Time to Catch Up!

These past few weeks have been pretty busy. I need to catch up so I will try to make things short and sweet. First off, I finally have a tan. After 3 days at the lake over Labor Day weekend, I am not longer blinding white. I even managed to not seriously burn, which was pretty surprising for the lack of sun I had been exposed to over the last half year. The lake was so wonderful and relaxing. It was great to be able to hang out with all of my friends that came up and spend time practicing my water skiing. One big weekend and the season is over. Oh well, I'm excited for snow skiing next!

The most exciting part about Labor Day was Evi. She is my best friend from my exchange year and she was able to come spend 2 weeks with me. We both flew home for the lake, then flew back on Monday. She had to keep herself preoccupied for a few days while I worked (which she did just fine by sleeping, reading, shopping, and tanning) but then we headed to New Orleans for a weekend. We didn't get there till late Friday night, but we had a blast. Our hotel was in a terrific location, not even a block away from Bourbon Street. We hung out on the street, did a city tour, toured an Estate (we didn't have time for a plantation), and took a steam paddle boat up the Mississippi. I was so happy to get to experience such a fun city with Evi. She said Bourbon St. was a bit much for her, but other than that she loved it. On the way home we also managed to stop at a wonderful outlet mall. We were short on time, but we both managed to find some good deals and great clothes. She had to leave the next day (Monday) but it was a great 2 weeks and I can't wait to see her again!

Where To Go?

I’m sorry my blog post has been a bit late today. I try to have it posted before America gets up and going, but today, I just didn’t know what to post about. After reading many articles for the day in the news, I found a few that are interesting.

First, I like the ease that the Euro has to offer while travelling. I don’t like that it is stronger than the dollar, but I guess we can’t all get what we want in life. I never thought, though, what implications a currency that spreads across many different countries has. I read this article the other day explaining the issues at hand. You can find the article HERE. The biggest point in my mind is that countries don’t have the ability to adjust the valuation of the currency to affect the prices and attract investments. This one currency floats across many different economies that are very different in many ways as well as the power and stability that they offer. I guess we are seeing the implications what unified money can do to many countries. I just hope the dollar gains some strength.

Another article Kelly sent me about things to do in Amsterdam. The article can be read HERE. Rest assured visitors, we will save the article for you to help you have a more successful and enjoyable visit. We want you all to have a unique experience from the “local” perspective and we will do our best to educate ourselves so that we may offer it to you.

And for those of you who have trouble imagining where to take the next vacation to, HERE is the article from NY Times about the 31 places to go in 2010. Granted, I don’t have the money or time to get them all, but there were a few on there that caught my eye. Copenhagen, Leipzig, Istanbul, Breckenridge, Kitzbühel, and Norway really caught my eye (I would like to point out my umlaut usage, I’m proud of myself for figuring that one out). I have a trip in the works to Copenhagen, I’ve been to Leipzig numerous times, Istanbul I might have to wait on for a few years, and the last 3 just really make me want to go skiing. I had a great time in Breckenridge several years ago with a fun group of people. Below are 2 of my favorite pictures from the weekend.

We went hat shopping! I don't have a better picture with Josh's eyes open, but you all get the idea. We also went for sushi right after so it was a pretty awesome night.

This little room is where we all (all 20 of us) kept our skis, boots, poles, snowboards, and random bicycle. To say the least it was a bit full and the littlest movment had the opportunity to cause a dominoe affect. Karla and Kayla wanted to test it out. I miss you two!

Someday I’ll have my dream ski vacation in the Alps at some fabulous resort. Whether it be St. Moritz, Kitzbühel, Zermatt, or anywhere else I can come up, it’s going to be fantastic. It didn’t work out this year so I guess it wasn’t meant for me to have the ski trip of my life, yet. Can you tell I have high expectations for this trip? I can wait for perfection (and hopefully a slightly larger budget to have it on).


Input from my daily life: sushi was great last night. They also gave us a web site that has a TON of different restaurants that deliver. I think delivery is Holland’s drive through. We don’t even have to say our street name (which is Waganmakerslaan) we just type it in. Another point for technology. For those of you worrying about Kelly and I gaining weight since all you hear about is food, I wanted to give you a rundown of our daily meals:

Breakfast: Muesli with yogurt (I try to find a fruit to put in there with it)
Lunch: Sandwich (or leftovers) with 2 small oranges.
Afternoon snack: Pineapple or another fruit
Dinner: a frozen pizza with fresh basil, vegetable fajitas, Sheppard’s pie, chicken breasts, fish, pasta

We go out to eat 2-3 times a week and generally always take our lunch. To put this in perspective I ate out lunch every day in Houston and most dinners as well. We also have to walk to any food destination we choose (this delivery discovery might be bad) as well as the grocery store, post office, and to get any kitchen utensil that we need (we always forget the can opener. I’m glad I brought my Leatherman).

Don't worry, we're not rolling around Holland just yet.

Half Broke Horses

This weekend was uneventful but I did manage to eat some great food. Friday evening Kelly, C, and I all went out for dinner but we wanted something light since we were still full from our amazing lunch. Richard had taken us to a CUTE place on the harbor that served amazing chicken sate. Kelly had a burger that looked great as well. The best part was sitting by the windows looking at the ice filled dock area and icy lake. It is a sight you definitely don’t see in the Southwest.

The building at the end of the road on the left is the restaurant. Super tasty foods!

There is the icy harbor/docking area. Some boats didn't get rescued before the ice it, but that seems to be semi normal. Ice can be beautiful.

This restaurant had some candy to grab on your way out. Richard made his way in search of a particular sucker and urged us all to try one. So Kelly and I both grabbed one, C did not. I opened mine, liked it and it tasted alright. Richard opened his and had Kelly taste the powder that was in the middle of it and she started yelling and practically gagging. She was not happy with Richard. Apparently, it’s no tootsie pop…it’s a black/white. Kelly’s said the sucker tasted like licking the bottom of the ocean floor. Heading that warning, I proceeded with caution. I made me way through the sweet exterior of the sucker and once I started getting the salty, yucky taste I stopped. On the car ride back, Richard told me to ask another one of our American coworkers about this sucker. I took the liberty and asked, apparently, it got the best of him too. He is not a fan, to put it lightly. Lesson learned: the Dutch have an odd taste for sweets.

After all of the lunch adventure, none of us were very hungry for dinner so we decided to go somewhere light. We went back to XO (or first repeat dinner) for their wraps and quiches. It was just as good the second time around. C has a sweet tooth so she talked us into desert and man oh man does this country have some fantastic ice cream! Since I have a special spot for ice cream anyways, it’s just a little slice of heaven in a bowl.

On Saturday, Kelly and I enjoyed sleeping in and we planned on meeting C for lunch. She had a lazy morning and went shopping but we weren’t that motivated. We started walking along the shopping street and there are so many cute deli-like places but they are always closed for dinner so we just picked one for lunch. It was great! It was called Pluk and they had a bunch of organic things and their bread was big thick soft pieces of dark, almost black, goodness. They also served fresh smoothies so that was a nice way to spice things up a bit. Apparently, Americans are not the only ones to have credit card trouble. After C had been shopping all morning and didn’t have any problems with her card she tried to pay for lunch. They don’t accept credit cards. She explained it was a chip card, it still wouldn’t work because it was a credit card, not a debit. We then all had a big discussion because many of these vendors tell us that “Holland doesn’t accept….” when the store right down the street didn’t have a problem with it. I think this country needs to get on the ball and choose a story and stick to it. Either way, Kelly and I are used to it and always carry cash on us now. We then headed back to get C’s luggage and headed off to the airport. She was our first victim of the airport routine, so all future visitors, we are now experienced.

On Saturday I had finished my book “The Friday Night Knitting Club” and it was such a good book! It made me cry! I then started another book “Half Broke Horses” and managed to finish it in one day. It was an easy, enjoyable read. The book was set in New Mexico, West Texas, and Arizona and talked about ranching, the weather, and how hard life was then. It was so fun to read, though, because I knew places like the Hondo River Valley and Lincoln and Capitan. The book was written by the main character’s granddaughter based upon stories she had heard from her grandmother and mother through the days. It also made me realize how little I know about my grandmother’s upbringing. I need to call her more often anyways so I guess now I will have questions for her. I better learn this part of my family history before the opportunity is lost. The book took up most of my Sunday while I read and watched some of the Olympics. Nothing like a lazy day reading, watching the snow outside, and wishing you were off skiing with all of the Olympians at Whistler. Maybe next year……