Brynne Was Here

Brynne Speizer spent all of 72 hours in the Netherlands, but I think she left a lasting impression with quite a few people.
Basic Itinerary:
Thursday, May 14 -
8:30 a.m. Brynne arrives at Schiphol.
9:30 a.m. We meet Tom at Amsterdam Zuid, ready to watch Brynne experience her first taste of Amsterdam biking. We decide she should take my bike instead of Tom's K-Mart bike with poles for pedals and the lowest seat in the whole world. Head to Tom's for breakfast.
11:00 a.m. Head to Van Gogh Museum and walk through the Night Exhibit. Brynne does her best to pretend to be interested, even as she is falling asleep.
12:30 p.m. We decide the K-Mart bike will just not work for the weekend and head to Fred's to borrow pinky.
1:00 p.m. Burgermeister. Yum!
2:00 p.m. Brynne heads off with Mr. Tom to do more sightseeing (and eventually ends up taking a short nap)
5:30 p.m. Brynne and Mr. Tom come to my house after a quick stop for some ijsje under the windmill near my house. Brynne looks more like the Brynne I know instead of the zombie I spent the morning with.
6:00 p.m. Brynne wows Babs over dinner with her intelligent conversation.
8:00 p.m. We watch my Fury DVD for the first time. I cry. A lot.
10:30 p.m. Brynne passes out.

Friday, May 15
7:45 a.m. I wake up, get the kids ready for school, and get them out the door
9: 00 a.m. I wonder if I should wake Brynne up
10:00 a.m. Still thinking about whether or not I should get her up
11:00 a.m. I decide she's going to miss the Anne Frank Museum if i don't wake her up, so I wake her from her (still deep) slumber
11:30 a.m. We eat pannenkoeken and discuss the problems of the world
12:30 p.m. She sees the kids' school and gets a small taste of what Dutch life is like in an upperclass suburban neighborhood
2:00 p.m. I send her on her way, alone, to the Anne Frank Museum, 2 maps in hand, with my cell phone
No word from her all afternoon
7:30 p.m. I meet Kate for running. She assures me that she has talked to Brynne, that Brynne is a great secretary with my phone, and that Brynne is alive
9:30 We arrive at Mr. Tom's. Find both maps unfolded, drying out. Find Brynne in her pjs, also drying out, after a bad incident with a rain shower while on the bicycle. She assures me she only got lost once (well - maybe twice) while getting around Amsterdam. Mr. Tom fixes us scrumptious food.
10:30 We play salad bowl. With famous people. The names can start with any letter. In the spirit of salad colander, all of my names started with P. There is an added 4th round that I am ready to bring to Atlanta though.
12:00 a.m. We start thinking that maybe we should go dancing. Brynne wears crazy tights. I wear makeup. Tess ends up with the pink lipstick on.
1:00 a.m. 8 of us pull up to the club on our bikes. Mr. Tom pulls us into a big group hug before we go into the club. We all start looking around. "Where is Brynne?" She no longer has my cell phone. Or a map. And doesn't know the name of the club we are going to. Oops. Mr. Tom and Fred (because they are the MEN in the group) head back out to find her. They call 15 minutes later. She was smart enough to wait for us back at the last place we all saw her.
1:30 a.m. We head into the club (a.k.a. "the social experiment"). Apparently it is monster night. Lots of crazy hair and makeup. We go up the elevator where apparently you must say, "Password"to get it to go up, at least according to Fred... We enter the club just in time to see the bouncer kick out a guy. With a nice slap in the face because of a bad "your mom" joke. Seriously. We go in. The dj is a girl and pretty sweet. We dance. Tess and I find 5 euros on a chair after she unsuccessfully tries to viper me. Brynne also fails at vipering me. kate succeeds very well in vipering mark. It is a good time. At exactly 3:06, I am done. We stay for 30 more minutes. I watch the monsters.
4:30 a.m. I fall asleep on the couch while Mr. Tom watches infomercials.

Saturday May 16
11:00 a.m. I wake up to Mr. Tom's cooking. Yummy hagelslag on homemade bread. And tea, lots of tea.
12:30 p.m. Mr. Tom and Tess are out to househunt. Brynne and I contemplate getting off the couch.
1:30 p.m. We contemplate getting off the couch again. It is really hard to leave "America's Best Dance Team" (or whatever the name of the show is that A.C. Slader hosts). Because he is not wearing stonewashed jeans, we manage to pull ourselves off the couch.
2:30 p.m. We arrive at Amsterdam Zuid. Yummy leisurely lunch at Burger King. YUMMMYYY!!!
3:30 p.m. The train for Groningen never shows. We're confused and half listen to a conductor try to explain what to do. We get on train #1 headed for the north. We get on train #2. We get on train #3. We make it to Groningen 3 hours later. We wait 25 minutes for train #4. We finally make it to Erik's.
7:00 p.m. Erik and Hans have made us a 3 course meal. First soup. Then casserole. Then pannekoeken. Lekker. We are impressed. We meet Hinke's friend Marshall. He is hilarious. Brynne charms Erik and Hans completely by the end of dinner.
9:00 p.m. Joost arrives. We play cards. And sortof watch Eurovision. No one likes Eurovision but me.
11:00 p.m. I'm asleep.

Sunday May 17
i am getting exhausted just writing this itinerary...

10:00 a.m. Erik leaves for his game at competition day. We sleep longer
11:00 a.m. I get up. We make veggie scramble. And drink LOTS of coffee.
12:00 p.m. We head to fields, a bit late for our game.
1:15 p.m. I play competition day, in the drizzle. With 8 players. I'm the only girl on the field. I'm tired. Brynne is a pretty awesome cheerleader. She yells a lot. And tells me how pretty i am. I tell her i already know how pretty I am.
2:45 Game is over. We head into the cantina, where they're playing awesome danceable oldies music.
3:00 p.m. I have to go back outside for my next game. Brynne and Hans stay inside, order a pitcher, and start talking to the 15 old men in the cantina.
3:15 p.m. My game starts. No sign of my cheerleaders.
3:45 p.m. Tight game. Cheerleaders roll up. Head to the other field, ignore my game. :(
4:00 p.m. They make it over to our sideline. Brynne yells at me that she only got HALF the men in the cantina to start dancing.
5:00 p.m. We finish our game. Win double game point. Cheerleaders barely notice.
6:00 p.m. Ijsje on the way back to Erik's.
6:30 p.m. Yummy Dutch Chinese food. With lots of egg
8:30 p.m. Back on the train. just two trains this time.
8:45 p.m. Brynne falls asleep.
11:30 p.m. We arrive back at Zuid. Mr. Tom is waiting, ready to take Brynne back to his place and then get her on a train early the next morning. I head home. Bike 6 km with a flattish tire and a big backpack. Now my bike is still broken.
12:30 p.m. Fall asleep and already start dreading the next day.

Monday
Go into Post Brynne depression.