My Beans Runneth Over

I just sent this email out to the Ashurst family:

Well, we are scheduled to fly out on December 30th. It will (I'm sure) be major fiasco with a huge load of luggage and three unruly kids. Last time we flew, each seat back had it's own entertainment package with video games, movies, TV shows etc. That was much better than the standard "movie" that they used to show. The kids all sat around and watched whatever they wanted and it really helped to keep them off our backs. I hope this flight will be equally equipped - it is a long ride.

I asked my wife about the Der/Die situation and she reports that the country is simply referred to in the singular as "Nederland." So, I guess that solves the controversy. They speak "Dutch" and I have already picked up quite a bit of it, but I have a very long way to go yet. We have "Rosetta Stone" and the kids all work on it regularly. I need to get started. The bad news (if you can call it that) is that I will be attending school in English and virtually everyone there speaks English and prefers to simply speak English than to listen to me bumbling with my poor dutch. What that translates to is that I have a hard time finding people to practice on. I'm sure living there will help though and I expect to improve my skills greatly.

I'll be attending the Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University (to get an MBA degree - sorry Jim - I know you hate all those moron MBAs :) and while we have not yet signed a contract on a place to live, it looks like we'll be living in Zoetermeer. That will put me at about 30 minutes commute on bicycle or 1 hour by public transportation to the school. Zoetermeer is where quite a few of Jessica's family live and it is much more "suburban" than Rotterdam so we think it will be better for the family there.

I do not plan to work and I do not have any work lined up. The program I am in is only one year long and due to the short time frame, the curriculum is reported to be extremely rigorous. I don't anticipate having enough time to work at all. Jessica may try to get a job or part time job, but since she is a Dutch citizen, there will be no problem with any paperwork. We'll mostly be living on our savings. Once I graduate, we will be looking for a job wherever that may take us and we may end up staying in Holland; at which point I would have to go through some sort of authorization process. I don't think that it will be too difficult with Jessica being a citizen. On the other hand, if we do want to stay in Holland and work there, I will really need to kick in the afterburners on learning the language because that will (of course) be a crucial skill.

We are very sad to be leaving the ranch. It is actually already sold and we have, as of the last couple of weeks, been imposing ourselves on the hospitality of my parents. They don't really have room for 5 more, but they have been extremely generous in letting us stay with them during the transition phase. This week they were visiting my sister in DC so we "paid a bit of rent" by getting them a new Bosch dishwasher and had it installed for when they arrived last night. We're actually hoping to save a little by living here with them and not paying rent, but at the same time, we do realize that we are a major imposition on them.

As a part of the moving process, we actually sold the vast majority of our possessions and it was surprisingly liberating. A couple of things that did pull on the heart strings though: I sold my truck, gave away my dog and a huge pile of steel stock from my shop and I sold all my cattle. Those are the things that really hurt (for me anyway.) We will, of course miss our place in the country a lot - we had a lot of good times out there - but we are excited to be moving on to the next step. The show must go on.

Honestly, yes, selling the ranch is a bit of a relief as well. There is a lot of work involved in maintaining that place and we didn't really even maintain it all that well. Things have been CRAZY busy over the last couple of months as we have tried to decide what few things to store while we are gone, what will come with us and what to sell. Then, of course, we had to implement those plans. We are just now getting settled down (I sold my truck on Saturday and my utility trailer today.) All that is left is to sell my tractor and one more car and then we should be set for the next few months before the next big transition (to Holland.)

I actually just informed my boss that we would be leaving in three months, so keep your fingers crossed that he doesn't get trigger happy and start filling out that pink slip prematurely. It would not be the end of the world, but it certainly would hurt a bit to lose our paycheck for the last few months.

Anyway, since I want their money, I'd better get back to work.