Sunday, December 10th

8 more days and then I leave, I am sad. The weekends and weeks get busier as the end of my trip approaches. Friday we celebrated T's birthday party with all the grad students. It was fun. I was one of the first to leave (at 12pm), but given I was the oldest there I feel I am allowed to lack the stamina of all these youthful people. I also had to have some energy left to spend most of the day cooking and cleaning. Amazed me how long it took, all i did the entire day was cook, clean, go for a 1 hour run and lie on bed 45 minutes recovering. It was curry D-day, having a thank-you and good-bye dinner for those who have been a big help and support in my time here, my supervisor J and wife L and the person who rented me the room L and her boyfriend J (and yes I did get confused and mix up names yesterday evening). I was rather nervous about cooking curry for them - as my mother can certify in the form of a number of "help, how many potatoes", help how high should the oven be and suchlike e-mails. But it worked, and it was a success. I even survived my rice overcooking and L picking it up and saying "K, you've let the rice overcook AGAIN", as they all stood around me having their drinks.. And drinks they did have because my dinner would not reheat in the oven, I was getting a little frantic there... But most importantly it was harmonious and not the slightest bit uncomfortable. I had a great evening and I think they did too. So I was happy and pleased with myself when I woke up this morning. I was also very weary, so L and I went for a nice day long hike - and now I feel even wearier. I wait to go to bed.
Our house is coming along, we signed a temporary sales agreement, now we have to figure out a mortgage. With my knowledge and understanding of mortgages, being at a distance is not good (well maye it is , but does not promote understanding). I have trouble even with the basic mortgage terms, and I blame that on my lack of any economics classes at school. But blaming does not help when you're talking about a lot of money so I have B explain it to me again, and I try to look at internet sites. And we talk about the changes that need to be made in the house (few, phew!). And about trying to get the key to the house the day I come back - exciting and scary.
So I want to come home and I really don't. And I think the really don't will become want to once I see my sweetie with a big sleepy grin waiting for me at Schiphol, and we then go to look at our house.