Hi again. I awoke this morning in the wee hours and while trying many different things to get back to sleep, one thing kept coming into my head: Get back on your blog! My apologies, especially sad is the fact that the new year is the time to be really GOOD about commitment and task completion, clearly I wasn't in synch! So, even though this will be brief (Mike and I are off to the movies in The Hague in a few minutes), I wanted to at least write something.
We are home from Vienna and trying to keep warm. It's not that it's so cold out, only just at freezing during the day and a little lower at night, but it seems harder for me to keep warm this winter. Must be that my metabolism is slowing down, I know that my eating habits have changed in the past couple of years also, so I'll blame it on that, rather than the alternative - that I'm just being a wimp!
Today, after living in the Netherlands for FIVE winters, I finally saw my first ice skaters on the canal near our house! It was very exciting, and of course, I didn't have my camera with me. Rats. I will take it along tomorrow and hopefully they'll be out again. Either that or I'll have to lace up my skates and have Mike take a photo of me wobbling around on the ice to prove it...
It sounds like it's been a big winter so far for a lot of people, the Pacific Northwest of the U.S., our old stomping grounds, had a LOT of snow in December. Now, yesterday the temps warmed up and the rain started and the snow is melting like crazy and flooding is becoming a serious issue for many. I read that in Western Washington 30,000 people have been evacuated from their homes. Now I know what it is to live in an area that is flood potential, I mean, 1/4 of the country I live in is below sea-level, but at least we aren't facing these problems...yet. My best positive thoughts go out to those facing the more immediate threat of flooding and the terrible damage it can bring.
Well, I'm off, wish me warmth tonight going to The Hague, I imagine we'll be on bikes and it's veerrrryyy misty tonight too, so I'll try and see the romance of it all.
We are home from Vienna and trying to keep warm. It's not that it's so cold out, only just at freezing during the day and a little lower at night, but it seems harder for me to keep warm this winter. Must be that my metabolism is slowing down, I know that my eating habits have changed in the past couple of years also, so I'll blame it on that, rather than the alternative - that I'm just being a wimp!
Today, after living in the Netherlands for FIVE winters, I finally saw my first ice skaters on the canal near our house! It was very exciting, and of course, I didn't have my camera with me. Rats. I will take it along tomorrow and hopefully they'll be out again. Either that or I'll have to lace up my skates and have Mike take a photo of me wobbling around on the ice to prove it...
It sounds like it's been a big winter so far for a lot of people, the Pacific Northwest of the U.S., our old stomping grounds, had a LOT of snow in December. Now, yesterday the temps warmed up and the rain started and the snow is melting like crazy and flooding is becoming a serious issue for many. I read that in Western Washington 30,000 people have been evacuated from their homes. Now I know what it is to live in an area that is flood potential, I mean, 1/4 of the country I live in is below sea-level, but at least we aren't facing these problems...yet. My best positive thoughts go out to those facing the more immediate threat of flooding and the terrible damage it can bring.
Well, I'm off, wish me warmth tonight going to The Hague, I imagine we'll be on bikes and it's veerrrryyy misty tonight too, so I'll try and see the romance of it all.
4 comments:
When we lived in The Netherlands we would go to the movies in The Passage in The Hague. Does it still exist ?
Hi Patsy, there is still a theatre there, only the entrance is from the Plein side, not the Passage. It's called the Buitenhof and is the 2nd most frequented theatre for us. This past year, a new theatre has opened across from the Spui plein (not that far from Buitenhof) and it shows more movies so we tend to go there more. Happy New Year!
M and M,
Really like your blog, and am glad you're back to posting.
Question for either of you: did you learn Dutch upon arrival? Or can you "get by" with English only? I ask because I'm thinking of becoming an expat in ... Wassenaar! My foreign language skills aren't great, and from what I read, Dutch is rather daunting to learn. So I'm really curious as to where you two are with regards to the language issue. (Forgive me if you've discussed this previously in the blog, but I was unable to locate any discussion on the matter.)
Kind regards,
Scott
Hi Scott, thanks for your comment. This would be a good topic for a whole blog entry, but I'll give a quick answer here. Upon arriving, I took a 3 week intensive Dutch class through Leiden University. It served to acquaint me with some basics and so I was comfortable with going to the markets and asking for my fruit and veg in Dutch. Also numbers are good to know for money transactions, but as for being conversational, afraid we're not there. Partly it's due to speaking English to one another at home, but also, the area of the country between Rotterdam and Amsterdam (the Randstat) is very multicultural and most people speak English as soon as they hear your accent. Not that this is good for those wanting to learn Dutch, but it is very handy for getting by with everyday transactions! Wassenaar is a VERY multicultural town and you hear English just about everywhere due to all the expats living here. When are you planning on coming over and for how long? Good luck with the moving process!
Monica
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