07.03

Greet...
or shall I say, the most patient friend I have. Yes, she's the only one I know who would have the patience to give me private Dutch lessons, the only one who could find time to give me 2 to 3 hours of grammar exercises, and try to find rules for the strange grammar the dutch language has to offer.

"you have to feel it, andrea!" she says smilling and convinced that I will feel it one day...
"I'm sorry, I don't!"...I know how strange it is to tell someone that something in grammar "just is", when you don't feel the difference when it's wrong.
but our lessons are filled with hope that one day I will be able to mantain a whole conversation, without escaping to my so easy friend, the english language!

I met Greet for the first time 2 years ago, when I visited Antwerp for the first time, but in those 4 days I was here we hardly saw eachother, so when I came back in July 2005, I made sure that if I was investing on a new job and new appartment, I would also invest on friends, which included her, so in that intense week of job interviews she helped me find an appartment that would soon become my home... and most importantly, she helped me find the best coffee places in Antwerp without getting a bowl of dark water, where someone from Portugal and Italy can feel almost at home!!

It was with Greet that I first got an idea of what a Belgian summer is... basically we went to get ice cream, amazing ice cream, australian ice cream, "it's made from cangaroo milk!" she said... and stupidly I thought about it for a few minutes... ya I admit I almost believed it! ok, I get it, it was a joke!
anyway, with our ice cream in hand, we went to the Groeneplaats to sit down in a bench... wierd I thought... why?... because for me... It was COLD!!!! but of course not for Belgians!!! they were enjoying the small sun shinning up in the skies... because maybe they hadn't seen it in a long time!!!
I was amused by this courage to get your arms out in this cold, but mostly I was worried, I had a new job and a new appartment here and I was about to move here for a while...

now...
after a year... I find myself desperate for that Groeneplaats and sit down on a bench with ice cream and enjoy the small sun that sometimes decides to visit Antwerp.

now I prepare myself for another summer in Belgium... Greet, besides lessons in Dutch, could you help me get through summer? I need someone like you with patience to show me how summer is lived over here!!! I can't get used to having a t-shirt under a winter coat!!!

but, most importantly, Greet has been important to me to keeping a nice attitude and hope towards my life in Antwerp. Being 26, in a new country with a language that makes you think twice about it, having to make friends is sometimes hard, I can't just go up to someone and say "Hi, do you want to play with me?" (even though there are older people who say that!!!) like I used to when I was a kid. so for that, I will cherish this friendship forever hoping that it only becomes better!
dank u Greet!