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Published: February 7th 2011
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Thursday saw me begin another adventure to a place nearby. This time the destination was not as close as the town-centre where the bank and their coffee-offering staff lay, but a far more daunting distance. Eindhoven looked on the map (‘plattegrond’) about 50km away, but I forget how over-sized their maps are made. I’m not sure if this is to satisfy their insecurity-complex of such a small country or just to play with tourist’s minds; nevertheless it was only about 10 min away (with the wind…).
Opa dropped me off next to one of Eindhoven’s coffee shops. Yes, one of those coffee shops. This is the first time that the only looks I got were a mix of complacency and relaxed interest. These people were far too chilled to be drinking any form of coffee. After forgetting I was in Holland for two seconds and retracting my pinkie from a thumbs-up (that classic surfer-style ‘ahoy’) I managed to slink into an alley before any of the stoners regarded me as just another tourist.
I went in search of any restaurant/ café that I might find a stint of work at. I’m not lying when I say that I combed
Eindhoven sideways by going into every single establishment possible. I even found a dark, dark corner where Egore in his hunched manner politely declined my offer to serve him.
Not deterred by the lack of interest in a hard-working South African (even wearing a shirt) I entered the work-placement offices next. I’ve now left my CV and details at around 10 different ones and have a meeting Monday with the Horeca (Hotel, restaurant and café) office. Hopefully this proves to be a winner!
Friday was a day of relaxation as the weather became colder (if possible, I think I still have a lot to learn). I toured the rest of Aalst a bit; went and shopped at the C1000 and bought myself some Amstel to see what it tastes like here. Not bad, but Newlands-brewed Amstel is still a weapon of choice! Also cycled through to Waalre where my Uncle Ariejan lives and his significant other, Anita. Left my number and some sweets in their letterbox which they later found much to their amusement. Cycling through the forest back home was fun and I’m slowly getting a bit of an understanding of my surroundings…kind of. Confidence and getting
lost is not what I need right now!
Saturday saw the dawn of a bit of excitement as it was Daniel’s (my cousin) birthday party, his actual birthday then being on the Sunday. We left Aalst rather early so that Opa and Oma could do some shopping in Germany as some specific desires are cheaper there. To give you an idea, a crate of ‘average’ beer is around 70 bucks, but that’s not the good stuff. Good stuff is between 90-100 bucks a crate. Sweets for R5 a packet…very very lekker! Tub of yoghurt for R10 and cereal is pretty expensive since not many people eat it. It’s mostly bread, meat, honey, jam and cheese in the mornings.
We found the special yoghurt and advanced-caravanning tinned-meat. As I feasted on all the freebies, Oma unknowingly knocked cans off shelves as she meandered down the aisle. My hakkie-sack and quick-packing skills were put to the test for fear of being held captive by the Germans and being force-fed beer and sausage.
We made it to the Guit residence just in time for some tea and cake and we idly chatted whilst waiting for the birthday boy. The afternoon
went by chatting to both close and distant relatives. The evening saw all of Daniel’s friends arrive to start the real party and we got cracking on the beers. It was great to chat to a bit of a younger crowd again and it was also good for my confidence in being able to hold my own in a bit of a conversation. Sometimes I have to grab a few English words out of the ‘vocab’, but on the whole my Dutch is improving rapidly. It’s difficult to have more of an intelligent conversation as my grip on the Dutch language lies somewhere between a Dutch teen and a mid-20’s gentleman. All my phrases are obviously quite old-school, having learnt from my Mom; not to say she isn’t freaking cool. Nonetheless, I get by and received plenty of compliments.
After reassuring most of Dan’s friends that my Hyena and Leopard are kept separate in the backyard and away from the penguins in the pool we closed the night and hopped into bed at around 3am. Sunday only really started around lunch, which was the ‘in’ thing to do. Daniel only realized it was Sunday at around 1pm and arrived
for ‘breakfast’ shortly after. We cleaned the room of nuts, chips and the ridiculous amount of confetti (the Dutch…) that was shot from arm-length cannons. I made some confetti-angels on the floor and then saw the roof; consequently I also had to peel some confetti from behind the lights. I now remember hiding under a couch after the cannons blared and sent confetti at light speed skywards only to narrowly miss the lights and Jenny’s head on the way further.
Today (Monday, February 07, 2011) Opa had to go to the doctor for an quick eye-op. I had my meeting with the “Horeca” agency in the afternoon and was quite nervous about cycling to Eindhoven. I found Eindhoven OK, but the back-roads greeted me with another friendly reminder of the perks of being a tourist. I eventually dared to ask a local the way back to Klein Bergstraat and entered the agency a tad early. I’m now set up for training and can only start working next week as I still have to wait for my BSN (“social security”) number after it not being on my passport. Eish.
However, further inroads have been made into my immersion into
the Dutch way of life! I now have the duties of a job in sight and will take this week to further explore. Wednesday night I’m being entertained by Ariejan and Anita (A&A) and Thursday I’m going to go play some volleyball. I’ve also been invited for a beer by one of Daan’s friends, Patrick. He’s keen to show me a place with live music called Woodstock. I’ve also come into contact with a few people living in Eindhoven through couchsurfing.com and will maybe go for a cuppa and learn a bit more about the city.
To end off, I had quite a funny moment today which I thought I’d share. Whilst cycling to the Municipality to get my BSN sorted a tremendous siren started blaring. I thought maybe they knew there was a South-African immigrant in the area, perhaps my wild cycling mannerisms had drawn too much attention? Whilst crouching under a bush behind my bicycle I envisioned the French running through the streets being chased by Germans with sausages. I swear only two drops of pee leaked out. Turns out every first Monday of the month at midday they test the emergency sirens out, to scare the
shit out of tourists. Just another experience in what, today, was a sunny Netherlands. A bit of Vitamin D, oh yeah.
Cheers,
Disco
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