News from Across the Pond

01 December 2010

Mom's "Gezellig" Party

Josy had a dream last night.

We were giving a 20-something colleague of hers a ride to the airport. On the way, we stopped briefly to see some friends of the family. They said to come with them to a party next door.

This is how it always works in dreams. You're doing something entirely logical. And then you start doing something else. And at the time, the change of course seems entirely logical too. But in retrospect, you'd never be giving someone a ride to the airport and then, spontaneously, drag them to a party.

The whole family was there. Even my mom. And she looked great. Quite an accomplishment, since she died five years ago.

My dad was beaming. Said he thought Mom looked great. She'd maybe lost a little weight. Her hair was that same dyed brown. True to form, she was wearing her favorite purple turtleneck. Everyone was delighted to see her and have a chance to catch up.

At this point, Josy's 20-something colleague started to freak out a bit. Something about the idea of seeing a dead person at a party was unsettling. This may have overshadowed the fact she wasn't getting to catch her flight.

Apparently, or so Josy says she knew in the dream, Mom makes this visit once a year at this time. And we all get together, have a party and catch up. A lovely tradition.

Josy gave my mom a hug. Someone asked her what it was like, to hug someone who'd died and was visiting. Was it like hugging air? No, Josy said. It was just like hugging her normally. A real hug.

The Dutch have a word, "gezellig." There's no direct translation but it generally means "nice togetherness." That sums up the feeling of Josy's dream. We were all there. And my mom too. Together. Nicely catching up. Just like we do every year when she comes back for her party.

I almost feel like I was there too.

26 June 2009

A Voice from the Past

Today is the first day the movers are here, helping us prepare for our move back to the US next week. Cleaning out my desk, I came across a note from my mom to my nephew Josh. He had let me borrow it before we moved to The Netherlands. Mom wrote it back in August 2005, just 3 months before she died of thyroid cancer.

In the note, she reflects on her life. Back to her childhood and choices she made around schooling and career. And finally thoughts on her cancer and treatment: http://www.thalassa-stjohn.com/char%20letter%20to%20josh%20aug%202005.pdf

Rather moving (so to speak) to make this rediscovery just as we're about to relocate to the Northwest. I'm only sorry we won't be able to see her there when we arrive. But it's comforting at least to hear her voice through the words she penned...just the other day.

18 June 2009

Seeds of Change - 20 Years Later

This past weekend was a reunion and a memorable one at that. Our good friends from Prague, Tomas and Helena and their boys Matej and Adam, joined our old friend Mike and his girlfriend Michelle in visiting our Dutch abode.

As I wrote on this blog last spring, Tomas, Mike and I had co-founded an English teaching program in what was then Czechoslovakia not long after the Velvet Revolution. We were collectively amazed to realize that our joint effort took place nearly 20 years ago. Holy cow.

What a treat for the three of us and families/significant others to get together here in The Netherlands before Josy, the kids and I move back to Seattle in July. Truly one of the most meaningful, memorable times of my life for us all to catch up over a long weekend.

Of course, no gathering of us would be complete without drama. En route to Amstelveen on Friday, Matej (7) came down with a fever that lasted until Monday. Poor guy, he basically had to spend nearly the entire visit laid out in bed. And Helena was a trooper, foregoing several outings to look after him and stick close to our house.

In a similar vein, Sophie came down with a fever, vomiting and breathing trouble starting Saturday night. This took her out of commission for Sunday and ended up in the 3-day hospital stay from Monday through Wednesday for severe pneumonia (see post below).

As if that weren't enough drama, when Tomas and family departed on Sunday for Prague, their car's alternator ("dynamo" in Czech) gave out about 20 minutes into their drive. Mike and I went to meet them and we all came back to Amstelveen. This being Holland, no car repair shops are open in the entire country on Sundays, so they weren't able to get the alternator replaced until Tuesday afternoon.

All in all, though, the extended weekend proved a great opportunity for late night catching up and reminiscing - well, as late as some of us fogeys can stay up, that is. A tasty treat of freshly brewed Czech beer from Tomas and fine wine from Mike and Michelle didn't hurt either.

"Kramsky 2010" was the rallying cry when we all said goodbyes, referring to the town where Tomas and Helena live outside of Prague. Then again, who knows - perhaps a visit to San Francisco will be in the offing. Given the drama of this weekend's reunion, next time we'll be sure to bring extra Tylenol, a AAA membership and perhaps an extra stock of Czech beer.

15 June 2009

The Princess, Back in the Joint

Sophie apparently can't get enough of the local hospital. Today, she was admitted for her 2nd time in a month. Seems to be a recurrence of the lung infection she had about 4 weeks ago.

Somehow, the diagnosis "severe pneumonia" is not exactly comforting. But at least she looks better than she did last time, isn't having breathing problems to the same extent as before and generally seems on the mend already.

Within a few hours of being admitted and put on an antibiotic IV drip, her breath rate had improved, her O2 level had jumped from 95 to 98, and her heart rate had evened out.

Above is a photo of her and our part-time nanny, Priscilla, who stopped by for a visit at the hospital this afternoon. Even feeling under the weather, The Princess knows a photo-op when she sees one.

20 May 2009

Happiness is...

...having Sophie home from the hospital, on the road to recovery from pneumonia.

This wraps up an unexpected 3 days and 2 nights at the sunny Ziekenhuis Amstelland hospital, complete with chocolate sprinkles on toast for breakfast, exciting real-time bio-analytics (including giraffe, sheep and doggie electrode-patches), and all the Disney princess movies you can watch.

If they added free wifi and decent coffee, I'd give this getaway a 5-star rating. Then again, no doubt the bill may put this location out of our price range for future visits...

08 April 2009

Roger's 40th

Here's a short photo-video I put together for our good friend Roger Coulter, who turned 40 on April 8th. Many thanks to the many family and friends who submitted photos and birthday wishes.

To watch, just click on the photo below. Or, if you have trouble, open QuickTime and go to File / Open URL and enter http://www.thalassa-stjohn.com/media/Roger40-v3.mov.

24 March 2009

The Daily Minute

Two nights ago, just started to implement a "Daily Minute"routine. Making a 1-minute recording each by Ben and Sophie. In which they answer questions about whatever they did that day.

We'll see how disciplined we end up being about actually doing these recordings. My hope is that they'll provide an archive of sorts. So that when we move back to Seattle and the kids wonder what life was like back in Holland, they can just poke around in the archive and hear in their own words about a given day.

There will be a lot of "lasts" in the next few months. The last time we'll see tulips bloom here together. The last birthday here. The last day in a Dutch school. The last day we stay in our house. Perhaps the Daily Minute will allow us to capture those milestones, in among the other possibly more mundane bits and pieces.

This could either be a colossal waste of time, taping endless minutes of banal observations. Or a time capsule-like treasure trove of insights into the past on some undetermined future date, when the kids are older and want to find out more about their past. Who knows.

But in any case, this experiment starts today! Well, more accurately, 2 nights ago. But you get the idea. Will post future "minutes" on a sidebar...

>>UPDATE 4/19/09<<

Rather than a sidebar, decided it'd be just as easy to update this post regularly and link to it from a sidebar. Here's the full archive so far...