Well hello again! It’s been a while…apologies for that. Time just seems to disappear!

This one’s going to be short and sweet as I’m leaving for the airport in 5.5 hours to fly to the US for the Duke program. I’ll be in North Carolina for about a week and then in the Hague with a group of talented high school students teaching them about International Law. Pretty sweet gig and I’m really looking forward to it. My mom is also joining me in North Carolina which will be just fantastic. We have the first couple of days together before the program starts to catch up, shop, and enjoy some good eats in the NC area. Thanks to Megan for the suggestions of things to do/places to eat while we’re there!

The program information can be found here. You can follow our progress during the program on this blog.

Since my last update a few things have happened:

1. I went with Stijn and two of his colleagues, Janna and Lineke, to the Efteling. It was a magical place–definitely the cleanest, classiest amusement park I’ve ever been to! I felt like a little kid on some of the rides, but it was really really cool. Pictures are here. My favorite was the Vogel Rock and Vliegende Hollander (yes, Flying Dutchman).

2. I had another soccer tournament but this time a weekend affair in Groningen, in the north of the Netherlands. It was my first time in that province and city and I had a blast with my soccer teammates. We had quite an adventure getting there with some delays and cancelations of trains, but once we were there, it was great. We started off Friday evening with an opening party that went well into the wee hours of the morning complete with beer and lots of dancing. Soccer seemed secondary during this tournament, though the games during the day were great. The weather was just perfect, so no complaints there. Saturday we played our games and then a nice barbecue before party night #2 that also went way into the early morning. We were awoken around 8.30 both mornings by dance music and a reminder that we actually had to work through the hangovers to make it onto the fields for our games. It was an extremely fun weekend. I don’t have the pictures up just yet, but will hope to get them soon.

3. My research is going really well for the University of Utrecht project and Ian is done grading my final paper for the Child Maintenance project, so that’s good. I’m working on perhaps changing my thesis project to match the research I’ve started on the role of NGOs in post-conflict society (the UU project) but have nothing finalized. I definitely need to get after that soon!

4. We had our team season closing last night where our Italian coach Marco fixed us a very delicious Italian dinner. The pictures are here and here. Please don’t judge the creepy face I am making with my coach on the first picture

So for now, that’s the update. I’m still alive and enjoying all that I’m doing. Would love updates from you if you have a chance!

Tot ziens!