my apologies to the steingraebers- i promised them i would write SOMETHING on this blog since we left switzerland and i completely failed! lets just say that life has been a little chaotic in the past couple of months. chaotic, but fun :)
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| s'-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch) |
after we left Lausanne we were in Minnesota for a few weeks, then Singapore for a few and back to MN before arriving in the Netherlands. we saw so many friends and family- it was really nice after being away for a long time. we found out about Howie's new job with Philips just before we left Switzerland, so that made our time off a lot less stressful than it could have been. there was still plenty to do to arrange our move, getting visas, etc. but somehow we were much more relaxed than we were a year ago preparing to depart for Lausanne. after we applied for Howie's visa we received it on a tuesday and were on a plane on saturday. so sorry we didn't get to see everyone before we left, but it happened in a flash.
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| can you spot the inappropriate sculpture? |
and here we are. little did we know we were arriving at the craziest moment of the year- carnaval! apparently this is only celebrated in the southern part of the Netherlands which is exactly where we are staying. after a week of zombie-like house hunting and appointments, we were recovered from our jetlag and ready for a little celebration.
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| preparing to blend in with our Oeteldonk/Harry Potter scarves. |
our hotel is in Den Bosch (s'-Hertogenbosch) which is about 30 minutes from Eindhoven. the town is very charming, a historic city center with small streets and many cafes and shops. there are canals around the old city walls and also through the buildings of the city center.
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| before |
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| after! |
for carnaval, Den Bosch changes its name to Oeteldonk and the town is painted in yellow, red and white. the mascot is the frog, because apparently there were (are?) many swamps in the area. the theme of the party this year was "oeteldonk houdt oe jong" (oeteldonk keeps you young) so we saw some themed costumes, but really its just about dressing up as crazy as possible and partying for 2-3 days (or weeks...)
enjoy!
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| the frog ladies |
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| chocolate covered cream puff! |
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| some elaborate floats! |
