English please...

So, I officially spent my first night with my "family" in Badhoeverdorp last night. Talk about overwhelming and wonderful all at the same time!
Several things made it go well:
a. Babs, the mom, came and picked me up at Fred's house (only 8 km away) so I didn't have to cart my bags through Amsterdam on a train and a tram.
b. Their former au pair is here until tomorrow, so I have a translator/helper/lovely person around who can answer a ton of questions, show me the routine, and relate to the feelings of total lostness that I am having.

The kids really are fabulous. I "learned"how to play uno last night with normal cards. Hidde and Friso, the 2 boys, taught me. They speak about 3 words each of English, and I speak about 3 words of Nederlands. So there was a lot of hand guestures, pointing, and so on. But it worked, mostly. Though I am not sure that any of them really understand that no matter how many times they say something to me, and no matter how loud they say it, i am still not going to understand dutch right away. Tessel, the 4 year old, is the worst. She just chatters away to me like I should understand everything she is saying. I feel so frustrated that I don't understand her, but I guess this is really the way I will learn. I have switched all my facebook and gmail stuff to Dutch, so that I just see it all the time.

I am really getting excited about the idea of having a "routine." It has been so long since I have had one that I don't know if I will know what to do. But, I think I will like it. There are still so many little things to work out that I think I will be quite busy for the next few weeks - getting a cell phone plan, opening a bank account, maybe joining a gym, getting a discount card for the trains, learning how to get around in the village, etc.

I rode a bike for the first time this morning since I have been here. It is nice in this village because it isn't super crowded like in downtown amsterdam. I think that I will ride a lot with Tessel on the back of my bike, which could take some getting used to (especially because she doesn't strap onto her seat - she just sits in it). But it will probably be good.

ok - I think I might be too overwhelmed to wriet much more than this right now. It seems like I should be writing so much more down - like telling about tom and fred coming to get me, dressed in costume, with a HUGE bouquet of balloons. The balloons said, "welcome home"in dutch on them and were quite lovely. The costumes (and by costumes, I really just mean tacky hats and wigs!) weren't quite lovely, but a good touch. They naturally got a lot of stares and made themselves as conspicuous as possible. They loved it, of course.
Ummm...other things. Hanging out in groningen was the perfect way to come into the country. There are just a few people there that I know, so i could mostly just relax, hang out, and not feel like I wanted to see other people. Erik, Joost, and Hans are all quite fun, and we had a good time hanging out and playing games. I am pretty bummed that erik and joost live several hours from here, but i guess i can't really complain compared to what it was.

ok - now this is getting boring.