This clever country!

I am daily more impressed with this country, in ways expected and unexpected.

One of the most innovative things starts on August 26th: the electronic travel document. All the new passports and identity cards (don't know what these are; maybe I'll have one) will have a chip in them that has personal stuff. The article mentions that on photos, one shouldn't laugh any more! The new passport will cost 47.45 Euros (nearly exactly what American ones cost (I think mine was $47).

The huge news today, is that next Tuesday, my STUFF arrives! That will make 36 days, door to door, and 36 days on an air mattress. And next Wednesday, my two little black cats arrive, doubtless terrified and sure they've been consigned to endless caged living with strangers, to a sea of paper and debris, but maybe they'll remember me (and likely never leave my ankles again). I had assumed that things would arrive this week, since the container arrived in Antwerp last Friday, but there must be heavy container traffic in Antwerp. There's no way to know. I explained to "Eddy'' in Antwerp that my street was VERY narrow, and he promised a sleek truck, so I'll hope for the best. Now, if ***only*** the bank account will appear this week, things will fall into place nicely.

I wrote of the lovely trampoline-style-affixed Rembrandt prints located around the city. Another clever thing that's done here is to hang giant scrims (those screens used in theater, which can be lit from front or back) in front of windows, in lieu of painting the window with whatever's on the scrim. The student center (from where I write these notes) has these over most of its windows. The light comes through, we can see out of the windows, and the scrims show the name of the building. They hang from poles from the roof, or trampoline-style. So, letting the light through and using space well are major themes here.

My market research continues. The shopping (not buying -- just shopping) gene has kicked in and I keep l0oking to see where ''nice'' clothing may be had, but it doesn't seem to be in Leiden. Not that I need to buy anything, but I'm interestested to see what's out there. I found a high quality shoe store for ''comfy'' shoes (and got a pair of plum suede walking shoes), but styles and quality otherwise are nasty (but they were in Washington, too). One thing that amuses me is that no one here wears the awful high-heeled, pointed toe styles that were worn relentlessly in Washington. I can't imagine those on a bike, or on the cobbled streets here! There's an ''H&M'', the Swedish trendy department store, but their quality is low.

I'm a bit nervous about being a student here. The first year, particularly, is tough. I'd wondered what the ''propedeuse'' diploma was, and it's a diploma for passing the first year. Apparently, students often stop after the first year. While looking at the student list from last year's final exams yesterday, I saw only Dutch names (in the Dutch studies program) and figured I was doomed, but then remembered that language placement tests go on for a full week, and that the whole first year, aside from an art history course, is devoted to language acquisition, so there MUST be others whose mother language is not Dutch. Having a review of my grammar books couldn't hurt, though.

It's cocktail hour again (18:43; I've moved into the 24-hour system), so I'm off.