ORLY?

We picked up our residency permits finally (they've been ready and waiting for us for months, but they made the mistake of telling us that we had 2 months to pick them up...so we put it off) on Monday at a place called Orlyplein. Pronounced pretty much like it looks, but to Matt and I all we could see was the internet phenom the ORLY Owl. O really? Matt printed out the owl pic so we could firmly embrace geek-hood and take this photo. We tried to explain the joke to Joost, who was carting us around and helping us apply for our extension, but I don't think it made much sense to him. He was happy to help us regardless. It just so happened that we picked up our residency cards and applied for our extension at the same time. Hopefully our papers will get approval to keep us here through July just as easily as the first ones did.

I'm going out of order here... We enjoyed a very nice dinner at the Willimsen's house last Sunday after the meeting. It was reverse hospitality, since he had delivered the discourse at the hall that morning. Our only contribution was a bottle of Gallo from California that we stumbled across at one of the local grocery stores. Since we first dinned with them, early in our stay, they had gone out on Matt's suggestion and purchased Mario Party for the Wii. We took a few turns, guys against girls, and felt a lot like we'd never left California. Good family fun is universal it seems. Oh, and the guys won. I'm taking the easy way out and saying that it's not our lack of skill, but rather because their daughter had to be bribed with cookies to let the other girls take our turns...But I made Matt do the "guys win" dance, so really, we all won :) Barbara made a scrumptious lemon meringue pie for dessert. Matt volunteered to perform the meringue test. Having never made meringue myself, I didn't know what it was either... pretty much it's an excuse to hold a bowl full of whipped egg whites over someones head, and hope they're firm enough to not fall out of the bowl. Matt didn't need to take a shower, so it was a success :)

Our Congregation kills me in so many many ways... it makes me laugh at a constant stream of inside jokes that everyone is in on, and it makes me cry when I think of leaving in just a few months. Here's a brief example of the random hilarity that goes on in our little congregation meetings:

Last Wednesday's Theocratic ministry school was getting a little behind schedule, talks running over time as they will. The brother conducting the congregation Bible study slowly winds up the study, entertaining just a few last comments, when his brother in law, the next speaker up, suddenly stands up, walks up the steps, turns toward the audience, and ever so slowly, takes the microphone away from the conductor, and angles it towards himself and says "that's all the time we have I'm afraid." The bible study conductor steps aside, befuddled, but clearly dismissed. That in itself has most of the congregation laughing uproariously. A sister behind me says "only in our congregation..." as she shakes her head, snickering. As that brother's part (also a question and answer part) also starts to go overtime, the congregation gradually becomes aware of a particularly tall brother slinking up the side aisle, turning the tables on the first brother to redirect the stage microphone. Finally the speaker spots him too, realizes he's now the guilty long talker. The speaker who started the whole thing stands there on stage, giggles, turns bright pink and laughs along with the rest of us as he admits his maneuver of dismissal has come full circle...priceless. Don't get me wrong, it's all business and solemnity when it should be, but I wish I could recreate the sound of our hall ringing with chortles, guffaws, and giggles we enjoy a few times per meeting.

I've been on the receiving end of a "just a few last comments" night before too. A few months back, we were all caught up in a question and answer part, and everyone had something to share. Just as the conductor called on me, saying "Sister Allen" and pointing my direction, the next brother up stood up in the front row, and made it obvious that the meeting was moving on...heh

This Sunday, after meeting, Matt and I went out for a long bike ride to Ikea afterward because it's the only grocery store within 30 minutes from our house that's open on a Sunday, and because Ikea Food hot dogs are the closest we can find to American dogs.

Still out of order in my story telling: Saturday Matt and I went to Amsterdam Central Station to renew our monthly bus passes, and to finally pick ourselves up a "40% korting" train discount card. We just don't take the train often enough to have made it a priority before. But, Matt has signed up to run a 12K race in a coastal town called Zandfoort at the end of the month, and with one of us having the discount card we can get 40% off of up to 4 tickets. It worked out in our favor to get it this week because it used to be that you could only get a discount card for a year at a time, so it was around $55 euros. This month, we were able to get a discount card for 3 months, at only $15 euros, which is perfect for our time line. We are expecting a visitor in April (yeah Lanette for making it happen!!!!) and I have a sneaking suspicion we'll finally be taking the train out of the country. Will in be Germany? Paris, France? Luxembourg or Belgium? only time will tell...

After we took care of business, we took time to explore a little more of the city center. Just a little off the beaten tourist path, we found a place that felt more like the local's hangout. We like to pretend we're locals... We had dinner at place new to us called "Festina Lente", an Italian themed small plates dive. It felt a like a piece of Seattle, a chunk of Berkeley, and a slice of my grandparents basement room in their first house in Oregon smushed into a cozy, feline friendly, herb scented living room cum dinning room. With bookshelves. While waiting for our table to be cleared, Matt and I made friends with the guard cat, who the waiter joked about being named "American" because he's thick and lazy. Somehow, I don't think either one of us felt insulted... He actually climbed up on our extra chair (the cat, not the waiter) and fell asleep in our company for the rest of our tasty tasty meal. I admit, I pet him at length in a most unsanitary fashion. The restaurant also had a selection of games to play if you want. We asked about Risk, but when it showed up at the table, it was in Dutch, and Matt decided he was not up to the task of teaching me the rules while translating into English. So, we contented ourselves with lamb in red wine sauce, goat cheese and plum ravioli in basil, lemon scented poached salmon, and a few other yummy bites parading across our crooked corner table. When it was time to take our leave, Matt eased our snoozing feline friend over to the next table, chair and all, where a couple of women sat, trying not to be jealous of our being chosen over them for kitten affection. We walked through a light rain back to tram 5 and home sweet home.