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Hello Chroniclers!
It’s a beautiful day here in Houston, TX! Not necessarily because the weather outside is wonderful (it’s not), but because I started my first full week of working in the office again! It’s the next chapter, so to speak, in our adventures.… I have stopped rotating to Kazakhstan!
I have spent over the last year in Kazakhstan on a month on, month off basis. It turned out to be a huge stressor on our lives. Even though I technically had more free time at home than I do now, we would always seem to be in catch-up mode: scrambling to do things around the house we couldn’t do while I was away; both of us catching up on rest; trying to connect with our friends, family, and, to be frank, each other. It added up. I met a lot of people who were more than happy to spend their careers rotating to foreign countries, but we are certain that life is not for us! I could go on, and I am grateful for the people I met along the way and for the experience, but we are all happy to be moving on to the next chapter.
Before closing this chapter, I’ll leave you with my last experience of my rotational trips, the layover in Amsterdam. Due to the flights from Atyrau arriving after the last direct flight to Houston, the last few trips back home involved a layover in Amsterdam and there are few places I would rather be stuck!
I went back to the Van Gogh Museum. The first time I went to Amsterdam, my cousin made me go and I’m glad he did. The museum basically walks you through his career, starting with his Japanese woodblock prints and his sunflowers. Then you see his degeneration in his descent into mental illness and how it affected his paintings. The museum has several paintings from the time he was staying at the asylum in Arles. As a side note, Libby and I were actually able to visit that asylum when we visited Provence, so it was nostalgic in some ways to see the paintings produced in the place we had been previously. However, the highlight has to be one of the last he produced, Wheatfield with Crows . It’s so beautiful and the path to nowhere is just… it’s an amazing painting.
I did other things as well! I took a tour of the Heineken Brewery. I took several boat rides down the canals to admire the architecture, which is amazing!
On the last trip, I made sure to go to the Anne Frank House, which I had last visited with my grandmother right after I graduated high school. It’s still as moving as it was when I first visited it. The omnipresent trepidation and fear must have been unbearable, but also I was struck at how many good people made their hiding possible for so long. You enter the secret annex (actually a lot bigger than you imagine) behind a bookcase that acts as a door. It’s something you should definitely make the effort to see at least once in your life.
As fun as visiting the touristy places was, part of my enjoyment was the fact that I was able to enjoy the culinary delights of Amsterdam. I don’t know if the fact I hadn’t had decent food came into play, but the food to me was like manna from heaven!
I definitely recommend going to Cannibale Royale and Van Kerkwijk is an amazing experience.
It was a nice break and a beautiful city every time I visited it, but without a doubt the best part was knowing that I would be home soon. As much as I enjoyed Amsterdam, I am glad to be home with my family and that makes me so glad to start the next chapter of our lives!
We hope you’re doing well and we look forward to talking with you soon!
Derek, Libby, Duke and Earl+