Multicultural

I'm running on no sleep. Incomplete to finish for my data structures course, so after a full (very productive) day at work, I got home last night, panicked for a few hours, and then got down to work and got much more functioning than I thought I possibly could. I should have been working on this project weeks ago, but I started this weekend and avoided really getting anything done for the longest time. It's not done, but it's in, and I saw the sunrise over tile roofs and brick walls, and what I think was a stork flew into the back garden and perched on the wall, before flying off to sit on a chimney to the east, silhouetted against the pink and orange of the sunrise. Every hour from two till morning I heard church bells chiming the hour (my window was open), and around four the sky was lightening and the birds came out, and by 4:30 the sky was pink. On my way into work, when I was on the footpath, Martijn bicycled by and waved from the path three meters over, blurred behind the trees as he rode by. I got to work first because he had to park his bike, and by the time he came in my coat was hung up and my computer was booted, and I started razzing him for being late.

I'm surprisingly awake, considering I didn't sleep. Blame the caffeine, the adrenaline, just being good at staying awake for long periods of time--the first two hours I was at work all I wanted to do was sleep, but I got so caught up in my work that I forgot all about it. And I'm looking forward to falling asleep when I get home, but...I'm enjoying myself. I like work. It's a challenge, a series of puzzles to solve.

Yesterday at lunch there were four of us: Martijn, his Turkish wife, Austrian Matthias, and me. Four people working at Philips, four different countries of birth. Not so unusual, really--multinational company attracts people from all over. I think it was the best lunch I've had here--the four of us joking and making fun of each other, I felt so much a part of everything already. Martijn and I have work jokes, we give each other a hard time...I think I'm beginning to find my place here. I passed his wife on the way in to eat lunch today and we stopped and talked for a moment. I know people. I know my way around. I showed a newcomer how to check the balance on his badge today. There are people who say hi to me in the halls, I know the way from my office down to both exterior doors perfectly, I know where the paths on campus lead. My workspace is comfortable, even if the computer's slow enough to drive me crazy.

Understanding little bits of Dutch is getting easier. Things like putting money on my badge (alone, today--last time Martijn talked me through it, but he was in a meeting), instinctively saying "ja" when the checker at Albert Heijn (the supermarket) asked me yesterday if I wanted my bon (receipt).

Yesterday, I finally got off work early enough to go to the Middle Eastern market down Bennekelstraat, and it's wonderful. Seven or eight varieties of dates, sour cherry juice, three grades of burghul, rosewater, packets of zatar and sumac, a baked goods counter, lemons on sale. I'm going to make a habit of going every Saturday to stock up on food, pick up some more staples. It's a comfort thing, in a way--I grew up with those ingredients, those smells. Being able to choose the right grade of burghul for tabbouleh, buy parsley in huge bunches (not the silly little packages they sell at the supermarket down the street), stand in the spice aisle and just read the labels. (Not only that, it's better food and cheaper. I spent 4.55 and walked out with burghul, parsley, three huge lemons, and a pack of dates--enough food for two dinners and then some.)

Life's good, I'm tired, and I have some faith is my skills as a programmer. When it goes well, it goes really well.