Alle is Goed

Alle is Goed means all is good. It's a saying I picked up from Pdot but I think it sums up my day nicely. Actually, I think I should be more specific, it sums up my night nicely. I've spent the last two days extremely frustrated with trying to get my bearings straight (I get lost, often!), trying to transfer money between Canadian and international accounts, trying to figure out if there are any international groups and clubs that I can join and MOST OF ALL, trying to understand what is going on around me in Dutch! Yes, it is true that many people here speak English, but I feel like such a dolt every time I can't understand someone or something. I vary between the deer-in-headlights look or smiling and nodding in order to deter people but I guess with my mother coming from the Netherlands I have a certain 'look' that predisposes me to Dutch as the first choice of communication (or if I think less egotistically, it's more likely because Dutch is the first language here, I digress).

As willing learner I am trying to find myself a Dutch course so that I can start feeling like an inhabitant of this city instead of its guest yet, as a Canadian citizen on a working/holiday visa it's quite hard to find anything (as I've come to learn) because many of the courses are for either permanent residents or recent migrants (of which the Dutch government covers the fees and so courses are set up for these groups largely). Yes, there are other courses for example, if you're affiliated with a school here then you may take a course at the university however, if you're not a visiting student with them then you cannot. Of course if I had oodles of money at my disposal I could pay for individual 'quality time' lessons for 1500 Euros (per 20 hours) and be done with it, but alas, my university has yet to cough up the dough. Last but not least, I arrived on September the 10th and many of the courses had already started. Future dates included October 12th, 27th, and November 1st. Hence, I was falling between the cracks everywhere! I heb curses voor Nederlands nodig! Nu! (I think that says "I need Dutch courses! Now!" but I could be wrong).

However, yesterday my sister and I were trolling the internet over Skype (thank god for Skype) and she and I both hit on a place giving lessons with no exams (the reason why many of the courses are so expensive is because they offer an accredited exam at the end of the course which is a necessary requirement for immigrants to acquire toward their permanent citizenship). This course starts next Monday, for a cheaper price than the other courses (no exam), for two hours a week (you can't get everything - I wanted more but I'll deal), it's close to my house AND they responded to my email with a request that I register. I hadn't realised how much not finding Dutch lessons was stressing me out until I solved the issue, what a load off my back!

In addition to this wonderful news I also received an email back from my contact at the Islamic University offering to set up a meeting between himself and myself to discuss my research in addition to setting up future interviews with people from the university. Wow! Stellar help. This man is fantastic.

Finally, I got my bike today. One of Pdot's colleagues is leaving for Hungary tomorrow and needed to sell his bike. Eh viola! One bike for Jennifer. So there is another big thank you to Pdot (as I told him earlier, if I have children, I'm pretty sure they'll have to be called Pdot) and to his colleague. In the nicest way possible I said: I'm sorry to see you go but it's a good opportunity for me, eh? I think I'm picking up some of that Dutch boldness ;). Anyway, I'm going to write an ode to my bike tomorrow. Although Pdot and I will most likely switch the bikes we're using because he's got a girl's bike (ha) and I just bought a man's bike, this bike is pretty sweet. I think I'll call it "le hot wheels".

Enough, as one can tell, the day ended alright. I found all of this good news out at about 5:30 today after a failed attempt to buy a cheap spring jacket (maybe Luke should just send one of my old ones) and no responses from my many emails for various clubs, affiliations, jobs, courses, etc.. So overall, alle is goed in Rotterdam tonight.