It feels good to get all that out of my system. I don't much care if I'm the only one who ever sees it; the point is, it's out and I feel a lot better. XD What brought the last blog post on, originally, was that on Friday night all the males of the household went on a Father-Son camping trip with some other families from our church, and it was just me, my sister, and my mom at home. So we had something of a girl's night...we all chatted with each other and then had popcorn and watched a movie. XD We watched Geek Charming, a Disney Channel Original Movie, because it was on Netflix and we'd already spent about half an hour trying to agree on what type of movie to watch, without success. That one sounded vaguely interesting to all three of us, so we went with it. XD It was actually pretty cute. But that's what triggered the hopeless romantic mode in me, which I've been trying to keep dormant lately because it doesn't do me any good. XD

On Friday I got a call from Walmart asking me if I could open up my availability just a bit, and when I said I could, they scheduled a job interview for Monday. Monday I did the interview process, which included filling out paperwork and answering questions, doing a simulation at the register (I was interviewing for a cashier position), and then answering some more questions. They told me they wanted to extend me a job offer, so I needed to come back Tuesday for that. Tuesday I went in and met the store manager and we finalized the job offer, and then I had to go to North Liberty for drug screening. That took forever because I had to sit in the lobby waiting before they called me back for the actual peeing part. After that I was out pretty quickly, but paperwork! Sheesh. Then I continued to be gone most of the day because Dad took me to North Liberty on his way to Cedar Rapids, so we were running around the state for a few more hours. XD 10 o'clock Wednesday morning, I get a call from Walmart asking if I can make it to an orientation at 12:30. Sure, sure, so I spent half an hour digging through my clothes to find SOMETHING I could wear that resembled khaki and blue... XD

And then they told me I start today, Thursday, so I have a job! I was considering waiting till after I get my first paycheck to look for a car, but it's going to be a huge pain figuring out being dropped off and picked up from now until June 7th. Sometimes I'll need to be at work around the time my siblings have to go to school, which means we'd probably all have to just leave early. Sometimes I'll be working too late for someone to pick me up, and I should be able to take the car on the first such night (tomorrow), but I'm not sure about the next few times. I dunno, I'll have to talk to my parents. I thought, if we could find a car just a tiny bit out of my price range, they could just pay the bit I don't have and I could pay them back when I get my check...

Meh. I vill figger it out.

My Dutch "teacher" finally got back to me yesterday, which kinda made me happy. I know him from the same place I know Eebs, and many of the various friends I've made in the past 4 years. He's actually about the same age as Eebs, too. But much less mature. But he's Dutch, and I randomly decided one day that I wanted to learn to speak the language and asked him to help me.

He hasn't really done much for my pronunciation skills; he says he'd be willing to help me with that but first I have to learn the written words. I can't really do it like that; I have to know how to pronounce the words to learn them, or else they don't stick at all. Apparently he's not the same way; he can read more languages than he can speak/hear and understand.

But he gave me plenty of vocabulary to work on, which I had been doing, and then he disappeared. For quite a while. I actually put my studying of Dutch on hold, partly because I was focusing on other things and partly because my teacher was AWOL...but yesterday he finally gave me some more vocab and today answered a couple of questions I had regarding the vocab. Suh-weet!

I still have to teach myself the pronunciation...I think it's funny, actually. I've found a few good tools to help me learn to pronounce things, but I can tell that, like any language, not everyone speaks Dutch exactly the same way, and I have a feeling I'm going to sound like a mutt when I get to the point where I can speak in complete sentences. Some words pronounced in one accent, some in another... XD It would be nice if my "teacher" would actually meet with me on Skype so I could just learn from one accent instead of a few. Maybe someday, after he's given me enough vocabulary to be going on with. XD

At least the small arsenal of words I am pretty confident speaking are still firmly stuck in my head. They include most of the basic colors (no maroon, or chartreuse), and basic greetings (hi, how are you, good day, good morning, etc). I guess I could walk down the street in Amsterdam with no problems and maybe help out a color-blind fellow or two.

This actually reminds me that I've been failing entirely to actively exercise my Spanish vocabulary. I meant to do that. I have more chance of attaining fluency in Spanish than I do in Dutch, but I'm getting out of practice and I need to get back to it. So many things I learned in high school are already forgotten. I'm barely at the level of the Spanish 1 students, now. XD

Goede dag!