Hey, I went to Utrecht this week! And now it was like three whole days ago, so I can barely remember it. The University had an Event on Monday evening for new professors and their partners/spouses (spice?) on the 20th, and we both felt that it would be good for me to be there. So I packed my very spiffiest clothes, and we went shoe-shopping in Utrecht on Monday afternoon. I am the anti-Imelda: I have Doc Martens, Chuck Taylors, the cowboy wellies, and one pair of minimalist sandals, that’s all. DrBob felt that none of these were appropriate for an evening event (hmm, says my friend Amanda. Time to break out the sparkly flip-flops?). While we were shoe shopping, the hem on the right leg of my spiffy wool trousers fell down. Just came undone, just like that, flump! Harumph, so much for “you can dress her up but you can’t take her out” – can’t even dress me up, jeez.
We fixed them with DrBob’s miniature stapler. I’ve temporarily given up on sewing, so I pay a local woman to patch and repair our clothes. Can’t wait to explain the mini-staples to her.
Okay but the evening was fine! A lot of it was in Dutch, and I was able to pick up a word here and there: “good”, “all”, “two”, not enough to gain any sense of what was being said. But I didn’t fall asleep and drool, so I’m counting that a victory (watch out, Sarah Palin). And at the dinnery-thing, they seated me next to the University President! Hah! SO much potential for disaster there, but nope, I made small-talk and didn’t do anything embarrassing… that I’m aware of, anyway.
And the next day we drove around with a colleague of DrBob’s who has lived in Utrecht since he was 17, and he bought a house last year, and he showed us some neighborhoods that would be good to live in and talked about the whole process. Good information to have. We’re still tracking funda.nl, but I think we’ll start looking seriously after Christmas. There’s just too much else happening between now and then.
Oh, and Tuesday way my birthday and now I’m 38.
Song du jour of the day: Young Americans, by David Bowie.
alala 
October 24th, 2008 at 16:03
I knew it was your birthday and I didn’t email you. Happy Birthday!!
October 25th, 2008 at 07:47
Happy Birthday! Also, I want to go back to the Netherlands! For pancakes! And to perhaps see you!
Exclamation point!
October 25th, 2008 at 20:06
mini staples are great, but a perfect example of why you always need duct tape.
October 25th, 2008 at 23:31
@ leil: Thank you! And don’t worry, I’ll probably be able to return the favor on Friday. You know I never remeber things on time.
@ Catherine: You keep on flying past my house. I was beginning to wonder…
@ red: Duct tape was our first idea, but it was a 6-hour event, and we didn’t know how well it would hold up on wool.
October 26th, 2008 at 18:14
You are NOT 38. How old would that make me?? We’re in our 20’s still, right?
October 26th, 2008 at 21:05
Try not to think about it too much.
October 28th, 2008 at 23:09
Hi! found your comment on a touch of dutch… so you’re moving to utrecht? I lived and worked there for a number of years, and miss the big city feel of it now!
Hope you have a good time there once you arrive :-)
November 27th, 2008 at 22:37
I used it on one pair of pants for months. Think I even washed them. I’m the Queen of hems.
January 23rd, 2009 at 20:09
[…] necesarily mean waiting a whole year, though. You may remember when that colleague of DrBob’s drove us around Utrecht pointing out possible neighborhoods – that was back in October and he seemed surprised that […]