after 9 hours of flying and what felt like one hundred hours of waiting, I am home sweet home. Back in my studio, my kitchen, my bed, my life with the people I love most.

Travelling for work, though always a little bit fascinating, is awful and tedious and tired. While some can wax on at length about the beauty of new cities (and I can see this perspective), what they sometimes fail to see is the no-time, no-patience, no-energy you’re left with at the end of a long (and sometimes longer than long) work day.

I will gladly spend the next few weeks *not* talking about price-points, and RAM requirements, and offering up a “would you like to see a demo?” because you can really only talk about any of these things non-stop for five days without having a bit of a breakdown.

but despite the crazy work and the show that was one day too long, and the long flights, and the trying to answer emails in my room between show duty and dinner and socializing and omg, the overcrowded 8:42 tram #4, Amsterdam was hands down one of the nicest cities I’d love to see again. And I know some people would disagree, but I think it’s like having centretown times 1000 + bikes (!) and H&M (!) and way better coffee.

And now all I’ve got to do is look forward to doing it all again next year. :)

In the meantime, I’m going to be happy to settle for my (if only slightly) overgrowing porch. Hello basil!

my trip here is half over. which is good, I think. While I love amsterdam I’m eager to get home and see my own things and sleep in my own bed, and see my favourite people. And I would also like some freshly laundered clean clothes while we’re at it. Thursday is laundry day. Yes!

The one thing that I’ve struggled with here that is really astounding is my inability to figure out directions. My sense of direction is usually impeccable – I hardly ever get lost, and I always have a gut feeling about which direction is the right one to head in. But sadly, the owerwheliming amount of canals and straats and grachts and alleyways here have rendered me almost completely directionless. I am continuously trying to evaluate where I am and how I can get back.

Other than getting kinda sorta lost I’ve been busy working and trying to sightsee – visiting the dam square, going to the fabric market tomorrow, buying fresh stroopwaffels at the Albert Cuyp market this afternoon, going to the massive park behind the RAI. Tonight I had frites with sauce for dinner (I made up for it by having sushi last night), walked around some of the canals, up to the dam square (I’m staying near Rembrandtsplein) on to central station and through the red light district home). Tomorrow I’m hitting a mac store, the Van Gogh museum, and the fabric market. All before 1:00 (when I’m scheduled to work)! We’ll see how that plan goes….

After flying to toronto tuesday night I boarded another louder bigger plane, bound for Amsterdam.

About an hour into the flight, I was gazing out the window and recognized a “big” lake spread out below me, reflecting the shadow of the moon back in every shiny inch of its surface. The lake of course, was Dows Lake. Home. Almost home, anyway. The more I looked the more I could see and recognize and miss. I could see the odd grid of Centretown, the lustre of the canal shining it’s glossy surface back at the moon. I could see the major streets (Somerset, Laurier, Gladstone, Elgin) and I hadn’t truly felt far away from home until I could trace the outlines of home onto the window next to my seat, listening to Laura Veirs sing about Galaxies. Galaxies indeed.

And now that’s it. I’m here. And so far, I love this city. In many ways it feels like a city whose streets I have walked before, though everything is new. You can follow along in photos over here, if you’d like. If you’re not a bicycle lover, you may wonder “geez – what is UP with all those bike photos she is taking?” but seriously, you cann’t avoid them here. They are *everywhere*. And I love it.