"But how do you go on with life?!?!"

This week I was able to witness the ground breaking for the new church that is being built here at Mennorode. At about 1:15 on Thursday the huishouding dames received a phone call saying we were all invited to the ground breaking that started in 15 minutes. Apparently they forgot, or didn't, invite people and so they suddenly were scrambling for attendees. To humor them we went. And by went, I basically mean that we stepped out the door of the hotel for 5 minutes. While waiting for the groundbreaking to start all of my co-workers were jumping from foot to foot talking about how freezing cold they were and then turned their comments to me since I was wearing only a bunny hug while they were bundled up to their ears in scarves and jackets. Comments such as, "of course she's not cold, she's Canadian!" were passed and co-workers asked me if the things they had heard about us having to plug in our cars were true. Yes of course, I said. I told them that you had to plug them in if you wanted them to start the next morning. Someone asked me what the temperature was at home right now and I responded -25 (like my parents have been telling me) and they said, CELSIUS?!. I get a little annoyed when they ask questions they know the answer to, it's not like they didn't know that, but still I answered politely. However when I went on to explain that that could be considered nice weather after periods of cold, they were shocked. They, of course, couldn't even imagine that, and couldn't understand how the water in our pipes didn't freeze. I informed them it sometimes did. My favorite though, was when they asked me completely seriuosly how life goes on. I tried really hard not to laugh, I later relieved myself when telling zach this story and we laughed for a good while about it, and simply told them that our life must go on and you learn to deal with it. They also were predicting sleet this week and everyone is in stitches about how they're going to cope with it. They are quite concerned that I do not have proper footwear for the 2 cm of snow they're expecting. Instead of trying to explain to them that my footwear is more than sufficient, I simply told them if I needed something I would buy it.

In other news, my co-worker has finally invited me to go see Harry Potter 7 with him. I've been dropping hints for about a month now and tonight he took the bait. Unfortunately I must say bait because the main reason I'm with him is so that I don't have to ride my bike. I know that's a terrible thing to say, but honesty is important, I just hope he doesn't read this. . . . .

Lastly, I have come to the sad conclusion that all of the clothing I brought is going to be destroyed by the time I leave here due to the major shrinkage that the washer causes. I guess the good part is I can buy clothes? Maybe from one of the FIVE H&M's in one square in Amsterdam. Ridiculous.

Now it is reading time. Tot straks!