Den Haag and Tot Ziens Netherlands!

 * Sorry there are no pictures. It took me an hour to upload one. When I have better internet, I will add pictures to all my posts*

I have been a horrible blogger and I know it. There is good reason though. The last few weeks, Gearoid and I have been extremely busy packing up the life we spent 14 months developing to move back to Sierra Leone. Along with packing and clearing out our apartment, Gearoid had a conference in San Diego to attend, I had to finish with all my usual classes and afspraaks, and we had logistical things to finish up. Many of the logistical things included making several phone calls and writing several letters to Dutch officials ensuring that they know we are only temporarily leaving the country. We also had to make sure we were allowed to enter Sierra Leone and that meant getting a visa in Den Haag (The Hague).

We totally lucked out on the weather. The weather was vacillating between winter and spring and we were lucky to get a spring-borderline-summer day. The weather at that point was so gorgeous that I was afraid to admit it was spring in case I jinxed it (subsequently the next week the temperature dropped almost 20 degrees). Our trip to the Sierra Leonean consulate went without a hitch and we were soon free to spend the rest of the day walking around Den Haag. The city center was beautiful but the proximity to the beach was tempting so we hopped on a tram and made our way out to the sand and surf. I honestly believe that nobody goes to work when the weather is nice in the Netherlands because the beach was packed and most of the beach bars were full. We were able to find a place and enjoyed a beer and our toes in the sand.

The next day we were treated to more beautiful weather and decided to take a bike ride along the river. It was such a beautiful day we seriously questioned our sanity at leaving a Dutch spring/summer for the rainy season in malaria. When we finally return to the Netherlands in November, we will be back in time for a Dutch winter. Talk about bad timing.

We managed to get through the insanity of moving and the logistical knots which make up the Dutch system for practically everything and with bittersweet smiles said tot ziens which basically means until I see you again (literally it is “until seeing” but you get the point).