Tea with the US Ambassador’s Wife...

I was not impressed with the new US Ambassador to the Netherlands after hearing him speak at a tour for the AWC of the new US Embassy. However, I have enjoyed meeting his wife, Diane, at several AWC activities and thought it was very sweet of her to invite members over to the ambassador’s residence for tea.

While we sat around the beautiful living room, where we have had officer installations in the past, Diane asked each of us to introduce ourselves and explain how we came to live in Holland. In all my years at the AWC, we had never done this simple yet enlightening exercise.

Diane let us wonder around freely on the ground floor to see the wonderful art in the public rooms, most of which is borrowed from the artists. I especially liked this cool felt mural by a Dutch woman...

...and how it appeared in the selfie I took with a bunch of the ladies.

Fall in Holland...

It does seem a bit silly to be posting fall pics the day after spring starts, but all those posts about Nepal pushed my blog two seasons behind instead of just the usual one.

Regardless, these first two were taken in our neighborhood during a dog walk...

...and here’s that goofy dog eating a stick in our backyard.

These two were taken at the Japanese Garden at Clingendael Park in The Hague. Due to the lack of rain—the Netherlands is having a drought, the first since we moved here in late 2005—the colors were rather muted this year.

Vanderbilt Reunion...

When Jimmy had the opportunity to go to New York for business, it was the perfect chance to hop down to Nashville for his college reunion. He was especially excited about seeing his close theatre pals, Phil and Malinda.

This group was mostly his old theatre friends, but there was also crossover from his buddies from Vanderbilt Video Productions (VVP), which Jimmy founded his sophomore year. 

He was super excited about seeing the Vanderbilt television studio (VTV) which evolved from VVP. He found it interesting to learn that there’s a group of students considering starting a group within VTV called VVP to produce stand-alone videos.

Jimmy stayed with his old VVP friend Tom for one night and they enjoyed an exciting Vandy football game despite losing to Florida.

A bunch of his friends joined him at his favorite classic Southern café, an iconic Nashville spot for a Sunday meal. Not surprisingly, he was not vegetarian that day.

Sisters Reunite...

As soon as Ashlynn heard about Veronica’s broken heart, she started making plans to take a bus to Norwich shortly after finishing up in Paris and dropping off her stuff in Holland. Sisterly love was just the medicine Veronica needed.

The girls had a great time clubbing...

...going out for delicious vegan food...

....cooking together....

...and going to Ultimate practice. 

They also made a day trip down to London where they met up with old friend Ariana, who is working towards her Master’s Degree at the London School of Economics.

They also went to see Phantom of the Opera, which was the first Broadway play that I ever saw.

Catching Up With Veronica...

Perhaps it was ironic that Veronica chose to use blue for a self-portrait session in Holland in late August...

...because by October she was quite blue when her boyfriend broke up with her.

Luckily, when she took these she wasn’t actually blue nor is she any longer as I finally post these awesome photos.

While I was in Nepal, Jimmy went with Veronica to London to move her belongings from storage to her new house in Norwich.

When they spent the night in London, she surprised him with tickets for Book of Mormon, which they both thought was hilarious.

The first thing Veronica did after the break-up was to get her hair cut. I really love this sassy shorter look.

She scared the crap out of us when she posted this photo on Instagram. I thought it was her way of informing us that she was deeply depressed. We were really relieved when she told us it was her idea for Aye-Aye’s campaign for UEA’s mental health week, which went on to be awarded Best Internal Campaign at a sports club award ceremony.

She enjoyed participating in her final Aye-Aye entry in the sports clubs’ fundraising calendar...

...and dressing up quite sexy for Halloween as well as performing at a Burlesque Show on campus.

Oktoberfest Hash...

While Jimmy was in the US for his college reunion and to see his dad, sister and nephew, I was enjoying a warm Sunday afternoon in Kockengen, a small village outside of Utrecht. In addition to celebrating Oktoberfest, Steve was also celebrating his birthday by haring from his house.

It was a lovely day and a fun trail...

...including a beer stop in front of a school with a name that made us giggle: Kockenest.

Our circle was extra large as Steve’s wife had surprised him by inviting a few of his colleagues (Steve is a US Marine embedded into a Dutch Marine unit).

They were very good sports through all the zaniness.

Making Dreams Come True...

Ashlynn’s favorite movie is Avatar and she dreams of visiting its imaginary planet of Pandora. So when I saw that Cirque de Soleil’s Toruk: The First Flight, which was inspired by Avatar, was coming to Rotterdam, I bought two tickets for her birthday. Since she had taken Jimmy to a different show when Cirque de Soleil was last in Rotterdam, I had the pleasure of accompanying her.

My cell phone didn’t cope with the darkness well, but at least I captured these two of the Tree of Lost Souls, which is of significant spiritual importance on the planet of Pandora.

It was an incredible show and we both loved it.