We had a good and productive weekend. Yesterday we went for a walk near Falls Lake, a little north of Durham. We had never been there before and it was beautiful, but we stopped early because of a sign that warned that we were now entering a hunting area. "Reflecting clothes are recommended." Hunting season has recently started. Until October 1st hunting was limited to the use of bow-and-arrow, now other weapons may be used as well.

We left and walked the safe and enjoyable Al Buehler trail instead.

Today I visited the International Festival in Raleigh to take pictures for the other website. In the afternoon we went for a walk together, the Al Buehler trail again. We also reorganized the 2nd bedroom/office and finally put away the luggage and boxes from New Jersey and Washington, DC. Now we have a usable office again.

It's one thing to have poisonous plants and snakes...

...quite another to walk in a gameland public hunting area in hunting season.

I had my first French lesson at the CHICLE language institute tonight. I signed up for conversation lessons, and it went very well.

Chicle is located in Carrboro, near Chapel Hill, and I drove there straight from work and had dinner at a café in downtown Carrboro.

There are two other students in my class, so we're a wonderfully small group and the teacher was very good. It was fun to talk French with other people, after almost 15 years. It went pretty well -- this is a great way of learning conversation.

The changes to the Dutch citizenship law that were approved earlier this year will take effect on October 1st, 2010. People born outside the Netherlands before 1985 to a Dutch mother and a non-Dutch father may now be eligible for Dutch citizenship. Citizenship is not granted automatically, these "Latente Nederlanders" need to file an application to gain Dutch nationality.

The Royal Dutch Embassy published information on the procedure and assessment forms. The application can be filed starting October 1st at all Dutch diplomatic missions in the US that handle passport applications or at any city hall in the Netherlands.

Applicants are reminded that citizenship laws are complicated, and that many countries have restrictions on dual citizenship. Seek information from the officials of every country of which you may be a citizen.

Background

While children born to a Dutch father and a foreign mother have always been eligible for Dutch citizenship, people born outside the Netherlands before 1985 to a Dutch mother and a foreign father were not. This strange distinction was a legacy from an old law from 1892, which was revised in 1985. Children born on or after January 1, 1985 to either a Dutch mother or a Dutch father have been eligible for a Dutch passport.

There was a grace-period in the late 1980’s where people in this situation could apply for Dutch citizenship but this did not reach everybody on time.

Overhaul Dutch citizenship laws

The proposal is part of a larger overhaul of the law on Dutch citizenship, including more measures to prevent dual citizenship and additional rules to revoke citizenship of terrorists in certain cases. More information on this and other changes can be found on the website of the Dutch House of Representatives.

Yesterday Sasha and I went out for dinner at the American Tobacco Campus.

A great start of the weekend.