Week of reunions

This week, it's fall break. After finishing Janne's room, Pieter is now painting Emma's room. The combination blue-green in Janne's room turned out quite nice, the pink in Emma's room is a bit brighter than expected. Maybe the red will tone it down a bit. I ordered the curtains for their rooms, which will be finished 5 weeks from now. You think that is long? Although our bed was delivered, as promised, after 12 weeks, we'll have to wait 4 more weeks for our dining room set to arrive ... And, needless to say that our kitchen is still not finished! But, it's nearing it's completion, even I can see (and believe) that now :-)

Well, now for the title of this post. Because this was indeed a week of reunions (if such a plural exists). On Sunday, Pieter had a High School reunion, HBS in this case. Of the possible 180 attendants, 160 showed up! That's an amazing percentage! That was probably also one of the reasons why the reunion was such a big success; they were all there! Pieter is still talking about the people he met, the stories he heard and the memories he re-lived with all his old friends. Lots of forgotten memories came back during the day and for Pieter, it's a 'shining pearl in his memory'. For most of people present, it was 40 odd years ago since they last talked to each other. It must be a very special experience to see all your old class mates after such a long time! And from looking at the 600+ pictures on the reunion website, I learned that at this day and age, at 62, a person is NOT old. Those men and women really still look great, with hip glasses and hairdo's (the women a bit more so than the men ... ) and fashionable outfits.
Pieter then and now

For me, there were two 'reunions' albeit on a somewhat smaller scale. I went to see a high school friend, whom I hadn't seen for 10 years. Except for our high school reunion in 2006, where I talked to her for a total of about ten minutes. We took a little bit more time this time around. While her son played with Emma and Janne, we talked, talked and then talked some more. It's kind of a cliche to say, but it did seem like we talked to each other last month, instead of ten years ago. The funny thing is that we didn't talk very much about the past ten years, but more about the present. Our current jobs, hobbies, plans, the kids. It was really great to see her and we will definitely see each other again in the near future. Starting this Saturday, because I left Emma and Janne's winter coats at her place :-)
My girls, her boy

The other long-time-no-talk visit was from a former Philips co-worker. Actually, she worked for a consultant company and did a project for us (Pieter and me) at Philips. We hadn't spoken to her in at least ten years and also with her, the years melted away and we had the same 'seems like yesterday' feeling. Because she also has a technical background and has always worked in a male dominated environment, she's kind of a role model for me and a greatly admire her entrepreneurial and strong personality, her intelligence and her empathy. Also now, I asked for her advice with regard to my applications and, as usual, she had some great inputs. It was another wonderful reunion. We'll see her again mid November.

Emma is now staying with my mom for two days and we will pick her up on Saturday. It's a bit quieter around the house, with only one little girl. Janne was quite disappointed that she couldn't go with oma as well, so I'll take her to the movies tomorrow and maybe we'll go swimming. All in all, it seems like we're re-integrating nicely; this week's agenda is totally full, as every self respecting Dutch family's agenda always is :-)

Adding colour

Some more colour and decoration decisions have been made and we are using fall break to paint Emma and Janne's room. We did the master bedroom a few weeks ago. This weekend we started painting Janne's room, which is half finished now. Later this week, we'll work on Emma's room. Although only (some of) the painting has been done and no decorating, here's a sneak preview.
The master bedroom even has curtains

Half of Janne's room is now happy in blue (her choice)

And, we also painted a bench from Janne's classroom. Emma and Janne did most of the work, I only did the difficult corners.
From orange to yellow; good job!

Out of storage

Today, the very last part of our move back to Holland happened. Vereijken Movers emptied out two crates, with a total volume of 16 cubic meters, in our garage. Plus a vintage Honda CB750 motorcycle. All this had been in storage for seven and a half years. Over the past weeks, we had tried very hard to remember what was in storage. Some items, like my ice cream maker, my sewing machine, an antique chair, an antique dining room set and camping equipment, came back to us. Other things, like my black and white dark room equipment, three (!) tv sets (the big, bulky ones of course), three boxes with pots and pans, several boxes with glass and chinaware, were a total surprise. Why did we keep this stuff? Why did we pay storage fee for these forgotten things for over seven years? Here's some hindsight advice: when you move (to another country), throw everything away that has been in your attic for over 2 years. Unless you have a strong emotional attachment to it, like I have to my grandfather's old radio, or unless there's a practical reasons why it's been up there, like that you haven't gone skying for three years.
Hello boxes; long time no see ...

It is fun though, to open all the boxes and find hidden treasures (crystal wine glasses) and surprises (photographs of old boyfriends). Even if half of it will end up in the second hand shop. Maybe someone will appreciate that we kept it for all these years.

Charity event for Nepal

Last night, Emma and Janne's school organized a charity event to raise money for a village in Nepal. The children in the village don't have time to go to school, because they have to spend hours every day to fetch water. The 'theme' was introduced weeks ago and several fund raising activities, like collecting empty PET bottles, were organized. The older children (grade 5 and 6) came to the lower grades to tell about Nepal and to explain the reason for the fund raising.
Janne throwing with all her might, cheered on by Miss Jany, one of her teachers

During the fund raiser last night, each group organized its own 'event', which they prepared earlier this week. In Emma's class, most kids made some food at home, some were selling toys. The popcorn sold very well, but Emma was very disappointed that only a few people wanted to buy her home-made-and-decorated cookies. Good thing is that we get to eat them :-) In Janne's group, the children had to bring some toy/gift to school, which they wrapped and put in a 'grabbelton' (lucky-dip?). It was a big hit and all the gifts were gone in less than two hours. Also the 'ballen gooien' (throwing balls at cans?) was very popular.
Cookie saleswoman on her popcorn break; Janne wants to buy some cookies

Being new to the whole school thing, I thought that the International School in Hsinchu asked quite a lot from parents. It seemed like there was an event almost every week, which required either help, donations or some kind of other involvement from parents. After five months of experience with the school system in Holland, I'm beginning to realize it's the same as in Hsinchu. So, it's probably the modern way of organizing education, with LOTS of parent involvement. As long as I don't have a job, helping out in Emma and Janne's class is an excellent opportunity for me to get to know more people in Veldhoven and to get to know Emma and Janne's classmates and friends.