The Hermit

When did I become a hermit? How did it happen? When did I decide that staying in bed all day watching TV was a great way to spend the weekend? Sometimes I feel like I'm missing out on my life, yet I can't/don't want to change. At the moment I'm going to put the blame on two things:

The Weather:

I'm over the cold weather. I know I can't change it, but it's making me cranky and not wanting to do anything. The Dutch are great at just getting on with whatever they need/want to do, no matter the weather. I'm not like that. When it's cold, windy, wet, snowy etc, I really don't want to go outside. I just want to stay inside where it's warm. Since the warmest place is in bed, that's where I stay.

Being sick of meeting people:

I know this might sound stupid, but I'm sick of meeting people. I've always enjoyed meeting new people, but for some reason I just feel like I've reached my limit. I feel like I don't have the energy to meet new people and to spend time getting to know them. I mean, I've been here for almost 8 months, and I'm still meeting people. I don't feel like I have many friends that I can just be me around and that I know well and that they know me. I have many of these friends in Australia, which is probably why I miss it so much.

So I've turned into The Hermit. I prefer to sit around the house by myself and watch TV, read and scrounge for food (since going to the supermarket involves going outside in the cold). It's a bad habit, and it's one I want to change...just not yet. Hopefully it will change when the weather does, which in NL means 'who knows when'. 

SNOW!

A snowy world

This is what I woke up to! A white, snowy, cold world. Snow amazes and excited me. We knew it would snow overnight, so, like a little kid waiting for Christmas morning, I kept waking up every couple of hours looking out the window to see if it had snowed yet. When I woke up to this wonderland, I was so excited. Walking to the beach with my Dutch housemate, she was laughing at my exclaimations and joy from this 'normal' stuff. Now that I meantioned the beach, here's the thing that I can't wrap my head around- it snows at the beach!! I never imagined that it would be cold enough at the beach for there to be snow. But when we reached the beach, there was a field of snow on top of the sand! I guess it makes sense that if it's cold enough to snow in Den Haag, a seaside city, then it would snow at the beach. I just think of warmth when I think of the beach, and snow only happens when it's really cold.

Water, sand and snow! Me at the snowy beach. 

So today was the first snow for the season. I'm looking forward to much more snow and seeing this lovely white powder all over the place in the future! Snow makes winter (and the cold) worthwhile.

Autumn

Lange Voorhout in Den Haag

Sophielaan Den Haag

Autumn in Den Haag is said to be the wettest time. I'm finding this out the hard way! There are days when rain comes out of nowhere and there are days that look like there should be rain, but it just never comes. I'm getting into the habbit of carrying around an umbrella with me- just in case. Other than the rain, autumn has brought with it the beautiful change in colour of leaves that is the signature of this season. Although this happens in Australia, I can't ever remember it happening on the same scale as here. Leaves are changing colour and falling all over the place. The funny thing is that it's come all of a sudden. One day trees were all green, then the next day there's so much colour it's amazing. Soon there won't be any leaves at all!!

The other thing that Autumn has brought is colder weather. Although the end of summer wasn't exactly warm, I'm already in the winter coats I would wear in Australia. Scarves and boots are also a must. The scary thing is that this is just the beginning! It's only going to get colder as the year continues. Before I know it, winter will be upon me and I'll be in thermals and thicker jumpers/coats. The only hope for winter is the hope of snow. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here. Today I went for a lovely walk in the autumn weather and took photos of the scenes unfolding in front of me. It was a beautiful day to see God's amazing creation- and believe it or not, it wasn't raining!