The Rest Is Still Unwritten

Hello readers, just want to update you that I've made the jump from Berlin to Holland. I dont have internet where I'm staying (I'm at a library right now) So we'll see how many updates I can manage.

The train trip on Monday went very smoothly. (Major thanks to my brother Nick for helping me with my bags on the Berlin subway!) I felt sad in the morning as I was leaving Berlin. It's a wonderful place, and I could definitely see myself living there permanently. It just didn't make sense to stay longer at this point in time.

But those feelings of sadness were forgotten as the train made it's way into the Dutch countryside. My heart rejoiced at the sight of all the green farmlands (they're this peculiarly deep color green that I have never seen in the US) populated with little cows and little sheep and the occassional low farmhouse with a thatched roof and red and white shutters.

There's no place like home.

In the absence of internet, I've been doing something very old fashioned: Reading! There's this very typically dutch genre that I'm not sure has an American counterpart: adventure novels set in historical times. There is no moral ambiguity. Right is right. Wrong is wrong. These types of books are characterized by sentimentality about the heros of Dutch history. Last night I stayed up way too late reading about a Burgundian mercenary and a Frieschian aristocratic lady in the time of Philip the Good (early 1400s). It's 500 pages long, and I'm not even half through. I dread to think of all the ways that the course of their love will not run smooth.

So yes, it's the start of another one of my legendary "indefinite stays" in Holland. Plans are underway for various activities. I'll keep you posted.