Learning a new language....

This morning I went to my 3rd Dutch lesson with my neighbor. Half way through the class I was looking at a page and trying to read and found my brain was "switching off" again. Sometimes when I haven't had enough sleep, when I'm trying to learn something new (and open up new pathways to my brain as one of my therapists phrased it) or under a lot of stress my brain starts doing strange things. It feels like I'm looking at a jerky film.....like when some clips of a film are missing. It's almost like I'm looking away from something....but not closing my eyes or moving my head......my brain just "skips".
If I look away from what I'm trying to concentrate on and keep going back to it sometimes that helps.
I also still quite often feel like I've just gotten off a boat after being on the water for a while......that feeling of being in motion. It can be very disconcerting....

After almost 2 years you'd think my brain would be back to normal.......A few months ago I did a little research on-line about the problems I'm still having and apparently it's pretty common to have problems for years after a brain injury. Of course, the doctors don't tell you that!  I wish they would so that when the problems persist it wouldn't be so disappointing to not be "normal" again after so long. This is what I've heard people call their "new normal".

When I got home after class I made myself some lunch, had a cup of tea and tried to go back to doing part of my homework. I couldn't concentrate at all, sooooooo I decided to lie down and ended up taking a two hour "nap"!

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Yesterday, Andrew and I decided to go to church. There is an Anglican church here in town....the only church with an English service available close by.  It is part of the NW Europe Archdeaconry within the Diocese in Europe. It's called the Anglican Church of St. Anna and St. Mary. We had gone there for Easter service at which time they had an interim Minister. There is now a permanent Minister. The service takes place at 1430 hrs. on Sundays. We walked to church from the house....it takes about 20 minutes to get there on foot.

The congregation was verrrrry small....There were only about 10 people in attendance. I don't think many people attend church here. The service was pretty similar to the Episcopalian's. After the service, tea was served. The people there were very very friendly.

On the way home we noticed a lot of these flowers growing everywhere...they are sooo beautiful! I believe they are hollyhocks......

Someone posted this on Facebook today.....I need to remember this!!!!! I don't have to learn how to speak Dutch, everyone here speaks English. Sooooo, if I don't learn the language I'll just make sure I smile a lot! LOL!