We are in final preparations for our month-long trip to Holland. We will stay in a great location in an apartment in Amsterdam near the Western Market. For any of you that have been to Amsterdam, that's just around the corner from the Anne Frank Museum, so it's a great location.

We're hoping the apartment, which we've only seen from the outside and in pictures, is as nice at it appears. The building is well maintained and the pictures make it seem that we are renting a palace. Pictures lie though and it might be very small. Once we rented an apartment in Holland for a week and the bedroom in the "one bedroom" was a closet. In order to get out of the bed you had to crawl to the door and exit the room. The one thing I made sure of in this apartment was that our fourth floor was accessible by an elevator that works. The one thing about the Dutch, if they say something works, it does. So we are confident that at least we won't have to climb four flights to get to or from the street. In Amsterdam, the stairways are usually very narrow with high risers and a 4-inch platform which constitutes the "stair".  We call them ladders, because that's how you have to orient yourself on them. These are very difficult to maneuver and scary for anyone like me who obsessess about fire.

In other news, we made our final decision about our tenure in Ireland. To my great sadness, we will leave in early November. The combination of the unfavorable exchange rate, combined with the sluggish performance of the stock market make our continuing here for another year unsustainable. As I've mentioned several times in posts here, things cost about the same in Euros as in Dollars (generally something that costs $100 in the US will cost about 100 Euros). So, the exchange rate, which has increased from $1.29 to $1.40 during our time here has never been good for us.

This is a very, very sad decision for me. I've been trying not to think about it too much and trying to focus on the good things about coming back to America. First and formost will be the closer proximity to my dear friends and easier access to them, especially my best buddy in Atlanta (you know who you are). I will make arrangements to see her, first thing! Throughout our remaininng time here, I will keep her in my thoughts and heart.

Other good things about returning will be reuniting with our stuff. Both Alan and I have been thinking about all the possessions we have in storage. I'm most looking forward to having my piano again and Alan is anticipating seeing our art collection, photos and cast iron pots! We are both eagerly anticipating the joy of blended water. Not scalding or freezing when you wash your hands is an unsung benefit of American plumbing. I think that Alan is also looking forward to reestablishing his love for Bloomington, Indiana, a prospect that is OK with me, except that it's surrounded by the rest of Indiana. That's cold, I know. There are a lot of really nice things about Indiana, but I'm already railing at the prospect of hearing all about the lord and the virtues of being conservative in offhand conversation. I'm frequently reminded that I'm in a place that doesn't generally reflect my core values. That's going to be hard to take.

But, back to the positives.We have good friends in Bloomington and there are several people there that I've met through my work so I'm hoping our little network will expand pretty quickly. Alan has agreed to participate in a dance group there and we will be able to have a dog! What's not to like about all that.

Since my last post we had a little side trip to Donegal. I always love to go there. It was a midweek deal in which we got airfare for the short hop from Dublin to Donegal, a rental car and two nights accommodation in a good hotel for 350 Euro for both of us. It was a great deal, a promotion through Donegal airport.  We've been through Donegal Airport before so knew what to expect. It's just like any of the scores of tiny airports in the States, just with the wild Atlantic weather. Those who run the airport there are not fazed by bad weather. So what if the aircraft pummelled by wind, sea spray and rain, we're going! Naturally, I visited my mother's grave and our family while there. All good.

I'm going to miss Dublin while we are in Holland, but we have lots of adventures planned, including a trip to the Friesian Islands, the place where Alan's family name originates. He doesn't know much about that so it will be interesting for us to explore there. We will also likely go to Paris and some places in Germany. The Dutch rail system is great, so it will be a good home base for exploring.