Day 3

The house is progressing at a great pace. The biggest achievements today were finishing up the walls for paint preparation, tearing off the shed roof, and making progress on the garden. My brother-in-law drove two hours north to help us out, and we were very grateful to have his assistance.

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Day 2

Our first night in the new house was a bit like camping. We started early this morning on the “makeover”. G’s mom and her partner are staying the week with us and helping fix up the house. Today G and K spent the day in the yard hacking down the…

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First Home

Today we passed one of the biggest milestones in our lifetime, owning our first home. The idea actually started years ago, and came to fruition at last. Yesterday we received the keys to our new home, in the neighboring town (next to where we currently live). It is a charming little…

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Sushi Farewell

I am flying back to the United States tomorrow to visit my father for two weeks. Tradition “mandates” that we eat sushi together before the trip, as a farewell. Recently we found a Japanese restaurant on the boulevard in Noordwijk.  It has all you can eat sushi, one of my…

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Summer Update

Summer is finally here, along with the 11 pm sunsets and abundance of sunshine. Until this week, late spring was turning out much colder than earlier in the season. It was a little nerve wracking for me, since I started my vegetable garden early in the season. The flowers started…

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Evening Walk

A brief glimpse into our evening walks we take along the sea. (G and I) 🙂 Small note: The saying on the building is from a free speech foundation called “Loesje” that publishes insightful quotes/ideas.

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Gardening

I’ve been enjoying very nice weather this season. It’s unseasonably warm since last autumn, and continued into spring so far. People have been enjoying the beach here in Noordwijk for several weeks (not swimming though). Every year I keep a garden, specifically for raising vegetables. This is challenging at our…

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Integration

Immigrants to the Netherlands are obligated to pass tests on Dutch language and culture within three years, or be possibly fined or expelled from the Netherlands.  As one of these immigrants, I was among this group. The whole program is called “inburgering”, which means “integration”. Last May, I started taking…

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Early Summer

Today we had temperatures so high, they declared it the first day of summer.  The sky alternated between dark grey and bright blue, but the sun eventually won out. My sister-in-law A stayed with us this week. Since we had beautiful weather, A and I went for a long walk on…

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