4 months in - Miles
I interviewed Miles (age 7) for the second time on March 29th. This is directly what he said, though some of the answers required my deeper probing before they were answered. My comments and clarifications will be in non-italics font while Miles' answers will be in italics.
The last time we talked, you were talking about how excited you were to move into our new house because there would be more space and you would be able to get more things. Does it feel better here than being at the apartment?
Yeah.
What are your favorite things, either - (interrupted)
The dogs.
The dogs are your favorite things?
One of my favorites. Also that park right there.
Yeah, that park is pretty awesome. What are some of the best things about being in Leiden? Or about being in a different country and a different culture?
I can tell you one of the NOT so good things in Amsterdam.
In Amsterdam? What do you know about Amsterdam? (he's never been)
Well, one of the not so good things is... I watched a video about Amsterdam in class and a person was literally covered around their legs with duifen.
What are duifen?
PIGEONS! How do you not know the word for pigeons?! It sounds like "dolphins".
I like the birds, even though I've been pooped on 3 times since we've been here.
Really?
Yeah. Is there anything that has surprised you about being here?
Um... no.
Have you observed some more things here that are different from Tacoma?
Oh yes, definitely.
Like what?
Um... (is hanging upside down on a cushion and talks about floating)
Last time we talked, you had noticed the canals here and felt like there was more water here.
I have noticed that here we are on what used to be an ocean and in Tacoma we weren't. And there's no hills here.
But what about the people? The culture? The food?
The food. There are a thousand hundred more fish. I've noticed there are a lot more bakeries, maybe less coffee shops... but really there are still a lot of coffee shops. I've noticed that the cards are a lot safer here and that you signal when you're on a bike. In Tacoma, most people didn't have bikes.
The last time we talked, you hadn't ridden your bike to school. How does that feel?
Not good.
Is it too much work?
Well, I don't know. (talking about being upside down)
So you don't have any feelings about riding your bike around town? Or to and from school?
Um... no.
How does it feel to be learning a new language?
Good. Because it's going to be my second language.
And that's pretty awesome, right?
Yep, and also I've learned one word in Ukrainian and in Turkish. I learned how to say "hello" in Ukrainian and I learned how to say "ow" in Turkish. (demonstrates, all sorts of sounds related to the gutteral "g" and rolling "r")
What are some things that you're looking forward to in the future?
I don't know.
What about some things you'd like to do that we haven't gotten to do yet?
Go with the grandparents to a, um, movie theater. And I would really like to do that.
That's interesting, they just left yesterday and you didn't mention it while they were here. We can go to the movies.
Yey. Yes, movies.
I'm excited about going to the beach. About riding our bikes to the beach, I think that will be really cool.
Yes! Beach! Beach with grandparents is very fun. (big back and forth about how absurd it is that he didn't mention anything of the sort when the grandparents were actually here)
Anyway... how does it feel to know that we're staying here? That this is pretty much our home for a long long time now.
Good, yeah. Pretty much forever. Unless we choose to go somewhere else that we want to go.
We will go visit other places, but I think we'll be living in The Netherlands for good.
Okay. And look at my Lego guy's one wheeled bike!
Interesting. Have things felt - (interrupted)
More bike-y? Yeah.
Have things felt better since we moved out of the apartment and into our house?
Yes. (meows like a cat)
Is there someone or something that you miss from Tacoma?
Um... yes. I miss the cat and I miss a friend. (he listed some people, but he honestly forgot the name of one and none of them were actually relevant people in my observations)
Also, I'm glad I can only bike with one hand. Like this. And I can turn like this with one hand.
Is there something you would change about life right now?
No, there is nothing I would like to change about life.
Anything else you want to say about our move or observations or...?
No.
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