de boom die alles zag/the tree that saw everything

composed of opposites

Sunday, February 26, 2006

'Tis a new one- a brief January Chronicle

I haven't been very faithful to my blog...as you can see Thanksgiving really was quite a while ago and there has been much in the way of happenings since then. But- I'll just try to start the new year off right and post a little something.
My family, who visited over Christmas and New Years, left Sunday morning. Mmm, I flet so blessed to spend time with them- Mom, Dad, Julie and Joni (Laurie in spirit, by way of the cosy scarf mom bought for her that we actually ended up leaving on a train somewhere in Belgium...ha) We really had a great Christmas- my gift to them was a typical Dutch Christmas dinner, so me and Jones went to the market and got all the tasty ingredients. It was a lot of fun and pretty successful (probably a good thing that they didn't know what exactly it is supposed to be like...) but it did turn out pretty tasty and we had a rollicking evening despite or maybe because of jetlag :*). I'm sure you can imagine it... Then we were to Belgium and then Luxembourg and probably every major (and minor?) WW2 site and museum dad could snag along the way, haha. We were in Lux City for New Years. We read The Horse and his Boy (one of the Chronicles of Narnia), ate Belgian chocolates and located a puny bottle of wine from the "bar" (which was really just a door that with a classy sign that read -bar- in swirly script with a vending machine inside) and then jones and i went for a walk along the ramparts- dodging the fire works and jolly, intoxicated citizens out and about.
So....It has been quite a long time since I've had my own space and room to myself, and though I enjoy the guests, will be glad to have things back to my own in a bit :*).
I am actually going to do some traveling on my own too. I am going to Paris and then to Taize, not sure if you are familiar with it,(www.taize.fr) but it is a monastic community, perhaps a little like l'abri (different, but the closest thing I can think of) but I decided now was a better time than any so I will be there for a few days too. I am really looking forward to it. Then from there I am off to Berlin to see the city and to see Jan and Idi- Jan the artist who (I visited him in Antwerp in November) is having an art show opening then, and Idi, his wife who I became good friends with in NYC at the soup kitchen I volunteered at. They are really a wonderful pair and I am excited to see them. And then back to Amsterdam.... Then I guess I have about a week before classes start and meeting all the new flatemates and such. I am off tomorrow morning (hm, well actually in a few short hours since it always happens that I rarely sleep before I fly away anywhere)