Ok so I thought I should give you the low down on my trip to the Netherlands.... Well first of all thank you to mom and dad who made this trip possible. As hard as it was, I would not trade it for the world and I learned so much in the process. So Thank you so much. But I will start from the beginning and give you the short (but detailed) trip to Europe.

So for those of you who do not know, I left on Saturday the 19th of July. After a long trip I arrived in Amsterdam on sunday. Luckily I did not get lost in my attempt to find the hostil (yes I stayed in a hostil and believe me it was not glamorous at all). So I finally make it to the hostil and there were 3 American girls there that I started to talk to. My first thought was "Thank you Heavenly Father" hoping that these girls would be my roommates for the next two weeks. They then brought me my room key and took me up to my closet of a room. Unfortunately, I was not with the american girls, but was with 3 Polish girls who did not speak a lick of English. Needless to say, I did not enjoy my room very much. I did attempt to talk to them, but all that came out was "sorry I do not understand." It was a LONG two weeks in that hostil. The room was extremely small. It fit the two sets of bunkbeds in it with about the size of me in the middle. It was crazy small. Anyways so that is a rundown on how I lived during my trip.

My schedule everyday was wake up at 7:00a.m. Get ready (which wasn't much because I would just sweat all day long). Go eat breakfast. For breakfast you could have bread, eggs, or muesli(which is like a cereal) so of course i stuck with the muesli. After breakfast we would go get on the tram. The tram ride was about 20 minutes or so but it was nice to rest before the storm hit! We then started dancing at 9 and danced until 2:30. We then had an hour lunch break and then danced until 5:30. It was super intense. We had ballet class, improvisation class, modern, and rep (which is learning choreography). That was the best part because we learned things from world renowned choreographers, and they were taught by former NDT dancers. It was tiring but so awesome.

As far as the dancing goes it was amazing. Dancing over in Europe is so much different then in America. It is hard to explain, but it opened my eyes to so many new things. The company over there (Netherlands Dans Theater) is unbelievable. It is amazing how they move, and they are lucky to have amazing choreographers. It was a great experience to see something different, and to experience something completely out of my element. I think it made me grow as a dancer but also just as a person. I learned what it truly means to rely on the Lord, and for that small part of what I learned I would not trade it for the world. I was extremely homesick (which I am sure you all heard from mom) but somehow I pushed past that and got the most out of the experience. Thank you Marci!!!!! (she will know what i am talking about). It is something that has changed my life forever, and whatever the future holds I can remember I got through this hard part in my life. I know now that there are so many opportunities out there if you are willing to put yourself out there and conquer the hard things that come with it. Thanks again for all who made this possible. I love you all so much!!!!

Jones