I had a few things today that made me happy. First, I passed my driving theory test. See, despite the fact that I could change my BC licence for a German licence or a British licence and not need a Dutch one, or that I could change it for a Quebec licence that could be traded for a Dutch one (all assuming I lived Germany, Britain or Quebec first), I have to go through the whole damn licencing process for both my car and motorbike licences to drive or ride legally here since there’s no treaty between the Netherlands and BC. And the theory exam is tough – you can only get 6 wrong out of 50 and the questions aren’t easy – about half the room didn’t pass (in Dutch fashion, they handed back the results to those who failed first, announcing what they were doing). But did you know that a person leading a cow is treated as a vehicle and if they are coming from the right at an unmarked intersection or if they’re on a paved road while you’re on an unpaved road, they have priority? However, a person pushing a motorbike is a pedestrian and so has no priority at all unless they’re at a crosswalk.
And I passed the exam on very little sleep! Although Liam has teased us a few times by sleeping through the night, last night he really, really didn’t. What would I do without caffeine and adrenaline? Anyway, to take the English exam sometime within the next few months I had to go to The Hague to do it, so Liam stayed at Ivo’s work, and Ivo was even kind enough to send his intern to the train station to fetch Liam so I’d be sure to make it on time. Of course, Liam then slept the whole morning and woke up just in time to charm everyone at lunch and be ready for me when I made it back there, theory certificate in hand.
In the afternoon, I went out to Scheveningen (beach area of The Hague) to look for touristy things to take back to my family when we go back to Canada on Thursday. Scheveningen is most famous for being a way to tell Germans from Dutch in WWII – apparently it’s impossible for Germans to say correctly. This leads to a lot of “Say Scheveningen” for foreigners.
Scheveningen also brought to mind this video. It’s the Dutch version of “Do You Know the Muffin Man” (which is “Zeg, ken jij de mosselman wie woont in Scheveningen” or “Say, know you the mussel man who lives in Scheveningen”) in the Dutch musical style from the 90s called gabber. Of course, when I was looking for the video just now, Ivo also demonstrated the dance and I laughed long and hard at him.
Anyway, that wasn’t what made me happy there so much. After a cold windy time with an unhappy Liam and feeding him outside and freezing and buying some truly tacky gifts (and getting a discount on one ’cause his money machines were broken and I only had so much cash), I had a coffee and stuff at a cafe on the pier (which is glass enclosed). I sat there for a while and fed Liam and waited out a rainstorm watching the beach. When I got the bill I had a sleeping Sprocket on my lap so was getting money out with one hand – the bill came to €5.40 and I gave him a €20 – he asked if I had 40 cents, I said to just give me €14 back, which is what I’d been planning to do anyway. Instead, he came back with €15 and told me to come again! How nice!
Anyway, some pictures of Scheveningen:
