no connection!
27 january 2000

hi all, i suppose you think i fell off the face of the earth. au contraire. it's just that one of the things i don't like at all about holland is the "hurry up and wait" factor. we are really frustrated as we don't have a phone line yet which of course means no internet. i am writing this with the hope that i can take it to my friend's hotel and send it from there. the cable company has been here twice, the first time he couldn't find the "green cable" so my landlord had to come and dig that up and the second time they would not do any work because they wouldn't let me sign for it as gary's name was on the work order!! unfortunately gary is in london all this week. needless to say i was extremely angry and who knows when they will come back. sometimes i feel like living in amsterdam is a huge test for me and i'm failing. patience has never been my strong point, however my friend, raymond who has lived here for seven years , informed me that by the time i leave here i will have developed lots of patience. we can only hope that will be the case.

anyway i will now focus on the more positive experiences of living here. i can't remember when i last wrote but i think it was before we went to paris. we took the "bullet train" and got there in four hours. all i can say about paris is that it is everything it is cracked up to be and more!! it is a gorgeous city. the architecture is beautiful and all the buildings are very light in color. it is much more spread out than a'dam and is a whole different concept of space. the buildings are lit at night in a way that really enhances their stucture. as i said, it's gorgeous. we stayed very close to notre dame and walked everywhere and i think i had a couple of blisters by the end of our first night there. we found the service to be unexpectedly friendly. i had heard how rude french waiters can be but that was not the case and we were pleasantly surprised. we were even able to eat a meal in a reasonable amount of time, less than two hours.{this is not always possible in a'dam}.

on fri. night we were wandering around and noticed that the louvre museum seemed to be opened. by the way the louvre is huge; i've never seen anything quite like it. turns out the lobby and restaurant stay open long after the museum closes and so we had a wonderful dinner in the restaurant. we of course had already planned to view the art the next day. after dinner we walked some more and ended up taking a ride on the giant ferris wheel that was still up from nye. we could see the eiffel tower and champs elysee from the air; we never did get any closer to them on this trip; we had to pick and choose as our time was limited.

the next day we had a leisurely breakfast in a cafe where the people watching was really interesting. they have these cafes everywhere and the tables face the windows so you can see the action. on to the louvre where every room is so beautiful you sometimes forget to look at the art on the walls. i'm not kidding, the place is visually intoxicating and requires many trips to take it all in. we managed to see quite a bit, including the mona lisa and the venus de milo. it's a real scene watching tons of people taking pictures of these famous pieces. was anyone actually looking at the pieces? i had to have a picture next to "mona" myself, i admit it. what fun.

sat. night we went to see a modern dance concert which turned out to be long, self indulgent, and not our cup of tea. we know that paris audiences are notorious for booing and walking out if they don't like the show and we kept waiting for that but they all seemed to like it. oh well, regine chopinot was the choreographer so steer clear if you ever hear the name.

on sunday we checked out notre dame and some other beautiful cathedrals, all of which are special in different ways. also we went through an archaelogical museum with roman ruins underneath notre dame. very interesting to learn about the early history of paris. what can i say, we hope to go back very soon.

the next day we moved into our apt. which is bigger than anyplace we have lived in . looking forward to having our own furniture as the rental stuff is pretty ugly. somehow they sent us a plaid couch which i decided i absolutely could not live with so the next day my friend, stephan, who i hang out with all the time, and i went and found a piece of fabric that would cover that hideous eyesore. luckily stephan is a great decorator and has helped us to work with what we have at the moment. we live in the most awesome neighborhood ever!! it has everything within walking distance and the park is directly across the street. there is no end to the exploring of shops and restaurants here in the "hood". last night we discovered a mini "red light district" not too far from where we live but far enough away.

stephan is here on business and we met when we were staying at the hotel. he has lots of free time which is great for me . yesterday we went to a free lunchtime concert and heard some mozart, a real treat. we have all the same interests and i'm trying to convince him to move here because i will be really sad if he leaves for too long. he's considering it. he works in the travel business and is trying to set me up with a part time job in customer service. the benefits would be a real plus for traveling. we'll see how it pans out.

tomorrow i start my dutch class and will be going twice a week for 3 months. it's a commitment and i hope i'm up to it. too late to back out, we've already paid for it. i decided on a class at a university instead of doing private lessons. should be a challenge! after my class tomorrow i will fly to london to meet gary for the weekend. we are planning to catch a couple of shows and a museum{really i don't know what could compare to the louvre}. london is gary's absolute favorite city so i'm very excited about going.

tuxie is doing great, he has lots of space and is taking advantage. i think he's having a second childhood, running around and playing with his new toy that i bought him. he enjoys the windows too. stephan will look in on him this weekend so he will have some company. i'm still doing gyrotonics and it's very intense. i've been quite sore, i think i'm working my muscles on a deep level. i will take one more private today and then start working on my own next week. my knee is ok but still feels weak, so i haven't pushed myself to take class. i think i'm needing a break.

i think i've caught you up and sorry this is so long, i never intended to be without internet for this long but you know how it goes sometimes. i will try to check my mail today and send this as well. eventually i'll write some individual responses so bear with me.

hope everyone is well,

thinking of you,

with love, deb