Even Spider Web's Are Pretty When Iced

It is truly cold here.

Thursday morning, I finally had an appointment to get the radiator panels fixed. This time someone from the building was supposed to come, since it’s a building wide system. He was scheduled for 9:30, so I had a lazy morning. In fact, I was still in the bed (reading...) when the guy rang the phone buzzer at about 8:30. I answered, but I couldn't understand anything the man said. So, I said come on up, even though I didn't expect you until 9:30.

I then hear a clear "goodbye" and nothing else.

I thought maybe that meant he was on his way up, so I got dressed, vacuumed, made breakfast. About 30 minutes pass, and I’m thinking he’s not waiting at the elevator. So I call Ekta (landlady) to see if she knew what happened...no answer.

At 9:30 the guy does indeed show up, says stuff in Dutch, and I say stuff in English. I ask if he speaks any English, he says no, I say I speak no Dutch, and he makes like he's gonna leave because we can't get anywhere...so I hurry and gesture for him to come with me to the guest room, point at the radiator and say "no work". He opens his bag and starts in, and before he gets too far, I show him that the kitchen and the bathroom also "no work". He shakes his head in understanding, and gets to it.

10 minutes later, he asks (gestures) for me to sign a paper, which I do, he says more stuff in Dutch, I look dumbly back at him, and we say “dank u vel” (thank you) and “dag” (day). Still not knowing what happened, I put my hand to the 3 broken radiator panels...heat! Thus, in 10 minutes, two months of waiting and wondering is put to rest.

Rock on international language of head shaking, frowns, and smiles.

In the afternoon, I had to go to the Gemeente Amstelveen (Amstelveen Town Hall) to file one last piece of paper regarding our residency permits. It took me all of 4 minutes to get in and get out, however. My bus home failed to appear. I could have walked a few minutes around the corner and caught another bus, but I only noticed that after I saw that bus come and go too far away to catch up to. So, I waited an hour plus, pacing back and forth on frozen toes, every second hoping to see the 166 turn the bend in my direction. The KLM building on the corner has a huge clock and temperature gadge. It read -3 celcius. That's about 29 Fahrenheit. That my friends, is cold.

Just before I headed back to the bus stop from the city hall, I caught sight of the frozen over lake behind the building. So, I passed a little time staring in wonder at what seemed to be hundreds of ice skaters speckled out across the whole width of the lake. The sky blended into the tree line, which blended into the ice line, so everything had a glaze of white to it. Even the misty sunlight.

The trail took me near a small stream feeding into the lake, also iced over. But the ice here buckled and shifted before my eyes, creaking with movement. I don't know how people can tell when it's safe to skate...

Matt's boss was here this week, so they finally got to meet face to face. Things are getting interesting. More on that later...