Monday night, I was feeling adventurous so I decided to try to set up my internet connection at home. The HR Angel had helped me sign up for cable TV, internet and telephone. Naturally, it was one of those bundled packages with a low price that turns into a higher price once you get the bill. I'm pretty sure these cable companies are part of a huge global conspiracy! At least I had declined to pay for "installation." I couldn't figure out what they would install when I don't have telephone, a TV, or a computer at home.

At any rate, the cable company mailed me a box with a bunch of electronic gizmos, cables, and cords. And a set of instructions, in Dutch of course. So, I brought my laptop home from the office and decided to see if I could get the cable set up. It goes like this: connect modem to TV cable, plug into the wall socket, and connect the internet cable. The trick here is that you have to wait 20 minutes for all the lights to go on - try figuring that out in Dutch! Once I got that done, it was just a matter of entering the username and password into the website to initialize the modem. For those who know me, you know I leave all this electronic junk to my husband. To have accomplished this by myself is like my husband cooking a 4 course meal. Not impossible, but highly unlikely! So now when my husband arrives at the end of next week, he'll be able to work right away, while sitting on folding lawn chairs with an overturned box for a table.

On Tuesday, I brought home a small TV, borrowed from a coworker. This was just plug and chug. Now I can enjoy all my favorites, Judging Amy, Baywatch, and the A-Team! At least I get some English channels, so I probably can't complain about the choices. In spite of the new TV, I went for a walk to enjoy the nice Spring weather.

I walked to the Naarden Vesting. This is the town that has fortress walls and a moat. The walls are actually arrow shaped and it looks really cool in aerial photographs. If you want to see it check it out on google maps. You can walk around the walls along the waterways. In the water, there are white swans, people rowing those skinny long boats, and people fishing from the shore. There are people walking dogs, jogging, and biking. The air smells like farmland (not like the huge pig farms, but like very fertile soil) and flowers. The walls are rather steep and covered in nicely manicured grass. So, how do they keep all those steep hills so nicely mowed? Why, goats of course! I saw the fleet of goats scaling the hillsides keeping the grass short and contributing to the smell in the air.

Mostly, it feels really good to be walking a lot. I walk to the stores and I have been out every night exploring the neighborhood. I am really looking forward to getting the bikes so I can explore a little further afield.