Updates

I apologize for the lack of posts and length of time between posts lately, life has been moving at full speed. After returning from Italy, we had guests, I went to a European spa, and then started babysitting full time for these last two weeks. It's amazing how tiring working full time is when you haven't done it in a year. Which, by the way, can you believe it's been a year since I quit my job back in the States? I can't.

I'd like to take a few lines to discuss this European spa I went to with my friend Suzanne. She is a wonderful mother to two small children and deserved a break away for a night so we headed to the East of the country to relax. We had discovered prior to getting there that this was an all nude spa. Yes, NUDE. Except for Tuesdays, which was swimwear day. So, naturally, we went on Friday. :) Just kidding! It was a very cute hotel with the gigantic spa across the street. We arrived to be given robes and directions to the changing rooms. We realized that the locker rooms were co-ed and completely open to the hall. Awkward. So we went to the bathroom and changed there. When changing back to our clothes later, we just went for it because there were no guys in the locker room. Then we spent the next several hours walking around the grounds, trying out the different pools, sauna's and relaxing rooms. They literally had beds where you could just sleep(which we took advantage of). They had gigantic pools, hot and cold. Hot tubs, jacuzzi's, musical sauna's, ice sauna's and lots of lawn chairs to relax on and order food or drinks. The whole time I just kept saying, " I CANNOT believe people do all this stuff naked 6 days of the week!!" I was convinced that the next day when we checked out, we would see only a few cars in the parking lot.  Oh how wrong I was!! The next day we had to go to the spa to check out and it was packed! The parking lot was packed, there were people packing out the lobby, and it appeared even busier than the day before! They were all ages too!! It was bizarre. But a nice getaway and a relaxing time!!


Next week I start my Dutch classes. They are 5 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 5 weeks. It's complete immersion. I am nervous and excited at the same time. Hopefully by the end, I will have a good base of Dutch and be able to build from there.

And last but not least, today I went to Risjwik to get my residency permit! I have been waiting for my renewal for 3 months, mostly because I applied for a job with the American School and they need proof that I'm legal. This permit was supposed to be for the remaining 3 years that we'll be here. After walking out the wrong end of the train station and having no clue where I was, I finally made it to the Immigration building. They handed me my permit and I realized that it was only valid until May of 2012. Of course. So I had to go back out, get a new number and come back in and wait until I could speak with someone in information. Turns out, before you can have a 5 year residency permit, you have to have one for at least a year. I've only had mine for 5 months. I am so frustrated because this will probably doom my chances for getting this job. Ugh. But we'll see. we. will. see.