Chatsworth

The kids and I have been exploring Sheffield while Andrew is away.  It has been hard to have him gone for so long, but we have enjoyed getting to know our new city, as well as, sleeping late and trying to find some good British comedies on TV!  The kids have tried fish and chips from two different places and we enjoyed exploring the Botanical Gardens.  We had rain for two days, so we purchased a few umbrellas and walked the mile to the movie theater to see Despicable Me 2.

Half eaten Fish and Chips.  I dont care for them, but the kids love them!!

The rain finally let up and we were anxious for a change of scenery, so we decided to venture out of the city. This meant driving the car again!  Emma was an excellent navigator and we made it safely down to Chatsworth.  Chatsworth is the home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire.  For those who are Jane Austen fans, it is thought to be the inspiration for Pemberley, and the movie, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, starring Keira Knightly was filmed at Chatsworth.  The house is huge and somewhat overwhelming.  The gardens are fantastic and we enjoyed wandering the grounds far more than touring the house.  The views of the countryside are breathtaking.

A side view of Chatsworth

Looking down the Cascade at Chatsworth

Looking up the Cascade, which is fed by lakes at the top of the property

View of the entire house!

Chicago Bound

It didn't look quite so crazy on paper when we planned it, but being in 5 cities in 8 days may have proven to be a bit much.  At a certain point, it's just too late to change things!  As soon as we were "Safely in Sheffield," I did a horrible thing and abandoned my family less than 24 hours later for a trip to Munich and the LIBER Conference.  The good (selfish) news is that it would mean a direct flight to Chicago for ALA, the bad news is that it tacked on a couple of days to being away from the family.  As I head off to my 24th (?) ALA (19 of them consecutive), I do it with a heavy heart, more for leaving the family behind in England than with the dread of a 10 hour trip to Chicago.

Of course, I expect Sharon and the kids to know their way around Sheffield and  Yorkshire completely by the time I get back.  The one smart thing I did was to plan some holiday time as soon as I returned from Chicago and 10 straight days of work.  We're headed north for the lake district and for Scotland, and other points yet to be determined.

In the meantime, I have had a wonderful time in Munich.  Some of you, my friends, have met my colleague, Norbert Weinberger, and a better host than he and his wife Andrea cannot be found in all of Bavaria, perhaps all of Germany.  The conference was new to me with a few familiar faces (even my old boss from NCSU, Kristin!), and a new flavor--a truly European Conference with hundreds of attendees from dozens of countries.  The even let in a couple of Canadians and Americans like myself.

The first night included Bavarian dinner and lots of Bavarian entertainment.  I captured some of this on Facebook, but here's some more:

And a couple of videos.  The whips were fascinating (if a little close), the dancing very sweet, and the music was fun.  Eli, that dude on the stand-up bass was too cool!

And now on to the Windy City!  Looking forward to it, but looking forward even more to getting back to Sheffield.

Safely in Sheffield, England

We have arrived in Sheffield and are settling into our new apartment.  Andrew and I ran out to the grocery store and got a few basics....juice, fruit, bread, jammie dodgers.  It was nice to shop in a store where I could read the labels and even see a few familiar brands.  Andrew made dinner and it was very nice to sit down around the table for a family meal after eating out all weekend.  Tomorrow will be spent being lazy (not Andrew, he has to work!), doing laundry, and getting Andrew ready to leave for a week of meetings/conferences.  The kids and I will know Sheffield very well by the time he gets back.

Before we arrived in Sheffield today, we stopped over in Cambridge.  Andrew had a meeting at the University today, so the kids and I went punting on the Cam.  It was very cold, but still a peaceful ride down the river.  We enjoyed seeing the different colleges from the water and our guide was wonderful!

The view from our boat.

One of many beautiful bridges

Wren Library

King's College/Chapel

For all you CRAZED harry potter fans out there: bye:ELi @_@

So my family, and I went to Kings Cross to go see platform nine, and three quarters, and it was great! There was a cart with a suitcase, and an owl cage, and it looked as if everything was cut in half to go into the wall. You could hold on to the cart with a house scarf (I chose the hufflepuff scarf according to the pottermore quiz to determine what house I'm in! Which reminds me this blog post is brought to you by www.pottermore.com a great computer game online to adventure the Harry Potter world! Ages from 6 to 600!!!) it was pretty cool over all. I also got a wand there. They had pretty much EVERY characters wand! like... serious black, prof, sprout, Lupin, Tonks, ect! I got Tonkse's wand which is very cool. So Alex.B when I come to your house we can have MORE HARRY POTTER NERDY WIZARD BATTLES!!! Don't worry my wand won't break like the last time... hopefully.

London as seen by Emma

London!! But even more important, English!! You have no idea how nice it is to hear/read/see it again. And ketchup, I can put that on my fries again. Sorry not fries, chips (and chips are crisps, and yards are gardens and pavement a yard. It's all very confusing). 

I interpret this two ways...
1. How nice
2.Too many Americans were hit, so much that they had to give reminders

Big Ben with the London Eye

Anyway, we did A LOT today. Westminster Abbey, Tower of London, London Eye, Cleopatra's Needle, Big Ben (By the way, Big Ben isn't actually the tower or the clock, it's the bell behind the clock in the tower) and 221B Baker Street. But for me the most fascinating thing about it all was the age. Statues and glass in windows from the 1600's. Dating farther back than the American Revolution, making it older than our country. But the funniest thing to me was how they don't care! I've said it before and I'll say it again, things here are older. But the people don't notice...

London has a ton to do. And hours could be spent doing each individual thing. Westminster Abbey, for example, is HUGE. You could spend a year in there, looking at all the details and still not see it all. There are so many graves and statues that I began to feel very watched. And then there's Big Ben. Always staring down at you from somewhere in London, peeking out from some corner or staring you in the face. Big and looming it makes you feel very small. Don't get me wrong, I love London. It is unique from so many other cites. It's old paired side by side with it's new. And so much happening all the time.

 There is always something to do and somewhere to be in London. And always something to see.

221B Baker Street. I think I pull off the deer stalker.

Westminster Abbey, North Door

Wrapping up in the Netherlands

Our time in the Netherlands is coming to an end.  The first two weeks of our adventure have had their ups and downs.  We have dealt with a language barrier, learning the metric system, public transportation, illness (24 hour stomach bug...yuck!), and two kiddos who have spent A LOT of time together and miss their friends!  

However, we have triumphed over every obstacle and at the end of two weeks, we have seen and experienced so many amazing things.  My children have gazed upon the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and Van Gogh's Sunflowers.  We have walked the canals of Amsterdam and along the Seine.  We have climbed windmills and the Eiffel Tower.  We tread quietly through Anne Frank's house and the sanctuary of Notre Dame.  We have eaten a lot of bread, cheese, croissants, and waffles!!

Despite the challenges, it is all worth it when your child leans over to you in Notre Dame and says, "This is the most amazing thing I have ever seen."

We leave for London Friday morning and will spend the weekend exploring the city.  Then Cambridge for a day (Andrew has a meeting there) and on to Sheffield, where we will begin the next chapter in our adventure!

Here are a few random pictures....

Venus de Milo at the Louvre

Sunset over the North Sea

Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam

Houseboats along the Leiden canals

Eiffel Tower on a gorgeous day!

Florence, Paris, Tilburg, Delft, London, Cambridge, Munich, Chicago

It sounds crazy when I write all those cites down.  This is shaping up to be quite a fortnight (how's that for European?).  Last week I was in Florence, a weekend in Paris (with some work thrown in), the afternoon in Tilburg, later this week to Delft, and this Friday, we leave for London on the north-bound train, then Cambridge, and getting the family settled in Sheffield before I abandon them for the LIBER (Munich) and ALA (Chicago) conferences.

Lessons learned this week: do your homework before booking train travel.  The sites that sell train tickets aren't like Orbitz and Travelocity.  The systems are not well linked, and if you're not careful, you'll be buying a train ticket to the station at which your tickets are available for pickup.  Oh, and overboooking doesn't mean you get bumped, it means you hover like a vulture in the club car waiting for an empty seat, or grab a jump seat between the trains.  It was all handled with good spirits and a sense of adventure.

Florence was beautiful, though my stay was brief.  I could listen to people speak Italian all day long.  I met some great people, a new colleague, and had a wonderful Tuscan dinner just off the beaten path.

The other statue of David.

 Paris was amazing. We had a beautiful day on Sunday and 10 hours of

sight-seeing.  Best Father's Day ever.  And we can't say enough nice things about our wonderful host and guide, Chris Négrel.  He took time out of his weekend to get us to our hotel, recommend a sight-seeing strategy, etc., etc.  I'm convinced that without his help, we would still be on the Paris Metro looking for our stop.

Today, I managed to make my way to Tilburg and back for a nice visit with the librarians there.  It's hard to believe that my time in the Netherlands is almost done.  I'll be back for some meetings in July.  The family is anxious to get to the U.K. where the signs and menus are in English, and we can be spared the embarrassment that comes with uni-linguilism (though I remembered a lot more French than I thought I would).

Liquid Gold

So my family is in Paris France, and we found a recommended pastry shop that was REALLY expensive, but... We bought stuff anyway. The hot chocolate was the most recommended item, and when I took a sip I saw why. It tasted like liquid gold, every sip was heaven. It was so chocolaty and so rich it was just like drinking melted chocolate. It truly was liquid gold.
(yes this whole post was devoted all to a small yet delicious cup of hot chocolate.)

Pancakes and Windmills

The kids and I had lunch at the pancake restaurant down the street.  There were dozens of pancake choices on the menu, both savory and sweet.  We were shocked at how big they were, but they were very thin, and I seemed to have no trouble at all finishing mine!

Pancakes for lunch!

Yesterday we drove to Kinderdijk to see the famous Dutch windmills.  There are 19 windmills at the site.  We started the tour in the visitor center, which has a great introductory movie about the windmills.  I was particularly interested in learning about the Millers who cared for and ran the windmills.  The large water wheels are in the "basement" of the windmill and there is a huge beam that runs up through the center of the mill, connecting the wheel to the wing mechanisms in the attic.  The Millers lived in the windmills with their families, and their living quarters were tucked in and around the working parts.  We thought it must have been very noisy!  One windmill is open to go in and we had fun climbing up and down the stairs and checking out the living quarters.  The other windmills are not open to the public since they are rented out for people to live in.  They looked very cozy with curtains in the windows and flowers on the windowsills!

Climbing the stairs in the windmill.

Some of the windmills at Kinderdijk.

She Was My Age, An Emma Post

It happened a few days ago, but I still feel that it's important to mention at least once.

When we were in Amsterdam, one of the many things that we did was visit the Anne Frank House (by the way I apologize for the lack of pictures, we were not allowed to take any). It was definitely an experience that I won't forget soon. As we walked through the halls and past the artifacts, you can start to picture the young girl walking those halls in her socks. Silently writing the words that would impact hundreds of people. But here's what I was thinking, she was my age. Anne Frank was 14 years old when she died. She had her whole life ahead of her, the same opportunities and adventures as me. She had barely begun her life when it was abruptly ended, along with thousands of other children like her.

Anne wanted to make an impact. And while she may not have been around to see it, I can assure you that she did. She wanted to be a writer, and her words have outlived her for this long, and hopefully will never die.

I also wondered how different things would have been if she had lived that extra month. What kinds of things would this amazing girl have been able to accomplish? But then, what other things would have happened if all those people had lived. Would we have the cure for cancer? Or what wars could have been avoided? If all those children had lived, what would they have been able to do?

I guess my point is, is that Anne isn't only a reminder of what happened, but also of what could have been.

desperate for money(by:Eli @_@ P.S i wrote the buckeye one too ^-^ )

    So my family, and I were at the train station in Amsterdam, my dad had to use the bathroom. We all go to the nearest bathroom, and it turns out you have to pay ,50 euros to use it (,50 euros is 50 cents in American money.) My dad sadly did not have ,50 euros only 1 euro. he put the 1 euro in the little machine thingy, and luckily it gave him change. I questioned it greatly, and my mom said, "honey we are in a different country it is how it works here." And i say, "mom, why pay to use the bathroom... WHEN YOU CAN JUST TINKLE AT HOME FOR FREE!!!!" So there was no response there, but see I think some how with all the people riding trains the train station is still desperate enough to ask for money when using the bathroom.

THEY TALKED ABOUT BUCKEYES

Hey for all you guys who are ohioans reading this, a British dude on TV was talking about how chocolate buckeyes were made! Isn't that GREAT!

Adjusting

We did absolutely nothing today!  After the flurry of school ending, traveling, and two days of sightseeing, we deserved a day of rest.  Andrew is in Florence for two days, so the kids and I slept late, and sat on the couch all day.  Right now, our biggest struggles are the language barrier and adjusting to the six hour time difference.  Most people here speak English, so it has not been too bad, but it is difficult to read signs and menus.  We have learned how to say "thank you"!  Andrew and I sat by the washer and dryer with the translator app, translating all the words on the machines.  I have now successfully washed several loads of laundry.  We have also mastered the oven, dishwasher, and microwave!  I did my first solo run to the grocery store today and could not resist buying this...

Sorry it's sideways.  I cant figure out how to rotate it!  But you get the idea!!  It tasted slightly sweet, so we think it had BBQ sauce instead of tomato sauce.  

Sleeping has been difficult.  The six hour time change was enough to mess us up, but the other issue is that the sun does not set until 10:30.  It's hard to go to bed when it is so bright outside.  Here is a picture I took from our balcony at 10:00 pm.  

Tomorrow will be another quiet day.  I think the kids and I will set out on foot to explore our little town.  There is a lighthouse nearby and I promised the kids we could eat lunch at the restaurant on the beach called Key West!  

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Eli loves art museums.

Well, we didn't fly on a plane today, but we did park at the airport (for reasons too boring to explain) and then take the train to downtown Amsterdam.  We extended our touristy weekend to include a day in Amsterdam today.  We tried to do a number of things in a short time, and mostly succeeded.  The weather was cooler, so the double-decker bus was a nice intro to the city.  We had time for a quick visit to the Rijksmuseum.  Eli hung out with his pal, the Merry Drinker and some others.

We also went to the Anne Frank museum.  It is a very good treatment of a wonderful and terrible story.  I can barely imagine.  The kids seemed to appreciate the gravity of the topic.  I will save the remaining details for the kids' postcard postings.

Tomorrow, I head to Florence for a couple of days of meetings but I will be back Tuesday night.  I'm staying at the Hotel de la Pace and hoping I might be able to score a free room.  I gotta say, it's kind of nice to just do an overnight trip to European libraries!

Trip to Leiden, Emma's First Post

So I guess I'll start by saying hello...Hello!

Today was our whole family's first visit into Leiden. Leiden is about 15 minutes from where we are staying (I'll spare you my trying to spell it). We went to lunch, did some boring chores, and a few touristy things. But, before we did any of that we had to walk from where we had parked our car into the city center. Which brings us to the bikes. They are EVERYWHERE. It's fascinating to see all the people on them. And it's not just the middle-aged business men who are being nagged at by their wives to "be healthy". No, it's everyone, from kids who can barley reach the peddles to the little old men and women. Believe me when I say, they are everywhere too. 

This is just a fraction of what there where. 

When we were at lunch and walking around, I found it fascinating to look around at the people and the architecture of the city. This country (which is smaller than the state of Ohio, might I add) has so much history. History that goes unnoticed by the locals because it's just around them everyday. They ignore the unimportant buildings, shelling out the insides of older buildings (that would NEVER by touched in the US) and use them for stores. For example, the buildings where people were buying Abercrombie jeans (not that anyone should be shopping there, looking at you Mr. Jeffries) are probably older than the USA.

Later in the day we took a boat tour of the city on the canals. I can see why someone would compare this area to Venice. There is water everywhere. Canals all throughout the city and the North Sea just a stone throw away. The tour was nice, we were only with two other groups with us. One from Scotland and the other also Dutch. Luckily the tour guide gave the tour in English. It was informative and nice. Also, the mom from the Scottish family recognized the TARDIS on my phone case ( if you don't know what a TARDIS is, it's something from the British TV show Doctor Who). This isn't really relevant to anything, but I feel like I should mention it as much as possible.

Aww look at our lovely family on the boat ride
(hang on... What's up with my hair?)

So that was pretty much our day in Leiden. A very nice city. Look forward to seeing more of it.

Greetings from Sharon

I posted some details of our journey on my Facebook page so I wont go into much detail.  Let's just say we survived an epic midnight vomit, kitchen ant invasion, flight delays, bad weather, wild turbulence, missed connections, and three flights, to arrive safely in Amsterdam.  The kids were amazing and I am so proud of them for handling every mishap with positive attitudes!  It was wonderful to see Andrew's smiling face as we stumbled out of the airport.  After getting settled into our lovely apartment, we ventured out into the town to treat ourselves to some french fries and ice cream.  Just what everyone needs after 24 hours of traveling!  Eli and I agree with Andrew, that mayonnaise on french fries, is awesome!!  Emma will be sticking with good old ketchup.  With ice cream cones in hand we walked down to see the Sea.  Emma couldn't wait to get her toes in the water.

Emma wading in the North Sea.  Too cold for swimming, but we will enjoy walks and there are wonderful shells! 

On our way back to the apartment we stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few things.  You must provide your own bags, you must bag your own groceries, and you must pay with either cash or debit card.  We picked up a few things we could identify and even scored  a jar of peanut butter!

Our first attempt at grocery shopping. 

Then it was back home to settle in for the evening and figure out how to use the washing machine!

Eli's side of the story!

SO

    You heard my dads side of the story of when that flight attendant locked him/her self in the air plane bath room. Well here is my side of the story which is probably WAAAY more interesting! So me Emma and my mom were sitting in a crowded area for lets say an hour maybe an hour and a half when the announcements come on,"I'm sorry for the delay, but there has been a flight attendant that locked them selves in the bathroom on the plane!" We all chuckle, yet feel bad for the flight attendant that is stuck in a small, smelly, hot room. Then everyone goes, and forms a line thinking this will be a quick line. WELL!

    The announcements come back on several times saying, "Don't worry we have a mechanic working on fixing the door!" Well when we are all in line Emma runs into a friend in the air port going to England. We are all chatting for a bit, and then the flight attendant getting locked in the bathroom came up.

    We all said how much we felt bad for the flight attendant, but to get yourself locked in an airplane bathroom... Well is kind of stupid. We all discuss what we would do in this situation if we were the ones trying to get the flight attendant out of the air plane bathroom, and we all agreed we would go in with a hammer to smash the door open our selves.

    So I guess this story ends well... We all FINALLY get on the plane, and about a quarter of the way through the ride I was rewarded with an amazing gift! a nice plastic winged pin that said united on it that were given to me by a VERY smelly flight attendant.

God Bless My Family

United Airlines is not our friend.  In their defense, the staff are trying to help, but my goodness...
Sharon and the kids were delayed leaving Columbus...first the standard unexplained delay, then a flight attendant got locked in the bathroom.  Have you ever heard of such a thing?


So, as it stands, they are on their way to D.C. toward a flight that has already left without them.  They will leave on a later flight to Frankfurt and then on to Amsterdam (just an hour flight), 7 hours later than scheduled and 24 hours total of travel.  The other option was to stay in D.C. and start again tomorrow, but my stalwart children said "onward!"  I'm sad that I won't see them earlier, but happy that they are pressing on.

Visit to Katwijk

Side street in Katwijk

I still haven't mastered the name of the town we will be living in starting Friday, but I'm getting a little better. Tonight after work, I even ventured out to explore the town.  Sharon and the kids will be dead tired when I pick them up on Friday, and even Sharon's masterful powers of navigation might be dampened by sleep deprivation.  I thought a dry run might be a good idea.

It's a charming little town.  I walked along the short canal that our apartment is on, up through the town and to the North Sea (a 5 minute walk away), where I had dinner at the "Key West."  With both U.S. and pirate flags it was some sort of homage to the Florida Key island, but for what reason, I do not know.

I had a tasty burger, explored two small grocery stores (both of which frightened my a little, I will admit), and then gave up on my search for a hair dryer for Sharon and Emma.  I will attempt that quest again tomorrow.

Another discovery of the day....currency exchange stations are a ripoff.  Sharon was going to bring traveler's checks with her (yes, we're old...the guy at the bank told us so), so I was looking for the exchange station at the central train station.  The current exchange rate is $1.31 for a euro.  The exchange broker will buy my Euros for $1.22 and sell them to me for $1.44.  So, I figured out that the ATM fees are much cheaper than the exchange rate ripoffs.  As my colleague pointed out, it is more profitable to own a bank than to rob one.  But the owner and the robber both look like thieves to me!

I needed Him at the train station today.

My last discovery--an admission, really--is that I'm sorta digging mayonnaise on my french fries.  Like Vincent and Jules, the idea seemed gross at first, but I figured, "when in Rome..."  Now I will admit that I quite like it.  Plus the french fries here are great no matter where you get them.  You would think Americans would have the best fries (or the French, I guess), but nope.

"They f***in' drown 'em in that sh**."

Suspicious (or Auspicious?) Start

Christian & Brittany Myers

As if the United States just didn't want to let go of me, my attempt to flee the country and start my stay in Europe was partly thwarted by Mother Nature.  After a great weekend in Winchester/Upperville to attend the wedding of my brother-in-law (pictured), and a great visit with my mom and my sister and her family, I trudged off to Dulles Airport for the easy, direct flight to Amsterdam.  "How much does that bag weigh?" asked the lady guarding the United checkin counter.  "How much should it weigh?" I answered with perhaps a little too much sarcasm.  Apparently, more than 50 lbs will cost you an extra $200.  More than 70 pounds will cost an extra $400.  I might as well buy a seat for my suitcase.  According to the United "courtesy scale" next to the line, my bag weighed 70 pounds. The bathroom scale at home told me it weighed 52 pounds.  Did my dirty clothes from the weekend add 20 pounds of sweat and dirt?  What happened?  It's hard to pack for two months to include office attire, conference and business meeting attire, and casual family attire.  I was screwed.  The helpful herding line monitor suggested a trip to the shop next door where I could buy a "cabin approved" carry-on for $20.  I did so, and managed to cram 20 pounds into that bag to make for an awkward and bulky, yet "cabin approved" carry on and a new and improved 49.8 lb checked bag.  Someone want to explain the mathematical sense of this?  I still got 70 pounds of crap onto the plane, yet the fact that I did it with two bags instead of one saved me $400.  Final punchline?  When I took my bag to the counter and put it on the checked baggage scale, it said "32.4."  Does anyone else smell a kick-back scam between the United line checker and the suitcase shop?  Oh well, at least I got on the plane.



There was also a pending downside to my late weekend departure--I would need to drive straight to the office to meet with my boss and my new European colleague who started the day I arrived.  7:15am arrival.  Meeting at 10am.  As if the sky wanted to reflect my pending tiredness, as I boarded the plane, the skies turned dark and the rain began to fall. After several semi-communicative delay announcements (all of which were more detailed in Orbitz email alerts than the confused PA messages from our pilot), and after a total of four long hours sitting at the gate and in line for takeoff (that's half the scheduled flight time to Amsterdam), we finally departed Dulles.

"I can get 20 pounds into this baby, easy."

Insult to injury, about 10 minutes into the flight, the video system went down and they could not get it back.  What was I supposed to do?  Work?  Sleep?  Sleep is elusive to me on a plane.  The only time in my life I've slept on a plane was when I got to upgrade to business class.  So I read, and dozed uncomfortably.  The food was great, but only because I was starving from being made to wait 4 hours to get dinner.

So I arrived very late, customs was a breeze...not a single question and scarcely a glance or grunt in my general direction.  The good news was that the Sheraton at the airport offered showers and a changing room for only 20 euros.  I was able to freshen up and get my Ford Focus station wagon quite easily.  The speed limit signs said "120"...however fast that is (75 m/hr?).  I got to Leiden in no time, just as my cell phone battery died.  I spent the next hour driving down narrow alleys and streets with names I could not begin to pronounce.  The good news is that every stranger I stopped to ask directions spoke English.  The bad news is that the first time I stopped, I could not get my manual transmission in reverse.  The kindness of strangers prevailed again as one explained to me that I have to pull up on the gear shift to get the car in reverse.  I thought nothing might top having to drive on the left side of the road next month, but who ever heard of such a thing.  Pull up?  I'm not xenophobe, but seriously.
 

Pull up for Reverse.  Seriously?

Well the only piece of luck for the day was that my new colleague, Axel Kaschte, was also arriving later than expected from Germany.  My wonderful Dutch colleagues went in search of a sandwich for me since I had not eaten since whatever meal my body thought was my last one.  Then suddenly I was filled with energy--20 hours awake became 24, became 30, became 36.  I had no desire to sleep.  After a wonderful Indonesian dinner with my colleagues, I was able to shut out the lights.  Though I felt wide awake, I don't recall being awake for long.

7am came quickly, but my snooze button reflexes were just as fast.  I'm used to waking up in the morning to a dozen or so emails from Europe that have come at the start of their day.  Now I must get used to the several dozen emails from my American colleagues that come after the end of my work day.  I must endeavor not to start my day on Leiden time and end it on Ohio time.  That is too long a day.


Day two and I am jet lag free.  I had a productive day and several good chats with my Dutch and German colleagues.  I'm energized for my stay in Holland and for the weeks to come.  I only hope that Sharon, Emma, and Eli do not have the same trouble leaving the U.S. that I did.  I will be at the arrival gate to pick them up on Friday, bring them back to the hotel to rest, then we move on to Katwijk (sounds like 'Kawt-vwag') to our family apartment on the North Sea.  12 minutes by car from our office in Leiden, 20 minutes by train.

Our apartment in Katwijk, Netherlands.  100 meters from the North Sea. 

I miss the family and I'm anxious for them to get here.  I can already tell that our time here will go too fast.