We all have roots, family roots. I discovered mine recently in the Netherlands. I hadn't realized until after I had spent a day in the country just how closely I was tied to it. There was nothing specific or life altering that caused this revelation, only the frequency of the little things that made it feel like home.
I have been living in France now for four and a half months. I can speak the language. I do groceries every week. I do basic domestic and residential activities that by now, it should be home. But 2 hours after landing, I felt like I was home for the first time in quite a while. Tante Anne and Oom Robin picked us up from Schiphol and drove us to Den Haag to Tante Lies and Oom Jan's place, where first thing we did was sit around the dinner table and have a cup of koffie. It was the most natural thing to do. No queries. No doubts. Just the wonderful aroma of a freshly brewed pot of real coffee. The conversation that we had was mostly in dutch, with english interspersed when they remembered that we aren't fluent. The amount of it that I could comprehend and even respond to shocked me. I have never taken a course or even had a "fake" conversation with my family, but I could follow what was being said, even improving my vocabulary and speaking capacities over the next two weeks. It was amazing. It only heightened my desire to learn the language.
Being of Dutch descent entails of being a large framed person with large feet. The first day of shopping, Tante Lies took us straight to shoe shops to find boots. Both Melissa and I found amazing black leather boots! love them. I also found a beautiful wool coat that makes me feel like a lady (especially with the fancy scarf that I purchased). We also went to the Hema (Zellers) where we found hempies and sweet tights!
On the Tuesday, Remco and Gertjan – the handome Dutch guys that “lived” at our
place last, last summer – picked us up and we hung out all day. We went to Madurodam, for lunch, the Pier in Scheveningen, walked on the beach, then went to Frank Captein’s farm to explore the farm and cheese factory. They officially make the best boerenkaas in the country! We then went for dinner to a local restaurant that serves Captein kaas. It was great fun! And with them being complete gentlemen, they treated us all day. We were completely spoiled. Thanks guys!
On Christmas Eve, Mark and Mariëtte came for dinner. They have really good English, so the convers
ation was lively and also, Mariëtte shares my love for wine, so we automatically had a connection. She wasn't so keen on the oyster eating/gagging experience, which was truly unique. Because Tante Lies and Oom Jan were having some of their friends over for Boxing Day., they offered to take us out. We went to a Chinese karaoke bar (really strange), the movies and then out for drinks. We had also met up with Mariëtte’s brother, Robin, and his girlfriend, Hang, who hosted a New Year’s Eve party. Fireworks are only allowed on New Year’s Eve, so everybody goes out into the streets at midnight and lights off all kinds of them off. The air is full of smoke that you can hardly see, and there are fire trucks racing everywhere. So much fun!
On Christmas Day, we went to the local church, then Oom Jan took us on a bike tour of the old downtown of Den Haag. It was soooo cold! Brrrrr! But it was really beautiful with all of the old buildings and then we even found the Canadian Embassy. The old country! That evening, Stephen and Carmini, the other son and girlfriend of Tante Lies and Oom Jan, came over for dinner. It was a good night. Tante Lies was absolutely thrilled with the French Bonbons and true boerenkaas that we got for her as a hostess gift. She has a thing for everything French.
As for tourist attractions, we went to the Panorama Mesdag. It is a painting of the Scheveningen beach in the 1880’s. It was beautiful, with such intense attention to detail. That afternoon, after coffee, Melissa studied for her oral exams. When we booked tickets, we didn’t know that they did oral exams or that they would occur after the break. Which totally sucked for her, but I found some English novels on the shelf, so it was great for me. We also went the the Rijksmusuem in Amsterdam with Tante Lies and her friend, Jannie Bakker. They are doing a serious renovating project, so only one wing was open, but we still got to see a lot of paintings, Rembrandt included. While we there, we also went to a open air market, out for coffee and appeltart, and explored the city on foot. It truly is beautiful there.
We took the train to Zwolle on the next Tuesday, to visit the exchange student, Thea, that came to Canada to Melissa’s a couple years ago. We went skating on the slootjes (mini canals), with old style speed skating skates. It was fun, except when there was a loud crack right where you were. We also went to the next town over, Hasselt, for the random festival that was happening. It was fun. We slept over there, then headed to Bram and Jenny’s for coffee (friend’s of Mom and Dad) and then were off to Utrecht for the afternoon with Sandra – a friend of Melissa, who moved to Holland with her new husband to teach English. They were a lot of fun. Sandra attended McMaster, so we had much to discuss.
We took the train to Schiphol, with Tante Lies on the 5th (Monday), where we caught our flight back to Lyon. It was a great trip. We got to know quite a few people. We got back to our place at 20h00 or so, where we both fell into bed completely exhausted.
I have been living in France now for four and a half months. I can speak the language. I do groceries every week. I do basic domestic and residential activities that by now, it should be home. But 2 hours after landing, I felt like I was home for the first time in quite a while. Tante Anne and Oom Robin picked us up from Schiphol and drove us to Den Haag to Tante Lies and Oom Jan's place, where first thing we did was sit around the dinner table and have a cup of koffie. It was the most natural thing to do. No queries. No doubts. Just the wonderful aroma of a freshly brewed pot of real coffee. The conversation that we had was mostly in dutch, with english interspersed when they remembered that we aren't fluent. The amount of it that I could comprehend and even respond to shocked me. I have never taken a course or even had a "fake" conversation with my family, but I could follow what was being said, even improving my vocabulary and speaking capacities over the next two weeks. It was amazing. It only heightened my desire to learn the language.
Being of Dutch descent entails of being a large framed person with large feet. The first day of shopping, Tante Lies took us straight to shoe shops to find boots. Both Melissa and I found amazing black leather boots! love them. I also found a beautiful wool coat that makes me feel like a lady (especially with the fancy scarf that I purchased). We also went to the Hema (Zellers) where we found hempies and sweet tights!
On the Tuesday, Remco and Gertjan – the handome Dutch guys that “lived” at our
place last, last summer – picked us up and we hung out all day. We went to Madurodam, for lunch, the Pier in Scheveningen, walked on the beach, then went to Frank Captein’s farm to explore the farm and cheese factory. They officially make the best boerenkaas in the country! We then went for dinner to a local restaurant that serves Captein kaas. It was great fun! And with them being complete gentlemen, they treated us all day. We were completely spoiled. Thanks guys!On Christmas Eve, Mark and Mariëtte came for dinner. They have really good English, so the convers
ation was lively and also, Mariëtte shares my love for wine, so we automatically had a connection. She wasn't so keen on the oyster eating/gagging experience, which was truly unique. Because Tante Lies and Oom Jan were having some of their friends over for Boxing Day., they offered to take us out. We went to a Chinese karaoke bar (really strange), the movies and then out for drinks. We had also met up with Mariëtte’s brother, Robin, and his girlfriend, Hang, who hosted a New Year’s Eve party. Fireworks are only allowed on New Year’s Eve, so everybody goes out into the streets at midnight and lights off all kinds of them off. The air is full of smoke that you can hardly see, and there are fire trucks racing everywhere. So much fun!
On Christmas Day, we went to the local church, then Oom Jan took us on a bike tour of the old downtown of Den Haag. It was soooo cold! Brrrrr! But it was really beautiful with all of the old buildings and then we even found the Canadian Embassy. The old country! That evening, Stephen and Carmini, the other son and girlfriend of Tante Lies and Oom Jan, came over for dinner. It was a good night. Tante Lies was absolutely thrilled with the French Bonbons and true boerenkaas that we got for her as a hostess gift. She has a thing for everything French.
As for tourist attractions, we went to the Panorama Mesdag. It is a painting of the Scheveningen beach in the 1880’s. It was beautiful, with such intense attention to detail. That afternoon, after coffee, Melissa studied for her oral exams. When we booked tickets, we didn’t know that they did oral exams or that they would occur after the break. Which totally sucked for her, but I found some English novels on the shelf, so it was great for me. We also went the the Rijksmusuem in Amsterdam with Tante Lies and her friend, Jannie Bakker. They are doing a serious renovating project, so only one wing was open, but we still got to see a lot of paintings, Rembrandt included. While we there, we also went to a open air market, out for coffee and appeltart, and explored the city on foot. It truly is beautiful there.
We took the train to Zwolle on the next Tuesday, to visit the exchange student, Thea, that came to Canada to Melissa’s a couple years ago. We went skating on the slootjes (mini canals), with old style speed skating skates. It was fun, except when there was a loud crack right where you were. We also went to the next town over, Hasselt, for the random festival that was happening. It was fun. We slept over there, then headed to Bram and Jenny’s for coffee (friend’s of Mom and Dad) and then were off to Utrecht for the afternoon with Sandra – a friend of Melissa, who moved to Holland with her new husband to teach English. They were a lot of fun. Sandra attended McMaster, so we had much to discuss.
We took the train to Schiphol, with Tante Lies on the 5th (Monday), where we caught our flight back to Lyon. It was a great trip. We got to know quite a few people. We got back to our place at 20h00 or so, where we both fell into bed completely exhausted.
2 comments:
i just love how you fill us in on all the details that Melissa's gazillion pictures can't tell us... i'm now in the habit of reading your blog, then oing to melissa's to check out the photo version :) have a great week! and post again soon!
--n*c
umm... nic? are you dissing my blog? :P
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