Back in the USA

At the beginning of last month, I moved back to the US from the Netherlands, so this will likely be the final post of The Bossche Blog. Or at least the first installment of perhaps a series of wrap-up/recap/reflection posts. It's been 2.5 years since my girlfriend and I first packed our suitcases to the gills and made the jump to the Low Countries. But we decided the time was right to make a big change, again.

The transition has been exciting, stressful and a bit of a whirlwind.

I finished work at the magazine at the end of April, having just wrapped up the May issue. The day after my last day on the job, the gf and I flew to Tbilisi, Georgia. We spent the next week hopping around from city to city in Georgia and Armenia, with the help of Lonely Planet, marshrutka (the network of rickety 15-passenger vans that serves as an economical form of public transportation for the majority of the region) and our limited knowledge of the Russian language.

After arriving back in the Netherlands on a Sunday morning, I had until that Tuesday morning to wrap up various leaving-the-country paperwork, pack, etc. Not a ton of time, but it all worked out; I made the plane, didn't even have an overweight bag charge.

I didn't hardly have time to unpack before heading out to my youngest brother's undergrad graduation. Within a few days was my middle brother's grad school graduation. Immediately following: Family road trip to the Midwest. Lots and lots of close-quarters family time.

Back to the East Coast, a few days later, where I had a couple free days before starting my summer job as assistant head coach of a community swim team. The first practice was last Tuesday, so we're about 1.5 weeks in. It's going well, but even once the meets get going, it's only a part-time job at best. And the season only lasts until the first week of August, so the full-time journalistic-ish job search is on. I'm starting another blog to chronicle that whole experience, which I'll post a link to here once it's up and running (in the next 24 hours or so).

And then it was September

Mr Robert J Ross



It's so hard to believe we moved to the Netherlands 19 months ago. Maybe because there didn't seem to be a summer this year (see multiple previous posts referencing lack of season-appropriate weather), the past season and a half have gone especially fast.


Since coming back from Mongolia, things have been pretty exciting, I have to say. Well, at least there have been many occurrences of note.

I played in a weekend-long ultimate frisbee tournament just outside of Amsterdam, called Adam Hat. About 70 players from the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, the US and assorted other countries were put into randomly assorted teams and played 7 games (not counting the final) over the course of the weekend. Each team was named after some kind of occult organization - I was called to be a member of the Free Masons. Everyone camped on-site and the weather was marvelous, unlike the rest of the month.

I met up with a friend from college and her younger brother in Amsterdam, as they were trekking around Europe together. One night we went to see the most excellent pop-folk-rock duo The Avett Brothers play in the Paradiso. They stopped the show in the middle of a song because a couple of guys in the crowd were fighting. Just stopped the song dead in its tracks and stared at the assholes, who were eventually escorted off the floor. The brothers picked the song back up where they left off and, incredibly, were at a point where the lyrics referenced learning to use words to settle differences rather than fighting. In addition, they had a cellist in the band who wore his instrument on a neck strap so that he could dance around the stage with it. At points, he held the thing completely horizontal and strummed it madly like a guitarist. It was Yo-Yo Ma meets Jimmy Page. Amazing.

Upstairs that night, we saw aging Dutch punk band The Ex perform in the venue's smaller hall. They were pretty good, helped out by a couple of younger brass players that helped add more of an exciting ska edge to the performance. My favorite number was when the group's female drummer came front and center, whipped out a cow bell and proceeded to sing and bang the thing in a rather surprisingly reserved manner. Still pretty badass, though.

The following Monday, my girlfriend (who had just returned from an adventurous jealousy-inducing two-week trip to Siberia, Moscow and St Petersburg) and a couple other friends went to see the Arcade Fire play at the Heineken Music Hall that's right across from the AJAX football stadium. Incredible show, so-so crowd. We ran out after the last number, partly because we had to catch a train or risk not making it back to Den Bosch and partly out of a light disdain for the modern encore. Not to mention the Dutch give a standing ovation to absolutely everything. Not that anyone was sitting for the show, but in general, there's something lost if bands just expect to deliver an encore every time.

Yesterday I went with the girlfriend's company on their annual retreat. This year it was to a nearby theme park called Efteling. Nothing really to write home about, but they've got a wooden coaster with dueling trains that's pretty fun. We also enjoyed just the experience of seeing co-workers out of the office and in the company of their significant other(s), especially those with children. You get a little sense of what their home lives are like, which I think any of us with office jobs (and I use that term loosely, admittedly) are generally curious about.

Bob Ross, or as we've occasionally taken to calling him: Bob-o Fresh, appears to be doing well and seems fully adjusted to having had his manhood removed a few months ago. He's still curious and energetic when given the chance to hop giddily about the apartment. If you don't know about Mr Ross, I apologize for the awkward confusion the previous sentences may have caused you. Bob Ross is a painfully cute lop-eared rabbit who has been leading a rather luxurious life in our apartment since early spring. He figures to be the sole subject of numerous subsequent posts: his behavior and personality are probably not uncommon for a rabbit, but they're still worth critically analyzing for undoubtedly comedic effect.

As of yesterday, my Northwestern Wildcats football team is 2-0 on the season, after handily defeating the Eastern Illinois Panthers. Interestingly, EIU, in Charleston, Illinois, is west of Northwestern. But who's counting? It was great to see our recovering starting QB Dan Persa dressed to play, even though he never took a snap. Last week against Boston College he did even put on pads, so I guess that's progress. I stayed up after the game to watch the first parts of the Nebraska-Fresno St and Michigan-ND games. Evidently I shouldn't have turned off UM-ND, though I saw enough to appreciate that ND is developing skill at shooting themselves in the foot and Denard Robinson is really good at having freakishly talented receivers make up for him only heaving the ball in their general direction. Scary for our lackluster secondary later this season.

Finally (and congratulations and thank you if you've paid attention to this whole long and rambling scribble) some co-workers and I have been training to run a 16k race taking place next Sunday, called the Dam tot Damloop. It's a massive run between Amsterdam and outlying village Zaandam. I figure it'll take about 2 hours to complete, which is the longest run I've ever done. I'm not expecting any kind of high-placing finish, but it should be a fun challenge to work through and our company is running for a charity that works with helping girls in Africa get a formal education. If any of you happen to be reading this and are interested in donating to sponsor organization through my organization (i.e. helping our team's fundraising effort), let me know and I can facilitate that.

And then a month went by

A month ago I started a whirlwind of concerts, traveling, and family time. Probably the most active start of a summer as I've ever experienced. Multiple countries, multiple states, multiple adventures. There is quite a bit to write about so for the sake of ease of reading/writing I'll just do one event/trip per post for the next couple days to make up for this month-long post drought.

First up: Dirty Dutch vs. The World 2010, Almere, The Netherlands, 19/6

This annual dance festival has moved around the country in previous years, but this edition occurred on a beach located about an hour north of Den Bosch by train. As we're approaching the longest day of the year we were planning to dance the night away in warm comfort and calming wake. Of course, Holland was Holland and it rained off-and-on all day, and got pretty chilly as the sun sank (not completely dark until about 22.00).
The festival featured several DJ stages with large wooden dance floors covering the sand.

This was probably for the best considering Dutch concertgoers don't really understand the concept of garbage cans. Plastic cups, frites cones and little bottles that once contained shots of neon pink energy-booze (called Flugel) carpeted the joints.

Over the course of the day we ventured from stage to stage and back, stopping periodically for a drink or a broodje. Though I enjoyed the various DJ sets, none were particularly memorable. Just plenty of good beats to move to.

One objective was to be in a decent spot under the event's main stage tent for famous DJ David Guetta and a surprise appearance by the hip-hop collective N.E.R.D. The latter weren't even on the program we got at the entrance but had been just recently added to the website, so we were pumped. As it got closer to the time for both of those performances we inched our way closer to the middle of what had become a tightly-packed, tent-covered mass of humanity.

I was reminded of the bars from Carnaval; people didn't really value personal space here. It wasn't the ideal situation for being able to dance. And people were continually trying to push through the group, often with sloshing drinks, even though it didn't ever seem there was room for them to do so. At one point we were behind what appeared to be a gang of overgrown druglords. They did not move when other people pushed in to move past them so the movers were deflected at us. We decided to push-out ourselves before the inevitable electrical fire and mass-hysteria trampling. Guetta had started performing by this point and it was just no fun not being able to dance along.

We found quite a bit more floorspace at the rear of the tent. Guetta played out his hour-and-a-half-long set with masterfully mixed tracks and a number from his latest album, One Love. They were a bit more melodic and sample-based than most of what we'd been listening to so I thought it was a bit more entertaining to dance along with. Afterward we went back out to the smaller stages for even more dancing room and fresh air. We found both, as well as a beautiful, albeit cloudy, sunset.