Are You Dutch Enough?

This is my last morning at Lisanne's in the Hague before heading on to Belgium and then France and finally Taize on Sunday!  I have been the recipient of Lisanne's gracious hospitality for going on 11 days now and I smile as Proverb 25:17 comes to mind: "seldom set foot in your neighbor's house -- too much of you, and they will hate you." Hopefully that isn't Lisanne's sentiment : ).

I have so enjoyed my time in the Netherlands, but I have especially enjoyed the conversations I have had with Lisanne.  We had a lovely weekend that started with insight into what it is like to live in a country that uses trains so heavily.  We had planned to go to Utrecht to visit some of Lisanne's old study mates at a local pub Friday night, the signals on the track between Den Haag (the Hague) and Utrecht were not working however so we had to detour all the way to Amsterdam to go to Utrecht (it sounds far but really only took an hour longer).  We had a nice time at the pub and Lisanne's study mates were friendly and we had interesting conversations.  I especially enjoyed my conversation with her friend Eric with whom I discussed his philosophical and world views that were quite Nietzsche-esque (i.e. German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche). I appreciated his desire to have a serious conversation with a stranger at a happy hour type setting and I found parts of his worldview to be similar to that of Christian's, whom I met in Germany, as they both focus on the power of positive thinking and the idea that the world is composed of positive and negative energy.  Sorry, I digress, after the outing with Lisanne's study mates we attempted to go back to the Hague only to find that the signals between the Hague and Utrecht still were not working and now the track between Utrecht and Amsterdam was down as well; so we joined the large crowd hanging out in the rail station sipping free tea waiting for news of a fix.  The news was slow in coming, and although our fries and conversation interrupted by a very excited recently born again Christian was interesting, we decided to see if there was a bus option as it was now 11 p.m.  When we got outside the train station we found a couple of coach buses waiting with a few grumpy transportation attendents who had the pleasant job of getting all of the struck rail travelers home.  There was a bit of confusion about where each bus was going and if the trains were running in those towns, but Lisanne directed us to a bus and we waited in line to get on. The bus looked full and I felt the competitiveness rise inside of me as I boxed out the man angling behind me to get in the bus; this was fortunate as there were only 2 seats left and the man whose luggage occupied Lisanne's seat was reluctant to give it up.  We eventually made it home a bit after midnight.

On Saturday we waited for Lisanne's clothes closet to arrive and then after deciding it was too big/heavy for us to carry up the three narrow and steep flights of stairs (whew!) we let the closet be for Tim to move later. We went for a long walk on the beach and watched the kite surfers and kite surfer wannabes practicing.  It was a bit windy and chilly although sunny and I was grateful for a cup of hot chocolate at the end of the walk.  We had to save up a bit of our energy before our big night of dancing so Lisanne made us a fish dinner and we spent some time enlightening each other on the finer points of each of our cultures musical tastes and you tube videos.  I showed her some music by Gungor and some country music as most American pop/rock is regularly played on Dutch radio stations (I relied on some favorites from my nephew Miles and brother-in-law Jim for these).  When it came time to show awesome you tube videos I had to think back to my wonderful days at Target and all of the pop culture lessons I received from so many co-workers without whom I would have never experienced (and neither would have  Lisanne) the delights of such hits as "the backing up song."  From Lisanne I heard some music from the 1 Dutch rock singer and the 1 Dutch country singer: Anouk and Isle de Lange.  And of course since Lisanne also spent quite some time in Brazil we spent much of the week singing "Tchê tcherere tchê tchê, Tcherere tchê tchê,Tcherere tchê tchê,
Tchereretchê" from Gustavo Lima's "Balada." We also listened to comedians; we both remembered loving the Cosby show growing up so we saw some classics from Bill Cosby and then for American comedians I could only think of the duck material from Mitch Hedberg that Julia and I listened to in college -- I looked for the stuff he did on TV as it tends to be edited ; ).  I couldn't full appreciate Lisanne's selections as they were in Dutch, but her translations were funny so I bet it is even better first hand!  I had a blast dancing with Lisanne until 3:30 a.m. at a Latin place in the Hague Central and then cycling home.  It reminded me of our dancing dates in Costa Rica that were a highlight of my time there so a repeat here in the Netherlands was a treat.  The DJ only spun one merengue song the whole night but we managed to make the most of the song ; ).

Sunday was just about a perfect day.  Lisanne graciously biked me to the English speaking church I had selected (halfway across the city!). She had to bike hard to get there as we left a bit late and when we arrived she was a bit sweaty from her efforts... I owe her big when she comes to visit me!  The worship gathering was very nice and it was neat to hear the heart of Crossroads Church for their city as they seek to be a city of refuge like Christ is a refuge for all people.  I appreciated hearing Lisanne's thoughts on the message over brunch and then we had a long cycle in the forest bursting in green (from the week long rain!) with bridges and canals and we stopped for a warm waffle and chocolate and whipped cream at a small snack shop.  I can't remember a time I have consistently eaten so much chocolate throughout the day.  I have chocolate hagel slag on my bread each morning, hot chocolate in the afternoon when it is chilly or a wafel with chocolate and then of course chocolate for dessert with tea at night -- I'm not complaining, but I'm wondering if I am overdoing it a bit.  We had planned to cycle back to the Hague by biking through a sand dune area but we were unable to find a trail that went that way so we ended up on the beach and so we decided to cycle along the beach which turned out to be quite a lot of work.  I thought it would be fun to cycle along the ocean just at the edge, for some reason Lisanne did not join in this venture, and once I got a large wave, wet shoes and a rental bike with a squeaky chain for my efforts I better understood her wisdom.  The beach route took an extra 1.5 hours but it was beautiful and I did my best to scrape the sandy water off of my bike before returning it.  We finished off the night with some great Surinamese cuisine which is plentiful in the Netherlands.  I am going to miss  the Netherlands, Lisanne and our nightly cup of tea, but one thing I will not miss is riding on the metal bar on the back of a bike over all of the cobblestone streets and ubiquitous tram tracks  -- I'm not Dutch enough to handle that for long.