A Trip to the Library

Today was so much fun. After attempting to do a visit in Ijsselmonde, a Rotterdam neighborhood south of us, only to find the business has gone out of business, nice so I don't have to write much in Netherlands, I went to Rotterdam's Central Library to meet Laurie. I've mentioned Laurie before and we are getting to be very good friends, we are each other's kind of people/friends. It is so neat hearing her tell me about her friends in the US she'd like to introduce me to because we'd get along so well, and likewise I feel the same about her. I am so thankful to God for bringing Laurie to Rotterdam. So, she'd never been to the library and her husband is on a week's business trip leaving her here alone so we got together and I showed her the library.

A few of you, or I should say I only actually know for sure one of you, have been in Rotterdam's Central Bibliotheek. It is a modern 7 story building and the absolute nicest libary I have ever been in. It has totally been renewed since I was last there last summer making it that much nicer. The first floor still has the giant chess game and you checking your books, CD's, and DVD's out is now self-service. In the large magazine/newspaper area there are individual desks that slant and are big to hold a large newspaper and open it up and there's a light directly above providing excellent lighting for reading. Instead of one computer room they now have computers on levels 2-7 and they are now free for 30 minutes or if noone's waiting you can continue to log on for 30 minutes. There are so many around now, there were plenty available today. It used to be you had to pay to use the computers.

One of the differences here in NL and a shock to Americans is that library cards aren't free. Part of the library's funding comes from the yearly membership dues, which are needed to check out books. The current fee is 30 Euros per year. It allows you to check out 10 library items at a time and gives you a 3 week due date. For 46 Euros you can check out 15 library items for up to 6 weeks.

Laurie wanted to look at the children's books...yes, for those of you who know my love for children's books, you know we hit it off even more. Laurie used to work in a children's book store. Plus, it is an easy way to practice and learn some Netherlands. So she read a book and I helped her with the words she didn't know. It took a while but was so fun. Unfortunately the picture I took of her holding the book turned out blurry...looking forward to getting a new camera with a bigger screen! We'll have to restage it when we return there on Tuesday, as there is no Sit & Stitch this week. I did get one from behind her, showing very little of her.

After our library stunt we went across the way to Bagels & Beans. I used to go to this place quite a bit but haven't been there in probably a year and the owner recognized me, was so happy to see me, and remembered what I most often got...a cinnamon raisin bagel with honey walnut cream cheese and a cappuccino. Today we both needed more substantial food so we both got the tuna melt on a whole wheat bagel. It was delicious. When the gal that waited on us first came to our table to take our drink orders, we only spoke in Nederlands. Laurie needed to use the back part of the menu that is in English and when the gal came for our order, Laurie spoke first in English and the gal looked totally shocked, asked if we were English, said she thought we were Netherlanders, and when Laurie told her that she only speaks a "klein beetje", meaning a little bit, but I speak much more and could pass, the gal said that we both did great and she would have never known. Yes, Laurie is doing really well teaching herself and just interested in learning the language so loves to hear me say things and teach her new words and such, something else that's so nice as so many Americans are just here for a short time, they don't care about learning much of the language.

After our late lunch we went through Rotterdam's big market, right by the library, in search of two bouquets that I needed to get for the birthday's Arjan and I have to go to tomorrow and I found a 5 bunches for 2.50 deal. They are so nice but I forgot to take a picture and Arjan has set them outside for the night so the cats don't eat them then I'll make 2 bouquets in the morning and the rest for us! Then I found other great deals there...unfortunately I didn't buy the raspberries 2/2 Euros but I did get a nice head of andive for 65 Euro cents, over a pound of beautiful looking green beans for 50 Euro cents, and 2 lent onions for 30 Euro cents. You can not go wrong at the end of the day at the market and I found in the Centrum they let you get just a couple things...the market by us usually won't sell less than a kilo at the end of the day which is usually too much for us and Arjan gets upset because we'll end up not using some, even if it was so cheap. I told him I'm going to the Centrum market for the deals on Saturday. Our kaas (cheese) man is also at that market on Saturday's, though we are in routine of getting the kaas on Wednesday's when he's at the market by us.

Oh, yeah, and as I was walking to the library from Beurs, there at the C & A, a clothing store, there was a mob of people that I had to take a picture of because it was so American looking. From what was painted on the windows, apparently smoke had infiltrated the store so they were having a 50% off pretty much everything due to the smoke damage. The store wasn't opening till 1:30 and it was 12 someone inside the store needed an ambulance and stretcher and when the worker opened the door to direct the ambulance, the people pushed in the door and the ambulance workers ended up having to go round another way and I left as the male workers and police were getting the people out. I really didn't expect to see such a sight. When I walked back when I was going home, there were signs on the windows that they were not able to open today and would be tomorrow. Another madhouse I'm sure.

Ok, time for bed and hopefully tomorrow will bring you photos from the infamous Dutch "birthday circle", most English speaking expats call it.





The mob in front of C & A.

The ambulance arrives.

A Netherlands Friend?

Unbelieveable...I met a potential Netherlands friend this evening. As some of you know or have heard from me, befriending a Netherlander is very difficult. It is not at all like in the US where people will talk to each other and become fast friends. Most people here have their family and friends from when they were born and school and they've remained friends, noone has moved too far, and they don't need any more friends. This is one reason Arjan thinks the woman is probably raar odd/strange and typically used in a derogatory manner. I told him yes, she is because she's a Nederlander who likes to talk, doesn't like to be told to hold it short.

I was in the Centrum, had finished a visit, and was walking on the Binnenweg to the Buers Metro station to come home when a woman stopped me to ask if I knew if the benches had been removed from the Binnenweg as she had read. Yes, some have been removed I thought for construction but there were still some there. Of course in my Nederlands praten talking, she hoorde een Engels accent/heard an English accent. Then a couple came up to ask me where the grocery store was. They don't know Nederlands and little English but could understand if I spoke English to them. So I gave them directions. The woman then says I have an American accent, not everyone can guess that. This led, after her surprise that an American spoke such good Nederlands, to her telling me a lot about languages and their groupings and what's hard and what's not and asking me what I find hardest in Nederlands. Then came the usual questions...how long have I lived here, where do I come from in the US, how did I come to be here, how do I like it here. This lady can talk...

She told me how she's the youngest and has 2 older brothers who weren't the spoiling, nice older brothers. She told me how she was always told to keep quiet in school because she talked so much and that she can and likes to be quiet and still, oh so much like me. She told me about the books she had bought in the big wonderful Selexzy Donor 8 story bookstore right before us. She asked me where I lived and was surprised, as most are, and it was neat because she was born and lived till her early 20's not too far from us, now she lives in the Kralingen area north of us east of the centrum. I would guess she's in her mid 50's. She really talked and it was so interesting. Her name is Clara Bal and she told me how teased she was with having that last name. (I thought of all the "Ball"s I've known in the US.) It just seemed the more we talked the more we found of interest in each other. We are both adventurers and have each have interest in what the other has done and been through.

So we exchanged numbers to get together in the Centrum and continue talking and this is how it goes in NL...everything is very planned out. She said she would call me first, so basically don't call her, and 9 p.m. or after is best for her so would that be ok, and for our first meeting we will plan to meet where we met each other, in front of the bookstore. She asked me about my schedule and was any day better and I told her how my schedule is flexible so we'll be able to figure a day out when she calls.

I think she is just a semi-lonely woman, looking for someone who will listen to her talk, and someone that has something interesting to say. We'll see and I'll let you know. I am totally thanking God for deze toevallige ontmoeting this chance encounter/meeting. It is an answer to prayer.

I am also thanking God for the people I'm reconnecting with on Facebook. I really can't believe it. From finding family to staying in touch with my dear church family in San Diego and keeping up with my Dave DeVries to seeing photos of my best friend's grandchildren to reconnecting with people from high school and college, my Skyline 20/30 group that was so influential in my life, and former co-workers--we need to find more! to having fun sending special things to people and doing quizzes. I highly recommend signing on to Facebook...you never know who you will find or who will find you and where people have gone since you last had contact with them.

The only downside is it can consume a lot of time and now it's trying to balance that.

Today's photos, not taken today, are of the plein square/plaza where part of the market takes place a couple blocks from us. The children from the school on this plein and others close by are receiving bicycle lessons by an organization. Due to the fact that most of these children have parents that are not a true Nederlander and don't ride bikes, it was found these children are not learning the rules of safe biking and do tend to just ride all over with no attention to signage. An organization actually brings the bikes and small street signs and pylons to set up simulations and teach children how to safely ride their bikes. The children go out for half an hour once a week and take bike lessons...only in Netherlands. They even do it in the rain which I took a picture of but can't find.

Today did end with the beautiful sun going down and some blue sky. Tomorrow is supposed to be drier.

Time to feed the cats and go to bed.

Meeting Truus

Monday I went to Delft to meet up with my friend Becky from AWC so she could introduce me Truus. Truus is a 64 year old Dutch woman who had been a member of AWC and took Becky and her husband under her wing when they first moved here at the same time I moved here. From the first day I met Becky, she told me she had a lady she wanted me to meet because she'd be a good person for me to know in the Netherlands.

Truus and her husband lived in Saudi Arabi for 20 years on a compound with mostly Americans, her sister and husband immigrated to Chicago years ago, and her oldest son married an American out of a family they knew in Saudi. He is a KLM pilot and they live here but his wife is not integrating...been here almost 5 years and hasn't completed an inburgering course or knows the language, and only watches US tv. Yes, Becky was right, Truus was very happy to meet an American here who can speak some Dutch and is inburgered and I was happy to meet an open Dutch woman who knows Americans well but is echte (real) Dutch like Arjan. (Too many of the American woman married to Dutchies that I've met at AWC have what Arjan and I refer to as "Americanized" Dutch families that do things like celebrate Christmas with presents and a big deal and celebrate Valentines Day.)

They returned to the Netherlands 7 years ago when her husband retired but once he turned 65 he received all kinds of job offers, they can pay him less, and is back in Saudi for 6 months where the family will be going to visit him next month.

Truus was going to take us to her favorite restaurant for lunch, but remembered it was Monday and it's closed, so she had the usual Dutch spread of assorted breads, spreads, and things for bread. (I'll cover that more in future posts of the typical Dutch meals.) Then first she called her American daughter-in-law to see if she wanted to come over but she had a sick child so couldn't come then she called her daughter who works at the Royal Delft Factory, the only one left and it's not doing well. Her daughter wasn't working but called back and said if her Mom would pick her up, she'd go along and show us around. I was really excited because Arjan has no interest in going there.

That took us on a road trip to what she called the "new" part of Delft where her daughter lives. It was built in the early 1980's with totally poor planning. It's a large area with a mix of "social" housing and owner housing...all row houses with narrow one way streets and one way in and one way out and lots of speed bumps and Truus is a speed demon, which thankfully she warned me about. (A real change from my slow driving Arjan.) Truus told us at least 5x how hard it is for emergency vehicles to get in and around in that area, which you can see.

We picked up Caroline who totally confirms what the Language Development textbook I taught out of said...if children learn a 2nd language early, they will speak both languages with the right accents. This 39 year old speaks perfect American English, normal accent, and then I almost fell over when I heard her speak perfect Nederlands. How she can turn the hard "g" and "r"'s off and on is a miracle to me and speak English with no Dutch accent. She is in sales at the factory and said her contract is up on June 1 and she's not expecting them to renew it due to business so she's already searching for another job, which is not going to be easy in these times.

As always when visiting a place, it's best to go with a native or someone in the know of the place, especially when they can get you in for free:), and it was no different here. Caroline was able to tell us so much about Delftware and it was interesting to learn just how popular and how used Delftware has been. Probably what amazed me most was the life sized Rembrandt's Night Watch painting in Delft tiles. She explained how they projected the painting on a wall, charcoal traced it, broke it into tile pieces and artists painted the tiles going from the outer tiles to the inside tiles.

It was a nice visit and Truus dropped us off at the train station, driving by their house that was near the train station which the city bought from them 10 years ago to put the train underground but it's still there...some of the houses have started to be boarded up so it looks like there's progress but Truus is still mad that they moved them and then haven't done anything. Truus said she'll see me in April, after she returns from Saudi, and then she'll take me on a drive around Delft. How fun...

Delft is one of my favorite cities, you'll learn I have so many, so it'll be fun to see and learn more about it then the touristy center.

One day I'm going to write about the American cars, old American cars, I see here but when we we got in the car to leave the factory I couldn't believe this car that was parked in front of us...


Sorry I forgot to enlarge it. It's a CA licence plate MI6BOND with a Chicago Bears rim. I told them I think it's someone military related, making it easier to get their car here, who moved to CA from Chicago. I have only seen one other CA plate here and it was an old, old plate on an old car. You'll be seeing that picture.

Here's a picture of the Delft architecture that was done in the 1800's-early 1900's. This garden area showed off the different styles that could be done.