Friday and Saturday Morning

It is 9:00 am on Saturday, it is raining and cloudy.  I have detected a pattern: rain, cold wind in the morning and then the afternoons are nice, no sun mind you, but none-the-less nice. Yesterday I went to a small museum with a small collection of modern art.  I’m branching out here. I had a class last semester and we covered lots of post 50’s art, “I can handle this, I can walk through the white hallways and appear as if I am part of the cool crowd.  Still not for me, sadly; apparently I am not a fan of “Kinetic Art.”

I found another book fair along a canal in the Jordaan.  There was a stand up bass player and a saxophone player in the middle of the book stalls playing wonderful music and the booksellers all huddled around a middle table with coffees and cigarettes. The scene was all very 1920’s.  I would have stayed all afternoon, but Rick (the husband of another Taylor employee) and I had to get to the Taylor plant for Friday night happy hour, (A very cool tradition).

I’m back; I was taking a break and doing my favorite thing: watching people on the street below. A very tall man walked under my window with what looked like his weekend groceries.  Everyone appears to pick up what they need every few days.  It’s a very cool system.  The apartments all begin on what they call 1 floor, and 0 floor is filled with shops and restaurants. On our block we have: a fish store, cheese, bakery, a coffee shop, a sandwich shop, a restaurant (with very good soups and bread), and a couple clothing stores (fancy). Every Wednesday and Saturday, the residents simply place their small bags of garbage at the foot of the tree in front of their flat; there are no big trash cans or any big trucks, very organized. Recyclables are taken the market at the end of the street and placed in bins (I watched several people one day dropping their stuff off from a nearby bench, a lot of wine bottles, nice!).

Today we have the company car and we are heading out for a day of adventure in Delft (Vermeer lived there and “The Girl with the Painted Earring” painting is there, then off to see The Hague and we will have seafood on the coast for dinner. 

I will post more when I return. I miss my kids o much, but this place is sure going to be hard to say goodbye to.