Odds and Ends

I'm taking a vacation day today to take care of some odds and ends. One of them is to answer some of the questions that have popped up on the blog's comments.

Running with compression socks - I'm running up to a mile at a time now. My legs are feeling OK, but not great. I don't know if I'm feeling better because of the compression socks or because I took a year off from running. I haven't tried running without the socks, so I can't tell. But, I'm happy to be able to get out for a quick run in the evening when it's too dark and cold to go biking. I'm trying to run every other day and I'm building my distance one block at a time. So far so good!

Driver's Licences - You are only allowed to drive on a foreign driver's licence for 6 months after moving to the Netherlands. To get the Dutch licence, I had to turn in the Illinois licence. Apparently, the Dutch government sends the licences back to the US, where I'm sure someone simply throws them away. I did send an email to the Illinois Secretary of State to ask about getting a duplicate licence in my situation. I haven't heard back yet. The same person probably throws away all email inquiries as well! Anyway, I can rent a car in the US using my Dutch licence. And I'll just have to use my passport to get on airplanes in the US. If I can't get my Illinois licence back, I'll just end up having to take the driver's test again when we move back. Thats still a whole lot easier than taking the driver's test here!

Weather - It snowed today here! Yes, I saw real snow flakes falling from the sky for about 2 minutes. It started as sleet, but it switched over. We've been having an icky, blustery day today. It's changed from rain, to sun, to sleet, and to snow at least twice today. The wind is pretty nasty too. I think the last of the leaves have been ripped from the trees along with most of the twigs. But even with that, it's still above freezing. The days are really short now. I am using my bike lights going to and from work. The sun comes up at about 8:00 and it's dark by 5:30.

Language update - Dennis and I are going to a three-day Dutch immersion course next week. We've been studying almost every night and our vocabulary is finally getting big enough that we should be able to express ourselves. But knowing the words and being able to speak are two very different things. I'm hoping that the class will build our confidence with speaking and give us some good practice. Some of our Dutch studying is funny. We have a children's book called "Dikkie Dik" with cartoons about a cat. Dik translates to thick, which the adjective they use to describe fat people, or cats in this case. Dikkie Dik is naughty, like our cat, so we have fun with it. We also got a CD with a children's movie called "Het Paard van Sinter Klaas." Paard means horse and it's good word to know so you can avoid buying horsemeat at the grocery store! The movie is about a little girl who moves here from China. Her dad runs chinese restaurant and she has to learn Dutch just by going to school. She falls in love with a pony that lives in pasture near her house. When the pony dies from old age, she decides to ask Sinter Klaas for a horse. And when Sinter Klaas comes to visit her school riding a white horse, she thinks that he's bringing the horse for her. While Santa is with the other kids, she highjacks the horse and takes him home. It's really a cute movie. It's all in Dutch so we really have to pay attention. We've already watched it twice. Now I know why kids want to watch the same movie or have the same book read to them over and over and over again. They are learning the language.

Water heater - I stayed home today mostly so I could have the water heater repair guy come over to look at our leaking water heater. I figured it's better to schedule the guy while it's only a small leak and I can plan a day off rather than having an emergency repair when it's really not convenient. And since the water heater is in the attic, there is a good potential for significant damage if the leak becomes major. Like the US, they give you a 4 hour time window when the guy might show up. I was lucky today that he was early! But, of course, he has to order a new part so I get to take another day off to deal with this problem. But I'm really glad I called. He said the water heater will shut off completely if the water level drops too low. And he told me this heater runs the hot water for showers and for the radiators. So if it goes out, the house will have no heat. Now, I just have to cross my fingers and hope for the best until the part comes in!

Cleaning lady - Now that Dennis is working, I found a lady to clean our house. I got her name from a co-worker who got her name from a friend. When I called and told her where I live she laughed and said she lives on the next street over! She cleaned for the first time on Wednesday and I think I have a new best friend. She did a really nice job and we're going to have her clean once a week. The house here is smaller than in the US, so the dirt is more concentrated. Now that I don't have to clean on the weekends, Dennis and I can plan to spend more time traveling around.

There's another Sinter Klaas festival on Saturday night in Naarden (the town just north of us). It's supposed to be a really nice party, and we're planning to go. I think the weather is going to be very bad, though so I don't know how long we'll stay. I'll try to take some better pictures!