almost over

Wow, after such a long rash of writing, it seems I fell off the wagon for a few days. I've been travelling around a lot I guess.
It's been beautiful here, and we went to Brugge in Belgium (no talk of Mini Me, please) on Saturday and I found that the food OUTSIDE of the Netherlands is freaking fabulous.
We have had a string of great days since then, including bike rides in the region, going to the big giant flower market in Almsmeer yesterday and visiting a town that was put together specifically for fools like us to bring on home anything Dutch, including clogs, cheese and windmills all in one place, so convenient!
We leave here on Sunday, and tomorrow I have to start getting things together for the whole return home thing. It's good though, because I don't have any burning desire to visit any more old towns, see any more old clocks or old canals or old cafes or old anything. Nope, now, it's just me and a big red and white striped lifering I'm throwing out to my summer, hoping to enjoy a few days of mellowing out and living on my own time before I get home and immediately have to start at school with meetings and getting fingerprinted for the new district, meet the new teachers and watch this year's posturing begin, blah blah.

It already started via email. Someone (a teacher returning after a 4 year hiatus) did one of his favorite things, which is email an article for us to ponder about THE ARTS IN EDUCATION in the New York Times. He had a typo in the message portion of the email, and over here we made bets as to which other teacher on my staff would pick it up and publicly point and laugh at said typo via the ever lovely "reply all" feature. It was who we expected, and while I felt good, like I hadn't lost it regarding figuring out who's who in the "I'm the best one!" contest that rages on at my school, I also had the distinct sensation of wishing to go to bed for the next six months, thus avoiding the inevitable stream of inanity that will be the staff meetings and other miscellaneous jive headed my way courtesy of these people.

The Dutch just seem to drink when that happens. Perhaps I'll get a flask. For my desk.

I have really loved this time in the Netherlands, and if you ever come here, you have to come to Utrecht, where we stayed. It really is such a great town.
One thing for all you Californians though. If you ever stop appreciating the bounty of non fried, fresh organic and lovely food available in our beautiful state to you for relatively no effort on your part, you should kick your own ass.
Seriously, if I ever see another french fry, I may throw up, which is weird, because I love french fries. I just don't want them to be my only food source. I can't wait to get home and find me some tofu, or wait. Sushi. Yeah, I can't wait for sushi.