Five years. It is both slow and quick the time passing. I drove my family nuts I am sure for 5 years talking of the places I’d been. For years I have wanted to go back and finally had a chance. This time I brought along my elder sister.
In less then a month we would have visited
An island (My secret hideaway)- April 6-10 (4 days)
Den Helder- April 10- 14 (4 days)
Delft- day trip April 12
Utrecht – April 14- 18 (4 days)
Woerdan- April 18-20 (3 days)
Rotterdam a day visit- April 18
Delft- day visit April 19
Zoetermeer April 20-22 ( 2 days)
Delft April 22-29 (moved twice in the same city- 4 days one place, 3 days the next place)
Amsterdam April 28
Romania- now (one place until the 19th of May)
This my dear readers has been our schedule. When we were in Delft I was editing…no I was making videos presentations for an upcoming conference. Then I designed a graphic art for a mission statement. The design turned out well and I am pleased with it. Always there is something I can improve on and for once I just enjoyed what I did when I was finished. I had hoped to slow down before we hit our 2-3 week stay in Romania, haha. No such thing. We are always busy, but life is good. Thankfully, we will start to stay in one place for about a week to week and half after Holland (I hope).
We have been learning a lot of intercultural communication . Here there is no beating around the bush, people are direct here as it was in Russia and in Denmark.You tell people what you can or cannot do as far as schedule (within guidelines) and they are pretty laid back once they understand. I have learned to make decisions and am learning to actually tell people what I think rather then go around the bush. So what I am learning now is how to pair respectful attitude while being frank and direct. Though I still prefer to use tactful directness.
People at home told me not to fall in love with a certain place. But they didn’t know I had already fallen in love 5 years ago with a country, the Netherlands. I love the people there, sometimes I’m frustrated because of cultural differences. But I love them, the people, I love much of their culture that I’ve experience (except Amsterdam, still to this day that’s my least favorite city.) Although I will visit and I certainly advice people to see it, but that’s not true Dutch experience or the beauty of Holland. Perhaps it possible I am in the honeymoon stage, but 5 years is a long time to love A place with the same passion and leave with even a greater love. Before jumping into conclusions, America is my home I am not moving out- however long visits is something I wouldn’t mind. Half a year there and half year here- and I am only half joking. I want to bring the rest if my family to meet the people I love. Kate now understands why shouldn’t the rest of my family? Already I am hatching a plan to return next year to visit several countries especially this one and Russia. Time will tell what happens within a year or two.