TwAYtal da(phlem-sound)en vAHn mine lay-ven
two days of my life

The alarm goes off at 6am, it's still dark out and my warmed waterbed will not release me into the new day. Snooze, snooze, snooze. Finally kick myself out at 7am, run around the house in a mad dash to be ready for whenever my colleague picks me up, which can be anywhere between 7:10 and 7:40. Eat a healthy breakfast of Nutella on baguette (all my roommate eats, typical French), and turn on SesamStraat, the Dutch Sesame Street and learn my numbers and letters. G is the most interesting, but doesn't make for a very catchy song, as it sounds like one has bronchitis. Here big bird is called Pino and is blue. Bert and Ernie are still there, and still gay (of course, this is Holland!). I consider all TV education now... even ER since it's subtitled in Dutch.

Jen (yen) my mentor and friend from work picks me up in the company car, and we begin the 30 minute trip to Hilversum. It's always a little rainy, and road shines as the sky begins to lighten. We start passing the fields, mixed in with the towns and villages, and spy lazy cows relaxing in the dewy pastures. You know, if cows can lie down, why do they sleep standing up? Maybe it's just Dutch cows that lie down... they know nothing of cow-tipping here. The sheep graze on the sides of the highway to keep up the landscaping. On the right is the big lake, where some early birds are catching the waves and first rays of light, windsurfing. We reach my favorite stretch of the trip, in which we go down a road that is like a small village, all the houses with little moats around them, and a little bridge or draw bridge to get to the road. Good idea for when solicitors come around. Knock-knock. "Avon!" Splash!

Work is a little hard for me to explain. Jen tells me that I should describe myself as an "International IT specialist", but I've been doing all kinds of things, and specialize in nothing. Right now I'm developing content for our website, learning and using our mapping tools to inventory all of our holdings, putting together a server for our ISP that is starting this week, and several other little projects. I'm answering the phone, and sometimes feeling like a dummy for always asking""Engels, alstublieft?" (English, please?), but they tell me that we are supposed to be an English speaking company anyway, and that only illiterates don't know English (amazing, but true), so if they call and can't hack it, too bad for them. Everyone here is smart, multitalented, ultra helpful and friendly. I'm learning stuff everyday, and I get to generate my own development plan - finding what I am interested in, and receiving support for it in whatever form, from apprenticing to classes to just being thrown in a project. I will be managing a small project (setting up systems and networks, as well as choosing and/or designing appropriate software) for a chiropractor starting in a couple of weeks. It's quite exciting for me. My boss asked me if I know and smart kids looking for jobs in Amsterdam or in California, and when I asked "IT People" he said "not necessarily". All the people here come from different backgrounds, sometimes not having anything to do with IT (from sailor to X-ray technician to schoolteacher).

When work is over, I ask Jen if Holland still uses wind power like the old days. "Of course," he tells me, and takes me to see about 100 gigantic white 3-pronged pinwheels in a row along the highway with sheep grazing under them. They turn automatically according to which way the wind blows, and it's an awesome sight, as the sun sets in the misty sky behind them. A chicken crosses the road in front of us. I still don't know why. As we get stuck in one of the frequent traffic jams, a brood of bicycling grandmas pass us on the bike path, handbags hanging off the handlebars. I know I talk about the bikes a lot, but it's really amazing to me to see young ladies in 4 inch heels peddling through puddles without splashing on their expensive long skirts that don't get caught in the chain (?!?!), and entire families on a bike for two (mama, dada and 3 kids - front, back and middle).

Jen asks me if I want to spend the night in his hometown, Gronigen, in the north of Holland. We grab some Heinekens and frites and roll up to his kidz' house, where they blabber in Dutch and ask me about NYC. I don't dare speak the language, since I murder it, and figure that it's better they don't know how much I know. One of the boys says in Dutch, "So she can't speak it huh? So we can talk about her?" Jen responds, "Be careful, she's learning." and Bernard says, "She can't even see me or hear me" (because he's in the other room) and I say, "Néé, maar ik ruik je, wel." ("No, but I smell you though.") thereby earning respect overall and the title "Adrem" (which as far as I can tell means whip-tongue). Goes to show you can take the girl out of New York, but....

On the way back the next day...after a night of drinking and philosophy through language barriers, we head back home so I can prepare for my housewarming (taking place after much delay). We go by way of the aufsluitdijk, a 30 kilometer manmade dam/bridge through the North Sea. They built this thing about 65 years ago (at the same time we were just figuring out how to span San Francisco bay, which seemed an impossible task) and from the observation area you realize you're standing in the middle of a sea. There are several huge locks that open to let boats through. The monument to the thousands of people who died building the dijk is a man placing a stone in the ground, and therefore unfortunately looks like he is showing the North Sea his ass, which is ironically amusing.

Finally we get back, and I ride my bike to the supermarket, to do the last minute (is there really any other kind?) shopping. It took me a while to get used to the supermarkets, too... you have to plug in a guilder to get a shopping cart, but baskets are free, and you have to pay for shopping bags (so most people bring their own), and pack your own groceries. You can imagine my confusion at the check out line. And the cashier's. And the 5 people behind me.

Back at home I chill the beer and gussy up the place waiting for Bruno to get back with his buddies. His 2 boys and he come back from tearing up the coffeeshop circuit and we light 100 candles around the house (what else do you do for a housewarming?) Jen and a few other colleagues of mine come over, and we have a really intimate, chill evening, much to my relief (I am not really ready to have a house-jumping/floor-thumping party just now). We learn a French dice game and get pretty riled about it, as well as some paranoid-delusion game called Werewolf where you call out each other to BURN!!! as a werewolf. Good times. It's like being part of a global community here.

So that was my weekend. How was yours?