Insanity

Repeating the same experiment, expecting a different outcome

We went together to Amsterdam today.  The five of us.  Didn't I just post about the probability of someone being unhappy going to one?  Anyway,  It was ok.  We went to the train to Amsterdam Centraal and got the hop on/off boat tour.  Here they call them boat tours.  The french use the slightly more evocative bateaux mouche (excuse my spelling, it's been a while).  

Leif was fine for a while and then made the tour a bit unpleasant till I got off at the Rembrandt House and walked him back to Centraal in the the stroller.  Of course he was asleep  moments aftyer I stepped from the boat. 

Ethan was a little fragile for some reason too.  (Oh yeah, he's five and living in a new country where he doesn't speak the language, have his dog, have his friends, know how everything works.  He's such a superboy, I forget when he's normal.)  As you can see from the picture, even his displeased humor is pretty funny and tolerable.

We spent the afternoon at Taco and Anja's place on Prinseneyland (Princes Island) which is a lovely place on the north side.  The train home at least went perfectly when we just walked up in time to catch the snel train (fast train, few stops) to Leiden Centraal. 

Favorite new word

I'm going to try throwing in favorite new words, especially when I don't have cultural observations for the day.  I am liking the Dutch language and there a plenty of great words.  

ingebakken: literally, baked in.  It's in the nature of the thing.  Like what the scorpion said to the frog. You shrug, shake your head and mutter, ingebakken.  

Bonus word:  dolhuis:  sounds like doll house, means insane asylum.  It's a bit archaic and is literally the dummy house (seems a little offensive doesn't it?).  More common is the gekkenhuis, or crazy-house.     

Naar een dag in de boot met de kinderen, ik ben gereed voor het dolhuis. De fout is niet met hen, het is ingebakken.