Canadutch
Yesterday we went to see the mortgage people again to see about buying this place we are living in. It still seems a bit strange for me to pay an amount that could get a large house with a swimming pool back home, to buy a 2 bedroom condo/apartment here. This is one of those times I need to not compare though and just take it for what it is. At least when we buy this place it will be an investment rather than just throwing our money away to rent a few walls. I’m really looking forward to fixing the place up a bit. It really needs some love. We’ve been living here for 4 years and other than putting in some crappy carpet in the livingroom we haven’t done a thing to it.
For so long we were back and forth about moving home, so we didn’t want to put money and effort into a rental place we were leaving. Then when we decided to stay and thought about buying we didn’t want to fix it up because we’d just be increasing the value on ourselves. We don’t know the first thing about renovating though. For example, I want to have the shower completely redone with new tiles, new door etc. Who do you call for that? I mean I know you can buy everything you need at the DIY shops but we don’t have the first clue about how to actually put it in. Is there a shower maker guy you call? Do you call a construction guy, or a plumber, or both? That probably sounds stupid but I guess most first time home owners don’t know this stuff.
We’ve started getting these mergpijpjes for Bailey. When we were housesitting in Amsterdam they had them for the dog I was watching and we got one for Bailey while we were there. He loved it! I think it’s like a portion of a thigh bone from some animal or another. Anyway, when we give one to him he goes INSANE! He takes it in his mouth and runs around the livingroom doing this muffled bark/howl. It’s really cute. He doesn’t get any people food at all, just his dog food so I think it’s ok to give him treats like this. He also really loves those pigs ears, although they make me nervous because I seem to remember somewhere reading about dogs choking on them. So I try to keep a close eye on him while he eats those.
My classes start the day after tomorrow. I’m nervous as hell already, but I’m not really sure why. I guess it’s because it’s a big step towards really integrating here. It’s sort of the thing I’ve been waiting for that is supposed to turn everything around. I don’t want to put too much pressure there though, we all know I don’t respond well to that. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see. Mostly I’m just wishing and hoping that there will be even one other English speaker there. From what I’ve seen in past lessons I’ve taken, everyone branches off into their little cultural cliques. Africans, Turkish, Asians, etc.. They all find each other and get together in their little groups before/after class and during breaks. There there’s…. Me. It may seem petty or childish but I really hope there are people there for me to group with, because those other times when I was on my own while the others were huddling up speaking their native language and making friends. It made me more lonely than I had been before I went there. I really don’t want that to happen again, I really want to make some friends here who live local and will be my friends, rather than just friends of Xander I know by association.
Don’t get me wrong, I do have friends here. Alan, Jolynn, Theressa and a few others but I have nobody local that I see or talk to regularly. I really crave that kind of friendship again, I’ve been without it for far too long.
Monday I have to go for bloodwork again. I went last Wednesday and I was amazed at how long it took. Including biking there and back, the entire process took about 30 minutes. I was there and back before I knew it. I am so used to things taking forever at the hospitals back home. If you need to see a doctor or get bloodwork you pretty much have to set aside an entire morning or afternoon to be safe. I was shocked when I was only sitting for about 5 minutes and they called my name. It was the same when Xander and I went to see the Dr. the week before, we were in and out very quickly. The hospitals seem to be run much more efficiently here in Holland, I love that!
I’m reading Patricia Cornwell’s latest book at the moment. It was new in the stores when I was in Amsterdam last week and I just had to have it. The last one of hers I read didn’t impress me much so I’m hoping she’ll win me back on this one. I really loved the Kay Scarpetta series that she writes and didn’t like the way she changed the style of it towards the end. She always used to write in first person from Scarpetta’s view, then suddenly she changed to 3rd person and every chapter was from the view of a different person in the story. It was hard to get used to and this new book is the same, I’m just hoping the content is better on this one, it seems good so far. I’ve read the reviews and many seem to say that she’s made a comeback on this one. That it’s not as good as her earlier books but not nearly as bad as her latest.
I have so much housework to do, I don’t even know where to start. Other than I should have started 3 days ago…
