Ellen In Amerika!"MY EMIGRATION TO AMERICA AND MY ADJUSTMENT TO LIFE IN CALIFORNIA SINCE SEPTEMBER 2008"

The bike story yesterday had quite some reactions. That is always nice! It is totally different to bike here than in the Netherlands. When I take the groceries on my bike from my local store, it is similar. No big roads, no dangerous situations. Only sometimes, when I go in the afternoon, I might bump into schoolbusses and students who really do not pay any attention to traffic whatsoever. The kids look up from their mobile phones once and cross the street or intersection, not even looking left or right. Just thinking the cars will see them. It looks to me that they do not have traffic lessons at school. When I asked Ryan if he had traffic lessons at junior highschool, his answer was: “Kind of”. Which almost made me think, he did not. In the Netherlands, the children have traffic lessons in 6th grade (age 11 year). At the end of that year, they will have to pass a written exam at school. Then they have to go on their bike and do the traffic test in a big area around their school. On the crucial points in the streets and on the intersections, there are volunteers who judge the students on their drivings skills. I still remember my exam and also the ones of my sons. It is an official State-required exam.

Anyway, I got distracted. Ymkje mentioned in her comment, that she always used her bike as well. When her children were little, they had a child’s seat on the front and on the back of the the bike. And, when groceries were needed, she took the children with her, and the big bags at the back of the bike were stuffed with the groceries. I did the same. And, it was never strange to do that, because with me, thousands of other moms did the same, and still do. I do not think that this is possible to do that here. I mean, when I bike here to work or to a bigger shopping mall, I bike on the sidewalk, or on the back streets, where there isn’t that much traffic. There are also open bike lanes on the big roads here, but they are way too dangerous to use. Cars drive pretty fast, and I still see a lot of drivers using their cell phones while driving. When I can cross an intersection, I always make eye contact with the drivers who are standing still for the red lights, so I see they are seeing me.  In the Netherlands, there are safe bike lanes, separated from the main big roads. That makes it much easier to bike. I have only seen the same bike lanes in Santa Barbara. I hope one day President Obama thinks it is a good stimulus plan to make safe, separated bike lanes all over the country, so people will use bikes more instead of cars. It has so much more advantage, better for your health, better for the environment, and, last but not least,  it is less expensive!! Very much a Dutch way of thinking

But today, I stayed home, cleaned the house thoroughly and had a very nice visit from my friend Annick. She wrote on Skype that she had an appointment in Santa Barbara, so she would pass very close to my house. She came by, and we had coffee and a koekje After she left, Ryan was preparing to go with his friend Austin to Gulf ‘n Stuff. They have miniature golf and go-carts and an arcade with a lot of games. He probably will stay the night over at Austin’s house.  I started to prepare dinner. I never had made before cranberries in a recipe, but tonight I made beef, small cut,  in cranberry sauce with small cut carrots, tomatoes and green onions. I wasn’t sure I would like it. But it tasted fine. With potatoes it is a complete meal, and not difficult to make at all.

We have two episodes of 24 on the recorder, so we will watch that later this evening. This weekend it’s tax preparation weekend, not sure we have time to go into the mountains :-(