Summertime
Sunny Days (sort of!)
Livin’ sure is easy in the summertime! We are enjoying beautiful sunshine and are spending lots of time on our boat. The weather has been in the 70-80s here, which is really unusual. I'm determined not to complain about the mugginess and the mosquitoes, since I know it won’t last.
While we've had great sun we've also had unexpected thundershowers that come out of nowhere. Recently we took some friends out on our boat for an afternoon cruise and after an hour it started raining..hard! We had to take refuge underneath a bridge and wait out!
We’ve been finding lots of unique ways to enjoy the There aren’t many English speaking churches in Amsterdam, so we’ve been attending a Scottish Church. Last weekend we participated in a céilí (pronounced KAY-lee), essentially an Scottish hoedown! High school musicians came over from from Scotland to play traditional Scottish music and teach us traditional dances. It was quite the workout! I definitely had my foot stepped on (not by Brent!), but it was hilarious.
We also went to a food festival- Taste of Amsterdam. Numerous restaurants put together different small plates for you to try. It was a great way for us to scope out new restaurants we want to go try their regular menu.
It was a beautiful evening and it felt like such a Dutch thing to do. We’ve been here a year now and it’s not easy finding ways to integrate into the Dutch culture. Anytime we can participate in something all Dutch it helps us feel like we are starting to belong.
You might be wondering how my Dutch language is going? Not well. I took some lessons before we left Seattle but I haven't been able to practice much here. I know enough to get me through polite greetings, ordering food and getting through my day to day errands. I don't have many opportunities to practice though, because the Dutch as so proficient in English that they hear me flounder and they talk back to me in my native tongue. I'm struggling with this issue right now because on one hand I'm a guest here and I want to particpate fully in their community. On the other hand, it's so not useful to know Dutch if we live anywhere else in the world besides the Netherlands. And if we only think we'll be here a few years...you see my point. I'm still trying to figure out what I want.
We kicked off our July 4th weekend with an outdoor concert. Jason Mraz was playing at a park near our apartment. Rather than paying we had a picnic outside the gates and were able to hear perfectly and see the screen/stage. We were the first people to picnic in this area because its really hidden behind some brush and a soccer field. Lots of of Dutch people joined us (as a society they are very thrifty so listening outside the concert is genius to them) and we were so pleased that we had out-Dutched the Dutch!
Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July and a great kick off to summer! We are missing you all! This weekend we are traveling to Berlin so we'll have another update next week.
Livin’ sure is easy in the summertime! We are enjoying beautiful sunshine and are spending lots of time on our boat. The weather has been in the 70-80s here, which is really unusual. I'm determined not to complain about the mugginess and the mosquitoes, since I know it won’t last.
While we've had great sun we've also had unexpected thundershowers that come out of nowhere. Recently we took some friends out on our boat for an afternoon cruise and after an hour it started raining..hard! We had to take refuge underneath a bridge and wait out!
We’ve been finding lots of unique ways to enjoy the There aren’t many English speaking churches in Amsterdam, so we’ve been attending a Scottish Church. Last weekend we participated in a céilí (pronounced KAY-lee), essentially an Scottish hoedown! High school musicians came over from from Scotland to play traditional Scottish music and teach us traditional dances. It was quite the workout! I definitely had my foot stepped on (not by Brent!), but it was hilarious.
We also went to a food festival- Taste of Amsterdam. Numerous restaurants put together different small plates for you to try. It was a great way for us to scope out new restaurants we want to go try their regular menu.
It was a beautiful evening and it felt like such a Dutch thing to do. We’ve been here a year now and it’s not easy finding ways to integrate into the Dutch culture. Anytime we can participate in something all Dutch it helps us feel like we are starting to belong.
You might be wondering how my Dutch language is going? Not well. I took some lessons before we left Seattle but I haven't been able to practice much here. I know enough to get me through polite greetings, ordering food and getting through my day to day errands. I don't have many opportunities to practice though, because the Dutch as so proficient in English that they hear me flounder and they talk back to me in my native tongue. I'm struggling with this issue right now because on one hand I'm a guest here and I want to particpate fully in their community. On the other hand, it's so not useful to know Dutch if we live anywhere else in the world besides the Netherlands. And if we only think we'll be here a few years...you see my point. I'm still trying to figure out what I want.
We kicked off our July 4th weekend with an outdoor concert. Jason Mraz was playing at a park near our apartment. Rather than paying we had a picnic outside the gates and were able to hear perfectly and see the screen/stage. We were the first people to picnic in this area because its really hidden behind some brush and a soccer field. Lots of of Dutch people joined us (as a society they are very thrifty so listening outside the concert is genius to them) and we were so pleased that we had out-Dutched the Dutch!
Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July and a great kick off to summer! We are missing you all! This weekend we are traveling to Berlin so we'll have another update next week.
Comments