit in Paris and France, we went to another French restaurant and had French Raclette and Fondue. The food was delightful. Some of us ate delicious crepes because today is the last day for us. We will be driving through Luxembourg and Germany for 8 hours tomorrow. After this, we will arrive in The Netherlands (Holland). We are looking forward to the trip and seeing the different countries and experiencing more!

March 23: Paris

A Day in Paris

by Vergena

What a cool car!

Paris at night is beautiful.

Gorgeous architecture everywhere!

Since we had to change plans and not go to Belgium, we had to move to a different hotel. Luckily, we were able to find a place nearby and in the same area (Les Goblens) which was good because we know the area very well.

Laundry Day!

We went to the Sacre Coeur and explored the streets and did some shopping. We got back to do our laundry. Scott and Joi made a decision that we were going to a French restaurant for dinner to try some real French food including snails (escargots)!

Mmmm.. Escargots!

 

All of us at dinner

 

 

I asked the group their opinion about the French restaurant.

Alex: It tasted okay.

Margaret: The French restaurant is different and the food tasted different.

Lucille: It's very delicious!

Vergena: It is my opinion that snails taste like chicken but I was too excited because of the new food.

Estefany: It is my opinion that the snails were delicious. I thought it would taste awful because of my imagination but at least I did try the food and I thought it was great.

We got back to the hotel and got ready for our day trip to Rouen.

March 22: Paris-Versailles

Versailles & The Deaf School

by Estefany

In the morning, the Roadrunner group was so excited to go see Versailles "The King's Home." We got on the train and it took us 30 minutes out of Paris. The group saw the shiny, beautiful and enormous Versailles when we arrived. There were many crowds and many people in lines because Versailles was closed due to a protest. There were two women from Germany who we recognized from the Eiffel tower the day before. They explained to us what was happening and helped find more information. Versailles was finally open two hours past it's normal hours.

We looked around to see different rooms that were huge. We could not believe how big the rooms were and how fancy everything was including a gold bed and wallpaper. We learned a lot of fascinating pieces of information about the royal history of France.

The school for the Deaf in Paris. This is where Laurent Clerc studied and went to the United States to establish the first School for the Deaf in the USA (American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut).

After Versailles, we rushed to the Institut National de Jeunes Sourds (School for the Deaf). We had a tour with a Deaf guide, Henri, who explained to us about the history of Deaf education in France. We looked at different places, the garden, and the dorms at the school.

I asked our group to share comments about today:

Alex: I saw many beautiful paintings and statues in Versailles.  Many walls have gold which fascinated me. I thought the king and queen were very greedy with money, places and food and they always had someone to do their hair, dress them, and everything!

Vergena: I thought the king and queen of France was very egoistical. They were selfish and owned a large palace with huge gardens, many big rooms and gold on the walls.

Margaret: I am fascinated with the huge old piano from the past. I thought the king was very selfish to own a big palace while his people were poor.

Lucille: I was really fascinated with Queen Marie's room and bedchambers.

Estefany: I did not realize that the French king used to own that big palace. I thought it would be much smaller. It was huge and luxurious. Gold on the walls, gold doors and the painting on the walls were exquisite.

Due to the recent events in Belgium, we will not be going to Belgium for safety reasons. Our sponsors Joi and Scott is working with us in changing our plans. We will stay in Paris for two more nights and go to the Netherlands on Friday.