My yellow rose of Texas.................

........ is not only not so yellow........ it is also covered in rain drops! The weather has been plain awfull here. A lot of rain and thunderstorms and the first night I was here we were already under tornado watch. I am in a very beautiful but very rural area here, and I stay in a trailer. More or less right after I arrived there and was busy unpacking things got noisy and shaky. My landlady lives in a trailer right behind 'mine'. She rang me and said 'oh, we are under tornado watch, you know what to do right?' Well, no Ma'am I don't. We don't get many tornados in Amsterdam. So she told me to get a pile of towels, cover the glass doors and go hide in the small bathroom as there I would be covered by 4 walls..... hmmmmm I got everything ready but I must admit, I continued with the unpacking of my suitcase rather than sit in that tiny bathroom for a few hours. I was too tired to be really scared, and pretty soon the weather was calm again. The next morning I learned that they did loose power just down the road. And they are still expecting a lot of rocky weather for the next few days. I'll keep ya'll posted!

30 things I learned about Texas

1. A possum is a flat animal that sleeps in the middle of the road.

2. There are 5,000 types of snakes and 4,998 of them live in Texas.

3. There are 10,000 types of spiders. All 10,000 of them live in Texas.

4. If it grows, it'll stick ya. If it crawls, it'll bite cha.

5. 'Onced' and 'Twiced' are words.

6. It is not a shopping cart, it's a buggy.

7. 'Jaw-P?' means, 'Did everyone go to the restroom?'

8. People actually grow and eat okra.

9. 'Fixinto' is one word.

10. There is no such thing as 'lunch'. There is dinner and then there is supper.

11. Iced tea is appropriate for all meals, and you start drinking it when you're two. We do like a little tea with our sugar.

12. Backwards and forwards means, I know everything about you.

13. The word 'jeet' is actually a phrase meaning, 'Did you eat?'

14. You don't have to wear a watch, because it doesn't matter what time it is. You work until you're done or it's too dark to see.

15. You don't PUSH buttons, you MASH ˜EM.

16. You measure distance in minutes.

17. You switch from heat to A/C in the same day.

18. All the festivals across the state are named after a fruit, vegetable, grain, insect or animal.

19. You know what a 'DAWG' is.

20. You carry jumper cables in your car --- for your OWN car.

21. You only own five spices: salt, pepper, Texas Pete, Tabasco and Ketchup.

22. The local papers cover national and international news on one page, but require 6 pages for local gossip and high school football.

23. You think that the first day of deer season is a national holiday.

24. You find 100 degrees Fahrenheit 'a bit warm.

25. You know all four seasons: Almost summer, summer, still summer, and Christmas.

26. Going to Wal-Mart is a favorite pastime known as 'goin' Wal-Martin' or 'off to Wally World.

27. You describe the first cool snap (below 70 degrees) as good stew or chili weather.

28. Fried catfish is the other white meat.

29. We don't need no dang driver's ed. If our mama says we can drive, we can drive, dag-nabbit.

30. Guess you understand now that I am on my way to Texas AGAIN?! I need to learn more of this fun stuff!

Typically Amsterdam

The bicycle parking.

This annoys me

I love being back home but there are a few things that annoy me here. In no other country where I have lived the past years have I seen so much of the above. Or wanting a seat in a train gives the same problem.

What a difference / Wat een verschil

This is what my planner looks like when working abroad.

Zo ziet mijn agenda er uit als ik in het buitenland werk.



And this is what it looks like when I am working in Amsterdam.

En zo ziet hij eruit als ik in Amterdam werk.

Comfort shawl

This is the comfort shawl (or some people call it a prayer shawl) I made for Danielle from that lovely yarn I fell in love with. I went to see her last weekend. We had a nice time together and she loved the shawl.

FAQ

Now I am back home I get a lot of the same questions all the time.

Was your last job so bad that you were so exhausted?
No, actually it was a perfectly lovely baby with a perfectly lovely family and I really did not miss out on an awful lot of sleep there. It was more that I spent a lot of energy thinking (oh all right; worrying) about how to continue work wise now working abroad brings in so much less money.
Now that I have made that decision I am happy to be working in Amsterdam again and having a great time too! I have already booked myself for several holidays for elderly or disabled people as a volunteer nurse and as you all know I will be going to Texas again. Also I am keeping my eye on the exchange rate for the British Pound and hopefully also will be able to do the odd job abroad.

What is it that you really miss now you are not living in ‘these big houses’ anymore.
Actually, not all houses were ‘these big houses’ at all. But I confess: I miss not having a dishwasher. I used to totally not mind doing the dishes by hand, but now I really got out of the habit of doing them! How odd is that?

What is the best thing about being back home. Sleeping in your own bed?
No, had good beds wherever I was, very cosy bedding too.
The best thing is just being home. Being able to make arrangements with people to pop over and go hang out with them. Having all my knitting projects around me so I can pick up and work at a different thing every night if I want to. Doing my own grocery shopping and cooking. (Which I did in my last job in Denmark too and that was a big plus!)
It is just little things like that.

Do you have any funny stories that you want to share?
Yes, there are a few things that I can tell there. But you’ll have to wait.

I now have to get ready to go out learning to sing ‘smartlappen’ (tearjerker songs) Amsterdam style with a bunch of girls from work. Kinda like country, but different! Same sentiment though…………