It had been probably 6 years, and definitely longer for the girls, since I had seen Lisa. We have been chatting over messenger, but a real hug feels so much better.
Lisa was the first nurse at Liberty Pines Academy and worked there when we move from Belgium. I will post the full first meeting story at the bottom for those interested in a crazy Petra story.
The Dullum family had moved to Prescott, WI and I always said if I was close, I would visit. So here we are.
Mall of America
Lisa, Lauren and Aly took us on a girl’s night to the Mall of Amerika in Bloomingdales, MN. Of course it was a Covid-19 tour with closed restaurants. The Mall has an actual theme park and aquarium INSIDE, but also that was closed due to Covid. We still had fun, because Girls, just wanna have…
and the biggest Mall did not dissapointed. I feel we walked marathon and only saw a fraction of the more then 520 stores and 50 (closed) restaurants, and we didn’t even try the 12,550 on-site parking spaces. Luckily the Wisconsin tem knew where to go to make the best out of the evening, because to visit every store you would need 86 hours and you could only hang around for 10 minutes max. To give you one other perspective (and to keep the male readers in mind): the Yankee stadium would fit 7 times in this Mall.
The first meeting with Lisa
We had just moved to Florida, right before the school year started in St Johns County, and Liberty Pines Academy opened its doors that year. Fay had prevented us from going to meet the teachers and my kids hardly spoke English, if any. Maarten had a cast taken of of his arm the day before moving and had a splint for 2 more weeks, so we would not have to look for a doctor right away. And to top things of we were here for 6 weeks, I still didn’t have a cell phone, the school had the phone# of the new house and Hans had to travel back to Belgium. Just to paint the picture of a perfect set up for a culture shock.
So I come home one early afternoon from dropping the kids off, checking on the work in the new house and doing groceries. We were still waiting on our container from Belgium but it was held by customers because they discovered livestock, more precisely ANTS. (“And if we can’t get them out, we need to burn the container”). As I am checking my email, and there is a message from noon (it is almost 2 pm now) from the school stating Maarten had hurt his wrist during lunch and was in the clinic.
I am now going in full panic mode, I can’t call anyone, so I jump in my car and start driving the 20 minutes to school. I don’t even know which clinic he is in, I left him at school…. This is the Belgian/Dutch mind racing, clinic in Dutch means hospital. And I wasn’t aware there was a full-time nurse in most American schools.
So I come at the school and the the front desk in full blown culture shock now: “I am Maarten’s mom! Where did they bring him, how serious was it,…” So Mrs VanSandt calls Lisa and she tells me he is with her. (So not in the hospital) Here I am now, falling to pieces…. sobbing, crying about the language barrier, the ants and them burning my furniture,…. anyone who ever saw me break down knows I am very committed to it.
So Lisa calms me down, listening to me, probably hardly following the story and absolutely convinced I am crazy.
Just for me to top it of with: “By Christmas we will be best friends!”
I am telling you, the fact they didn’t block me from talking to her ever again is surprising, but I came through on my promise and we are still friends, accross the miles, till this day.
And let me assure you, I did plenty of other stupid things in that clinic since that first time.
“By Christmas we will be best friends.”
Crazy mom
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