Meeting a student of mine from 8 years ago.

I thought it was more like 4 years ago but when I called an ex-student of mine who is from Amsterdam she told me it was already 8 years ago she was an exchange student in Japana at my school. We met at Koningplein, I think the name was and had a wonderful bagel and soup and did a lot of catching up. I was one of Djuna's Japanese teachers if you can believe that so we spent a lot of time together. Including my English classes she was in I taught her once or even twice a day. She is now close to becoming a doctor! Good for her. I'm very proud of her.

Deborah, a Canadian friend of mine from Tokyo now lives with her husband Aart and son Willem in Heilo about 40 minutes north of Amsterdam. Thank goodness Renato happened to send a group e-mail to me which included her e-mail or i might have missed seeing her and her wonderful family on her wonderful farm. They live on a farm in a renovated cow barn. Aart has done all the work with the help of some friends. These talented Dutch men!! He can sing too. His parents, who have recently passed away lived in a huge traditional farm house which is next to where Deborah and her family live. They live very near the sea so we had a nice walk on the beach.
We had a typical Dutch meal. It was a mixture of potatoes, spinach, red peppers, a big piece of sausage and gravy. It was great. Thanks Deborah!! Their son, Willem, was a delight. Open and friendly. He actually took the picture of me from behind. It was one of the better pictures I thought. Good job Willem!!! Deb, it was great to see you. We have 20 more days here. I hope we can get together again.

Colors of Amsterdam

I finally found a place 20 meters from our place where I could find a connection to the internet. I'm now sitting next to a quaint little birdge watching the swams go by. It's a gorgeous fall day. I thought we were in for only cold weather but we've had a couple days of warm weather. Time is going fast here. We have only 18 days left in this wonderful city. The following is some random pictures I've taken of this delightful city.

I was sitting in my favorite piazza when this street performer started breathing fire. He was very good. When he asked for money he said jokingly he needed it for his medical bills.