I am almost done with Outsider in Amsterdam. That's the first one, right? There are definitely some cringe-worthy moments. "...you can pick her up as a witness and give her a lecture on clothes. If she had worn some this wouldn't have happened." Ick. The 1970s drug subculture in Amsterdam is interesting. And the whole investigation process seems so casual. I wonder if it was really like that in that time and place.

clementine, I am sorry that you and your daughter have to go through this - but somehow the thread has turned into one of the most inspiring threads I have read on this subforum. I appreciate all of you sharing your stories with clementine and the rest of us.

I am 52, have long hair, and have been growing out my dye for almost a year. I am super happy with my natural color (which is mostly grey), but have not paid any attention to shampoo use. I am excited about this thread!

I am so glad to hear this, thank you! We are doing the Novare Advanced Chem this year (10th) with me as the teacher. And the plan is for it to set him up well for AP Chem or DE Chem in 12th.

My son has been living here, so I have been here a bunch of times. It was easy to come when we were living in Europe. But even long before that, I had developed my own interest in the country and culture. I am a bit of a "Dutchophile," which is probably not a real word but it should be. (Oops! thought I had answered your question the other day, but I had not. I'll blame the time zone brain-fog.)

Congrats on reaching #52!

Loesje, thank you for the help. :001_wub: Tonke Dragt looks amazing. I have never heard of her. Here is an article from the Guardian about her: Tonke Dragt Interview: I was born a fairytale teller ETA: It looks like a few of her books have been translated into English The Letter for the King -- As for the Dutch, it is a language that has interested me for years, but I have never studied it. I think I will start in 2019 or something like that. :lol: But this is likely my last trip here, as my son will soon no longer live here. And thus I feel compelled to buy some books in Dutch before I leave. Presumably, this is a safe space for admitting to buying books that I don't need in a language that I can't read...

Koning van Katoren looks good. I will look for that one :) I am looking for the 10 - 14 year old range, I guess. Sort of the Dutch equivalent to Selma Lagerlof or Astrid Lindgren, for lack of a better description. I am set with picture books - I bought six Dick Bruna books! All four of his retold fairy tales and two Nijntje books. . ETA: I will also look at your previous recommendations (Couperus, Mulisch, and Simone van der Vlugt). I think I will try to also get at least one grown up book while I am here. Couperus looks

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Maybe you would like Shane for your western. I don't know if you saw my post upthread, but I am in the Netherlands now. We were in Utrecht today and went to the Nijntje Museum and Dick Bruna's studio. What an amazing man and artist! Do you recommend any other Dutch children's authors? I have two books by Annie Schmidt already. I would love to buy something that is fairy-tale like if you have a suggestion or two.

We have arrived in the Netherlands and (more-or-less) adjusted to the time zone. I was hoping that we could catch the end of the tulip season at Keukenhof, and we did! Supposedly, the tulips are beyond the peak but they looked pretty spectacular to us :) Just my mom and I went, and it was a lovely afternoon for the two of us. On bookish things: First bookish stop was the Tolkien Shop. For Tolkien fans (I am one), this is a bit heaven-on-earth. I hadn't thought about it before, but single-author bookshops are exceptionally rare. The entrance sign on the door says "No admittance except on party business." Besides every Tolkien related book you can think of, there is also a museum section. The one I admired most was the edition illustrated by Tove Jansson. I came away with a copy of the Hobbit in Dutch. Dutch keeps calling me, and I keep resisting...until I am here, and then I wish I had been studying Dutch all along. I think I will have room for one or two more books in my suitcase, but that is probably the limit. Leiden has this really amazing poem project. Poems are painted on the walls as murals, and are written in the original language. - I think there are about a hundred of them around the town. Every time I come, I try to photograph a few more as I stumble upon them. It is kind of like playing Pokemon Go but with poetry :) So far, I have found six that are new-to-me: one Japanese, two Spanish, one Russian, one English, and one Dutch. I don't know how to put pictures in a post, or I would do that. If you search Google Images for Leiden Wall Poems, you can see a whole bunch of them. Loesje!!!!!!I hope you stop in here this week so I can ask you more questions about some Dutch books :)

No. And yes. We are renting and working in our current state but still own our perfectly nice home in NC. Our son lives there, so it is set up like a home and of course it is available to us whenever we want to go there. So now I call it our vacation home in NC. But it happens to be not at all near the beach or the mountains where people actually take vacations in NC :lol: But I do know a lot of middle-class people who own places at the beach or in the mountains. I would prefer to travel to different places each time.I do not like having two places at all, and cannot fathom why someone would do it on purpose! My stuff is always at the wrong place. Besides the expense, there is too much administration as well.

Two of mine have average stats for the WTM board. I mostly look at privates for them because, due to frequent moves, we have had no stability regarding in-state tuition. ETA: The third did not get serious about academics until he was 24. Now he is in community college and doing GREAT. I am proud of all of them!

One of the books I am reading is called With the Lapps in the High Mountains: A Woman among the Sami, 1907 - 1908. The author, Emilie Demant Hatt, was a Danish artist. With this book, she acted as an ethnographer and travelled with the Sami reindeer herdering families through the seasons. Her writing style is lovely, and she gives a great glimpse into the daily life of Sami people around the turn of the last century. According to Goodreads, the ebook is 204 pages but the Kindle edition is 192 pages so I am not sure if I can use my kindle read as my Female Adventure Bingo Square. I think the difference in page length may be due to photographs in the ebook missing on the kindle. Robin, if you read this I would appreciate a ruling :) Quotes: The Lapps are therefore sorry to hand over their children to the influence of strangers in the prescribed school year. Both parents and children experience it as a great injustice and sorrow because they have to part because the school demands it. The children lead such delightful lives that you can understand it's difficult to leave. (Most children had to go to boarding school, although there is some discussion in the footnotes about "nomad schools.") It's a pleasure to make your bed Saturday evening and lie down on all the foliage that smells of the forest and is cool to the touch. What does it matter that small green caterpillars crawl through the leaves? You'll have your Sunday feeling in the morning, in the bright, clean tent, when Sara wakes you with her friendly, Lihke bajas, juga gafe. "Get up and have some coffee."

Uh oh!! Hope she feels better FAST!! -- Jumping in late here. My son will take his first-ever AP next week. We will be overseas at the time, so he is taking it at an overseas school. I just hope he is disciplined enough to prep on the plane and during the days leading up to the exam. He will have enough time to make the time change adjustment.

I got new glasses this week, too. And they were shockingly expensive :(

This is a 60 hour program, with both a practicum and an internship. I think that 6 hours is considered full time in the sense that it makes you eligible for certain things. Not that it is enough to get you through in a reasonable time frame.

I know one young woman who went to an expensive, top culinary school. She has a job as a chef in a very well-known tech company that provides its employees with awesome food.

State competion for NHD is behind us. No medal, but such a valuable learning experience. I am very proud of DS and so grateful for his NHD mentor.

These look good! And the first one is only $1.99 on kindle. Sold!

I had the same opinion with a browse. Lovely book but much I would eat, let alone make.

I made a template on our shared OneNote.

Sorry it was a bust. I have a lot that I would like to sell, but the task is so daunting.

loesje, any comment on Cees Nooteboom? I read In the Dutch Mountains (In Nederland) and liked it quite much. Too bad that Rituals (Ritualen) is not available on kindle, or I would pick that.

The most recent one that moved me was The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood by Ta-Nahesi Coates. (I can't wait to read Laurus, BTW!)