Controling emotions

I just spent the past half hour trying to control the emotions of 2 little girls. What do you do when both are sad and the opposite thing would make each happy. It is not possible to do the opposite thing at the same time...it resulted with the tears of both...I failed but needed to so that the one could learn a lessons of life...luckily the other understands english so that I could explain my reasoning...very sweet girl.

My everyday life

I am right now sitting with a bit of extra time to spare. Sandra has gone to the gym so I thought that I might catch up on some emails but instead decided that I would like to begin my post on things that I have been thinking about since I got here. I have not yet really talked about the house or the area or really what I do. So here I go....

I live in a beautiful neighbourhood with woods, trails, and heather (hiede???) fields all around. It took me about a month to discover the beauty of the area. I knew that there were woods but never really looked at them (you see I have this problem where when I walk I tend to block the outside world out and just focus on thinking). Anyway then I started running. One day as I was running through the woods I was struck by the wonderful smell of pine so I had to look around me to see where it came from. What I saw was beautiful...I can't explain it with words but just picture woods in the morning when the air is still a little bit crisp and the sun is trying to peek through the branches making a haze...I know you've all seen it before. After noticing that I remembered my walks with Elaine and how she would always point out the smallest little things in nature and I thought I would try the same...I don't think I've ever been on a more enjoyable run! (Thanks elaine;)). So I have some pictures of the area. I will take more but I am going to post some now. Most of them will be of a snow storm that we had last week (very uncommon here) but it still shows off the area.

Gag... so I am here a complete week later and as I read through the beginning of my post I think I was in a fairy tale mood that night as I wrote it...sorry guys I don't usually talk in that "oh life is wonderful and beautiful ways"...haha...like I said...gag! anyway I'm keeping it in there:D! And I really do thank elaine for helping me to notice things...and it really is nice...just ask Deanne and Albert...although they saw it in the afternoon and it loses some of it's mystic charm by that time.

So my everyday life consists of waking up and helping get the girls ready for school, drive them to school, do some shopping (groceries or market), coming home and cleaning up a bit, doing some ironing, having some free time (emailing, biking, reading, having coffie with a friends; really whatever I feel like), picking up the girls from school, driving them here or there (friends houses, ballet, field hockey etc.), coming home, cooking dinner, eating, then cleaning up. I don't know if I already mentioned this but people seem to ask so I'm giving the whole schedule. Sounds like fun hey? hehe. If you want to learn culture though being an au pair is the way to do it. I am becoming a part of the community. People know me at the school , in the stores, and on the streets.

I think I will fill the rest of the blog up with pictures...that will show you best! Sorry I have not yet figured out how to make the pictures the right way up...they are saved in the computer the right way but do not come out the right way...I guess you'll all just have to get up on your desk and lay sideways to see them correctly;D!

This is a sunset that I noticed one night when i was closing the curtains...I see these a lot. It is taken from the front door.

This is the front of my house.

My car!!!! The thing I like best are the speakers...hehe...but it drives nicely too. When there are problems it's all because of the driver;) although I am getting better.


The heide...there are wild cows in this field.

Bussum...This is the town that the girls have ballet in. I also go here for shopping and to go out.

This is Meyke, Henk and Carlijn sledding!!! It was a fun day!



Oh and one last thing...I feel bad for anything that I said about the teacher (Juf I think they call them here). She is really quite a sweet lady. I realize why some people knew so much more dutch than me! It turns out that some people have been in the country for a long time...one girl has been here for 5 years! I'm curious as to why they waited so long to take the lessons but considering she has very little english (but 5 other languages) it is difficult to have a conversation with her. I'm doing pretty well though. The Australian looks like he wants to run from the run everytime the Juf looks at him. We actually have a system...if the teacher is asking questions and we don't know what she is saying just don't make eye contact...she's catching on though. I actually know slightly what she is saying and even contributed by suggesting some dutch verbs!

"My visit to Albert's" + some other stuff

Last week Sandra was gone from Tuesday morning very early until Thurs. night very late so I was in charge of the girls all that time...hence the lack of any sort of post. This week has started off very calmly so here I am! I will dedicate as much time as I need to produce for my readers a (hopefully) wonderful post! And yes Neil and Jan I will even include pictures b/c I figured out how to add them to the computer!

For the past 3 weeks I have been having the best weekends! After my post on adjusting I realized that b/c I reflected on the fact that I was not adjusting well I made some changes. I have no idea what those changes are but anyway I am enjoying myself thoroughly. It is amazing that even across the ocean in a new country we can create communities for ourselves...or maybe I should say that people can help create communities for us (us being anybody that moves to a new place). I feel very blessed to be surrounded by wonderful people here, as well as having people from home who care about what I am doing here...and although I cannot show appreciation all the time b/c it takes me too long to respond please know that I still care!!!!!

So my past three weekends. It started off with going to Albert's house. It was my first real train trip here by myself and it was so easy. I'm really going to enjoy having these trains taking me from one place to the next in a very short amount of time...not to mention the cheapness considering I get 40% off every trip (Deanne that includes you when you are here!!!!!!!).

Albert lives in Nuenen, which, for all those Van Gogh lovers (so Jan....) is where Van Gogh was born and spent the first years of his life. Albert didn't think that it was very important to tell me until we were basically driving out of the town...comeon it's obviously the first thing I should have been told and is the only thing I remember about the town...haha;) (I'm joking...Albert was just a little concerned that that would happen if he told me). I also got a tour of Helmond where there's a big castle (there's a picture of it floating around somewhere in this blog) and where Albert saved the day by showing some policemen how to turn on a bike lock cutting machine.


we also went to a modern art musuem where we thoroughly enjoyed the elevator that sang to us as we went up and down...I think we spent most of our time going up and down just to hear it sing and even joined in at some parts. I also got to play a game and of course did miserably.



Oh the museum was in Eindhoven, the 5th largest city in the Netherlands...just to give you a little bit of information! On Sunday we of course went to church but also went to a place where 13 trees fell down in the huge storm we had the week before....so sad. Maybe we could have put our strength together and put them back up but we were in our Sunday clothes (see picture).



Albert's family is very very nice...and I can say that for all his family b/c I basically met everyone...haha. If anyone wants to figure out where Albert gets his mannerisms come and meet his father:D (don't worry Albert you are still an individual)! They were very welcoming! I think I mentioned it before but his brother and wife, Menno and Rieke, lent me a guitar! And Menno even stopped in to visit this weekend but unfortunately I was gone when he came...but it shows how caring they are. Definitely part of the community that makes my stay here so wonderful:).

Onto my next weekeend...last weekend I went to Aafke and Adrie's who live in Amersfoort. Aafke is mom's cousin and they came to visit in Canada 2 years ago so when I came here they were very happy to have me to their house. Amersfoort is .5 hours away so they came and picked me up so that I know the way to drive. I felt so incredibly at home there and had a wonderful talking with them. I got to hear about the family that I have here and we talked about my family at home which sometimes is exactly what you need to do when you are missing them...it is nice to talk with people who know who I am talking about. We did not tour the old town this time but I will be going back soon and we can do that. Amersfoort supposedly has a beautiful medival centrum. I got to tour the newer parts which is full of very interesting houses...houses that we would never see in Canada...you know like round houses on posts and with funny angles. I did not take pictures but I will some day.

This weekend Hannah Vanderveen came over to my house. For those who don't know her she was roommates/housemates with Elissa for the first 2 years at Redeemer. She's now here doing 4 months at the Reformed school in Zwolle. We has a great time being 100% real tourists...you know the ones that whip out their camera's at every slightly nice building...hehe I loved it. I will post pictures from it soon. We went to Naarden Vesting which is a beautiful old fort that is still a fully functioning town today. It is surrounded by a moat and a wall and has bike paths all around. On Saturday we went to Utrecht to look around. It is another wonderful city with lots of canals. We really experienced the difference b/w Canadians and dutch people when we were at a cafe for lunch. It took us 45 minutes to order our food, the reason being that in Canada to call the waitress over by waving your hand seems to be quite rude and never has to be done b/c they always just come. I finally got up the courage to do it and she came right away. Well we got a good laugh out of it anyway. It's like the time in France when we just kept on ordering wine and coffie b/c the waiter wasn't offering the bill, which we didn't know the name of in French. Don't worry Elaine and Deanne...the dutch are much nicer and don't laugh when you don't know their terms for things!

We went to a canal side restaurant for dinner. To get to the restaurant you climb down stairs so the streets are above you. When we came out after dark there were lights in all the trees above us and it was one of the most beautiful scenes I have ever seen. Hannah's camera took better pictures so I will wait until she sends them to me so that I can post them!

This coming weekend Deanne comes!!!!!! Albert will be coming too and we are going to tour Amsterdam. I am so so so very excited...like jump up and down excited. I am reading a book about Amsterdam so that I have every detail of the city so that I know what I am looking at and can hopefully relay my knowledge. I have already been there twice; once with Henk for my own personal tour but it was short, and another time, this weekend actually, to go to a famous restaurant. It was called fifteen and it was started by Jamie Oliver, the naked chef, to provide unemployed young adults with jobs. It was a great place where they teach the kids to cook and we just got to sit and eat and eat and eat. If you go to a restaurant with Henk and Sandra you are required to order a started, entree and dessert, not to mention your glass is never empty of wine and as many coffies as your body can handle. But anyway that's a sidebar. This weekend we are doing full tour and it will be better b/c it is with close friends so we will have a great time. I might also go tomorrow with Carlijn to see the Anne Frank huis b/c she has the day off school. It will be fun to do that with her...a good way to bond and have some fun together.

So I am going to stop now. I have so many things to talk about but I will save them for another time so my readers have some rest and my fingers as well. I hope everyone is doing well.

vegetarians

so last night I ate raw ground beef...high quality kind but still raw. The first bite was ok but as I continued and started thinking about the cow that it came from (hard not to do when it's raw) it became harder and harder to eat. I think I'm coming close and closer to vegetarianism. Moral of the story...if you want to continue experience the joys of meat stay away from the raw stuff.

PS Sorry about the details Lina!

Adjusting

So it has been a relatively long time since I have last posted! I realize now that I can write a bit and save as draft so I think that I might do that for the times that I don't have time to write a full post but have something that I want to write about. The way I'm doing it now I have completely forgotten what I have been doing since my last post that I will miss many things! Maybe not such a tragedy but still:D.

So the title of this post is adjusting...it has been a month since I have come here...a whole month...and I am still adjusting. I think that it is taking a bit too long. I think that the main reason would be that I do not know the language. Sure people speak to me in english so that's fine but I cannot not have conversations with the girls which really affects our relationship. We are bonding nicely, I will admit, and we have a lot of fun talking and trying to figure out what the other is saying...with the help of a dictionary of course...but I still feel quite distant from them.

To make things a little bit lighter, having to do with language, I started my language course on Tuesday. Other than walking in five minutes late...by my standards not late at all for the first day!..but by the teacher's standards very late. She just stared at me, not helping me out at all! So I asked if I was in the right place and invited myself to take a seat at the already full table. That was followed by the teacher kindly inviting one of my fellow classmates to ask me something in dutch. Hello lady...I'm in the class for a reason. So I just stared right back at the teacher until my very sweet neighbour whispered in my ear "name"...which I responded to by saying my name. Oh course that was not good enough for the teacher who fired some more dutch at me. "I assume that you are asking me for my last name as well which is Sandink" was my answer this time. That would have been fine had she recognized it. Of course she did not so I had to repeat it three time...but no matter. When she went onto speaking some more dutch to the whole class, and as my classmates nodded their heads as if they knew full well she was saying I asked my sweet neighbour if it was also her first day. When she said yes I thought either these people learned a heck of a lot in the first five minutes or they were good at pretending. I'll go with the second.

It actually is a fun class though and I'm looking forward to it again (although next time I'll be sure that I get there on time!). I wrote down all the countries that people are from. They are from everyehere. Englishwise we have me (Canadian!), British, Australian, and maybe an American but I will have to ask her...she came in 1 hour late...I thought the teacher was going to have a heart attack...she gave her an even harder time!

We just learnt greetings and things like that, which I've already managed to mess up by asking Albert who he was rather than asking him how he was...honest mistake...I realized when I made the same mistake with the cleaning lady and she corrected me. I'll never make that mistake again:D! We learn questions and answers and then practice with each other. The teacher was appauled by my pronounciation of waar (where). She gasped...and I mean gasped and acted as if I had killed a bird. Oh jongen (hehe that's oh boy my most favourite saying which I have translated to dutch!!!) I'm going to have fun with this lady! Anyway so as I was studying tonight, going over what we learnt, I went onto the next thing that we will do next week. So we learn how to say "Who are you", "How are you", and like 2 more things like languages you speak and how you got to the lesson. So the next most important thing to ask....I translated myself without the help of a dictionary but with the use of a picture..."Are you married?" I thought my sides were going to split from laughter. Why, I am thinking, would that come right after "how did you get to the lesson", and the 4th thing in the book. I confirmed that I had translated correctly with Sandra and I still laugh as I write this. Maybe it's not that amusing to you but when I read it...I will say I was thoroughly amused!

Oh man oh man this is long and I haven't even come close to finishing saying everything! You might want to read this one in blocks....maybe take a koffie break inbetween. Oh and please direct me by telling me to write about certain things if you would like!

So the second reason why I am not adjusting as quickly as I would like. I live with a family that I do not know. It's hard. First of all it just is hard. Every family is different and therefore you have to figure them out before you can actually begin to fit in and feel comfortable. Second of all I have been living not in a family...traditionally speaking...for 3.5 years. As a student you do what you want when you want. If I want to eat lunch at 3 in the afternoon then I can. If I want to leave at 10 at night I can. When you are with a family that is not so easy. I think I will get over that but it will take awhile. A third reason is that they are not Christian which I have never lived with before but that is the topic of a different post.

I'm doing ok in the community though. People are even asking me for directions...well once someone did but I was on a bike with a child seat, standing at the side of the road talking on a cell phone...pretty clear sign that I'm from around here...ha...I sure fooled them! Today I was also very pleased to have the guy at the Albert Hein remember that I am english. He even said "See you next week"! which is wonderful for me:D...small things make me happy I know...but what else could be a sure sign that yo are fitting in in the community.

So I think that's all I will post for now. I was going to write about my trip to Albert's in this post but then though I could even better make a whole post on that with it's very own title of "My visit to Albert's"...so stay tuned my dear friends!

Oh and something I almost forgot! I should have done this first...I need to protect my sister from undue stress...Jan emailed me quite concerned about the comments on my blog re. crazy lady. Well Jan, my dear, no worries as it is , I'm sure, someone making a joke...quite a funny one at that;D for even I would have been concerned had I not known my friends. I have my assumption of who it might be..although my first guess was denied...but really no worries. Please continue to post!!!!!:D!

Oh and one last thing...Elaine although your name has been made fun of thoroughly in the comments section I would like to tell you that your name has actually helped my out greatly here! Elaine is very similar to the dutch word "alleen" which means only (albert correct me if I am wrong) which I hear very often! So be proud and stand tall!

Tot ziens...I am going to go practice guitar which Albert's very kind and generous brother and sister in law lent me. I will post more about that in the post titled "My visit to Albert's";).