A Lasting Legacy

Randy Pausch delivered "The Last Lecture" at Carnegie Mellon and it moved our world to tears, inspiration and a desire to enable others to achieve their dreams.
Here's to Randy for fighting hard until the end and doing it with joy. His courage challenges us to reflect about the direction of our own lives.
Are we leaving a lasting impact? Are other people the better for having met us?

“Brick walls are there to show our dedication and to separate us from the people who don’t really want to achieve their dreams. Don’t bail; the best gold is at the bottom of a barrel of crap.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

Meet MiAnna

My nephew, Andre Ross, is getting a new sister really soon.
MiAnna is going to be adopted from S Korea.

All Washed Out

Well, I'm home from Europe and it seems the rain has followed me here!
It rained everyday in Amsterdam and has been raining most of the time that I've been back.
Northern MI is as cold and wet as it was in Amsterdam.
I want to go to the beach! I need the sun again!

Diverse

I stayed at the youth hostel last Saturday night before meeting the rest of the team here in Amsterdam. I had 3 bunkmates; one was from Japan, one was from Ukraine and the other from Finland. How's that for diversity?

And you thought your job was bad!

This is the outside of the L' Hexagone in France. It's a large stadium and it houses sporting events, concerts, etc.
So, yes it's huge and this section is near the top. The guy at the top is mowing the lawn. He's pulling the mower by that rope, up and down.
We were stuck in Paris traffic, so everyone on the bus tour got several pictures of this man's misery.
Guess it's all in a good day's work.

Paris!

L'Arc De Triomphe Du Carousel
The thinker from behind

The Opera House
One of my favorites! A little way down from the Museum D' Orsay, was a building that had landscaped plants on the front face of the building. There were hydrangeas, ornamental grasses, flowers, etc. So lovely!

Fountain in the Place de la Concorde
The gateway to the Latin Quarter
The most beautiful wrought iron balconies
In back of the Notre Dame
In front of Notre Dame

The American Store

I overheard some British folks walking out of The American Store saying that they would like to buy the American yellow mustard.

Cheese & Salami

Cheese & cold-cuts are offered at every meal, breakfast included.
However, it's good cheese and meats.

In Belgium & France, if you ordered a salami panini, you would get the best little French baguette with thinly shaved salami on it. That's it. Delish! The salami is the hard kind and it's outstanding.
I'd really like one right now.....

Haarlem and the North Sea

On Friday, I went to Haarlem in the Netherlands. It's about 15 minutes outside of Amsterdam and about 10 minutes from the North Sea. It took me 3 hrs. to go from Brussels to Amsterdam and only cost 32,00 Euro.
Unfortunately, I missed visiting Corrie ten Boom's house, but I did walk by it and I enjoyed touring around the city. It's a cute city and it was good to experience more of the Netherlands than just Amsterdam.
The North Sea was nice. The beach is very wide like it is in Florida. The ocean is a grayish black and it's not as beautiful here. The water was absolutely frigid. There aren't a lot of rocks or different shells. The beach was littered with the small, dime-sized clam shells.
The beautiful part were the dunes leading up to the sea. It looks a lot like Ludington, MI to me, except it's almost entirely covered with beach grasses, so you don't see any "bare" sand dunes. There are miles and miles of the dunes leading up to the beach and there are bike trails throughout.
It was fun to see & I took a siesta on the beach while I was there.

Random Notes About Europe

Random Notes about Europe

• WC/ Wash Closet: there’s a reason it’s called a closet
• Toilets don’t have handles and each one’s a trick to figure out how to flush
• My hairdryer works a whole lot better here
• The majority of the buildings are tall, beautiful, skinny row homes
• The windows have no screens
• There are few bugs. I’m attributing this to the lack of green spaces.
• Stairwell inclines here go straight up
• They are much more recycling friendly
• Traffic lights click
• No SUV’s here
• Lots of cobblestone everywhere; both streets and sidewalks. It varies in patterns and materials used (brick, stone, etc.)
• Getting the waiter to give you the bill is an art. Getting out of a café (restaurant) quickly is next to impossible.
• They do coffee right. They make the most delicious lattes with lots of foam on top.
• If you ever see the illy brand of coffee, get it. It’s my new favorite. I first tried it in Miami and it’s all over Europe. It’s Italian.
• You can’t get coffee to go (in most places)
• You can get a can of beer from a vending machine
• You can say a lot with a look, a smile or a gesture.
• Even people who said they could not speak English could still communicate with me pretty well.
• Men will wear capris & skinny pants here and yes, I’ve even seen the dreaded man bag.
• Women bike in their cute clothes….skirts, dresses and heels
• They wear all kinds of scarves with everything no matter what time of year
• People have a much better knowledge of geography and the world at large
• Everyone smokes

Love the street musicians

Amsterdam!

I'm in Amsterdam right now eating breakfast at a cafe by the canal and getting ready to meet up with the team in about a half hour. I'm really ready for them to be here and for this mission's part of the trip to begin.
This cafe is about 2 feet away from the Anne Frank House and I can't wait to see it. I've been reading The Diary of Anne Frank again since I read it first in junior high. The book has taken on a whole new perspective for me. I'm almost finished with it. All that remains from the war now are statues and monuments, etc. It's hard to fathom that kind of genocide taking place and destroying so many lives in this country.
Yesterday, I walked by a school in Amsterdam. It was cool to see it and just think about life in a different city.

So, I was pleased to have figured out finding my way around the city so quickly yesterday because, as usual, I packed a lot into the schedule.
I started with the Rijks Museum and have a new appreciation for the Dutch culture/ history. I didn't realize how much this city represented wealth and prestige. I loved the Rembrandt pieces and the museum is truly a gemstone.
I then tried to fit in Van Gogh. I saw half of the museum before it closed, so now I'll have to go back. Wow! I was in love with that one. The audio guide was so informative and seeing his pieces up close is unreal. You've seen them in books your whole life, but to be able to see the brush strokes, paint colors and the framed piece up close is no comparison. It's truly amazing the talents that the Lord gives to each of us and our unique perspectives about life.

Last night I just circled around the city a bit riding different trams and it's truly an interesting place. There are a lot of canals running throughout the city and the all of the buildings are those cute row homes (that's what I call them). They're all different colors of brick and all have different roof-lines which is what makes them so cute. Many people here actually live on houseboats in the canals.

Gonna close for right now.
I wish everyone a Happy 4th Holiday weekend!

Greek Salad Euro Style

So, Jodi & I went to lunch at a little cafe in Brussels. I ordered a Greek Salad, but not without trying to say the word salad in a more French way a few times so that she could understand me.
My salad had lettuce, shredded carrots, hard boiled egg, tomatoes, corn, little onions from the jar, an entire block of feta cheese (they don't mess around with cheese here!) and some green olives.

I guess it's all a matter of perspective.

More from Brussels

St. Catherine Church

Love the color. Love the size.

Jodi's New Home Away from Home

Meet Jodi!

Her street

Her neighborhood
in center city Brussels

Luxembourg

It's a tiny country and a tiny city.
It took us 3 hr.s to get there & about 1 hr to see the majority of this cute, wealthy place.

Believe it or not, it's a bank.
We checked several times just to make sure!

Europe, Finally!

Brussels is a fascinating place. I'm enjoying my stay here and having fun eating Mikado, a divine crepe dessert covered in a chocolate sauce like none you've had before and with vanilla ice cream inside. They speak French here, so I've had a crash course landing in Bonjour and oui and par ley voo english (do you speak English). Everyone here speaks 3 to 4 languages and it's pretty impressive. Europe is a very diverse, multicultural place.
The pictures below are of a giants parade we hit as we visited downtown, Mannequin Pis who was dressed for the occasion and then just some general pictures.
Enjoy!