Everyone has a birthday, and when you have a family that lives close by each other, everyone gets together to celebrate everyone's birthday. There's a lot of birthday parties.
Last Saturday, Inge (Milja's older sister) had her birthday. Remember that first birthday party I went to right away when I got here? Yep, the one where I was absolutely terrified to walk up to everyone in the room and try to say "gefeliciteerd." Well, I've come far since then. At Inge's birthday party "gefeliciteerd" rolled off of my tongue and kissing everyone three times wasn't awkward at all. I guess you can get used to anything...
Standard birthday procedure is to eat cake right away when you get there, and then you basically keep getting appetizers until you eat dinner, then dessert, and then tea with a cookie or chocolate on the side. It's a lot of food. Peter, Milja, Taiana, and I got there a little bit later than everyone else, so they were all done with cake, but we jumped right in. Birthday cake from the bakery in Spooner is NOTHING like birthday cake from the bakeries here. Actually, as far as I know Inge didn't have a real birthday cake- she had all different kinds of "cakejes"- little cakes- that everyone could pick from. Anyway, at Inge's party (and the rest of them) we spent the afternoon sitting with everyone eating cake, nuts, appetizers, drinking tea, and talking. For dinner she had turkish bread, three kinds of salads, and chili. Inge makes such good food- by all of the family dinners she's always the one who brings the fresh vegetables and salads.
That was another birthday party gone by- luckily there's a few more to go before the year is over.
On Sunday we went on another day trip with TDR. We drove to Papendal which is sort of like the olympic city of the Netherlands. I'm making that sound really glamorous, but as far as I know the town itself isn't all that exciting. The place we were at is a hotel but it's sort of a "sport hotel." All sorts of sports meetings are held there and lots of athletes come there to train. The reason we went to Papendal was to listen to Ellen van Lange talk. She was the 1992 Olympic champion in the 800 meter dash. She started running when she was about 18, and she was 22 when she won in 1992. That race was so neat to watch because she ran at the back of the pack for the entire first 500 meters or so, and at the end she just starts to fly- she's running so beautifully- and passes everyone. (Here's the link for the youtube video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eis7ZxbHjU ) Besides telling us about herself and her training she talked about runners in general. She said that as runners we all know what it's like to be standing at the starting line of a race and ask ourselves why we would ever want to run- that we've all wished to be the person who's walking their dog on the street so that we wouldn't have to race. This is true, there's times before I race where I envy everyone around me who doesn't have to. But she also pointed out that we all love running enough to keep doing it even when we have those doubting moments, and that we always realize how worth it it is. She also told a story about how Paula Radcliffe was picked to be on a relay team not because she was a good runner but because of the "fire in her eyes."
I don't believe that having "fire in your eyes" can get you everywhere- or even very far- but somehow I still got stuck thinking about what she said. The thing is that when you see the best runners, skiiers, bikers, soccer players, dancers- they all have something about them that's a little bit different. When you're around someone with so much drive and dedication you feel it all the time, even if they're not running or skiing or doing whatever it is that they do. Maybe it's charisma, an aura, or just a vibe- or maybe it's fire in their eyes.
While the athletes with fire in their eyes are off winning olympic races and breaking records I'm making small strides too. You won't see mine in the news anytime soon, or even at the top of any results list, but I can feel it a little. Running is fun. Maybe it's because spring is coming, or because I can finally train as hard as I've been wanting too. For sure it's that I'm starting to get a little bit used to training hard and once in a while I can run laps in the amount of time I'm supposed too.
Right now it's proefwerkweek, but it's almost over. On Saturday there's a new puppy coming: Misha, a black flatcoat retriever. Over a week Johanna's coming to visit from Sweden, and on Easter Monday I'm racing 5km for the first time in a long time.
There's lambs in the fields, ducks crossing the street, and crocuses everywhere.
Happy Spring.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
Little Pieces
There is absolutely no way that I'm going to go back and write everything that I've thought about/done/experienced in the two weeks or so that it's been since I've last written (mostly because I can't remember it, and partly because that would take WAY too long).
A new grave has been dug in the garden here after Lara had to be put asleep last night. 15 years is pretty old for a dog, but it's sad that she's not around anymore. Now there's an empty dog bed in the living room and left over dog snacks in the cupboard. Milja misses her the most, and I have to admit that it's a little bit empty in our house without a dog. We had the decency to wait at least twelve hours before starting to look for new dogs online...
Last weekend I was back in Amsterdam for a Sunday afternoon. I went with another friend on the train, shopped (more like looked longingly at everything I wish I could buy), and in the evening rode my bike back from the train station. Amsterdam is still beautiful, old, and oh so European (and full of annoying tourists who speak British English).
Running. I'm one hundred percent back in action. Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday training with the team, but apparently being "careful" not to over do anything. Of course, I want to be in good shape for Portugal. Portugal = two weeks of training on the coast with TDR (special thanks to sponsor Will Conijn Consultancy ; ). Twice a day running, athletes from around Europe, and did I mention it's Portugal? What could be more exciting? Then again, it's not going to be much if I'm sitting on the side lines complaining about a sore leg. So I'm planning on staying injury free and getting fast enough that I won't shame TDR in front of the other clubs.
More about running. I'll be the last person to complain about not having keys to get on the track. Last resort training with the sun setting in the dunes is great. 3x a 1000 meter loop, half climbing up the dunes over stone steps, and half running along the huge scottish highlander bulls. The sky is pink, and the air is a little springy. "Oh what a wonderful feeling..."
Proefwerkweek number three is unfortunately right around the corner. What this should mean is that I start spending hours every day after school studying, writing chapter summaries, and doing practice tests. What it actually means is that I don't have to go to school all that much, and I have to study a little bit. But you never know... maybe this will be the proefwerkweek where I buckle down and get all 10's.
As much as I try to push it away, there's a little spark of panic starting to ignite. Every time I open my agenda to plan something and end up having to flip through three months before finding an open weekend the spark gets a little bigger. Theoretically four months is a long time. But you know the saying, "time flies when you're having fun." Right now I don't want anything to do with flying time. Where can I find some crawling time?
A new grave has been dug in the garden here after Lara had to be put asleep last night. 15 years is pretty old for a dog, but it's sad that she's not around anymore. Now there's an empty dog bed in the living room and left over dog snacks in the cupboard. Milja misses her the most, and I have to admit that it's a little bit empty in our house without a dog. We had the decency to wait at least twelve hours before starting to look for new dogs online...
Last weekend I was back in Amsterdam for a Sunday afternoon. I went with another friend on the train, shopped (more like looked longingly at everything I wish I could buy), and in the evening rode my bike back from the train station. Amsterdam is still beautiful, old, and oh so European (and full of annoying tourists who speak British English).
Running. I'm one hundred percent back in action. Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday training with the team, but apparently being "careful" not to over do anything. Of course, I want to be in good shape for Portugal. Portugal = two weeks of training on the coast with TDR (special thanks to sponsor Will Conijn Consultancy ; ). Twice a day running, athletes from around Europe, and did I mention it's Portugal? What could be more exciting? Then again, it's not going to be much if I'm sitting on the side lines complaining about a sore leg. So I'm planning on staying injury free and getting fast enough that I won't shame TDR in front of the other clubs.
More about running. I'll be the last person to complain about not having keys to get on the track. Last resort training with the sun setting in the dunes is great. 3x a 1000 meter loop, half climbing up the dunes over stone steps, and half running along the huge scottish highlander bulls. The sky is pink, and the air is a little springy. "Oh what a wonderful feeling..."
Proefwerkweek number three is unfortunately right around the corner. What this should mean is that I start spending hours every day after school studying, writing chapter summaries, and doing practice tests. What it actually means is that I don't have to go to school all that much, and I have to study a little bit. But you never know... maybe this will be the proefwerkweek where I buckle down and get all 10's.
As much as I try to push it away, there's a little spark of panic starting to ignite. Every time I open my agenda to plan something and end up having to flip through three months before finding an open weekend the spark gets a little bigger. Theoretically four months is a long time. But you know the saying, "time flies when you're having fun." Right now I don't want anything to do with flying time. Where can I find some crawling time?
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