They say you can never go back home again

Last weekend was an unexpected free weekend. Dad was scheduled to come, but due to Elliott’s arrival, his trip was understandably postponed. And with Nina feverishly studying for an exam, I had the weekend to myself. So Marc and I made good use of it.

Friday evening we went to a trendy cocktail bar where I enjoyed one of my new favourite drinks — caipirinha. This is very similar to a mojito, except there is no mint, instead they use muddled limes with soda water and sugar. And instead of regular rum, you use Cachaça; a sugarcane alcohol similar to rum.

It’s a Brazilian drink which has become very popular in Holland and Germany. I think if it makes it over to Vancouver, it would be huge.

Saturday afternoon Marc and I joined my meet-up expat group for some street photography. We met up the group and walked through the some seedy alleys on the way to the Jordaan district, taking pictures of anything intriguing along the way. We were in the minority with our point-and-shoot cameras. Many of these people are serious photographers and they had the equipment to prove it.

It was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. But after a couple of hours Marc and I broke away from the group and found a little neighbourhood bar in the heart of the Jordaan district. This area used to house the blue-collar workers in the 1700 and 1800s. Now this neighbourhood, which hasn’t changed much, is very popular and quite expensive.

Sunday was also a beautiful day, so Marc and I hopped on our bikes and headed to Amsterdamse Bos (Amsterdam Forest). I have been there a few times now and have posted pictures, but Marc hadn’t been in ages and had hardly explored the park.

It’s so big, it is the one place I have found where you can actually go and feel like you are not always around people. That is one thing I have really started to notice, here you are never alone. It never feels like Holland is as over populated as it is, but it kind of dawned on me recently that there are always people around.

We found a large field of grass that hadn’t been mowed in ages. The grass was almost as high as my waist. We walked to the middle of the field and laid down staring at the sky. The sky was blue with scattered wispy clouds and the grass was surrounding us like slim trees.

With one week left before my trip and one week left in the pay period, I worked hard this week and ended the week/month as my best yet. I had a friendly chat with Stefan one evening this week and he told me he would like to me to continue with this job regardless where Nina and I end up. I was really glad to hear that as I want the same thing. And if there were still any doubt about my position within the company, he has now updated the company website mentioning me as their in-house technical writer.

Tuesday was the season-end cruise terminal party. As the terminal is a modern building built to be multipurpose, it easily transferred into an open special event space. They hired a DJ and a catering company who supplied an open bar and an Indonesian buffet. It was a great night and the first time I had spent time with some of these people outside of work. Afterward we walked into the centre of town and found a pub on one of the small alleys.

Who knows, perhaps I will work there next summer as well. Nina received an Email from the professor at UBC and he had decided to take one of his master’s students for his PhD vacancy. Meaning the chances we will be coming back to Vancouver in the next 4 years has just dropped dramatically. In fact, it’s now negligible. We know what our options are, but we won’t know where we are going to end up until the late spring/early summer. So I might plan a trip home in the spring.

But now I am on the eave of my trip with Shawn. I am very excited and will do what I can regarding sending updates along the way. I will have access to the internet, but our days are very full and I don’t know if I will have the time to put into it.

Seeya!