The Rollarcoaster and a giant, black, butt plug

No, we didn’t go on any rollercoaster. I’m talking about emotions here (and I'll get to the butt plug later). Thursday was just plain shitty! It was rainy all day and I was stressin’ once again. Stressing about finding a “peuterspeelzaal” (preschool is so much easier to say) for the Shayna and Benny (until he starts” big boy school” in Nov.). Anyway, I was stressing about getting there on time, about finding the freakin’ place (it seems as though all the really long roads change their names every other intersection, seriously). In the end, all my worrying was for nothing. Rob and I looked at a place nearby. It seemed clean, friendly and warm and damn affordable too. I guess the govt. here subsidizes this expense, so it was on a sliding scale. It works out to be about $3.00 hr. CRAZY! The kids will be going two mornings a week for 3 hours each day. After our visit, I was very relieved and yes, there were spots for both kids.
The stress and worry however, began to build up again through out the day and it was right before we went to visit a Tae Kwon Do class for Benny that I hit “the low”. I described The Netherlands as “Connecticut minus friends, family, a car, and money (weak-ass dollar).” I was just so frustrated! Again, we were late because we took a bus there and had trouble finding the place. I swear, I am good with languages, but sometimes I look at the names of streets and just see the alphabet in a blender (Vlampijpstraat? Oudegracht? Smakkelaarsveld?) In the end, Benny didn’t want to go back to the class because they “didn’t do enough Tae Kwon Do”. I was relieved. I didn’t like the thought of biking or bussing there in the ice cold winter rain anyway.

And now here is the high of the emotional rollercoaster: the weekend! We went to the local park on Sat. and looked at really expensive homemade Dutch crafts like kids’ clothes and quilts. We played with the kids and met more of our neighbors. We even have a play date for next weekend with a really nice neighbor, his wife and 3 year old son (who is 5 inches taller than Benny. There are a lot of extremely tall people here!) We plan on biking to a “beach” just outside of town. He says it’s perfect for the little ones, shallow water, sand….all that. Should be cool.
(Here comes the butt plug) Today Rob and I biked the kids to a crazy art exhibit on campus (www.airpressure.nl/en). This guy, Paul McCarthy made these larger than life inflatable pieces of art. Among them are: a giant George Bush head, two anatomically correct pink pigs, one with eight giant teats, the other with a bloody stump for a head, Santa Claus holding a bell and a butt plug, a giant black butt plug (I told Benny it was an ear plug) and last but not least, a giant inflatable replica of a pile of shit his dog left him on his living room floor one night. Mind you, these crazy objects are located in the middle of a gorgeous and historical botanical garden that was established in the year 1639. So crazy, so fun. It was an amazing way to spend time with my family and finally, I was feeling good about being here (again). I’m sure there will be more ups and downs, but I just hope the ups outnumber the downs. I’m sure they will.