By Guus , 18 January 2013

Studying Bulgarian

This has been a very good week for my Bulgarian. The biggest factor is that we speak pretty much only Bulgarian at home these days but we also interviewed several potential Bulgarian care-takers for Nora.

Yesterday I went to the Bulgarian weekly meetup in the cafe in our building. The other students are mostly people studying to work in the American Embassy in Sofia.

When I came home we watched a very funny TV show, Столичани в повече. It's situated in a small village in Bulgaria and describes a political campaign and two men who are trying to become mayor.

Topic
Bulgaria
By admin , 15 January 2013

Standing

Nora is learning how to stand. She uses her baby fence for support and can stand for long periods of time, even with using just one hand.

We've been practicing the Dutch animal sounds this weekend, and she now knows the right answer to "wat zegt het eendje?" en "wat zegt de poes?". We mix languages sometimes, but she knows what sound an elephant makes: "wat zegt слончо?".

Topic
dailylife
By admin , 14 January 2013

Monday evening run

This wasn't the most healthy weekend. We went to bed late, which is something we can't do without getting 'punished' for it. That and the logistics and stress of meeting two candidate nannies made for a pretty exhausting weekend.

I went for a run tonight and it was nice. Pretty slow -- 42 minutes -- but relaxing.

At one point a girl, who was talking on the phone, didn't hold her dog on a short leash and he sort of jumped at me. Playfully, but I jumped! I gave the girl an accusing look but didn't say anything and she apologized.

By Guus , 6 January 2013

Modern art

We went to the National Gallery of Art this afternoon. It was the second visit for Nora and we went to see the modern art section this time. To be honest, I am not a big fan of modern art but Nora liked it a lot. She especially enjoyed watching the mobiles and the large brightly colored paintings.

Afterwards we went back to the West wing of the museum with classical paintings. I always enjoy watching the Dutch masters. We also saw a David-Apollo statue that was on loan from a museum in Florence.

De Grote of Sint-Bavokerk by Gerrit Berckheyde.

Topic
art
By admin , 6 January 2013

Surprisingly fast

Friday night Nora kept us up and yesterday morning I caught up on some much needed sleep. Last night was much better and I went for a run. Still didn't feel very strong, after my cold, so I told myself to take it easy and didn't look at my watch the entire run. Quite surprisingly I ended up with a very good time, 39:28 minutes.

This also makes it the fastest run this year, haha.

By admin , 2 January 2013

First run of 2013

It always feels strange, using the new year in a title or date, but here we go! Today was also the first run after my cold (which started the day after my last run, when I could already feel it coming).

I ran slow, but not overly so -- 43 minutes.

It was cold so I ran in my tracksuit.

By Guus , 1 January 2013

New Year's Eve 2012

Yesterday we celebrated New Year's Eve with a nice family dinner with Milan and Nadia. Food was our beloved traditional set of dishes -- mlechna and ruska salad, roasted turkey on home-made sauerkraut and Nadia made a great baklava dessert. A bowl with oliebollen complimented the meal.

I've had a cold the last few days and while I've recovered, Nora just started having a stuffy nose so she wasn't sleeping well. At 11:30 pm she woke up, angry that she couldn't breathe through her nose, and we picked her up and we welcomed the New Year with her. We saw the ball drop on Times Square for a few minutes, and then danced to welcome 2013.

We'd like to wish our readers a happy 2013 and all the best for the new year.

Topic
dailylife