Year #2!

Rene and I are back from our whirlwind time in the States.

Between being homesick, the key to my bicycle breaking of in the slot, the kitchen sink breaking, and getting food poisoning, it hasn't been the best start to my second year in Holland . . . but it's getting better, slowly!

I finally got to Rijswijk today to pick up my new residence permit. Rene and I weren't sure if I would be getting a 1, 3, or 5 year extension, since they don't tell you anything except that those are the possibilities, so we just had to wait to see what they would give me. Thankfully, I got a 5 year extension, so we don't need to worry about all this for a long, long time. That's such a relief.

Rene still has to wait until at least January to go back to school, since (and I've just realized that I neglected to mention this on the blog yet) I will be teaching music this coming year at the British School, but only for 10 hours a week. That's not quite enough to meet the government's requirement, and it will also be pretty tough to make ends meet just on my 47% teacher's salary. I'm hoping that either I can get 4+ more teaching hours, but short of a miracle, I'm just hoping to either substitute teach as much as possible during my days off or get a different part-time job somewhere else. And with the demand for a contract not so pressing anymore, I might just try to get a job at a bakery . . .

Which leads me to my next idea tumbling around in my head (unlike whatever would be in my washing machine because I think that's now broken, too . . .), which is that I'd like to start a cupcake baking business. I'm not quite sure how to start making this happen, but perhaps getting a part-time job at a bakery would be a good place to start. We'll see!

I have another two weeks before I have to be back at school, and on Monday my friend Cynthia, from New York, is coming to visit on her way back from Austria! So that's pretty exciting, although we don't have Pinkberry here to satisfy both our longings!