hi everyone,

just posted some new pictures. The powwow was the best. A celebration of native americans from all over the country. I still don't quite know what they were celebrating, but they were remembering their ancestors and spent quite some time commemorating their native american veterans who had been in the US army.  There was a small crisis because someone had dropped a ornament of eagle feathers, which apparently is a big deal since they are holy. And native americans are the only ones who can own eagle feathers in the whole of the US. So there was a public apology towards all the leaders of the tribes, and they had to shake hands and agree that it was fine for now. For the rest they had different dance competitions and groups that were performing music. Well, I really enjoyed everything and now we are just chilling out for the evening. I hope everything is fine with you all,

see you all later,

Sacha

hi everyone,

today it is time for a new post. We have done a lot and I feel I am getting used to the weather. It is a bit hard to estimate how hot it is because everything is in Fahrenheit degrees, just like the miles and the pounds are different.

So far, everything has been great. It is nice to get to know Phil's family better, and I even met many (many!) cousins and aunts and uncles and also Phil's grandparents on the 4th of July, which is one of the biggest holidays here. It is probably comparable to queensday in the Netherlands, but then there is a massive parade instead of a fleemarket. We were even in the parade (which is kinda like the Dutch avond vierdaagse on its last day, with marching bands, etc), because the whole family was handing out vans with the information on the company of Phil's parents.  

Phil, me and his sisters have picked over 17 kilo's of strawberries. We have been out on the boat of Phil's parents. Their house, by the way, is massive, has a small private beach to it and lies in a really nice green area! I have driven a car (while it is not allowed, we found out), went shopping in a massive mall (everything is has a bit lower price then here, and is on top of it in dollars! so that is really nice). Yesterday morning, we had a hot air baloon ride over the area, which was super nice. I saw some town and one of the twin-cities. The food has also been good, this morning I had blue-berry-pancakes for breakfast, so that was special.  I really appreciate that there is usually a way for me to eat vegetarian even. 

The people so far, have been nothing but cheerful and friendly (especially waiters and shopping-personal is incomparable to their Dutch counterparts), and it is nice to get a chance to correct our Dutch stereotypes of Americans. Yesterday, at the 4th of July, phil had an uncle and aunt over that have a 20 year old son who will leave to Iraq with the army in a few days. It lets you see a different side of the story when you get to talk to people like that, who are actually experiencing this war in reality. 

We have many more plans, and his parents have warned me for the camping trip that is comming up (1 week of hiking and canoeing with only 2x a shower, and all food will be dried or powdered). But for now, I will just try to get some pictures up here so you guys can see.

I hope you are having a good time and nice weather too, have a hertog jan or a broodje kaas for me,

love sacha