Saturday, August 27, 2011

Today

Today I went biking with a couple friends over to a nearby city. Nothing unusual about that in this country--everybody bikes everywhere. In fact, in case you didn't know, bikes have the right of way over EVERYTHING--you can just cruise right through a busy intersection and everybody stops for you!

There IS something a bit unusual about the weather, though. It's kind of like the American midwest. Yeah, you can never tell when a storm will hit with about two minutes warning.

So we're cruising along the dike past idyllic fields of ROSES (no kidding--Mom, you would have loved it!), anticipating coffee and cakes when we reach the town, when the blackness that had been hovering behind the church in our little town suddenly caught up with us! We got SOAKED and the temperature dropped hugely and we were definitely ready for hot coffee by the time we reached the cobblestone streets of Gennup.

The shop was terribly crowded, since we found that there was a festival going on--live music on stage and lots of umbrella tables set up for the various cafes and restaurants. Now being crowded in Holland is different from being crowded in America. Not in a bad way, just. . . in a higher way. . . Yep, I've come to the right place, guys--the Land of the Tall People. I feel nicely petite and delicate, like I'm among Peers at last. :)

Anyway, we shivered our way through coffee, cake and a lovely worst en kees plate (sausage and cheese--GOOD cheese! With cumin seeds...) while the wind blew and the music played . . . Michael Jackson? Wierd. At least they didn't dance like him! And I'm Blue (Abadee Abadi) . . . Now that cracked me up.

I didn't want to come home.

Largely because I didn't want to move. :P Too cold. Sorry to make you jealous, all you "fair-weather" friends! (bwa haha. . . ahem.)