So, we just closed the 3 yr rental contract on a cool apartment in Den Haag. We are in the bottom floor of a mansion which was just renovated. This is a house with a neat history, commissioned by Wolter Broese van Groenou in 1908. He fought in Indonesia but became disillusioned with the war effort. He resigned his commission in 1881 to become a sugar baron thanks to a fortuitous marriage and a wealthy father in law. The house he built is magnificent, but he lost his fortune in the market crash of 1930. To make the mortgage, it was rented to a community of artists and musicians. The current owner, Edward Dupont, is thus happy to rent it to…a musician and an artist.
Today I took the train to Scheveningen, to do some sketching. My goal, to sketch the train turn-around for the second time. To get the right angle involved sitting in the frost covered grass, in 30 degrees F. But it was comfy once settled, and it was fun to draw. By 12:30 the drawing was done and the sun finally out without apology to a single cloud. For the first time, the temp in the Hague was greater than the that in DC. How nice to lie in the grass and catch some Vitamin D, warding off the let-down of week 2 moving doldrums.
I joined the International art club of the Hague and start a life drawing class in the morning. There, I have the great fortune to pay my dues and demonstrate my complete and total lack of drawing skill to a set of total strangers, all of whom are master degree graduates of fine art colleges. Should be fun. Then, for extra fun, I will eat raw herring. Maybe later I will douse myself in frite saus and dance in front of the Hague Central Station while singing the arias from the Magic Flute.
Shiva the cat is happy enough, we can’t believe how adaptable this 17 year old cat has been to the move. He is even willing to be my model for life drawing, in exchange for free meals, catnip, and the occasional chin scratch.
Tamara is feeling like she has a lot to learn and that she has nice, smart, dedicated people to work with. She is starting to make connections to the local chamber music scene and seems happy about that. She enjoys coming home and drinking the most recent acquisition from Henri Bloem’s, a joint in business since 1833 and our favorite wine store. They like to buy directly from local vintners in Europe – guess they’ve had the time to set it up. Check out our shared wine tasting notes at http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pyBgyLTCLtN4zYPCfAQu8Mw
5 comments:
Well, everything sounds great so far, but you have missed out on the most important location -- the nearest brootjeswinkel. Where am I to get my brootje tartar?? I mean, let's keep our priorities clear, shall we?
-- O.D.
Depends... do you want the brootjeswinkel on the corner, or the one in the middle of the block?
Erik- From your sketch I can hear the electrical connections that the trains make to the above wires and the steel wheels turning with the cadence of the track sections. Glad to hear that the cat is happily becomming dutch, do the dutch mice recognise his american meow? Jacqueline's veryaardag komt in drie dagen. Raime en ik gaat naar Seattle an bezoek.
Groetjes
-Alex
Bro, glad you ken the art. Today I had my first complete conversation in Dutch with a shopkeeper. She called the other shop to see if they had a special kind of Belgian Beer. Go figure. I successfully hid that I have virtually no real language skills other than the conjugation of "to have" - someday must get around to the verb, "to go." E
Erik, I think you got it. I am looking forward to spending a few days at Hagenoff's Hostel and enjoy the sybaritic life style with the other artists and musicians. Whether the Dutch mice will understand the psychology of Sheeva's meow is a moot problem. His Siamese accent is too strong. Much Love MomJ.
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