News from NL

Eileen and I have been having fun biking around. Playing at playgrounds. Buying gifts for daddy. Working on our Nederlands - which despite all that work is still abysmal. I worry that I will never be any good at it.

Meanwhile, we are about to be computer free for a couple of weeks. This sort of silence might be good for the soul -- and my grand-daughter's outfit for the wedding (to which I need only add some buttons and some trim) might finally be finished -- just in time for her parent's wedding.

Another Cultural Observation

It has been a while since I made observations about the culture here. I would say that Dutch people are lovely, honest and forthright. That said, they often wait for the newcomers to initiate a relationship. So, if they haven't interacted much with Americans, we must all seem rather rude. This is not because they don't want to be our friends, but rather because the onus is on the new comers to approach new neighbors and the like. But, of course as an American I am used to that being inverted in most places (except east coast synagogues and purportedly the whole state of Maine) -- where the people who are already residing in the neighborhood seem to do the welcoming. Now, add to that the discomfort of not speaking the language at all when I arrived and only speaking it marginally better now (most of the time people understand what I am requesting at this point -- but I don't do well with the 5-9 year old set, who think I am either stupid or dumb (in the traditional sense of the word)).

Eileen now has a tricycle -- which despite her best efforts is primary colors, and not pink.

I will send photos of her new raspberry colored jelly shoes. She chose them herself and is incredibly proud of them. Tonight is the first night we have managed to pry them off her feet and out of her hands for sleeping. She loves them!

Some appropriate photos