I have been thinking about writing since last night so I know that if I am going to be productive today, I will need to get this out of my head and onto the virtual page. This is one of those moments where it is good to know how your inner madness works 😉

I finished reading Oorlogswinter last night. Which is no doubt directly responsible for the dreams I had. Oorlogswinter is significant in that it is a book over the occupation in WWII from the perspective of a 16 year old boy. It is also mandatory reading for every high school student. I came across the book because one of the clerks at my Bruna knows I am working on my Dutch and when she comes across a book that she thinks would be interesting for me, she puts it aside.

Aside from the view into the Dutch history and the exposure to a great deal of wartime Dutch, the significance for me is that it is the first book I have finished cover to cover in Dutch that wasn’t geared to the reading interests of 10 year olds! I am now up to the level of 15 year olds! 😉

It takes extra concentration for me to read Dutch. I have to try to shut out the rest of the world and I stop reading much earlier. In English, I will read until I fall asleep or the book is done, whichever comes first. In Dutch, it’s a chapter or two max.

The weather has been great the past few days, overcast and in the 70s. Bonus! Today it is sunny, which is good because I have been making little steps of progress on the terrace. I still have a long way to go but we’re getting there. It will be awesome when the furniture comes so I can sit out there. Of course, for the weekend it is headed back down to the 50s. At some point, I really want to be able to put away my jackets for the season 😉

Oh, just found out I have a dinner on a terrace tonight date with GG so I’ve got to scoot and get things done 🙂 Have a good day!