Digging In

My usual pattern of getting upset on Saturdays seems to be continuing. I don't like it. Pretty much every Saturday something has triggered it. Mostly administrative stuff that should have happened but hasn't. Things have not gone well from that standpoint. Stores close early, money hasn't been deposited, paperwork is incomplete, banking is screwed up, etc.

This week it was plane tickets. Naomi and I tried to buy a couple so that we could visit my family for Christmas. She still hadn't gotten her credit card that she had applied for five weeks ago, but I figured it wouldn't matter since I had mine from the states. We found the flight (Christmas Day) and after I put in my credit card information, the price mysteriously jumped 100 Euros per person.

There was no explanation, but I assumed it was because I tried to pay with dollars instead of Euros. If her card had come, we would not have this problem. So she called the company. They said her order had been stopped because they needed more information from her. But they never contacted her.

This set me off. Something along these lines has been happening pretty much every Saturday. It makes me feel upset, powerless, and homesick. As Naomi tries to put it nicely, 'this is not a service-oriented country'. Well, I am sick of it. Everything seems to go wrong.

On the other hand, we may have found a solution. One of our colleagues offered to help us out with financial difficulties, so I called her up yesterday and she said it would be fine to try putting the tickets on her credit card. I thought this rather generous after only knowing us for less than two months. The Dutch people I have met so far have been, for the most part, quite friendly and helpful. The institutions seem to be the problem.

The week at school seemed to go pretty well. I had to leave early on Tuesday because I felt strangely sick. Really sick. No idea why. I did what I needed to do, though. Managed to give my first test. I had to give it twice to one class because most failed it the first time and had to keep another after school to take it because they wouldn't stop talking, but I still consider it a success.

It was about perimeter and area. Strangely enough two classes had a C-average and the other two classes had just below a D- average. I don't have an explanation for that one yet. Math is quite difficult for a lot of these students.

In science they are making balloon-powered cars. It is a pretty cool project. We made rubber band cars when I was that age, and I won the competition to go the farthest because my dad helped me. I wonder how many of these students will get help from home...

Now it is Sunday. The day of rest. As it is not raining yet, I need to go out for a run while I still can. I really hope I don't get rained on with my new shoes. They are very nice. Seems that they solve my knee problems. And the route I get to take is beautiful. It is about 6k and it starts out with a skinny path next to a wide canal full of ducks and trees. Then it turns and an isthmus takes me between a river that carries boats which are above my head, and the lake full of sailboats that are below my feet.

The height difference is incredible. The reason for it is located right around the halfway point. A beautiful windmill dating from the mid-1600s. It pumped all that water out of the lake and into the river so that people could live where I live.

I continue to run over a small drawbridge and turn the corner into the wealthy area of town. BMWs and Mercedes line the streets and driveways of stately homes and mansions that overlook the water. We live on the rich side of town. Anyway, enough writing about it, I better do it before it rains again...