In the morning off to the Kinkerstraat market with Rina, which is great because going to any market with Rina is fun. Well, that said, getting there is less than fun, as I find it nerve wracking to weave through the swarms of other bicyclists, pedestrians, and vehicles with Rina. See, she has forty-five years of bicycling experience on me, so she has a clear sense of her spatial relationship to the others. Me, I never know which way the bastards are gonna swerve around me...or at me, so I'm a nervous wreck when we arrive at our destinations.

Here's a plain door enroute:

and a fancy door:

The afternoon was even more fun because Rina kept Ivar, her grandson. Yes, the one I was so eager to be able to talk with. The good news is that the little fart, even though he doesn't know many English words, speaks them without a Dutch accent. And yes, I grill him on our voiced and unvoiced "th" and our "w." He's got all three dead on. I explain successfully in Dutch that those sounds are very difficult for the Germans, and the first two, for the French. Next, I'll try him on our "hw," since that's also difficult.

Hell, they can't say that one in Houston. Try it for yourself: ask a native to name the largest aquatic mammal....or depending on who you're asking, the biggest fish. And yes, what I'm calling the "hw" sound is spelled "wh" even though it's pronounced with the "h" before the "w."

Alas, when I try to explain about the American coins I'd brought for him and his sister, I'm in way over my head. I should have worked on vocabulary in this area, damn me. Still, I did some specific prep for the kids: I can shriek, "Watch out for that car, thou careless kid!" and politely ask, "Since thou hast thy vegetables eaten, may I thee some dessert offer?" And yes, I stuck the main verbs at the ends of their clauses in the English version to give the sentence more of a Dutch flavor....you know, like a well-aged Gouda.

The big news on the kids, though, comes from Kyra, the granddaughter. Cyrus brings her over later, and I immediately start talking to her in Dutch. After I tell her how good it is to see her again, I ask, "Canst thou understand me?" She shakes her head "no," not being old enough to grasp that by doing so she is giving herself away. Later, though, I get her to speak a few words to me, and Rina gets her to say "thank you" in English for the coins I'd brought. I respond, "You're welcome," coming down hard on the "w" to help her learn it. Oh, and never fear, I'm doing my very best to speak Standard Midwestern American to them. After all, Cyrus would never forgive me if I made him the laughingstock of Amsterdam by infecting his kids with a Texas accent.