Life: Idiotropic

Every year on the Sunday before the Crazy Days of Carnival, Sittard has their children's parade - a wonderful parade of music, costumes, humor, and crazy makeup. It's fun. The onlookers dress up almost as much as the parade participants and though there isn't much candy thrown, it's still one of my favorite parades. So, today we got there early hoping for a good parking spot. The lot was so empty that I thought for a moment that I had the wrong day. The crowds came, but slowly. So we walked around the market for a bit, had cocoa at De Buren, then bagels at Bagels and Beans, then found some friends, a spot to stand near the cotton candy so the girls could watch them make it while we waited, and then we watched the entire wonderful parade in the cold with a light sprinkling of snow.

Lots of photos are posted here. Take a look. It's pretty amazing what they can do with costumes and makeup. And though I can't read all the Dutch to catch the jokes, the sense of humor among these people is obvious. I'll miss it here.

This little witch had the bluest eyes. She was in the parade with her mommy witch. Many toddlers were pulled along in their wagons or prams completely dressed up, and many completely oblivious to the party around them... or better yet, sleeping.

Many a critter, clown, and warrior watched the parade from their daddy's shoulders. And they all looked just as oblivious and just as cold. My middle ones loved it, got into it, and oohed and aahed at the costumes. Elise wavered between enthusiasm and frost - looking like these little ones half the time. Cold and tired.

And the last photo here... an odd one. These ladies in green had the most dull costumes of the entire parade, but what made them interesting is that as soon as they showed up, a man in the audience showed up with a tray held high above the crowd covered in beer - at least 10 tall glasses. It's a wonder that none of it spilled as they were handing it over the heads of little ones. But there they were, a sea of green ladies with hands full of glasses pausing to organize their brew before moving on.

More photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=92673&id=674507268&l=a6184

Between Karnival and Easter, on a high hill in Sittard, a special Kroombroodrapen committee throwns 15,000 crescent shaped rolls down the hill to the children waiting below. This tradition has been going on since 1923 and commemorates the Biblical story of Jesus feeding the 5000 with just one simple lunch of bread and fish.

This statue in front of DeGats - the oldest building in Sittard and home to a cafe that serves delicious coffee and soup - depicts this special day - something that only occurs here in the mainly Catholic town.

Tiara and I had a mother-daughter shopping day in Sittard today... we came, we spent, and we had a cup of good coffee and a bowl of soup at DeGats. They serve their coffee with a chocolate cookie and a truffle! Mmmm.

So it's a regular Friday night and we're meeting a bunch of friends for Wall E, the new Pixar film, at the Foroxity Theatre. I love the Foroxity because there is a narrow table right behind each row of chairs, so you have a nice ledge in front of you for your popcorn, bitter lemon, or cappuccino... in Tiara's case, the Ben and Jerry's ice cream.

I have my huge purse with my little wrist purse tucked inside... I take out my little one when I go get drinks for the kids, then set it down on that convenient little ledge in front of me. The movie starts. There is no dialogue the entire first half of the movie. The kids love it, but I'm ready to pull out a book and a pen light. For a good movie I'll stay for the credits, but by the time this one was over, I was ready to bolt for the door. Elise was sleeping in my arms. I grabbed my purse, my girl, and headed out. My little red wristlet sat on the ledge in the dark.

So the next day I'm getting ready to go to Schinnen... the kids are ready, I'm ready, I have the list... it's time to grab my keys and go. Keys in hand... purse. No red purse. Gone. Checked the car. Emptied my big purse. And then the terrifying AH-HA moment happened when I knew exactly where I left it. 2 debit cards, 2 credit cards, 2 military identifications, 2 driver's licenses.

I called the Foroxity. They checked the Lost and Found. "Sorry, Ma'm."

So I went into this auto-pilot crisis management mode. Files came out, and the phone was in use. I triaged the list of creditors and called them in order of importance to protect. Canceled one, then two... Asked Kirk to call the base. I was to file a police report with the Dutch and German police, file reports on both bases, then go through the grueling process of getting new IDs. That's more painful than the credit cards.

The kids were rerouted into play mode. I spoke to the Dutch police and had the station address. Tiara was set to babysit for however long it would take for us to get this done. We were minutes from walking out the door and I thought... let's check just one more time. I called the Foroxity again and got the same girl on the phone.

A man had called the Foroxity a few minutes ago. He was Dutch. He found my purse, but since it was an American's purse and had "important papers" inside, he decided to take it home instead of trusting it to the theater staff. The theater employee was incensed. She said she yelled at him telling him they had a safe. He didn't leave a name or number. I'd have to wait.

Late that evening the base called to tell us that the Geleen police had it. The left a number which led me to another number... and I eventually tracked it down. They are closed on Sundays, but I could pick it up at 3 anyway. He spoke little English, so we spoke mostly in German, then English, and a bit of Dutch for pleasantries.

Sunday Kirk is working. I have the kids. We drive to the police station - arrive 15 minutes late. I stand at the locked door and call with my cell phone. "You're late," he says in English. "Yes, I know. My GPS took me a strange way." In German he replies that because I'm late I must hand over my oldest daughter. I paused, then laughed and he laughed too, then opened the door.

Everything is there except for 10 Euros cash. Glad I didn't have more. "Thank you." We're speaking German again which surprises me because the Dutch usually speak English extremely well. Then he tears the piece of paper that had photocopies of all of my ids. Written on the back is a name, an address, and a phone number. Mr. Schlemmer. This is the man who found my wallet and so here is his address. He lives just a few blocks away. If I'd like to stop by and say thank you. He started to draw me a map.

Is this normal?? Do people normally visit the honest folks who return lost or stolen things? I'm a woman alone with 4 daughters... but I'm in the Netherlands... it won't hurt to drive there. May be he won't be home.

We got there, parked, and got out. Followed the numbers around to 149, looked up and saw a man smoking on the top floor balcony. I waved my little red wristlet. "Did you find this?" I yelled up. "I just wanted to say 'thank you." He smiles, stands, then asks if we'd like to come up. All those safety alarms go off. What would Kirk say. Is this safe? "Oh, no thank you. I just wanted to thank you." "I'll come down." Deep breath. Tiara is worried. The little ones are oblivious, but I can see that look in T's face. And then he's there, a tall, thin, middle aged man with the darkened wrinkled skin of a smoker. Loose clothing, but not horribly dressed. Smiling. He says he found it on the floor with the contents spilling out, so he scooped it up and took it home. He invites us up again. Come have a drink.

How do I get out of this? I don't. "Ok, just for a moment. I can't stay long." The entry is filthy. It's an old disheveled building. There's a sink covered in grime and some buckets on the ground. We're walking up extremely steep narrow stairs and I'm thinking about how I could run down these with a kid tucked under each arm if I needed to. We get upstairs and he opens the door to an absolutely beautiful, completely modern apartment. And it's clean. His old dog licks us. The girls are taken with him. He points to his computer. "I tried to find your phone number on google, but couldn't find it." He tells me about his search and all the people he called to try to reach me. We make small talk about family and jobs. He has a wife and two teenage kids. They're building a large home nearby. "This is temporary," he repeats several times during our visit. I don't have a drink and don't stay long. Within 15 minutes, we were making our way again down those stairs. Thanking him again.

We turned the corner, saw my van in the near distance, and I let out a deep breath. Relief. Not that my wallet is back, but we're walking casually away from what ended up being a very benign encounter.

I wonder how normal this is. The policeman seemed to think it was routine. This is not America.

For those of you with little time, I will occasionally be publishing these blog entries with "Tifnotes," a condensed, to-the-point summary of the usually long winded entry. Here's the first Tifnote-- the full entry will follow for those with time to read.

Tifnotes version: We went to the Children's Carnival Parade in Sittard and had really delicious hot chocolate from Bagels and Beans. The costumes were amazing and I saw first hand that Dutch people really enjoy silly string.


The Carnival season is here and though some events are definitely not for kids, the Kinderoptocht (Children's Parade) is made exactly for children, but leaves out no one.

We hadn't been to this before and though I've heard of it, I only found out when it was through the Dutch Bagels and Beans newsletter that I always try to "read" through though I can only pick out words here and there. Luckily this time I could understand "kinder" which is also child in German and could understand that they were going to be open on a Sunday which is quite unusual, so I used Babelfish to look up Optocht and confirmed what I suspected - the parade!

It's always fun when a little detective work uncovers a treasure. And, this parade is that. I found the website for the Sittard parades that includes photos of both the adults and children's parades dating back to the 1920's! Amazing!

We didn't show up particularly early, but still found parking in the residential areas without difficulty and walked to the center. I let the girls pick out wild headbands knowing that putting them in costumes would take too long and I wasn't 100% sure if spectators would be wearing costumes. Wow. Confirmation came quickly. Everyone that we saw crossing the streets and walking towards the square was in costume. The children - ALL OF THEM - were completely decked out with costumes, elaborate makeup, wigs and props. And even the adults were not altogether boring. Though some looked "normal," the majority if not in full costume, were at least wearing silly hats, boas, glasses, and other funny accessories. I felt very American and there was no avoiding that. Next year we'll dress up and come armed with silly string and loads of confetti so that we too can cover all passers by with it - the police cars, the tubas... all covered in silly string.

We got cocoa and coffee to go and found a good place to stand just outside of Bagels and Beans where the road curves and the parade would come straight towards us down Putstraat before turning and going around the corner to the Markt. For about 15 minutes, we stood there in the cold wind hugging our warm drinks and watching the party going on around us - kids running around the empty spaces, throwing confetti and chasing each other with cans of silly string, then picking up streamers and confetti off of the ground so they could throw it again. There were a lot of little boys with toy guns that made a loud crack every time they pulled the trigger. The group next to us were all decked out in the Dutch Carnival colors - red, yellow, and green with hats, and feather boas in those colors. Entire families stood together from infants to elderly - all bundled and ready.

The lead car was a police car slowly arriving already completely covered from front to back, windows and wheels, with all colors of silly string and piles of confetti. Just as he got to us, he used his windshield wipers to clear it. It's amazing he could see anything before that. That was the first of many a person or car to arrive on our corner decorated by the crowd. Even band instruments had string handing from them. At first, I watched the small procession of cars going by thinking, "is this it? How lame!" But then, the cars were gone, and the fun stuff started. For 2 full hours we stood watching group after group go by all dressed in amazing costumes. I wish that we could have read the Dutch. All the groups had signs. I could only read a few of them.

There were a couple traditional floats, but most groups came with just their costumes and smaller float-style props like strollers and wagons that had been completely transformed with balloons, foam, and other items into whatever they needed them to be. Families walked together. Babies in matching costumes and with makeup on, slept with their heads flopped sideways in their fancy stollers completely oblivious to the noise around them. Bands played and most groups had a wagon with a speaker system hidden inside playing traditional carnival music loudly.

They threw some candy, but not a lot. The girls also got a few little things... a heart flashlight key chain, a pen, and a ball. One group ran around with ribbons and strips of netting tying them to people's arms. A young girl tied a bow around both Arianna and Luci's arms and though my girls didn't understand why (nor did I... couldn't read that sign), they liked to be given something. Towards the end of that group a mother and 2-year old girl dressed alike came up to Elise and gave Elise a small handful of ribbons tied in bows. I think we're supposed to remember something.

Have I mentioned that these people can make absolutely anything out of foam???? It is amazing! The bird hats in the photo above are entirely made of that brightly colored thin craft foam that is so vogue for kids these days. We saw hat after had made of that and even strollers wrapped all around in foam with foam windows to make it look like a pirate ship.

Anyway... that was it. Two hours of costumes and fun. The little girls all enjoyed it. My big girl tolerated it. I loved it. I love seeing the families together - seeing infants and children walking, riding, and being carried by their parents and grandparents, all wearing the same costumes and participating together. It's a beautiful thing and people were all smiling and having fun. We'll definitely next year and then, we'll all dress up.