Forgot to tell you guys about the little boy in the train yesterday. I don't know what it is with me and kids! I was sitting in the area 'between' cars (on the 'balcon' in Dutch, don't know the English word), next to the doors, on a 'klapstoel' (chair that folds out of the wall), because I had so much stuff. (I had to bring the scooter to Martin so he can bring it home for me in August; that way I only pay $40 extra instead of $120.) Anyway, so I was sitting there, but the door was open into the car I was facing, and there was a mother sitting with her two kids - a girl around five and a boy around two. The mom had her back to me; the kids were facing me. I couldn't see the girl because she was next to the window, but the boy was sitting on the aisle and he kept looking at me and breaking into a face-splitting grin, one of those where you have no choice but to grin back. The second or third time we smiled at each other, he climbed off his chair, walked out onto the 'balcon', and came right up to me and stretched out his hand. I took it in mine and said Hi and smiled, and he grinned back and then went back into the car. About fifteen minutes later, he came out to me again, but this time he stretched up his arms to be picked up. I hesitated, thinking, What's that mom going to think when she turns around and her kid is sitting on a stranger's lap? but then he started trying to clamber up on his own, so I went ahead and picked him up so that he wouldn't fall over with the motion of the train. Just as I did, the mom turned around to look for him. She called him sharply to her, so I set him down and he went. To try to un-freak her a bit, I smiled and told her that he was really cute, but she just sort of grunted in return, and she didn't let the little boy out of her site for the rest of the trip.

So what am I, a kid magnet?

I can't believe I'll be home in 30 hours. I am so not ready. Neither Martin nor I could sleep last night; we both woke up around 4.15. I had been having a Jurassic Park-style nightmare about a dinosaur eating a four-year-old girl with red hair.

Random thought: where is that $35 I have carefully saved all year so that I would have a little money when going home? I have a sneaking suspicion that it's found its way into the depths of that huge suitcase. I have an even sneaking-er suspicion that I'm going to forget to look for it tonight in Bilthoven. Bah.

(P.S. Just noticed that one of my posts is there twice. Don't know why Blogger keeps doing that. Once again, sorry. Going to fix that now.)