Oma

When I was younger I thought that was her name, Oma. I always thought it was cool that she found someone named Opa and they got married......kids. It wasn't until a car ride leaving their house when I found out that Oma and Opa were dutch for grandma and grandpa, their real names are Rita and Dan. I was born in NH and lived there until I was 11yrs old and moved to Florida. We saw our Oma and Opa often as they didn't live very far. Some of my best memories were, every Sunday going to Howard Johnson (a hotel that may not exist anymore) and we would all meet for breakfast, I had a thing for bagels and tons of cream cheese. I remember them always getting coffee as well as my mom too and thinking that was so gross. Christmas was always fun because it was only us 3 kids so we got a lot of presents, also because we had 2 uncles and an aunt too. My Oma was an artist, a writer, a musician, a muti lingual woman, courageous, helpful and kind. I didn't get any drawing skills from her but she did teach me how to play the piano on her organ down in the basement....if I close my eyes, I can hear that 1 button you pushed to play one specific beat the whole time and my Oma would play along to it. I did take lessons years later in Florida and picked up on piano really quick. I could remember a song and play it with out the sheet music so easily, play it from memory just like she did. Unfortunately I stopped playing.....and lost that wonderful talent, Laura picked it up and still knows quite a few songs from memory. As a writer, which was one of her most accomplished and well known talents, she started writing a memoir years and years ago. She had one of the most amazing and interesting lives as a teenager, disguising herself as a boy during WWII in fear she would be used as a "comfort woman", this disguise was so she could go with her mother and siblings to a POW camp and be safe. Her book goes on to tell her amazing story and adventures and having kids living in Amsterdam. She started to work on book 2 and slowly lost the energy to write when she became sick. She used to send me rough copies on her books so I could read chapters at a time but her second book i've never seen anything from it, she did tell me I was in it and we had a tea party together......I can't wait to read that part, I know she'll have such detail about that memory as she does all of the ones she writes about so it will be special to read. Her last few months she was just like how I remember her being, chatted up a storm with you, was trying to finish her book and write a journal of her last few months, busy woman she was. She wanted to be sure to leave her legacy to all of us and future generations of our families, always thinking of others was her specialty. We haven't had a chance to see each other in the last few years except some facetime and written some emails, she was more of a hand written letter person so we did some of that too....her hand writing is beautiful! Laura and I recently went to Amsterdam and went to Madurodam (a miniature city in Holland she took my father to as a kid). We made sure to take lots of photos for her because she so badly wanted us to see it. She loved the pictures and knowing that we've seen pieces of her past and our fathers was very special to her. Wednesday, November 21, 2012 she passed away peacefully and happy. She had everyone around her she loved and i'm so glad my dad made it up there in time as well as my mom and Laura. Breaks my heart I couldn't be there, but I know Laura did a good job telling her good-bye for me. She will forever have an amazing place in my heart and i'll cherish every memory and every conversation I got to share with her. Thank you so much for your legacy and all the stories, Love you always and forever Oma! xoxo

Top left is the first book but second publishing, top right is a few weeks ago (you can still see the love), lower right is the first book, first publishing, lower left is Oma, me, Opa and Craig

BacK tO rEALitY

Can't believe it's been a MONTH since Europe! I've gotten to know Sarah (my first friend here) really well. She says lets do something and sets it up, she keeps my free time busy and active. Unlike Nassau when I had days off I sat at home and did chores (no fun), but here Sarah and I have signed up for a gym membership and we go EVERY morning, needless to say i've been sore the last 3 weeks, but it feels kinda good. Two days a week we take a spin class at 9am, I like to call it "sweat fest" because i'm soaked of sweat after. I've realized how necessary it is for me to exercise these days and at first I couldn't make it through the warm up, but once I figured out the resistance and the beat to ride to it's become a lot easier...I still haven't made it though a whole class but i'm close! Yesterday's class I bumped up the resistance and WHOA does it make a difference, talk about jello legs! Sarah and I've also went paddle boarding on the west coast where the water is flat (most of the time) and so clear that we found a few turtles swimming! I signed up for surfing lessons, yes I know my husband surfs but would you rather learn to do something from a friend who does it or by a pro? I think pro. Darin doesn't understand but I told him after I get the "real basics", i'll go out with him and he can give me pointers and stuff like that. I've been twice and the first time I did awesome! Top of the class too! Sadly the second time I went, I can't count....my first time standing up on the board, I tweaked my hip/groin area and couldn't even lift my leg to step, I kinda dragged it. I was a little nervous but took some Advil and didn't work out the next day and rested on the couch. That's all I needed and now I feel so much better! Sarah and I talked about volunteering at the local RSPCA here and the next day she set it up so we went. I thought we'd go for a little bit every now and then but thanks to my "go big or go home" friend,  she started going every day, so I requested we make a schedule lol.....now we go Tuesdays and Thursdays. We walk all the pups, feed them, bathe some, love on them and have "chats" (what Sarah likes to say I do, when I sit in the grass with them). While I have lots of active stuff to do, I still help Darin with lots of stuff at work which keeps me busy on the other days. Life so far is great here, we've made friends and enjoy our home on the beach. Things are so close we can walk and we're constantly adjusting and learning new things about Barbados every day....hopefully someone will visit us soon :)

LaST bUt NOt LEasT.....PaRIs!

Remember how all the train rides and tube stations and dragging luggage around, well....this is finally where we learn our lesson. We arrived in Paris by train at an early, rainy and cold 8am, got off the high speed train and off to find the local metro train to bring us to our stop where we were staying. We quickly realized unlike the other cities, Paris had no elevators or escalators and LOTS of stairs. We tried so hard to be organized and carry our luggage and bags the smartest way possible but after a set of very large stairs there was just no point. We got the local metro hoping when we got to the city it would be better but nope, there was lots of little sets of stairs so every time we got up 10 steps and turned the corner, there were 10 more. People weren't as helpful and our luggage weighed as much as we did. At some points we would just stand next to our luggage and pant like dogs that just ran 10 miles. Finally getting up to the street we knew this was the shortest walk out of all the cities to our "flat". Shortly finding out the distance doesn't matter when it's raining, your umbrella is packed somewhere and if you had it out you probably couldn't carry it in your hand anyways. Bumps on the sidewalks and curbs crossing streets and having your bag flip around several times in the rain is very stressful. We had 2 blocks to walk and after 1, I was willing to pay $100 just for a 2 min taxi ride. Sadly none passed as we kept walking. We got to our place and there was so much relief knowing that was the last time we'd ever do this....Laura and I had the same look on our face once we got settled, we will NOT take trains to the airport, no matter what the cost, we're catching a cab. 

We unpacked, re organized a little, cleaned up and headed out because we had 2 days on a pass to get a start on. First place was the Louve. Our flat was so so close to the center of the city so it was perfect to walk almost anywhere. If you've never been to the Louve do you ever ask about it or what it is? I did, and the only answer I got was "that's where the Mona Lisa is". I never understood why this glass triangle that people stood in line for was so amazing, I mean, it's just a glass triangle in the middle of nothing. What NOBODY ever told me was it went down inside and with like 7 tunnels and 3 floors and so much art and history expanding underground to the buildings surrounding the "glass triangle". This place is HUGE!!!! It would honestly take days to see everything in this place, it's un real! Since Laura nor I are museum type people we headed straight to see the Mona Lisa, stoping for a few things on the way. After the Louve, we headed to the Notre Dame Cathedral then St. Chapelle. I think Cathedrals are one of the most beautiful things i've ever seen, all the detail on the building, all the stained glass windows, every little thing was thought about and hand crafted so perfectly.....why can stuff today be done with that kind of perfection? I guess America is to young of a country and here in Barbados, I don't think they had the resources back then. We grabbed lunch and headed back for a nap before going out for dinner and wine....ohhh the wine, it's so good, everywhere, no matter what you get it's all fabulous! The next day we headed to the O'rsay Museum where we walked though an exhibit and saw the Starry Night Over the Rhone painting by Van Gogh. This museum is much smaller than the Louve so we got to thoroughly enjoy some people watching and had some really good laughs! Since the sky was a little clearer today, we could see the entire Eiffel Tower!! Got some great photos in front of that but knew we were coming back the next night for our dinner reservation, so this was a quick stop. We walked around a bit down the Champs Elysees...one of the most famous and expensive strip of real estate in the world (also where we stopped at McDonalds, haha, french fries...so authentic!) and it's headed right into the Arc de Triumph. The Arc de Triumph has the craziest round about ever, I think it's like 6 lanes and 12 roads that connect to it. When Laura and I reached the round about we weren't quite sure how to get across hahaha, we sure we'ren't crossing it there. After a debating what to do realizing nobody was crossing the street but there were people over there the next thing was to look for a crowd crossing a bridge but there was no bridge....we saw a crowd so headed over to find out there's a tunnel!! How clever! We climbed all 284 steps to the top which was really cool to see all the streets headed towards us and watching the craziness of the round about below. We took a few pictures of the Eiffel Tower and some of the city before headed back down all those stairs which makes you dizzy very easy! We had spare time so we went back for a nap and a little reading the out for Sushi and then another place to share dessert and a bottle of wine. I love wine in Paris, I love that everyone sits out front of the restaurant and face towards the street with their wine and food so when you walk by all you want to do is stop to sit and join in. Our last day in Paris we went out to find some shops and grab some souvenirs before headed home to get ready for a very special dinner reservation at the restaurant in the Eiffel Tower!!! It was so amazing! We got there for 6pm and watched the sun go down and all the city lights go on, dinner was so good and so was the wine (of course), this was also one of my favorite things we did on our trip and it was the most perfect way to end our Europe adventure!! The next morning we had to be at the airport by 9am, we packed the night before so the morning wasn't rushed, walked our stuff to the street and waited for a cab with out taking one more step....I think we finally learned our lesson :) The flight home was great, although we almost had to sleep in Cleveland....making it home to Florida was a great feeling. 

I'm so glad I have a best friend in my sister and even though we had a few disagreements a full argument never happened :) I'd say we did pretty good for 2 weeks in other countries with so many differences together. I am so grateful for getting to spend that time together doing something so amazing and once in a lifetime. I have to thank my parents for raising us to love each other and wanting to share experiences together. We only wished Craig was there too :)

SeCOnD sToP....AmsTErDaM!

The strike was over and we were up early dragging our luggage to the train station. Our high speed train left London at 6:50am and arrived in Amsterdam by 2:15pm with one stop in Berlin. The high speed trains are nice, the only issue that we had (because we didn't know before hand), there is NO luggage check....you are responsible to drag every piece of luggage on and off the train and if you stop to switch trains (which we did) it was off and on again. Our bags were quite heavy to begin with but after shopping for souvenirs our bags were un manageable. Thank goodness we ran into a few helping people that saw us struggling. We did have a system but when you're rushing from train to train with those bags....the system kinda goes out the window. FINALLY making it to Amsterdam we got right to our place, (which had the steepest, most steps in a 3 story town home we've ever seen) put our stuff down and headed out, being sure not to waste the afternoon. We hit up the Heineken factory and enjoyed a few free beers and a tour. It was actually pretty fun in there so we actually went twice haha, but another day :) we went to grab a bite and caught a ride on some bikes. That night we ventured through the red light district. I had a vision in my head what it would be like but thought there's no way it can be all that, well, it was really everything i'd imagined. I'm pretty sure I walked around with my jaw on the ground dragging in complete shock and maybe laughing a few times because I just couldn't believe this was actually happening and we were actually walking around in this place "window shopping" (but not purchasing lol), it was crazy! The next day we headed back to the train (with our luggage, still haven't learned) and headed out to Rotterdam where our long lost, we'll call her Aunt Irma, would pick us up. Before we got there she'd asked us our shoe size...Laura and I had bets on what our surprise was, ice skating or bowling haha....we were wrong, we were going to the city of Gouda (pronounced How-da) to an actual working cheese farm. This may sound a little different to do on a trip to Europe but it was probably one of our most favorite things we did. We had a personal tour of the whole factory and ALLLLLL the many many cheese they had just made as well as very aged cheeses. We taste tested and bought cheese to bring home and were also given cheese as a gift for visiting. It was so amazing and the cheese was the best i've ever had. We went for lunch with Irma in the town center of Gouda and walked around visiting a few other cheese related places adding more to our growing selection. That night we got to meet Klaus and Irma's kids Floor and Daan, had a dutch dinner and a dutch dessert. 

(Long story short, I met Irma online after researching my ridiculously long last name. I emailed her, said who I was and got an email back! We chatted and it ended up her husband Klaus was coming to Florida for work so we arranged for him to come by the house and meet us! He was so nice and it was amazing to me we had family we'd never met and here he was! We kept in touch though email so when Laura and I were planning our trip we had to let Irma and Klaus know.)

We stayed with them for a few days and Irma was our personal tour guide to the city and our family history and traditions of our dutch side. As Oma has recommended, we went to Madurodam (the minature city). Oma brought my father there when he was little so we thought it would be great to see and send her photos of it. We also got VERY lucky as there was a de Clercq Zubli family reunion happening the weekend we were there!! I've never seen so many of "us" in one place and had no idea there were that many either!! It was a great feeling meeting all these family members we never new existed. We spent the afternoon with them and after the reunion we went with our Great Uncle Tom to his and his wife's place to see old family photos and see a lot of our history. Maddie (Tom's wife) has done extensive research into the de Clercq Zubli's and had folders and cases and boxes of stuff all organized perfectly. We had such a great afternoon and it was extremely hard leaving knowing I probably wouldn't be back for a long long time. The next day Laura and I took a morning train to visit Amsterdam again, just for the day. We rented bikes and rode everywhere just like the locals do and we recommend everyone rent bikes if you ever go to Amsterdam, it was a fantastic way to see the city. We went to find where our Oma and Opa used to live, as well as our father when he was little. As far as we knew the building still stood and it was in biking distance. We had a picture and an address to go by and found it a lot easier than we thought we would. We took a picture on the same steps as our dad his brother and 2 cousins back in 1958, pretty surreal (picture below). It was such a great day and all this history about our family was so special to us. For our last night, Klaus and his family took us to an authentic indonesian restaurant and if you know us we are also indonesian so continuing with the family stuff was really cool, especially because we've never eaten indonesian before (go figure). Holland was the hardest place to leave. We had so much fun with our family and getting to know them and learning everything about our family history and are so thankful for the place to sleep and everything they did for us. Irma made sure our trip was one we would remember and want to come back and she did good, we will never forget and we already want to go back :) Next and last stop is Paris!