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

I already wrote this post yesterday, but something went wrong with publishing it. So here it is again!

This morning I had my appointment with the doctor. He gave me,  as I expected, clearance on all 4 forms, so Before noon, I had my badge, and key. I am now totally relax. It was still a bit nerve raking because of the clearance from my doctor. But luckily all is fine now. After this, I called Dan and my sister Marja on my cell through the Skype line, and told them the good news. Marja had asked me to let her know what the outcome of the doctor’s clearance would be. She also told me, that I had to hurry home, because Sven Kramer was about to do his 10.000 meter speed skating race. I told her, that I would be surprised if NBC would broadcast it. (She did not know at that point that Sven Kramer had made by accident, a huge mistake, a lane violation,  and he was disqualified from the race. So no gold medal for the Netherlands). Later today, I saw on YouTube, that they pad put a video of the race. I watched it, and I could not see the mistake at all. So, being the most pigheaded person there is (all my Dutch family and friends will agree in this!), I thought, he skated well. Nothing is wrong. Of course I was not right. It was too sad for words. He skated so good and now it is gone. I hope he and his trainer Gerard Kemkers, will be on good terms soon again. There were some bad reviews already on YouTube about his race. Lot of the reviews/comments were about blaming the coach. This man, Gerard Kemkers is the most dedicated trainer there is. He made a mistake, which he will regret it the most himself. It was heartbreaking to see his pain.

When I was looking on line to find more information about this race, I find this video link on the NBC-Olympic site. http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/assetid=6edcef33-7041-4a8f-85e1-9932a964999c.html?chrcontext=inside#orange+crush+dutch+love+speed+skating I am pretty sure you will like it and also understand the Dutch devotion to speed ice skating. There were already some very nice comments on what happen to Sven Kramer, before I posted this post. Thank you guys

Then, Judy, the president of Auxiliary and I went to the cafeteria and we had a very nice (free) lunch. On my way out, I bumped into Esther, who was there for a TB shot. That was a very nice surprised. Her husband was with her, so I finally had a chance to meet him. They are both from Mexican descent and Esther calls her husband my own Desi Arnaz  from the “I love Lucy show” because of his accent!

When I went outside, the weather had changed pretty much. Lots of clouds and chilly wind had taken over the sunny weather. Because all had gone pretty fast, I had some spare time. I decided to see if my hairdresser had time to cut and color my hair. Luckily it was not busy in the salon. Seh did again a great job on my hair, and the price was surprisesly lower than the last time. I believe I am very lucky with this hair salon. For cutting; highlights; darker toner overall the hair; washing, using all kinds of extra products, and modelling for 65 Dollars (47,70 Euro’s).

At home, I made myself a big bowl with yogurt and cereals. Dan wasn’t coming home because of a big meeting. (later he let me know the meeting was not taken that long, so he came home for dinner!!). I had some left overs and soup, so I did not let him starve. Tonight we will watch another serie we are hooked to: Lost!

Again, we did it! We overslept! I did not even hear the alarm. I went to bed last night, not feeling that well, so I think that made me sleep so deeply. Anyway, we made it in time to the hospital, and I did feel pretty good today. At the surgery waiting room lots of family members were already there. They were all so kind and thankful that you can give them the answers to their questions. It starts to become more fun to volunteer there. Over these past 7 months, I have become pretty familiar with the hospital and its rules. And now that I have to study these rules, it is actually easier to give no information that is not permitted to give to others. Today an employee of the hospital asked about a patient’s surgery. I told her, due to the law on privacy, I am not allowed to give any information whatsoever regarding the patients. She could leave her phone number, and I would ask the family of the patient to contact her. She was very supportive to that, and went away. And the end of my shift, I went to the coffee stand in main lobby to say hi to the woman who works there. She asked me if I was working in the surgery waiting room. I said yes, and she said that they were talking about me at her stand earlier that day. There were some employees discussing that I took my job very seriously and followed the rules of the hospital very well. Oh, that was nice to hear

When I came home, I ate a bowl of granola with yogurt and checked my emails. It was then that I discovered that Ireen Wust had won Gold! Again a medal for our Dutch speed skaters. I received later the videos from Gert, and I watched the honoring of the medals with the National Anthem.  I know by far we don’t have as many medals as the Team USA, but we are so darn proud of the few The Netherlands earned this Olympics! It was also great to see how the USA Hockey team won. This was really fun to watch. The joy this team expressed when they made the final goal. Bode Miller and Sean White did it again! They got their Gold medals too! At the NBC Vancouver website, they wrote a very nice article about the Dutch ice skaters. Here is the link for it: http://www.nbcolympics.com/news-features/news/newsid=439638.html#dutch+looking+double

When I was done with the emails and other stuff, I went downstairs to gardening the front yard. Because of all the rain lately, there were so many weeds between the plants in the borders. The weather was nice and sunny, so it was not a burden to work there! Our neighbors have two dogs. Thes dogs bark a lot! I think they know me by now, because when I say real loud Shhhhhhh, they stop barking for a few minutes. Very often the pet control services have visited their house, because of all the complaints they receive from other neighbors about these dogs. They were here again this afternoon. It irritates me a lot that the neighbors leave their dogs day and night outside, but it would break my heart if they would be taken away from them. They have 2 little boys who are crazy about their pets. After the pet control car left, I did not hear the dogs for a while, but later they started barking again. So they are safe for now.

After cleaning up all the stuff, I went inside and started my first Spanish lesson. During the introduction part, I almost fell asleep, but later it became really interesting and funny. The first lesson was more than an hour, and by the end I could say several Spanish sentences (which I already have forgotten). I will repeat this CD tomorrow, and then I think it will stay with me. The language itself is pretty easy. It is a lot easier than French or German. And it is much easier to speak than proper English. My Spanish sentence for today is:

Tiene una reservazion para mi para esta noche? Do you have a reservation for me for tonight?

I made pasta for dinner. Tonight we will watch 24. I am not sure why we watch this. We both become so annoyed during every episode by the whispering voice of Jack. I am not sure why he does this all the time. It is not sexy; it doesn’t make the story line more exciting. I think because we have seen all the 8 series of 24, we keep watching it, despite our irritations.

Finally, the headache is gone! After a firm workout and a nice hot shower, it was gone! Phew. What a relief.

This morning, before we went to the gym, Marja called on Skype, and we talked for a while. It is always a treat to talk with my sister. They had carnaval (the Dutch Mardi Gras), last week in the south of the Netherlands where their daughter lives, and it had been so very cold. But they had fun too so that was good.

After making lunch we all went to the library and spent some time there. I got some CD cassettes with learning to speak Spanish. I had some trials when I just came in the country, but they were really not useful. I hope these are better. After finishing up at the library, we went to Walmart to get some groceries and our Senseo coffee pads.

At home, I studied a bit more and found out that it is more than I first anticipated. I will take it with me tomorrow, when I will work at the surgery waiting room. There are often quiet moments, so then I can study a little more there. Of course, I watch in between The Olympics and enjoyed it a lot again.

For dinner I made green bean casserole with fish and as a dessert I had made a Tapioca pie. That was really yummie! My father in law called later this evening and we had a nice talk.

Of course I haven’t seen anything about the speed skating 1500 meters for women. But……..a blog friend from the Netherlands, who will soon live in the States permanently with his wife, sent me an email so that I can watch the speed skating on line! I am so grateful to this man. I already watched the men skaters with Dutch commenting. Very nice, Gert! Thanks!

Yesterday we read on line that the Dutch government of Jan Peter Balkenende, had been given a vote of no confidence. Again! This is a bad thing for the Netherlands. In this economy, doing this to your country is almost unbelievable. Now, in May, there will be new elections, and hopefully it will not be a  nut case that will take over. I think lots of Dutch readers know who I am talking about. His last name starts with a “W”.

It is not that late here now, but I will go to bed soon, feeling a bit chilly. Hope it is not a cold.

I had a great evening! The Dutch took gold! It was so spectacular! I really did not expect it. Of course our friends (not) of NBC did not broadcast it this afternoon on real time. So I had to wait until the prime time showing at 8.00 PM. And of course lots of races were not shown, including several Dutch races. I was pretty disappointed, but then I got into the sport again and was happy for every athlete who performed. I also loved the audience. So many orange (Dutch) supporters were there. I know from European and World Championship speed skating that the supporters of all athletes are one big family. The atmosphere is one out of million there. Even among the speed skaters there is a great sense of friendship, and lots of them are personal friends. Anyway, I get distracted again

Mark Tuitert was at the starting point, and I did not really had high expectations. How wrong was I. He skated perfectly, and his reaction was brilliant.  But Hedrick and Davis still had to skate. Both skated superb, but they could not beat Mark’s time. So we have our second Gold Medal. Not much, I know, but who knows what will come next.  

Last Thursday, because of the very irritating way NBC broadcasts the Olympic Games, I missed the video of the Dutch women, who had won silver and Bronze on the 1000 meter speed skating. As a reporter of the Olympics said, “the Dutch people are so into Speed Ice skating. They are having a ball this 21th Olympics.”  Our Royal Prince Willem Alexander (the next in line for the Dutch Crown), his Argentine wife Maxima, and their 3 daughters have been in Vancouver to watch the 5000 m when Sven Kramer won.
Now back to today! This morning we worked on things on the computer. Ryan came around 2.00 PM. He and I watched some skiing, and I started to study the papers I received from the HR department. It is quite a lot of information I need to know, and there is even an examination at the end of the course. On the introduction day, you are supposed to know all the stuff. It is all about privacy policy and confidential information of the patients. It took me some hours this afternoon, and after dinner, I had to work on it until …. the Olympics started!

Again, I enjoyed watching the slalom super G with Lindsey Vonn and the rest. It was again very exciting, and I just learned this evening Lindsey Vonn  is from Minneapolis, where my blog friends from the Joy Erickson, Joy, Nikki, Sue, Laura & Pam~Our Views blog, live. (At least, in that area).  She did not win this time, but she was doing very well again.

It is almost 11.00 PM, and Dan has work most of the afternoon and evening on the taxes. I heard him grumbling now and then, but I think he is almost finished for today.

Tomorrow, I hope we will go to the gym again.