Spring is coming and basketball is going

The sun has been making regular appearances here in Holland, which is GREAT news for the residents! We made it to the beach last weekend - very windy and not as warm as we thought it was when we left! Of course the temperature may have dropped quite a bit during the 75 minute, 16 mile drive. This is a country built for bikes (I can "always" get there in an hour).

We made it! The sun's here, now we just need some warmth!

You'd have thought it was 75 degrees (American) by the number of people heading to the beach, but once they got there most of them headed to the restaurant area (where the wind wasn't as bad and they served coffee)!

Just to show the difference a month can make, this was taken February 13th, showing the same piece of beach as the one above, taken on March 8th.

Sand art

The big news over the last few weeks (other than the ski trip to Austria) was Lilli's end-of-season NECIS U12 basketball tournament. NECIS is the Northwestern European Council of International Schools and is sort of the governing body for athletics. There were nine teams in the field; ISA was in a pool with Dusseldorf, Bonn, and Copenhagen. We won all three pool games easily, setting up a semi-final game against the second-place team from the other pool: The International School of Hamburg.

Lilli shooting a layup before the opening game.
Head coach Tim in the background with his signature scarf!

Lilli shooting a little while later. Thanks to Maya's (#6) mom for sending me this pic!

ISH (Hamburg) was one of the few teams to beat us during the season, and the only one to blow us out (back in early January). That loss came after a much closer loss to the same team the night before. The Hamburg team was quite a bit different than the other teams we played (and us), who all have relatively soft-spoken, easy going coaches. Their coach has more of a Frank Martin/ Bobby Knight style (screaming, intimidating), which the fans (parents) not only accept but appear to embrace and even emulate. In fact, I was unpleasantly surprised by one of the Hamburg parents coming out onto our end of the court during warmups and doing a lap around our girls while loudly cheering for the Falcons (ISH).

Just before the big game.

Needless to say, by the time the game started we were worked up into a frenzy. The girls came out and left it all on the floor, building up a 12 point lead in the first half. Two of the (younger) girls that didn't get as much playing time through the season contributed enormously, playing great defense and shutting down the two star twins that play the 1 & 2 positions. On the offensive side, We were getting good bounces and everything was going in. Up 11 at halftime, we could not have been happier - but things had gone too well.

Still in good shape at this point - everyone looks happy! 

Coming out in the second half, we didn't have the same energy, and the balls were not bouncing our way at all. By the end of the third the lead was down to 4, and I don't think that we scored at all. The 4th quarter was competitive, but we couldn't stop the twins from driving, and their two tall girls were able to put back some shots that missed. In the end, we lost 30-24. Our girls were - not devastated, but very, very sad. We really thought that we were going to play for the championship, but it was not to be.

The girls recovered and played very well the next day, easily winning the consolation game. In the end, they were happy and proud of their accomplishment. And we were all proud and impressed with the tremendous improvement that they made through the season. This experience - helping to coach these girls - was one of the best I've had in my life. I really enjoyed getting to know these girls and watching them learn and embrace the game that I love.

Lilli getting another good look in the consolation game (thanks again Leigh!).

Award ceremony - The Hague receiving their 1st-place trophy after beating Hamburg (we were all pulling for them)! 

We got to see some other sights around Dusseldorf as well-

The remnants of the Imperial Castle of Kaiserswerth, close to the school on the Rhein (originally built around 1050).

Lilli pointed out that the flower in my last entry was a daffodil, NOT a crokus. THIS is a crokus.

So is this.

And this.

Walking along the Rhein.

Eliza got her stuff unpacked at the hotel.

European hotels... Sometimes you're just happy to have a room, even if there's only one bed!

It's not often that I pull out my camera in the men's room, but this was too good/ bizarre to pass up.

Following the loss to Hamburg, I spent about 3-4 hours feeling miserable. Then I met up with a large group of other ISA parents for a brewery tour and dinner. After about the second brewery, I was feeling a lot better.

Feeling good by now (at stop #3)!

I LOVE the copper HVAC ducts!

I think everyone felt good by this time! The beer was served in these little glasses -
they bring them out by the trayfull and keep track of consumption by making tick marks on coasters.
I had the dinner special (sausages, sauerkraut, and potatoes) - best meal I've had in Europe.
Total bill (including many beers): 22 Euro. Unreal!

Holli was "lucky" enough to make another trip to Moscow in February. She came back with these pictures, but it was a couple of weeks later when she received some fantastic news from there. The company challenged the government and won! Terrific news - we're all very happy for her!

An impressive apartment building on the Moskva river.

St. Basil's Cathedral (now a museum of the church), on the Red Square.

The State Historical Museum, also on Red Square.

Back in Amsterdam

Holli and I attended our first formal dinner in town at the Rijksmuseum. Like most attendees, we biked there!
Really wish that Holli would have fixed my tie! But on the bright side, that is the same tux I wore for our wedding

Eliza's KG class had an art show recently. They spent several weeks working on the paintings, layering on paint with spatulas and brushes.

A beautiful charcoal drawing that Eliza later used as a template for colored works.

The entire KG class collaborated on their version of "Starry Night" by Van Gogh, who was the primary focus of their study.

This is a typical hallway scene at ISA. At least the doors are both open.
There are evidently no fire codes in Europe. The doors often open in, many exit doors are locked, and there are way too many people in the interior spaces in the mornings and afternoons. Utter chaos.

One of the many unfiltered pictures I've taken of the Amsterdam sunsets. They can be amazing.

This one is a sunrise, but same idea!

Daisy is hanging in there. She made the mistake of eyeballing me as I was getting into the shower one day, so she got join me! She did surprisingly well... Although she did not enjoy it, she also did not go crazy and bleed me out.

She did not dry quickly.

I've been meaning to get a picture of this for a while. Love it!

A saw a couple of deer on my way back from a beach bike ride this week.
These are the ones with the moose-like antlers, although they are smaller than Kentucky deer.

Got a flat on the way home, but found a nice place to stop and change the tube!

It got cold here for a night

Our combination water heater/ home heater (furnace) stopped working one day a couple of weeks ago, despite the electronic interface functioning. I was able to find manuals online, but none in English and it is a huge pain to try to translate everything in a pdf while troubleshooting! I tried calling a plumber to get someone over. Their emergency service was nice enough to promise to arrive in 2 or 3 days! I've heard this is not uncommon. In the end, I stopped by a plumber's supply house that sells the Nefit units (that we have installed here) and talked with them for a while. As it turns out, the system pressure was low and just needed to be topped off with water.

With the radiators we've had in the US, the supply water is usually hard-piped into the closed-loop radiator system, and you have to bleed the air from the high points periodically. In this system, I had to connect a short garden hose between the clothes washer bib and a port on the radiator loop and wait until the pressure came up to the right amount. Worked out nicely (as it didn't cost me anything), and I learned a little something new about European construction.

This is the bottom of our water heater/ "house heater." LOTS of connections - water supply, hot water out, loop water in & out, natural gas, and condensate

On other fronts... 
I've been working through the middle seasons of Mad Men - great show. I finished the novel "The Goldfinch" last month, which was unusual and enjoyable. I've started re-reading A Song of Fire and Ice (Game of Thrones) in anticipation of a new book coming out (hopefully) and the new HBO season. Only about 800 pages in so far (of about 5,000) - it's going to take a while.

I've been disappointed to see the Cards struggle as much as they have - both on and off the court. This year will mark the first time in many years that I will not be in front of a TV for two solid days for the first and second rounds of the tournament. I'm hoping U of L gets early games so I can watch without setting my alarm!

In any case, as basketball winds down with UK on the verge of a perfect season and U of L struggling to make a basket, I am as ready for Spring as I have ever been!
Go Cards!