The day has finally arrived! My mom is here safe and sound.

Her flight was to arrive in Amsterdam at 7:40am this morning, but I checked to see if it was on time via Northwest Airline’s website. The website said the plane would get there early. Good thing I checked because it made the difference between the 5:02am train and the 5:42am train.

I wasn’t sure how long it would take her to be cleared through customs or collect her luggage, so I was guessing as to which train I should take. The arrangement was that we were to meet at the “meeting point” in the train station if I wasn’t waiting for her outside of the baggage area. The train station is about 100 meters away from the baggage area and clearly marked in English so she wouldn’t have trouble finding it.

I ended up taking the 5:02 train hoping that I would be able to wait for her outside the baggage claim. I arrived at the airport, checked to see she was at the meeting point, and headed to the toilet. Amazingly, I was just checking the arrivals monitor when she called out my name after leaving baggage. She really did arrive early! It was so fortunate that we were able to connect up right then as I could have been in the bathroom and missed her completely.

Needless to say, we headed north to Groningen after a brief tour of the airport – actually, the trains get cheaper after 9am so we had some time to kill – and are back in my warm little home having tea. Mom is a bit tired, but is hoping the jet lag won’t put a damper on her energy or enthusiasm.

She will be emailing our family back home occasionally and I’m going to include some of her comments in my blog so you’ll get a fresh perspective on our life here. And she brought her digital camera (actually it’s Dad’s camera) and we’ll finally have photos to post. Yea!

Right now I'm waiting.

We have a small enclosed patio on the backside of our townhouse. We like to imagine that it used to be part of the back lane until all of the townhouse owners decided to make small patios. The walls of the neighboring patios are all the same height as ours so if you are tall, you can see down the lane – or at least see that it used to be a lane.

It appears that only the houses on our side of the lane were able to acquire the back portion because in general the neighbors across the lane have no windows or doors on the ground floor of their building to look into the lane.

The exception is our neighbor. According to our landlord, they wanted to install a window into their house looking out onto our patio. That, of course, is their right. However, it would be at the expense of our privacy. Actually, it would be very unDutch of them to invade our privacy. But as a precaution, our landlord insisted that they install a high frosted window to ensure that neither of us is disturbed.

Needless to say, it has been fine up until now. Today they need to replace the glass in their window to make it more energy efficient. The installers will come sometime in the “middag” which is anytime between 12 noon and 4:30. Which is fine because it’s not like they are installing a sliding glass door or even a giant picture window.

Except that the only access to their window for installation is though our patio. Which is also through our house. Which also means that I have to be home. Which is why I’m waiting. Sigh.

Today it snowed again! The first snow was two weeks ago, Tuesday. It was beautiful biking to IKEA in the snow. There was enough snow to make it look pretty, but not enough to make biking difficult. It has snowed on and off since then. Now it is no surprise to wake up in the morning and see a white blanket outside. Sadly, the afternoon sun warms everything up and the snow melts.

Today was no exception. The snow was melted by mid-morning. However, today it seemed like the sunshine was short lived because it was freezing cold this afternoon. I biked home from the train station after Bible study and I could barely get my key out of my bike to open the front door – my fingers were so frozen. I stayed close to the radiator for about 10 minutes with my coat and hat on trying to warm up.

The weather here doesn’t seem to stop people from going about their daily activities. I see people biking in the rain, snow, and wind. The traffic does increase slightly in bad weather because those who have cars tend use them more often when the weather is poor. But if you are like us (or the average Dutch person in the city), who only have bikes, you make due or take the bus.

I have a hard time judging what kind of attire to wear outside in this weather. I keep looking at the other Dutch people to see what they are wearing especially when biking. I see a lot of wool coats and scarves worn in all types of winter weather – even in the rain. Most women do not wear hats and only half of them wear gloves. I can’t understand how they aren’t freezing. Sometimes it is all I can do to keep biking when I’m cold.

I don’t want to stick out like a sore thumb, but how am I supposed to stay warm if I dress like everyone else here?

Last week was my last week of freedom. Sigh. Please don’t roll your eyes when you read the rest of this entry. You’ll probably think I’m pathetic or lazy or selfish. Not everyone can say that they’ve had a whole month off with no responsibilities. Don’t get me wrong - I’ve been busy sewing, shopping, watching season 6 of the Gilmore Girls, cooking dinner, meeting Suzanne for lunch, my two Bible studies, Oprah. The whole month went really quickly!

I really have no reason to complain. Except…yesterday my Dutch class started again. That’s a whole blog entry on its own. This course doesn’t have as many hours of class time per week as the last one. I struggled to keep up with the homework in addition to the class time when I took level 1. Level 2 will be difficult enough only two days instead of three days per week. I’ve already spent several hours doing the homework from Monday’s class.

But what this means is that for the next 12 or so weeks, I have class every Monday & Wednesday (plus all of the homework it requires). Tuesday morning is my self imposed IKEA day. Wednesday night and Thursday morning I have Bible study. So Friday is my only free day to do what I please.

It may sound like I’m making it out to be more than it is, but having had a taste of freedom, I’m grumbling about the newly imposed structure. Eventually I’ll get used to it I guess. It’s just that I’m trying to make the most of my time here while I have no work or babies or loneliness. Sigh.