Monday

I decided our hotel room needed a little pick me up, so I bought flowers at the flower stall today. They have so many beautiful arrangements and wreaths. I can’t wait to get in my house so I can take full advantage of what they have to offer. I am excited about finally living in a place where I can have a live wreath on my door and it won’t die from the heat!

Last night, Sam was having trouble falling asleep. I think she was anxious, nervous and excited about her first day of school. She jumped out of bed bright and early (6:30 AM) this morning, picked out her clothes, brushed her teeth and brushed her hair. As we walked out the door to breakfast she exclaimed, “First day of school, here I come!” When I dropped her off at the kindergarten playground, she never looked back. She had Mr. Scott (her teacher’s assistant that I am pretty certain she has a little crush on) by the hand and he was helping her make new friends.

Sam rode the bus home in the afternoon and was the last one off the bus. As you can see by the picture, she was on the bus with a driver and a bus attendant. To my surprise they were both men in their forties dressed in three piece suits (they kind of reminded me of butlers). She said they were both very nice.

After dropping Sam off this morning, I went to a meeting of the Monday Morning Networkers. This is a class that meets each Monday and discusses different subjects about Holland or settling in. Next week we are taking a trip to an Antique Shop and the next meeting we will be discussing Entertainment/Travel. Today our discussion was on Sinterklaas. Sinterklaas is sort of the Dutch equivalent of our Santa Claus. The real man was a bishop of the Catholic Church in Turkey way back in the day. He was well known for his kindness towards children and generosity towards poor people. The celebration starts in early November when Sinterklaas begins his journey from Spain to Holland by boat. He will arrive in the harbor of Wassenaar this Saturday at 2:00 with a big celebration and parade. From there he will continue up to Amsterdam and onwards. After that day the kids are supposed to leave a shoe by the fireplace a few nights a week (I suppose we will use the front door since we have no fireplace) and Sinterklaas will leave a small treat inside. The big Sinterklaas celebration ends on the night of December 5th. One of Sinterklaas’s helpers (a black man named Sinter Piet – he was originally black to represent the moors that worked for the original Sinterklaas, but now the P.C. explanation is that he is black from going down so many fireplaces) drops off a jute bag full of a gift for each child. Each gift is wrapped in a special way and includes a personal poem poking good fun at the child. I think it will be fun to celebrate this Dutch holiday, but will also be a lot of work for me. Now that the kids are all in school I suppose this will give me a fun project to work on.

Helmut and I put an offer in on the house on Windlustweg today. We are just waiting to hear whether they accepted the amount and the proposed move in day. We are crossing our fingers!