Kim Deserted Me... but I Survived

I'm going to Belgium in a few weeks to see the parliament there!  A class from the university is going, and they made a few extra spots available.  Interested students had to write an essay explaining their interest in the subject.  I was quite thrilled to be selected!  What an opportunity to see politics in action, and to have a free trip to Belgium!

But Kim also wanted to go to Belgium, so this weekend she took off with an Estonian friend from the university.  I was kind of worried I'd be lonely, but people took good care of me here!  On Friday I went with Tante Joke and Oom Gert Jan to the elementary school where Renee's kids go.  Tante Joke and I were in charge of sewing things that were broken for the children.  We did jeans, coats, sweaters, tights, and especially bags.  All the children have a blue bag in which to put their jackets, and a very large number of those bags had holes in them.  Thus we were not bored during the three hours we spent there!  It was very good gezeligheid, good practice for my sewing skills, and a fun opportunity to see a Dutch school.  It's in a very old brick building.  And a picture of me busily sewing also made it into the school blog!  So that was a fun way to spend a Friday afternoon.

Saturday morning I worked on a news report which I have to do for one of my classes at the university.  One thing I have learned from that class is that Valerie plus video editing software equals... well, not good movies that's for sure.  More like a lot of Valerie's time wasted.  But oh well, I guess it's a good learning experience in patience and not letting dreadful computers get the best of me.  I spent a bunch of time writing the script and finding pictures and researching info and making recordings... only to find out that the filming I'd done at the event I'd planning to cover didn't work.  All that showed up on my computer was a fuzzy screen with an exclamation mark and the rather depressing message that my computer couldn't read it.  Grrr. 
So my news report is no longer on the opening of the new cafeteria at the university.  My news report is now on the weather.  But I am a very lucky girl indeed, because this weekend there were record breaking high temperatures on both Saturday (19 degrees) and Sunday (20 degrees)!  Very news-worthy material indeed. 

Saturday afternoon I went with a friend to the Alexandrium Supermall.  He needed a new sweater, so he tried a bunch of different ones on while I gave advice about which one was the best.  After that we had some delicious ice cream and went for a walk.  Then he came over for a while and we played some piano duets (I miss my students in Canada, so it was good to be the teacher for a little while again).  He learned very fast!

On Sunday Andre and I went to Sander's house between church services.  We played Ligretto (a card game), and Just Dance (on Wii).  I won Ligretto!  But unfortunately when it came to the dancing I was badly lacking in skill and gracefulness.  It would have helped if I could've practiced some of the dance moves beforehand.  I do very much wish I could dance.  Maybe I can look up the songs online and practice and next time hopefully look a bit more professional.  But despite slight embarrassment at my lack of skills I thoroughly enjoyed playing that game!  Sander and Andre and I also went for a bike ride together.  The weather was just too gorgeous to stay inside for long!  They also introduced me to some of the popular Dutch music.  I'm definitely planning to learn at least one Dutch song... but I forget what it was called and who the artist is.  I'd better ask again.  And in the evening there was Zaaier (young people's).  I was nervous about having to bike back home alone in the dark afterwards, but once again my new friends came to my rescue.  Sander and another friend of his whose name I don't know biked me home, for which I was truly grateful. 
I am a bit afraid of the dark.

So a weekend which I thought would be lonely turned out to be a lot of fun! 
One thing I miss is always having lots of people around.  At my home in Canada I have six siblings.  There's always someone to talk to, or play games with, or play music with, or get annoyed at.  I do love it in Holland, but there are times when I really miss having a busy and full house.  Sometimes it's good to go off alone, but if I'm by myself for too long I get rather depressed.

So I'd like to end this blog post by saying how thankful I am to have such incredible friends here in the Netherlands!  God has really blessed me by letting me get to know and spend time with such amazing new people from the church.

But I'm also really glad that Kim's back.