when dutch people go on vacation (usually in the summer), it usually means doing something out of the ordinary, often travelling. asking what someone has done [or is going to do] for vacation has thus become a good question for me to ask to start/continue a conversation.
as i was sitting at dinner tonight, br. Luc asked this question to a woman i live with [who had been away for about 6 weeks and i had heard she and her daughter were staying at her mother's for the summer]. she mentioned that she had gone to Spain for a number of weeks. and then she said, "ik ben getrouwd." it was in dutch, so i assumed that i had misunderstood what she said. but then i saw the surprise on my neighbour's face and looked at the pleased look on br. Luc's face and realized that i had understood. she really had just said that she'd gotten married!
even after establishing that she hadn't just randomly found a guy on some beach in Spain to marry but instead had married the father of her daughter, it took awhile for the shock to wear off. as much as people do interesting things on their vacations, the descriptions of the vacations are nice for getting to know people and practice dutch but usually pale in comparison to the actual vacations themselves. but this time, it was different. never before has an answer to the question "so what did you do for vacation?" made me speechless.
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