Rottemeren Fort

Since I had the week off, and since the kids have a 1/2 day each Wednesday, I took them out to build a fort in the forest between here and Rotterdam.

There were dead branches ALL over the place so it was no problem and with some teamwork, we had this nifty little fort built.

There was some old tarp laying around that we cut a few squares off to get us off the wet ground.

We built a little tiny comfort fire and had some snacks.

Not sure what this pose is all about...

Sterling had packed his marbles along, so we set up a circle and the kids had fun playing for the first time.
This is the lake that is basically the start of the river that Rotterdam was named after. Sterling and Winter were pretty proud of themselves for getting the courage up to cross this gaping chasm of death over a raging whitewater river...
And of course, when they saw this little dam, they had to show off on it too - this time Ginger got involved.

Dutch Sunday

This is the view from the window of the chapel in the church here. Right now church is held in an office building -they say they are going to break ground for a new building right down the street from our house sometime this summer, but I guess construction moves pretty slowly over here (compared to the rate at which they do things in the US). It is a bit distracting when you can watch the ambulances and police go flying past with their lights blaring during a church meeting...

And here is how we get around - the red "fietzpad" and Ginger is usually on the back of someone's bike. Today, she really wanted to ride on Winter's bike.

New IPhone = Pictures

A new friend sold me a jailbroken Iphone for 60 Euro (jailbroken means I can just stick a regular prepaid SIM card in it without buying into a contract.) That means I now have a camera!

The cool tunnel I ride through every day (and yes, that is me on my uber-cool moped):

The view from my office on our 3rd floor bedroom overlooking a canal and some "park" type area in front of the next row of houses. There is a fietzpad (bike path) in front of the road and there are (on nice days) tons of bikers, walkers and dog walkers going by - quite scenic.

One more quick note about that photo from the tunnel - Jessica took it when we were riding back from Rotterdam where we attended a Chinese New Years party thrown by some of my school friends. It was raining, and Jessica rode the whole way home on the cargo rack on the back of the moped....CRAZY. Anyway, it was cool to have some company on the ride, but over 20kM with 2 people on a moped made for 1 was a bit on the long side.

Back to School

It is something like week three of the MBA program and it actually amazes me what a whirlwind it has been. I've been going to class in the morning on my "bromfietz" (a Tomos brand 50cc moped that is supposed to be governed out at a max speed of 45 kph, but which I have actually had up close to 60 kph) which takes around 35-45 minutes each way. Classes are on what appears to be a random schedule, but there are tons of group projects and other things that cause me to come home late (sometimes really late) at night. I haven't been seeing much of my family lately, but we tell ourselves it is OK since it will only be for one year. Skype is nice since it allows me to at least see the kids a few times during the week before they go to bed.

Riding around on a moped in Holland is probably the biggest adventure for me. The first time I tried riding from our house in Zoetermeer to Rotterdam was a major disaster. It was very cold, and the route we had mapped out in Google Maps was not feasible since it covered several roads that were not bromfietz-approved - in other words, I couldn't ride on them. Plus, the roads are horribly marked (in my opinion - coming from TX where every road has a real nice big sign telling you what road it is.) So I was hopelessly lost and it is really a miracle I ever made it to my destination. After an hour and half I finally made it to school, but that night it took as much courage as I could muster to hop back on that horse and head back out into the big city to try to find my way home (which also resulted in an extended ride with severe time wasted in taking wrong turns all over the place.) The good news is that after that first day, I pretty much had my route down and it has been much better since. I feel truly dutch zipping around past cars in traffic jams, onto and off of the designated "fietzpads" (designated bike/bromfietz roads) and cruising around through all the awesome scenery. I think if I had a video camera, I would duct tape it to my helmet and record the whole journey - it is that cool of a ride. I pass swans, ducks, pheasants, rabbits, etc as well as tons of other bikers and motorists, cool houses, interesting businesses, all kinds of canals and lakes, forest, city, etc. It is a really cool ride and it is a nice way to calm the nerves each day since it is about the only time that I am not going 100% on school work.

Last week I ran out of gas coming home right as I hit the city limits of Zoetermeer. I had no cellphone, no idea where the closest gas station would be (or even if it would be open at that late hour) and worst of all, I had not yet discovered that the gas tank on the bromfietz has a reserve tank that is accessible with the simple flip of a switch (yes, I am ashamed I didn't even think to check for that) so I walked all the way home. By the time I arrived (I think it was around midnight) Jessica had just about worked herself into a frenzy and was starting to hit up all my new schoolmate friends on facebook.

In general, school has been absolutely fantastic and I am actually being blown away with the quality and applicability of the information. The class is extremely diverse which is also a big help for me as I can certainly use the practice slowing things down and simplifiying. I've already met some great friends from around the world and am still very excited about this whole thing. My big fear is that it will be over too soon (or that I will die from the huge homework load.)

A brief list of interesting things that have taken place so far:

1. I am running for the VP, Alumni Relations position in the Student Association. The students are voting and the polls close this week. Keep your fingers crossed. My competitor is a two-person team with a good social network, so I have some stiff competition.
2. I have already been rejected from several case competitions that I hastily entered. They were probably right not to select me since the field of the competitions was a much better fit for some of the other students and they had much better preparations, but I figured I would cast in my lot. I'd do it again if I had the chance, but I need to do some serious research if I want to be competitive - the question is when?
3. They placed everyone into 5-6 person groups and we have numerous group assignments that we have to complete. It is rapidly becoming apparent that this will be one of the most challenging aspects of the course. It is much easier to write a paper on a subject when you are the only one writing it then it is to try to collaborate as a team and take in the cultural perspectives, opinions, etc. of a diverse team (Croatia, India, China, Indonesia and USA) and to incorporate it all into a single document.

I'm really looking forward to getting some sort of camera that I can use to document some of the things I see each day. It is tough for me to blog without photos...it's just me...

The Farmer Goes Dutch

It is now something like 11:30am local time. I just woke up and my body has no idea what is going on. The last 24 hours (or so?) have been a real whirlwind and I really have very little concept of how much time has elapsed since we started out journey to transfer from the enclave of family & friends in Plano, TX to a new group of family (and hopefully soon to be friends too) in Zoetermeer, the Netherlands. We were greeted at the airport by Jessica’s family. Her dad had borrowed a big (by Dutch standards) van which really helped with getting our huge amount of luggage (that’s another story)transported to our new home.

Our new home – wow! What can I say? Jessica and her dad coordinated on getting the rental agreement completed while we were still in TX and then he proceeded to coordinate with the local clan to collect various cast-off bits of furniture and furnishings for it. I figured that we would get here to find flea bitten couches, lumpy mattresses and a TV-table in the kitchen. To the contrary, we walked into a fully furnished, clean and ready to live in apartment furnished with some very nice, gently used furniture. I was literally amazed at the generosity of our friends and family here.

We lugged all the luggage up a couple flights of stairs to dump it in our room for later, crashed for a few hours of sleep and then woke ourselves up to start the new year’s eve festivities. Wow! What a welcome to Holland! Jessica had always complained about how lame our New Year’s celebrations have been in the past, but I don’t think anything in the US compares to the way they do it over here. When we arrived (something like 10am local time,) there was what sounded like sporadic gunfire all around us. I thought they were shooting ducks or something, but it turns out, the explosions were premature revelers lighting off gigantic firecrackers. That was nothing compared to what was to come. Throughout the night (as we hung out at Jessica’s cousin’s house) the general roar (punctuated by alarmingly potent explosions – apparently illegal bombs from Denmark) grew and grew as the hour approached. At midnight, we toasted to a new year in Holland and to friends then stepped outside to light off a few fireworks and enjoy the spectacle. It was like nothing I had ever seen. All around us, revelers were doing the same, but with significantly larger fireworks. It was like being in the center of a hundred fourth of July celebrations. We videotaped the din for probably something like 20 or 30 minutes before my hands were frozen and there was no sign that the fireworks were going to stop. The entire town was literally engulfed with fireworks and we could turn 360 degrees and see them going off in every direction (aside from the ones being set off right next to us that probably were damaging our eardrums.)The walk home was like what I imagine it would be to walk home through a Baghdad firefight and we retired to the sound of fireworks and explosions. By the way, I just have to say something about those Danish fireworks…they had to be HUGE. There were explosions that I literally felt in my chest (even though they were lit at some distance away and out of my range of vision.) These bombs had to have been somewhat similar to real bombs and make the “pop” of the explosions of the biggest US fireworks seem like a needle drop. In fact, I hear that every year, kids end up getting body parts blown off by these things. Wow. Now that is a celebration - and what a welcome to Holland!

Blogging & a micro-update

I haven't been blogging lately. I guess I have been kinda feeling like blogging is too narcissistic (even though deep down inside, there is also a part of me in there thinking about how much I enjoy reading other people's blogs to see what they are up to.) So anyway, I guess I'll just get over it and do a quick update:

1. We move to Holland in a couple weeks to start on my MBA program at the Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University. It is going to be a big change for us (duh) and we are, of course, most concerned with the kids and their transition. I hope we can make it a good experience that they can look back on fondly throughout their lives. For me, I am looking forward to getting back into my studies, but I am nervous about the mathematics portion (a subject in which I am woefully under-trained, and which seems to me to be an impregnable fortress. Just today I was taking some online "review" courses and that almost-forgotten feeling of a tightening chest, frozen-over brain, and desolation of spirit took over once again. I realize it sounds like I am overstating this, but in reality, I find it hard to describe the feelings I get when I am forced to do this math stuff. Anybody ever read JK Rowling's description of a dementor? It is something like that. The good news is that I passed the review course today with an acceptable score, but if there is one thing that frightens me for the upcoming year, it is a return to mathematics.
2. I took a motorcycle training course and passed the DMV tests to get my motorcycle endorsement on my license. (Getting the endorsement is literally 10X more expensive in Holland.) We plan to purchase a motorcycle for commuting to school - a 30-40 minute drive?
3. This Monday I start what will be my last week of work for Varsity. I've worked for them since February 1, 2002 and while they certainly could have treated me better as an employee, there is going to be a part of me that misses that job (I'm sure that part of me will go away quickly though)
4. The kids are growing up fast. At 8, 7 and 5 years old, Winter, Sterling and Ginger have pretty much lost their babiness (Winter and Sterling have actually had pimples already!) and we certainly miss the little ones that they were, but we are enjoying getting to know them as individuals. Winter is a great friend to all and Sterling is always ready to jump in and help out where he can see a need. Ginger is super sweet and loves her toy horses and stuffed animals.

Since we did so much selling/storing of "stuff" when we moved out of our house, it should be pretty easy to move out here and make the transition to Holland. Jessica (as always) has been working steadily away and making behind-the-scene plans and progress to make things easier when the deadline comes. We still have to sell a few vehicles and my tractor, but we are getting there. Another couple weeks of "holding pattern" and we'll be off.

Some Artwork from Winter

The Creeping Caterpillar

The Alien