Roses & Thorns

Thorn: My phone was stolen this Wednesday while at a bus stop in Belgium en route to Amsterdam. Rose: I've got the best people in the universe.

Halloween in Holland

So yeah, it really, really, really sucked to lose all my photos from study abroad (Sidenote: If I've sent you any pictures during my time here please send them back to me! I'm trying to re-compile what images I can.) and it also wasn't ideal to lose all communication and location information while on a nine hour bus ride to an unfamiliar city. But with nothing to do but keep going, I tried my best to make sure I was at least moving forward. SO... despite the circumstances I had a lovely fall break in Holland. My favorite part by far was Saturday night in The Hague; I stayed with family friends in a relatively American area. Each year the American school organizes trick-or-treating for the ex-pats, and each year the holiday gets more attention from Dutch locals. In just two hours we handed out candy to hundreds of international children -- pictured above was the "candy patrol" that delivered reinforcements after we ran out of 1,000 pieces of candy in just 30 minutes!

Amsterdam

This smiling face is my Ithaca friend, Haley, who came to my rescue on Wednesday after the infamous phone incident. She was my catalyst for understanding that people are infinitely more important than pictures and that real Gouda is unparalleled. My Amsterdam experience was what is was thanks to her positivity and kindness.

The Hague

Like I mentioned, over the weekend I stayed with some family friends (Thank you again, Pedrinis!!) who recently moved to a small suburb of The Hague in The Netherlands. They graciously took me to their favorite places and introduced me to my own -- this still-functioning windmill in downtown Wassenaar.

Planet Earth

Lastly, a big shout out to Tara & Brian who asked around for people to share their photos from abroad with me. In doing so I've re-discovered a lot of special moments from my time here, and also started a collection of images of myself with open arms in foreign cities. This particular one is from my trip to the Design Museum with Peter last month.

And at long last, I'm headed to bed! I hope you all find a rose in the thorniest of thorns this week, and that when you do, you tell me all about it.

Love always,
Abby