(TL;DR: I went traveling, worked and had fun, look at pretty pictures)
I’ve just given our apartment the thorough cleaning it’s been missing for quite some time. It was necessary after the last month and a half of guests and traveling, as well as all the work I mentioned in my last blog. The weeks have flown by, and now that some calm approaches it’s nice to sit a nice clean home. Let me recount the last few weeks. When I last wrote, I was returning from my trip to Greece with brother Kaj and Eric, with Kaj visiting from California. Kaj and I spent another three nights together, one in Amsterdam with his friend Luis, one night at Uncle Rob’s and staying in the Hague, and the last night at Oma’s house in Vinkeveen. In Vinkeveen, our kind uncle Jacco took us for a day of wakeboarding, even though the weather wasn’t too promising, and treated us to a delicious BBQ dinner that night. Earlier that day, along with Oma, we climbed the church clocktower and were presented with a view of Vinkeveen and the lake as I had never seen it before. The next morning I went with Kaj to Schiphol Airport to send him on his flight back to the U.S. of A.
Coming back from Greece, I wrote about how lucky I felt to now be residing in the Netherlands. Though lucky I still am, two additional country/city trips would add some wonderful perspective to how I understand Europe. In the last week of July, fellow UC Berkeley Bear Irina came to visit in the Netherlands. Irina and I met at Berkeley while participating in Model United Nations, as well as serving in the club’s secretariat our senior year. Upon arrival, we went straight for a walking tour of Amsterdam and the next day set off to Brussels together with Jorn, a friend from the Hague. Thanks to Jorn, who had been to Brussels a few times before, we saw all of the important parts of Brussels without getting too close to the tourist traps. Of course we had a beer at the Delirium Village and enjoyed chocolate wafels too, but it was great getting the perspective from a more local point of view. Just two nights in Brussels was enough to make me consider working there in the future. With me, who knows where I might end up :{
Back in the Hague, as part of the Volleyball World Cup, Irina, Jorn, Drew and more of our friends participated in setting the world’s biggest volleyball tournament, with more than 2300 people participating. The sun burn from that day was so bad that I’m still peeling almost three weeks later…lay on that Aloe Vera! Later that weekend, Ayan, a friend who I met at Berkeley but who I also stayed with in India in summer 2013 stopped by the Hague for a drink as well. A couple days later I’d join Irina to the airport as she left to London to visit friends Eviane and Bharath, while I take a flight to Copenhagen to meet up with high school mate and good freind Daniel Kent!
Daniel and I met my first year at Northgate High School in Walnut Creek, went to 2 years of community college together, and have stayed friends ever since. Seeing him in Copenhagen, and hosting him in the Hague was a true pleasure. Drew (my roommate) and Dan go back even further, so for all three of us it was great to have a solid piece of California in the Netherlands together. In Copenhagen, Dan and I stayed with one of his college friends, a local who had done study abroad at UC Davis. The guy did a fantastic job of showing us around; in the three days we were together we walked about 70km! Once back in the Netherlands, we had a full schedule as well, including cheering on le Tour de France, a birthday party, and a brunch at our place. It was sad to see our buddy Dan go, but now that we have our house back in order, it will be nice for things to be calm again for a bit and focus on school and work. After all this activity this summer, I hope you can’t blame me 😉
