An American Dream in Leiden...

Every year Leiden celebrates its liberation from Spain on October 3, 1574. This year October 3rd happened to be on a Saturday, so Jimmy was available to come along to their big parade. The weather was questionable, so the girls wimped out and we cycled there without them. We managed to find a great place to stand on a narrow street near the end of the parade route. One local family was thrilled to have Americans to buy beer for and explain things to, although many of the groups were easy for us to figure out since the theme happened to be America.

Let’s Go Fly a Kite...

After missing this for the last three years, I made sure that we wouldn’t miss the International Kite Festival in Scheveningen by arranging a Dutch Family Hash at the beach. It was a beautiful day, which was perfect for a hash and for kite flying. We didn’t actually fly any kites ourselves, but we enjoyed seeing the colorful variety of kites from 20 countries.

Going Dutch...

Soon after the newcomer’s guide came out in February, Terri and I were recruited to be co-editors for the magazine of the American Women’s Club for the club year from September through June. By some miracle, we were able to recruit Meg, a philosophy professor for the State of Tennessee who teaches via video from The Hague, to be our layout manager. Somehow we managed to pull together our first issue while Terri was in France and I was in America. It was exciting when the three of us were finally in the same place at the same time and could celebrate our first issue. By now, we’re finishing up the January issue. Five down, five to go!

Queen Spotting...

On Prinsjesdag, the third Tuesday of September, the Queen opens parliament. She arrives by Golden Coach, which is quite a sight to see. This year Darlene and I went with to an American Women’s Club Luncheon to have rijstafel at a traditional Indonesian restaurant overlooking the parade route. May not have been the close up view as the last time I went, but it sure was a lot more comfortable and tasty.

German Bunkers in Holland...

Every year on the 2nd weekend of September, government buildings and monuments throughout the Netherlands open their doors to the public. We visited the parliament building in The Hague on Saturday and were impressed with the art on the ceiling. We ventured back out on Sunday in the rain to see a German bunker on a main street in Scheveningen, which was really fascinating. The area used to be covered in bunkers as part of the Atlantic Wall (the photos of what the beach looked like were shocking), but the Allies filled most of them in. This particular bunker was uncovered last year and converted into a museum. Artifacts have been put back in to recreate what it would have looked like in the 1940s when it was used as a German command center.

Reflections on Our 4th Year - Part 2...

We’re happy that our list of highs for our 4th year in Holland is considerably longer than our lows:

• Travel: France - caves of Dordogne, hunting for buried treasure over Easter with friends at the Chateau, Lille with Darlene and Mike, Grimaud with Terri and Lauren; Germany - roller coasters at Phantasialand, chocolate factory museum in Cologne; Spain - exploring sophisticated Barcelona, hiking in nearby mountains; Turkey - exploring ancient Istanbul, resort living in Antalya for Eurohash; US - the list of friends we saw is long, but we especially appreciated the extended time we had with Marc in DC, Malinda in Maryland, Erika and Michael in Raleigh, Jimmy’s family in Jacksonville, Vivynne in Gainesville, Sharon in Orlando and my parents in Silicon Valley
• Jimmy returning safe and sound from three short visits to Sandland
• Visitors: We had a lack of guests this year, but glad that Zoe and family made it up from Brussels
• Swimming with dolphins at Discovery Cove
• Hedgehogs in our yard
• Jimmy: completing Harvard 1-week Leadership Class in London, building a hedgehog monitoring station
• Melissa: cycling 289 miles in 7 days across Southern Sweden, newcomer’s guide being published and being MC at book launch, becoming co-editor of AWC magazine, scrapping with Darlene, seeing old friends in California
• Veronica: 5-day school biking trip on island of Ameland, being team captain at Jr National Ultimate Frisbee Championships and coming in 4th, Young Americans workshops and getting a solo in the performance, sewing costumes for Halloween, Activities Week
• Ashlynn: 1940’s Day, Tudor Day, International Day, youngest player on team at Jr National Ultimate Frisbee Championships, swimming in our own pool with friends

Reflections on Our 4th Year - Part 1...

Yesterday, November 22, marked our 4th anniversary of living in Holland. It’s hard to believe how fast this year flew by. Once again we trekked out to Scheveningen to go to the Italian restaurant where we dined our first night in Holland, but first we stopped to see Disney’s A Christmas Carol (the 3D effects were by far the best we’ve ever seen). As part of our tradition, we reflected on the highs and lows of our 4th year. We’re very thankful that our list of lows was short:

• Missing Camilla and Tristram, who moved in July. Bidding farewells to the McGlynns in Brussels and the Flemings who move next month.
• Loss of access to the Chateau. We’re thankful to have had so many fantastic visits over the years, but sad to know we can’t return.
• Jimmy’s travel schedule increasing, but failing to take him places where we can tag along.
• We’re happy the landlord picked up the tab, but it was a drag when the heater in our house broke in January.
• Bummed that the city chopped down the best climbing tree in the neighborhood.
• Was really looking forward to an interesting hash run at Eurohash in Turkey, so was very let down by the poor quality of the actual trail.