this one's for you, Dane...

(Note: I promised Dane that I would write a blog entry in exchange for him posting pictures on his blog of our trip--since I ended up taking pictures from a camera with no film inside for half of the week. Yes, that was brilliant, Ann Renee.)

My week in one word? Hezellig. (can someone tell me how to spell that???) It's that warm, contented feeling you get when you are with people you love being with. Sitting down for a really good cup of coffee and conversation. Or a glass of wine and talking until late into the evening, losing concept of time. That's hezellig. And the Netherlands is a really good place to have hezellig times. I'm pretty sure most of my time was spent with coffee or wine in hand.

It helps that Amanda, our dear dutch latino bride, pretty much embodies the word hezellig. She went faithfully to the airport every time someone got off their plane. I'm pretty sure that she spent most of her time living at the airport for the 2 days before her wedding. I'm still not quite sure how she got all the last-minute details of the wedding done.

Highlights of the trip...
...watching Matt K lug a million-pound keyboard around the Netherlands.
...a lingerie party with Amanda's grandmas!
...sitting around drinking wine with Dordt peeps until 3 am.
...seeing my 2nd cousins...and 3rd cousins...and 4th cousins...no, seriously. It's so wonderful to be with family, even if you don't speak the same language.
...crazy quick shopping spree with Dane to find on-sale European stuff, in hopes that we'll come home looking fashionable, or something like that.
...convincing Carmela to move to Toronto (note this well, Carmela!)
...having a real dutch Heineken, which is better than the imported stuff
...driving over the border from the Netherlands to Germany (there is barely a border, because it's all the EU)
...Amanda and Luuk saying "I do" after a really, really long engagement (too bad my camera was broken, because I had the perfect picture taken of this moment)
...playing with firecrackers in the sreets at New Years
...Having Amanda and Luuk around when someone committed suicide in front of a train, preventing us from getting to the airport, and having them barter a taxicab driver down from 70 euros (140 bucks) to 40 euros so that we could get to the airport.
...making it to the airport 2 minutes before gates closed. And then making it through the security 3 times with knives and liquids in my carry on. (No, I wasn't planning to do anything with those materials)

The Non-Highlight of my trip...
...playing Risk with a minister (Amanda's dad) and a politician (Luuk): I ended up having to make a moral decision of having to break a treaty with a minister or play dirty with a politician. This is definitely a high-level stress game for peace-loving hippies like myself.



Oh, good times in the Motherland.