Long Live the Queen (no thanks to some people)

Today was Queen’s Day here in Holland. Apparently, with all the changing queens, it was too much trouble to remember what her REAL birthday is…. so it’s just always April 30th. It’s basically the Dutch 4th of July and it’s quite fun. Everyone (well, everyone COOL ) wears orange and people are just partying in the streets all day. The beer is flowing, there are concerts all over town and all the people set up little stands to sell their junk to drunk suckers.

I needed a bit of distraction (grandmother had a stroke on Monday) so Marc and I went out with some of his friends from work. They were great and we had a blast.

I know this is short this week, but there’s a lot going on and I’m not much for posting. I’ll catch up next week. For now, deal with it and look at some pretty pictures.

Home sweet Home (or it would have been if we didn’t have cats)

Marc and I got home from vacation on Monday. We had a great time. The cottage we rented was really nice, the weather was beautiful and it was all quite relaxing… if you don’t count the mountains of homework and studying i had to do. But still fun. We arrived on Tuesday afternoon and spent Wednesday just lazing around. Thursday was our 3 year anniversary (yay!) and we celebrated by biking about 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) through the woods and into a nearby town. I thought it was a perfect cute little village…. Marc hated it. So, I guess we won’t be moving to Eerbeek any time soon.

On Saturday afternoon, Marc’s parents came up. We had invited them to spend the weekend with us. We had a lot of fun. Cincinnati Chili, games and movies on Saturday night and on Sunday, we finally ventured into Arnhem. We went to the local WWII museum, a specialized exhibit about Operation Market Garden and got to walk around and see some of the sites. I really enjoyed being able to see it all live after writing about it last semester.

We came home on Monday morning. We got back to the apartment at 2 pm. I then had until 6 pm to write 4 page paper (ended up being 9 because I talk too damn much) for one class and then at 8 pm, I had to go take a midterm for the other. bleh. But I got it all done. And now we’re back to the daily grind and I’m counting down until next vacation (July 18th ).

Some of the best pics are on Marc’s phone, but here are a few from my camera.

Our Cottage

Man Make Fire.... Man Toast Marshmallow.... Grunt!

My desk and work in progress... yay vacation.

Our new car... or something

Peet and Hermine being funny

Not the most attentive guard....

Marc and the 'rents after coffee

Memorial in the Arnhem church for the paratroopers in Operation Market Garden

Will post more later if everyone’s not bored to tears

And we’re off! Again :P

Not a whole lot exciting going on here… Went to my eye doc appointment on Monday. He said I have what I knew I had. Recurrent Erosion Syndrome. Basically, my eye heals and then about a week later, the scratch reopens…. and then it heals… and so on and so on. It’s worse in my right eye obviously, but I’ve been dealing with this on a lesser scale in my left eye for years, so this is a chance to fix them both. For the next few months, I just have to super-lubricate, but if it doesn’t help, there are other options, including eye surgery, so thats good.

Marc is waiting to hear back about a new job he’s applied for. It’s still at Ikea, but it’s part of a new project they’re rolling out worldwide. Instead of being forced to sell items at discount simply because the packaging was opened or damaged, store will be gtting this super fancy machines that allow them to repackage the items as new. Since Delft is a pilot store, they got the machine a while ago and Marc has become a bit of an expert on it (he even got to explain and demonstrate it to the owners of the company). Now Ikea is ready to introduce them all over the world, starting with one store in every country that has Ikea and Marc may be selected to travel to some of those stores and train the employees on how to work the machine. It’s a great opportunity and Marc seems confident, so everyone cross your fingers! We should hear by the end of the week.

Tomorrow we leave for a week’s holiday in Arnhem, a town about 2 hours away. It was the site of one of the Allies biggest blunder in WWII and the subject of a paper I wrote recently, so it should be quite interesting. Of course, while we’re there, I have 3 papers to write, 8 discussion questions to answer and a midterm to study for (which I have to take the day we get back) so…. yay vacation. :S

Oh! So get this! Our apartment is small, right (understatement) so while we have a small refridgerator in our room, we have a small freezer that we keep in the common room. It’s basically a huge storage area and everyone keeps stuff there (one guy even keeps his whole fridge + stove, etc in there) and its been fine for 3 years (well, like 12 for marc). But these new jerk guys moved in down the hall? And they’ve been STEALING FOOD FROM OUR FREEZER!! THey stole ice cream, a frozen dinner and (the last straw) a box of girl scout cookies that i had shipped here from America! So we had to move our freezer into our already crowded apartment. I’m beyond pissed. I wrote a mean note… but then took it down because being mean doesn’t fix anything… but I still want to go pinch those stupid guys.

Anyway, hope everyone had a great Easter! I’ll post when we get back. With pictures!

Holland at its finest

So I went to the doctor on Friday. Basically, he couldn’t see anything wrong,but gave me more eye creme and set me up to see the ophthalmologist on Monday. So, of course, for the last 2 days, my eye has felt absolutely fine. Why does that always happen?!?

Saturday, we had a friend’s birthday party and then I had to babysit. Coming home, I was treated to the more… earthy side of Den Haag Centraal train station. It was around 11:45 pm when I decided to hit the bathroom before catching the midnight train home (yes, mom, it’s safe). To set the scene:

To get to the bathroom, you have to descend a rather creepy looking set of stairs. When you reach the bottom, you see a massive metal turnstile for exiting and a double set of plastic doors for entering. To the right of this setup is a huge window where a man sits, gathering money (yes, we have to pay to pee ). After paying your 50 cents, the plastic doors slide apart so that you can enter (QUICKLY! before they snap back shut and slice you in half a la the laser grid in Resident Evil). You enter the women’s bathroom and find that all of the stalls are occupied. You also find that there is a second huge window that the moneytaker (male, this evening) sits behind, one that stares directly into the woman’s room. You know he has a good view… because he’s sitting there…. watching the women’s bathroom. As you wait, you see that a group of 6 teenage/college girls have taken up the entire bank of sinks. Dressed in miniskirts, bare legs and high HIGH heels, they have spread an entire department store worth of makeup across the counter and are all recreating their full faces of makeup. While doing so, they pass between them 2 large wine bottles that they gleefully chug while attempting perfect eyeliner. Suddenly, 3 stalls open almost simultaneously. To your surprise, 3 rather… gangsta-esque men exit from them. Surprise! The man’s bathroom is closed (perhaps the moneymaker didn’t want to miss half the show?) and all men and women are now sharing the same bathroom. You quickly do your thing, say “pardon” three times before one of the Barbies let you wash your hands (with a loud “sigh!”) and dash for the smelly, sticky train that will take you home.

Yes… the perfect ending to a long day. Personally, I couldn’t care less about the men in the women’s room, but every time something ELSE caught my attention, I couldn’t help but laugh at what some of the reactions would be on a certain forum that I frequent. Between creepy money guy, getting drunk in a public restroom and men everywhere, it was the most bizarre pee I’ve ever taken in Holland.

Alright, I’m lame

But really, you all should have known that. I think you can only blame yourselves for expecting more. Nah, we’re still alive over here (but will probably only be until 2050 because Al Gore says that most of Holland will be underwater because of global warming and flooding by then! ) we’ve just been super busy. I’ve been called to substitute every day that I’ve offered the school (last week, it was high school French and high school Chemistry…. don’t know didly squat about either ) plus my normal working, etc, etc. But today, I’m off and plan to do nothing but relax!…..

and go to the grocery store, the bank (freaking morons. I’ve had an account for 2 months, still not allowed to access my own money), get my hair cut, file my Dutch taxes, send off my American taxes, do the dishes, vaccuum and wash the floors, change the bedsheets, do 3 loads of laundry, do my Billy Blanks DVD and complete 4-5 school assignments. But yeah…. it’s still a relaxing day off.

Seriously, life is WAY busy right now. The annoying part is how much of that is spent sitting on trains, trams and busses. But only for a little while longer. When we get back from vacation, I’m going to buy a few driving lessons, see how much training I’m going to need for the exam. I’m hoping to have my license by the time we go to the States, so we can get a car when we get back. Will make next year WAY less stressful if I don’t have to spend 1.5-2 hours traveling EACH way to and from work.

Well, since we’ve been working so much, I really have NOTHING interesting to report! Which I suppose is good… no news is good news and all? Yeah, I don’t buy it either. We’re just boring people. But we’re just stocking all that energy up… someday, something exciting will happen and this blog will buzz.

The only other thing I got is that we’re really going to go for that teaching program that I mentioned in the last post. I finish my degree is December, so I’ll apply in January and pray for good financial aid. Even without it, though, it’ll be tough but it really does seem to be the best option. So, if I’m accepted, I’ll be spending 5 weeks per summer in Fairfax, VA in 2010, 2011 and 2012. By end of summer 2011, I’ll have my teaching license and by end of summer 2012, I’ll have my Master’s. Now I just have to get accepted.

Oh! More interesting news, but unfun…. see! Didn’t I TELL you that no news is good news??? My scratched cornea seems to have decided that healing was no fun and that it should regress. I was fine for about 2 weeks after it healed, but now the pain is back. 3-4 days a week, I wake up in crazy pain, although it usually fades by afternoon. My eye is EXTREMELY light sensitive (which means both of them are now, great) and I have this one blood vessel that pops in my eye constantly. It sounds to me like I have Recurrent Erosion Syndrome (and have probably always had it for my left eye, which is why I still get pain and light sensitivity in that one as well) so I just got off the phone with the doctor’s receptionist. See if he wants me to come back in or just start using the eye creme again. I’d really like to see an ophthalmologist because I just have so many issues with my eyes because of all the corneal scratches and chemical burns but we’ll see what the doc says. I’m sure he’ll just start me on more creme and from there, there is some specially designed contact they can use, but to be honest, I really wish I could have the extreme solution:

For the few patients that remain symptomatic with RES, other therapeutic options remain, including anterior stromal puncture or superficial keratectomy, the latter performed with either a scalpel or a laser. Anterior stromal puncture consists of making tiny holes on the surface of the cornea to promote stronger attachments between corneal cells and the underlying substrate. Ablation with an excimer laser, the same laser used for refractive surgery, can be used in refractory cases to smoothen the substrate, promoting better healing.

Ok, a laser on my eyes is scary as hell, but all I can think about is how wonderful it would be to have a fresh, clean surface on my eyes. Even before this most recent injury, I had so much stupid eye pain. It would rock to be able to start over…. and avoid 4 year old fingernails. So, we’ll see when the doc calls back.

That’s all I got for now!

Fail!

It’s been more than a week since my last post. I apologize. I will be giving myself 30 lashes with a wet noodle directly after writing this.

The last two weeks have been CRAZY busy. Between actual work and time spent traveling on trains, busses and trams to and from work, I pulled a 75 hour week last week. It was far from fun. But, it was monetarily beneficial so who am I to complain? Actually, there WAS one super fun day. I did my first day of teaching!!! It was 5th grade social studies (history, government, etc) and was awesome. Of course, it helps that this is the subject and general age area that I want to teach full time anyway. Nice way to get used to teaching. The kids were great, the time flew by and really, I was surprised that I was GOOD at it. That sounds like bragging, doesn’t it? I really have no idea how to do the technical stuff of teaching yet, but I was able to ask questions and lead them to finding answers… it was a subject I actually had knowledge in… it was really awesome to be able to teach them new stuff. Of course, if I get high school trig next week, I’m screwed.

Sunday was our niece’s 5th birthday party. It was nice… but large. Lots of people. I think working so much and just being home with Marc when not working is starting to make me a bit antisocial. I was just… overwhelmed by it all. Rebecca did a wonderful job, but there were so many people, so much activity, I was getting really antsy within a few minutes. Eventually, it got a bit calmer and I was able to relax and enjoy talking to people (a couple glasses of wine helped), but it was actually a bit concerning that I felt anxious. I used to get anxiety attacks and it almost felt like that in the beginning. Very odd. But it was nice. Girl got a ton of stuff. And Max, our nephew (6 months) is ridiculously cute. And so sweet! We were there a good 4 hours and I don’t think I heard him fuss once! He’s a BIG boy though… no wonder Reb’s back always hurts!

We’re going on vacation again in a few weeks. We just rented a little cottage about 20 km outside of Arnhem for the week after Easter. For non-WWII nerds (:P), Arnhem was one of the towns involved in Operation Market Garden and a pretty bad loss for the Allies. We’re going to spend a couple days exploring the museums, so that should be fun.

We’re also starting to plan this trip to the States in July/Aug. I’ve applied for a teaching assistant position for next school year and was hoping to know if I got it and what the start date would be before we booked, but it’s starting to look like we won’t know in time. We’re also trying to figure out if ticket prices will drop… they’re SUPER low for Americans coming to Europe, but still pretty bad the other way around…and it’s completely Amsterdam airport’s fault. Flipping 300 euro airport tax per ticket. Highway robbery. Still we’re getting excited and I really want to book soon so that I get the seat I want (I’m a bit picky ) but decision-maker here wants to wait… so wait we shall.

School started again yesterday. I’m taking History of Modern US and US Foreign Policy and I’m already behind in reading. I just have to keep reminding myself… 8 more months… 8 more months and you’re officially a college grad…. I should fly out to Missouri so I can walk in my ceremony Trying to figure out where to go from there… I’ll either spend 1-2 years working on my Dutch and then spend 2-3 years getting my Dutch teaching license or figure out someway to get it in the States.Jenni found me one online program… but I think I would have to come back to VA for 3-5 months for student teaching. Or, there’s a program out of George Mason University in Fairfax specifically for people who want to teach in international schools. It’s done in 2 summers, 5 weeks each summer. It’s actually pretty awesome because then I could work as a teaching assistant all year and then get my license while school is out… but of course it’s hella expensive. So, I have to check out some financial aid options. And I’m sure my mother would HATE to have me within 3 hours of driving for 2 summers in a row, right?

I guess that’s all for now. What’s going on with ya’ll? (Ya know, no one EVER answers me when I ask that… slackers. )

Is that a light I see at the end of this tunnel?

I. got. a. job. Me. The unhireable wonder. The completely useless American. Got a job. Yaaay!

Ok, granted, it’s not guaranteed work. But, it’s substitute teaching, which, even if I only get called once or twice this school year, is an AWESOME foot in the door for being a Teaching Assistant next school year. And since being a TA at the American school pays the same as a full teacher in a Dutch school, I’m very excited. (I’m also scared witless at the idea of actually teaching, but we won’t discuss that. ) I’m trying not to be too excited. As Cynical Dutch Boy from Killjoy is always saying “I’ll believe it when I see it”…. but still… yay… someone likes me!

In other news, Marc and I are going on vacation again in April. Yes…. we do vacation a lot. :S But I guess when you’ve got 8 weeks of vacay a year to kill… why not? We’ll probably just rent a cottage again… we actually looked at Euro Disney and while it was thrilling to even consider it, we decided we shouldn’t go this year with the Massive Trip coming up (yeeeeah… Happy Wedding, Shawn and Ashley… *grumble grumble maleficent goofy grumble* (I kid ) But it’ll still be cool, I think we’re going to stay up near Arnhem, so I’m really hoping to be able to suck in some history while I’m there (it’s pretty sad how much of a history nerd I’m becoming)

When we get back, it’ll really be time to do some summer planning… we have a BUSY summer. Marc is obviously working full-time and there’s a good chance I’ll be sitting full-time as well. Then we have all the holidays and moving around. 2nd week in July, I’m house-sitting for a colleague in Den Haag, 3rd week in July we’re going on holiday in Germany with Marc’s family, last week in July + first 10 days of August, we’re in America…. our poor kitties.

I guess that’s all the news I’ve got… I guess I should mention Marc since I’ve spent all this time babbling about me. He’s doing fine, still working, yada yada. He did get to meet the creator of Ikea (Ingvar someone or another) this week and was very excited. This little 85 year old man is like Marc’s Bruce Springsteen or Ray Lewis. The next time he got to give a personal tour of a piece of machinery to the brothers of the head of Ikea and that was just the pinnacle of his week. I poke fun at his excitement, but I’m glad he’s still so happy in his job…. (even if they are evil and don’t appreciate him and treat him like crap…. but I may be a bit biased ). Well, hugs for everyone! Can’t wait to see all the Americans this summer!

Lazy Saturday

Well, I suppose “lazy” is subjective… I do actually have 6 case reviews to write for my Constitutional Law class today… and the dishes in the kitchen are starting to grow things (I’m KIDDING, mom! *I can see her eyes tear up from here*) but today is still the end of a VERY long and busy week.

My eye is pretty much completely healed now. Still a bit sensitive in the mornings, but really with as many eye injuries as I’ve had, my eyes are always a bit sensitive. I swear, if I haven’t accidentally plucked them out by the time I’m 40, I will be a happy camper. Of course, the downside of no longer being in excruiating pain was having to buckle down and get through two weeks of work in roughly 4 days. And when each week of “online school” work equals roughly 2 weeks of “real school” work, it’s a LOT to do. But, I’m done. And even better, I nailed it. I’m really happy with my grades… I should have ditched physical university and down the online thing YEARS ago. Being able to do my work at 2 am instead of forcing myself to get up for a 9 am lecture has changed my life. Anyway, I got an A on my massive World War II paper. And just to brag further, the professor called it, “An absolutely superb paper – well written, logically argued, well researched, well documented” and “the best in the class” Ok, few grammar issues, but to be honest, they were all cases in which I KNEW the grammar was wrong but felt it was better left alone, so pfff, I’ll take my tiny spankings. After today, I have two weeks off and then I begin History of Modern U.S. and U.S. Foreign Policy. Ya know, for someone stuck in Holland, I’m going to be an Expert on America

I’ve kind of given up on searching for work at the moment… there’s just nothing out there. There are a few openings at the school I really want to teach at for the new school year (starting in August) so I’ve put in applications and I’m going to wait to see how those pan out before stressing about anything else. I’m still babysitting and while I’m certainly not making the big bucks, it brings in enough to pay my bills and not be a leech on Marcus for everyday life. We were hoping I’d start working sooner and we’d be able to move sooner, but it just doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen. If I get one of these jobs, I’ll know by June and we’ll start actively searching when we get back from Shawn’s wedding.

Marc’s doing well. Apparently, I don’t mention him enough in these things. I’m still pissed about the whole Ikea thing, but he seems to have taken it in stride… perhaps too much so. But he’s apparently worked out a “plan” with his “manager” (guy doesn’t deserve lack of “”) for future growth. Seemed like a pat on the head and a brush-off to me, but I’m keeping my mouth shut, being positive and quietly hoping that the manager doesn’t prove himself to be the ass that I think he is. Right now, it’s 11:42 am and Marc is curled up in bed with his cats. So, Ikea drama or not, he’s doing well.

He’s also decided that we need to go on vacation in April. Why yes, I did just get back from Switzerland… and we did just go on vacation in January… these crazy Dutchies. But still, not my money, so who am I to complain? Trying to make it cheap since we’re ALSO going to the States in August so we’ll probably just rent a little cottage in a park again like we did in January. Another option might be Milan though. RyanAir is having a killer deal in April… we could fly there and back (both of us!) for about 70 Euros. That’s pretty rockin’. So, I don’t know, but we’ll decide soon.

Um… I’m out of news! What’s going on with everyone else? Post a note and let me know something fun that’s happened today!

Owwwwwwwwwww

So, just in case there’s anyone out there that I haven’t whined to yet and has been wondering where I am, please enjoy my tale of woe.

To start with, it’s finals week and I’ve been sick. I had a MASSIVE paper due Saturday night plus a bunch of other work, so I’d been a bit busy. On Saturday evening, I went to babysit for my fave family here. I knew that I had a good 3 hours of work to do when I got home from babysitting, plus a good 8 hours on Sunday. Lol.

About 15 min after I arrive, 4YO munchkin plants a finger in my eye. HARD. Scratch your cornea HARD. I thought it was fine, laughed off parents’ concern and sent them off to their party. Ha. 30 min later, I was on the phone begging them to come home. SIL/Saviour/Angel, Rebecca, took me to the doctor and I’ve been patched up (but unfortunately NOT doped up) ever since. Thankfully my professors have been understanding, but I am going to be struggling to get everythign done by the time the class ends on Saturday.

This is far from my first eye injury (I hear that laughing from over here), so I expected to be fine by 48 hours. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case. So, I went to the doctor today (yes, mom, I found a very nice, very smart and surprisingly very cute doctor today!) and he was unlike ANY Dutch doctor I’ve encountered here! He was great! He said he couldn’t see the scratch anymore, but he would have expected me to be perfectly fine by today (eye is still weak and blurry, can’t use for more than 5 min at a time, occasional pain) so he actually took the time to call an ophthalmologist and talk to them!

-Usually health care here is “hmmm… come back if it still hurts in 2 weeks”-

Anyway, eye doc said to give it 2 more days with the cream and come back on Thursday is it’s still weak and blurry. I think it’ll be fine, but just the fact that my new doctor is so nice almost makes this worth it. Almost.

So thats why there’s been no interesting update lately. I’ll attempt to speed along the healing and be more funny next time.

Wow, was that beautiful!

I’m back from Switzerland and it really was amazing. I didn’t do any skiing, of course, but I did get to ride up the mountain with one of the children. It was breathtaking. The town was called Disentis and it really was the stereotypical little Swiss town tucked away in the mountains. It snowed every day, the sun was out… and I forgot to bring my camera.

Yeah.

But its ok. Other people remembered and they’ll be forwarding pics, so I’ll be able to post some. Now that I’m back, I’m desperately trying to catch up on schoolwork. I thought I’d get some down while I was there, but I was working 11 hours a day and usually ended up falling asleep by 10. Still, a great experience and I met a lot of nice families that hopefully will become babysitting jobs.

Marc got a “development plan” from Ikea. Whatever, it’s pretty bogus in my opinion. But, he wants to give the company more time… he thinks he can turn it into a real career. *shrug* What can I do? I love him, yada yada, so I’ll be supportive…. I don’t have much faith in his bosses to actually help him though.

I’m applying for a couple more jobs with the American School, but they wouldn’t start until August. Still, I want to be there, so fingers crossed again. Love to everyone!