First

This is it. My first post on my English blog. I've been posting on my Dutch blog for the past two years, and I have to say, I dread having to step out of my comfort zone and start writing in English. Even though English is my second language - far better then my French, German or Japanese - it is still very different from expressing yourself in your native tongue. That is something I am confronted with every day in Australia, and it can be so frustrating. Things don't always come out the way I want them to, or it takes me too long to think of how to phrase it and then the discussion has moved on. I miss being able to bring in some nuance, to be creative with language and not to worry about mistakes. Writing English still beats having to talk English over the phone, though. It's the most nervewrecking and hardest thing, to have a phone conversation in a different language. Because you can't see or 'read' the other person, because you don't want to say 'sorry' all the time, because people tend to talk faster and more direct over the phone.
Anyway, I am going to give it a go. But please be patient with my mistakes!