Is there anything you'd like to hear more about on this blog? If there is let me know. I'm not necessarily sure what kind of things are most interesting to people, so I'm cherry-picking here. If you have a specific topic of interest let me know and I'll try and touch on it a little more. Today's post is just going to cover some odds-and-ends.
There are two English speaking churches nearby. Neither of them is Baptist, alas, but they're both fairly interesting. Christ Church is an Anglican congregation a few blocks east of here. I'm definitely not Anglican, so attending a service that is so heavy on liturgy and where they take the Lord's Supper every Sunday is kind of a different speed for me. It's a young church, though, which is nice. Their building is, what, one hundred, one hundred fifty years old? It's squirreled away amongst the merchant houses, which means it's long, narrow and tall!
Also hidden away is the English Reform Church in the Begijnhof. However you won't have too much trouble finding it, since it's a historic site marked on most maps and the church has its own Wikipedia page. The church building has been there since about the time Columbus sailed the ocean blue, and the Presbyterian congregation that currently occupies it has been around since 1607, when the Protestant Reformation came to the Netherlands.
In modern times, it's quite an international church. I went to lunch with some of the young people who go there. They included people from Indonesia, Singapore, and Poland*. The latter is the student pastor of the church and speaks with a Scottish accent. I love Amsterdam.
* and, I guess, America.
I had to find the only FedEx in Amsterdam yesterday. It wasn't far, but there were no direct routes. So on a piece of scratch paper I jotted down what Google Maps indicated was the most efficient 'short cut' in terms of back alleys and cross-overs, mounted my bike, and sped off into the wild gray yonder. Score one for Google Maps, as I navigated the route with no trouble at all and swiftly located my quarry. I felt quite proud of myself.
Alas, the warm feelings did not last. This particular FedEx does not ship internationally!(?) They told me to go home and call a phone number. Meanwhile, it had started to rain. It was getting worse as I sped homeward. Then I took a wrong turn. I quickly corrected this, but when I broke out of the cover of the alleys and onto Rokin Street, a major thoroughfare, it got really fierce. Yikes I thought, this rain is cold. My next thought was Ow, it really stings too! At this point I realized that it wasn't rain at all, but hail. Yes, I was riding my bike in a hailstorm. Fortunately it wasn't Florida-style hail, or I'd probably be dead and not writing this entry. Instead I flung my arm up and bolted for the cover of an alley like there was no tomorrow.
This weekend I got trounced in Risk. The weekend before that was Monopoly. They both proved to be nearly interminable. Actually, I'm proud in retrospect that I did as well as I did in Risk. I remained a threat on the board throughout. This, in spite of a) a really terrible bunch of unconnected starting spots, b) an impossible victory condition of controlling 24 territories and c) the fact that one of the other player's mission was to destroy me.
They know of Settlers of Catan here, so I'm going to see if we can't play it next time. I'd prefer a game that ends in an hour or so.
Oh, one of the people I met at the Begijnhof has designed his own board game. It actually sounds pretty cool. I'm going to have to check it out.
My sister's birthday was yesterday. By my calculations she should be turning twenty-three, but I know that that's impossible. She's my sister! She can't be more than eight.
Anyway, Happy Birthday Kati! Hugs, kisses, etc.
I'm compelled to mention that in a previous post I had Sister Annemieke telling me 'no dice' and in fact she said no such thing. Her grasp of colloquial American English is not so impressive as that and there is no equivalent expression in Dutch. As a matter of fact I wrote that somewhat in jest, because it sounded like such an unlikely thing for a Dutch person to say.
The confusion is understandable, though. I've been teaching Anna and Ian over at the Mission House various 'gangsta' phrases, so anything is possible. Until you've heard Ian say "all up in yo grill' in a Scottish accent, you really haven't lived.
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2 comments:
*shrug* I am liking what you've posted so far- this sort of "assorted content" post as well as more specifically focused posts.
I just like updates & getting a better idea of Tom's New Life.
:)
I love that you are going to church in a building that my ancestors most likely worshiped in.
How about some photos, Tom? I'd like to see what a library looks like. Or a grocery store. Fire station?
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