Dorine and Nadja | here i am

Today we spent the day with Dorine and Nadja in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. Nadja made us a delicious Moroccan pumpkin soup for lunch. There home is so gezzelig – filled with artifacts from their many worldly travels, and travel books and maps. Every nook has something to see and touch and explore and to be curious about. We love going to their house. Christian was curious by all the travel books and didn’t want to stop reading. I see Africa in our future.

Christian peeking through the book shelves at Dorine and Nadja’s.

Charlie loved playing with all the musical instruments, especially the drums from India.

Little drummer boy

The kitchen was my favorite room of the house. I loved the smells, the lighting and the pots and pans and spices and coffee makers and glass jars and such that filled the space. I especially loved looking at the framed pictures of our family that were sitting in the kitchen.

The little girl in the picture is my mama at Dorine’s parents wedding. My Uncle Bill is the little boy.

This picture is of my namesake, my Great-Oma, Adriana Van Elderen. The little girl is Dorine, and the baby is Rob – my mom’s cousin who I met for the first time last week.

After lunch, we went to explore more history by visiting a castle called Slot Loevestein that was built in 1361. Can you even imagine how long ago that was? This castle is most famous as a state prison. Hugo de Groot was a famous scholar and lawyer who fought for freedom of thought (like Martin Luther King) who was imprisoned there. He used to receive scholarly books in the prison and one day escaped in a large, book box in a plan devised by his smart wife. You can read more about the castle here: http://www.slotloevestein.nl/documents/home.xml?lang=en

slot loevestein castle

My 3 Knights!

The infamous book box that Hugo De Groot escaped inside.

I find it fascinating to imagine life before we were around. When I walk through old castles and churches, I try to imagine the people that lived and worked here before, and to imagine their daily lives. Do you ever do that?

After the visit to the castle, we went back to Dorine and Nadja’s for an unexpected Moroccan chicken stew dinner. It was so sweet and savory and delicious and something we haven’t had since we were in France at Marco and Kathy’s years ago. I forgot about how much I love the flavors and want to try cooking something new very soon. Thank you for the yummy dinner!

One last thought before I end this long post — I love how Dorine and Nadja had planned to have us stay for dinner, even though we came over around lunch time. This is something new to me… when we went to visit for the afternoon, I never expected them to also have dinner for us. This is supposedly the way things are done here. The same thing happened at Rob and Wendy’s last week. We went to visit in the early afternoon, and the stay turned into dinner. I guess this is typical here. So now I know and I like this tradition very much. When we move back to the States, I’m taking this idea with me. Heck, I’m starting it this week! If you plan to come for a visit, I’ll have lunch and coffee and dessert ready for you when you arrive, and wine and cheese in the late afternoon, as well as dinner and dessert and coffee ready to make your stay as comfortable and as long as you wish.

Thank you for this great way to spend a Sunday afternoon and evening and teaching me more about Dutch hospitality. I love it!

Life is good!

Oh my gosh, really, only 3 days and you won’t believe all that happened today!!! I still can’t believe it and it’s only the weekend.

Today I feel like we really have a home here, which is great. Dorine and Nadja arrived at 10:45 am and just left at 11:30 pm!! How lucky are we to have family to love and support us? They brought over the famous bosschee bollen from Den ‘Bosche. These are like the best chocolate covered cream puffs you’ve ever had and I guess they can only be found in their home town. Our job was to provide coffee when they arrived, so yesterday we bought a coffee pot and this morning Jeff walked to the market to buy ground coffee, Such a fair deal.

After our coffee and sweet treats, Nadja drove me and Dorine to Ikea where we bought everything we needed to run a household and boy was that work! We bought plates, glasses, cups, silverware, bowls, cooking supplies and utensils, containers and bags, towels and hangers, pots and pans, and more. We had three shopping carts full and I was so surprised when we we’re able to fit it all into Nadja’s little car!!

We unloaded the loot and then they took Jeff to the Makro for his shopping delight!! Makro is like an upscale Costco where you need a business license to shop for discounts. He bought a new tv, vacuum, toaster, trash cans, fans, telephones and more. I think he spent more than me!!

We unloaded everything again and Dorine and Nadja started loading the dishwasher and breaking down all the boxes and helped to make our home feel gezellig!! I can’t even believe it!

In the meantime, the previous renter had shown up and talked to Jeff and he showed him how to use the oven that we couldn’t figure out and how to turn on the outdoor porch light. He also showed us how to turn off the water and just basically gave us his contact information should we have any questions. At the same time, the neighbors joined us and offered us their wireless access and gave us their extra porch table and chairs. They are so helpful and friendly.

When I arrived, the kids were out playing with their new friend. They discovered a petting zoo and miniature golf course behind our house in the retirement community. There is a big open field also on the opposite side of the canal from our house where they can kick around a soccer ball. Today we let them run around a little bit more without our immediate supervision and we felt safe. I think it helped that the neighbors were encouraging about letting their 8 year old daughter run around too. It is very quiet where we live and not much traffic, which is very pleasant.

Having kids outside playing also helped us to meet more neighbors. One family just moved here from Redondo Beach two weeks ago. What a small world. So far our neighbors our mostly Jewish and a couple families are from the International School where our children will attend. I’m so glad that people speak English and are so warm and welcoming. I think I will feel at home pretty quickly!

What really made me feel at home today was having Dorine and Nadja with us all day. We ordered Thai food and had it delivered to our house. We set the table and all ate together as a family. The kids went to bed and we had coffee and stroopwaffels for dessert before they headed home. What a great day! We got more done than I ever expected.

I Am Content.
How was your day?