Zwanger Moments III

From one expat site to another...
this is the ice cream parlor I need to find.

Zwanger Moments II

Remeber that the American Couple Needs Friends? Well, I found a way for at least the American Wife to make friends. Here's the recipe:

1. Be zwanger.
2. Send husband off to a foreign country. (Yes, the U.S. is becoming more and more foreign to us.)
3. Pray for the warmest days in 50 years to occur at the same time husband is away.
4. Sit and wait for all the kind, caring Dutch (and some Americans) to call.

Yield: 1 care package of food delivered to my door, 1 invitation to spend the night, 1 job offer to "keep yourself busy", 2 suggestions to "call me if you need anything", 3 dinner invitations and acceptances, 3 offers for rides to church, and 5 (at least) phone calls/Skype chats to check on me.

But, I miss Dan, so he's very welcome to return.

Work? During Summer? When it's Hot?

I just got back from a quick errand - it is 36 degrees outside (like I've said before, that's hot in degrees F, or if you really want to know 36*1.8+32, I think). I guess the heatwave that is melting the US has stretched across the Atlantic.

Anyway, I passed by three places of commerce. One, a typically bustling restaurant with lots of patio seating, had 1 person sitting at it. No waiters to be seen. Another, the bakery that was my destination, had a large sign about being closed for their vacation for two weeks. But in between these two was the funniest - next to the sign about closing for vacation, this hobby shop posted another sign - "When it is too warm, we are closed." It was closed.

Romance...Dutch Style

This evening on my way home from church, on the bicycle path atop the dike that follows the Rhine, two bicyclers headed toward me. They were riding side by side, the woman on the left and the man on the right. And they were holding hands.

It is not an uncommon sight to see, but today it made me think about the other memorable moments of romance I’ve witnessed or experienced here. Needless to say, the bicycle is a common thread. Being a mode of transportation here, rather than merely for recreation, the bicycle, of course, is used in conjunction with romance…for dates, for carrying special goods, for snuggling, for hellos and for good-byes.

The first date Dan and I went on in Holland was by bike. We bicycled to the movie theater and bicycled back. I laughed at our situation then, and I still find “dating” by bicycle to be funny. Granted, a date that is meant to be on the bike is one thing. However, using the bike to get to and from the date is another! I’m waiting to discover valet parking for bicycles…

I love hopping on the back of Dan’s bike for him to give me a ride. It makes me feel young and quite carefree. (I’m not sure he feels the same, especially as I gain my zwangerschap weight.) When I see other couples riding this way, some in the back will be clinging tightly to the one who is pedaling. Others are being more playful. But there is no doubt they are close.

But on other, more sentimental notes, I witnessed a particularly touching scene at the bus station a few weeks ago. Obviously about to part for a length of time, a young couple spent some time saying their goodbyes. Then the girlfriend pedaled away, leaving her boyfriend to watch wistfully. It took some time for her to fade into the distance. Her black trench coat was flapping behind her, it was foggy, and the boyfriend was teary.

For our anniversary a few weeks ago, Dan bought me a bunch of roses. We rode home from dinner that night with the flowers strapped to the back of his bike. The image of bright red roses on the back of my husband’s bike was…romantic.

Fresh

Verse eiren anyone? Fresh eggs are quite abundant here - one of our friends even keeps a chicken so he always has fresh eggs. I stick with getting mine at the grocery store. But they are still quite fresh. I prefer the chicken variety...brown, please, since no white exist to my knowledge.

I've long grown accustomed to the need to wash my verse eggs - or else another part of the chicken coop will end up in my stomach. And it's not a very clean part of the chicken coop.

But today I found something else besides caked on chicken droppings on my egg to remind me how verse my eggs are - 1 white, fluffy, downy, chicken feather.

Nice chicky...
it made me smile.

Language Lesson Part V: It’s Like Golf

Sometimes, I get a hole-in-one with my Dutch conversational skills. I can walk away quite satisfied with my effort when I make par. The double-bogey attempts test all of my patience, and then there are the times I drive right into a water hazard and just need to start over.

Monday was a water hazard day. I was in trouble the moment an appointment started and my PT told me, in Dutch, at 700 words per minute (at least) that she would speak Dutch to me and I should understand her. My pleas for her to spreekt langzaamer alstublieft ("speak more slowly, please!") went unanswered. She continued to rattle off information and ask me questions faster than I could understand or respond. Zwangerschap hormones rearing their head, the pain shooting through my body, and the heat keeping me from concentrating on what she was saying, tears welled up in my eyes. I’m not sure if she saw them or not, but soon after, she exasperatingly said, “I’m just going to speak English.” So maybe that’s my new trick when I don’t have the motivation to work on my Dutch…act dumb and start to cry.

On a happier note, though, I had my second appointment with her today. I think would have to say it was a par. I understood most of what she said (I hope!) and communicated about 50% of what I needed to in Dutch.

Also, I have made a couple holes-in-one recently, most notably one at a bike shop where I communicated that my husband’s tire needed to be fixed and understood when it would be ready and how they would notify me. Of course, I didn’t know the word for “tire” and simply said it was “not good”, but my technique isn’t nearly as important as completing the task at hand is.

I suppose, when learning a new language, the important thing is to keep trying to make pars. Celebrate the birdies and holes-in-one, but don’t make them a standard. Walk away from the bogeys and the water hazards trying to learn from where it went wrong, but shake it off and don’t let it derail the learning.

Dutch News

So, how many of you know about the current events happening in this country? Here are some recent headlines, all begging a couple comments…

http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=19&story_id=31270&name=Heat+warps+train+lines

Question: How do trains run in the tropics, then?
Comment: OK, it’s hot…but TROPICAL hot? Need a lot more humidity than this, from my experience.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/06/30/netherlands/index.html

Question: Have you ever lived in a place without a government?
Comment: Hirsi Ali…one powerful woman.

http://www.holland.com/rembrandt400/consumer/gb/

Question: Have you made your plans to celebrate Rembrandts’ 400th birthday?
Comment: It only happens once!

Happy Fourth of July!

My favorite holiday, it seems, is one that is perfectly unfit for an expat to celebrate. On Saturday, I looked for red, white, and blue anything to make a small picnic with another American family a little more patriotic. I found red cups and (surprise) white napkins! But paired with our navy blue Ikea plates, it kind of worked. (The only holiday that would be stranger, I think, is celebrating Christmas in the southern hemisphere. Christmas – in summer!)

In all fairness, I do find that the consulates in the Netherlands and in Moldova do a good job of remembering the holiday. Last year, Dan went to an American celebration in Moldova. This year, though, the Dutch celebration just seemed to far away to go to. Sad – it is less than two hours away, but in this country and without a car that does seem far away.

Well, today I’ll think about why I like this holiday so much – the red, white, and blue, the height of summer, the parades, the picnics, the fireworks, the birthday celebration for my grandma, and the gratitude I have for being from America.

Holiday Time

This is my first summer in Western Europe. (And it is delightful!) I am blown away by one thing – the HOLIDAY. Stores, presumably those run by one family, have started to post when their holiday is, since they will be closed. It is a topic of most conversations these days. “Where are you going on holiday?” is frequently asked. And it’s not if, it is when. Three weeks in France. One week in Germany in July and two weeks in the Netherlands in August. Two weeks bicycling around Eastern Europe. Three weeks driving to Italy and back. These holidays all have something in common – the length is long and the accommodations are sparse. I have heard of only one person who isn’t going to be camping. From the perspective of this amateur observer, to the Dutch, holidays aren’t about experiencing the culture of Paris or catching up on house projects. It is about getting in nature and slowing down life for a few weeks. And then coming back from your three week holiday and STILL having enough time to take even two more mini (read one-week) holidays later in the year!!!