Time Flies

Ok so the days are merging together at this point, lol. I am having such a hard time remembering what I did on what day so I'm going to compile some highlights here so I can get this up-to-date and stop stressing about it...because I AM stressing about it.

I told Lars that I wanted pancakes...the kind they have here...as I've been hearing about them for the last 2 years.

They are a lot thinner than ours..and very yummy. He layered them with syrup and I was pretty much in heaven.  Makes me want to go on the pancake boat even more now. We also had Oliebollen - which for those in the USA, imagine the yumminess of a funnel cake in a ball....omg.  A couple days after we had them from the little vendor by the subway station, Lars' mom taught me how to make them. Well, I mainly dropped the dough into oil and then ate them later...but saying I learned how makes me feel more accomplished.

I know...so attractive :)

He has also made me breakfast in bed ...yummy eggs and toast.  I didn't take a pic of this as I was in bed and I was stuffing my face.

On the 31st we went to see his parents...for me it was the first time actually meeting them and my first day in Dordrecht.That was the day we made oliebollen and Corrie had made an amazing pea soup with smoked sausage.  I was apprehensive about it at first but it was delicious and we had many containers to take home.  Its the best comfort food ever. (As a matter of fact, we just ate some for lunch). 

I'll admit to not knowing 85% of what went on around me.  Not knowing the language is so frustrating. Not only can I not understand, but it seems impossible for them to get to know me as well.  It shows me what aspects of our personalities we rely on to show who we are to the world.  I use humor, mostly self-deprecating I'll admit.  I'm not an outgoing person.  I'm not the person that can make friends with people just by walking into the room.  I talk with my hands, but not in a way that conveys any meaning...its more like waving my arms around in the ocean waiting for someone to come rescue me.

I'm painfully shy at times and tend to shy away from any physical contact...unless I've known you for a while.  I'm not entirely sure why this is...I'm affectionate with my kids and with Lars...but there seems to be some sort of block within me that keeps me from initiating contact and I'll admit it seems to be one of my biggest flaws here.
 I'm including a few pics of the day below and my next post will be about the New Year's celebration we witnessed.

 The first photo is my first live view of Grote Kerk (Great Church)...I have better pics of this later on.  The pic of me with the pink bear - the bear is a gift for Lylli from Piet and Corrie and I'm wearing the arm warmers that Corrie made for me. I love them :) The pics of the trees were taken on the walk from the train/bus station to his parent's house.  They are some really old trees in a park there and you can see that on one of them it is getting so large that they have bars under it to hold it up....its also the one I'm standing by in the last photo.  I'm turning Lars into a photo bug.

 In these last two pics you can see the Oliebollen we made and the ones that look like doughnuts actually are Oliebollen with apple inside...and the little round ones have banana in them. The cake is like an apple upside down cake.  Very yummy.

 This is Bezem - she is such a cutie but really did not like the flash in her eyes.  I had to sneak this pic.

This is Mocca - he is pretty much a cuddle bug and yes, he is as big as he looks.