Canadutch
Today is my mom and dad’s anniversary! They’ve been married for 32 years.. wow! That’s pretty great by today’s standards where divorce runs rampant. I put it on my calendar here on my website, making sure I didn’t forget!I forgot.
I swear, I’m the most forgetful person I know, unless I forgot the other one. *Sigh* Anyway thankfully my parents know what a forgetful numbskull I can be and forgive me for it. My mom teased me today for forgetting, man did I feel dumb. So yeah, those of you with birthdays on my calendar, don’t be surprised if I forget anyway.
GOOD NEWS!!!
Today I went to see Ali, my Holland case worker. Apparently I was marked as “Status 800” which means that I wasn’t eligible for the “Integration Program”. He said this was because I’m Canadian and they aren’t forced to take this program I was never put into it. I don’t get this because other Canadians I know have been. It’s ok though it’s not unlike the Dutch to be totally inconsistant.
So after speaking with him he said it would be NO problem to get me into the program and he was going to refer me to one of his co-workers who will set me up with an intake interview where they test my level of Dutch and get me set up with lessons. He said that I’ll probably be able to start sometime in September, Yay!!
If you’ve been wondering why I haven’t been writing much lately it’s because I’ve been messing around with other things on my site. Yesterday I scanned in some photos from our honeymoon in Paris. We were there in May 2000 and had such a great time. I really wish we had a nice digital camera back then so I could have gotten some nicer pictures but these will have to do for now. I have plenty of great memories though, I mean it WAS our honeymoon. *Wink Wink*
This weekend Xander and I decided to check out the beach at Hoek Van Holland. I looked it up on the internet and it seemed soooo easy to get to. According to the details online it was an hour long train ride from Rotterdam Centraal to Hoek van Holland Strand (strand means beach in dutch). It didn’t specify any walk or other rides needed so I figured it stopped pretty much at the beach. Seems like a pretty reasonable conclusion, huh?
I was so wrong. We got off the train and decided to just follow the crowd. After following the crowd for approx 25-30 minutes we finally arrived at the beach. Shit was I ready for a swim by then! I was surprised at the size of the beach and that it wasn’t as busy as I expected! The way people talk about the beaches in Holland, they go on like they are shoulder to shoulder with people and it’s not like that at all! I also thought they’d be these crappy looking beaches that I’d never want to swim at. Wrong again!
It’s pretty nice for a country that I thought was made totally of cement. I can’t believe I’ve been living here for FIVE YEARS and haven’t discovered this place. What else is just out there waiting for me to find it? It’s so weird because ever since I decided for sure that I’m going to stay here, I feel so much more content and eager to learn more about this place. The more I want to learn, the more I’m finding that I like. Good grief, why didn’t I do this earlier? I would have spent every summer at the beach! haha
Another reason why I wish I had gotten out more. I mean all these things in life that make you laugh and remember certain days. I’ll never forget this! I’m laying on my blanket at the beach and this guy comes along and lays down near us. There’s nothing really out of the ordinary about him and I put my head down and enjoy the sun. A while later I look up and can tell by his breathing that he’s sleeping… and then, I notice… IT!! There he was laying flat out on his back pitching a tent, a semi, a chubby, a boner in training! OMG! I giggled into my towel as I reached for my camera. No way I was going to let THAT pass me by. Little does this stranger know that his semi erect penis is going down in the history books in my little world.
For more photos of our visit to Hoek van Holland Strand go here!! I made it kind of go in order telling a little story so you can follow it and what went on through our day. I’ll probably make a page for it later since this blog will one day be lost in the land of blogs gone by, otherwise known as the “archives”.
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