We had a storm come through on Thursday, which is also Saint Martin's Day here. It's the Dutch equivalent of Halloween, though the kids sing certain songs for candy instead of threatening to throw eggs. The weather was hideous though, and only one pair of children came to the door - during a brief torrential downpour with a very wet mother trying to cover all three of them with an umbrella.
Jan had his birthday, but we didn't go out to dinner as planned because I spent the same day with a stomach virus doing really awful things to me. His parents and sister are coming over today for a celebration, and have something mysterious planned for dinner. Jan picked out pie halves for his birthday - it's traditional for the birthday boy to host his own party and provide the food.
We made it to the inburgering appointment yesterday ... barely on time even though we got to the general area with half an hour to spare. Finding parking was a nightmare. Next time we're going straight to a parking lot that isn't too far away and just planning on a bit of walking :-P Anyhow, the appointment went wonderfully. First the woman explained the process (which I already understood pretty well) and suggested I take intensive classes and aim for taking the State Exam at level B1 or B2. From what I understood, the minimal level needed for inburgering, A2, isn't sufficient for getting a job or anything. Basically just survival Dutch.
Because I have no resident card, they can't pay for the classes for me yet, but she said they'd arrange a refund of the class fees as soon as my card comes in. Jan signed me up for the class online while we were there and paid a bit over 1000 euros. It's a 3 month course with 100 hours of class time scheduled. It should get me to the point where I could pass the A2 exam, but instead of taking that I'll go onto B1 and B2 classes. City funding for the classes might end in a year or so, hence it's good to do it now. It also turns out that not all cities partially fund the classes, so I'm lucky to be in a city that does :-)
We also ordered my book online. I mentioned the price to Jan (only 30 euros!) and the woman said a lot of people complain about how expensive it is. We told her what I was paying for law school books (about $2000 per year), and she was a bit appalled. The only downside to the classes is that they're in Utrecht at Utrecht University, instead of a local community college. So Jan ordered a bus pass for me, and I managed to find a decent bus route. One that goes directly from here to there with no transfers and about a 10 minute walk at each end. The only downside is that it's a route designed for commuting to work, so mostly leaves from here in the morning and leaves from there in the evening. My classes start mid-afternoon, so it'll get me there 2 hours early, but classes get out about when Jan gets done with work, so I can ride home with him :-) I can use the 2 hours to study somewhere I suppose. It's either that or take 2 buses and 1 train to get there.
The websites for the bus companies aren't the greatest. Getting a schedule for a route requires doing virtual backflips around the site for a while, and some of the times get cut off by other crap on the website and are impossible to see. Maybe they just don't like Firefox.
Anyhow, the classes start in about a week! Very fast (almost too fast), but it's either then or wait until February. I'm tired of waiting :-P
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