Catch up!

Life across the pond has been busy, but really, I know that's no excuse for my lack of updates.  So here, chew on this for the next week.

My Trip to Madrid
Yeah, I know, it was a while ago, but I swear, I did actually go.

Meet Mia: 

She was my awesome travel partner who is a camera nerd, just like me.  We had a fantastic time wasting our days away snapping pictures in the park (in between a lot of Sangria).

We saw a ton of cool stuff.  Including...

National Monuments

Random book sales

Famous squares (this one is Peurta del Mayor).  We also spent a lot of time around Peurta del Sol, but were unsure why it was so famous.  Click here to find out.  =)  

And the Royal Palace with its beautiful gardens!

We also drank a lot of Sangria and ate a ridiculous amount of Tapas:

 Oh, and we had churos dipped in melted chocolate. I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

And to top off the whole trip, we had a night out at the theater.  We saw Donka.  It was by the same producers that make the Cirque du Solieil shows, thus is was kinda strange but keeps you interested with its insane acrobatics and freak-of-nature tricks.  

And that was my holiday to Spain in a nutshell.  

Since then, the speed of life has picked up quite a bit.  Kristel has been insanely busy with work lately, so I've been spending loads of time with the kids.  I've also been investing a lot of time into my Dutch class.  Slowly, but surely I'm gonna learn the language that is so strangely complicated.  

Last weekend Sander and I went to visit his parents in Eindhoven.  It was a nice, relaxing weekend with a good bike ride, a few rounds of rumikub and some good visiting.  This past weekend, was pretty low-key since Sander has finals this week.  Mia cooked us some traditional Indian food on Friday night.  It was absolutely amazing.  She's gonna make me some Tandori chicken sometime *drool*. Sunday was full of studying (well, Sander studied, I played Scrabble) and then we went to a bbq.  

So that's all for now.  Life is great, and I'm loving every moment of it.  Mark is coming to visit this weekend (excitement!!).  We're making a trip into Amsterdam to see all the touristy things and then we're gonna spend some time in Utrecht, enjoying the non-touristy Dutchness.  =)