Settling In!!
I am sitting on a black leather couch, looking over a busy street, watching Nickelodeon on a flatscreen TV. This morning, I took a shower and got dressed out of a closet (not a suitcase!!). I made my typical broccoli breakfast, and had soymilk and a banana while checking email. Our daily routines are totally taken for granted; I soooo appreciate having a place to sleep every night, after this episode of homelessness (which is admittedly absolutely luxurious relative to real homelessness).
At 10AM, Vi’s rode me on the back of her bike to Little Siam to retrieve the bike Arjan gave me; I’m naming it Rusty. I have seen girls sitting side-saddle over the back tire, but never tried it. We put my scarf down on the rack to cushion my toosh, then I hopped on. Vida – in three-inch heels – is about 100 lbs. She towed me on her bike for about 30 minutes. In first 10 minutes, we started going down this steep hill, and were definitely swerving out of control – fast. I kept thinking that I should just jump off, but there were cars passing us at full speed, and I just wasn’t sure what the best move was.
There was a lot of nervous hysterical laughing, then we got control of the bike. That was really the only bad part; after that, she was repeating, “OK, this is going good now, I think,” which was hilarious to me, since every second I thought I was going to fall off. “Someone should take a picture of us,” she said. “An American girl on the back of the bike of an Afghan girl in the Nederlands.” I saw our reflection every few seconds, as we whisked by the windows of the businesses we passed; it was pretty cool.
On the way back from Little Siam, we stopped on Amsterdamsestraatweg (“ahm-ster-dahm-suh-stuhraat-veg”), a main street, of which both Suzanne and Maggie live, at Vi’s friend’s hairshop. She cut my bangs for EU5, and we headed back to pick up Mar from school. For an afternoon snack, we had tasty pancakes (fun!) and I even got to show off my new Dutch figure!
It’s really nice to have a place to stay, even if Vi and I are still deciding if 1. she wants a roommate (past bad experience) and 2. I want to live with an 8-year-old. So far, I think it turns out that I really fit into family scenes well; I like the family dinner nightly, that we spend a lot of time together talking and getting to know each other, and having Mar around is actually really fun, too – in the Nickelodeon way :)
At 10AM, Vi’s rode me on the back of her bike to Little Siam to retrieve the bike Arjan gave me; I’m naming it Rusty. I have seen girls sitting side-saddle over the back tire, but never tried it. We put my scarf down on the rack to cushion my toosh, then I hopped on. Vida – in three-inch heels – is about 100 lbs. She towed me on her bike for about 30 minutes. In first 10 minutes, we started going down this steep hill, and were definitely swerving out of control – fast. I kept thinking that I should just jump off, but there were cars passing us at full speed, and I just wasn’t sure what the best move was.There was a lot of nervous hysterical laughing, then we got control of the bike. That was really the only bad part; after that, she was repeating, “OK, this is going good now, I think,” which was hilarious to me, since every second I thought I was going to fall off. “Someone should take a picture of us,” she said. “An American girl on the back of the bike of an Afghan girl in the Nederlands.” I saw our reflection every few seconds, as we whisked by the windows of the businesses we passed; it was pretty cool.
On the way back from Little Siam, we stopped on Amsterdamsestraatweg (“ahm-ster-dahm-suh-stuhraat-veg”), a main street, of which both Suzanne and Maggie live, at Vi’s friend’s hairshop. She cut my bangs for EU5, and we headed back to pick up Mar from school. For an afternoon snack, we had tasty pancakes (fun!) and I even got to show off my new Dutch figure!
It’s really nice to have a place to stay, even if Vi and I are still deciding if 1. she wants a roommate (past bad experience) and 2. I want to live with an 8-year-old. So far, I think it turns out that I really fit into family scenes well; I like the family dinner nightly, that we spend a lot of time together talking and getting to know each other, and having Mar around is actually really fun, too – in the Nickelodeon way :)
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