'Almost school'
September 1, 2006 at 1:15 PM
by Ashleigh
This week we've been hovering in 'almost-school'.
You know, that mood you get in when the holidays are almost over, but school hasn't started yet? Where every little minute counts and you keep thinking of how to pack in more stuff before the holiday ends?
We spent a day this week in Gouda with Barbara and it was so nice.
So nice to just talk to a grown-up who understands some of the challenges of living as a migrant (whether economic or 'love') in a different country. To explain, it's not that I don't have any friends, I do.
But .. they are either Dutch or 'real' expats. I don't count myself as a 'real' expat because we don't have a super-duper expat salary and our kids don't attend an international school. That means that once my expat friends have their kids in school our lives diverge somewhat.
So, I find it most relaxing to be with friends who understand our situation, have their kids in Dutch school, and have the same values as us. It helps when they have such sweet kids and share the same hobbies too, of course. ;)
Barbara gave me some applique patterns she brought back from the US for me as well as a veritable bonanza of freezer paper! I feel wealthy! I have 100 euros worth of freezer paper in my grubby little paws.
Remember a while back I told you all that the local quilt shop was selling it for 1 euro per metre? I joked with Barbara that if I ever felt destitute I could sell off my freezer paper by the metre. Heh.
Yesterday I put away all the summer clothes. It's such a weird time for us. I mourn the passing of summer. In Africa the seasons didn't mean so much to me, and even in England I didn't feel any sadness as time marched on, but here I do. Perhaps it has to do with age, or just that the Dutch winters are really very grey.
Upon reviewing the wardrobes I saw that the summer clothes are in great shape and will do another summer but the winter ones... Oh dear.
A quick shopping trip was needed and we came home with four jumpers. Two for each son. And eight vests. Fashion preview for winter in the Meier household - it's all about layers, baby.
I sprayed the new winter shoes with water-stop.
I made cannelloni for dinner. Note to self: Please don't ever buy the premade tubes of cannelloni again.
God, it was messy and horrible to try and fill the tubes. It tasted really good though. Brad complained about the blandness of the cheese. I thought it was a nice contrast to the chilli and red pepper tomato sauce that I used to cover the stuffed cannelloni. Hmm.
Joe ran away from the table screaming when he saw his dinner. (I bet those food bloggers with the prolific output never have to deal with that!) He came back after we'd eaten most of his dinner and then cried because he actually wanted it and it was almost all gone. I hope there was a lesson in there for him. Next week will be a challenge as he starts school full time.
Seb is having fears about Group 4 and having to do 'tempotoetsen'. I would be having fears too. Tempotoetsen* are designed by the devil.
We need to go get him some pencils and a fountain pen for Group 4. Lamy have this great pen for learning to write. Unfortunately the description of it only appears on their German site, which doesn't do much good.
Brad is deep in his PSP which developed a scratch on its screen and had to be Silvo'd. There was voluntary cleaning going on there for a bit.
And now, that I've rambled on, successfully avoiding mentioning all the crafts that I haven't done ... I'll be off to feel 'almost-schooly' somewhere else.
*Tempotoesten are tests where you get 1 minute to complete as many questions as you can. Things like multiplication, addition, spelling etc.
Comments
I enjoyed your visit, too! It's great to talk with another English-speaker who has kids and who has a 'regular' sort of life ... Hard to explain, but such a treat!!
Max's school does not have tempotoetsen and frankly, they sound too stressful for this age group. I hope Seb will get over his dread of them. He's such an incredible kid!
See you soon!
Ah, all the different varieties of expats. There's an entire subculture. American military people here tend to try to completely reproduce American life in Belgium and it strikes me as strange. They live in more of a bubble. Then there's a lot of expectations for military wives and a built in social hierarchy. We're not military though we get a perk or two (access to military mail between the U.S and here).
Anyway, I've had a hard time making friends here, especially when we ended up having to live in a Dutch-speaking area instead of a French-speaking one.
Still much too early to haul out the jumpers here - it was 95F degrees today! Cooling off to the mid 80s next week.
I'm so glad you're able to get together with Barbara now and then. I can only imagine the isolated feelings you experience.
Do you need a translation of the discription of the pen- or the pen? Can I help?
The Tempotoesten sound horrible.
Don't put your summer clothes away yet- I refuse to belive that we don't have an indian summer comming still.
September 1, 2006 6:05 PM