Most of the time, living here in the outskirts of Amsterdam is fantastic. I have bought 2 tanks of gas for my car since last September!! We ride our bikes everywhere or take public transport. My Dutch is coming along very slowly- but the children are developing a large vocabulary quickly. The winter is mild in general, which makes the biking possible- usually we are hot by the time we get where we are going!
One of the things that is hard to get used to is the coming and going of people you meet. All of my close friends are planning to leave this summer, for instance, which threatens to put me back to square one socially. Even my early morning running partner, boo hoo. And the girls have had several new students join their classes throughout the year and one is leaving next week. It's definitely unsettling and you try to strike a balance between insulating yourself against the constant sadness of losing friend and becoming so insulated that you have no friends at all...more on this later....it's an ever evolving thought process.
More importantly, GO OBAMA! Make up for lost time....!!
