Updates, sans photos

Hi from my new house in Venlo! I moved to the Moeskers' home on Monday and have been quite busy. I'll see if I can remember what all we've done. Monday I went to Eindhoven and went to Fontys, a higher ed university type of place. The Dutch education system and the US system are different. Kids don't live on campus, but just nearby. And a two-hour drive is far. Most of their 37,000 students come from this area. I met with their marketing and communication folks, and we realized that we are dealing with a lot of the same problems (such as how best to use social media). I got a bike tour of campus (they have company bikes, not company cars. How cool is that???) The afternoon was spent at the Venlo Gliding Club. We all got to go up in a glider which is pulled into the air by a big wench. You then try to catch the thermal drafts and climb higher. We didn't get very high --- just 350 meters. But he let me fly the glider, which was super cool. Kevin got to go up in a $250,000+ glider and went up above the clouds, for more than an hour! Lucky guy. My trip lasted about 15 minutes, but it was still neat.

That evening was the RC presentation with dinner. Went well :-)

Tuesday was a visit to Floriade, a huge flower/tree/nature show that happens every 10 years. It's in Venlo in 2012. Countries from all over the world come and build buildings and make spectacular displays. Will be amazing, but they still have a lot of work to do. In the afternoon, we went to the Venlo city hall, heard about Dutch politics, and took a semi-rainy tour of Venlo. Got lots of good pics, of course, but those will come later.Last night was a delicious dinner at Vera's house. We had asperges (asparagus. the white kind that you have to peel.) with ham and a boiled egg and a delcious sauce on top. Oh, and little potatoes with it. Just the best. So sad that meal had to come to an end. I had seconds :-)

Today started with a visit to Flora Holland (just Geppo (host dad) and me) to watch the live flower auction. Unfortunately, it was just between 6 and 7 this morning. Bummer. There are 4 huge clocks on the wall and the numbers go round and the bidders try to buy the flowers at a good price as the lots of flowers are moving across the stage. Hard to explain. I can't even explain it myself.

We then went to the Fire Brigade here in Venlo. They gave us a tour and took us up in pairs in the ladder truck. We went up 30 meters (100 feet). Super cool. Windy, but awesome.

Next up was a visit to Seacon Logistics. They ship a lot of Amway products. We went into the packing faciltity and watched the automated system and the human "pickers" load up the boxes for shipping. Video to follow eventually.

Tonight was another RC presentation, which also went well. Tomorrow is our free day (it's Ascension Day here and a public holiday). I think I'm going with my host family to Liege in Belgium --- not too far away.

All for now! Looking forward to the free day --- we need a break!! :-)