back home in Amsterdam

the best things about coming home are the feeling of belonging and the comfort of returning to the familiar.

on the day i returned,
- the electricity was out in 2/3 of the house for half the day;
- i had to navigate around the extra furniture in the hallway and in my room to get my stuff into my room;
- one of our regular homeless visitors got into a fight with social worker and was asked to leave;
- i discovered my bike had a flat (and fixed it mostly by myself the next day - i try to time it right so that there's someone competent around who can help me out);
- i attended chapel services twice;
- i ate supper with 20 people or so, including a group of young adults from Florida who are visiting this week (and i got to wash dishes again);
- communication was a mixture of dutch and english - and not always the right language to the right person;
- i was warmly welcomed back by many, including a 2-year old who made me her favourite person for the evening.

and well, overall, i'd have to say that it's wonderful to return to a place where i feel like i belong. and the first day convinced me that things are the same here as they always are, which means that each day is full of unexpected surprises :)

and now a couple of days later, i've been warmly welcomed by even more people, have caught up on news, have been practicing my dutch (and it's going okay), have biked to school, have bought groceries, am leading chapel tonight (and have started figuring out how i can help out with the work around here), and have started working on my thesis again.

it's good to be back.