well, we've been back a month now! at least there have been some days of sunshine and "heat" to make it feel like summer. at least we had to use the fan a few days at night to keep cool. and its been nice to not have things to do in the evenings after work..no class, no basketball. but I've still keeping myself relatively busy, but with a few other more enjoyable things. I've had some stress too, job-related, but that is nothing new. two weeks ago, after work on a Thursday, i went to the beach in The Hague for dinner on the beach with M and his best-man, K. It was nice to sit and eat our dinner and drink wine on the beach. wish i could do that every day.
But truly is summer vacation here...maybe not for me, but for the rest of Holland! Its really drastically noticeable: the trains are emptier in the rush-hour times, and there is a lot less traffic on the streets, and the grocery stores aren't as packed and insane. Mid-July thru mid-August is summer vacation for Holland. The last two weekends in July are said to be some of the busiest days of the whole year at Schiphol airport. The last weekend in July, it was estimated that almost 1 million (of the 16 million) inhabitants of Holland were out of the country! Dutchies like to travel. Dutchies also like to camp. The biggest destinations for dutchies are Germany and France, and I'm sure a large majority of those people/families are camping. (sounds familiar...like my honeymoon...). I've enjoyed having a seat to sit in on the train every morning...but on the way home in the evening, there are a lot more tourists, including Dutchies, who come to Amsterdam for the day, and clog up the train on the way home with crazy loud kids and lots of shopping bags. Seeing all the young 20-something backpackers in Amsterdam Central Station really makes me want to take off and travel as well. Maybe next year...
Now, with the olympics started, my evenings will be spent catching up on the daily activities in Beijing. Whenever there is some inter-country sport on and the Netherlands is playing, I will support them, and vice versa with the USA--M will support the US (usually). But what do you do when these two countries play each other? Well, words get thrown out there that can't be repeated on this blog...and its everyone for themselves. Luckily this does not happen too often, but especially now, during the Olympics, our true patriotism (for sports) shows. The first major match up came in the form of soccer yesterday afternoon, where it was NL vs USA. the US played better, and was set to win it 2-1, but at literally the last 30 seconds of the extra time of the 2nd half, Holland scored on a free kick...so it was a tie, 2-2. I suppose that is the safest outcome for us as a couple: a draw...no bragging rights for either of us!
Swimming is the other major sport where Holland shines, so the 100m mens freestyle is the big race to watch here, where national swimming hero Peter van den Hoogenband will match up vs American swimming hero Michael Phelps. Should be a good one. and in under one minute, it'll all be done. I'm looking forward to it!
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