So this is what I've discovered: my webcam has effects! Look, I'm back in London:
Cool, right?
Alright, well I think it is. I'm officially Skype-ing with a different background every time now. Look out. It's gonna be awesome.
In real "news", it's nice to be back in Heemstede with Wanda and the kids, I just don't know what to do with them? I get up in the morning and they're like, so, what do you want to do, and I'm like, "Bahdunno." We do not get very far with this line of conversation. Especially since "bahdunno" is not really a word and definitely does not translate into Dutch.
The weather outside is not nice. I mean, it's Holland so one expects rain and gloom for the majority of the time, but it would be nice to be somewhere warm and with sun during the summer for a change. While Venice was incredibly hot and humid, it was nice nevertheless to get some sun and warmth. The minute I showed up in Holland it was raining.
Wow, it's really coming down hard now. And thundering. I'm wondering if Wanda and Bob and Amber took the car. I hope they did. We live quite close to town so we/they often walk or ride bikes to get places, but it really sucks if you get caught in weather like this. It's actually surprising that bike riding is such a thing here, since like 60% of the time it's raining cats and dogs and deadly for bike riding. But the Dutch do not care. Rain does not faze the Dutch. The Dutch laugh in the face of rain. And danger. They're basically super heroes in wooden shoes.
It is funny because every time it rains here, my family seems disappointed and surprised. Like, "Oh, no, it's raining! Oh how horrible!" And I'm like, it's Holland. Don't you get used to this? But I suppose if you live in a country like this you have to develop an inner irrational optimism about the weather. Otherwise your mood would be as gloomy as the weather usually is. Or at least that's how I'm going to explain it.
So something you may not know about Holland: one of the most popular clothing stores is Sissy-Boy. Yes, that is what it is called. Completely un-ironically. I don't know who came up with the name, but it was clearly not someone who had very good knowledge of English. My little brother and sister have no idea what it means, and just think the clothes are really cool.
Like many shops and department stores, bigger Sissy-Boy's (hehe, it's funny just typing it) have cafes in them. We went there for coffee and lunch today, as most of the cafes were closed since it's Monday. (That's another Dutch thing. Stores and restaurants and lots of other places close on Monday. They're open Saturday and Sunday, but they close Monday. No one is able to explain the reasoning behind this, except for Wanda who says, "Well we do like to party here in Holland. Maybe it's to recover from the weekend?" I laughed at that.) If I could describe coffee in Holland in one word it would be awesome. I love Dutch coffee so much. Even more than Italian coffee, to be frank. And the cappuccinos we had in Venice were killer. But a Dutch kopje koffie beats all in my book. It's strong, comes with a biscuit and koffiemelk, and must be savored over several sips. It's quite the ritual here, and I love having a ritual for coffee drinking. It's soothing.
Wow, I am really rambling. I wish I had more exciting things to share, but I don't. Just tales of rain and coffee. Maybe something more exciting will happen tonight.
Tot morgen!
Olivia
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