Today Eva and I ran some errands in perfect harmony and then ran into a snag over my working at Cafe Den Draag. We both think that it's a great idea for my learning Dutch, but somehow or another I have interpreted her lack of helping me do the wee bit of paperwork for it as her being unenthusiastic. Well we ran into the snag, repaired the snag, and then met Mouloud in town at Mama's Garden.

Eva and I were running about 10 minutes late, but as fast as we pedaled, we made it there in record-time and were only 5 minutes late. I wanted her to meet Mouloud since I talk about him a great deal, and because I think he's pretty interesting. As I mentioned before, I knew that French would be easier for him, so the night was half Dutch and half French which meant that it was half paying attention and half not. I didn't mind at all. I love to hear Eva speak French, so I got a kick out of it anyway.

Well let me tell you something! Learning a new language is totally cool! When you start understanding without having to translate in your head, well it's damn cool! I don't know how to describe it. I'm spoken more Dutch in the last two days than I have in any two-day time span since I've been here, and I can't imagine what it would do to me if I did twice as much. It's like I'm always on the verge of another breakthrough, just like I'll never forget the word vlagbij (that's spelled wrong) after the fact that yesterday I couldn't remember the word at all. Now it's stuck somewhere and somehow. Where on earth does it go? And does it mean that these new words are forcing out wonderful remembrances from childhood? ;) No, I know, there's room enough for my childhood as well as 10 more languages. Bizarre.

We went from cafe to cafe along with Mouloud, showing him some cool places where we like to grab the occasional beer. The underground cellar bar and the typically Belgian cafe where we had a few drinks back with Liesbet and Sophie several months ago. Eva had him try a couple new beers and only after he'd said that he liked Hoegarden did she tell him it was a "woman's beer." He said, "What?" And the three of us laughed and she kept promising him that it was only sort-of a women's-type beer, but that many guys drank it. I don't know if he was convinced.

It started raining again, but since we were dirt-broke and Eva had promised Leila that she'd vote with her early in the morning, well we headed home. We escorted him to the tram and we pedaled home. It's funny that I had wished that it would be sprinkling on the way home, as I knew that it would make coming home twice as nice. We peeled off our damp clothing and climbed into heaven, with me thinking thoughts of agelev and Eva thinking thoughts of more windmills and social initiatives.

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