Near mortifying experiences for the week:

On Thursday morning I took the train to Assen for the ladies Bible study at the church. Brad and I had been shown how to purchase train tickets at the machine (like a vending machine for train tickets), so I was pretty confident that I knew which buttons to push to purchase the correct ticket. I also have a frequent user card that I can use after 9 am, but this was at 8:15 and knew I would face a fine if I used my card.

Anyways, I purchased my ticket and got on the train. The train had gone several stops before conductor started checking each passenger's tickets. He asked for my ticket and then starts giving me a hard time about the ticket I had purchased. He told me that my ticket wasn't validated for today's date and that I would have to pay a fine of 35 euro for having made this error. Of course I didn't have any idea what he was talking about or even how to validate my ticket, so after batting my eyelashes and trying to clarify in English, he let me off.

However, I nearly choked when I found out how much the fine was and what I did wrong. The funny thing was is that I was with another Bible study member who had also made the same mistake and both of us were clueless. Needless to say, we will certainly not be making this mistake again!

Secondly, we are still waiting for Brad to get paid and, of course, are a bit tight on money in the interim. You can all imagine that setting up house, paying a deposit plus rent on our new home, 5 trips to IKEA, etc. would leave us eagerly waiting for the first paycheck. But we aren't so tight that we can't go out for coffee with friends occasionally.

Anyways, last night we went out with a couple from Brad's lab. We were walking around the city, looking at cellphones, and enjoying the evening bustle of downtown Groningen. We are having a nice conversation when Brad proceeds to complain about how long it is taking for the University Hospital to finish the paperwork and put Brad's profile into their computers, specifically, into payroll. He mentions that it would be nice to pay rent next month and hopes that we don't have to wait much longer because we are basically at zero.

Then we go out for coffee and when it comes time to pay, the other couple takes the bill and pays for it because it sounds like we are broke. Of course, while that wasn't really why Brad was complaining, we are both embarrassed because it sounds like we are a charity case.

Finally, I'm kinda new at blog writing and I am still trying to find the balance between witty writing and exaggerating for effect. Sometimes they can be the same thing. However, depending on who is reading your blog, it might matter.

We don't have Internet at home yet, so I regularly go to Brad's lab to check email and blog. I have been busy the past couple of days, so I finally got to check in tonight for the first time since Tuesday. I was browsing through the comments on my blog when I realized that Simone, Gerald's wife, has been reading my blog and she commented on the story about the tiny bathroom and the wet feet (you can read her comment under the first post).

I'll admit that when I read her comment it was more than "nearly mortifying". So I want to clarify that while that story is true, I really should mention that the we figured out how to avoid the wet sock problem on the first day (ie. wear shoes). Of course I failed to mention that in my post because it makes the story funnier. However, I've learned a small lesson about story writing - always think about your audience!