Updates

I know I haven't been posting as frequently and I apologize. Life has become just that...life. Everything is not as new and exciting or crazy anymore. I've adapted a lot to living here but realize that things that seem like everyday, normal things to me now, are still crazy things to you guys! So I'm going to try and be more consistent in my postings. 

Here is a list of recent happenings

1. I've applied for 2 jobs with the American School here. One is a teaching assistant job and the other is a secretarial job for the Special Ed department. It's been a few weeks and I've only had one contact with them so I'm not getting my hopes up. But it would be nice to have a job and have the extra income coming in! In the meantime, I'm still continuing to clean houses (blah) and babysit my little Italian friend, who is getting cuter by the minute! I'm determined that her first word will be an English word! haha just kidding.

2. If I don't get one of these jobs, Dan and I have decided that I'm going to take the Intensive Dutch Language 1 & 2 classes at the University in August. This is a 5 week course, 5 days a week, 5 hours a day with 3 hours of homework at night. Hopefully it will allow me to apply for jobs that say "Conversational Dutch required".

3. Still getting around by bike. It's been nice because the weather has been so nice lately. It's amazing how much you can really do on a bike.

4. We are thinking about going to Maastricht, which is a city in South Holland, for Memorial Day. There is an American military cemetery there and they have a service that day and we thought it would be a nice way to honor our troops in a foreign country. It's a 2 hour train ride so we'll see. 

5. You already know about going to Sicily, which I'm super excited about. Our next trip depends on my job situation. If I don't get that job and some of my friends come out (cough cough, you know who you are) then we might be going to Rome and/or Paris. If not, our next trip will probably be back to the States in October for my Wheel of Fortune trip!! The details of that are still getting hashed out but hopefully it will be in October.


6. We've been enjoying a lot of time with good friends lately. A few weeks ago, we invited our neighbors (the ones we share the house with) over for dinner. There was 7 of us crowded around our tiny, 4 person table. 4 of them were Dutch and 1 was Portuguese.They wanted a "real American meal"...whatever that is. So I made a garlic cheddar chicken dish with garlic mashed potatoes and green beans.  But the biggest hit was the Black tie marbled cheesecake for dessert. The Dutch LOVE cheesecake and this one was no exception. One of the girls even said it was better than any cheesecake she had in New York! I'm not sure about that, but it was my best cheesecake yet

7. I still hate our fridge. It's so tiny and with us entertaining more, it's nearly impossible to get everything in it we need! 

8. This weekend, a few of us girls are renting canoes and canoing down the canals! I will hopefully have pictures, if I don't manage to turn us over into the canal.


9. And last but not least, I'm trying a chicken cacciatore recipe, just because I've always liked the way the name sounds. That's ok right??