First Day of School

We are settling in well to our new home and town. The girls have started school and are making friends from all over the world and are loving being 'entertained' all day at school. I think Chris and I got quite boring for them. They are picked up at 8am by a minivan/bus and arrive home at 3:45. They are excited about having swimming once a week (mandatory for all Dutch kids up through 3rd grade) and gym twice a week. Other specials ie. art, music, IT are once a week. They will both start soccer in a few weeks after school once a week in Sept. It won't be what they are used to from what I gather. It seems to be very low key and more just drills and some practice at playing games. But, around here, everyone seems to be playing soccer. In front of our house is big grassy boulevard that has a soccer game going most afternoons. Also, at the beach they play lots of soccer, and they are good. Now throwing a football is a different story. Here they could use some instruction.

The weather has been beautiful since we got here. Sunny and warm. Today was the first rainy day. We have gone to the beach on the North Sea twice. The beaches run all up and down the coast. It takes us about 30 minutes. On our first adventure we were quickly reminded that we were no longer in Eden Prairie at the beach, we were in Europe where bikinis are a must and tops are optional. The girls and I did not partake and I had to do some explaining. One of the many conversations that I'll be having, I'm sure. We had fun in the sand and splashing in the waves. Of course more shells were collected too.


On Sunday we were at the beach and decided to go out to a Mexican restaurant. We were so excited to find it and thrilled to be ordering margaritas and chips and salsa. Well, silly us to think we could get even decent Mexican food here. The drinks were undrinkable, the girls 'kiddie' cocktails were virgin pina coladas (which they didn't like) and the salsa tasted like bad ketchup. And, we haven't even gotten to the dinner. The girls had hamburgers that came without buns and tasted like chicken. Chris and I had burritos that were topped with more of the 'salsa' and lettuce with some sort of tartar/mayo dressing. Needless to say, we will have our tacos at home from now on. I tell you all this not to complain, but more of a way for you to see what keeps us laughing (and sometimes crying) as we discover what life is like in a different country.

span style="font-family:times new roman;">I am gettin a routine down for the market-go every other day-so as not to run out of milk. No stores are open on Sunday, so sometimes food and drink are sparse until Monday. There is market 5 min. away that has a lot of American food. Granted they charge an arm and a leg for it, but nice to have something if needed. Some of the items we've refused to buy: big bottle of Wish Bone dressing $9, bag of marshmellows $4, bottle of log cabin syrup $7. They do carry black beans and salsa. Yes, salsa that is similar to Pace. Not as good as imported salsa from Colorado, but we have weened ourselves off of that. Chris is in the States now on business and I gave him a small list of things to buy that included dill relish and crystal light lemonade. I hope his bag gets inspected.