Well, it is broke. Everything is broken this week.
Our TV is broken...well, the TV service that supplies our channels anyway. We get TMF (music videos) on RTL7, CNN with no sound, and Animal Planet. John called to get it fixed and after that call we are now paying a monthly fee for...nothing. It's been two weeks and we still don't have the new box.
Our shower curtain is broken. Well, not broken, but desperately in need of replacing. Erin bought a replacement shower curtain, took the old one down, opened the package containing the fresh new curtain, and discovered that she bought a curtain that is too small for our shower. Soooo, we need a shower curtain that fits.
The buzzer in our apartment that opens the door downstairs to let people in is broken. Good thing we only live on the second floor 'cause we have to take a trip downstairs to personally let people in now.
The light in our bathroom is broken. It has been a few days now since the bulbs burned out. We are now bathing by the dim light that filters in from the hallway. We need flourescent tube lights for the fixture, which you can't find just anywhere, so this is the reason we are still showering in the dark.
Erin's computer at work is broken. The internet locked up and, because the operating system is not Windows, Erin does not know how to resolve the problem. Even after restarting the computer, the system will not allow her to use the internet. In the process of trying to fix said problem, Erin somehow managed to completely delete everything on her Evolution e-mail system so that it needs to be restarted, but Erin does not know the password for the host server. She could look up her e-mail via the internet....but the internet doesn't work.
Erin's parents are coming to visit on Saturday for the holidays. Hope they don't mind waiting for us to climb downstairs to let them in the door, taking showers in the dark without a shower curtain, and watching CNN while reading lips to try to decipher what is being said. Or they could just skip the news and watch Animal Cops to their heart's content. Welcome to Amsterdam, Mom and Dad!
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...
Christmas lights, Christmas trees, Christmas carols, Christmas cookies, the Christmas story...we would write more about why this is "the most wonderful time of the year," but this is also "the most busy time of the year." In fact, we have been so busy that we have neglected to tell you about our trips to Brugge, Belgium; Frankfurt, Germany; and the great state of Texas, U.S.A. All of these trips have taken place in the last 3 1/2 weeks.
No one in the U.S. has heard for Brugge, but it's a small town in Belgium that many call the "Venice of Northern Europe." While it is not quite Venice, it is an extremely charming medieval town. Seeing the popular horse-drawn carriages carting tourists around looks quite natural in Brugge. The cobblestone streets, quaint squares, lake, medieval buildings, and quiet beguinage (kind of like a nunnery) make this a fabulous town to visit. We highly recommend the hotel we stayed in: Hotel Ter Duinen. Practically everything served in the restaurant for breakfast was home-grown in the garden of one of the proprietors. We had the smallest kiwi's ever known to man and some really good pastries. We enjoyed a short, but satisfying weekend in Brugge.
The Frankfurt trip was over Thanksgiving. We went with the Coopers because John and Jacob had training to attend in Frankfurt the Friday after Thanksgiving day. So, we all drove to the Frankfurt Marriott on Thanksgiving Day and got there just in time to have some Thanksgiving dinner in the restaurant there. Unfortunately Annette, Jacob's wife, gave us all a scare when she passed out for a couple minutes immediately following our Thanksgiving dinner. Two doctors in the restaurant came to the resuce and the ambulance guys ran some tests, all with no conclusion. There has been no fainting since that time, but the doctors still don't seem to know what caused this. Needless to say, this was a very scary situation, especially since we had just arrived in a foreign country. (Foreign as in more foreign than the country we live in!) We are thankful we were staying at the Marriott - a really big, fancy hotel - because they took good care of us. Most of the rest of the weekend was spent visiting the Christmas markets and doing lots of Christmas shopping.
The trip to the U.S. was last week. Erin took her National Counseling Exam and passed! The rest of the week was absolutely crammed packed with seeing friends, visiting family, and running errands. We are still a bit jet-lagged, but getting over it quickly. The next couple weeks before Christmas will be busy for both of us. John is working very hard right now and will definitely be ready for another break from work by the time Christmas gets here. The holiday season is always pretty busy in the area of counseling, so Erin will also be working hard in the next couple weeks trying to squeeze everybody in for appointments. Erin's parents will come to see us for Christmas, and our next big trip will be going with them to London the week following Christmas. We can't promise we'll have time to write before, but we'll be sure to share the London adventures with everybody after we get back.
Even though this time of year is busy, we wish you all a joyful and blessed Christmas!
No one in the U.S. has heard for Brugge, but it's a small town in Belgium that many call the "Venice of Northern Europe." While it is not quite Venice, it is an extremely charming medieval town. Seeing the popular horse-drawn carriages carting tourists around looks quite natural in Brugge. The cobblestone streets, quaint squares, lake, medieval buildings, and quiet beguinage (kind of like a nunnery) make this a fabulous town to visit. We highly recommend the hotel we stayed in: Hotel Ter Duinen. Practically everything served in the restaurant for breakfast was home-grown in the garden of one of the proprietors. We had the smallest kiwi's ever known to man and some really good pastries. We enjoyed a short, but satisfying weekend in Brugge.
The Frankfurt trip was over Thanksgiving. We went with the Coopers because John and Jacob had training to attend in Frankfurt the Friday after Thanksgiving day. So, we all drove to the Frankfurt Marriott on Thanksgiving Day and got there just in time to have some Thanksgiving dinner in the restaurant there. Unfortunately Annette, Jacob's wife, gave us all a scare when she passed out for a couple minutes immediately following our Thanksgiving dinner. Two doctors in the restaurant came to the resuce and the ambulance guys ran some tests, all with no conclusion. There has been no fainting since that time, but the doctors still don't seem to know what caused this. Needless to say, this was a very scary situation, especially since we had just arrived in a foreign country. (Foreign as in more foreign than the country we live in!) We are thankful we were staying at the Marriott - a really big, fancy hotel - because they took good care of us. Most of the rest of the weekend was spent visiting the Christmas markets and doing lots of Christmas shopping.
The trip to the U.S. was last week. Erin took her National Counseling Exam and passed! The rest of the week was absolutely crammed packed with seeing friends, visiting family, and running errands. We are still a bit jet-lagged, but getting over it quickly. The next couple weeks before Christmas will be busy for both of us. John is working very hard right now and will definitely be ready for another break from work by the time Christmas gets here. The holiday season is always pretty busy in the area of counseling, so Erin will also be working hard in the next couple weeks trying to squeeze everybody in for appointments. Erin's parents will come to see us for Christmas, and our next big trip will be going with them to London the week following Christmas. We can't promise we'll have time to write before, but we'll be sure to share the London adventures with everybody after we get back.
Even though this time of year is busy, we wish you all a joyful and blessed Christmas!
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