Jen Dobri!That is the how you greet someone in Polish.
I am learning from the beautiful 7 yr old Polish girl who lives next door. We are teaching each other a few words in our own language. Her first english word was "beautiful". That word never sounded so good as when she said it yesterday. She has been here in the Netherlands with her family for only one year and speaks fluent Dutch already. Amazing. She came over for dinner last night and after dinner we danced. So much fun. It seems like everyone I have met here is multi-lingual. In this house Dutch, English, German, Italian, Turkish, Polish, French and even a little Spanish is spoken. This is a multicultural neighborhood too. Shops and restaurants include many Turkish, Chinese, Mediterranean and Indian too.
I am starting to feel back to normal after my difficult travel experience. Although I am still kicking myself for not calling and checking into the airport a day in advance to find out if my flight was still scheduled and my booking was good and clear. live and learn. I have had several of those expensive lessons on this trip (lost luggage, dishonest taxi driver, unscheduled flight). When I travel again, I will be packing much lighter I think and scrupulously checking all bookings, maps, prices, and schedules for changes.
I am taking lots of photos and picking up a few small and light weight momentos and souveneirs from the area. A few chrystal stones, some sea salt from the North Sea, a pewter salt dispenser with dragons, some flower bulbs and seeds. But luckily... British Airways allows an additional 20 kilos in weight for luggage of people flying to the US from Europe so I wont have to worry about that!
Jozé, her friend Zeki, the dogs, the neighbor children and the birds have kept me very entertained. Yesterday after a wonderful dinner party of salmon, wild rice, turkish beans, yogurt cake and Italian wine, we sat in the garden and played various whistles to go along with the various bird songs. Magic. Then we took the dogs, Noel and Batu out for a midnight walk and a neighbor showed me a photo of a giant fish he had recently caught out of the canal that runs down the middle of the street. A 40lb pike! He throws them back after he catches them and has caught this one several times now. It can't resist his special home made bait. He uses strawberry flavored dough balls made from fish flour for bait. Fish candy hahaha
Jozé had to go to work today so I am on my own. I think I will go to the grocery and see what is available in the way of Italian ingredients. Maybe I will prepare one of my new Italian dishes for her this evening to stay in practice. I will be here in the Hague for 2 more days and then I will be in Amsterdam for 5 days. I will be in San Francisco by 5pm next Tuesday. I think it will be really strange to hear people speak only English again. How dull hehehe. I'm still speaking in Italian half the time, and want to keep doing it too.
Blessings:
- The birds
- Less Cars and polite drivers. Here most people ride bikes and trolleys. There are parking spaces available everywhere and those that do drive are very cautious and curteous.
- Veronica The polish child next door.
- A computer with high speed internet in my room hehehehe.
Curses:
- Worries over the return trip with British Airways and the possible unforseen complications.
I am listening to KMUD at the moment and it sounds great. Dreaming of a new laptop lol. Starting to get ready for another period of culture shock and reintroduction. Tomorrow we are going to the beach on the Northsea with the dogs and I am so looking forward to it. Photo ops!
My love goes out to all of you!
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