THE NEXT 30 DAYS, PART 2. Day 1, 29 to go

Spontaneous Feng Shui

I must begin this month long adventure with a confession. My new thing for today, was actually done last Saturday. So, it appears I am starting off a little unorthodox. Oh well, deal with it! It was something I have wanted to do for a long time and I felt too good about it to leave off of this list.

Last Saturday was one of those super productive Saturdays where I got the job done. I did some major grocery shopping, all my laundry, cleaned my bathroom, bedroom, and basement, cooked up some chicken and hamburger to put in the freezer. After this was done, I got out of the shower and looked around my bedroom. Newly vacuumed and dusted and cleaned, I thought "What else can I do in here? I know, I'll rearrange my furniture!" I have been living in my apartment now for 3 years and realized at the moment that I was ready for a change in my somewhat small bedroom. Moving a dresser, bed, and bookshelf by myself in a small space was a bit challenging, but I got some good exercise in and moved everything around. I must say I am very happy with it! Rearranging mybedroom brings the feeling of starting over again and an inspiration to be a little more organized and productive. It was the perfect end to a successful work day! Saturday truly was a "special day".

My newly arranced room

Long time... no blog...

Once again, I notice I have been seriously slacking in keeping up my blog. I think that 30 days of new adventures project may have been something of an overkill and I kind of quit cold turkey. No excuses.

Well, to play a little bit of catch up now with more to come later (as my mom would say "a lick and a promise"*) here's a rundown of the last six months of my life:

Christmas was possibly one of the best ever. It was our year for the whole family to be together and we also had the cabin. Family + cabin = AWESOME times. We had so many fun activities planned and it was just so good to spend time with everyone.

During the rest of the winter, not much exciting happened (snow, school, more snow, more school...) but with the spring came a grand adventure: EUROPE! This is where I give the aforementioned "lick and a promise". I will write in much more details about the trip later when I have my trip journal in front of me. Suffice it to say for now it was fantastic and unforgettable.

May brought a couple of noteworthy events. Once again, another school year comes to a close. This completes my third year of teaching. Wow! I am now ready for a level 2 license!!! Wahoo! If only that meant more than essentialy a $120 piece of paper and a lot of work creating a portfolio. You do what you gotta do to stay employed, right?

To add to the end-of-year celebration, the night before school got out was the long awaited U2 concert. It was supposed to have been last June, but poor old Bono hurt his back and they had to postpone the show for a year. It was worth the wait. It was one of the best concerts I have ever been to. I went with my friends Andrea and Amber. I knew Amber in high school, but haven't seen her much since. The funny thing is that we actually flew to Seattle together in highschool to see U2. Oh, my U2 buddy. The stage: awesome!

The music and performances were just phenomenal. If you haven't seen U2 in concert, I highly recommend it. Your life will never be the same!

Now that school has been out for a few days, it's been uneventful. We have had an extremely wet and cold spring and no summery, sunny weather to speak of yet, which makes pool time nonexistent. Tifani and I tried to use our season passes to Seven Peaks yesterday only to find out that they don't open until 4:00 this week while most kids are still in school. Oh well. Plenty of time left.

Well, stay tuned for more info about the Europe trip. Coming soon...

My Most Excellent European Adventure, Part 3. Day 11. Frites!!

Today is our last day :( I can't believe it, it's gone by so fast and has been so amazing. To start off our final day, we left at about 10:30 after a breakfast of pain au chocolat at the house. We had about an hour and a half drive to a beautiful old town called Brugges. Lots of shopping and eating! Not to mention beautiful buildings.

 After parking a ways out of town - it was crowded- we walked around a bit and had lunch at of the many open air restaurants.

Our waiter was a slightly better waiter than a photographer... I AM in the picture, I promise...

The food was ok- I think I had the best luck of all of us. A delicious cheese croquette and a croque monsieur. After lunch, we split up for a while. Betsy found another flea market- she has a special radar!

Meanwhile, Angela went shopping for some clothes, and Heidi and I went wandering around. We struck gold at this shop. 

 This place had the BEST chocolates possibly I have ever had. Beautiful and relatively inexpensive, it was so pure heaven!!

We all met up again to take another canal tour of the city. While we waited, we got another picture of the whole crew...

Aren't we cute??

 It was such a beautiful and charming tour for many reasons...

beautiful buildings...

beautiful weather...

towering steeples..

very attractive, and ridiculously charming, Flemish tour guide...

Our tour guide was so funny! When we got off the boat, I thanked him in French and he told me not to start speaking French- to be smart and speak English. Then as he was helping me out of the boat, in my true to self-clumsy fashion, I lost my balance a bit as the boat rocked. We did a little dance together right on the dock.. Oh swoon... Loved him! 

We tore ourselves away from the beautiful canal, and our tour guide... and headed to a church called the Holy Blood. Supposedly, they have some of the blood of Christ in a vial and you can pay a donation to touch it. Very interesting and beautiful church.

More colorful than the stone and stained glass churches we have seen elsewhere. We wanted to go to another church where they have a statue by Michelangelo, but it had already closed. We got some famous Brugge frites- or fries. If you are ever in Brugge, don't forget this local delicacy!!

Andalouse sauce is the way to go!!

Don't eat with your hands!!


 After the frites, I drove us back to Brussels for the last time and we began the sad task getting ready to go home. Laundry, packing, charging up electronic devices... So sad, but I think we are ready to be home, but not back to real life. It's going to be a rough transition I'm afraid. But I am so excited to see everyone and tell them about this wonderful, amazing adventure. I have been really lucky to have the opportunities I have had to come here several times and hope it's not the last!! Until then, au revior and auf wiedersein! 

*another delicious food day- here's what was on the menu:
pain au chocolat
cheese croquettes
croque monsieur
waffle
chocolate
frites


Do I really have to go back to American food???

My Most Excellent European Adventure, Part 3. Day 10: In the Trenches

 After such a chaotic couple of days, it was nice to have a relatively low key day. We slept in a bit and and left at about 10 to go to a local farmer's market where we assured the best Belgian waffles around. It is such a different way of life to buy all of your food in an open air market - and just a few things at a time. No buying in bulk here. It would be very hard to get used to, I think. It was very charming and fun. The best part was of course the waffles!!

Delicious bread. 

Olive bar

Beth scoping out the wares

Apparently this market is known for having the best waffles. The secret is this: they put big chunks of sugar in the batter so it sticks to the waffle iron and kind of carmelizes each waffle.No toppings, syrup or anything else needed. They are amazing on their own.

The piece de resistance... 

I enjoyed every bite

After the waffles we wandered the market for a bit and I found some mausches (chocolate sprinkles)  at a local store and we were off to to town of

Ypres... or Ieper... It is known by many names but is pronounced (ee-pray) This is a beautiful town with a lot of WWI history. We went to a fantastic WWI museum- probably the best museum I have ever been to. Lots of interactive things and multi media (music, voices reading texts, sound effects, videos... you name it!) 




They gave each of us a ticket with a person's name on it to scan in and learn about throughout the tour. At the end you got to find out if the person lived or died.

This was my person. She was a nurse who did not survive the war.

I learned a lot about the history of the war and the area. There were so many battles that took place here and this was also the location of the famed Christmas Truce. 

On the way we stopped at a few historical sites. First up was Yorkshire trench.

Our next historical stop was Flander's Fields. This is the location of the famous poem by the same name. This was written John McCrae.

The fighting that took place here and where the fallen soldiers are now buried was in someone's farm. I can't imagine a war taking place in inhabited areas, or literally in someone's back yard. Quite sobering. This was such a beautiful area dotted with sad reminders of a World War all around.

We arrived at the Passey's at about 5:30 and relaxed for a while. We decided that we would treat them to dinner as a thanks for their hospitality. To Pita Palace! Once, again the fries and andalouse, meat and other fillings did not disappoint. We just chatted, played some games with the family and headed to bed. Only one more day to go! I've been thinking about Dad's surprise party tomorrow night at home. Mom and everyone must be so busy getting ready. I feel bad I am missing it, but not much I can do. Hope the surprise goes off well. I am sure it will be a fun party. Can't wait to hear about it in a couple of days. 

Thought I would include a list of the yummy food we had today:

waffles in Brussels

Italian ice in Ypres

Eclair

Pita

Various chocolates 

   = Yummy!!!

My Most Excellent European Adventure, Part 3. Day 9: Little Dutch Girls

It's hard to believe we have only 2 days left before we have to leave. We have been so busy and have done so much that time has flown by. Today we spent the day in Amsterdam. We slept in a bit, all except for Betsy, who woke early to explore yet another flea market :). Angela, and Heidi, and I woke later to go and meet her- Betsy LOVES flea markets and the rest of us are happy to let her explore on her own. Angela went to do some clothes shopping and after Heidi and I met up with Betsy, the three of us went to a Jewish history museum. It was really interesting to learn about the Jewish culture and see a little more of how they practice their religion- both in the orthodox faith and more modern culture. I knew very little about it and came away somewhat more educated. The Torah is kept on scrolls and the cantor - a singer- chants or sings from it at each each service. Their services are very ceremonial and contain a lot of rituals. To be expected from an ancient religion.

The Jewish History Museum

After the museum we went to have some lunch. Some soup and toasted sandwiches (with Dutch cheese- YUMMY!). We had some time before we had to meet Angela so we walked around the flea market a bit- I found a really cute and colorful purse!) Then we met with Angela for a canal boat cruise. We were a little late because the trams are very unreliable, and we were a bit worried we wouldn't make it in time to catch the cruise we wanted. Turns out there were several more options of times we could take so all was well. The cruise lasted about an hour and was FASCINATING!!! Here are a few facts we learned about our host city for the day:

• There are about 100 km of canals
• Most of the buildings were made in the 16th century
• Most of the buildings have furniture hooks on them so they can haul everything in and out of the windows if needed. Tall, narrow, long staircases aren't the best for moving furniture.
• According to our captain, there are about 3 cars a week that get "driven" into the canal- hopefully accidentally of course.
• There are more than 100 bridges (can't remember the exact # ) 

 We loved all of the different bridges we saw on the canal.

One of the many bridges along the canal

One of my favorite things about Amsterdam was the architecture. So different from the other cities we had seen already.

Notice the furniture hook??

One of the few pictures of all 4 of us. Here we are on the canal cruise. 

After the river cruise, we went to catch the tram back to our hotel where our car was parked. We waited at the train station for over an hour watching train after train come... and keep going. Not the right train, the right train, but they didn't stop ("Niet Stoppen!). Finally, the right train arrived AND stopped and we gratefully rushed on, along with the large crowd that had gathered in the hour long wait. A few stops later, however, the train stopped and we had to get off and switch to another train that was coming up right behind it. Apparently there was some sort of accident or something. Not speaking Dutch, it was hard to understand what the problem really was. 

Waiting for the tram.... 

We weren't the only ones waiting.... and waiting...  

Well, we finally made it back and were on the road to the Passey's house in Brussels. We found a little pita place to get a late night dinner because we were starving. It was delicious!!! Can you say fries and andalouse sauce on sandwich?? More please. We arrived at the Passey's house at about 10:00. We ate dinner, killed a giant spider and it was time for bed!