We Crossed Oceans To Find Each Other

Archive for February, 2012

I’m still here in TN for now. I haven’t been doing much since Holly and Adam left. On Saturday we did end up going to Knoxville to the Olive Garden and the mall in that area. I ended up buying some bath and body works lotion, buy 2 get 1 free, can’t beat that. It was all in all a fun time. I got Holly to finally watch My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic and of course, she loved it! I knew she would. Maybe I can convince my brother, Scott, to watch it as well. Muwhahaha *cough cough*. Then on Sunday, I went to Walmart again and that’s about it. Yesterday, Mom and I went driving around to a nearby lake and the Family Dollar store. hehe. I don’t think I’ll be doing too much this week until Thursday which is when we’ll be driving to AR to see Mema. We’ll be there for 2 days, then drive back on Sunday. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone again (hopefully) but not really to the drive. Oh well, maybe there won’t be much traffic. I uploaded more pictures on facebook here. You just need to scroll down a bit to see the new pictures. Enjoy.

I’m here safe and sound in America. The plane trip seemed really long (which it is) but I got everywhere on time with very little stress, so that’s good. When I came into Knoxville though, it had been raining hard and Dad had a hard time driving to the airport but my plane ride wasn’t too bumpy, thankfully. We all pretty much went to bed after that. Then yesterday, we all went to the holy grail of shopping centers, Walmart! I got some beauty supplies and a few groceries. It was such nice weather that Holly, Adam, and me went down to the creek below the house. We were feeling extra adventurous, so then we went across the creek over to view a little waterfall. Holly and Adam took pictures of all we did, so maybe we’ll get pictures soon. It was lots of fun though! Today we’re all taking it kind of easy and we’ll probably go driving around sometime soon to see the sights. The link to the pictures is here. Enjoy!

After a good night’s sleep, I feel a little better today. It was a good day, both at work and in the evening. I had a student coming to me for Nederlands Praten, which was good and it worked well, too.

I noticed something new today: the days are starting to become longer; I don’t drive out to work in the middle of the night anymore and today I came home with the day still being there, rather than the dark evening. It gave me a nice feeling. I am ready for Spring kicking in.

The timing is pretty off for Leann to leave for the US. I think I am coming down with a bad cold. I could use some pampering on this side of the world. Fortunately we have tea and honey and that seems to help a little. Hopefully the bad night last night was part of me feeling blah today, because then a good sleep would solve the problem. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

I hope that Leann had a good flight. The flight did leave on time and arrived early in Chicago, so that works well. Next time I really should go with her to the US again. I do miss it over there. For the next three weeks, this house is mine, though

Last weekend it was the traditional Carnival in The Netherlands. We didn’t go, but if you’re interested in the pictures of the Carnival in the village that we live in, click here

Today our friend Diana visited us for the afternoon and evening. The girls had some fun together while I worked on my website again. Leann cooked a Korean dish that we really enjoyed. If you click on the picture, you will find more pictures there.

Happy looking

Things are looking up a little more. Last weekend a crew of a national TV show visited us to shoot a pilot episode at our place for their program. They have evaluated the pilot episode and the idea is that they will shoot at least 4 more episodes in the same style. I am really happy over that, because it means more air time and thus ‘my’ program to be more visible in a broader style.

I am getting more and more information requests for the Nederlands Praten program from across the country, so it starts to kick in!

Today we met our newest family member: Floris. He is a pretty and cute little boy alright. Leann is holding him in this picture. Click for more picture on the picture.

Earlier today we went to get groceries and got my right mirror fixed. We also visited my parents, since this would be the last possibility for Leann to see my parents before she leaves for America. Time flies. I can’t believe that it’s mid February already. Tomorrow Diana will come to visit us. She will return to America in March. I also hope to be able to work on Nederlands Praten a little more.

All in all it’s a nice weekend!

Today Remco and his crew visited us again to record a pilot episode to be featured in the national tv show Man Bijt Hond. The recordings went really well even up to a point where I was very relaxed. I am a perfectionist which is a bit iffy when trying to get things done, but Remco helped me through that very well by willing to re-record a few shots. It was awesome. Remco brought two interns that were very helpful even for me. They were so nice to setup the scenes so that I could focus on the scenes myself most of the time. They did a very good job. Our friend Larissa came to help out with the scenes in front of the camera. I am happy that she and her gang from the Theater group Expreszo were willing to help out.

It took about three hours to record three minutes… We want to have things right!

Earlier this week a few citizens of Hoorn decided to organize a Skate Event in Hoorn in which everyone was invited to come skating on the lake that Hoorn is connected to. They asked a restaurant to act as base from wich hot chocolate, coffee and food was sold. We decided to go there and to watch the event from the warmth of the restaurant. It was really nice and we had hot chocolate, hot Glühwein and food to our disposal. Later in the afternoon more people decided to join in the restaurant, so it became busy, too. All in all we had a fun afternoon there. Click on the picture to go to the album with more pictures in it.

My brother Tristan became daddy yesterday. His girlfriend, Kelly, gave birth to a boy and the named him Floris. It’s another boy in the family (obviously girls don’t run in our family that easy), but we’re very proud on this new offspring in the family. We picked up some gifts and we plan to go over there next weekend; hopefully we’ll be able to share some pictures afterwards.

It’s been a busy week. Two evenings a week I have class for Nederlands Praten, which is awesome. I am happy with how it develops and the speed it develops in. After these two classes I plan an evaluation and then I hope to be able to ‘go live’ full force. I look forward to it, because it’s a good business.

Tomorrow the national TV will come to our place again to record a new episode of ‘Nederlands Praten’. We will demonstrate how things work during a Dutch birthday. We have a few people invited, so it’s going to work very well. I hope I feel okay, because a cold seem to hit me a bit. Another thing to look forward to.

All in all things are looking up.