Into The Woods

It is strange being alone in the house all day on the days Megan is in school- today is especially strange- they are having a teacher celebration day, so Megan doesn't come home for lunch today like she normally does. I look forward to our lunches together, it gives us time to talk about her morning (which is normally forgotten by the time school is out in the afternoon) and it gives us a chance to start the day over again on those days where the morning was unpleasant (which has been frequent over the last few weeks).



So I sat, sipping my coffee and eating some kind of spicy chicken soup (heavy with cumin and yogurt) and decided I need to sit down and catch everyone up on what's been happening the last 10 days. The weather has been so nice that I have just neglected blogging, and instead was out experiencing! This week should give me a chance to catch up- it rained most of the day yesterday, and has been pouring all day so far again. The camera should get a well-deserved rest for a few days.

The Woods
Heemstede has the most beautiful wooded public park I have ever seen. Since discovering how close and gorgeous it is I have hardly left, and Megan is falling in love with it, too. There is a stillness there you cannot find in Houston, and it has the advantage of not being infested with mosquitoes. In the hours I have walked there alone and with Megan I feel my creativity and spirit recharging, and a sudden re-belief in fairies.



There is a section of the park where dogs are permitted to run unleashed, and you all will be seeing much more of it in the weeks and months to come. There is a main pathway that is as wide as a neighborhood street, lined both sides with wonderfully tall trees that interlock branches stories above the path- it has a very cathedral feel.



Even Kip is not immune to the effects of the woods, his inner Boy Scout stretched his legs on Saturday as we made our way through the forest to the local pancake house, and Sunday as we gathered some fallen leaves, twigs and pinecones for Megan to get crafty with at home.



I Scream, You Scream, We ALL Scream For Pancakes!
I may have mentioned in the Harvest Festival entry about how Dutch pancakes are addictively delicious. That was just from the small taste I had at an outdoor festival. On Saturday we made our way to the pancake house, and let me tell you... there is only one phrase to describe the experience: hartstikke lekker. (Awesomely-absolutely-rediculously delicious in Dutch, bascially.)




(By the way, we didn't actually let her eat the entire bowl of powdered sugar.)

More soon, I promise... I am editing and uploading photos like crazy for y'all!

Bike Fever, Bike Feee-verrrrr

I got a bike!

For those of you who don't know, we are going SANS car for at least a month to gauge if we will actually need one. Kip is riding on borrowed wheels from Femke's dad, JP, and I was riding a borrowed bike for about 3 days before I found my new best friend ever:



Introducing, Petey the bike. (Named by Megan for a dog who was named for a bike. Full circle.)

So far Pete and I have ridden to Haarlem and back, among other daily tasks like going to the market, the grocery store, and wayyy out to the bank. I can't tell you how much I was praying for Advil about day 3 of having a bike, I think I managed to rack-up around 45 kilometers in that time period.

Now that I am more mobile, I will have a chance to explore the area much more, and hopefully bring some more interesting sites to the Flickr site and the blog.

Catching Up On A Few Things

The smell of chili and cumin is wafting into the living room from the kitchen- Kip is cooking "tacos" (they need air-quotes, one of the things for my wish-list from Santa is a bunch of REAL taco seasoning packets from Texas). Megan and I just snacked on some "Mexican corn chips", basically taste like taco shells. Still, they're good- just... different.

That seems to be the way we are dealing with lots of things here- finding something to fill the need, and trying to ignore how it may be different.



With Ike fallout going on in Houston, it seems so rude to talk about how much fun we're having here, what with the air conditioning, internet access, houses with no flooding and all. But, we are having fun- let me recap the last week:

Autumn Harvest Festival/Heemstede Spelentuin
The local kid's petting farm had a fall harvest festival, and we went with Femke, Laura and Nina. The quick overview- pancakes are AWESOME:



Little kids climb like goats (even when wearing skirts):



Dutch festivals on farms are just so darned quaint.






After a tearful goodbye,


... we headed over to the Spelentuine (basically playground) right down the road. We pigged out on frites, the girls ran around like crazy while the grown-ups sat and talked, and we finished the visit with a round of decadent beverages.











Prince's Day
A Dutch holiday that boils down to wearing fancy hats. It is the day that the Queen delivers their "State of the Union" address, with new laws and goals for the next 365 days. This was a blip on our radar- we have no hats.



Sports Day
Field day! The kids ran around like insane monkeys all day long and came home totally exhausted! So did our neighbor, Shayna, poor thing- she was roped into volunteering for the event.



The kids each wore headbands they had made, and each class carried a special banner they had colored themselves.






The Coolest Dentist's Office EVAR
I swear I will ride back this week and take pictures- I didn't expect to need my camera when going for a dental appointment. The dentist's office seems to be the bottom floor of his house, which is right on the river- it is gorgeous!

Megan Speaking Dutch - The Movie(s)
If you haven't checked these out yet, you MUST.





I think she's progressing quite well, considering all that she's up against. It's just so darned cute the way all these kids speak Dutch. Cute and TOTALLY incomprehensible, but still cute.

More to come....

Thoughts On Ike

If you're not in Houston, you're probably reading this. Right now most of our friends and family are assessing damage, living at friends' houses, standing in lines for food, water, ice, gas and are under strict police-enforced curfews. We are totally consumed with thoughts about home, our families and loved ones, and we're eating up all the news we can get our hands on about what's happening back in Houston. I am feeling guilty, I'm not there to share in all of this, and I get choked up when I think of all the weirdness that's happening back at home.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jyoburn/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cricketsoup/

But good lordy- the only hurricane I went through in Houston wasn't even a hurricane come to think of it- it was Tropical Storm Allison. Water was the problem there, and fortunately our house was high and dry. Working conditions were restored through most the city in a matter of days, we never went a day without power, and there were no long lines for necessities like gas, food or water. So, basically, I have no point of reference as to what is going on there, and it kills me. I wish I could fly home tomorrow and help out, but there are so many folks there locally that are out of power and have time and desire to help, I'd just be flying in to sit at the airport, as there's no gas anywhere and who knows where I'd sleep.

All I can say about this is HOLY CRAP we wish we were there to help. I didn't know how bad a hurricane could be until I saw photos of my friend's house with a tree poking through her roof. And images of our neighbors with a tree through their house. And numerous neighbors with smashed cars, houses, and trees down in every direction. Our house managed to make it without damage, and I am thanking every deity, just to cover all my bases on this one. Kathryn reported that everything was looking pretty good, but there are some hanging tree-tops that look a little scary- once tree services are out and running around that should be an easy (albeit not cheap) thing to remedy. Others have it so much worse, which compounds the original guilt. (And, just so you know, Dutch chocolate doesn't help.)

An Appreciation For The Finer Things

Someone (who will remain nameless) once sang to Megan "Toot, toot, toot comin' out my back door" about a rather funny and embarrassing and, well, socially verboten bodily function. For some reason (say, the amount of laughter said unnamed person punctuated the lyrics with) this has stuck with Megan, and occasionally is sung around the house.

Yesterday was one of those days. After singing the altered lyric, Megan asked (as she often does about songs I, uh, that unnamed person sings to her) if those were the real words. (After all, didn't Pavoratti sing "Meg-a-moo Lilly-ooooo, You are so silly-ooooo!") I told her no, and sang the real line for her. This peaked her interest, so we looked it up online (thank goodness for YouTube) and listened to it about 11 times in a row. Here is the conversation that followed listen #4:

Megan: Mama, who is Doot-Doot-Doot?

Me: What?

Megan: Who is DOOT-DOOT-DOOT?

Me: Oh, it's nobody. It's just a little word to sing.

Megan: What?

Me: Like "La La La."

Megan: *staring at me like I'm insane*

Me: It's a nonsense word. The song would have meant the same thing if he had sung "La, la, la lookin' out my back door."

Megan: Mama, I'm afraid Doot-doot-doot is real.

Me: What?

Megan: I'm AFRAID Doot-doot-doot is REAL.

Me: You think Doot-doot-doot is like a monster or something?

Megan: *eyes wide* Yes.

Me: Noooooo, no no no no no. Did you hear the rest of the song? He's singing about happy things- he just got home and he's happy about it.

Megan: Then why is the Doot-doot-doot looking out his door?

Me: *blink*

Megan: *blink*

Me: Uh, Doot-doot-doot isn't real, it's just silly words in the song.

Megan: *looking incredulous* Then WHY is it looking out his back door?

Me: Because Doot-doot-doots like squirrels?

Megan: Oh. *clicks on "Replay"*

That 5th listen she heard more of the words, and then she was all "Mama, 'Doot-doot-doot' is just silly words! Like la-la-la!"



Mommies are sometimes right. Right?

Home Is Where My Heart Is

I am homesick. I'm just not going to sugar-coat that one bit, I am totally and completely homesick. We had an appointment to meet our family doctor today, and she asked me what I missed the most about home, and I said "My friends" and I nearly broke down and cried right there in her office. I keep having little crying spells here and there, as I read-up on the lives of people back home or catch-up with emails. It's not so bad that I am completely miserable, but I wish I could be home for things that are happening in my friends' lives right now, and it sucks that I'm 7 hours ahead, I can't catch-up with them in the evening there, it's either 6am while they're still at home for a quick chat or during work hours, which only work for a few people. I can't even imagine how Megan feels, but she's steadily making friends at school and on our street, but that doesn't replace the people she's known her whole life back home.


Star-Spangled Neighbors
BUT! Something so great happened this week- down a few houses on the other side of the street a family with an American mom and Belgian dad moved in! They have 2 girls, one about Cousin Jack's age (born December of '03) named Maya and she is going to the same school as Megan. I got to meet Shayna, the mom, at lunchtime yesterday, and she seems very nice. It was funny- I was talking to Femke's mom, Nina, in English, and Shayna looked over at me, then said in a very hopeful and marginally desperate manner (that I am 1000% positive I would use when running into other English-speakers here) "Are you American?" And when I told her that we lived on her street, I saw a glimmer of relief in her eyes, maybe a reflection of the glimmer in mine. I hope we become fast coffee friends- the girls are already playing together, here at our house so that Maya's little sister can take a nap, and I can feel the relief in Megan- being able to play AND communicate. The giggles coming from upstairs are like an auditory box full of puppies.

The more they play, I realize how very integral a part of learning another language having an English-speaking friend is- they are role-models for one another, taking baby-steps in communicating in Dutch. They're currently playing hide-and-go-seek, and each of the seekers have been counting to ten and beyond in Dutch.

An American Without A Car Is Like A Dutchman Without A Bicycle
The rental car we have is almost due back, and with our brand-new SoFi numbers (YAY!) and with an actual bank account (DOUBLE YAY!) we are starting our search for our own car. Chances are it will be used, and tiny, and possibly diesel. I will no doubt be spending the rest of the day looking online at used car places. I'm hoping that in the meantime I can manage to find a bicycle- I figure one bike and one car will keep things flexible. I can bike into Haarlem easily to run errands or even for work, and if I'm going to start photographing folks again, I HAVE to be able to get around somehow, I'm not going to cart around my gear by foot, that's for sure.


Kari Noser Photography, Global Operations
With the move, I'm casting my net out in the Dutch market of photographers. I've been researching for a week, and basically I can't find anything (no less in English) about the cost of booking a photographer here. The closest I found were prices for wedding packages, which I'm not quite ready to start putting together, so I'm hitting the ex-pat network and starting with some "Portfolio Building" sessions. With that, I've also re-vamped the website, feel free to check it out here:
http://www.karinoserphotography.com

UPDATE - if the above link does not work, try this one:
http://www.karinoserphotography.com/NL/Home.html
As with all things technical, sometimes there is a user interface issue (like the thing between the chair and the keyboard) and I am experiencing a little glitch right now that I should have ironed out in the next 12 hours. I hope.

We went to the market with Shayna and Maya and Emerson later that afternoon, as we're out of fruits and veggies for the most part, and I can't wait to get some more chicken (the poultry vendor is good and very affordable- the chicken tastes so real- hard to explain, come visit and I'll feed ya), roasted peanuts, new flowers, and a giant stropwaffle! So far, that's our week, and for now tot ziens!

New Look

I have a very bad habit of changing the look of my blog when feeling uninspired. So don't worry - you're in the right place, I just shuffled things around, changed the look of things a bit.

To tide you over until the next update, here's the latest most hilarious photo of Megan that I love so much...



Alfred Hitchcock, eat your heart out!