The Heat

Finally, Summer has come to the Netherlands! Earlier this week it was hot and sticky - in the 80s. The last few days have parted ways with the humidity, it has been perfectly sunny, and we have a three day weekend! What could be better? The strange thing is they don't use screens in this country...but they do have mosquitos and other bugs. Nothing like the UP, but it does necessitate a mosquito net at night and watching movies can get annoying. Apparently as the climate is changing and winters are not so strong, they have many more more mosquitoes here in recent years.

School went pretty well this week. On Thursday the students had a track and field day. I helped out with things, but getting to and from the field was a bit of a mess. Naturally, we used bikes for transportation and some students do not have well-maintained rides. As we set off as a group (I was escorting one class of 12-13 year olds with the help of an older student) I had my assistant lead the way while I held up the rear. Straight away a chain fell off, so the whole group waits. A few minutes later, right before a busy intersection, history repeats itself. The rest of the group didn't notice right away though, so they were waiting out of sight around a couple corners. The four of us checked the map and proceeded to get lost. Sure would be nice if they went with the grid system here...

After 15 minutes of cycling through fields, we made the distress call and someone came to rescue us. We made it to the sport fields in one piece and the events went really well. After they were finished, one boy in my class mentioned that is bike was unridable. I didn't believe him, but it turns out the whole crank assembly was shot. Normally what happens in this case is this boy would hop a ride on the rack of one of his classmate's bikes. Sounds perfectly safe, right? We tried this, but the first bike had a flat tire, the second had a weak rack, and the third was too new. By now the rest of the class was heading back and I told this poor boy he was going to have to stay with the gym teachers and arrange a different mode of transport. We tried to catch up to the group, but as one of the students was familiar with the area, I said he could lead the way, and we ended up taking a short cut. Again, the group waited for us. Ooops.

Friday the students had a free day so we were able to get some planning done for next year. This was a welcome reprieve! Saturday and today have been quite productive around the house - starting on the bar, reorganizing storage space, trimming bushes, etc. It is so nice to get this stuff out of the way! Tomorrow we will head to the Dutch equivalent of the Home Depot to spend lots of money on new tools. I can't wait!

In Between Worlds

Monday was back to work. So was Tuesday. Both were light days with lots of prep hours. Then Wednesday hit. I always dread Wednesdays. No breaks, not even lunch. One class often has a full day on the leerplein. This is a recipe for disaster. Things started out pretty rough. One group of 8 girls were being really difficult. They kept playing an annoying noise on a cell phone after being repeatedly asked to stop. So I took them all out into the hall to copy from the dictionary for about an hour. This made quite an impact on them and after they were finished we had a good discussion about what happened. This situation actually gave me a nice confidence boost that got me past lunch. After that I pretty much gave up because it was like a jungle on the leerplein - hardly anyone working. These were the last hours before a short vacation. I was counting down the minutes.

The two days off were beautiful. We got a few things done around the house as my parents made their way back from Scotland. They had an amazing trip. On Friday we made an hour bike ride into Delft where they picked up their custom-made salt and pepper shakers. Then we hopped on a train to Haarlem. They city was beautiful and we enjoyed a fantastic Italian lunch. We will be back someday. Saturday they packed up and left. Sad times. Today we rested a bit and got a whole bunch of work done. Another week has flown by. I am sad that all the excitement is over, but looking forward to getting into a regular routine again. The roller coaster should flatten out a bit for awhile.

Haarlem's Big Church.

Peeking into the main square.

A delicious lunch.

Inside the Big Church.

This massive organ was playing the whole time!

Not many wooden ceilings are still around...wood burns.

The Wedding: Part One

There must have been a record number of pictures taken this week...but I don't have any of them on my computer yet. I will have to add some later. Monday we went to school and met with Erik, the man who would marry us. He seemed just perfect and turns out to be our neighbor. After that we hopped on a train to the East Side of the Netherlands as Naomi had to pick up her dress and I wanted to come along and surprise my family. We had a nice time on Tuesday walking around a pretty little town called Delden.

The castle Twickel in Delden.

We had 24 hours to ourselves before the Wedding. It was a bit of relaxation but also a few things to take care of. Thursday was a perfect day. Everything fell into place even though it was 45 minutes before the wedding and nobody had eaten or dressed. Hmmm. The ceremony was beautiful, it was great to spend time with the guests, and the sun came out just for a moment right when we were taking pictures (we had an excellent photographer). Then we opened the bottle of Champagne and headed out to the African restaurant for the big meal. I had Crocodile. It was a perfect dinner.

At the Entrance.

Walking to the Ceremony.

The Kiss.

The whole group.

The sun came out just for the pictures!

Friday Claire left early for Berlin and my parents left after lunch for Scotland. We left for Maastricht. We had a really nice weekend of relaxation and good food. The prices were shocking though. A fancy bowl of soup was 6.50 and a glass of Coke and a student-like restaurant was 4.00! Very strange. The Belgian waffles were amazing though. We just got home and have quite a few things to clean up and prepare before heading to school tomorrow...ouch. We have a three day week though and that will be a nice way to ease into things.

Whirlwind

This past weekend we worked hard to get the house into good order. Monday Claire came. It was Queen’s Day and Naomi’s Birthday. She made some tasty desserts and then we had a nice dinner with our friends. Tuesday we went to the market and got a new frying pan. Wednesday we went to The Hague. Thursday my parents flight was delayed so they ended up coming later, but they made it. Friday we enjoyed Delft and climbed the big tower. That was really cool - the highlight so far for me. Saturday we went back to Rotterdam and saw the Harbor Museum and the Maritime Museum while Naomi rested. Dad loved it. Then we realized Naomi had the bike key so we had to wake her up and get her to bring it. Today her Dad and significant other came to meet my parents. Dad and I went for a really long walk to the airport this morning then we had a very nice lunch of guacamole and smoked salmon sandwiches. Then we made the last trip to the Wolfert house, had some tasty scones, and barely got Mom and Dad on the train. Then we tried to relax but that never happened. There was some cleaning up to do and the washing machine was not working right. TV sucks right now so we will just go to bed. A packed full but good week. Tomorrow we have to go to school...?

365 steps to the top!