Yesterday I called my beloved sister Meagan because it was her birthday. She turned 27 years old which makes me ancient. When it’s her birthday, it reminds me about how old I actually am. Until yesterday I might have said I was still 27. I can’t imagine how my parents feel when it’s my birthday.

Anyways, I mentioned to her that I can’t believe how she is 27, has a three year old, is pregnant with twins, with a cute little house living in Lynden. I think I’m a bit envious. She reminded me that while I might be childless and turning 30, being a stay at home wife living in Europe is a bit more exciting. When we move back to N. America, I can have a cute Lynden life too. I guess that’s a good reminder that I should be thankful for my life now – and be content!

When I called to wish her happy birthday and Olivia wanted to talk with us too. We often “talk” together on speaker phone when I call. The conversation goes like this:

Me: Hi Olivia. What are you doing?

Olivia: I’m just standing here. What are you doing?

Me: I’m talking to you. Did you have ballet today?

Olivia: Huh?

Meagan: Did you have ballet today? What did you do at ballet?

Olivia: (at the top of her lungs, excitedly) I had ballet today and I ran around and jumped and teacher Heather and teacher Hope … (her voice gets softer as she runs into the other room).

We laugh. She comes back and we “talk” some more. So last night I asked her whose birthday it was.

Me: Olivia, do you know whose birthday it is today?

Olivia: It’s mama’s birthday.

Me: What song do we sing when it’s someone’s birthday?

Olivia: I don’t know. What song do we sing?

Meagan: We sing the birthday song. Do you remember the birthday song?

Olivia: Yes. I remember the birthday song.

Meagan: Can you sing it for mama?

Olivia: “Jesus loves me, this I know…” (she sings the whole song).

Meagan and I both have tears in our eyes and are trying not to laugh.

Meagan: That was wonderful, sweetpea. But that’s not the birthday song I remember. Doesn’t it go “Happy birthday to you…”

Olivia: (bursting into song): Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, (louder) happy birthday dear mama, (louder still) happy birrrrrthdaaaay to mama, happy birthday to you.

Me: I think that was the movie star version. See, how could I not be envious?

Today my mom called to say that she was in the process of booking her ticket to come visit us in Holland. It was easy to tell that she was excited, but I must say that I’m excited too! She was at the computer right then choosing her seats for the flights here and back, asking for our advice on what seats to pick based on our previous experience.

This trip to Holland will be a series of new experiences for her starting with the flight itself. She’s never flown on such a long haul flight before and she’s never flown alone either. I will be meeting her at the airport so she doesn’t have to navigate the train system by herself. And then, of course, being in Europe for the first time will be something she has nothing to compare it to.

For Brad and I, we had been to the old part of Montreal prior to traveling to Europe. On our first trip, we would catch ourselves comparing the tiny streets in London to Montreal when really we should be comparing Montreal to London. Now that we are living here, the old buildings, cobblestone streets, and the narrow lanes have become part of normal life.

Interestingly, now that my mom has booked her ticket, I am starting to look at my city and neighborhood again through new eyes -- the eyes that my mom might look through when she comes. I notice the garbage on the streets, the graffiti on the decrepit old building about to be torn down, and the rusty abandoned bicycles. While this isn’t dirty, crazy Berlin with punks and poverty and old political strife, Groningen isn’t the cleanest city I’ve been in.

Of course, we will try to take my mom to all of the nicest parts of Groningen to give her the best impression. That might mean we’ll have to change our bike route a bit. We often try to take the fastest route, but that isn’t always the most scenic. And we’ll try to avoid the red light district so she won’t be freaked out on her first day here like we were when we arrived. And we’ll certainly avoid biking down the Boterdiep whose abandoned shops and boarded up buildings leave a little to be desired.

But the reality is that she probably won’t notice these flaws because there will be so much to take in and so many new things to experience. Like biking to IKEA on Tuesday morning in the sunshine, or taking the train to church on Sunday, or shopping downtown on Saturday at the market in the throngs of people. I think the 10 days will go really quickly!

Anyways, I am really excited that you are coming Mom! We promise to give you a fairly accurate picture of our life here and hopefully a little bit of it will be seen through rose colored glasses. It will be a fun time no matter what because we will all be together!

I’m counting the days…

The shops here in Groningen are having their huge New Year's sales. It used to be that the stores only had sales twice a year – in January and July. While it is now common to have small sales throughout the year similar to our N. American customs, the January sales are still the biggest and most popular.

I wouldn’t be surprised that if they ever tried to phase out the big January sales that everyone would make such a fuss and they'd have to bring the tradition back. Everyone here knows that the big sales happen in January. People who don’t normally go downtown are out for the sales, combing the streets trying to find the best deals. It is quintissentially Dutch to search for a great bargain.

Of course I’ve been in the throes of it myself. You can’t keep a shopper like me away - I can smell a good deal a mile away! And I can attest that the stores really do mark their stuff way down this time of year. The deals are amazing (which is good, because a lot of things are normally on the pricey side). We actually went shopping for Brad – he even went willingly – because the mark-downs were so incredible. You know the deals must be good when Brad’s willing to part with his money.

Yesterday I went alone just to see if there was anything left. This is the last chance because they say this is the last week before they send their products back to the factory. There is no such thing as "Ross Dress for Less" or "Winners" here. This I find strange because it think the concept would really work in Europe.

Anyways, I found this cute black dress that was on clearance for 15 euros marked down from 50. It is kind of plain, but fits nicely and won’t wrinkle when I stuff it in my suitcase or ride my bike. However, it was missing a belt. I'd heard that it is very common for the Dutch to ask for further reduction if something is a bit damaged. And in N. America I’d have inquired about this without a second thought. But here I would be reluctant to haggle if that hadn’t been brought to my attention.

So I hemmed and hawed about it for a few minutes before I got up the courage to ask a sales person. Needless to say when I did finally ask, they immediately reduced it by 5 euro! Amazing. It was very simple. I'd never done that before. Of course now I’m searching the clearance racks for anything that has a loose button or sticky zipper hoping to convince them to give me a reduction. No such luck.

But my story doesn’t end there. Today I met my friend Suzanne for lunch and shopping. She hadn’t had a chance to look for the deals in the last week yet and I'm always ready for more shopping. I eagerly told her my story and we reveled in my good fortune. I even took her to the store where I found the dress hoping that she too would be able to find something she liked.

She wanted to see the dress, so I went to the rack and saw that there are couple of them left for me to show her. I grabbed the dress and happened to the glance at the price tag. Lo and behold all of those dresses have been reduced to 10 euro - belt or no belt! I was so deflated. Now I'm sure the sales lady gave me the deal because she knew they'd be reduced the very next day.

We laughed at my disappointment and moved on to another store. There goes my theory about the Dutch trying to haggle over the best deals. I consoled myself with the knowledge that I can still get a good deal at IKEA in the “As Is” section almost every time. Maybe this experience has saved me from something embarassing in the future. I guess I can be grateful for that!

There is a police station across the street from our row of houses (we live on a corner). The other night we were coming back from down town – on Thursday night the shops are open until 9pm – there were several policemen on the corner talking with a group of bikers.

We thought there had been another accident because shortly after we moved into our townhouse here in Groningen, a biker was hit by a car on the corner. We missed most of the excitement, but saw the chalk outline of a body on the street and there were police interviewing the witnesses. Since then we’ve seen several near accidents and a few minor collisions – sometimes bikes into bikes!

Our corner is bit tricky to navigate by bike. For cars it is two one-way streets crossing each other. In one direction there is a stop sign; the other drivers get the right away. For bikes, the rules are the same as the cars, in theory. Problem is, many Dutch bikers seem to take advantage of the unwritten rule that if a biker gets hit by a car, it’s ALWAYS the car’s fault. Problem is, there are so many bikers that the cars sometimes can’t keep track of them all. Needless to say, it can be a bit harried at times especially after dark.

So when we arrived home to the sight of bikers and the police, we assumed it was another accident. However, after watching the scene for a few minutes, we couldn’t believe our eyes – the police were “pulling bikers over”! It was like a typical Canadian “road block” on long weekends when they are looking for drivers who’ve been drinking.

We were puzzled and looked on for a while trying to determine the reason. Was it drunkenness? Lack of proper hand signals? Failing to yield to cars? We finally figured out that that it was because they didn’t have their headlights on!

This struck us as particularly funny to watch. It was most entertaining when we’d see a biker without a headlight approaching the scene. He’d realize the situation and come to an abrupt stop. Then he’d jump off his bike and start walking it in the opposite direction.

We had no idea that this was a common infraction since to us it would be silly to bike around in the dark without a light. But judging from the number of people getting pulled over that night, it is a significant problem. So I did some googling to find out the requirements for bikers in Holland. This is what I found:

Legal requirements for bicycles (via www.holland.com) include:
* safe and adequate handle bars
* a clearly audible and functioning bell
* adequate lighting at the front and the back after dark
* a reflector on rear mudguard and one between the spokes
* reflecting pedals

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to determine the fee associated with violating the above requirements. However, we have now witnessed first hand that there is in fact a fine issued if you are caught. And obviously, no one wants to be caught. I also read somewhere that if you don't pay the fine, you might be delayed at customs the next time you enter the country.

We have always said that we wished there was a manual included with the purchase of a bike; one that would include road signs and laws about right-of-way, etc. But alas, there is not one available – not even one in Dutch. (That’s because these people are practically born on bikes so why would they take the time to put common knowledge into a booklet?).

So we are waiting the day that we get pulled over for violating some unwritten biking rule…

I’ve been neglecting to blog again. It isn’t because I’ve been too busy with my Dutch class this time. It may have something to do with this reasoning: “if I don’t have time to study my Dutch (for the upcoming course starting Feb 5), I don’t have time to blog”. But really, I think it is something else - lack of inspiration.

It’s just that there isn’t much exciting going on in my life right now. I’ve been keeping myself busy here and there, but do people want to hear about what I made for dinner last night? Or that I spent almost two hours fixing the belt loop on my jeans because it required this special stitch on the sewing machine and the manual is in Dutch? Or that I spent the afternoon ironing and watching my new Gilmore Girls season 6 on DVD? Probably not.

Or it might be that I lack the creativity to turn my ordinary day into an interesting read. How do say “I got up, had a shower, cleaned the bathroom, emptied the dishwasher, checked my email, figured out what we were to have for dinner, went to the grocery store, watched Oprah, tidied the living room, made dinner, and then Brad came home…” in way that isn’t boring?

But don’t get me wrong – I am not bored. In fact, I’ve got 4 or 5 projects ready to go whenever I run out of daily activities. And just wait until my Dutch class starts again! Then my free time will diminish quite quickly. Plus I’m so happy to have such a low key life. Nearly every morning when Brad says goodbye I reply with “thanks for my life”.

It’s funny - almost every time I meet a new person they inquire about what I’m doing here in the Netherlands. My standard answer: “I’m a stay-at-home wife”. Then they look puzzled and again ask me what I do to keep myself busy. Sometimes I ask them about what they do on Saturdays when they aren’t working. They give me a list of activities similar to the things I mentioned above.

Then I ask them if they’d get bored if everyday was Saturday and they say “yes”. That’s when the conversation ends. Sometimes I recount my list of scheduled activities - Ikea, Bible study, Church - but usually I just smile and conclude that I do indeed have a lovely, boring life!

So if my blogs are few and far between, be patient. I'll get inspired again one of these days.

Our trip back to Groningen, part 2.

So after the “humiliating” (Brad’s words) escalator incident, we are waiting to catch the train from Amsterdam to Groningen. Keep in mind that we have 3 large suitcases, 2 heavy backpacks, a large duffel bag, and my “purse” (a small carryon).

Getting one’s luggage on and off the train can be tricky at the best of times. At small train stations the train will often stop for only 1 or 2 minutes giving you barely enough time to get off and make your next connection. In large stations, the train stops for several minutes so there is not as much urgency to get on or off.

In Europe, it is courteous to let all of the passengers get off before you get on. However, there is no common consensus as to which side of the doors you should enter and exit from. Passengers getting on and off crowd both sides of the doors. This sometimes causes a bit of chaos when you have several suitcases to lug on and off. The other passengers tend to get a bit disgruntled but so far no one has offered to lend us a hand.

Brad and I had agreed that this time we would wait until everyone had gotten off the train and the new passengers had gotten on before we man-handled our bags onto the train. Most of our baggage this time easily weighed 45-50lbs which is a little difficult for a small girl like me lift. Thankfully the station wasn’t too busy so we had plenty of time.

If you’ve ever been on a European train you’ll know that at the beginning and end of every car is what Brad calls the “baggage compartment” with a door that separates it from the sitting area. Depending on the size of the car, the baggage compartment usually has a couple of fold down seats, a small toilet, and a bit of room to stash suitcases or in Holland, bikes.

Although you aren’t allowed to smoke on the train, some teenagers sometimes try to get away with it by hanging out in the baggage compartment. The toilet in these areas is really nasty smelling, so we usually avoid the area as much as possible. That is, until today.

After systematically loading our bags onto the train, Brad proceeds to go sit down in the “sitting area” leaving our bags in the baggage compartment. I, on the other hand, do not want to leave our bags “unattended” and suggest we sit with them (in the baggage compartment).

An argument ensues… Needless to say, we sat in the baggage compartment with our bags. On the tiny pull down seats. It was cold and smelly. And the trip was about 2.5 hours.

By this time, it was early morning N. America time as we’d traveled through the night; we were tired, to say the least. So, even though the seats weren’t remotely conducive to sleeping, we both dozed off a couple of times. About a dozen people came out to use the toilet during the duration of the ride. The door clicks loudly when someone opens it. That kind of jolts you awake when you are snoozing. It was a little embarrassing when they eyed all of our luggage.

Once I was awakened by a loud noise. I thought it was the door again, but I opened my eyes to find that Brad had fallen off his seat when the train changed tracks and he was sleeping. He almost did that again two other times, but caught himself on the way down. I was too tired to laugh.

Another time the train changed tracks, the whole pile of luggage fell over. Our poor computer now has a big ol’ dent in the corner and the corner of the screen has gone black. Sigh. Would this have happened if we sat inside? We’ll never know.

Needless to say, we did finally make it back to our little home in Groningen. Us and our 200+ pounds of luggage. Lesson learned (again): Pack lighter!

A few days ago, when I was saying goodbye to my mom, she mentioned that having me home for the holidays this year reminded her of when I’d come home from Trinity Western University (my alma mater) for two reasons: 1) the timing is similar – I left for Holland in September, came home for Christmas, and left again in January; and 2) My husband was never around this holiday because he was in Vancouver working!

So now that I’m back in Holland and my life is a bit slower, I've been reflecting on that statement and come to realize that sometimes this does feel a bit like I'm away at college! And there are other similarities as well…

Well first of all, I'm not working. And I can sleep in until I'm not tired. I have the freedom to meet my friend Suzanne for lunch almost any day. I have classes (starting in Feb of course). I have limited amounts of money. And I have a “roommate”!

Ironically, the Christmas holidays also were similar to the old college days because it seems like I've divided Christmas and New Years up with a boyfriend/husband's family for so many years that I've lost count.

I often felt transplanted over the holidays as my "stuff" was always back in my dorm room and most of my friends were not around to hang out with. Thankfully, this holiday season my some of my stuff (clothing especially) was at my parents’ house and my friends were my family, so it was almost the best of all worlds.

However, I always looked forward to going back to college - having a regular routine again, seeing my friends, being independent. College was one of the best times of my life. Interestingly, returning back to Holland has not quite been the "old college return" that I might have expected. It has definitely taken me a few days to get back in the "swing of things".

Of course the first couple of days were emotional not only after saying goodbye, but with the sleep deprivation and my period starting on the plane (!), I am still crying periodically. I even woke Brad up at 5am Saturday morning because I was crying too loudly! Poor Brad - he doesn't ever remember me crying this much in our (nearly) 5 years of marriage.

Strangely, I was also bit timid about venturing out and doing things that I should be completely comfortable with such as going to the grocery store! I was scared that I'd have forgotten all of the Dutch I learned over the past two months. Brad almost had to drag me out to the market on Saturday to buy flowers.

Finally, on Sunday night I talked with my friend Suzanne and Monday we went out for coffee, dessert, and shopping just like old times. It was nice to get back into the swing of things with one who’s been in my situation. She completely understands. Plus, she's on par with me as far as shopping is concerned, so we work well together. Funny thing is that - this time - she was the only one of us to purchase anything since I am kind of over my limit from Christmas.

And today I went to IKEA (because it was Tuesday) and I thought "I'm baaack!!" almost as soon as I walked in which is a sure sign that I am getting back to normal! So while I might be occasionally teary-eyed when I think of my little Olivia, all in all, I AM back.

Our trip back to Groningen, Part 1.

While we didn’t exactly repeat an experience like our orginal trip to Holland with the frustrated cab driver, our travel back to Holland was still "memorable". Should I start by mentioning that we had 5 pieces of luggage plus carry-ons? That would be one more piece that we originally came with.

I got a little carried away with all of the sales. And the food at Costco. And Safeway. And the 5 DVDs I purchased at Costco. And our Christmas presents. And the two black coats. And the three pair of shoes (two of them were boots). And the new laptop. And the stuff off of Brad’s old desk in Vancouver. You got the picture?

Thankfully, I was very careful and evenly distributed our belongings into our luggage so that we were within the weight allowance granted by the airline (i.e. 4 times 50 pounds). We also had two carry-ons each, including one each that was almost as heavy as the suitcases!

Obviously it had been too long since our move here for me to remember how difficult it is to transport heavy luggage to and from the train. It is one thing to drop our bags off at the airline and use a handy luggage cart or two to haul them from point A to point B within the airports. Once we arrived at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, we used carts to collect our luggage, clear customs and headed to the train station conveniently located within the airport.

Transferring by train is the preferred method of transportation from Schiphol. Nevertheless, there are only two narrow escalators going down to each platform, so you can imagine that these are like little people-funnels. In our case, one of the elscalators going down to platform 2 was out of service, so it was twice as busy as usual.

To make matters worse, in front of the escalator descending to the platform are these metal poles in place to prevent you from taking your luggage cart down to the platform. I guess they want to prevent the platform from getting crowded with discarded luggage carts? Or maybe prevent kids from pushing the cart on to the tracks? Needless to say, the poles are far too close together to allow large rolling suitcases from easily being navigated around them. Believe me, when you're each loaded down with 150 pounds of luggage, this was a daunting task!

I was in the front trying to drag my two suitcases between the poles while balancing my heavy backpack and small carry-on. I was holding up Brad and a horde of people behind him. The people who were waiting for us to navigate our way onto the elevator were either polite enough to wait, or were simply enjoying the free entertainment at the expense of the dumb foreigners.

So I finally managed my way onto the escalator with my luggage. I was probably occupying four full steps – one suitcase two steps down, me on a step, and the suitcase behind me was on a step. I remember thinking that I felt a little precarious. Unfortunately, at the bottom, where the escalator steps flatten out, SO DID I!! Literally, I ended up flat on my back, along with my two 50lb suitcases and my carry-on, and trapped by my heavy backpack. Brad was right behind me with all his stuff, and the bottleneck of people that were waiting for us at the top now occupied the 20 steps or so immediately behind him.

How many people do you think can pack onto a narrow escalator? Well it seemed like about 500 when they are all scrabbling to get out of the way of the lady lying at the bottom struggling to get back up. The problem with escalators is, their job is to steadily keep moving the people foward, regardless of the circumstances. It was all Brad could do to balance his heavy load and try to get me and my luggage out of the way without being trampled by the people behind him. Funny thing is, it all happened so fast that I didn't have time to get embarrassed. Brad, on the other hand, didn't hesitate to remind me this now ranks among one of his all-time embarrassing moments.

But we still made our train on time.

We are back here in Holland.

Obviously with all of the excitement of the holidays and seeing our families, I hardly even set a finger on the computer. However, here are a couple of emails I penned to my friends to give you an idea of all that I’ve been up to over the past month:

From Dec 12, 2006

Hi friends,
Just wanted to send a quick note to say hi and let you know that Brad and I are safe and sound here in N. America. I am so busy smothering my niece with love and kisses, that I've hardly had time for anything.

I hope you are well. Brad is still at his conference, but is also anticipating a very busy few weeks when he gets back here. Sadly, it looks like his Christmas holiday time off will be very short. Too bad.

You can pray that I don't get too grouchy at him :)

Anyways, I just wanted to touch base. I was thinking about you guys…

Love Mollie


From Dec 21, 2006

Hi friends,
Just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I'm not sure if I'm going to get a Christmas letter out this year with all of the chaos.

But I do want to announce that Brad has officially been granted his Ph.D as of Tuesday the 19th. It has been a long road and we are glad to be done. Our new life in Holland is wonderful, but it will be nice to feel like we've finally closed the door on the Vancouver portion. And to get officially settled in Holland will be nice.

We'd have loved to see you during our trip home, but Brad has had zero free time up until today and would like to make our families as first priority. Hopefully we'll be able to see some of you in May when we come back for graduation.

Anyways, blessings to you all this holiday season and in the New Year!

Love Mollie