Update!

So,

Real quick update since Sara is ready for bed! Blah, Blah, blah work is really exciting, blah, blah, blah we went on a day trip to Rotterdam after touring Den Haag (the Hague for you Americans) and now we are back to work. Rotterdam was cool, lots of construction and things happening. I will be in court tomorrow with Karadzic (former Bosnian Serb "President") for 6 hours handling evidence between the French and English judges and the Serbian witness. Very excited. Until next time!

Arthur

Big day at work!

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/05/26/serbia.mladic/index.html?hpt=T1

So when you turn on the new and hear the newscasters refer to the "War Crimes Tribunal", "The Hague" or the "International Court" that's us!

And when they refer to Mladic's leader, Karadzic, that's a case the Tribunal is working on!

XOXO

Sara

First bike!

Work is going great! Got to visit the courtrooms today and had a stare-off with General Tolimir. At 6, working late, my boss calls me and switches me over to her husband, who has a bike that he recently fixed up for us to use for the summer. Vederlicht Luxe, riding in 70s style, the generator for the front light on the bike (required by Netherlands law for the bike lanes with stop lights) is powered by the front tire. Now we are trying to get one for Sara tomorrow. She just finished her first assignment for work today, she is a light speed worker and will be great in her job. Her boss is a cool German lawyer that we had lunch with a couple times last summer.

Home Sweet Home

We are settling into the neighborhood, which is very quiet yet bustling with life. There is a community garden, farmhouse and skatepark around the corner. The farmhouse has two cows, one of which is surely named Ned, at least one pig, and lots of goats and chickens. We found a bike shop down the street and several fresh produce stores nearby.

Ravi, our first official visitor, cam on Friday afternoon, passing by for a few days before heading on to Amsterdam then Liverpool. We caught back on with his jetlag and woke up around 6am, ate some breakfast and went to Den Haag Centraal to look around. After a few stores and a brief stint in Chinatown, we headed back by the apartment to get supplies for "de" Beach. We had a picnic and frisbee time on the North Sea. We also walked down to the pier, which has a bungy jumping platform at the end (will be done by the end of the summer). Saturday night Ravi and I headed to Jorplace Beach Hostel to find a pretty great party with a healthy dose of 80's American music and Dutchmen.

Ravi left this morning and Sara and I are meeting the boss for the summer, Colonel Murnane, for dinner tonight. We finally figured out almost all of the appliances in this little apartment, and are very much anticipating the start of work tomorrow. Look for an update on our work soon! Also, click on the Picassa album on the right to see the pictures we post.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles...

So, as the jet rumbled down the runway to take off from Tulsa International, I began to wonder if I had taken care of everything. A little too late. Who cares. 16 hours of travel later and we are here. One car ride, three planes, three trams, a train, and a good old fashioned cobblestoned street and we got here. Our Plane happened to be 30 minutes late into Amsterdam and we approached our apartment 15 minutes late. About two blocks from the place a car drives by us lugging our suitcases down the street and stops, "Sara and Arthur?" Rens (our realtor) called out. He had given up waiting on us after a mere 15 minutes and we would have had no way of getting in or getting in touch with him today had he not driven by at that very instance.

But, we made it in, everything is perfect. We get a cool ocean breeze in our front window and on the back patio, and can hear the seagulls circling around. Today it was 65 and sunny, and we walked down to the beach before grabbing a bite at one of the restaurants that we found here last summer. After that we picked up some groceries and coffee at the shop around the corner and are now just waiting out our jetlag until an appropriate time to go to bed.

I know that Sara and I did not get to say goodbye to everyone that we wanted to, but I hope you all follow this and enjoy experiencing this place with us. We will miss everyone and look forward to sharing with you.

Up next... prepare for our internship and find bikes!

All cleaned up and ready to go

As you can see, everything I own is piled into Arthur's house for storage until we return in September. Arthur's house is clean (a first for his bathroom) and our important information is set up for accessing our apartment in Den Haag. Our scholarships are aligned, our insurance up to date, our bills squared away, and ALL our valuables hidden far across town in a secret vault. (hear that would-be burglars?).

We leave today at 1:30pm, fly through Dallas to London and from London to Amsterdam. Supposedly we arrive at 2:10pm Netherlands time on Tuesday. Then we very simply hop a train to Den Haag, buy some tram tickets, take the line to Scheveningen where we will meet our real estate agent and be let into our tiny tiny adorable apartment.

Yesterday I went around using all the gift cards I had that would expire while I was away. I was able to buy 6 books for $15 Borders card (thank you Rachel Berube) at that Borders that's going out of business. So I'll see you when we get there, Arthur. XOXO