This was a rather busy weekend. On Thursday, my cousin came to visit. She's studying for a semester in Ireland. It's been good to see her, and I took Friday off so she and M and I could wander around Amsterdam together.

On Saturday, it started to snow. In fact, it was so cold that the boys had their soccer game called off at half time. By then, several of the kids had come running to the sidelines in tears, either just from the cold, or from getting hit with the wet ball. It was no fun, and the kids were all happy to stop.

The boys have also been attending a drama class on Saturday mornings. At times, this has conflicted with voetbal, but when they go, they have a great time. It's basically directed play. Their favorite activity is called the emotion bus. One person is designated the driver, and all the other players are passengers. The driver gets to pick an emotion to express, and all of the passengers must copy that emotion. The class is all in English and I think it's giving them both some self confidence when meeting new people.

There were also a couple of annoying incidents this weekend. The first was at soccer. One of the other boys on the team has decided that he should kick other people's feet out from under them if they get in front of him. He managed to take down both of our boys in the warm-ups before the game and was called for 3-4 fouls during the game. My initial reaction was that he was somehow singling out our kids, which made me feel very helpless. If this was the US, I would know how to say something to him (he only speaks Dutch) or to the mom, but here, I just don't know what to do. The fact that it's not directed only at our kids helps a bit, but he's still a thug and something should be done to rein him in a bit.

The second incident happened earlier this evening. The snow has been accumulating all afternoon, so that there's 6-8 inches on the cars and fences. A bunch of kids of assorted ages were playing outside our house and in the playground across the street. At one point, some teenagers who were walking by threw snowballs at our windows. Again, my first reaction was to feel singled out. It may have been intended at harmless fun (which I would be inclined to support) but the last thing we need is a busted window. They waved at M when she opened the curtains to took, then threw a few more as they ran around the corner of the house and down the street. I was briefly considered stepping out to confront them, but they were gone before I could have gotten my shoes on. As with the first incident, I'm not sure what I could/would say. I have a hunch they picked our house because our curtains were closed (something the Dutch never seem to do) and so we couldn't see them as they started to throw the snow. In any case, it leaves me feeling both annoyed and helpless.

Well, better head off to bed. I need to be into work a bit early tomorrow (since I took Friday off) and the snow is sure to mess up getting to the station. Incidentally, this is strange for here. It doesn't usually snow this much, and I suspect it will all be gone by noon tomorrow. On the other hand, it's been really cold for the past three days. I hope it warms up a bit soon. I don't mind rainy, but rainy and cold is a bit much.

Another two week lapse. This schedule is becoming more the norm than I'd like.

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This weekend, Sinterklaas arrived here in Hilversum. I realized that I didn't say much about the "Sint" last year. Maybe that was because M and the kids hadn't arrived yet. In any case, I think I need to explain a bit.

Sinterklaas (or Sint-Nicholaas) is the Dutch equivalent of our Santa Claus. Except not quite... See, Sinterklaas lives in Spain. He is the former Bishop of Turkey and he arrives in the Netherlands by steamboat. He rides a white horse and is accompanied by a number of Zwarte Pieten (Black Peters). Apparently, it used to be acknowledged that the Zwarte Pieten were Sinterklaas' slaves until the 1960's when they became just close personal friends and helpers. Zwarte Piet is played by someone in black face with a curly black wig and jester clothes. Piet is a bit comically bumbling but helps the Sint by passing out candy or gifts. When confronted with the racism of this character, the Dutch will get very defensive and claim that no, Zwarte Piet is only black because he has to climb up and down the chimneys to deliver the gifts to the children, or they'll point out that the Moroccan communities here in the Netherlands "love Piet." Speaking as an American, I find the whole thing a bit uncomfortable, but it is clearly too entrenched in tradition to do much about it quickly. I expect it will change over time, and various attempts have been made to try "colored Piets" where instead of them all being black, they were green and blue and yellow. These have generally failed and are often derided as "too politically correct."

Sinterklaas arrives in the Netherlands in mid-November and hangs around until his birthday on the 6th of December. Every night he's here, if the the children leave their shoes by the fireplace (or radiator if you don't have a fireplace) he (or one of the Pieten) will leave a small gift like candy or a small toy. On his birthday night, if you leave a carrot for his horse, he will leave larger gifts. Unless the child has been bad, in which case he will leave coal. If the child has been very bad, then they will stuff the kid into a sack and take them back to Spain. I guess in older times when the Sint was meaner, he'd beat or kick bad children as well. Now days, hardly anyone gets stuffed into a sack.

Yesterday, we went down to the Oude Haven to watch Sinterklaas arrive. They had set up a bandstand and there was a huge crowd around the end of the canal. Someone was reading from a script over a microphone and whipping the children into a frenzy. After a while, a boat belching smoke came motoring down the canal and Sinterklaas and all of the Pieten jumped off. While the Pieten ran through the crowd distributing pepernoten (small gingerbread cookies), the Sint was welcomed by town officials. Then the band played some John Philips Sousa (how weird is that?!) and the Sint made his way through the crowd, shaking every hand and patting every child's head. Up the hill from the canal, there was a parade of sorts where Sinterklaas climbed aboard a wagon and was escorted through town, waving to the crowds that lined his path.

The kids in the crowd obviously had a great time. Our kids were excited as well, and kept finding Peiten to get more pepernoten. Today, the Younger was still a bit confused, asking if he should leave his shoes out for a gift or not. M and I have avoided playing up the Santa story, telling the kids the truth of the matter and explaining that they should not let their school friends in on the secret, but now two stories at once seems to have muddied the issue. We won't worry about it too much, but we might arrange for a first Christmas gift on the 6th so that they don't feel completely left out.

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Yesterday was also voetbal for the kids. Their team has been playing better and better in recent weeks, but yesterday they played the best team in their group. It was an ugly game with the kids losing 14-0. Despite that, they still played better than in previous weeks, although it was hard to keep them interested. The Younger started asking if the game was going to be over soon about half way through the second half. This other team is clearly better than the rest of the class as they've outscored their opponents 64-3 over 8 games. I understand that they reshuffle the groups at Christmas, so hopefully the team will do a bit better in the second half of the season. By contrast, our team lost last week 1-0, but we really should have won, as almost the entire game was played in the opponent's half of the field. They only had two shots, and one happened to go in.

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I should say something here about the US elections. It's been impressive to me to see how much the Europeans have been following US politics. I have to say, there was a great collective sigh of relief at the outcome this year. It seems that while most other countries have now elected women as leaders (something the US still hasn't done) they have not really elected a minority to their top position. In fact, a couple of the Dutch papers had big articles on the cover touting "US Votes for Hope" with a side note "Netherlands not Ready for Dark Skinned Leader." This gives them the feeling that the US is still that magical place where anyone with enough ambition and work ethic can become anything they want to be. That's not really the case here in Europe as you are pushed into different educational tracts when you're 12 and if you aren't deemed to be worthy of University, then you have a very difficult (if not impossible time) to climb out.

There was also a lot of relief because this outcome is viewed as a repudiation of Bush's policies of the past 8 years. Whether you liked Bush or not, the rest of the world thought he was a dangerous nut (although they were much too polite to say so directly...) Part of the US being the US is not caring so much about what other countries think, but I feel a lot more comfortable being an American in Europe now than I did a few weeks ago. I feel less like I need to apologize for mucking up things around the world. The Dutch are really very fond of Americans, but they really didn't understand the last 8 years.

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Otherwise, not much is new here. We're starting to plan a trip back to the US in February, and one of my cousins is visiting next weekend. Christmas season is starting to get into full swing here, with lights and decorations going up all over town. We're still trying to get our heads around the fact that we're living in Europe. I have no doubts about our being here until the end of my contract in 2010, but what comes next is still unclear. M is set on the fact that we'll go back to Seattle, and I have to say that is my preference as well, but two years is a long time and I can feel this place growing on me.


On the other hand, It's still a challenge to get out and interact with the Dutch directly. I have a heck of a time getting a hair appointment, and I find myself stressed out while I'm sitting in the chair. What do I talk about? How uncomfortable am I making this person by making them talk in English? etc. etc. I've been focusing on learning more Dutch by listening to pod casts and language tapes, but progress is too slow for my liking. Well, that's the daily struggle at this point, but we'll get there. I know that when this chapter in our lives ends, we'll look back fondly on some things and shake our heads at others. After all, experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted.

The weeks are starting to run into each other. Nevertheless, this was quite a good week at work. I didn't finish nearly everything I'd hoped to finish, but I made a lot of progress into the more interesting parts of my job. I have a busy week ahead with fully days of meetings on Monday and Tuesday followed by full days of training Wednesday and Thursday. I have one bit of annoying detail work to get done this week, but then I can bite into some bigger strategic issues that's I've been looking forward to for months now.

This weekend, our friends from the South visited us and we went into Amsterdam to Nemo. Nemo is an experiential science museum, meaning it is full of experiments to play with. The kids could have spent an additional two hours there, but the place closed down. Then we headed home for a nice dinner. It was good to see them again, and we agreed we should keep visiting every few months. They're expecting their second kid in February, so we should try to get down to see them before then, since I'm guessing that they'll be a bit busy for the few months afterward.

Somehow, this ended up being a very grumpy weekend for me. The kids and I fought on Saturday night and much of the day on Sunday. M and I fought a bit as well. I'm not sure if it was my lack of sleep on Thursday and Friday nights, or my return to coffee drinking (only 1-2 cups a day...), but I seemed to be losing my patience with every living thing in the house. Even the pets got on my nerves. It might also have been the little bit of work I needed to finish today. I managed to put it off until after dinner, but I was not looking forward to it, and that may have contributed to my irritability. In any case, I hope this ends soon. I know I have some control over it, but sometimes less than I'd like.

I did manage to go running today though. Somehow, when I woke up, I knew that I should go out and work off some energy, as I'd gone to bed in a foul mood. It was good to run after such a long break (I last ran in August) but I'm sure I'll feel it tomorrow. In the health arena, I was thinking about setting some exercise and weight goals between now and next summer. I turn 40 then, and somehow I'd feel a lot better about it if I was staying in shape.

So far, I've really enjoyed my new iPod, but it is lacking something pretty critical - a todo list manager. There a few available online, but the only ones that can sync with Outlook (which we use at work) are not free. It appears that the best one (which is still rated as only ok) costs 10eu per year. Not much money really, but I'm hesitant to spend it if I'm not sure how useful the program will be. I should spend a few minutes looking for reviews before I go to bed, and since it's 10:30 already, I'd better do that now.