I would like to make a confession related to my previous post Driving in the Netherlands: the photo I used was not taken here but in the US. I’m sorry but at that time I wanted to show something nice about driving like sunny skies and wide roads and I couldn’t find one good photo easily or maybe I was just too lazy. But ok, I admit my guilt and this is the true picture of driving here on most days:

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Another confession I want to make is that I quit my driving lessons! I realized I am just throwing too much money (my instructor charges me 67 Euros for 1.5 hours of lessons). In my previous driving lessons I found out also that the new tests involve me having to navigate my way from point A to point B and they expect me to know or memorize the directions beforehand. The instructor may or may not allow me to use a GPS navigator!

MrC and I had planned on leaving the country within a few months so there you go I just announced it now. This is still dependent on our forthcoming visit to the Philippines which will happen in August. As of now there is a 50-50 chance (maybe higher) that this would push through if we both have a good feeling about it. The whole story behind it is in my other blog I’d like to leave it to you to figure out which blog it is. So anyways, I found it pretty pointless to spend time, effort and money on something which I will not really need in the long run. I guess it’s all just about my priorities for now.

However, the past few weeks there have been bus strikes that in order to get to work and back I would need to have MrC bring me by car or me having to share a ride with my colleague or depend on the scheduled transportation provided by the company. It just frustrates me that I have to actually depend on others to get to work. Driving and having your own car to me is not really some kind of status symbol or some form of materialism but to me it is FREEDOM in its basic sense. No need for explanation I think especially for American readers but this is just how I feel.

I am the person you would least expect to talk about sports. I don’t follow any sport at all not even when I was in the U.S. In the US, they have the Superbowl every January but this is nothing compared to here where emotion run high because it is not just states competing here but countries so there is national pride mixed with testosterone which is a great recipe for madness. But then it’s not really just men who are in this, during lunch I ate alongside visiting lady German colleagues and they were saying that it was a pity that they were using the train going home so they would miss watching the football game that night. These ladies were working in the IT department.

So anyways, last time I even had the slightest interest of watching sports on TV was back in the Philippines watching Purefoods vs. San Miguel championships and that was about it. Both me and my husband are total geeks who are only into computers and we don’t have any ounce of sportiness in us. Just a second ago our topic of conversation runs like this:

“we should not use Team Foundation Server so that we don’t get locked in Microsoft” .. or… ” oh maybe we should get some training in SCRUM”

However, we realize our health deserves some attention too so we find ourselves talking about doing something physically active at least during the weekends. But this does not mean sports like tennis or cycling, so possibly we’ll just do some nature or city walks. Ok, I admit today is a Sunday and the sun seems to be up and we are both in front of the computers. No city or nature walks seem to be happening in the near horizon.

But anyways, a few years ago I was approached by my colleague at work and he talked about the “Poule” and that I should participate on it because it is “fun”. He tried to explain it briefly that it is something about football and such and you are predicting scores and winners and such but it was just too much for me to absorb so I just said sorry but I will pass because I have no idea. He said I can just join for fun and not put in any money bets. I still declined without batting an eyelash. Two years later, I was asked again by the same colleague. He made a small computer program where you can put in your guesses of who the top players are, the main winners and the scores of all the matches. Again, you don’t have to put in any money or place a bet. You could just play for fun but he warned that last time, the top winner was supposed to win but he did not place a bet — so too bad for him. So, ok, this year is for the Euro 2008.

I agreed to try it. I tried to research a bit and enter a few scores and uneducated guesses but that was it. I got busy with work and eventually wasn’t able to finish entering my bets. People at work talked about how much they are winning during lunch. You could see the ranks of “earnings” of all the people who participated in the Poule.

Meanwhile at home, it was the night where Netherlands played with Italy. My husband was working from home and I was watching GI Jane from the movie channel but it was easy for us to know who was winning judging from the loud noises and cheers from our downstairs neighbors. It was indeed impressive for the Dutch team since Italy was the former champion so to speak. Our team played excellently so far the next game which was with France, the runner up last time. My husband even told me that his friends were telling him that they were actually “nervous” about that game. I think the correct translation would have been “excited” rather than nervous but then maybe they were actually nervous. But hey, what is there to be nervous about a football game?! In the supermarkets they give away this little orange lion thingies called Welpies. Whoah! talk about football madness indeed. To be honest, to me they are an eyesore but maybe it will grow on me. That night I actually tried watching it. I saw their first score where one guy scored using his head (not figuratively but literally). I fell asleep a few minutes after. MrC told me that when Netherlands won our neighbors were banging all the walls and floors but luckily I was deep into sleep and it never woke me up. Anyways, it was a 4-1 win!

Everyone is jubilant these days and as expected I saw a lot of orange things while walking at the Centrum yesterday. The following photo was taken in Rembrandtplein yesterday.

Yesterday was the first day of my driving lessons in the Netherlands. However, this has been my 3rd teacher since I first tried it in 2005. Driving as a topic evokes strong emotions on my part because I must admit that I do love driving. I have been driving for 9 years in the U.S. and prior to that in the Philippines for a couple of years. I enjoy driving immensely and not being able to do it is one of the major source of frustrations for me in this country. As you see, I cannot just exchange my American driving license here. Unlike lucky citizens of for instance Singapore and Japan, I could not exchange it!

So anyways, while taking lessons using a manual (called stick shift in the US) transmission equipped auto it all brought back memories of me and my Dad waking up at 6am on a weekend to take driving lessons. And boy I thank my Dad for taking it seriously and teaching me thoroughly that now when I tried driving a manual it all came back naturally for me and it felt really good knowing I could pick up a car and just drive. However, the roads in Amsterdam and most of the Netherlands are way too busy and rules are quite complicated so that is why I totally need to practice with a teacher first before taking the test. And besides, there is no other way to go through it but with a certified instructor unlike in the states where all you need is a learners permit and a license holder to accompany you. My theory exam expires in October so we have planned to take the test before then. That theory exam in itself was also a pain since English tests come only once or twice a month plus it was so confusing I ended up passing on my third try.. Embarrassing indeed but that’s life here, it’s not all that easy compared to my former country which I dearly miss by the way.

And what about my instructor? At first impression, I feel more comfortable with my new teacher, who is I think Moroccan compared to the last 2 Dutch guys. Maybe it was his age (younger) and temperament but we’ll see how it goes the next few days. But so far I had fun driving with this teacher. He picked me up from work at 5pm and we drove all the way to our place in Amsterdam. Convenient indeed! I am looking forward to my next lesson next week!

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We spent an afternoon driving around the countryside during a beautiful and sunny Pinksterdag. These photos will give you an idea of what the Dutch do on a typical long weekend. We avoided the beach totally as we are not so fond of heavy traffic jams and crowds so these photos show kind of “everything” except the beaches.

Biking is one of the most common weekend leisure activity aside from taking long walks in the countryside. People also bask in the sun next to or in the water. Since most of the Netherlands is next to water the activities center around canoeing, fishing, boating, swimming and all sorts of water sports. They are quite blessed to have water all around indeed and they obviously appreciate and are proud of this fact.

The next thing I love about springtime are the flowerbeds. It’s too bad that we did this too late as the flowers have either dried up or have been harvested. Well, at least I am glad I was able to take a few shots of the red and white flowers.

P.S. As promised, the cow photos are now included here