Legally Dutch! Possibly Egyptian as Well! Also, Fog!

I am officially a legal Dutch resident!  Clap clap clap clap.  Thank you, thank you.  I went to Rijswijk today and picked up my Residence Permit, and now, I can stay!  Whoo!  My photo is pretty great.  I look like an elf.

I also possibly passed my Egyptian exam!  A premature, but hopeful whoo!  I didn't sleep at all thinking about it, and when I did sleep, I woke up an hour early worrying!  I don't think you realize how certain I was of total failure.  Again, think of taking a 3rd year Spanish exam from what you know from Sesame street!  

I got to the exam and had a total panic attack.  I looked at the first page, which was EASY, and couldn't breathe. The first page wasn't even Egyptian.  It was the "essay" questions,which only required a paragraph of answer!  And they were SO EASY.  Like, "Explain the Egyptian Funeral" (this is one of the first things you learn as an Egyptologist) and "What is the Dating of the Tomb of Khesu-Wer and How Did Silverman Determine It?"  which would have been difficult, except I took careful notes and knew EXACTLY how Silverman came to the 11th-12th Dynasty (titles, offering lists and Spell 579, thanks.)

Instead of getting up and running straight from the room to the train station (to buy a ticket to Rome, which is seriously ALMOST what I did) I took a deep breath, and looked at the hieroglyphs.  At first it was all Greek (heh, sorry) but slowly all the little hands and birds formed into recognizable words, and sentences were born.  I don't think I did very well on this exam, but by Thoth, I might just have passed!  (Seshat willing, of course.)

After all the hubub of passing Egyptian and becoming more Dutch-like, I went to the library and read more Lord of the Rings.  Frodo has just left the Shire, my friends.  What's next?!  There came a knocking on the window.  Julia!  She was just lucky that Tolkien was just describing landscape, or I might not have noticed.  :-)  We went for a quick walk to find a present for her sister, and then decided to do dinner and a movie.

Met up at 7 and made some roti (Surinamese dish) and drank Chocolate Chai Tea and chatted.  At 9 we met with Ilaria and went to see Quantum of Solace.  Or Quantum Solace.  Or whatever it's called.  The new James Bond.  At first I was like, meh.  Too much action, too much violence, where's the freakin charm?  Then, I settled in, and they did some really cool stuff with Puccini, and it got pretty good.

Typical action flick though.  Everyone fought their own bad guys and inner demons, and all the women were attractive.  Someone apparently decided not enough broken glass has made its way into action films though, and decided to change that.  Phew.

We came out of the theater and the entire world was covered in fog.  Quite beautiful!  It's only the second time I've seen fog here.  The first time, I was inspired to write a book.  :-)

The fog comes in

On little cat feet

It sits looking

Over harbor and city

On silent haunches

And then moves on.

--Fog by Carl Sandburg