Greetings, dear readers, from the Netherlands. We left DC about an hour late but managed to make up the time in the air. The trip took about 6 hours and 10 minutes. If only all of our trips could be so fast. My takeaway from the trip and the subsequent arrival was that I should never doubt my Jasper when he tells me that he has no problem in airports with customs. Our Amsterdam arrival proved this point quite nicely. We took three bags with us to the US but returned with four. As is always the case when I go home, I stocked up on a lot of favorites and things that I cannot find in the Netherlands, among these things were dryer sheets and various vitamins, and over-the-counter meds. There isn’t much I miss about the US, but Trader Joe’s and Costco are two stores that are sorely lacking in the Netherlands. I also miss having space in my apartment but that is another matter entirely. We collected our bags and proceeded to the exit. What happened next I have never experienced in all my years of travel. At the “nothing to declare” exit, we were asked to scan our bags. It was not something that I had ever done in all my nearly 40 years of travel. Upon scanning they wanted to open the smallest of our bags which was also the heaviest. In that bag, we had four jars of Peter Pan peanut butter for a friend of mine and some beef jerky. Jasper’s been telling me for years that he gets away with just about anything. I hadn’t really paid attention until Sunday. Bringing beef jerky across international borders is illegal. Jasper played stupid saying he did not know that and I apparently had a good enough Poker Face, because they let us keep the beef jerky and the peanut butter. They took one of the jars of peanut butter away and then brought it back. I still have no idea why, though I think it has something to do with the sugar content. I will never doubt Jasper again when he tells me that he can get away with anything.
Yesterday I got back into the swing of things. I began a 20-hour package with Adiana who you might remember was given to me by her sister Claudia, an English Center student of mine. Hr level is a lot lower than her sister’s but I have a feeling she will be a quick learner. She is engaged and is not afraid to speak which is something that you don’t often come across in lower-level students. Let’s hope that I’m able to meet the goals that she has set, including training her to take the TOEFL. My only other private student on my schedule is currently Odhran whose Greek is progressing. Progressing slowly to be sure but he hasn’t lost interest yet, which is kind of a miracle. At least, that’s according to his mom. Sander and I will start our lessons again in March. I’m also going to start opening my Lingueo schedule because I have one student lined up already. I have also reached out to a former Lingueo student to whom I owe 5 hours and we need to finish them because I’ve been paid for them. I’m thinking to try and open a couple of days a week to try and fill in my time. I’m just not sure what that will look like yet.
As you might imagine there was no writing happening in the US at all. I was far too busy dealing with my apartment and various and sundry other financial matters. I hate tax season. It was not very fun but it had to be done. While it wasn’t the most productive trip I did manage to get a few things done so I can’t be too displeased with myself.
Inkreadable has hit a major milestone. This is post 200. That’s right, dear readers, this blog has been running for 200 weeks. The time has flown by and the changes n that time have been immense. From only VIPKid, to no VIPKid, from no private clients to a dozen, from finding The English Center and The COnversation Playground, it’s been a wild ride. I hope it stays that way. Thanks as always for following my blog.
That’s all she wrote for this Inkreadable installment. But stay tuned. As always there is more to come.
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