LANGUAGE: Everyone really does speak English, at least enough to help me navigate around town without knowing any Dutch. People say Hallo when you come in a store or see you on the street. The shopkeepers always say good-bye when we leave (in English once they know I don't speak Dutch). I asked some people if they lived here (to ask if they knew the location of the post office) and they responded "we are also strange[rs] here." They were Dutch tourists; apparently there will be a lot of tourists in Delft this summer.
RAIN: It has rained for the last 5 days. Everyone is still out, walking and biking, but there is a noticeable explosion of people on the streets when the sun does show itself. Last night it was partly cloudy/sunny from 5:30 to 7 pm; people were everywhere. I miss the sunny days in Boulder. Eliot doesn't want to go out in the rain (and cold). I think you just learn to buck up and go outside when you have to. I have not yet mastered steering the stroller hunched over while holding an umbrella in the rain and wind. It is windy here.
SOUNDS: Everything is so close. It's deceivingly quiet in our apartment. The walls are well insulated and the windows have double panes, so when the windows are closed you don't hear anything, except maybe a siren out the front. But when you open up, you hear the sounds of a city. Everything is so dense; there are so many people, even in this small town. The train passes every few minutes. The express ones zoom through town; but the others screech to a stop at the station across the street. You can hear the heavy rolling of the tram wheels directly outside every 10 minutes. Then, there is the ringing of the bells of New Church. It seems to be a song at the quarter hour, and it chimes the time on the hour. You can hear people talking and laughing as they walk by, four stories below. The sirens are the European variety (doo-d0-doo-do-doo-do). We heard the clip-clop of horse feet on the brick street giving some tourists a ride.
posted by Whitney @ 7:15 AM
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