Dutch

I have been inspired by reading the Swedish American in Sweden blog that I stumbled on when I was trying to figure out whether the "prison" portrayed in a Swedish movie I saw was legit (it was!).  The blog chronicles the adventures of a young (mostly)-American guy who moves to Sweden just for the heck of it.  I ended up getting stuck in a tractor beam reading post after post after post.  They're pretty funny...and also thought provoking. 

I've harbored the fantasy of moving to a foreign country for a LONG time--probably since middle school.  So anyway, the blog has inspired me not to move to a foreign country (I can't even convince Ollie to move to another state), but at least try to learn the language of my roots and perhaps someday visit a foreign country. 

Since my great grandparents came from Belgium, I have got a powerful hankering to learn Dutch. 

My sweet grandma is very prideful of of our Belgian roots--she has 2 pairs of wooden shoes in her house which I used put on and clack around in often.  She visits Belgium every few years because we still have some cousins who live there.  I did a report about it in middle school and found that it has two national languages:  French and Dutch.  Grandma says the French speaking Belgians are stuck up. 

So, I will learn some words from utterly-useless-in-Texas Dutch regardless of my track record for being flaky about ventures like this.

Learning for the sake of learning.  Love it!