written specially for my curious grandmother.. love you!

Well, I suppose I should start before my travels...

The word busy does not even begin to describe the time up to leaving. It was so wonderful having the Haakonsens staying in the Boulanger household. Two very happy family's together in one house makes for an awesome time! I also threw a surprise 21st birthday/ going away party for Dill. He has commented before on how he has never been surprised. His face was absolutely priceless when he realized that all of my exaggerations of why we couldn't go to the house earlier were because of how many people were waiting there to say surprise!  The last week at home I did the absolutely brilliant thing of going to visit Tina at Grand Valley and leaving myself with less than 24 hours to unpack and then pack up again. It was really great though and it was so nice to spend time with Cass and Teen before leaving. We went to art prize (art festival kind of thing in Grand Rapids) and watched Tina dance on stage.. But packing ended up getting done quickly and easily.

The flight was long. REALLY long. The flight from Detroit to Amsterdam was hard at first because I kept randomly bursting into tears... I ended up exhausting myself and fell asleep for a long while.. When I woke up I was not feeling to great but got off the plane and grabbed some coffee that was $6.... But Dill felt bad for me so he chipped in and "bought" me a massage... That boy!! =] haha. Then we boarded the next flight and I was feeling close to passing out... But for those of you who know me well... That happens quite often when I don't eat... And me eating and being sad do not mix... Thennnnnn Dillon and my seats got mixed up so I ended up being between two middle aged men for the 11 hour flight... I had to escape quite a few times because of nausea and made good friends with a wonderful stewardess.. Who had so much wisdom and such a motherly touch it made it difficult for me to still be sad... She told me that Dutch people (we flew KLM -- the royal DUTCH airline) cry because it's natural but Americans are too stuffy and need to learn to cry. haha. Then after my tears left I was still feeling sick so she took my temperature... It was 101 degrees..... Yeah, leave it to Amelie to get sick on an 11 hour plane ride. She made me lots of tea and kept me hydrated and I went back to my MIDDLE seat... I then made friends with the Belgian man siting next to me because I was getting up every 5 minutes to empty my ever-so-small bladder. 

We finally landed and all of our baggage made it safely, even Dillons precious longboards... =p Greeted by some happy faces that I could finally put with names... Besides on facebook! haha. Stayed with the Wood's the first 2 nights.. Awesome people! Experienced my first ever braai... Sorry my American friends, they win with the BBQing... By a landslide! Another thing that I really think Americans need to pick up on is the drinks with EVERYTHING. I hear "cuppa tea, coffee, coke, water..?" about 50 times a day and I love it!! Haha. It was so awesome getting to see Dillon interact with his family and finally get to meet these people that he's spoken so highly of for these past so many years. The drive back to Ladybrand was beautiful and apparently this drive wasn't even that nice compared to the majority of SA! Sitting in Dillon's room with him was probably one of the weirdest experiences I've had in a while... We kept on looking at eachother like.. "this can't be real!" But then a good pinch brings us back into reality and then there's some huge smiles. haha. The girls were so excited to see Dillon and I... I love them =] When they found out that we weren't just here for a small visit they were even more excited! The house is beautiful and I'm being spoiled having my own little room to myself. Their dog reminds me a lot of Luc and the kitty reminds me sooo much of Max. Even though saying I miss all of you does not even begin to explain it.. I feel very at home here so not to worry my loves =] 

Well, it takes about 5 minutes per picture to upload so if you go to the left top box on this page... There's a website with a bunch of pictures on there! Sorry but it was just taking toooo long with all the pics. 

Love you guys =]