OH how fun

For any of you who know my Grandpa Van Hulzen you know he was a stubborn old fellow and to tell ya the truth I never understood why the heck he was so stuborn. People would always casually just express the fact the he was dutch, maybe add a laugh, and proceed with their lives. I was always very confused as to why the heck they associated his stubborness with his dutchness; I could understand his wanting to save every penny being associated with his dutchness, and trust me it still applies over here in the motherland. But it was not until today, at 8:12 A.M. that I began to truly understand my Grandpa Van Hulzen.
So here is the story:
Thursdays suck.
That isnt the whole story (but it is most of it), just let me continue for crying out loud and stop interrupting me with usless random thoughts!!
Ok, so my wonderous scedule over here allows me to sleep in most of the days and only attend approximately one class for an hour an a half per day. It is spectacular I assure you, but most of you have to work all day long and at that i laugh and continue to enjoy my day during which i have so much free time I can write these little stories about random happenings which i draw out into hour long excursions at the computer in order to entertain myself before the evening starts and we can finally get together with the rest of the Americanos at a local pub.
Anyway, I always need a shower in the morning or I don't wake up. Thankfully if I ever have to go anywere early in the morning in America I can just quickly hot out of bed, hop in a warm vehicle, arrive at my destination (which is warm as well) and slowly dirft off into daydreams (which are second best to real ones). Well if you have been reading my blogs at all you know that I have to ride my bike to school about 25 minutes every day depending on the strength of the wind. In the mornings that does not make me happy. But this morning was especially discouraging.
The minute we got out of Hattem city limits I knew it was going to be an expecially brutal trip as our coats caught the wind like a freakin sail. This was a day when you had to pedal your bike down a hill because the wind would stop ya. In a way it was like going up hill both ways, and I therfore understand where the heck my Grandpa got that, honestly, i thought it was just something older people said! Yet, this is not the worst leg of the trip, for that most strenuous portion of the trip is our treck over the Zwolle/Hattem bridge in which the wind especially blows as one travels up the hill over the bridge.
Well this morning I was cursing under my breath at whoever decided it would be a good idea to bike in such climatic weather. I could understand why you would bike in florida, california, or any other warm location where the sun shines, but honestly this is not such a place. Apparently one dutchmen one long summer ago thought biking was a little tooooooooo much fun for my tastes and decided to bike everywhere. Other people soon followed suit, and before long people were biking all over the place, and then when winter hit they decided, "Heck we are Dutch, nature can't overpower us!" and so they continued on biking. For crying out loud people! Who decides to dry up an ocean for some land? I mean if an ocean is there I am guessing I would have just said, "I think i will just build a beach bungalo or something" but they decide "No, I want to build a farm, even though all logic says no" (on a side note, maybe that is how God dried up the red sea for the Israelites? He just imported a bunch of dutchmen? That should probably be looked into)
Anway this story is being seriously side tracked, back to the bridge. So we just start climbing the hill to the bridge and it starts to freakin snow on us. The wind is blowing amazingly strong, and the usually calm river has ocean waves upon which only the most talented surfers could actually ride. I could only see a few meters in front of me, and this was just the ride to school! On the way back it had stoped snowing thankfully, but the wind was no less strong, in fact I almost had to get off my bike to get over the bridge for the wind was pushing me over. I had previously been used to the wind and much mroe snow but for crying out loud I think we have better ways to deal with it than biking through it!
I know that after this story is published many will claim that I am just a weak lazy american. But if you say that my response is 'No, I am just more resourceful" I know when nature wants me to do something and I will do it, I am not so dang stubborn. I guess my native Dutchness is leaving me. Still, I understand more fully that my Grandpa Van Hulzen was hard core native Dutch and if he had it his way he would have been the first person to fight that wind without a complaint. As for me, I prefer a car, and will continue to listen to natures call for me to take shelter and just give in for crying out loud. But apparently the dutch fought back the sea and they sure as heck are not going to give into nature now. All I can say is that my Grandpa is probably watching me laughing, telling whoever is standing near him at the moment, how he could have biked that hill, in that wind, with that snow, in a suit and tie without breaking a sweat!:-)