I thought that this would be the first year I would go without seeing snow but the Netherlands pulled throw yesterday and gave me about 3 inches of snow. So I decided to celebrate by making two little snowmen and I went sledding down the only hill in Holland (only a 5 min walk from my house…not much of a hill). Sledding sucked because the snow was soooo sticky that I couldn’t go anywhere. Everyone was looking at me funny as I tried to boom down the non existent hill in my makeshift sled (cardboard). When I finally gave up my dream of sledding in Holland it started to rain…and once again Holland put a tear in my eye as I walked home in the melting snow.
I will give you the rundown of what has been going on in my life since 2007 started!
New Years Eve was amazing. The Dutch light fireworks off at the stroke of 12 and the entire sky lights up as if the gods where having a laser light show. But they also have these noise makers that children love to set off during the day…so it makes you feel like you are in a WW11 movie! After your nerves settle from the long celebration the streets are covering in remains from the night’s battle, which I don’t get because the Dutch are very environmentally friendly people.
I have been filling my days with job hunting and arguing my way through the Dutch system. Mark and I have now discovered how frustrating it can be to be a foreigner. Everyone seems to have some excuse to keep you out of there bank or not be able to help you find a job because they don’t do English speaking jobs. My favourite is the fact that I now have to take the Inbugeren course. Which is a course that teaches you the Dutch culture and language for a mere 5,000 Euro and you have 5 yrs. to complete it. They also give you the option of lending the money right from the government. Now I think this is a great opportunity for me to really get into the Dutch culture and really improve my language skills but for 5,000 Euro is a bit much. The kicker is that I know I am not going to stay here for 5 years so I don’t really need to take the course…but if I don’t participate in the course the government will charge me 500 Euro every six months until I start participating in there integration course. So at this moment Mark and I are trying to figure out how the hell we got our selves in this situation because on the internet it says that I am not required to take this course and perhaps it is my fault because I went asking about the course and if I could take it. Anyway, enough about that!
I am going to Florida in a week!!!! I am sooo excited to see the sun and the rents! Can’t wait! I can’t wait to make chocolate chip cookie, go to Target (don’t know if they have them there), go to VS for a bra, sit on the beach and be an AMERICAN! This will be my first interaction with American’s since I have left the homeland. I have talked to one other American for about 5 mins at an arts festival about 3 months ago but that doesn’t count! And of course I have talked to people at home but you don’t get to see there facial expirations so that doesn’t count. I have also been chill with a Canadian girl but that doesn’t count as well!
Okay so that is about it for now! I hope all is well and I will be posting sometime in the near future! Kisses
