The Noosa

I have admired these bracelets for quite a while and never even realized they were Dutch until I moved to The Netherlands.  The Noosa company was founded by two women who traveled all over the world and wanted to make a type of jewelry that would reflect one's travels and personality, and the Noosa was born. You can read more about the Noosa- Amsterdam company here.

My two very dear friends here got this bracelet for me to always remind me of Holland.  

I love it!:)

And, you may be wondering why I may need something to remind me of my time here in The Netherlands?  I am saddened to say that our time here is just about up.  The kids and I are moving back to the U.S. , and Guy will follow in the coming months.  We have so enjoyed our time here and have made friends who are more like family to us.  When you become an expat, you definitely have a spirit for adventure, but you also long for the feeling of home.  The international community is so welcoming to each other.  We all try to make a feeling of home wherever we are, and that is why we became friends so fast.  It is always sad to say good bye to our dear friends, but we are so happy that we have had the opportunity to meet them, and now we know we can always find a place to visit in Europe!  It is always better to take the path of adventure than never to take it at all and always wonder what may have been.  Our path took us to The Netherlands and we made some lifelong friends!:)

July 4th

I am late posting about the Fourth of July holiday...exactly a week late to be exact!  It has been a busy time here...we are still going strong with school activities here: field days, bake sales and power point presentations.:)  On June 27th, Jeremy did a presentation on the United States for his class.  Since he is the only one in his class from the US, his class was really interested.:)  I was too busy listening to his presentation, and only managed to snap this one picture while he was talking.  You know you can't talk about the US without talking about American football!:)

Jeremy giving his presentation on the United States:)

 And then, on July 4th, Elizabeth and two of her American friends in her class gave a presentation to her class on the history of the Fourth of July.  She put the entire presentation together by herself!:)

 This year is the 30th anniversary of the international department at their school.  It is so great to see all the nationalities represented at their school.  It has been such a wonderful experience for both Jeremy and Elizabeth to be able to get a global perspective on the world and how we, as Americans, are part of it.:)  They have both learned tolerance and acceptance of people from all over the world, and that is something I hope they take with them from our time as expats here.:)

One more pic of Elizabeth's presentation:)

 And, although the fourth of July wasn't a holiday here in The Netherlands, we took our American, Dutch and Polish friends out for ice cream to celebrate!:)

Happy Independence Day!!!
Doei!:)