I will have you know that I was invited to go for coffee at the home of one of the mothers of one of the kids at Douwe's school today.
My God, social contact with a human, I hardly know what to say.
No, she isn't Dutch*. She's at a guess from India or thereabouts. Her English has that musical British quality which I associate with India anyway.
But unquestionably human. We have chatted a bit about this-es and thats on the playground at pickup time. We both come from large Catholic families so I suppose we can talk about that for the first two years.
*I think the Dutch aren't allowed to invite you home until you have lived here about a hundred years, seems I read that rule someplace. Well, except during Carnival, then they invite you home a lot but that's different and I am too old for that.
3 comments:
I am so glad you are developing a friendship. Maybe the thing to do is not worry about the Dutch for a while and stick to the other nationalities.
Hmmm...maybe it's your town, but that sure is NOT a Dutch custom.
You know you are always welcome at my home :-)
Hi, Marjan,
Paul says it isn't, also. He says the rule is 175 years. At 100 years you can go to the inlooppunt at the neighborhood club and someone will talk to you, lol.
Actually I have more luck than most of the furriners I know, because I have Nel and Nel knows everybody. And this town is big enough that there are always transplants from somewhere -- heck, it's big enough to have an "English Club" made entirely of native English speakers (and Americans are tolerated also). It varies from neighborhood to neighborhood; a lot of the "local" issue really is, as I have found out, that, well gosh, most of the folks who live in this older neighborhood in the center of town are not families with young kids. Mostly they have all lived here forever.
The neighborhood for the kids' former school was, to say the least, closed and also divided against itself and is getting scary to tell you the truth; and choosing for a Montessori school this year means many of the kids come from not terribly nearby.
So there I am.
Better watch out, I'll bring you Sue's chicken soup. It's still in the freezer. Though you will have to wait until I get a driver's license; I don't even want to think about how long it would take me to figure out transport to where you are.
Besides, you are never home, lol again.
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