It's been a little over a month since we left the Netherlands. We've started to get over our reverse culture shock and settle into a routine. A few weeks ago, I started teaching an English composition class, and a few days later, I began my graduate classes at UNT. We're in the process of purchasing a house, living with my parents in the meantime, and trying to slowly reconnect with our friends. This weekend, I'm playing my first disc golf tournament back in the States. With so much going on, I haven't been too motivated to sit down and blog, although I would like to have some memories of this time documented. Right now, I'm thinking about changing the name of the blog and doing a bit of redesign to make it more applicable to our current situation.
For now, though, I plan on catching up on the Week at a Time posts. You'll notice that this post covers our final week in the Netherlands. Once we move back to the Texas pictures, I plan on letting the photographs speak more for themselves instead of giving a summary of each day. Hopefully, you'll enjoy reflecting on this final week in the Netherlands. I'll try not to be such a stranger in coming weeks.
Our final Saturday in Utrecht, Mr. Traveler played his last "honkbal" game with the Domstad Dodgers. They ended up winning by one run, and the rain held off just long enough for us to all gather under the porch for a post-game beer.
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| Aug 6 - Making a Run for It |
Sunday, Mr. Traveler had to umpire a softball game, so I worked on final packing preparations. In the evening, we tried out a Chinese restaurant that had come highly recommended from multiple sources -- Paradijs. The food was interesting (I had chicken stuffed with prawns, which ended up consisting of a fried chicken skin stuffed with chopped up prawns), but pretty decent. The service, however, was a little slow (even for European standards). On the way home, we heard music coming from a nearby street, and dropped in on a music festival for a few minutes before heading back to our place.
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| Aug 7 - Strawberries |
On Monday, I tried to wrap up last minute shopping, picking up a few souvenirs in the form of books and paper goods. Mr. Traveler and I decided to ride our bikes out to the pancake house in the afternoon. Even though the picture portrays a sunny day, you can see the steam rising off the grass from the recent downpour (right as we arrived at the restaurant).
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| Aug 8 - Donkeys |
Tuesday, we finished sorting items for the movers and enjoyed lunch with one of Mr. Traveler's coworkers in Houten.
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| Aug 9 - Solid Sofa |
On Wednesday, the movers arrived and quickly packed our things. The rest of the afternoon, I cleaned the house while Mr. Traveler ran up to the office.
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| Aug 10 - Moving Day |
Thursday, we had a flurry of activity, finishing cleaning, running to the town hall to deregister, stopping by immigration, and trying to make sure we hadn't forgotten any key components of the move.
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| Aug 11 - Molengraaf |
Finally, on Friday, I ran a load of laundry at a local laundromat, we checked out of our house, and we made the Hilton at the airport. Even though we were tired from all the pre-move activity, we decided to head into the city for one more night on the town before heading home. We found an authentic Italian restaurant and wine bar, wandered around the city, and snapped our final pictures of the country we'd called home for the last 10 months.
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| Aug 12 - Schiphol |
