Around the World in 40 Overs

I have officially moved!  Koos and I spent Friday and Saturday moving everything I own across town.  We had no car or anything, so we had to take the bus.  Which took forever.  But it got the job done, and now I have a bright shiny completely chaotic new apartment!  It's only chaotic because Koos and I only had two suitcases for moving, and only about 10 min to empty them before the next bus left.  I've since made piles of organized chaos, but I still have a long way to go.

I'd like to thank Koos a million times for being an amazing human being.  He not only helped me move, helped me move furniture up Dutch staircases, and helped me organize my room, he also completely organized my new kitchen, helped me clean my old room (took out the trash AND vacuumed!!), and made my coffee.  :-P

Last night we went to dinner at Koos' friend Cornelius' house.  Cornelius plays cricket with Koos, and lives just around the corner.  Cornelius and his girlfriend/wife/or something, Inge, grilled for us, and we sat outside by candle light and ate fresh fruit and drank South African wines and talked.  Mostly about Africa (Inge studied African languages!, and Cornelius grew up in South Africa) and American politics.  

Today Koos had a cricket match, so I accompanied him to Haarlem.  He was playing a 40 over match instead of his usual 20.  This means nothing to most of you, I know, but let's just say, the 20 over matches tend to last 3 hours, and the 40 over matches are, of course, twice as long.  So, the entire day was dedicated to cricket.  Koos' team (Ajax) batted first, so I sat with Koos in the sun and watched.  Then lunch break (Koos' plastic cup melted when he poured tea into it.  No one else's did!) Then, while Ajax fielded, I sat in the club house and did a little Egyptian work.  (I watched Koos bowl, and was very impressed.  More statistics you don't understand: he bowled 20 runs for 10 overs (sorry, Koos, if my description of cricket statistics is all awkward and obviously done by some weird newbie woman!))  At the end of the day, the girl's cricket team asked me to come play for them on Saturday.  They have a game and not enough players, and they knew I was a girl.  :-P  They don't care that I'd never touched a cricket bat. 

Strangeness of the Day:  I glanced out the window tonight and saw what I thought was an airplane.  But the lights looked flame colored, not the normal white.  Then I realized it wasn't a plane, and it was flame.  Fire shooting through the sky, and then suddenly there were more.  I think it was probably a series of balloons with little lanterns attached.  Maybe some sort of hot air balloon, but certainly not for passengers.  Still not sure why, or exactly what.  There were 10-15 of them, and it was breathtakingly beautiful and strange and a little scary.  

Room organizing and cricket training for me tomorrow!