I woke up fairly late to Marike and Lasslo downstairs having coffee and listening to music.
They're both very musical. I found out that Marike is in a band and Lasslo was in a band! And they both have an excellent taste in music (read: very similar to mine). I will be sure to write down the names and add them to this posting tomorrow morning, but both of them are asleep now (it's almost midnight).
Today I kept a Steenbakker-Aisenthal tradition alive.
When I was 8, Marike and Lasslo came to visit us in Vancouver. I was so excited to see them everyday after school when they came back from their excursions. And one day, they came back early from one of their mini day trips. And my parents decided to have them pick us up at school. So Marike and Lasslo wandered the 300 meters to my elementary school and waited outside for us. To themselves, they didn't think they were the least bit suspicious. But to the teachers and other parents, what were two unfamiliar people doing at an elementary school speaking another language and waiting for two kids that weren't their own?
Thankfully, no one gave them much hassle and my sister and I burst out of the doors when we saw them and excitedly.
So, today, Femke comes home from school for an hour between 12pm and 1pm for lunch. So, I went with Lasslo to go pick her up from school at 12pm and take her home from lunch. When lunch was over and everyone had eaten, Lasslo and Marike sent me off with Femke to go take her to school.
Now, I'm in a little bit of a different situation than Lasslo and Marike. They speak English very well, so they would have been able to explain what they were doing at my school. But my Dutch is limited to a few nouns that Femke taught me and my mother's favourite Dutch word that I won't try to spell, but it is an extremely derogatory word for "whore."
All I wanted was to get Femke there and leave.
But we passed the time along the 2 minute walk by teaching each other words in our respective languages. I learned bloem (flower), auto (car), vater (water), and trampolina (can you guess what that is?). When we arrived at the gate to her school she quickly ran through and giddily waved good bye.
It's very cool to think that both Femke and I--the fourth generation connection of our families--were able to connect in that way. And whenever we can't understand each other, we just mraow and laugh--it doesn't matter if our intentions are lost in translation because we are both trying to maintain an old connection while establishing a new one.
After Femke went back to school, Lasslo and I went to the Hague to explore a little bit.
I saw Lasslo's office building (the Ministry for the Environment) which is a gorgeous, modern looking building with indoor gardens that are (sadly) unused. He introduced me to some colleagues and showed me his office (Dad, I have a picture you can do an ergonomic assessment and maybe use that as a proposal to get some work in Holland? maybe? just a thought.).
Later, we went to the parliament buildings. They are actually three parts to the building. There is one part built in the early 1800s and looks very typical early modern European-castlesque. The middle part is a modern, sleek square building (almost IKEA, but much more chic). And on the end is a very 1930-ish looking building. A new addition every century seems like a great way to mark history to me.
Then we went to go see the Ridderzaal or the Hall of Knights. This building is magnificent and certainly one of the oldest I've seen. It was built in the 13th century by the Count of Holland and now serves as a house for the legislative assembly when the monarch (currently Queen Beatrix) addresses the assembly.
Throughout the years, other governmental buildings were built around the Ridderzaal, including the Prime Minister's working office. I was surprised at how close I was able to stand to the building. In North America, it takes hours of security clearance (well...not hours, but you get the picture) to get close enough to see the door to the PM's office! One thing North Americans need to work on is their paranoia.
I also kept another sort of tradition alive while I was near the government buildings. In my apartment, I have a family photo of my parents, my sister and me standing in front of the Dutch Parliament Buildings. So I took a photo of my doing a back tuck in almost the same place.
Eventually, Lasslo and I wandered to the lavish Hotel des Indes. Marike told me when we got back that that was the place where the Russian ballet dancer Anna Pavlova died. But Lasslo and I had a lovely espresso and chat in what seemed like an Austrian or Czech manor, but it was lovely none the less.
Upon realizing the time, we had to run back to catch the train or be stuck in the Hague for an extra half hour and miss dinner! So we booked it to the train, and after all the running, we realized that our late night out before had caught up with us.
We spent the rest of the rainy day relaxing at home. No biggy.
It is time for me to get some sleep. Tomorrow I'm adventuring in Rotterdam!
Cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment