Family Visit

What a crazy and eventful week. Amy and Lloyd visited and stayed in Amsterdam, where we went to eat dinner with them twice. They came for a day in The Hague (Den Haag), and we also went for an evening in Rotterdam. The first night was interesting when we took a turn into the red light district after dinner, in search of chocolate dipped waffles. The hague was a fairly normal day in the life, we went out for lunch on the canal and then rode bikes and walked around town. We also showed them the farm (next to our house) and went for a walk down the beach after a picnic in our apartment.

Thursday was the interesting one. Lloyd, Sara's step-father, is 6-8 and played professional basketball in the Netherlands in 1973-74, when their team won the championship. They organized a little reunion at the former center's house (Jan Loorbach). Mr. Loorbach was VERY tall, for one, and is currently the president of the Netherlands bar association, was the head of the Netherlands olympic committee, and has been an incredibly successful attorney here. He was great to meet, and all of the team was incredibly fun. They all spoke english for our benefit, and we had a great night of food, wine and deserts while perusing old news clippings of the teams sucess and picking Mr. Loorbach's brain. After a half hour train ride and a half hour bike ride to get home, we got to sleep around 1 and I had to be in court the next morning at 8:30. We woke up, worked all day, and hurried back to the train station at 5:30 to get back to Amsterdam. We got there just in time for dinner before the wine and cheese "candle light" canal cruise Amy and Lloyd had planned for their last night in Holland. It was beautiful, a two hour cruise through the canals at dusk, listening to the musings of the entertaining tour guide. It was a great night and we were sad to see them go, but we were exhausted by the time we got home at 1 am.

Monkey Park

We have been pretty busy, but are getting to relax for a day or two, so I am going to do a couple updates now. A week ago today we went to Apenhuel in Apeldoorn, Netherlands. Apenhuel literally translates to ape haven. About fifty years ago in this part of the world it was apparently pretty common for people to have pet monkeys of all sorts. A group of people decided to create a place to take their monkeys to play, which eventually turned in to a permanent place for them all to live. This is in the middle of a national park and is now the only ape "zoo" in the world with free-roaming monkeys that interact with the visiting humans. There are now hundreds of kinds of apes, not all of which are free-roaming of course, as well as lots of birds. We actually walked by several peacocks, ducks, parrots, and an emu. So, there were bonobos, gorillas, lemurs, and about 50 others which I cannot remember, including one of the smallest monkeys in the world.

We went with our neighbors, Besart (from Albania), Nenad (Serbia) and Diana (Canada), as well as Taulant (Kosovo) and Josephine (China), who we have been hanging out a lot with and are always a good time. We had a great time, snacked all day, and made it home late Sunday evening, in time to rest up for our day off on Monday. Monday we, maybe a little homesick, went to see a good ole American movie, The Tree of Life. Both us us were notably disappointed afterwards. Back to work on Tuesday and on to a new post about Sara's mom and Lloyd's visit.

Sunday Date Day

Saturday we went to the beach with some fellow interns before our four hour long "class component" for school. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and the beach was as filled up as Daytona Beach during the Harley convention/Nascar weekends. Sunday it rained. Arthur planned a day-long date for me.

First we had breakfast at the restaurant at the very end of the pier that overlooked the stormy raging sea. Then we rode our bikes across town to the antiques and books flea market near Den Haag Centrum. We spent all day perusing the different booths. Then we ran a few errands downtown. Afterwards, Arthur had researched this amazing place that is hidden but right in our backyard! It is this adorable restaurant with no path leading to it at the edge of a park and canal. By then it had cleared up outside so we had soup and drinks and sat by the water. He topped it all off with wine (my favorite!) a rose (very sweet) and a row boat trip on the water. It was a lovely evening and we were both ready to get back to work the next morning.

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.