Oct 13, 2004 10:53
Ack! Haven't had time to update lately-- it's been chaos. My mom, dad, and sister came to stay with me last week, which was wonderful, but now I'm really behind in my schoolwork. I'll catch up, but it's a bit of a scramble at the moment! We spent a few days bumming around Amsterdam, toured around Leiden (where I study) and made a quick trip to Den Haag because my mom swore she wasn't going to leave the country without seeing Vermeer's Girl with a pearl earring and View of Delft, which are both in the Mauritshuis there. Wednesday was spent with Klazien and Piet, who had cooked up a program for us that involved driving around North Holland, drinking tea at the beach, climbing up (and running down) the Klimduin for a lovely view of the countryside, and best of all, a private tour of a working water-windmill. The miller is an old colleage of Piet's, and was obviously very proud of his mill and happy to show it off. I played interpreter since he didn't speak any English, which really wore me out! We got to see all the inner workings of the mill (which was built in 1580 and had most of the original interior!), watched him shimmy up the enormous sails to attach the cloth, and watched the water level changing-- even the Dutchies were impressed. :) Piet, an amateur gourmet chef, cooked us an indescribably good 5-course meal, and we blabbed till late in the night. My parents really seemed to get along with with Rick's mom, which made me really happy. :)
Saying goodbye was horrible, especially since I don't know when I will be home again. Hopefully sometime in January or March, but it may even be later-- I will hopefully be spending at least a part of the upcoming summer in Mexico for research, and I'm not sure I can afford flying back and forth to North America twice. But we had a good time while everyone was here, especially my mom, who'd never been out of the US before. She's an intensely curious person and really wore me out with all of her constant questions, but it was a delight to see her so happy. And I was really proud of her for how much Dutch she picked up in such a short time-- she's nearly deaf, so she had a lot of trouble hearing and repeating the words back, but when it came to reading signs and things, she absolutely amazed me with how much she intuitively understood and how much she remembered. The first day we were here, she asked me what the title of the newspaper "De Spits" meant. I told her it meant "rush hour". Then, toward the end of the trip, we were coming home from Den Haag around 6:00pm, and were crammed like sardines into the vestibule of the train. Everyone was whining and complaining, but my mom just nodded sagely and said, "Well, that's what we get for travelling during the spits." I about died laughing. :) She also made a real attempt to order her food in Dutch, say please and thank you in Dutch, and tried valiantly to learn to pronounce "Schagen." That wasn't a particular success (it came out sounding more like "skokken"), but "Heerhugowaard" was actually quite recognizable. :)
Now it's rather quiet around here, but that's a good thing as I have so much to read. Though that might be changing soon-- Dr. Jansen returned from a conference and discovered that we'd all been assigned two more classes in his absence, and told us yesterday we didn't have to take them. So I just might be freed from at least a little of this burden. :) In what little free time I have, I've been setting up an aquarium that Marcel's brother gave me (he was going to throw it out). So far I've got the substrate prepared, am boiling and soaking some driftwood, and have gotten my plants all picked out. I've always had plastic plants in the past, so I am excited about trying my hand at some real plants this time around. Still thinking about what kind of fish I want.... definitely some cherry barbs (I love those little guys!) and maybe a pair of Bolivian rams...
Rick and I also went the weekend before last (just before my parents arrived) to the Woonbeurs (a sort of home expo) in Amsterdam, and got some great ideas for our new house. We've already been to a kitchen designer and have come up with some cool plans, though we of course will continue shopping around since we have a year or so before the house is ready! We both miraculously agreed on a really modern, design-y look with super-shiny, red-laquered, flat-fronted cabinets and brushed aluminum hand grips and accents. Several well-meaning friends and family have asked us if we were insane, but we both think it will look awesome. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen and want it to have some personality, you know?
Wow, I can't believe how freaking domestic that all sounded. I am still mildly horrified by the fact that I have turned into someone who spends weekends at home expos and kitchen designers, and that I actually have 3-d home modelling software on my computer. Eek!
Anyway, I have stalled long enough-- I really need to write some "discussion points" for my class on Thursday, which I can't even go to because of the stupid public transportion strike. Still gotta do the discussion points though, even if I won't be there. Ugh.