wednesday december 13

today i stopped briefly by a local x-ray clinic to get some pics of my back taken. when i arrived, there was only one other person in the waiting room, an elderly dutch woman. i sat down and she asked if i wanted a magazine to read (she was hogging the pile); i politely declined. a moment later, she put her own magazine down and began talking to me. during the few moments that i waited for the x-rayers to call my name, she told detailed stories about the following subjects: her emigratory boat trip from holland to canada, the percentage of people that got seasick on transport ships, her honeymoon, the emigration of another dutch family of 11, her first job in canada, her husband's first job in canada, her husband's brother's first job in canada, and where she was going for dinner tonight.