snowy minnesota home

As I write from my parents' porch in Austin, new snow is falling on the already drifted in backyard. It's so good to be in cold Minnesota, even the snow and windchill (-15 yesterday) lend a sense of adventure to the everyday. We should be on our way to Iowa to visit Ryan's folks, but the anticipated 7 inches today combined with the still icy highways from this weekend's blizzard are keeping us in Austin for an extra day. It's been a whirlwind visit here--we got to see some but not all friends in Minneapolis, visited a couple old haunts and had enough together time for Ellie and Della got their fill of each other (cabin fever that extra day being snowed-in in St. Paul). But the visit has had less leisure than we'd anticipated as we started working on house hunting in the event that this spring we're suddenly back on a plane to Minneapolis. My folks, Emily and Dan have graciously provided all the comforts of home away from home and childcare, and I am so thankful.

It's good to be in the States. Being home, it's just easy here, there's not much guilt associated with speaking English, it's more diverse than Maastricht (at least in the Cities), there's a real spirit of optimism (perhaps coinciding with the excitement around the promise of newness in an election year) and after you ease your way through snow drifts and ice you begin to gain a new appreciation for the American emphasis on convenience (drive through coffee shops!). Minneapolis felt like a small town as I bumped into former students, had a sweet clerk at our old co-op ask me where I've been and marvel at how big Ellie has gotten, etc. Ellie has been very frustrated with the car culture, asking if we can walk or take a bike to wherever we're going. As we think about a possible move home and especially where we may live, we're hoping to combine the best of European living (walking, biking, having less stuff but of higher quality, slowing down, eating great food, enjoying art routinely rather than a rare trip to a museum, etc.) with the best of American living. I've been scrutinizing neighborhoods to find the place that affords that kind of living and is still affordable. We'll see what happens.

So even as I say that it's so good to be home, I have to admit that like everywhere there are those things with which you must make peace. It's one thing to make peace with a quirk in another culture, but quite another when it's your own culture. As I was poking down Interstate 35 at 40 miles an hour yesterday (ice patches everywhere south of Owatonna) in my mother's Corolla with "Peace be with you", "An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind" and "More trees, less Bush" bumper stickers, a jacked-up, half monster truck roared by me, it's 20-something inhabitants decked out in camouflage. They braked, rolled down the window, and gave me the bird and then tried to moon me. The funny thing was that the cold was just too nasty on exposed skin and so after they retreated behind their now rolled up ultra-tinted windows, I didn't have to see the full view. I laughed at the botched mooning but then sobered up when I thought about how even with so much beauty and goodness in this country, many people in the world now have an impression that Americans are a lot like those arrogant, reckless monster truck driving kids with the world as our highway. There are reasons for that impression, my little encounter reminded me, but the reality is much more complex and, I believe, more hopeful.
Love--and peace!--and hope to you all.

family vacation--french style, cut short by the Big Cough

We had a fabulous weekend in Lille, France. We walked for hours through the former capital of Flanders with its cobblestone streets, cafes, ornate monuments, city squares and cathedrals. This is a city that is definitely French, but historically changed hands back and forth between Flanders so many times that some of the architecture and culture (for example the popularity of good beer over wine) is definitely Dutch. About every hour or so we grabbed something to eat, usually some kind of chocolately, croissanty pastry that we'd share one of between us any other day of the year, but in Lille we all just ate our own, again and again. Ellie was so excited--"I think this is treat number five!!" etc. etc. Other highlights include some great meals in various cafes, finding a fabulous park that Ellie ran herself ragged on and finding maternity jeans on sale that fit me just right. (Finding a pair of pants to fit me has been a big challenge as the Dutch are so darned tall. And as I fear I'm pushing my luck towards embarrassment with my scheme of unbuttoning my regular jeans while sitting and you can only wear the same black yoga pants so many days in a row, I was getting desperate for pants that fit. Finally a woman in a maternity store here in Maastricht said in exasperation that I should just go to France where people are my size. It worked--hooray!) So yesterday the plan was to get up early and go to Ghent, Belgium. This is another charming Flemish city that we've been excited to go to since moving here. My grandfather was part of the Allied troops who helped liberate Ghent. He remembers children kicking off their wooden shoes to run with the ships along the canals and catch the chocolate and oranges that he and the other sailors were sharing. About 10 minutes out of Lille Ellie said she had a stomach ache. As we were pulling over looking for a bathroom, Ellie said, "I think I'm going to do the Big Cough" (her own euphemism for throw up). Sure enough, before we we could find a place to pull over, the floor was covered in the Big Cough. Nothing takes the veneer of chicness off a vacation quite so quickly as the scent of vomit wafting from the back seat. That dang norovirus, which we got our first taste of last year in Memphis and I'd hoped that we still had some immunity to, found us again in Maastricht. It had been making the rounds in Ellie's school and through the neighborhood, and now I'm crossing my fingers that if I'm going to get it, it comes soon and not all over my new jeans while I'm on the plane home on Thursday. Cheers everyone!

Off to Lille, then Minneapolis

As I pack for our weekend in Lille, France and start setting aside a few things for our trip to Minneapolis next week the juxtaposition of temperatures is striking -- Lille will be sunny and 50 all weekend. Are we sure we want to move home? Bon weekend, all! We'll update you with pictures when we're back! Au revoir!

Well that's different

As many of you know, saying something is "different"is midwestern parlance to indicate that we dislike, disapprove or are slightly bewildered by something. (Of course it's an interesting window into our worldview that using the term "different" nearly alwaus carries a negative connotation, but I won't go into that here.) So when Ryan called me this afternoon from the dermatologist's waiting room and, replying to my question of how it was, reported it was different, I wondered what he meant. Well, he explained, there's porn in the waiting room. Wow. The choices were a yachting magazine, a medical journal, a Dutch celebrity gossip magazine and porn. Hmmmm . . . I wonder how many doctors offer patients that option in the States. It really is different here, and every now and again it's "different".

Mother/Daughter/Sister/Cousin/Auntie/Neice time in the Netherlands

Thought we needed a few more pictures to capture our month. Poor Grandpa and Dads were definitely outnumbered, but I think they are no worse for the wear. Cheers to you all.

Christmas and New Years

We are just coming down after a wonderful month with a full house and many side trips to Germany, Belgium and Amsterdam. Friends Sara and Alex (Alex is Ellie's age--lovely fun they had) from Memphis were first, followed by Auntie Cassie and then the rest of my family from Minnesota (Ellie and Della were reunited, which was lovely, as was seeing an expecting Emily and Dan and of course grandparents!) and then friends Michelle and Brian from Memphis completed our full month, just overlapping with Cassie. Being together was a wonderful blessing, and everyone put up with long lines for the bathroom and (poor Cassie) sleeping on mats on a few different floors. Excursion highlights include Amsterdam between Christmas and New Years and a quiet Christmas pancake brunch in Belgium. Also, the men took a trip into Germany (Cologne and Monchau) sans women and, as you can see from Dan and Dad here, were most inspired by German street art.

Happy New Year! Merry Christmas! (no longer neglecting the blog, will do e-mail soon)

Hey ya'll--time flies and Christmas and New Years have past, along with a few birthdays in there--hope it was wonderful for all, it certainly was for us here. I've received a few comments wondering when we'll be back online--we've been loving having a houseful of guests (5 left this morning for a freezing Minnesota) this last month and I promise to update it now that there's a little down time. Look for pictures of crazy family time in Amsterdam soon . . . I'm also looking forward to getting to some lovely e-mails that are gracing my full inbox, so please know I'm thinking of you and will no longer be incommunicado. So exciting!!!