Today was Spring Forward in the Netherlands and, to celebrate, we all “slept in” an hour.
And, because there’s no school or daycare or work for the next who knows how long this will be the first ever and probably last time change that doesn’t absolutely WRECK us.
#SilverLining
But first, the news:
- Coronavirus death toll rises, obese corona patients dominate in intensive care
- Netherlands Stays Home: Empty Beaches & Streets
- Corona in the Netherlands: figures as of March 28 [Dutch]
It is only SIX degrees here but the wind factor is rather fierce which means that, despite the sunniness, we’re all going to stay the fuck inside.
Which is unfortunate because there are bears to hunt.
There is a popular children’s book about going on a bear hunt and since I just looked it up now I know that it was originally written in English and no wonder it seemed so familiar when I first read it in Dutch.
And, apparently, it was originally based on an American folk song and suddenly I remember a few more details. There were hand gestures or something that went with each environment. So, for example, going through the grass, you’d ‘swish’ your hands together and clomping through mud was something like slapping your thighs. And then when you ran away from the bear, you’d do all the actions in reverse and FAST.
#FocusLeander
The ‘BerenJacht’ is a popular book here and kids are all stuck at home so people have started putting teddy bears in their windows for kids.
There’s even a modification to google maps where you can see all the ‘knuffel’ bears in the Netherlands.
It takes a very long time to load.
And there’s more than a few maps, actually.
But it completely appeals to my inner child to go walking and find random bears in windows.
It’s like a scavenger hunt that the whole country is doing.
Here’s the thing is that we never would’ve know about this, but. One Dutch friend (thx, J!) invited us to the Facebook Page DAYS ago. And a neighbor explained IN ENGLISH why she had a bear in her window when I pointed it out to the oldest.
I guess we’re not as isolated as I fear.
But also I’m not as depressed today as I was a few days ago when I wrote those dark thoughts. I continue to get better and stabilize. Sure, it’ll get worse, too, but for now I’m enjoying the upswing and figuring out how to minimize the next dip.
Hunting for teddy bears sure does help.