Random Netherland Facts

the Netherlands" and "Holland" are the same country?(I like to refer to it as Holland because I feel like more people know what that is)

Amsterdam has 1,281 bridges?

 when Dutch schoolchildren pass their exams, they hang a Dutch flag and a 

    school bag outside their homes?(interesting because we have a Dutch friend who says that most people do not fly flags and that it is kind of frowned upon, looked at as being overly patriotic. Don't worry, I will be packing my American flag to fly proudly!)

 one quarter of the Netherlands is below sea level?(very cool, they've actually recovered a large part of it from the sea.)

 the International Court of Justice is at the Peace Palace in The Hague?

 Dutch is also spoken in Belgium, northern France, Suriname, the Netherlands      Antilles and Aruba?(Joren VanDerSloot. . .)

 the Dutch are the tallest people in Europe?(poor Dan)

 Amsterdam is built entirely on piles?(can someone tell me what this means?)

 almost every Dutch person has a bicycle and there are twice as many bikes as cars?(Dan now joins these ranks! and I'm preparing by taking Spin classes at the gym!)
 about 30% of all Dutch babies are born at home?(please no one tell Dan this...maybe he won't read this post.)

 you'll find flowers in almost every Dutch living room?

 Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands, but The Hague is the seat of       government?

 most Dutch people speak at least one foreign language?(hopefully I will be an American who speaks at least one foreign language after a few months)

 after Scandinavians, the Dutch are the world's biggest coffee drinkers?(crap, I HATE coffee

Kindergarten Stories of late

So, as you know already, I am filling in at summer school with three schools worth of Kindergärtners and first graders (apparently kindergartners isn't actually a word because when the spell check comes up on it, it converts it into some German looking word, notice the two dots over the a). Now, during the school year I do work in an elementary school so i AM around these age kids.  However, I think just the pure amount of cognitive ability lacking is too much for me. I quickly lose patience with kids who after 3 weeks of summer school are STILL crying for their mommy (sorry to all the mom's out there who would be delighted to hear that their child is missing them at school!:) ).I'm tired of clapping my hands in a rhythm that is supposed to be clapped back at me but instead I just get wide eyed stares and sporadic, non-rhythmic clapping. And I'm especially tired of hearing teachers say "1,2,3 eyes on me" and the students responding "1,2 eyes on you" (again no offense to teachers, how else are you supposed to get their attention?!) But, on some days, it does make for funny stories. 

1.) Little kids first real independent experience with a public restroom occurs at school. This is a recipe for disaster. Today (and oh i have so many more bathroom stories) there was quite a ruckus going on in the boys bathroom and since the wall of my office is shared with the bathroom, I was forced by necessity to investigate. Two boys were playing near the handicapped stall, one in and one out trying to get in. I called them over(mind you, trying  not to breathe because little boys also have not learned how to hit the toilet yet...possibly big boys too:) ) and asked them what they were doing. Neither was willing to answer me and one of the boys slunk back into the bathroom stall. So as I am talking with the other boy, telling him to use another stall and to hurry up, he is taking his sweet time, looking under each stall. I finally point him to the last one that is clearly empty and just as he is opening the door, the first boy comes strolling out of THAT stall. Yes, he had crawled on the floor under 4 different stalls, kept the handicapped one locked and came out the last stall. So I made him crawl back under the stall and unlock it and rushed him to class. 

2. ) Chip day is a bad day because Kindergartners cannot open them. One little girl said today as she was asking me to open her chips" Just a little bit longer and I'll be a grown up and able to open my own chip bag!"

3.) They send all the criers to me. Apparently being a social worker  entitles me to also stop small kids from crying. Anyways,  he was crying under the pretense that he missed his mom but social work has also given me the ability to read between the lines and get to the real issue. The real issue here was that he did not want to take a nap. "Naps are for babies" is what he said. I wanted to point out that he was bawling kind of like a baby but again held my tongue because the kid was 5. :) Instructed him he still had to follow adult instructions and needed to go back to class and take a nap with the rest of the kids. 

So, that's my school update for the week. One more week left of work and then I'm done, done, done!!!!and it's full on wedding planning and move planning!! 

The Great Purge

The last few weeks (ok, last week, i'm a procrastinator!) has been spent purging my house, my storage room, my mom's house, and my dad's house of "things" i've accumulated over the last 29 years. I wanted to get a jump start on getting rid of things so that when it's closer to time to move, it won't be a mad rush. So Meg and I decided to have a garage sale. If you ever want to find out what's really important to you, move to another country where all you can take is 2-3 suitcases. But suprisingly, it wasn't as difficult as I thought. I had just accquired way to many things. As my mom said a few weeks ago when she was cleaning out her closets, "It's sinful how much stuff i have!". (Hmm, thanks mom for passing on that trait!)

But with the help of great friends and family, it all came together for a very successful sale and most importantly, I am down to minimums on what is left. I did get a little sad when left to myself, surrounded by the last 10 years of my life. I think it all hit me that it's really happening! I am getting married and moving out of the country. I am closing..no, slamming shut, a chapter in my life and opening another one. It is exciting and sad all at the same time. I started to get teary-eyed and rushed upstairs to skype Dan and lament about closing the chapter. These are the times that the 7 hour time difference really stinks! He was fast asleep (as he should be, it was 3am there!). So i just continued on pricing away my old life and sifting through memories of good times and bad, being thankful that I had those memories and remembering all the great times that this chapter has held. I know this next chapter is going to be more than i can even begin to imagine and I am more and more excited everyday to get it started.

By the way, the Netherlands are 2-0 in World Cup games, US is (hmm, not really sure how you would depict this...) 0-2--0(tied 2 games) thanks to a really crappy call by a ref! Apparently everything stops when the Dutch play soccer. pretty cool.

Wedding planning

This is the church we are getting married in. It's an old historic Episcopalian Church. Story goes that the man who built the church back in like 1918 immigrated over from England and missed his little country church so much that he built one just like it. The outside is all stone and very beautiful. It is actually right across the street from the Elms. We were initially going to have our ceremony outside in the gazebo at The Elms but Dan didn't like the view and honestly, wearing a very heavy dress in the middle of August wasn't too appealing to me either.

 This is the old historic hotel we are having our reception in!! It's so beautiful inside. And be forewarned...it's haunted!!! No joke, Brandy and I experienced it ourselves on a girl's weekend last year. But that's another story for another day. The history behind this hotel is very interesting. It has burned down twice! Anyways, it's beautiful and I can't wait to party there!!!!

All wedding planning is going great! All the major pieces are complete! Now, to get to the fine details. I have my first dress fitting in a few weeks...have definitely been hitting the gym hard!:) We are going up to The Elms to do "Event detail planning", whatever that means! and then in July, wedding showers start! Everyday I'm reminded of how great it is to have a short engagement...for multiple reasons. With this short of an engagement, something is always happening! I always have something coming up right around the corner to look forward to. I have loved planning this wedding and have remained relatively unstressed for the most part! 

Funny story. So before Dan left, I wrote him a card for each week that he was going to be gone, with strict instructions not to open it until the designated week.  Just so he'd have something to look forward to each week. Well on Sunday, he was having a "homesick moment", which is when he broke down and had his doritos/dr pepper/pringles attack.  Anyways, he was definitely bummed and missing everything American. I tried to cheer him up by encouraging him to open his card for the week, since it was Sunday. But then I remembered that that weeks card was actually a list of all the things he was probably missing from America, #1 being me:)...whoops! I told him he might want to hold off on that one until Monday! I didn't want to add fuel to the fire:)

And on the best note of all, Dan comes back in 9 1/2 weeks!!!!! yea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pictures!!!

Dan was finally able to get some time to take a few pics and send them to me! This one is a picture of the market where he goes grocery shopping..

and this second one is a picture of the inside of a beautiful church that is literally an arm's length away from his apartment. and if you go to this link(you will have to copy and paste it, it will be a map at first but give it a few seconds and it will transition to a picture), you can actually see the apartment he is staying in, along with part of the church off to the left.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Nieuwstraat+28,+2312KC+Leiden,+Nederland&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=31.509065,79.013672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Nieuwstraat+28,+2312KC+Leiden,+Leyden,+South+Holland,+The+Netherlands&ll=52.158664,4.494395&spn=0.0119,0.038581&z=15&layer=c&cbll=52.157395,4.494155&panoid=OjlhuHH6Xljm1Op4wgFFJw&cbp=12,16.920991999999956,,0,0.564864&photoid=pg-euzpSNLHK9C4sog2vgCd3A

His apartment is actually over a bar. He literally has to go through the bar, up a tiny winding staircase to get to his apartment. He is on the third floor. I find it all very charming! He can sometimes hear the bar patrons singing at night when he is on the second floor(which has the kitchen, living room, etc) and they are often singing American songs.

He is adjusting ok. Today he had a craving for anything American so he found this small grocery store that sold doritos, pringles, and dr. pepper and ate until he was sick. He says it gets difficult trying to find his way around when all the street signs are in Dutch but somehow he manages and has only caught the wrong train twice out of town!:) The one thing he is definitely enjoying is being in Europe for the World Cup. Somehow us American's just do not appreciate soccer like the rest of the World. So on Friday, he'll probably grab his dorito's and Dr. Pepper and head downstairs to the bar to watch the American's fight to stay alive in the world Cup.

American life

Well, I know everyone is anxiously awaiting pics from Dan from the netherlands...oh, no? just me? well I am. But for anyone who knows Dan, he is always a little slow on the uptake in just about everything he does so the pics are coming at some point. . .just maybe when I get over there ;) So I thought I'd provide you a little update about my life here in America!In the last week, I have put my notice in at work, 95% sold my car, and started working summer school. 
First, things went extremely well when telling my boss I was leaving. Due to the way our contracts are, my last day will be June 30!!! I'm still having trouble processing that I may be done with work for awhile after that. Actually I am going to be looking for a part time job for a few weeks if anyone knows of anything!!!
Secondly, I sold my car!!! I re-listed it on craigslist and this guy seems to want to buy it! Hopefully it will be finalized this week. He is waiting on the loan to come through but is hoping it is done by Wednesday! That is a huge blessing as we will not be able to afford a car we will not be driving when we're over there!!! Plus it saves me 2 extra months of car payments and insurance!! 
And thirdly, summer school. Ahh summer school. You are the bane of my working existence. So, for summer school we are all at different schools than our home school. The school usually has a few other schools with it. This year I am with the Kindergärtners(just coming into K for the first time today!) and kids going into 1st grade. WOW.  Dan and I have been talking a lot about birth control methods to use, this is a good one. The first day is always chaotic and out of control and no one really knows what's going on. This includes students who don't know their names. This morning we had a little girl who did not appear to know her name. She was trying to find her class but when asked her name, could only tell us her first name, Jasmine. So we kept coming up with smart ways to try and find out her last name. We'd find names similar to Jasmine and ask her if that was her name and she'd say yes. She'd say her name was Jaslyne leanne Nicole. We'd ask if her name was leanne, she'd say yes. We asked her if she could write her name and she said yes. She then proceeded to write "Chetnie"...Me"but i thought your name was Jasmine", lost student "It is." Me "Why'd you write your name as Chetnie?" lost student"cuz that's my name". Hmmm. So then we just took her to each Kindergarten classroom and asked the teacher who they were missing on their roster. Each name we'd say "Is your name Mikayla Finke?" "Yes". Me"but you said your name was Jasmine?" student" that is my FAKE Name."  This went on and  on for quite some time. Finally the last K class we tried, there was a Chetnie on the list and there was no Chetnie counted present. There was also another little girl who recognized her from her bus. So Chetnie made it to class safe and sound and the mystery was solved for the day. I am not cut out for Kindergarten. I am not cut out for summer school. Only 3 1/2 weeks left.
 

1st clueless American story

So, Dan had his first funny "clueless American" story today. He was riding the bus from his hotel into the city where the observatory is located. He was standing on the bus, minding his own business. The bus kept stopping every few streets, opening the door, and waiting for someone to get off the bus. No one ever would. This continued his entire trip into the city, which should've taken 5-10  minutes but ended up taking quite a bit longer due to these frequent stops. At one point, the bus driver turned around and made some statements in Dutch. Everyone on the bus was looking around, including Dan, even though he had no idea what he the driver was talking about.
Finally, near his stop, when Dan reached for the handle to pull (like the ones above) to signal that the bus needed to stop so he could get off, he realized why the trip had taken so long...why the bus had stopped every few streets, and what the bus driver was saying earlier. Apparently in the Dutch bus system, you don't reach up and pull a handle to signal that it's your stop, you push a button that is conveniently located on the handle. The same handle one might grip if they were standing on the bus for instance!! The whole trip Dan had inadvertently been signaling to the bus driver to stop by pushing this button even though no one actually needed to get off the bus! haha! He was the clueless American today folks.