SO here I am again and this time I think it took me about half an hour to get into this thing...I could get annoyed but I am not!

So I see Albert has commented on the lack of dutch. Let me explain. I am learning dutch very quickly (and even quicker after next week when I start my lessons!). I ask what words mean when I hear them a lot and as I sit in church and have no idea what is going on I take out my english books and the dutch ones and do a little comparing so that I can actually figure out what the minister is talking about...it's quite effective I must say. So I want to write down the words that I know but the problem is I know them to say them (minus the terrible accent so people actually can't understand what I am saying) but when I go to write them I realize I don't even know where to begin! I have been here long enough to know that when in doubt add a j...am I right albert:D? So mijn most important word happens to be kijken....??? which means watch or look...imagine that hey...I never would have guess. Anyway leven is life (learnt that one in church) and then there are all the words that basically sound english but are spelt differently like for and voor.

So that's about it for the dutch lessons. I had a pretty facinating end of the week last week...it started thursday with the biggest storm since 1990. Now as someone coming from Canada wind doesn't seem very intimidating so I wasn't thinking there was anything wrong...you know the road was covered with branches but nothing major. It wasn't until I was about to enter the Albert Hein and noticed it was closed and then saw the huge windows that had fallen out everywhere and smashed to pieces in the parking lot and then a big fireman comes running at me talking in fast dutch thatI realized this might be out of the ordinary. When I hear storm I think snow...but anyway it was ok on our end but I can't say the same for everyone in the country.

I got to go to Den Haag on Friday and got a behind the scene tour of a panorama painted by Mesdag...I have never seen anything more amazing in my life...no pictures were allowed but I will try and maybe add a link of the website....it was as if I was standing on a beach dune and looking out at the surrounding scene....in real life but it was a painting!

So that about all my excitement other than meeting and talking with extremely interesting people, one of them being an 84 women who has been everywhere and seen everything. Oh and of course I guess I should mention the fact that I am basically famous here...haha I have no idea why! On sat. the oldest girl's friend came in the house before a hockey game and turned to her friend and said "wow it's the new au pair from Canada" and then continued to stare at me and watch my every move for about 20 minutes...a little awkward considering I couldn't even talk with her b/c of the language but nice to know that someone thinks I'm facinating in this world!:D

So I will leave you on that note..haha! Enjoy the snow!!!!! I am incredibly jealous I cannot even explain it!

Dag!