Eliot's Travels

This morning started out a little crazy. Jim was stilll feeling under the weather, so I got up early and then woke Eliot for school. Miles woke up, even though he didn't need to, looking for mommy. We hustled around, got snack ready, ate breakfast and were just getting Eliot dressed at 8:05, needing to leave the apartment at 8:10. Jim lifted up and said there's no school today; he had been the one to pick Eliot up on Thursday and it was a recently added closure, so I forgot all about it. Sure enough, it was a teacher workday (again). Thank goodness he told me before I was on my way to school in such a rush. We pushed off getting dressed and had a relaxing morning.
Jim felt better in the late morning, so he helped us make a big run to the grocery store to get bulky items. We also had a huge number of bottles to return from the Halloween party. The cool thing here is that you actually get the 10 cents printed on the bottle label. Jim has wanted his bike loaded up with a box of beer since we got here - though I think he envisioned a crate of beer not a box of empties!

This afternoon I noticed black smoke coming from the train station. I ran to get my camera, thinking it must be a fire. After 5 minutes of black smoke and no sounds of sirens, I figured that it was something else. Sure enough, the smoke turned to light gray and then white like steam and then it began to move down the track. An old steam engine was starting up at the station. We saw it head down the tracks, as it gave a big loud toot on its whistle.

Tonight was another women's dinner. The boys left for their panckae dinner about 6, so I had a little time to kill. The stores are open late in Delft on Friday nights, so I checked out a few toy stores for gift ideas. I picked up bagels for tomorrow and headed to the restaurant at 7 pm. We ate at the Voldersvier near the Markt. The food was quite yummy, and the six of us had a nice evening.

Jim's paperwork came through IND (immigration), saying that he can work and his residency card should be coming soon. It also meant that he could get the "extract" required for me and the boys' immigration permits. After dinner with the boys, he stopped by the Gemeente to get the all important document for IND. Even the city offices are open late on a Friday night. That's pretty helpful!

posted by Whitney @ 3:03 PM