It's like that (and that's the way it is)

Last week my girl finally arrived after a period of 3 years again in the Netherlands. This time to start her PhD study in the beautiful city of Groningen. She will stay there for 6 months, then she has to go back for a while before returning again.

Of course I went to Amsterdam International Airport, a.k.a. Schiphol, to pick her up. I had to leave very early since she was to suppose to arrive at 5.55 hrs in the morning. But like 3 years ago, her KLM flight landed again half hour early to the planning. So according to the flight plan I was on time.

Anyways, after greeting each other and hugging and kissing we went to the car and we drove to Groningen to her room. She slept almost all the way from Amsterdam to Groningen, because she was dead tired. We wanted to have some breakfast along the way, so we stopped at a Van de Valk road restaurant which is normally known as a good and cheap place for eating. Not for breakfast though. Open breakfast buffet is great, but not when they want to charge you € 11,00 p.p. Only for one sandwich and to cups of coffee! That they wanted you to pay upfront with the story that they weren't able to control if you only took 1 plate or 2 plates if they would let you pay for only 1 plate but lat you in wit 2 persons. So the had to charge you for 2 persons. So I told the waitress in Dutch to cancel the order and we left. for € 22,00 I can have breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner for 2 at MacDonalds!

Once we reached her room we unloaded the car and rested for some hours till it was time to leave for her to go to the Academy building for her appointment there. I drover here to her appointment, parked my car near her faculty building, it's only a 5 minutes walk from the academy building and went for a hamburger at a local snackbar. I walked back to the car and picked her up again and we went to do some shopping. She needed a simcard and we needed food for the weekend. Man, what did I miss the Indian kitchen.

In the evening i gave her some presents I bought fer her that she can wear on the beach this summer. She was really surprised. She said I was crazy that I bought it for her. I simply said to her that it would look marvelous on her skintone. After that she had wine and I some juice and we and a long and nice night together.

On Sunday friends of us came to visit and brought even more food and stuff for her and the man of my girlfriends friend checked my girlfriends laptop after which the laptop kept rebooting itself. so, he took it with him to repair it at his home.
Together with our friends we went into Groningen and made some photos and had a nice walk trough the city from the faculty building to the train station and back.

After those friends left in the evening I left also. By then it was already 21.30 hours and it's a 2,5 drive back to Eindhoven. So my girlfriend wanted me to stay and leave next day. Still I left that night. My speedometer acted crazy and i wanted to be home so I could check it and if need be see if i could get a salvaged one to build in. As it turned out, 100 kilometers before I reached home the speedometer broke down. The needle went crazy. It thought it was not a needle but a propeller. It spinned around the dial like crazy. Luckily I had a Satnav in the car and this tells you also your actual speed that you're driving.

Anyways, I had a great weekend and I happy that my girlfriend is back in the Netherlands. Now we can also pray, chant and do SGI activities together in the weekends again.

André

Dont stop thinking about tomorrow.

Happy New Year!

Since the lasy post of me, a lot has happened. I went to Trets ( European study center if SGI Europe) as a keibi again. It was my 4th time there as a keibi. When I was there, there was in the second half of de week a course of German Young men. On this course were among them 3 old keibies who i met last time in Trets 2 yrs ago, when I was a Keibi there. Also, there was a young men i knew from chapter Limburg south, district Maastricht. At that time he just moved back to Germany. It was wonderful to see him again.

Since the last time 2yrs ago, a lot has chanced in Trets. Since 2009 there is wireless internet at the center in Trets. If i had known that, I had brought my laptop along with me.

I also met a few Men division members from Germany, who where in Trets to support the young men course. One of them was the German study department responsible, The other was a chapter chief for Berlin. Both of them wrote articles for the second level study exams of last November. Which I also participated in.

When I came back from Trets, I learned from my girlfriend that she will come to the Netherlands this March to start her PhD study in Groningen. This news made me very happy. As did it to some of our mutual friends.

Only last month a member from Japan called me to ask my address, so they could send me a Christmas and New year card. Then She told me that she and her family probably will come to the netherlands for 1 year. Her husband has to do an upgrade course at the HQ of his company, which is situated in Veldhoven, the Netherlands. It will be nice to greet them back in the district again.

Let's hope that this year will be a very good year.
André