Radisson Htl Grand Rapids No.

.........or How We Survived Holland, Michigan

Have you ever been to one of those towns where everything was just so perfect that it made you feel uneasy? Like everyone in town met at midnight to worship a giant Octopus that lived curled up sleeping under the streets waiting for the day of the Great Unfurling? If not Holland, Michigan is one of those places. We decided on Holland as it was, according to the map, on Lake Michigan. Once we got there we ...

So I head off today on this big adventure! I will be in Amsterdam for 3 days and then I head off to Arusha on Sunday with my group. I am full of excitement and nerves and I can't wait to learn and experience everything this semester will offer. There will be many stories and photos (if I can find somewhere to upload them) to follow. 
Love and peace to everyone I will miss you!

-Molly

Well, this is just a welcome to my newly-formed travel blog. I've been in Holland for most of the summer, and I am going home in a day and a half to spend the next two weeks with my family. Holland has been good for me... I don't think I could have spent another summer working at my high school job in Red Wing. But hey, who says you can't go home?

Tuesday 7/28

Photography day is here or was. Dan the model called to ask permission to bring a model friend along and so did. Started at 10 am and finished at about 2pm having made over 1000 images. Now the processing of those images, down to a very few, begins when I get back in town. Dan and Braxton both said it was fun and I had a good time as well. Time to think about supper and getting this place cleaned up. Tomorrow its back to da lake and …

Mon 7/27

Did the breakfast thing and then headed out for Grand Rapids home of ____. Am now at the cabin on Lake Whatever, some 16 miles north of GR. The sun has set, the sky is light gray and there is a very nice reflection of that sky on the lake surface. From where I am setting ...

... online classes at CC, Ames! I have a feeling I will be taking many more in the future... Even though we're planning our trip to England right now, I can't stop thinking about Paris. My friend Renate bought me a 2009 calendar of Paris past (1800s and such), and I look at it wistfully every day. We'll probably go back, but next time we'll spend a week at Bill Graham's B&B in the Loire ...

... to travel lighter. I'm a little nervous about interacting with people in Paris. We don't know very much French (I can read it fairly well and deduce what I need to because I deal with it regularly) and I'm sure our pronunciation is HORRIBLE. I have a notepad in my day bag should we need to play pictionary to get our thoughts across. There's a dictionary in there as well, but of course it doesn't cover ...

... that I've had this dream so long it doesn't even have a beginning. (But of course, that's not true; I'll confess, before I went to Scotland in 2004, I didn't even know where to located it on a map!) Thanks for your prayers and support. I'll need them, especially today, as I venture out into the world. Here's a nice ...

... could only mean one thing ... the distinguished winner of "Competition of the Week" 9 ... celebrating all the way at his college in Maine ... my brother, Brandon! Rats. I wrote the losing octopus poem. My brother has written better stuff. But, heŽd beaten me again. Just like so many times before in Michigan. Tsk, tsk. Michigan. What else was there unfortunate about Michigan? What else was fortunate about it? Well, thereŽs only one waY TO fIND OUT ...

... out go hand-in-hand, which would almost make my hometown "The Romance Capital of the World" too, if not for places like Paris, Rio De Janeiro, Venice, Hiroshima, Austin, Texas, and loads of other cities whose buildings are much less ugly than ours. As you can see, Grand Rapids, Michigan is an ambitious, progressive, cocky, romantic town that plays well with others, and I'm proud to say we go waaay back. We grew up together, and I've got a lot of traditions ...