Witnessing Unique Moments in Aachen....

I’m clearly not a professional photographer, but
occasionally I do happen upon a unique moment and try to capture it. The statues above were on the edge of a small fountain along with a few statues that the girls posed with. The photos of the girls were cute, but this one was more interesting to me since this gentleman was actually having a conversation with this “lady.” It was if the statues were begging and he was giving the woman some coins. This other moment happened just after a bridal party emerged from the city hall. For some strange reason, the groom and one of his buddies were sharing a wiener. At least they picked the right stall to stand in front of considering the sign. Best of luck to the bride!

Sightseeing in Aachen...

When I registered for the Aachen trip, I'd obviously forgotten that I’d sworn off bus tours. I figured we’d have much of the day there. Silly me! By the time that slow bus made its way down there, we had just four hours in town. We had just enough time to zoom through the 14th century city hall and the 8th century cathedral before grabbing a quick lunch. This Palantine Chapel, an UNESCO World Heritage Site, is truly beautiful with the most amazing mosaic ceilings unlike any we’ve ever seen in a Catholic church. While it was obvious that all the stained glass in the churches throughout Aachen were modern due to the Allied bombings during WWII, it’s great that these historic buildings still stand.

Christmas Markets...

We were excited when Darlene invited us to join her and Mike at a Country Christmas Fair at a castle outside of Utrecht. Of course, there wouldn’t be room in the car for all of us, so Jimmy cycled the 37 miles (just one way, though, as he took the train back). Unfortunately, there weren’t any English tours of the castle, so we'll have to go back to see the inside. However, the setting was lovely and there were lots of nice booths to look through. One of the shopkeepers got a laugh when the girls each bought a rather sophisticated satin pillow for their beds.
For years, we’ve heard about the fabulous Christmas Markets in Germany, but hadn’t managed to get to one. We were able to get last minute spots on a bus trip down to Aachen, just across the border. We enjoyed eating hot latkes and buying some traditional German decorations, but didn’t think it lived up to all the hype.

Our Mixed-Up Holidays...

Despite not being Dutch, Sinterklaas is nice enough to visit our house as part of his birthday celebration on December 5th. Technically, it’s actually his Zwarte Piets that come down the chimney, toss kruidnoten about, and leave a chocolate letter and a small gift in the girls’ wooden clogs.
This year we got a little creative with interpreting the calendar; that is, we ignored the fact that Hanukkah doesn’t start until December 21st and moved it up two weeks (you know we’ve never been very good at following schedules). Here we are about to dig into a giant plate of latkes (potato pancakes) that Jimmy made using a recipe from Irregardless, his favorite restaurant in Raleigh. The Lizano and ketchup were for the chicken; we stuck with applesauce and sour cream for the latkes. Here’s hoping you enjoy whatever holidays you might celebrate and have a wonderful New Year!

Our Christmas Tree...

The girls were very excited about having their daddy home to help decorate the Christmas tree. Putting the top on was definitely more fun for Ashlynn this year. It also helped cheer everyone up after we found out that due to a date mix-up, we missed the company Sinterklaas party where Jimmy and Veronica were supposed to dress up as Zwarte Piets. I didn’t feel as guilty this year about our fake tree since it made the girls so happy.

Thanksgiving in Holland...

No surprise, but Thanksgiving isn’t a Dutch holiday. It’s just another school and work day here, but there’s one special event, a Thanksgiving service at the Pieterskerk in Leiden. The multi-denomiational service featured some great gospel singers, a surprisingly liberal priest, a Protestant minister, an evangelical preacher and a rabbi. This church has a tie to the pilgrims since John Robinson, the pastor for the pilgrims while they lived in Leiden from 1609-1620, is buried there. That evening we had falafels for dinner, but did get to enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving feast over the weekend at our British friend’s who had lived in the US for two years.

Typical Ending to a Nontypical Day...

Jimmy had fun taking photos of how we travel around Holland and in particular how we got home from the Sinterklaas Parade in Amsterdam. Above you see us waiting for the train to head out. We like these nice intercity trains because they have comfortable seats and a table.
After a 50-minute journey, it was time to hop on our bikes for a 15-minute cycle home. You might notice that we don’t make Veronica wear a helmet. Yes, it is irresponsible, but it’s the norm when commuting on protected bike paths. Although Dutch kids Ashlynn’s age also don't wear helmets, until her judgment improves, she’ll continue to protect her noggin.

A Parade of Zwarte Piets...

Since we were near the end of the route for Sinterklaas’ boat, we didn’t have far to go to watch the parade. For 30 minutes we watched Dutch men and women in colorful costumes and blackened faces go by skating, riding unicycles, playing instruments or cycling. All the kids in the crowd especially loved when they handed out candy and kruidnotens (small gingerbread cookies) along the way. The finale was Sinterklaas riding a white horse. And the funniest moment was when this poor Zwarte Piet lost his trousers. Jimmy and Veronica were supposed to be Zwarte Piets at his company Sinterklaas party, but there was a mix-up with the dates and we’re bummed that we missed it.

Sinterklaas’ Arrival...

Since we missed the arrival of Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet in Den Haag, we decided to head up to Amsterdam to see what happens in the big city. We arrived in time to see the boat from Spain going down the final canal heading towards the bandstand. As you can see, the canals were fully lined with people; rumors have it that there were 300,000 people along either the canals or the parade route. The girls watched from under this drawbridge for a unique view.

An After-Hours Unaccompanied Tour...

I must admi,t I was a bit skeptical when I found out that the Marine Corps Ball was taking place at the miniatures park Madurodam. I was especially skeptical since the restaurant normally serves mediocre chicken nuggets and fries. I was pleasantly surprised when we stepped through the entrance and the area normally selling postcards and kitsch had been transformed into a ball room. The food and service were also excellent, but the best part was being allowed to wander the miniatures park after dark on our own. Granted, I clearly stepped over the line with the above photo, but I just couldn’t resist.

Our First Marine Corps Ball...

I must confess that I’m drawn to a man in uniform. When Marine Corps Sgt. Justin came in a suit to the American Women’s Club to sell tickets to the upcoming ball, I considering buying some. But when I saw him dressed as Uncle Sam at the Election Breakfast, I just couldn’t resist. The event was to celebrate the Marine’s 233rd birthday and started with cutting the cake with a sword and speeches by the senior Marine present and the U.S. Ambassador. There was a very somber moment as a table set for fallen Marines was described, but otherwise the atmosphere was very light hearted. Dinner was delicious and the wine flowed until after midnight. We had a great time dancing some swing and chatting with a variety of folks.

Our Most Valuable Player...

It’s no secret that I’m very selfish about our weekends and don’t want our schedule dictated by sporting events (other than the hash, of course.) Jimmy and I are also not competitive, so we’ve never pushed the girls to try organized sports. We were happy, though, when Veronica chose a sport that will come in very handy in college, Ultimate Frisbee. Her coach is on the Dutch National Team and took a group of kids to the first Dutch Junior Championships to compete with Dutch, Belgian and other international schools. They lucked out with a beautiful sunny day, and her team, in gray above, came in 2nd in the under 14-year-old division.
We were sad not to be there to see Veronica win the Most Valuable Player award for the under 14’s. Appropriately, her prize was a new Frisbee.

In the Spotlight...

When my friend Susanne asked if we would mind being interviewed for Dutch TV (a reporter had asked her if she knew any Obama fans), I assumed we’d answer a few questions and be on our way. So it came as a surprise when Arbel called and asked if he could meet us in our hotel room at 3:45am and then stayed with us for about 2 hours as we went to the election breakfast to witness Obama’s victory. Thankfully he cut out many of the truly stupid things I said and we were pleased with the finished video. Click here to check it out (warning: it lasts the 1st 5 min of the 9 min shown on the clip, but if you’re patient, we are shown multiple times.)
I had no idea when I asked friends who were visiting D.C. to pick up some Obama shirts for us that they would attract so much attention. In addition to the interview with Arbel of TVWest, we were asked for quotes by several other networks (click here to watch a short clip) and newspapers. Having our 15-minutes of fame will definitely make this historical morning even more memorable for us.

Who’s the President Breakfast...

It felt strange being outside of America for such a historic election. We’d plenty of chances to talk politics over here, but somehow it wasn’t the same. We knew we didn’t just want to watch the election results by ourselves, so we were happy to sign up for an election breakfast at the famous Kurhaus in Scheveningen. Since it started at 5am, we decided to splurge and spend the night at the hotel rather than trek across town so early. That way we could stay up all night and watch the returns in style while the girls spent the night with friends. There was something quite magical about watching McCain’s concession and Obama’s acceptance speeches on a giant screen in a ballroom built in 1885 decorated with US flags. Many of the 1,200 other people attending (the majority of which were Dutch) actually missed the big announcement since it was made at 5am, but it was clear throughout the morning that most were very happy that Obama won.

A Real Dutch Halloween...

Since I wasn’t too impressed with our Halloween experience two years ago in Wassenaar, I wasn’t too thrilled about taking the girls trick or treating in Marlot, the neighborhood where we house-sat when we first arrived in Holland. After Jimmy reminded me that Halloween wasn’t all about me, I agreed that us girls would meet him at Sherri’s house. Turns out that it was a lot of fun. The neighborhood association hired a callopie to lead a costume parade of dozens of kids (about 60% Dutch and 40% expats) winding through the streets. After the parade, the girls went trick or treating while we went back to Sherri’s for happy hour. If you’re having a tough time figuring out the girls’ costumes, Ashlynn is a mermaid and Veronica is a blonde Sarah Palin despite not having $150,000 clothing budget (just for the record, it was her idea).

Reflections on Our 3rd Year - Part 2

We’re happy that our list of highs for our 3rd year in Holland is considerably longer than our lows:

• Travel: Bosnia - hanging out in Mostar; Croatia - our tin can cruise with Darlene and Mike; Finland - above the Artic Circle in Lapland to see the Northern Lights, sleep in a glass igloo and go dog sledding; France - romantic reunion in Strasbourg and Easter with friends at the Chateau; Germany - skiing and hiking in the snow; Holland - roller coasters at Efteling; Italy - girl’s weekend in Milan; Portugal - sipping port in Porto; Slovenia - couples massage; Switzerland - first visit to the Alps, Klettersteig, ropes course and hiking; US - girls flying solo for the 1st time for an awesome visit with Grandpa and Grandma, and Jimmy seeing his sister and cousins at wedding in Jax and hanging with Marc in DC
• Jimmy returning safe and sound from his long trip
• Visitors: Best buddies - Laykos from NC; family - Buddy; and new friends - Zoe and family
• Finding a new home with a great yard
• Dutch Nash Hash with toga party and Swiss Nash Hash with amazing fireworks over Rhine Falls
• Election breakfast with a happy ending and our 15-minutes of fame
• Making new friends and connecting with old friends while travelling - Zoe and family in Switzerland, Tom and Cissa in Croatia and Bill and Nina in Germany
• Jimmy: getting a new “car”- a real mountain bike; drafting first 5 chapters of a novel and not getting completely dissed by friends reviewing; making progress on remodelling dollhouse
• Melissa: co-editing a newcomer’s book, discovering Facebook, scrapping with Darlene
• Veronica: going to middle school and remembering locker combo; MVP at Jr National Ultimate Frisbee Championships; singing duet as Bride of Frankenstein in school musical; Grandpa teaching piano; Young Americans workshops and performance
• Ashlynn: changing classes away from problem boys, Roman Day

Reflections on Our 3rd Year - Part 1

November 22nd marked our 3rd anniversary of living in Holland. I’m happy to say that it’s still true--time sure flies when we’re having fun! Our trek out to Scheveningen to go to the Italian restaurant where we dined our first night in Holland was unlike previous years since there was a wintry mix of hail and sleet falling. As part of our tradition, we reflected on the highs and lows of our 3rd year. Luckily our list of lows was short and Veronica didn’t have any personal lows:

• Missing Jimmy during his extended business trip
• Our landlord selling our house--very sad to leave Leiden and the river!
  
• Jimmy: missing our trip to Lapland and Buddy’s visit, bringing home a nasty souvenir from my trip (an intestinal ailment), no chance to paraglide (life-long goal)
  
• Melissa: not being mentally or technically prepared for all the hard work on the newcomer’s book, falling off the back of the dog sled and watching the girls fly away from me
• Ashlynn: growing pains, fantastic 3rd grade teacher hurting her neck and being away for weeks
  

Making Friends... in Switzerland?

When Ashlynn played in Switzerland this summer with Zoe (an Aussie-American living in Brussels), she had no idea if they’d see each other again. She was thrilled when Zoe’s mom Jane contacted me and said she’d like to bring her three kids to see The Hague. Having faith that my daughter didn’t make friends with ax murderers, I invited the family to stay with us for two nights as our first guests in our new house. We had a great time getting to know each other and showing them some museums, the beach and Leiden. Now we’re looking forward to visiting them in Brussels. Guess you never know when you meet someone if they’re going to be in your life for just minutes, months, years or forever.

No Mistaking this for Disney...

We’d heard good things from friends about Efteling, but still didn’t really know what to expect. We were happy to see that it wasn’t just a imitation of Disney World. It definitely had its own style and sense of humor. The above ride was called Monsieur Cannibal who sings “Come along if you dare for I will stew you until you are done.” The nude troll shown here was from the great animatronic ride Dream Flight, which mostly featured lovely fairies. We got a great laugh out of the goose parade, which consisted of a lady with a whistle, a man with a drum and a dozen real geese marching around the park. And, apparently the speaking trash bins which say “Papier hier” have been famous since 1958.

Thrill Rides in Holland...

Fall break was the perfect time to visit an amusement park. Unfortunately, Jimmy couldn’t get away from work, so it was just us girls for an awesome overnight trip to the Dutch park Efteling. Not only were we lucky that it didn’t rain, but the sky was beautifully blue and it wasn’t windy. The girls were quite adventurous and they went on a few rides that made me dizzy just to watch. Together we tried all four roller coasters, including the one with a double loop and double corkscrew. Their favorite was the one above with the giant bird which was mostly in the pitch dark. They really had fun telling Jimmy that I loved Bob, which happened to be the name of the bobsled coaster. The park was refreshingly uncommercial. The fairytale forest, beautiful with leaves that had changed colors, dates back to the 50’s and had some unusual characters.

Writing to Help Others...

For the last three years, I’ve been writing in hopes of my friend’s actually reading what I have say. Now after all this time of keeping up my blog, I’ve fallen behind. It’s not that I haven’t been writing. It’s just that I haven’t been writing for fun. Wish I could say I’ve been writing for money, but that isn’t the case either. Instead I’ve been helping edit the American Women’s Club of The Hague’s 11th edition of their book for newcomers At Home in Holland. When my friend asked me to share the job of co-editor with her, I thought it would take a few hours a week. I had no idea that I’d get obsessed with correcting errors and trying to add new information. I’m now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel as we turn over our chapters to the publisher next week. Back to blogging...

A Family Who Rocks Together...

...stays together. Jimmy made sure he was at the record shop early enough to be at near the front of the line to buy Coldplay tickets (we were too chicken to try to buy tickets online on a Dutch site). In less than 15 minutes, the concert sold out. Lucky for him, a second concert was added and it was on a Friday night, so he was able to get four tickets for prime seats. We started the night with a special treat of all-you-can-eat sushi in Rotterdam, then headed to the Ahoy theater for our first rock concert in Holland. The opening band was forgettable, but Coldplay was awesome. The crowd sang along with most of the songs, the light show was amazing, and the band didn’t stay still, playing on catwalks and in the back of the arena for a few songs. The most memorable moment, however, happened after the concert was over and we were walking to the metro. Someone started chanting the ending of Viva La Vida and soon the entire crowd of thousands was chanting along.

Girls’ Weekend in Milan

I was excited to finally get to go away on a girls’ weekend. I tagged along with Camilla and some ladies from her book club to Milan to visit a mutual friend. I flew down on a Friday morning in late September and hung out with Snigdha and her family. The ladies were thrilled that I had prosecco (Italian sparkling wine) chilled and waiting for them when they arrived at midnight. We shared a suite so there was plenty of room for the six of us. Jimmy was disappointed that we stayed up late talking about U.S. politics rather than having a pajama party. We took a walking tour on Saturday; we especially enjoyed seeing a ballet rehearsal at the amazing opera house. The Duomo above was also very impressive and made a beautiful view during lunch. The weekend was over too quickly, but we had time to have some great Italian food, did lots of window shopping, saw some art and had some deep discussions.

Safety in the Science Lab...

Veronica’s first project in middle school was to produce a poster about safety in the science lab. She got frustrated trying to figure out how to draw kids doing things dangerously, so I suggested she use her camera instead. With a little help from her daddy planning the photo shoot and a very cooperative model, she was able to do a great poster.

Instead of posting that, I thought you’d enjoy seeing the best photos of Brooke, the “bad student who never follows the rules.”

First Day of School...

Just two days after returning from California, it was time to head back to school. There were a lot of changes for all of us. Veronica cycled off to middle school to start 6th grade. She was worried about having to remember her locker combination, but otherwise loved her first day. Her intense weekly schedule includes the usual courses plus geography, food technology, design technology, art, music, Dutch, French and German. She has a lot more homework, but so far is able to stay organized. I cycled along with Ashlynn in the opposite direction as she started 3rd grade. It’s a 25-minute ride if it isn’t too windy; quite a change from taking the train and tram. She likes her new teacher because she’s funny and doesn’t yell.

Homeward Bound...

The day after we returned from Croatia, we headed back to the airport to pick up the girls. It was so exciting when those doors opened and we saw their smiling faces (especially since we weren’t 100% sure that Ashlynn was returning). Instead of doing traditional “Welcome Home” signs, Jimmy made “Wanted” posters which he hung up on a pillar in the arrivals hall. The attendant that accompanied them was disappointed when we didn’t give her the reward money. The girls said the flight was long, but they enjoyed sitting in the pilot’s seat of the 747 after they landed. And this time they didn’t get in trouble for smuggling an Apple, although this time they technically did since they had our new Ipod with them.

Fun Inside at Grandma & Grandpa’s...

The girls did occasionally get out of the pool and come inside for daily piano lessons with Grandpa. Neither girl had ever played, but made good progress in just a few weeks. Of course, they didn’t fully appreciate the luxury of learning on a grand or with such an experienced musician as their grandfather. They also enjoyed TV time in Grandpa’s office where they frequently camped out to watch the Olympics. It was a great visit! In fact, Ashlynn had such a great time with her grandparents that she threatened to move there permanently.

Favorites Times in California...

There’s no doubt that two of the girl’s favorite activities while in California were eating sushi and playing in the pool. Lucky for them, my parents are regulars at Naomi Sushi and always get top notch service from the owner. They were very spoiled by going there three times during their visit. Rarely did a day go by that the girls weren’t in the pool practicing their synchronized swimming routine. One day was more special than the others when Ashlynn’s best buddy in Holland came over. Iyala was in California visiting her uncle in San Jose and the timing worked out great for her to hang out with Ashlynn.

Happiness is Time with Grandma & Grandpa...

The girls had a great time visiting my parents in California for 2 1/2 weeks. They kept amazingly busy--eating sushi, playing in the pool, building sand castles on the beach, going to the movies, visiting the animals at the San Francisco Zoo, and shopping for school. While last year they starred together in a backyard Shakespeare play, this year they went to see Romeo & Juliet at an outdoor amphitheater at UC Santa Cruz, which the girls loved. They also were lucky enough to have a joint birthday party although their birthdays are actually three months apart.