interactions with a shoe shop owner

My dormmate, Angie, and i went for a walk around the vicinity of ISS.

We also needed to purchase a new fone for our local numbers. Mine was not working, hence, the need. We also purchased a few warm clothing... a bit too excited for winter, eh?!:)

We started feeling slight pangs of gutom.We passed through the new Parliament house. A sandwich stand was right there before the entrance. Too bad we couldn't really figure out the english names so we had to forego the sandwiches.

We found the Maurithius Museum bannering a large tarpaulin-like material of "The Girl with the Pearl Earring" picture. I felt awed staring at the tarp while remembering the film starring Scarlet Johanssen and Colin Firth. Angie and I noted that trip to museums in our tour list in the coming days. We passed by a plaza with William of Orange statue, with a large white bird perched atop his head. The Department of Justice stands at the side. We came to this road still full of small shops as we were about to head back to ISS.

A man was looking at us uttering some vaguely comprehensible words... it sounded like greetings in different Asian languages. nagtagna-tagna diay sya unsa among nationality ni Angie and the greetings he uttered didn't quite hit the Filipino. He gave up guessing and asked..."alright what nationality are you?" We replied, "Filipino". And he uttered "magandang hapon" and "mahal kita". He invited us to his shoe shop. Incidentally, when he learned that we were new students at ISS, he began telling us about his friends at ISS and some tips in buying around Netherlands. He was also kind enough to tell us a brief history of how his Indian grandparents and parents migrated to the Netherlands. And the best part... he gave us a short lecture on Dutch people... more particularly men...differentiating them from Asian, Latin American and African men... Courtship and marriage was emphasized. His friend arrived at his shop and joined in the "culturation".

We kindly told them it was the least of our worries as Angie and I were already married. But no, being married, he said, was an advantage as those married would suffice with certain "consenting adults" arrangements... more mature... less whiney, and the like. The weird thing is, he appeared to genuinely orient us with how things were around here yet we felt like he was suggesting that it was OK and that as we are human, some things just happen during weak moments. how existential. Angie and I were like: "Asa na man ni padung ning istoryaha ni?"

Anyway, we thanked them for the info and graciously declined their offer to have dinner with them or hitch a ride in his car to ISS. We said goodbyes and rounded the bend, praying we wouldn't be too lost in the maze of streets. We were ready to get lost but the two spotted us so we couldn't anymore decline the offer for a ride back to ISS.

Well, aside from the kindness, at least we got to ride a BMW for a few minutes... but boy was that both scary and film-material huh?