Men and the Need for Speed

Dennis has been looking forward to taking our new car to Germany and trying it out on the autoban. While we were here in June, Andrew got our little Ford rental car up to 206 kilometers per hour. I sat in the back seat, white knuckled and begging him to slow down. The rest of the family told me to go to sleep then I wouldn't know how fast he was going. Fat chance of that happening!!

Last Sunday, we went to pick Jessica up from the airport in Dusseldorf. It was early on a Sunday morning so there was minimal traffic. On the way home, Dennis got the car up to about 211 kph(131 mph). We did need to get to church at a reasonable time but I still think that there is no possible reason to need to go that fast. I can stay fairly comfortable till we get up to about 100 mph but after that I start getting anxious and encouraging him to slow down. It's always a relief to get to the Dutch border and have to drive at a more reasonable speed; reasonable being about 120 kph.

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving celebration started early on Sunday morning when we picked Jessica up from the airport. One of the things I always look forward to on Thanksgiving is having family come from near and far. In this case, it was very far but definitely got that holiday spirit started. We have had lots of laughs and fun and it is just nice to at least have a little more family here. In the future, if I ever complain about all the noise and work it is to get the family all together, punch me!

Tomorrow, Dennis has to go to work and Alyna has school but we have invited neighbors, friends and the missionaries to share a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with us. Dennis called around and found a poultier who ordered us a turkey. Jessica and I were going to have to ride the 6 miles each way to go pick it up on the bikes yesterday but it was still so cold and icy that I took Dennis to work and we had the car to use for the day. The turkey had better be really good because it cost $50 euros for a 15 pound bird. We also went to Makro, the local version of Sam's Club, and got most of the paper products and food we will need.

We have several vegetarians coming so I have been reading up on how to do gravy. If all goes well, we will have a vegetarian and non-vegetarian version of both gravy and stuffing.
So here is the menu:
Appetizers:
Cheese ball and Crackers
Three varieties of Tapinada and little bread dippers
Olives, pickles, cheese cubes, pickled onions

Main Course:
Turkey and Ham
Cranberry relish and cranberry jelly
Mashed Potatoes
Turkey or Veggie Gravy
Sweet Potatoes with peaches
Steamed broccoli
Corn pudding
Raspberry Jello
Rolls (unfortunately not homemade)
Butter
Jam

Dessert:
Pumpkin Pie
Banana Cream Pie
Fla Torte
Baked Pears

The biggest challenge with this meal it trying to figure out how to cook it all and have it all be warm at the same time. There is one small oven/micro unit and then a five burner stove. We looked around last week for a crock pot or some kind of warming unit and couldn't find anything so I bought a chafing tray. Today, we went into the specialty kitchen store here in town and I found a crock pot. It was $75 Euros! Hopefully we will be able to make do with what we have.

Today, Jessica and I got all the furniture moved around and tonight, Dennis will go get some tables and chairs from the church. It will be a whole night affair since the church is about 20 minutes away.

It will be interesting to see how it all turns out.

It's Snowing!

It's feeling and looking a lot like home. We have had a good old winter storm for the past two days. There hasn't been a lot of accumulation of snow because it comes in little bursts but we've got a pretty good storm happening right now.

From what I've been told, this is a pretty rare occurrence for Holland. It does snow once in a while but usually not enough to cover the ground. Dennis remembers while serving his mission it snowed about 4 inches once and everyone was so amazed. We drove home from Dusseldorf late last night and it reminded me of the many trips we've made through Sardine Canyon at night in a snow storm. There were only a couple of times when we couldn't see the lines on the road.

It makes me want to put up some Christmas decorations but I'm told you don't do that here until after Sinterklaas day which is the 6th of December. I guess we'll have to settle for some good Christmas music.

Our Car

For the past four months we have been Sixt rent-a-cars best customers. We've had 5 or 6 different rental cars. I really loved the little Peugot we had for 3 weeks but we got a crack in the windshield on our trip to Copenhagen and had to turn it in. Anyway, we finally have a car of our own - well actually, it is a leased car and it belongs to the company but we will get to drive it for the time we are here.

It's a 2009 Mecedes C class wagon and it is pretty simple compared to all the bells and whistles that we could have gotten with it if we had wanted to wait another month or two. If I remember correctly, it had about 11 km on it when we picked it up. It seems strange to buy a station wagon shaped car but that's what about 70% of all passenger cars here are. It will be great for picking up people from the airport with all their luggage. Hint, hint. I got to drive it almost a mile but maybe Dennis will go on a business trip and I'll get to try it out some more.

What do we do in our spare time?

I'm often asked what we do with all our spare time. I guess it depends on which of us we are talking about. Dennis works long hours and often when he gets home, he will have several more phone calls to make or take from the states or other work or church related stuff to do. It's been hard to get him to slow down or relax. I finally found something that at least a partial distraction for him. Puzzles. I did a 500 piece Eric Dowdle puzzle I had shipped from home and it was fun so I decided to get a puzzle with a Dutch theme. It was only a 1000 pieces but it was tricky because the pieces were so similar that we were constantly finding pieces that were put in the wrong places. I would have given up on it after the first week but Dennis kept after it and we finally finished it yesterday. (We started it on Nov. 1st) We probably won't put out another one till after the holidays because although it provides a nice break for Dennis, I have other things I really need to work on.

Alyna usually has lots of homework and of course has to chat with friends but in her spare time she usually watches the Office or Psych. She keeps the missionaries here up to date on what is happening on the Office.

So what do I do? The bigger question is why haven't I done more? More reading. More sewing. More sightseeing. More blogging. More organizing of files on the computer. More paper filing. More studying Dutch. I've done a little of all those things but nothing to brag about. I'm still reading the book about Einstein that I started when we first got here. It still takes me a couple of weeks to get through reading any other book. My sewing machine is in the shop so I have an excuse there. So what are my passions of late?

Other than just the normal day to day living stuff, my biggest use of time has been spent studying and preparing little lessons on great Dutch artists. Alyna won't have a chance to take a humanities class and we are surrounded here by incredible works of art. So, I've been researching Dutch art history and artists. I tried to think of an easy way to present it so that she could learn as little or as much as she wanted without being burdensome for her. I decided that if I could put info and pictures up in the WC (our toilet room, which is seperate from the "bath" room) then we would be able to spend as little or as much time as was needed there and have some interesting reading material. Last week, I put up a little introduction and this week we are learning about Frans Hals. Eventually we will get to the more famous ones like Rembrant, Vermeer and Van Gogh but there are so many others that did amazing works that it will be fun to learn more about them.

This is one of my favorite Frans Hals paintings because the guys are possing with thier swords and other hardware along with their beautiful laces and scarfs. It reminds me of a favorite show - Scarlet Pimpernel which takes place about 200 years after this painting was painted.

First trip to Nijmegen

Today, I finally make it to Nijmegen. I have been planning on going over there for about a month now but never made it till now. It is only about 10 km away on the other side of the river. (Almost everything is across some river or other.)

Nijmegen is said to be the oldest and once the largest town in the Netherlands. Two thousand years ago the Romans settled there and later Emperor Charlemagne chose the Valkhof as the site to build a palace and it became one of the most important places in the empire. It's riverside location made the transportation of goods an attractive location. But because of it's strategic location, it has often been the center of many conflicts. During World War II the city was heavily damaged but careful rebuilding has kept the history alive.

In 1856, a cholera epidemid killed thousands and there was an urgent need for clean water. Kronenburgerpark became an was found to be highly suitable for supplying water and is still used today. (I tried to put a picture here of the water ways and the water tower - not like our water towers, more like castle towers.)




Nijmegen is not only a great place to go to view a little history, it also has a great shopping area. The Lange Hezelstraat was an important thoroughfare even back in Roman times so when you glance down little alley and up interesting stairs, there are surprising little glimpses of ancient architecture. This street and several surrounding streets are pedestrian only roads and have all kinds of interesting large and small shops along them. Alas, not having a car curtails an excessively large shopping sprees but I was able to find a few little things that didn't break the bank or my back. I can't wait to go back and explore further.

Ramblings on the Presidential Election 2008

Last night, Dennis, Alyna and I sat around the TV and watched the amazing American political election process. Living outside the US during a presidential election has forever changed my perspective on the importance of the democratic process and the role America playes in the world. Last night they showed election parties being held in Paris, Berlin, Kenya, and Japan.

There have been other things happening in the world; floods, political fighting, etc. but the two biggest news items have been the woes of the economy and the American presidential race. One African countrys' leader said something to the effect that "We need help but nobody will hear us until after the American election." The whole world was watching and waiting for what would happen in America. Most of the people that we have talked to here in the Europeon community wanted Obama to win.

I liked the statement the someone made to this effect - Rosa Parks sat on the bus so that Martin Luther King could march. Martin Luther King marched so that Barrack Obama could run for President.... It really shows how far our county has come in the last 100 years.

There hasn't been an election in my lifetime that has raised so much interest and participation. I tried to help Alyna understand what a monumental election this was, regardless of what way it went because we would either have the first woman in a Presidency or we would have a black president. We went to bed at about 1 AM and woke up just before 6 AM in time to hear Obama make his speech. I was impressed by his speech and watched in amazement all the parties and celebrations happening across the country and around the world.

It will be interesting to live and watch and participate in this next chapter of American history. Who knows were we will go and what changes we will see. Obama's campaign was based on building hope that America can be better, we can fix the things that have gone wrong, and we can all work together. We can hope that he can carry on that theme throughout the next four years.