My mom said to tell you all this...

For a better view make sure to click the pictures to enlarge them.

(lol, Sorry mom)

The past few weeks

Well as said yesterday in my post, I have not blogged much here lately so I thought I would catch everybody up on some news and such. A few weeks ago Ineke and I had an outing with the art history class we are in here at an art museum in the city. It was a very nice museum with some great paintings from such artists as Monet, Van Gogh, Rembrandt and others. Below you will find some pictures. Make sure to click on the pictures to enlarge them.

Well a few weeks ago I also started teaching English conversation twice a week for a few hours at the kid's school for grades 6-8. I get small groups for 20 minutes each to lead in English conversation exercises. So far it has been lots of fun and the kids all seem to enjoy it too. I have also found a great church here to be involved with on Sundays. It's called Church on the Way Rotterdam and it is a part of the four square denomination. The pretty much believe all of the same things I believe being raised as a Baptist but they are a little more charismatic. They always have good worship though and the messages are deep and theologically sound which is of major importance for me. They have a Dutch service at 10 AM and then the English service at 12:30.

Well the big news here is that after much thought and prayer I have decided to switch families after I return from the States on January 3. The main reason being that I just have not connected well with the kids here in the family I have been with. Although they are a great family, the two youngest are only four and five years old and I am finding that I work best with kids a few years older. Also three small kids have proven to be just more than I could handle at times. The new family I will be working for lives here in Rotterdam and although they also have three kids living at home the girl is 14, the middle son Joris is 12, and Coen is 7. This past Sunday I went over to their house and had a good time visiting with the family and getting a feel for what the new job would entail. The older kids pretty much take care of themselves so although I am sure we will all have fun together I think the seven year old will be my main responsibility.

After the New Year my friend Alex Harper is moving to London to au pair so hopefully I will have a friend to travel a bit around Europe with in the New Year! I hope to visit England, Ireland (again), a few parts of Italy, Germany, and maybe a few other places if I can fit them in. We will see. So all in all things are going well here in Europe and I am excited about what the New Year will bring with it.

This is the Erasmus Bridge, one of Rotterdam's great bridges.
This is a small harbor. I know it is a little dark but I thought it was a pretty scene.
This is a painting of the empty tomb.
This is a painting of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea.

Sinterklaas is here!

Well this post comes a little late but I have just not been into blogging recently, so there you have it. Well anyway almost two weeks ago Sinterklaas came to Holland on a boat from Spain to spread joy and happiness to the children of Holland. (of course it was an actor who boarded a boat somewhere in the city and rode it to the harbor where the kids were waiting.) So Sinterklaas arrived with his helpers known as Zwarte Piet who's faces have turned black from going down the chimneys for Sinterklaas. They throw out small cookies called kruidnoten into the crowd while singing and dancing. It was a fun event to go to and neat to see how children in another part of the world celebrate holidays. The children also put their shoes in front of the fire place a few times per week till Dec. 5th (Sinterklaas birthday) and sing a song to Sinterklaas. If they sing Sinterklaas will leave something in their shoe over night. So as you can see Sinterklaas is a very busy man. Then on Dec. 5th it is Sinterklaas' birthday and everybody writes a poem to somebody about that person and people give each other funny presents that have to do with that person. (Ineke please help me out if I am getting all of this straight)

So Sinterklaas is not associated with Christmas here and he is a totally different figure than America's Santa Claus. I am still trying to figure it all out but that is what I understand anyway. So look at the pics and leave a comment if you have more info. on Sinterklaas.

Some videos!

Well these videos arenot good quality at all but my digital camera isn't made to take good videos either but at any rate they are from my trip to Slovokia. The one of me and Nathan was taken by a stranger who thought he was taking our picture. It is kind of funny. Just follow the link below and enjoy! Leave a comment to let me know if it works.

http://www.dropshots.com/day.php?userid=201467&cdate=20060704

A beautiful cathedral in Vienna. 

Me trying to make it look like I am holding the house up. This is an art museum in Vienna with a house thrown on top of it. Don't ask me why, but it was very cool looking. 

Not the best picture of me but me and Nate only got one shot of us together so there you have it. 

Here is the helicopter in the sky. (taken my Nate) 

While in Vienna there was a military show going on to commemorate something important in Vienna.  

Here is a picture taken in the heart of the heart of the upscale shopping district of Vienna. They had Armani, Tiffany and Co., and several other very upscale stores.  

A beautiful side street in Vienna. There are so many little nooks and crannies like this found all over the city and if you don't look you could miss them. They are filled with old beautiful buildings, shops, and cafe's.  

Another building 

A big building in Vienna. (You can see me standing underneath the bottom canopy below) 

This is a big Govt. building or museum, not really sure which but the building with it's statues were amazing! 

This is a statue on top of a big Government building I think, could be a museum. Many of the buildings there are topped with great statues. 

This is a shot taken of the Rose Garden in Vienna with the beautiful city in the background. 

This is what apears to be an old Roman building in the Rose Garden in Vienna. 

Not a clear shot but I am standing in front of Mozart's old apt. building in Vienna. 

Me in Vienna trying to look cool. On a side note, as I type this it is lightly hailing outside here in Rotterdam! 

I know this is not a good shot but I wanted to try to show this beautiful statue from inside this catholic church in Vienna. They truely had some of the most beautiful cathedrals I have ever seen with amazing statues and art work. The sad part though was just how much Mary was the focus and center of the churches instead of Christ. You would see a beautiful picture or statue of Mary right in the center of the main part of the church and then off to the side in a small closed off part of the sancuary would be Jesus dying on the cross. It kind of made me sick. I mean no disrespect to Catholics but this is something that should be considered. 

A statue in Vienna in memory of the Black Death. They have these all over Europe it seems.  

Monday was so cold in Slovokia, something like 4 degrees C. That is somewhere around 40 F, I think. If you look into the distance you can see the mountains lightly dusted with snow. 

This is a shot taken from the upstairs window of the Baldis' house of their village and the mountains. The scenery was so beautiful there. 

A Slovok nunery! It actually used to be a castle, well I guess it still is but with nuns living in it. Me and Nathan thought about dressing up as nuns to sneak in like in that movie "Nuns on teh Run" but alas we were on a time schedule to get me to the airport. 

Another picture in that Slovok city that I forgot the name of.