Letter from Tim

(for new readers: Tim is a friend and blog-buddy who writes to us from Tilburg, Netherlands. Read his intro here. We welcome your thoughts!)

Dear Alison,

Now, I lit a cigarette for inspiration I think I can start off. It has been a while since we talked and some things happened last week that I want to share.

I bet you heard about the 'mosque' (apparently just an Islamic center) near Ground Zero and all those people protesting against it now. There was also a Dutch conservative/extreme right-wing politician, Geert Wilders, speeching there. I just wanted to apologise for that. I don't know about you, but I can't stand people who talk in the name of freedom with the goal of taking someone else's freedom (of religion in this particular case) away. I'll only quote him once: "Christians also wouldn't be allowed to build churches in Mekka, so that's why there should be no mosque here." But wait, what?! So if people don't have rights in Saudi Arabia, than they shouldn't be able to have those rights in the country that's been built upon freedom. Anyone who wants to hear the full speech, it's right here.

Now then, it's time for fun stuff I did at work. For the first time in my life I played golf, and it's fun! I got invited by a businessclub from the region I report on, so why say no, right? After some lessons there was a little contest over 4 holes of the golf course with 5 teams, 4 persons per team. The good news: we won and all got a bottle of champagne (yay)! Bad news: the day after every part of my body hurt -networking can be SO exhausting- But hey, already got over it :)

Yesterday (monday) there was this fair in one of the villages I report on: Reusel. And it's their tradition to have an early 'breakfast' which practically means eating ham and egg sandwiches and drinking beer from 10.00 am until the wee small hours of the morning. I joined them in the morning and it was actually fun, although I had to get used to drinking beer in the morning and having to work the rest of the day until 7.00 pm. There's a video right under here, and although it's in Dutch it'll give you a nice impression of what was going on.

I actually got a call from one of the people whom I gave my businesscard to. At 3.20 am!

It actually just started to rain here, so I'm afraid autumn is really coming up right now :( I hope everything is well back in the States. Take care!

Tim