Not being homeless anymore

Tuesday 8:00 am.... WAKE UP!!! Yep, it was the first day we finally made ourselves get up early and stop pretending we were on vacation, though we're definitely still enjoying summer and the holiday before "the party" starts.  This is our postive way of saying the insanity that is school. :)  We had two appointments set to view apartments in the afternoon so we decided to make ourselves useful and go help over at school.  We had our usual breakfast, bananas (it's the cheapest, healthiest option that can be stored in your hotel cupboard.)  We were at school by 9:00 where we were immediately put to work.  We loved it though. One of my favorite parts of teaching is getting the room ready.  What a fun adventure we have helping get the whole school ready.  As of Tuesday morning the floors were not in, the doors were not in and there was no furniture except for a computer table in each room and two stools.  The excitment of the day was that bulletin boards were being installed.  Now, let me tell you, bulletin boards to anyone besides maybe myself or other teachers may not be a big deal.  But, Matt and I were geeked.  Once each board was hung by the professional dutch company, Matt and I woud set quickly to work covering each board with cardboard and then putting up some cutesy boarder so that when the teachers come next week, all they have to do is put on their posters.  Suprisingly, we worked really fast and made a great team, which I guess isn't too surprising but we are both curious to see how life will be for us constantly together, sharing our profession.  We've been doing well though and have remained friendly throughout the days.  As long as we are still friends at the end of each obstacle, we know we're doing pretty well.  Sometimes it takes reminders of you're not being a good friend right now or hey be my friend please, but we're making it. :) 

At noon on Tuesday after the stapleing and cutting of the bulletin boards ended, we were able to meet both of our teaching parnters and the four of us had lunch together.  It was fun and lots of questions were thrown around the table.  Beginning ideas were discussed we only have to plan for two days the first week.  Matt and I asked mainly about how many things will work and we tried to all get to know each other a little.  Matt found out he gets to take his kids out to the country camping to celebrate the end of the year.  So I'll be here for a week by myself, luckily this is at the end of the year and I can come hang out at night since the camp is 20 minutes from here.  We found out our class sizes, Matt will have 16 and I will have 18.  We are in awe.  Though we know this will be necessary because the kids are on so many different levels.  For groupings we will have about 7 groups of reading levels between our class and our team teachers' so lots of differentiation will have to happen.  Catherine said rarely will we stand up in front of class and teach one lesson to the class because they will all be at different levels depending on English levels and where they have previously been schooled.  I am super jealous because one of Matt's students does not speak any English yet; he is French! :)  Hopefully, I can help and build my French up. 

We have talked with Catherine and we are all thinking of taking Dutch lessons at the university or at least together through someone.  (Bonus: she said we may be able to have the school pay for it.)  This is so enthralling to me because I am hoping by the time I leave here I will be converstational in both French and Dutch.  Ahhh....trilingual.  I always thought Spanish would be the next language I learned but I guess you never know where life is going to take you.

Tuesday afternoon, Catherine drove Matt and I to our first apartment viewing.  It was on Lyonnette Straat and right next to the movie theater.  We liked it a lot.  It was big and resonably priced but not furnished.  We then had a bit of time to kill so after figuring out Cath's car wasn't dying (the fan wouldn't turn off even after we turned the car off, we laughed, kicked at it, pushed a lot of buttons and then moved on. Don't worry the button pushing turned it off.)  Where's Kyle Baareman when you need him?  European consultation??? :)  Cath took us to the amazing book store I have been waiting to see.  It's in an old 16th century cathedral.  It has won many awards and is simply breath-taking.  We had coffee with Cath there and just talked lots of school.  Cath and I also got to discuss our love of reading and it's so exciting to have so much in common with her.  We told her how sad we found it that a church so beautiful was turned into a book store.  Not that it isn't cool but we can't understand why you would want to use it as a church.  There is also a church here for sale for one Euro.  No one wants to buy it because it is filled with pigeons and pigeon poop.  Catherine replied that it wasn't really a big deal because there are so many churches around here.  We laughed to ourselves that Cath must never have been to West Michigan to know what a lot of churches really looks like. 

Our last apartment viewing of they day was the one we had been waiting for.  It was in the eves of a 17th century mansion.  Yes, up four winding, skinny flights of steps. The entry is so beautiful and leads to the stairwell as well as a back garden where we  can store bikes and have plants, yeah!!  A garden was my must have.  I just need a plant that needs me to take care of it and somewhere to eat outside.  Though, not sure I want to take my food down four flights of steps. :)  The upstairs was so cute.  The bathroom is small, though not the smallest we've seen. There's  no tub and the shower is really small but it's a decent bathroom overall. We loved the kitchen with a breakfast nook. The kitchen has a dishwasher and a combi microwave oven.  Yep, here their microwaves double as their ovens.  They function the same just are super teeny.  We also have the biggest fridge we've seen here so yeah!! This however, is about the size of a large dorm fridge. The living room has a black couch with red pillows; it felt like home.  The bed or should I say beds( here they can't fit queens or kings up the stairwells so married people sleep in two twins pushed together. :) Even our hotel is like that.) The beds are in a loft above the living room, Matt is so stoked about this. I on the other hand am a little more apprehensive.  But the deal breaker is a GIANT walk in closet.  Christina and other guests, this is where we'll put a bed for you to sleep in. :) Just kidding.  But no, the closet is great and has space probably for everything we brought and more.  Maybe Matt's scooter.     YEAH, we do have washer and dryer, boo it's in the wine cellar of the house. The deep basement, five flights down and it's shared with the others who live in the house.  But it's free.

After we saw the house we liked it but still weren't sure.  We left Cath and walked around a bit.  On our way back to see the apartment we ran into a couple.  Young German grad students.  We had seem them moving into the house when we viewed it.  They invited us in to see their place in case we wanted to move their when they move out in a a year.  They were really nice and we're excited to have them as neighbors, especially to be around people our own age.  (We learned at lunch with Audrey and Suzanne our teaching partners, that most of the UWC teachers live outside of Maastricht.)  The German couple also told us the other guy living in the house right now is a missionary and we thought this would be awesome for us and maybe a great way to get connected.  Right now the bottom apartment is empty.  It doesn't have a kitchen or anywhere for food so I am not sure who will want to live there, maybe another student but it's pretty pricey.  We left thinking that was the one but we wanted to make sure so we set up two appointments for Wednesday.

Wednesday, we went to the appointments by ourselves.  We wanted to love the first house we saw since it was actually a whole house and included everything but no utilities.  We actually decided it was TOO big for us.  Crazy we know.  We went for lunch and a small chain sandwhich shop. Bufkes.  We each had yummy ham sandwiches they shaved off the ham right there.  We then went and walked around Maastricht for awhile because our last appointment was until 3:00. We stopped and had an afternoon coffee overlooking the river.  It was fun to people watch and we saw lots of tour buses.

 We thought we were going to fall in love with this last place.  It was the cheapest and we did love it.  It was literally a hop, skip and a jump from the river in an awesome part of town and had a private garden entrance on a big courtyard with a great restaurant.  But unfortunately it was under construction.  The landlord guaranteed us a bed and a table by this weekend but we weren't sure.  Plus, it was connected to a new jewelry store that isn't open yet but there was no door between the two yet.  The landlord was great and assured us that everything would be there.  We trusted him but just want to be all settled before school starts so we decided to go with the loft apartment.  We were excited and went to see it one more time.  We then walked forever in the park nearby.  We love, love, love this park.  It's all along our side of the river.  You can stroll on the old city wall, go to the petting zoo, or just sit and enjoy people walking by.  There are beautiful flowers and one of the best parts is it's right on the edge of the music conservatory so you can hear sweet music flowing out the open windows of this holy building.  Yesterday we heard violins and piano. ahhh...

So we decided and 16 D Witmakersstraat is ours and today we found out we get the keys at 2:00! Friday! We wired money today (which was not fun trying to send millions of faxes and other crazy things but thankfully even though most people don't know what to do with our unique situation they are willing to work with us and figure things out.)  Niki is going to pick us up at 1:30 from the hotel and we are going to go move in.  YEAH!  First we will jump on the bed, run up and down the stairs, maybe not too many times. :)  Then go grocery shopping and we'll be all set.  :)

On Wednesday, when we were shopping I got to experience my first market day.  I loved it.  I was so sad I couldn't buy food so tomorrow that's my first stop after we're in.  I love the smells of the market and the people.  The fresh fruit lined up is the best.  The blueberries and raspberries called to me!  Tomorrow.  I couldn't get over how small the strawberries were.  You know they look different when they are grown naturally and not pumped full of crap and fertizliers. Matt and I also went to the larget grocery store in that area to see what we could find.  Can you believe it, we found every brand of every product we use, or really close to it, same toothpaste, shampoo, soap, medicines, face products.  However, deodorant might be a different story.  They have lots of sprays and roll on sticks. uggghhh... :)  We also haven't found allergy medicine for Matt so we may have to have someone send some soon.  We didn't go to the drug store yet though.  I must note though, things are quite smaller sizes and quite a bit more money.  So I think we'll still be stocking up on visits home. 

Mainly we've just relaxed today we stayed at the hotel all day and made calls, faxes, sent e-mails.  We ran into the school group and had lunch with them so that was nice.  I think we are about to venture out for pizza and then hopefully watch a movie on the computer. 

Friends, this may be our last post for a bit because we aren't sure with the move how long it will take us to get connected.  So blessings, be safe and hopefully this will hold you for now.  Tot ziens!