Life changing moments

Have any of you ever had a moment in your life where you were quite heart broken, but couldn't do anything about it? Well, it's recently happened to me.

My parents thought it was time for a good change in our lives. After quite a lot of looks on the internet, there was a great job awaiting Dad, but . . .                OVERSEAS IN THE NETHERLANDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Suddenly, all was rushing by and happening so fast that it was hard to keep control of ourselves. Our house getting staged, going through the process of selling our house, still working hard at school, packing boxes, packing suitcases and selling basically all of our furniture was a huge step. Then we heard that Dad had to be at work on a particular date. Mum and us children wanted to round the year off well, so Dad had to leave five and a half weeks before us!

When the day that Dad left arrived, I was much hoping that we could fly back to the past to make the day much further away, but unfortunately, I don't have powers yet. All emotional we separated from each other. Now living a few weeks as a three we started getting used to it, but sometimes we had outbursts of sadness. If that happened we would get together and cheer each other up. On the day before we left (the last day for me of my school). . .
Many hugs and tears came that day; of best friends, just friends, teachers, parents and of course ME!!!!!!! At the end of the day my two BFF's came with me and we talked, hugged, cried, laughed and tried to make decisions of when we would contact . . .

On Thursday the 17th of December at the airport we worked hard checking our baggage in, going through the customs and much more. Once all was finished, we went to the lounge and waited for our first flight to be called over the millions of speakers. In the plane . . . Trying hard to fall asleep and being amused and entertained by the little screen in front of us, we made our way through the flight. In America it was much the same again only much more serious and protective. We even had to go through metal detectors - Taking belts off, jewelry, shoes, watches and coats, put in laptops and computers, even your wallet with money in it!!! On our second flight from San - Francisco to Amsterdam, going through the same process as before; Sleeping, eating, playing and watching we arrived in the Netherlands. I do think Air New Zealand and KLM had quite a few differences.
I was fairly excited for arriving back. Some reasons to be happy, but also sad were:

Happy:
1. Seeing dad                                      
2. Finally having snow
3. Meeting new people
4. Being in my home country
5. To truly experience the dutch culture

Sad:
1. Leaving friends
2. Leaving kiwi culture
3. Missing the warmth
4. Having many stuck together houses
5. Leaving Milk Bottles and Jaffas or NZ lollies.          

So far the different foods I have tried are: Zure Haring (Sour Herring), Karnemelk (Buttermilk), Witlof (Chicory), Hagelslag met Minions (Chocolate hail with minions), Drop Sleutels (Liquorice Keys) and other dutch treats.
So far I am enjoying it here. I have sniffed the fresh salty North Sea air and I have walked a 2 hr hike through the big, calm, spacious and wide sand dunes. I am excited for school but I also miss my friends back in NZ. Here are some photos of being in the Netherlands: