Just a slight change of scenery

The past week brought me back across an ocean, through Chicago O'Hare, and into the Nashville summer. It feels like I never left - and seeing familiar faces and touching familiar people has been a relief after so much time away. But one of the most striking things to me about getting back to Nashville this summer is that it feels like home. Two years ago, I would not have predicted that - but here I am, with all of my prized possessions, some of my dearest friends, and new opportunities all in this 615 area code.

So, on to the adventures of 7th grade...and the ups and downs of life as a new teacher, both in and out of the classroom. As images of Irish vistas, Portuguese coastlines, and Dutch bike lanes fade away, Tennessee hills, backyard cookouts, and roadside vegetable markets take their place. I'm grateful for the adventure of the past two months, and I'm glad to be back.

Here comes the sun

Bom dia from Portugal - I arrived here Sunday, and have been enjoying barefoot days in the sun for the first time in over a year. It has been almost two years exactly since I moved back to the states from Portugal and it doesn't seem that much has changed here in the interim. The sun still shines every day in July. Today, I am headed north to Ericeira, an old fishing village up the coast from Lisbon.

Family fun in Northern Ireland

No time for words, just pictures! It's beautiful in this part of the world, and I am happy to be with people I love.

The Undutchables

Thanks to Google, I came across a website about surviving life as an expatriate in Holland - the undutchables.

Over the past month, I have learned a little about navigating this rational, practical culture and its cheese sandwiches. I still have not completely figured out the washing machine, but here are a few things I will miss:

vast green space in an otherwise densely-populated country, brie-walnut-and-honey sandwiches, watching parents biking beside their children on city streets with their arms stretched out to hold on to kids' collars, couples biking holding hands across the bike path, really steep spiral staircases, adorable sheep sleeping under trees, the flower seller on the canal dumping buckets of flower water over the bridge, stroopwaffels, pannenkoeken, bike rides through the forest...

I will not, however, miss the crows.

Den Haag (The Hague)

I took a day trip to The Hague, which included a walk past the United Nations, some time with one of Jonannes Vermeer's most famous paintings - "Girl with a pearl earring" (which is even more beautiful in real life) - and a trip to the coast of the North Sea. I didn't get very many pictures, but here you have the International House of Justice of the UN and the (barely visible) World Peace Flame with my reflection in the middle.