an evening view down the canalIt's been a bit of a slow start, as a lot of our friends are university students and haven't returned from vacation. I've spent the good part of the week simply getting resettled into the apartment, including rearranging the kitchen to fit all the American things that we brought back with us!
We have run into some unexpected things this past week, though!
First was that even though we used a plug converter, we blew the transformer on the AC adapter for the Wii we received for Christmas! At first I was afraid that somehow we broke the Wii itself, but thankfully that was not the case, and we ordered a European AC adapter from Nintendo that arrived yesterday! We're back in business!!
We came home to find a letter from some bureau in Leiden saying that I was required to go in for a meeting about becoming integrated into Dutch society! I went in and found out for the first time that I need to pass a test proving that I have learned a certain level of the Dutch language and know how things go in everyday life in Holland. What's irritating is that they don't acknowledge the certificate I have from the University for my Dutch course. Thus, I have an appointment next week to take ANOTHER 3.5 hour exam that will measure my Dutch language skills (writing, speaking, listening, reading) so they will know which language class to place me in. The nice thing is that they pay for most of the cost of the classes. We only have to pay 270 euros for the whole thing (which takes 1.5 years, the lady said) as opposed to the 1000+ euros we paid for the intensive course at the University. From what I hear you don't even learn that much in these courses so I am thankful that I already took the University course and can hopefully test out of much of the coursework.
The third surprise is that it's almost impossible to dispose of a live Christmas tree here in Leiden! We called the city to see how they do things here, and were told that we had to either bring it all the way across town to some collection point, or chop it up into little pieces and put it out with the trash! So Rene spend all of Monday night sawing up the tree! Miraculously, it all fit into one garbage bag!
In any case, life is slowly getting back to "normal." I'm waiting to hear from the American School of the Hague to find out when I can come in for an interview, but until then, I'm just trying to keep the house in order and keep up with my Dutch. I am looking forward to life getting a bit busier as the slow days make forgetting about being homesick a little difficult. Thankfully tonight Rene and I are going to a belated New Year's party for our Young Adults Bible study group. It will be fun to see everyone again and perhaps make plans to meet up with people.
Just one final note: as of today Rene and I have been married for a quite wonderful 5 months!!!
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