Month: July 2014

flight MH17 & the Netherlands

About a week ago the Netherlands held a National Day of Mourning for the civilian plane that was shot down over Ukraine. My flight back home was on that day.

Utrecht University released the names of some of the victims. I didn’t know any of them personally, but the Netherlands is a small country, so there’s a good chance I’m only two degrees of separation away from them.

Curiosity led me to search them up on Facebook. Turns out I’m only one degree of separation away — we even study in the same buildings. Privacy measures prevent you from looking at much else other than their profile picture and cover photos, but it’s easy to imagine them as one of your friends or classmates.

Coming home after a year abroad

It’s been nearly a year since I’ve seen Mom and Dad’s face. (I can see my brother’s on Facebook). We would Skype together throughout the year, but the connection would always go to to their land line instead of the computer.

I haven’t forgotten what they look like, but it would be interesting to see how (and if) they have changed from what I remember. Marc says they’ll probably have less wrinkles since I’ve been away from home (ha ha).

And how have I changed? I won’t know the full extent of that until life starts to settle down.

In terms of outside appearances, I have some facial hair growing on the bottom of my chin (hooray!), but not nearly enough to tickle someone. Dad will probably tell me to shave it off.

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Anyways, it’ll be good to see the folks back home.

a quick update

And just like that, my year abroad in the Netherlands has come to an end. Wow-wee, what an adventure! There are a lot of things I want to write about, and have yet to write about — but that will have to wait for another time.

New posts starting at the end of July, when I return home to California.