I was looking over my much-neglected blog tonight and realized that two years ago Harriet and I left the US for the Netherlands.

WOW have our lives ever changed…we, as in Harriet and I are now living in France (still have the flat in Amsterdam tho) and we are now married to M (well I am married to M and Harriet the Golden Retriever is very happy about that!).

I guess it is time to start blogging about France and our world-wide adventures instead of just Amsterdam. Harriet is no longer just an Amsterdam dog but is now officially a French resident (like me). We live in Provence, in the South of France near Cannes. It has been a bit of an adjustment switching from Dutch culture to French. Just the switch in driving cultures has been a challenge. The French drive like crap but that is its own story. I am learning French as a means of survival. Learning Dutch has been a necessity in order to understand what is going on when in the company of my new family and friends as they forget to speak English (they actually “think” they are speaking English sometimes when they are not and wonder why I look confused). Most Dutch speak English and so learning Dutch has been slow as most Dutch speak English….French on the other hand is becoming a crash course out of necessity. Man, I really wish I had paid more attention in High School French I and II now haha. Most French people do not understand English! In some ways they are as bad as Americans in not knowing a second language.

Anyway, I will be taking French courses very soon and am actually looking forward to it.

Laters…

OK, I know, I have been a very very bad blogger and have not posted for a very long time. It’s been one heck of a year and a very busy summer with lot’s of visitors, travel, a few adventures, boat rides on the canals (Harriet is in every home movie of every Japanese tourist due to her yellow life jacket) and Amsterdam events. I will try to find time to recap the Amsterdogblog adventure – complete with photos in a series of posts.

Our visitors include my friends Mort, Jeri and Kendall, Shiasta and Munaf, Theresa and Leigh, a loud and rowdy group from South Africa; family including my Mother, my Sister and 2  Nieces plus M’s family and numerous friends from the EU. We now have a college student living with us that we are sponsoring at the University of Utrecht. We’ve travelled to Africa, Seattle Vancouver, San Francisco, Anchorage, Los Angeles, India, New York, Norway, Belgium, Germany, France and the UK (if I remember correctly).

We’ve recently had a death in the family that we had to deal with here in Amsterdam that made both M and I realize how short life can be. But…we’ve had some super happy events such as M’s parent’s 50th wedding anniversary party, M’s niece Charlotte’s graduation from college, the birth of my sister’s grandson and, our engagement!

Now that it is Fall and the weather has turned, biking and walking around Amsterdam just isn’t as much fun. If this winter is anything like last winter, I will have plenty of time to catch everyone up on how things are going in Amsterdam and the other places we travel.

Oh, and don’t let me forget something really special…afterall

Harriet the Field Hockey Mascot in her uniform

, this is supposed to be about the adventures of a dog in Amsterdam…Harriet became the Aunt to 11 puppies as her sister Carly became a Mommy this summer….gorgeous puppies!

I promise to be a better blogger….really.