Continuing Education...

As a member of both the American Women’s Club of The Hague and the International Women’s Club, I have the chance to go to several lectures a month on a variety of topics. My favorite is the art history lectures, but I have also gone to lectures ranging from Dutch silver to Dutch health care and politics to the lack of clean water in Cambodia. One of the most fascinating was the History of Veiling presented at both clubs by a textiles archaeologist from the Textile Research Centre in Leiden. Can you guess where these two veils that I’m wearing are from?

Jimmy Shows Steve Around...

It would be unfair to say that my part of the tour was the cultural portion, but as these photos show, things took a turn into a different kind of culture once Jimmy joined us for the rest of the evening. Granted, I’d discovered our first stop with Betsy, the jenever bar Wyand Fockink, where they fill the glasses so full that you have to lean over the bar to take the first sip before you can lift the glass. Then we had dinner at the brewpub De Bekeerde Suster (the Converted Sister) that Steve and I had discovered on our wanderings. They brew four beers; our favorite was the Manke Monnik 7.2% (the Limp Monk). The night was still young, so we made our way to another bar where we tried absinthe for the first time (here Jimmy is dissolving the sugar into the spirits to produce a Flaming Green Fairy). As this other photo shows, our evening ended in the Red Light District, which definitely takes on a different look after dark. I now understand why Jimmy usually gives this tour without me, but luckily we were all still laughing when we got on the train for home.

Melissa Shows Steve Around...

We were bummed that Carolyn couldn’t join him, but were so excited that Steve was able to tack on a few extra days onto a business trip that took him to Lisbon and Copenhagen so he was able to spend four nights with us. He’d never been to Holland before, so I gave him my standard tour. Luckily the weather was good so we could cycle to Leiden where we hit the market, climbed a windmill, snuck into a church and walked in the footsteps of the Pilgrims. The next day, we cycled to the beach, ate falafels, visited the Panoramic Mesdag and the Mauritshuis. On our last full day, we took the train to Amsterdam where we visited the Anne Frank House and Van Gogh Museum and ate lunch in a building from 1488. Steve also got a good idea of what our daily lives are like with visits to Ashlynn’s school, the grocery store and an American Women’s Club meeting.

Dutch Resistance Museum...

The AWC arranged for a tour through the neighborhood surrounding the Dutch Resistance Museum in Amsterdam. Jane and I arrived early so we had plenty of time to do the audio guide at the museum, which was excellent. In addition to learning about the resistance, we learned a lot about the Netherlands during the occupation between May 1940 and May 1945.
The tour was given by a history professor from New York who volunteers at the museum. He brought us into a memorial featuring an eternal flame; the building was once a theater that was used as a deportation center for Jews from 1942 to 1943. Of the 140,000 Jews in the Netherlands in 1940, 107,000 were deported and of those only 5,200 survived the concentration camps. This is the Auschwitz Memorial, which features broken mirrors to reflect the broken sky at all times. The flowers were for the liberation of the camp by the Russians on January 27th.

Discovering Scuba...

After skipping throwing a few birthday parties, we really splurged on Veronica’s 13.5 by taking the big girls for a Discover Scuba class at Dutch Scuba Divers, where Veronica and Ashlynn took their diving classes over Christmas.
All the girls really enjoyed their first experience of breathing underwater. Jimmy also enjoyed getting wet again. The four of us will be back in the pool in early April to do a scuba refresher class before our big diving trip to Bonaire.

Veronica is 13.5 Years Old...

It was actually Ashlynn that pointed out that it’s unfair that Veronica doesn’t get to celebrate her birthday with her friends in Holland because we’re always away during her August birthday. She suggested that we throw Veronica a surprise party, but instead we let Veronica plan her own 13.5 celebration. Ellie, Lizzy and Adelina spent the night and Fiona joined in the festivities in the morning. The big girls were nice to let Ashlynn and her friend Ellie hang out with them. The evening started with homemade pizzas.
After dinner, the girls mixed their own customized perfumes from oils that Jimmy picked up in Dubai, then watched some movies. On Sunday, the girls tie-dyed shirts, played in the park and ate the great frog cake that Adelina made.

Oops!

Five nights before the company dinner-dance, I cut James’ hair. I usually start by using a #2 or #3 blade to get the back fairly short, then switch to scissors for the top, sides and front. Just as I was finishing up, I remembered that he thought I’d left the back a little long last time. So I grabbed the razor and cut a wide swath along the left bottom. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that I’d taken the blade off and cut to the bare skin. In my panic, I then did the same on the right side. After the enormity of my mistake hit, I couldn’t stop laughing. He asked if I could at least even it off, but I was afraid to touch the razor again. I assured him no one was likely to notice. Of course, I was wrong. His colleagues suggested he sue his barber. This photo was taken five days later; his hair had grown in a lot, but you can still see how uneven it was.
The morning of the dinner-dance, we headed to the mall to see if a hair stylist could perform a miracle. James made me watch how she repaired the damage so I could learn from my mistake. Of course, he’s likely to hold the razor from here on so I can’t make this goof again. I was no longer embarrassed to be seen with him and we had a lovely time at the dinner-dance despite it being too cold to explore Madurodam in the dark.

Haggis Anyone?

When Jane and Mike invited us to join them at the British Club’s Burns Night Supper, I had to look up who Robert Burns was (he was a 18th century Scottish poet who’s become a cultural icon). I had a rough idea what haggis was, but the actual description was even worse than I imagined. Thankfully I was able to request salmon. The night was definitely unusual as well as very fun. There was an entire ceremony dedicated to presenting the haggis along with whiskey toasts, a three-course dinner, and Scottish country dancing (similar to square dancing).
James made a smart-ass remark that they should raffle off the ceremonial haggis and then his number got pulled. Needless to say, we didn’t bring it home. The following night, we were back at the AWC for a chili cook-off. Again I was lucky, because one of the ladies made a special chicken chili so I wouldn’t have to just eat salad and corn bread. That evening ended with lots of laughs as we watched the best of the Super Bowl ads over the last five years.

Our Little Actresses...

Rather than trying to find games that they’d all like to play, Veronica quickly went to work on writing a play that the four girls could perform. There wasn’t much time to rehearse, so the girls broke the play into two nights. The first night, Beatrix was a dog and the rest went to Beauty High School. Ashlynn was a bully and Freya helped her play a practical joke on Veronica by convincing her to buy some clothes that only cool kids can see, which led her to show up at school naked.
The second night, Beatrix had a few lines while the practical jokes continued by ditching poor Veronica in Paris on a school trip. Luckily, the jokesters finally saw the evils of their way and everyone made up at the end. A lot of laughs were had by everyone!

Pyromaniacs...

When Jimmy found out that the host of the New Year’s Eve party that we were going to in the Statenkwartier was buying a lot of big fireworks, he took it upon himself to buy a large supply of smaller fireworks so the girls could practice their pyromaniac skills. I was happy that he also bought them eye and ear protection.
Jimmy saved some of the fireworks to shoot off on New Year’s night after Tristram and Camilla arrived with Freya and Beatrix. They had spent Christmas in Sweden and stopped to spend two nights with us before returning to the UK. We hadn’t seen them since last New Years when we stayed with them.

An Afternoon at Delft Technical University...

Since scuba lessons took up so much time, we didn’t manage to do much else this holiday. We did take one day to tram down to Delft to visit the Delft Science Center at Delft Technical University (TU). This small museum is run by TU students. The signs are only in Dutch, but the girls still liked the interactive stations. We paid extra for them to do a DNA workshop, which led to many cloning jokes. It consisted of chewing the inside of their cheeks, spitting into a cup, adding some chemicals and separating out the strands of DNA, which was finally placed into a glass pendant. Afterwards, we went across the street to check out the Library of Architecture, which I had learned about from a friend on Facebook. After a devastating fire destroyed a portion of their collection, the new library desk was designed to be made out of recycled books. Jimmy couldn’t resist wandering into the main lab in the center of the building, which also featured a great design.

A White Christmas...

We had good intentions to have a small Christmas with the scuba lessons as the main gift, but somehow we failed. The girls got the usual books and DVDs, but also got a new iTouch after their last one was stolen in Greece. Jimmy and I also got dive computers (don’t think underwater Wi-Fi, but rather fancy watches). We had a relaxed day with a dinner reminiscent of Thanksgiving (rotisserie chicken, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce). While the girls stayed in their pjs, Jimmy and I got dressed to take a walk because the sun came out. It may have started out sunny, but soon switched over to light snow. It only snowed for about 15 minutes, but it still qualifies as our first White Christmas.

Our Little Fish...

After just five pool sessions, Peter declared that the girls were the most confident kids in the water that he’d ever taught. As part of his exam, he turned their air off without warning and they both reacted very calmly. He allowed them to do another session with Jimmy just to reinforce the skills they’d learned. Next stop will be Bonaire (in the Dutch Antilles off the coast of Venezuela) in April to finish their certifications to become Open Water Divers!