Hockey In Holland: A Spring Break Blog

3/28/2018 2:58:00 PM | Field Hockey

By: Nick Brilowski

Hello fellow 'Cats! Katie Esselman here, aka Kess. I'm a sophomore forward on the field hockey team. Naturally, I will 'forward' the information about the trip to you all. I'll be blogging a little bit for our team's trip to the Netherlands! For those of you who do not want to read my mediocre writing (sorry—I'm pre-med), I will also be vlogging (video blogging). Jokes provided by Charlotte Vaziri. She is a senior, so we really had no say—we are so sorry. Stay tuned for more content!

"What do you call an Uber in Amsterdam? A tandem bike. Lol."
-Charlotte Vaziri #6

DAY 1
With our bags packed and passports in hand, we headed to O'Hare International Airport, clad in our new gear, for our 4 p.m. flight to Amsterdam. The bus was buzzing with excitement as some of us prepared for our first international flight, while Puck, Eva, Saar, and Flo could not wait to be back in their home country. After a long 8-hour flight, full of complimentary movie options, and many ill-attempts at sleeping, we finally arrived in Amsterdam… at 6:20 a.m. Shout out to Saar's aunt for being in the musical category for the flight's entertainment system. Anyway, rest assured, no pun intended, we were all groggy-eyed as we started our adventurous day. But, nothing a little food could not fix! Thanks to Saar's wonderful dad, he provided us with a yummy breakfast spread of croissants, yogurt, and fresh orange juice at his office. With full bellies, we traveled to the Rijksmuseum and saw the beautiful artwork that encompassed the rich Dutch history. As we walked through the halls of history, we saw up close one of the most famous paintings, The Night Watch by Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn. No flash photography, please. However, we are still looking for Van Gogh's other ear.

After the museum and a little free time to walk around the surrounding area, the team geared up for a short practice to stretch and loosen up our legs from the long travel. Still delirious from the flight, our push-passes were not on mark-haha. Luckily, the field was fenced. We were surprised by Isabel Flens, a 2017 NUFH graduate who is from the Netherlands! It's always so great to see familiar faces :'). After an unsuccessful attempt to get her to sub in for me (I was pretty jet lagged), we enjoyed a delicious lunch of sandwiches and fruit courtesy of the club before heading to the hotel to check in. We traveled to Eva's house for a traditional Dutch meal: bloemkool (mashed potatoes with kale), hutspot (mashed patotoes with carrots), sauerkraut with raisins, rookworst (big version of a hot dog), and topped off with stoofperen (stewed pears) and apple pie for dessert. Shout out to Puck for helping me out with the spelling of those foods! However, eating Dutch food was not enough. Instead, we were separated into teams: Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, Staff, and Parents to compete against each other for Dutch trivia. Thankfully, Eva's dad was kind enough to give us multiple choice for each question as we furthered our knowledge of Dutch culture. Did you know that Spain fought the Netherlands for 80 years? Neither did I. Sadly, the Juniors were the victors, with the Sophomores behind by one point, but luckily, in the end, we can say we are all on the same team. By the time we returned to the hotel, jet lag took over and we slept the night away.

DAY 2
After a night of much needed rest, we started the day with a complimentary breakfast buffet, complete with a multitude of breads, fruit, hard boiled eggs, and hagelslag (chocolate sprinkles) to top our breads. You could say that Dutch breakfasts are carbs with a side of carbs. Then, we headed to the MuZIEum in Nijmegen, where we certainly had a Night at the Museum. This museum experience was unlike any other: we stepped into pure darkness to experience either a day in the life or a vacation of a visually impaired or blind individual. With one of our senses completely restricted, we relied heavily on the guide of our ears, walking sticks, and our tour guides Hans, Sjons, Lars, or Linda. We put a lot of blind trust, no pun intended, in our tour guides because they guided us with their voices through the daily activities that we normally would not think twice about. Crossing a bridge proved much more difficult when you could not see the bridge. It reminded me of one of our preseason team activity during Theme Day, where one member of each team maneuvered an obstacle course blindfolded, with only the verbal cues of their teammates to guide them through. It really made me appreciate my sight, but also appreciate how we were able to adapt to the new environment. Needless to say, our communication during our game later in the day was much higher.

Next, we ventured to the best part of the day: pancakes. We certainly are a team that likes to eat—B1G Ten B1G Girls, we like to say--- so nothing would stop us from enjoying these traditional Dutch pancakes. By nothing, I mean nothing. In order to arrive at this pancake house, we had to take a windy-road in the roads, clearly not paved for a tour bus. At times there were teammates switching sides of the bus in order to balance the weight of the bus in a dramatic attempt for it not to tip. Probably unnecessary, but having a new-found appreciation for our lives made the pancakes taste that much better. De Duivelsberg Pancake House, otherwise known as, "Devil's Hill", showed us that American pancakes do not compare to the sweet and savory combinations of these delicatessens. Personally, I can never have another pancake without the sweet vanilla cream that glazed my banana pancake – goodbye maple syrup. Who needs Gatorade chews when you can have this before a game? With a few hours before game time, we headed back to the hotel to rest and then strategize for our first international game! Our first game was against Eva's old club, the NMHC Nijmegen U-18 team. The emotion of Eva's homecoming was tangible in the air. We fought hard and came up with the draw, 2-2, with great efforts by both teams. Afterwards, we took a picture with both teams and sat down to share a meal together and mingle among the teams and parents. Luckily, it was a tie, otherwise it would have been awkward—just kidding. The girls were so nice and friendly, and we exchanged gifts: they gave us stroopwafels, custom field hockey balls, and water bottles and we gave them NU sunglasses! They were jealous of how we have Wendy's and McDonald's at nearly every corner in the States, yet, did not share our enthusiasm over the fact that there were men's field hockey teams outside practicing. Quite the rare sight for us, considering our closest sibling in the U.S. is ice hockey. After every game and practice, we log into an application where we put in measurements such as "how hard was the workout" or "how long was the workout", however, to track this day, I am going to add the metrics of "cultural diffusion" and "fun". Both were a 10/10. Signing off now, but stay tuned for updates on our off-day where we will be those cringe-worthy tourists roaming the streets (or should I say, canals) of Amsterdam.

- #8