So many new things!

As we discovered on Saturday, there is a large Turkish market outside the Laurenskerk.  Further investigation revealed that it's there every Tuesday and Saturday.  So Tuesday Kim and I decided to bike there.  We ended up leaving a little later than expected because the morning was filled with phone calls all over the place in an attempt to figure out what exactly we have to do to obtain visas.  Our contacts at UFV and Erasmus had told us that we should simply go to city hall and get a working holiday permit.  So we called city hall, and they told us we had to get it at Erasmus.  So we called Erasmus, who said we needed city hall!  Grrr!  By this time Oom Gert Jan was doing all the phoning because although most people here speak English, they are much better at communicating in Dutch.  So after making over half a dozen phone calls and looking up all sorts of things online, we still do not have visas, but we at least have some sort of idea of how to go about things.  We might have to go to the university personally and ask a bunch more questions before we can fully sort things out.

But we finally managed to pedal off to go to the market we'd been looking forward to.  We took a different way there than we did on Saturday because it was a much 'shorter' route, but Kim and I should know by now that usually the actual shortest route is the one we know already because then we aren't as likely to get lost.  We asked directions several times, and one person told us the exact opposite directions we needed!  We biked dutifully in the direction they pointed for about two kilometers, and when we still hadn't reached the Laurenskerk we asked someone else, who pointed us right back the way we came.  Three kilometers down that way we finally reached our destination.  After browsing around for a while we decided to buy some lunch at a French fry stand.  But instead of getting French fries we decided to be more daring and get a Dutch specialty.  The only problem was we didn't know what the things were.  One thing ended with kroket (I can't remember what the beginning of the word was) and we knew what kroketen were, so we ordered that.  Kim also got a Frikendel, which turned out to be an onion flavoured sausage. 

Then we started for home, and at a rather fast pace because we'd promised to be back by 3:00 to go to a birthday party for Tante Joke's great nephew.  We decided to be wise and take the 'long' way past Erasmus University.  It's about two kilometers longer, but at least we were confident of where we were going.  And it's good practice taking that route so we for sure won't get lost on our way to university for classes.  It's one thing to get lost when we have all the time in the world, and another entirely to be late for something important like a first class.  That would be dreadful.

We arrived at the Maclean's house at one minute to three.  Tante Joke gave us some warm soup, which was wonderful, and then we went to the birthday party.  Oh, and when Oom Gert Jan heard the Kim had eaten a Frikendel he said she must be getting smarter.  Reason: because it contains cow brains, among other animal remains.  I do not plan to consume Frikendels on a regular bases.  Anyways, the house the birthday party was in was a restored farm house/barn, and it's huge.  That's a major rarity in Holland where nearly all the houses are very small compared to North American standards.

 

 

 

There also happened to be a shelf full of various sized klompen!  I was so excited and Kim and I had to try some on... 

 

...which also seems to have inspired my darling little brother who started walking around in his little klompen at home.  I sure miss my little Lukey.  He'll be so big by the time I get back.

 

 

 

Oh, and before I forget Kim and I rode for the first time on the Metro!  We went to go shopping for an adventure, and also to get some groceries for Tante Joke.  It was quite the exciting experience.  We had to beep preloaded cards on these machine things in the station, which would take off a deposit of four Euros.  Then we had to get off at the next station, which was easier said than done.  We were waiting for the door to open so we could get out, but the door didn't open!  There was a man standing outside the metro and looking very impatient.  Finally he pushed a button and the door opened, I think the words he was muttering as he glared at us were probably Dutch swear words.  But we had no idea we had to push a button to exit the Metro!  Then we had to wait for the right Metro to where we wanted to go.  We successfully got on that, went for two more stations, and then got off at the shopping mall.  We browsed through the stores, bought the groceries, and then went back on the Metro.  It was only the next day that we found out we'd missed most of the mall.  Turns out the part we'd shopped was only one of three in a mall larger than we'd ever seen.  Oops!  But in our defense it didn't look like there was another part of the mall.  Stores here are so much less in-your-face than in Canada.  There are far fewer signs, and they're way less flashy.  It's quite a refreshing change.