More and More Visitors

So after Tabatha and Boyd flew home on Monday, May 31^st I had 4 days to recover and get my apartment ready Doris and her 2 friends to visit. They arrived on Thursday evening, June 3^rd and we didn't waste any time! We headed out into Haarlem for a brief walk around town so that the girls could get a lay of the land for their excursion to Amsterdam on Friday while I worked. It was so great to catch up with Doris and her friends. Doris and I were the two single gals as Katrin is married and Sabina is engaged. They are both with American soldiers who are currently in Iraq and they found out just before they came that their men were going to be home in 6 weeks which was several months earlier than originally thought. I have known Katrin for many years as she was an exchange student the same time Doris was. She lived in Georgia and her and Doris celebrated their German graduation together and we all went on a trip together. Stories were brought up from that fabulous vacation and we had many more laughs.

The girls had a busy day in Amsterdam on Friday and, from what I hear, did a TON of walking. We met back at my apartment and they took a break and we got ready to go back into the city for an evening out. We walked around Dam square, toured the ever famous red light district and just hung out and enjoyed the atmosphere for a few hours. We caught the last train home at 1:30 am and called it a decently early night. On Saturday I had to head to the airport bright and early to pick up Javan, my coworker. He and I worked pretty closely during my rotation in Houston and I was excited to see him again. He got check into his hotel and had a few hours to take a nap. The girls and I had planned to head to Delft and Den Haag (The Hague) to see the sights and help Annemiek celebrate her birthday. Javan sent me a message and let me know there was no way he was going to make the trip with us, he wanted to keep napping. We completely lucked out and the weather was amazing the entire weekend. So in addition to seeing The Hague, we had to stop by the beach at Scheveningen. We were only there for about an hour, but that was long enough to walk in the sand, take some pictures and eat an ice cream. It isn't a trip to the beach unless there is ice cream!! After we dusted off our feet, we headed to Delft to visit with Mark's family and celebrate Annemiek's birthday. I was a bad attendee, though, because I forgot her gift and it is still sitting on my table. I'll get it sent before I leave this country!! It was so nice to see all of the family - grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. We spent the evening talking and visiting the local bars and pubs here in Haarlem. It was great to see Doris again and spend some time with everyone.

They had to leave early Sunday as it is an 8 hour drive (with traffic). From what I heard, it was a decently uneventful drive which is always a great thing. The next time I'll be seeing Doris is for her brother's wedding in September when I make a crazy long weekend trip across the big pond to help her family celebrate the happy event. Until then, we've got to depend on emails!

She's Gone.....

The past few days have been busy and exciting. It is all, now, overshadowed by the fact that this morning I took Kelly to the airport. I hated having to take her, but I’m happy for her to be able to be with her family and Stu these next few months. She has a fantastic wedding to plan!! I’ll keep touring Europe (just alone) and she’ll keep me updated about her new exciting life in Houston.

Over the weekend Mom and I went to Keukenhof (again) and then to The Hague to see “The girl with the pearl earring.” The flowers were blooming even more so than last week when Kelly and I were there. I have taken PLENTY of pictures and will put them up soon. I forgot my camera today. After spending several hours ogling over the flowers we headed just down the road to The Hague. I am slowly learning my way around this country! We parked and headed to the Mauritshaus. They have an amazing collection. It is a smaller museum that used to be a house. Each corner of the building is a room which houses the pictures. They have 3 Vermeer paintings and I think one of my favorite is his townscape of Delft. He really is the painter of light! You can see a picture of the painting HERE.

Mom and I had fun wondering around the museum and hearing the histories of the paintings from the audio guide. After about 2 hours we were art-ed out and our parking meter was about to expire. We also had a dinner date with Kelly so we headed back. Mom was a bit put out by me that we didn’t go to the beach since we were so close but I told her we would go before she leaves. It’s not exactly warm around here but I guess it is beautiful to see.

On Sunday we headed to the Van Nieuwkoops’ for Erik’s confirmation at church. It was neat to go to such an old church. The royal family is buried in the church, dating back to 1584. The service was extra long due to the confirmation and the benches are of the true, medieval style of hard wood and straight backs. I can see why all of the children wanted to go off to Sunday school during the service. I expected the church to be cold since it is rather old but they had installed heaters under the benches so it warmed your legs and tush. It was quite a nice little treat. I will admit though, my upper body was a bit chilled and it was terribly early (and we just had our time change to make it worse) and I wanted to curl up and the floor and take a little nap. My mom and I had headphones so we got an English translation of the service which was nice to know what was going on, but it wasn’t the best translation ever done. We found it rather entertaining at times.

After the service everyone headed over to Ton and Gina’s (Erik’s parents) house for coffee and tart. There were so many people!! It was multiple generations and cousins and aunts and uncles and friends. It was a lot of fun to see all of the people and be able to put faces to names that we have heard from Mark about his family. They were all very nice and Mom and I had a very enjoyable Sunday. We were exhausted afterwards though! I met some great people and they invited me to visit them so even though Kelly is gone, I should have plenty of things to do and people to see.

After we got home from Delft, Kelly had made us reservations for Wilma and Albert, our favorite place. We thought it was appropriate for her “last supper.” She had the garlic butter steak, I had the spicy ribs, and Mom got the salmon. We all traded a bit and had a super tasty meal. I also learned that they have little portion of the ribs which is ½ of what is normally provided. A great discovery!! We all also had a bowl of French onion soup to start. That is the best soup! Kelly is determined to learn how to make it and I keep warning her I might move in if she isn’t careful. I’m sure the newlywed couple wouldn’t mind!

On the walk home we stopped at the newly opened ice cream shop. This place is always packed so we had to try it out. None of us needed it, or really had room for it, but we couldn’t let Kelly leave without one more taste of the country’s amazing treat. After that Kelly and I curled up on the couch to watch one last episode of Grey’s Anatomy together illegally over the internet before we called it a night.

I got Kelly to the airport this morning with no major incidences and she got all of her luggage check in and had no problems. I headed to work where I claimed a new desk so I wouldn’t have to sit in the office by myself. It’s interesting to be back in the middle of the office and around everyone. I now hear a lot more Dutch so maybe I’ll pick it up a bit faster! I also get control of the radios since it is on my desk and I threaten to make country CDs for everyone to listen too. I might be kicked out then!

The rest of the week Mom and I are going to be travelling so I’m not sure how much I’ll be updating the blog. I will do my best to figure out mobile blogger but I won’t make any promises. If anything, you will have so much to look forward to next week!!!

I hope everyone has a great Monday!!

Last Day

Today is Kelly’s last day in the office; our last day to share our glass aquarium like room/office. We had to go out for one last lunch at our Neighbor’s Wife. That’s the English translation of the restaurant. We can’t remember it in Dutch. But they have great food and a wonderful chicken and pesto sandwich. We each had a bowl of soup as well. Kelly opted for French onion, I went with the mustard soup. Mustard soup is popular here and Kelly’s dad told her about it and that she had to try it. The first time I had it was a few weeks ago on our trip to Utrecht. The soup there was better, but this wasn’t horrible. Kelly’s French onion was delicious though! It seems to be such a safe bet in these parts, I might just start having to opt for that.

My mother arrived this morning. I went to get her from the airport. It was an interesting challenge. Not that I haven’t made numerous trips already, but I parked in the bus lane (since I wasn’t going to leave the car) to keep an eye out for mom. A young police like officer on a motor cycle came up and knocked on my window and told me to move. He was a bit nicer than that, but not a lot. So I make another lap around the airport worried I’m going to miss mom but then I find a new road to a new parking area. Now, I don’t know if I’d be able to get there from how we usually come in, but maybe. I now know where to look. I was able to park the car and get out and stand looking for mom. I didn’t have to wait too long and out walked my mother! I was so happy to see her! She had her stuff on a little luggage stroller and pushed it over to the car. I eyed the 3 larger suitcases and got a bit worried. I also eyed the instructions on how to lay the back seats in our car down. I figured now would be a good time to try it out. Turns out, Its pretty easy! Just lower the board thing that covers the “trunk” when in normal use and pull the little handle and they flop forward. The car has some pretty spacious luggage room when there are no seats in the way!

I got mom to the apartment, showed her the direction of downtown, and the windmill, and any other sights she might want to get out and see. There isn’t a lot open in the mornings so I figured that would be a good time for her to sleep and unpack. Hopefully, she’ll make it out for a stroll this afternoon. The weather doesn’t appear to be great, but I haven’t seen any precipitation fall from the sky yet either. I guess we have to count our blessings. If she doesn’t make it out, I guess that’s alright too. Before we left I wanted to give her some money in case she does get out but I left my purse in the car. Kelly was nice enough to shell out the cash for my mom. Such a good roommate! (I promptly paid her back when we got to the office!) For dinner we are going to head down that way anyways for dinner at XO and a glass (maybe 2) of champagne.

On Saturday my mom and I have planned, well, I’ve planned for us, to go to Madurodam and Keukenhof. I feel bad leaving Kelly since she only has a few days left but I know she doesn’t want to re-tour those places. Sunday, mom and I are headed to Delft to visit the Van Nieuwkoop family (the source of two Christensen family exchange students) and to catch up with them and see how their life is going. Mom also brought several things for them as well as hauling some of their son Chris’ belongings back. My mother is a bit of a pack mule on this trip, I hope she doesn’t mind! I guess that’s what happens when you start having children.

I’ll work on Monday then on Tuesday we are headed for a tour of Belgium. On Thursday we fly out to Nurnberg, Germany to visit Doris and her family and then go to Prague for the weekend. I’m not sure how much blogging I’ll be able to do during the time but I’ll try to keep everyone semi posted. This is a forewarning if I fail at my attempts.

For beer Friday Kelly and I (but mostly Kelly) brought stuff to make guacamole and queso for the chips. I have to take note of Kelly’s ability to make these simple things since I will be on my own soon. I knew I should have been paying attention to all of those fabulous meals she made. Now I’m going to have to try and figure it out by trial and error….hopefully not too much error though. I might starve. If worse come to worse, I can always count on the Albert Heijn premade section. I don’t have to worry about it for a few more days though.

Things I Miss....

Yesterday was quite hectic and it made me think of all the things that I miss in the U.S. and am thankful that I will have again. I thought I would express them.

A dishwasher. I have never really lived without a dishwasher. I realize that many people do not have dishwashers and I have still washed many dishes by hand but I forgot how handy it was to throw that one bowl into the dishwasher after breakfast. Or the two plates used for dinner. Granted, its not too much work to only wash a few dishes at a time if you stay up with it, but I miss a dishwasher.

Free shopping carts. You know when you go to Wal Mart, or Krogers, or any of the other many grocery stores, you just grab a cart and go. Not in Europe. You have to put in a 50cent or 1 euro coin to unlock the cart. The stores keep them all chained together and you only get your money back if you take the cart back and re-lock it up with the rest of them. It's especially annoying when you're American and can't quite figure out HOW to un-lock them as all the other Dutch people are starring at you getting annoyed. Usually a nice lady helps but Kelly and I still try and stick to the FREE baskets that you carry. America better never find out about this little secret. Think of how much money they could save by not having to hire those cart retriever guys and by having to purchase fewer shopping carts because half of them won't be strewn about across the parking lot at any given time.

People who bag your groceries. They also don't give away free shopping bags. You have to buy them or bring your own. I don't mind that part so much, I can be green. It's the part where they scan all of your items, shove them to the end of the register and expect you to bag them the same time you are paying. Now, there are generally two of us when we go shopping and we can't bag our groceries fast enough before the next person's stuff starts flying at us. One time we even ended up home with a random bag of bread. No idea how that happened. But these Europeans are so skilled they can do it all, with one person, before the next person gets up to start scanning their items. Kelly and I need some serious practice (which we are slowly getting).

I do believe those are the biggest things that I miss, and am thankful we have in the U.S. I guess things can always change, but if they do change by the time I get back to the United States, at least I'll have some practice!!!!

Travelling to Europe...

My first blog ever....my first blog post ever....here it goes!

I wanted to be able to share with everyone about my life and what I am up to....especially now that I am living in the Netherlands. It makes things a bit more interesting. I will catch you up on my last 2 weeks, when the saga began.

After packing up my life in Houston and moving home for 4 days, unpacking my truck, and repacking my suitcases, I headed off to catch my first flight out of Lubbock. There were a few minor weight issues (3lbs each bag), I got all checked in, said my last good byes and headed off. After arriving in Houston from Lubbock, I had a wonderful 4 hour lay over that was enjoyed with beer and reading. Our flight leaving Houston was 30 min. late arriving (thank you Christmas attempted bomber and extra security) so we left late as well. Since we got a late start in Houston, and the pilot apparently didn't call ahead to have the busses waiting to unload us, we had to wait on them. It takes a few busses to unload a 747. Due to all of the delays, I missed my flight to Amsterdam. I got to spend an extra 3 hours in London so it was a good thing I was so exhausted to realize all of the great shopping opportunities that surrounded me. I was also too pre-occupied with trying to re-arrange my flights from Amsterdam to Nurnberg, Germany to really enjoy my time there. Apparently, German airlines cannot help you change flights until you have already missed it. Lucky me. So I finally arrived in Amsterdam, changed my flight to Nurnberg (caught the last one) check my luggage into their storage area there (amazing!) and went to wait 4 hours for my next flight. It turned out to be delayed for an hour as well so I had 5 hours in the airport trying to sleep and read. I felt like a homeless person in the corner!

I finally arrived in Nurnberg 6 hours late. Its a good thing Doris is still young so she could come get me. Her mother waited up for me and served me my first German meal in several years. Schnitzel. My favorite. That was a great meal to finish my odessy to Germany. I am glad to finally be back in my second home!