Netherlands

I've been admonished by Varina that it's time to update my travel blog, and far be it for me to ignore the threat from my younger sister who probably has loads of blackmail material she can use to get me to do her bidding. For those of you who live under a rock (ie: who don't have facebook), I'm back in the Netherlands after 7 weeks in Kenya. I got back on July 29, so yes, I've been lazy updating my blog and Varina was probably right to chastise me. It's easy to be lazy about blogging after 7 weeks with no internet access and my days filled up with a five-year-old and two one-year-olds. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

All in all, Kenya was a pretty good experience. I'm glad I went, and the camping conditions weren't nearly as bad as I'd been led to believe by other grad students in my program, which is a plus for me, because it meant a pleasant surprise. While I was away, I kept a journal every other day or so. I'll be putting these entries up on this blog, and I will try to get started on that in the next day or so, so that the aforementioned sister doesn't have to order me about again. Although perhaps she enjoys being able to do so, since she was the youngest and was probably bossed around all the time...

Now I meant to start putting up pictures but have run into a snag: I can't find the USB cord for my camera. I found my iPod USB connector and the AC adapter for my cell phone, but the camera cord is not where I thought I left it, in my suitcase that stayed here, so I'll have to look again (for a third time; I already looked twice). So all my ambition for photographs today is for naught, unless I find the damn thing. My camera is weird and has a very small port for the connector, so it's not like I can even use my sister and brother-in-law's adapter. If worse comes to worst, I will put my memory card in my sister's camera and do it that way, although I'd prefer not to do that.

I'm glad to be back in Europe, which is sort of a like a second home and nicer than NJ, where I'd be otherwise. It's not as hot here, the people aren't as rude, and the air not quite so dirty. I should write travel pamphets for NJ, eh? I have so many positive things to say about it! Although I must admit, as soon as I moved there, I began to understand why Americans make fun of the state... However, back to Europe. Next week, Eowyn, Maddie and I are taking a 2-day trip to France, to Lille, to be specific. This follows on the heels of Marc and Kareen's trip to France, and, although we aren't going to Paris or Nice, after seeing their photographs, I'm looking forward to it. Plus, Eowyn says that prices are cheaper there for clothing (the Netherlands is extremely expensive) so I might get some fancy French clothing. We'll see how it goes.

Eowyn and I also bought a lotto ticket for the 8.2 million EURO (not dollars, take note, you North Americans!) draw that's tonight. If we win, you may never see me again... or see me when I come visit from my fancy European home! Haha! As if we're going to win, but it's fun to think about staying here. The small snag: I do have this PhD to finish, and I'm only going into my second year. Hmm. I guess if I had 4.1 million Euros I could have a European home anyway- after all, what would be stopping me? Hahahaha! Oops, sorry.

All right, I'm going to attempt to find my camera cord again. For those of you who are facebook friends, there will be more pictures up there than here, I'm sure, because of the space limitations here. Wish me luck in finding the USB connector.

On Tuesday, Eowyn and I went into Delft. For those of you who can't place the name, if you're familiar with the blue-and-white painted Dutch porcelain, Delft is where it comes from. It's a small town, but it's extremely beautiful, so many canals, many more than the Hague has. And most of them are linked by brides, not underground culverts (as in the Hague). First, we visited the original Delft blue workshop and museum, although we didn't go into the museum, because Eowyn thought it was free, but it was, in face 6.50 Euros. The gift shop is extensive, though, with a lot of great representations of Delftware, most of it extremely expensive (I mean in the hundreds of Euros). There are three levels of Delftware: fully handpainted, half-stamped/half-painted, and fully stamped. The fully handpainted stuff is the most expensive, the half and half is middle range and the fully stamped stuff is cheap and made in China (the other two are made in Delft). I was able to purchase one fully handpainted piece, because it was a factory second, meaning there was a mistake on it. It's a tile with a cottage on it, and there's a small blue smudge along the bottom edge which is almost completely covered by the frame I got for it. The other pieces I bought - a vase and a mug, are half-stamped, half-painted. It was nice to be able to buy something for myself, something I can bring back and use!

After the workshop, we went into the town center and had lunch. As fate would have it, we ended up sitting at a table next to a woman from Calgary who was traveling with her husband for a conference! Since he was working, she was touring around for the day. We had a great talk with her - it's great to run into other Canadians abroad, so when you say "I'm from Alberta" they know where it is, and even know the city in which you lived.

We followed up lunch with a canal boat tour, which would have been better but for the extremely loud teenagers on board with us. Nonetheless, it was great - Delft is the home to the painter who painted Girl with a pearl earring; I wish I remembered his name, but I don't and I'm too lazy to google it. The oldest house there is from the 1500s, to give you an idea of how old the town is, and how amazing and varied the architecture can be.

After the boat cruise, we wandered around, had tea and I took many pictures of the canals and the old buildings. Delft is just so unlike anything we have in North America, even in the east, where most of the buildings seem new because of urban sprawl, or in the west, where most of the buildings are new period. I am thinking more and more that western Europe is where I'd like to end up when I'm finished the PhD (shh, don't say "finished"!). I think I'd prefer the UK or Germany to the Netherlands, but it's all so close together and easily accessible that it almost wouldn't matter!

I will try and post pictures from Delft without using up all my monthly space, although those of you who are friends on facebook can look at all of my photos there. Tuesday I am going to Belgium, to Brussels, by myself for the day, just to look around. I have no particular plans for what I want to see there (other than everything), so we'll see what comes of it!

This post is coming late because I have been without my computer for a few days now. I dropped it and it had to go in for repair - the hard disk was cracked, which required a replacement to be ordered and installed. This followed right on the heels of me dropping my camera and having to take it in to get repaired. Both items are fine now - over 300 Euros later. The upside of this is that I essentially got a brand new computer for 244 Euros. I have a new hard disk, which means more RAM and a faster processor, the newest version of OS X (Leopard), and upgrades on almost all of my programs, including the complete Adobe Photoshop suite. I used to have Photoshop Elements (Photoshop Lite, essentially) but the techs gave me the full version, and the latest version of Appleworks, plus some other stuff.

Yesterday was the day I got everything back, and also received a long-awaited package from the US. I would have been able to purchase the soil moisture meter I needed in the US if one of the collaborators on the project had returned my email earlier than 6 weeks after I initially emailed him. I had the moisture meter sent to be by Priority International post. Now, English is my first language, and my understanding of priority is that it means "most important", however, USPS seems to think it means "we'll put it on a plane whenever we remember to do so". When I called to find out where the package was (oh, they also don't provide tracking information for priority packages -wtf?) I was told it could take up to 14 business days. That's regular mail, not priority mail. It's not as if there isn't enough mail going to western Europe for it to make it here in 3 business days.

I've had to purchase a few more things for my project, which is also frustrating, given that I've been waiting to find out what I needed since the beginning of April and didn't find out until I got here, and some things which I was assured would be provided aren't. Thankfully, I got additional funding from my department. I find it frustrating to negotiate the preparations some times, especially when others aren't organized or punctual in their responses. I've never been there, but I get spoken to as if I should know everything already. The reason I'm a student is that I don't know this stuff - if I knew everything I needed to know, I wouldn't be a student anymore, would I? Hopefully everything will come together out there. The upside of having to buy things here is that it's saved me an excess baggage charge from the US to Europe, and since most of my stuff is staying in Africa in the field school storage, I only pay excess charges from Europe to Kenya. I might even be able to get everything extra into a small enough container to bring it on the plane with me. I can only hope.

Next entry will be about Delft, but I thought I'd post the unhappy post by itself.

By tomorrow, I will have been here for a full week and I am well and truly over my jet lag, except for a tendency not to get tired when I normally go to bed. But I can sleep through the night, which is a welcome relief for 2 hours of insomnia in the wee hours of the morning.

Yesterday we had a birthday party for the twins at a local park with a small club house. It was more of a thank-you hosted by Eowyn and Dave for all the help and gifts they've received over the last year. Obviously, the twins won't remember it, and probably didn't care either way. It was a lot of fun, and about 70 people (kids and adults) showed up. Most of the people they know have kids, it's part of how you meet people in the expat community here, I guess! it makes me think how nicely diverse my group of friends is: some married, some with older kids, some with new kids, some with no kids, some single. It's a good mix.

I haven't done many excursions, being bound to the schedules of 2 one-year-olds and a five-year-old in school. But I try and take the twins for a walk at least once a day, and wander around the neighbourhood and see new parks and walk along the canals. The canals here aren't as large as they are in Amsterdam and are often inserted by roads (with culverts connecting them rather than having bridges over them).

Tomorrow I get up bright and early and head back to Schipol in Amsterdam to fly with Eowyn and Maddie to London for a couple of days! We have a full schedule, including going to a production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat" (which I have seen, but it was an amateur production, and this is not), a visit to the British Museum, some markets and a bus tour. Probably a meal in a pub, too! I've never been to London, so I'm really looking forward to it. It will be the oldest city I've ever been to; it was founded by the Romans in AD 43, and lasted until AD 50 when it was burned down by the Iceni (a Celtic tribe). Although 2000 years is pretty recent by the standards of my field, it is still old for a northern European city, and certainly much older than I'm used to. The city of Edmonton, where I was living before NJ celebrated 100 years in 2004.

I will be sure to take pictures, and I will be adding pictures from the Netherlands very soon!

I am also planning a day trip into France with Eowyn before I leave for Kenya and a day trip into Belgium by myself.

I arrived in Europe on Tuesday, at 6:15 am local time, after a very long, uneventful flight (which is better than an eventful flight). A tip to anyone traveling from Newark: don't hire the baggage guys to help you with your luggage. Although a baggage cart costs just about a much and is much harder to find, the search would be worth it. (Newark charges for its baggage carts, which is unusual I think). Anyway, the guy helping me with my luggage got in a fight with another passenger, then kept wandering off while I was in line waiting for my baggage tags. I don't get the new airport system, either, where they have 2 people doing baggage tags for 5 lines, and then make you take your bags to the scanner rather than putting them on the belt themselves.

It's the middle of the night here, which I am seeing thanks to jet lag! I was hoping to avoid it for the most part, because I only slept for an hour on the plane, but my body still thinks it's 10 pm, not 4 am.

Yesterday was the twin's first birthday, which was fun. Dave is away in England on business, so Eowyn had a family friend and her young daughter over for cake, and they are having a bigger party on Sunday, more as a thank you for everyone who has helped out over the past year rather than for the babies, who won't remember anything and probably don't care. They had cake yesterday for the first time. Max loved it, because he loves everything, and Kate was unimpressed, but is a much pickier eater than her brother. They got some clothing from me and some toys from Eowyn's friend.

Well, I have a battery warning on my computer which means digging out the adapter later today, but for now, I am signing off before my computer powers down.