Snow!

It’s been snowing in Amsterdam a bit. Unfortunately, it hasn’t really been that cold recently so the snow just melts as soon as it hits the ground. Somehow between driving all over creation for various jobs yesterday John missed seeing all the snow. Today he is back in the office with no heater while the temperatures outside hover around 30. Maybe in this case it’s a good thing that it has not snowed yet today because watching snow fall outside while trying to function in a 45-degree room with no heater would not be fun.

John’s time in Amsterdam is quickly coming to a close. After these last few weeks he will be happy to move back to a place where offices all have appropriate temperature control devices. He did get a nice send-off yesterday from the team he works with in Apeldoorn…a good reminder for him that his work in the Netherlands was not in vain. We now have a very nice coffee table book of Palais Het Loo with nice notes written in it from John’s coworkers, a tin of koekjes, also known as cookies (which Erin will get to either eat or ship back since John is leaving in only two days), a bag of drop, also know as licorice (which Erin is enjoying since John sincerely dislikes drop), and a beautiful arrangement of orange roses and astramaria (appropriate since orange is the national color).

Even though John must leave in a couple days, Erin will be here until March so she is trying not to dwell too much on the sadness of leaving. Of course, it will help that by the time March rolls around she will be ready to reunite with her husband, even if it means leaving Amsterdam.
It has taken almost 18 months, but Erin spoke entirely in Dutch this afternoon to the lady at the post office, informing her that she had a letter to mail and needed an extra 5-cent stamp (now that postal rates have increased). Erin is confident that with more practice and perhaps another year here, she could really speak Dutch. (Maybe that’s just wishful thinking and high hopes in light of the fact that she will not be here another year or even another month!)