September, (October), November 2019 Reads

I'm doing a bit of throw-back as I try and catch up with my reading blogs for this year.  Please excuse the backlog :)

In September, school started up again, so my reading life slowed down a bit, but I still managed to read several good books:

• The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
• Scythe by Neal Shusterman
• Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? by Caitlin Doughty
• Paper Wishes by Lois Sepahban

October was an abysmal month in terms of reading and I didn't finish a single thing, but in November, I finished these books: 

• Last Things by Marissa Moss
• Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
• Smile by Raina Telgemaier
• Croquette & Empanada by Ana Oncina

I'm lucky that most of these were incredible reads, but I will just talk about a handful of them, since they have managed to stick with me well after I have finished reading them!

Last Things by Marissa Moss

I went and sold a bunch of book club books for school with a teacher friend and while we were wandering around the book store waiting for our offer, I stumbled upon this guy.  I've found that one of my favorite things to read ever is graphic memoirs.  I just love being able to look into other people's lives, even for a short while.

This book gives you a glimpse into what it looks like to see someone slowly decline from ALS.  I felt a lot of different things while reading this.  I felt for Marissa's husband, who just wanted to live as normal and as independent of a life as possible, all things considered.  But I think roughly halfway through until the end, I felt nothing but anger towards him.  I thought he was being awfully selfish (especially when he refused to do things that would make his family's life a little easier) and handled the end of his life rather poorly, but it also feels weird to say that and feel that about someone who is dying and really going through someone.  You want to offer some grace as they tie up loose ends in their life to the best of their ability.  But I won't deny my feelings about this.  I mostly felt for Marissa.  She is the glue to this entire story-- she does as much as she possibly can to make sure her sons are okay and that they have a chance to process and more importantly that they get a break every once in a while from this situation.  She tries to ooze love and care when she feels that her husband is lacking in this area.  She takes on so many roles because she has to and I think that's admirable, even though she is absolutely exhausted.

It's not a light book if you're in a reading slump, but it is a really engaging read.  I couldn't put this book down until I had finished.  I hope this book can be that for you too.

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

Another teacher recommended this book to me.  It's a story told in verse and it centers on a boy who lost his brother to gun violence.  It highlights other people in his life (and who are in the margins) who have also been cut short by gun violence.  There is a discussion about revenge and recovery after such violent ends from people close to you.

I could see this being a really engaging read for students since this is a topic they want to read about and talk about.  I think this is a good medium to start this conversation because it's a fairly quick read.  But this book is also worth revisiting and I'd love to read this again in 2020 (and I'm going to try and give myself that space to do just that in 2020, but I'll talk about that more in a separate post). 

This is a great book if you're in a reading slump, but this is also a great book to read if you're looking to hear more about the conversation around gun violence and police brutality, especially because this time you're invited to hear from people whose lives ended.  They have perspective now that they didn't have before.  But you're also being asked to pay attention to the people who are left behind after these lives are ended.  Really important read.

Scythe by Neal Shusterman

This book snuck up on me a little bit this year.  My math teacher friend started reading this book and texted me saying something along the lines of, "OMG THIS BOOK."  So I listened through Audible and was immediately hooked.

In this society, death doesn't really exist.  People don't just get killed or die.  But you can't have people living and regenerating forever, so someone has the job of ending lives.  That is the job of the Scythes.  You can't have this job unless you don't want the job.  It was weird to think of death happening in this way and it was even weirder, once you were involved in this world, to see people who actually relished the job and enjoyed seeing people suffer as their lives permanently came to an end.  It's just an interesting world to get yourself involved in, even for a short time, while you're reading this book.

This is another book where I feel like I have so many thoughts that I can't speak eloquently about it.  I will say that I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series in 2020 and then maybe I'll be able to speak much more clearly about my feelings on this book.  This is an incredible read and I hope you choose to spend your time reading it next year.

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs by Caitlin Doughty

I have loved Caitlin Doughty's previous books about her experience starting out in the death industry and then about death practices around the world.  This book is all about the questions that young people (kids, really) have about death that, I would wager to guess, adults are also wondering the answer to.  They're weird questions about what happens after you die and what happens if you suffer a certain kind of death... it's just a cool read.  I love the illustrations that are scattered throughout (I think at the beginning of each new question).  I also appreciated the really short chapters.  Short chapters motivate me to keep reading because I feel like I'm making more progress than I actually am.

If you want an interesting read or are interested in learning more about death and death positivity, this is a great place to go!

----

I'm happy that I get to read such neat books like the ones I just told you about.  Hopefully, my luck continues into the 2020 year!

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

July and August 2019 Reads

July was an incredible reading month!  I managed to read all of these:

• Her: Vol. 1 by Pierre Alex Jeanty
• Her: Vol. 2 by Pierre Alex Jeanty
• Teach Like Finland by Timothy D. Walker
• On The Come Up by Angie Thomas
• The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
• Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton
• Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee
• The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary
• The Grownup by Gillian Flynn
• The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World by Melinda Gates
• My Almost Flawless Tokyo Dream Life by Rachel Cohn
• A Way Out by Michelle Balge
• The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman
• The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
• Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
• Invisible Ghosts by Robyn Schneider
• With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

August wasn't as great of a reading month in terms of numbers, but I did finish one incredible book:

• Geisha, A Life by Mineko Iwasaki

I am fortunate that a number of these books made for incredible reads.  There are some books I have already taken a moment to highlight in my Reading Rush post (which you can check out HERE), so here are the rest of the highlights of July and August!

On The Come Up by Angie Thomas

This was one that both my students and I were really excited to see come out.  A student brought it back after reading it and another mystery student swiped it, I assume for summer reading, while I wasn't looking.  So surprisingly, getting ahold of this book was quite tricky!  But I'm glad I fought for it!

On The Come Up was just as engaging as The Hate U Give and in fact takes place in the same universe as The Hate U Give.  Bree's struggles are quite different from Starr's struggles.  Definitely some overlap, especially because she lives in the Garden (which is a vibrant neighborhood, but suffers from gang violence), but those struggles aren't the main focus on Bree's story.  Her focus is on her rap career.  She struggles mainly with stereotypes and self-expression in this story.  Should she say what she wants or do what other people tell her to do, but risk false representation of who she actually is?  There were times when I wished that Bree would just listen to the trustworthy people in her life when they were trying to help her.  But she does have a mind of her own and some people just need to make mistakes in order to learn.  So Bree is kind of a frustrating protagonist in some ways, but I still really enjoyed her story.  I love books that incorporate poetry and show their power.

The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary

I found out that one of my favorite YouTube personalities (who is a West End actress) was recording an audiobook called The Flatshare and as she was talking about it, I became intrigued.  So once it was out, I used my Audible credit and got it to listen to.

I loved that this book is told in two perspectives (not just because the book is written that way but because it's recorded by two people to help drive this home).  I like that this book is a fairly light read while still touching on boundaries and less-than-healthy relationships.  I love that these two people are drawn together even though it seems to unlikely that they should ever be anything more than roommates in passing.  This is a great feel-good book and one that can help jumpstart your reading if you're in a reading slump.  I feel like I've had a number of those this year... this was a wonderful book to listen to.  I highly recommend it.

The Grownup by Gillian Flynn

This one kind of fell into my lap a little bit.  I love my library's digital catalog because I can check things out instantly.  I wanted to read more Gillian Flynn because I remember really liking Gone Girl several years back.  I didn't expect to find one so short though.  I think this audiobook was about 45 minutes.  Definitely no more than an hour.

This book is just as intriguing and just as f***ed up as Gone Girl.  I was literally sat on my bed thinking, "What the hell?!" as I was listening to this book.  This book is also good if you're in the middle of a reading slump and just generally good if you're looking for a jolt to your system.  Gillian Flynn is definitely talented at drawing you in and shaking you to your very core at the last minute and making you stop and think, "Did I really just read what I read?"  I'd love to listen to this again sometime.

The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates

This is a nonfiction book that I thought sounded interesting, but I really didn't expect to like it as much as I did.  Melinda Gates, through her and her husband's foundation, have done a lot of great work to support women and girls around the world in the many ways that they need to be supported-- reproductive health, community health, education, etc.  What I love is that Melinda Gates seems to approach this topic with as much humility as she can muster and is up front about the knowledge that she brings to the table and when she needs others to help bring a vision into reality.  Supporting women around the world is no small task and is less straightforward than I thought.  It's not just throwing money at a problem, but finding the people who can help turn that money into a lasting impact for the women and communities who benefit.  I also love that every opportunity she could, she drives home how supporting the women the foundation supports doesn't just benefit these women in particular, but it also demonstrates how helping these women benefits the wider community and country.  I think that's so powerful, especially when it comes to getting other people to support "women's" issues.  In reality, when women do better, everyone does better.

My Almost Flawless Tokyo Dream Life by Rachel Cohn

Is this the most literary thing I could have chosen to sit down and listen to?  Absolutely not.  But it was very engaging.  This book does a really great job of transporting you from where you are to upper-class life in Tokyo (although, admittedly I don't know how accurate this depiction is... it was fantastic to read about though).  It was interesting to read about places that are so unfamiliar and yet marginally familiar at the same time.  I almost could have forgotten about the plot and would have been just as happy to keep reading.  Obviously, it's good and better off with a plot, but I just want to point out how easy it is to get lost in this book. 

This is a great book if you just need to be transported for a while.  This is also a fairly light and therefore quick read for its length.  I personally liked listening to the audiobook, too.  If you need a book to get lost in and if you are interested even remotely in Japan, this is the book for you!

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

This is one I think I will need to read again.  I assigned this to some of my students last year while doing a unit on humanity and dehumanization.  One of the boys picked it and said that he loved it once he actually finished it.  My recommendations for him have been very hit or miss, so I was happy to find that connection point.

The focus of this book is on two women in particular who are involved with flying and communications for planes in World War II England.  They get involved with these secret missions and then... something goes wrong... I won't give it away because it's the basis of this book. 

I love that this book makes you think that you're going in one direction and then the whole story, very suddenly, shifts on you and tells you how things really are in this book.  Now that I know what that twist is, I want to read it again.  I'll have to make that one of my private reading goals in 2020.  I think there is also a sequel to this book so I'll have to check that out as well.  This is a great book.  I already can't wait to read it again!

Geisha, A Life by Mineko Iwasaki

A former student of mine recommended this book to me... probably a year or two ago and it took me so long to finally sit down and read it!  I told her that I really liked the book Memoirs of a Geisha and she said that that book was based off of this woman's story.  But Memoirs of a Geisha has a lot of flaws to it.  This book is actually written by a Geisha who has lived that life and she does address some of the things that were said and depicted in Memoirs of a Geisha and speaks to their truth or lack thereof.  It was nice to have that expose angle to the book, but this is a great book in its own right.  Her story of how she got started is really interesting and there are a lot more customs and traditions around simply becoming a Geisha than I ever thought there were.  I don't know how they keep track of it all!

I don't feel like I can speak too eloquently about this book because it's just one of those books where you have to jump in with both feet and go for the immersion experience. 

I'll be working on catching up on reading blogs over the next few days and into the new year, so look for more of those posts as well as other life posts!

Thanks for Reading!

--Jude

Reading Rush!!

I don't know what it is about internet challenges that just really motivate me.  Challenges like NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) really motivate me to write even when I don't want to (especially when other people are writing with me).  Having reading goals for the year pushes me to read lots and lots.  So when Ariel Bisset (link to her YouTube channel HERE!) showed up in my subscription box announcing this week-long reading challenge, I jumped on the opportunity!  So this year, I participated for the first time in the Reading Rush (formerly known as BookTubeAThon) from July 22-28.

There are seven challenges within this week-long Reading Rush.  The books you pick can fit more than one challenge if you'd like and you can participate in as many or as few as you'd like.  The point is to get you reading with reckless abandon for a full week.

I planned to read these books:

• Geisha, A Life by Mineko Iwasaki
• A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron
• I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez
• Invisible Ghosts by Robyn Schneider
• The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

These are the books that I actually read during this week and the challenges they fulfill as well as a brief review (so these books will be taken off of my July Reads post when that eventually comes out):


The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
Challenges:
Read and watch a book to movie adaptation.  CHECK!
Read a book in the same spot the entire time.  FAIL.

I did read this entire book in one day, however!  It just turns out that I am someone who needs to take breaks periodically.  But ultimately, I went from an outdoor hammock to a couch inside when I got too cold.  So, too bad, I did not fulfill one of the challenges I set out to accomplish. 

This is one of my favorite horror movies and this book didn't disappoint.  It had a slowness that drew you in and a really effed-up ending.  I don't even think I can say I preferred the book over the movie or vice versa.  They are both great in their own right.  I think it was even better that I read this book as it was getting dark outside... in a cabin... in Wisconsin... it just added to the creepy feeling to the story.

Invisible Ghosts by Robyn Schneider

Challenges:

Read a book with purple on the cover.  CHECK.
Read a book you meant to read last year.  CHECK.

I can believe I didn't read this book sooner.  It was really charming, super engaging, and funny-sad.  It was a wonderful and light YA read.  I'm not sure if it's appropriate to call it a beach read because it's not that light of a story, but it doesn't take itself too seriously.

I liked the characters very much and thought it represented high school students quite well.  Like, yes, there are those that are quite moody and just seem to hate the world for no reason, but also kids that genuinely seem to enjoy where they are in life and have great friends that will stick together for years to come.  It talks about dissolving and rekindling friendships.  I think there need to be more stories on this subject.  There seems to be this belief that when you get a friend, you're stuck together for life.  But I think more people need to learn that not all friendships are meant to last forever and you have to choose people you want to be around and who bring out the best in you.

With The Fire On High by Elizabeth Acevedo
Challenges:
Pick a book with purple on the cover.  CHECK.
Pick a book that has five or more words in the title.  CHECK.

This was one that I brought to the cabin with me and have really been looking forward to reading since I heard it was coming out.  Elizabeth Acevedo is one of my favorite authors.  She had me at book one.  This book just reinforced my love for her writing.

I love the focus on food in this book.  It really engages the senses in a way that I don't feel like I've experienced in a while.  I also appreciated that this book is written from the perspective of a teen mother.  One pitfall in stories like this is oftentimes, stories will end when the teen mother-to-be gives birth.  But by the time we meet Emoni, her daughter is two years old and she has settled into a groove of being a parent and trying to finish high school.  I appreciate that her life doesn't "end" with parenthood, just changes how she moves in the world.  It's more realistic.  Having these new relationships also added weight to her decision to do something for herself and go to Spain with her culinary arts class. 

I don't think I can say much more other than this was an amazing read and you definitely need to pick this book up ASAP.

To sum everything up, during the 2019 Reading Rush, I accomplished 4/7 of the challenges!  Not too shabby!  I will definitely be participating in the Reading Rush next year!

Thanks for reading!

--Jude

June 2019 Reads

June marks the beginning of my summer break.  It's been a ride transitioning from the near constant go-go-go lifestyle that is my current teaching life to a much slower teacher-on-summer-vacation life.  But this means that my reading life has picked up a bit.  It is so nice to have this time.  I've very grateful.

These are the books I read during the month of June and I will highlight a few of them below!

• Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (This was a reread, you can check out an old review HERE!  My updated rating is one star less)
• Educated by Tara Westover
• Archenemies by Marissa Meyer
• Macbeth by William Shakespeare (This was also a reread as I will be teaching this play this coming school year.  You can read that review HERE.  My updated rating is one star less).

 Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson

Once upon a time, I tried a monthly book box service that is no longer in existence.  I thought it was nice, so I may look for another one at a later date, but not at this time.  I have so many books that still need to be read as it is.  But anyway, this was one of the books that turned up in my mailbox.  

I was pleasantly surprised by this book.  It looks a little bit gimmicky on the outside, but don't let this cover fool you!  It's a wonderful fantasy/supernatural YA book and I can't wait to share it with my students.  

I loved the representation of Wicca as a religion/spirituality and the conversations about why some people hold certain beliefs.  I can only think of a scant handful of books where young adults are challenged to think about religion and what role it does or doesn't play in our lives.  I also appreciated the content about grief.  I think young people who have lost someone will identify with the feelings the main character feels about losing her friend and what it's like to cope but shows that things will turn out to be okay in the end, given enough time and closure.

I just thought this was an at times funny, fast-paced, off-the-wall, and engaging read.  Once I started, I couldn't put it down!

Educated by Tara Westover

This has been sitting on my Kindle for ages, just waiting for summer to arrive so that I could read it.  

This was such an engaging read.  I seriously gobbled it up in about two days.  I really like reading books about entirely different lifestyles and this one, despite being a memoir, had an apocalyptic feel to it, which was interesting.  Tara Westover was born to a Mormon family, but honestly, it's not Mormonism that is recognizable.  Her father was obsessed with living off the grid and not engaging with the government in any way.  Some of Tara's siblings went to school when they were younger, but all were eventually pulled out for homeschooling, which fizzled out very quickly and just didn't occur after a while.  Tara has never set foot in a public school.  Any schooling they had, the kids had to fight for and work for themselves.  

It's a desperate situation that Tara lived through and while it makes for an excellent read, it doesn't escape me just how terrifying it must have been to live life this way.  There were so many times that Tara wanted to give up because it felt like so many things were working against her, but she didn't give up.  Eventually, she earned her undergraduate degree and was invited to complete a Masters and PhD, utilizing her skill as a writer.

What was really scary to me was how her family messed with her mind.  I don't mean keeping her out of school in this case, but making her feel outcast from the family and from the religion she grew up with and making her question what was real in the first place.  This really gets through to the reader because she lays out her (fact checked) experiences that she remembers and then also lays out what her family is telling her and it's very contradictory.  It's helps you get insight into what her life is like because you question what is real too.

This story became even more interesting to me when I found out that the business Tara's mom and her sister run have a Facebook page and so do many of her family members.  That led me down a little bit of a rabbit hole trying to figure out who these people really are.  But this just made the story that more interesting to me.  This is one of my absolute favorite books and I hope that someday I can have conversations with people who have also read it.  I need to verbally process this book a little more.

Archenemies by Marissa Meyer

This one was a work in progress for a while, but I thought it was much better than its predecessor, Renegades.  

One of the things that annoyed me about renegades was that it switched first-person perspectives every chapter.  So, one chapter was from the perspective of Nova and the next was from the perspective of Adrian.  Honestly, I thought Adrian's perspective was boring.  But this problem was fixed because the story is told from a third person perspective.  It does switch focus each chapter, but it's not as jarring and it's still interesting.  This sequel was much better at keeping my attention.  So even if I picked up the book and didn't touch it for another week, I still remembered very clearly what was happening. 

I love that you get more of a glimpse into Nova's life with the anarchists.  There is a much clearer view of the divide that Nova straddles with the Renegades and Ace Anarchy's gang and how she has a real choice between which world she sees herself as being part of and which world she feels like she owes.  I love this.  I thought it made Nova a much more round character than in "Renegades."  She isn't just a girl who was wronged in her childhood (irreversibly so, but still) seeking revenge, but now she has more of a choice to make.  I think Nova became one of my favorite characters from a book after finishing this read.

The next (last?) installment of this story comes out in November of this year (2019) and my students and I are so excited to see what happens next!

That's all for my June reads!  There are so many books I can tell you about already in July, but there is still more of the month to go.  See you for another reading highlights post in a month or less!

Thanks for reading!
--Jude

April and May 2019 Reads

I've decided to combine my April and May posts together this time.  My reasoning is vague... things got busy with school and with life, I guess.  Reading (and other things) kind of fell to the wayside in April.  But May was much better!

So, over April and May, I read these books:

• I Am Alfonso Jones by Tony Medina
• To All The Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han
• Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki
• Swing by Kwame Alexander
• The Call of the Wild by Jack London
• The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll

As wonderful as these reads were, these were some of my favorites:

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki

This book came to my attention because my best friend from second grade is the illustrator for this graphic novel.  So I was alright super psyched for this book for that reason, but once I actually cracked it open and read the story that Mariko Tamaki wrote, I fell in love.  Mariko Tamaki is one of those authors that I've just figured out that I will either not like what they make or be really enthusiastic about what they make.  Not that I've felt passionate hate for her work, I just haven't been as enthralled with some of her works.  But I liked this one because it draws attention to unhealthy relationships and a character that is trying to separate herself from one.  I love that the characters are quite intersectional as well-- many characters are people of color and are part of the LGBT+ community.  I think there's a powerful message about aligning yourself with the people who will bring you up and help you be your best self.  I think this is something that young people need to read.  I can't tell you how many conversations I've had with students who were struggling with unhealthy relationships (not dangerous, just not the greatest) this past year.  There was so much guilt about wanting to separate themselves from someone because they had a history with that person.  People of any age need to know that if someone isn't treating you with respect or is being kind to you when it's convenient for them, it's time to move on.  I think there need to be more voices spreading this message.  I'm happy this book can be one of those voices.

The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll

I've posted about the fact that I bullet journal a few times on this blog.  It's a system that has honestly changed my life for the better.  It helps me stay organized for everything that life throws at me and it helps me be reflective.  When I heard from bullet journals who influenced me that the creator of the system had written a book about how to bullet journal, I was a little skeptical.  Especially since he has a website.  But I was assured that this book was worth the read whether you are just getting started with bullet journaling or you've been doing it for a while already.  

If you go on YouTube and search for bullet journal videos, you're likely to find hundreds of very fancy spreads-- beautiful spreads!  If you're not a particularly artistic person, you may feel simultaneously in awe and intimidated because there's the impression that your bullet journal HAS to be beautiful.  But it doesn't.  It just has to help you be productive.  So this book is a nice way to remind everyone of the basics and to help you think about why you include the things you decide to include in your bullet journal.  I love that there are tons of examples about how to plan for and break down your goals to get them accomplished and also completed examples from people who come from a variety of backgrounds that have found success using the bullet journal method.  It's a wonderful book and well worth a read if you're even remotely curious about this system!

We'll keep it short and simple this time around.  See you again at the end of June!  There are already many great reads brewing that I can't wait to tell you about!

--Jude

I Traveled to England/The Netherlands! (Part 3: Leiden, The Hague, Haarlem, Amsterdam)

This is the final installment of this honeymoon blog post series.  If you haven't already, read Part 1 and Part 2 before reading this part!

The day after Warner Bros Studios, we basically had an airport day.  We flew into London Heathrow from Minneapolis/Reykjavik, but when we flew into Amsterdam, we needed to get to London Luton in a different part of the city.  Luton is a pretty cute airport.  When you're flying within the UK/Europe general part of the world, no need to go to the enormous airports and have your heart broken from stress trying to get where you need to go.  Luton is slightly out of the way and it's smaller and pretty easy to get through.  The bummer was we basically blew the day in the airport because we didn't want to miss our flight and we weren't sure how long it would take to get there in the first place, so we made sure we were extra early.  But having the down day was actually kind of nice after almost constantly moving for an entire week.

We finally landed in Amsterdam and I was so freaking excited.  My heart felt like it was beating out of my chest in a good way and I didn't feel like I could sit still.  This was the first time I had been back to the Netherlands since I studied abroad (and since we got engaged).  It felt like coming home again.  I loved that things were familiar and I knew how to do basic things.  I had to have a little bit of a refresher in Dutch, but even then, I was doing okay.

Leiden

We got to Leiden and it took us a little bit to find our AirBnB, but we did it.  We kept the night simple by going to get food and eating in.  We got a good night's sleep.  It was weird walking in this place I called home even for a short time.  Our thought was since we had both been to the Netherlands before, we would take this part of our trip slow.  We wouldn't worry about getting up ridiculously early and we were okay with visiting places that we knew we liked as well as things that we hadn't tried yet.

It felt different being there, yet not a lot had changed.  I walked by my school and that was different, but I knew it would be.  When I ended my semester with Central College Abroad, I knew they would operate for one more semester and then the Leiden location would be closed down.  So that building was the office for something different now.

It was nice revisiting some of my old haunts, like the Museum van Oudeheden, Bagels & Beans, Hortus Botanicus...  In hindsight, I wish we had rented a bike so we could cruise around like I used to.  That'll be something to do next time we find ourselves here.  It was also nice to go back and see things that I had only seen once or twice, like De Burcht, which is perched at the top of the hill overlooking Leiden.  I had visited before a couple of times and then couldn't figure out without a map how to get back there, but I had never taken Jack.  It was fun to climb the wall and show them as much of the city we could view from the top of the fortress wall.

The Hague

We ended up going to The Hague a couple of times because the first time we went, there were some places we intended to visit that we didn't realize were closed until we got there.  But we made the most of our couple of days in The Hague.  The first day, we went to Madurodam, which I had never even heard of before, as well as the beach in the off chance that we would see a Strandbeest (no luck on the Strandbeest).  But it was nice to be back at the North Sea, dipping my toes in the water, even for only a brief time.

Madurodam is the Netherlands in miniature.  Lots of cities shrunk down and laid out for us "enormous" people to walk through and speed travel.  I thought it was hilarious when they put koi in the pond or when I duck landed and completely dwarfed the people and small cars that circled the park.  It was kind of a goofy thing to do, but also really neat.  It's one of those things that you have to experience for yourself to have a real appreciation for, I think.

The second time we were in the Hague, we came for lunch and the M.C. Escher museum.  I really wanted to show Jack this place because M.C. Escher is one of their favorite artists.  I knew it would mean a lot to them.  It's a really trippy museum to be in.  Some of what they include in the museum is interactive and it tricks your eye fairly easily.

 My other favorite part of this museum is it used to be one of the palaces used by the Dutch royal family.  Clearly it's no longer used that way now, but the history of the space itself is preserved and there are many cards you can read to learn about the royal family and what each of the rooms were used for.  What I love about Dutch palaces is they seem quite practical and frugal compared to other palaces that I've seen around Europe.  They're quite small by comparison, which is a little strange to say about a palace!

 Haarlem

I had visited Haarlem once before for a project for school where we had to pick a Dutch city, do some research, and go visit it.  I picked Haarlem because I had read a book that took place there.  But Haarlem is honestly one of my favorite places in the Netherlands.  This time when we came back, I had read Corrie ten Boom's book The Hiding Place and I was determined to see it for myself.  Before we saw the hiding place though, we went to visit the Teylor's Museum.

The Teylor's Museum was an interesting place.  It's part natural history museum and part art museum.  The collections of both specimens and paintings were impressive and the building itself is incredible.

I have decided that when I go to museums, I need to create a purpose for myself.  I learned that from a different art museum that I visited previously in Haarlem where they challenged visitors to pay attention to emotions in the paintings they presented.  In this case, I did what I typically do and looked for cute animals and kittens.  Yes, there are definitely cute ancient and extinct animals.  You just have to look closely!  What was different from other natural history museums that we've visited (mostly from this trip) is that there were a lot of specimens displayed and organized in glass cases.  Other museums we've seen have seemed a bit more interactive where they had skeletons "walking among the crowd," so to speak.  This one made you feel like a scientist where you were asked to look as carefully as you desired, but not touch.  It had a much more official feeling to it.

We went and found lunch at a restaurant that recently opened and I tried a mushroom burger (so good!).  The people who worked at the restaurant were really nice and accommodating of us since we don't speak a lot of Dutch.  They had menus in English and Dutch and when they noticed we were trying to translate our Dutch menu, they grabbed a different one for us which was really sweet of them.  We just didn't want to be a bother!

From there, I was determined to visit the Corrie ten Boom house.  What I wasn't aware of was that it was better to reserve a time slot online before visiting.  We showed up and you can just show up, but it's not a guarantee that you'll get to see inside, because they only allow a certain number of people inside at once.  At certain times, they have tours entirely in Dutch and others in English.  I feel like they had a German tour too, but I can't quite remember... Because Jack and I didn't reserve a place and I really wanted to see inside, we waited in line.  It was kind of nice to stop for a while.  I think we waited for about an hour in the alleyway where people who came to the ten Boom family for help would come to knock on the door.  Once we got inside, we saw how people were hidden throughout the house during the day and where they would go in the event of an emergency.  People would sleep all around the house (which was tall, but quite small) and then if they heard a buzzer sound triggered by a button in the lower levels, they knew they had to quickly and silently get to Corrie's room and crawl into a hidden room through a door in the bookshelf and wait until the all clear signal.  I still don't understand how all of those people fit inside that wall.  They must have been so cramped while they were there hiding in the event of an emergency.  But it sounds like they made the most of it.  And most everyone who passed through the ten Boom house survived the war.  I'm really glad that I waited to see this place.

Amsterdam

We spent two days in Amsterdam since we wanted to see so much here.  The first day, the main thing that we did was go and visit Artis, which is the zoo.  This was something that I hadn't seen during the entire time I lived in the Netherlands, so I was excited. 

One thing that makes this zoo unique is that there is also a building in Artis that educates about microbes.  It's appropriately called Micropia.  It showed you all about the microbes that keep us healthy and those that can make us sick even though we can't see them.  They had several animals that I'm not sure I've seen before, so that was neat.  They also had some really interesting-looking enclosures for the animals that met needs I didn't know they had.  Some of the enclosures did look a little small though... but I guess I have to defer to the experts and trust that everything they're doing is in the best interest of the animals they care for.  I hope...

I think my favorite of the animals we saw was the red panda.  I've seen one before, but it was always asleep.  This one was awake and ready to go! 

This first day in Amsterdam, we went to the Red Light District and visited a niche museum called The Secrets of the Red Light District.  I've visited once before, but Jack had never seen.  It's really a cool place to visit and gives you a behind the scenes peek of what goes on in the Red Light District.  I did not take pictures, but it's well worth a visit should you find yourself in Amsterdam. 

The second day in Amsterdam was full of museum hopping-- all museums that we had never seen before.  But we also visited the Vondelpark as well as the Poozenboot.  The Poozenboot came first, which good because the longer we waited, the longer the line got.


The Poozenboot is a houseboat that is home to the stray cats of Amsterdam.  You can come and adopt the cats here or come and visit in small groups. 

Some of the cats were sweet and ready for cuddles and others were pretty fearful and went to hide above or under some of their sleeping places.  Most of the cats were free-roaming of the houseboat and were just looking for nice places to sleep in the sun.  It was fun to come and pet the cats for a while and hear about the work that's being done on the Poozenboot.

Our next stop was the Van Gogh museum.  I never went to this museum while I lived in the Netherlands (even though I had a museum pass that let me skip lines and enter museums for free), so we wanted to make sure that we go to go here this time around.  They changed up how you gain entrance to the museum.  I think they digitized it so you could get tickets online or at the kiosk outside if you waited in the long line.  We got really lucky again.  Jack decided to get data on his phone, so we were able to do that without standing in line at all.  I think we only had to wait for our time slot for 10 or 15 minutes and we didn't have to stand in line.  It was great!  I recommend getting your tickets online.  Then you can just pull them up on your phone and get them scanned.  Very convenient. 

You can't take pictures in the museum, so it was easy to just stand in front of these paintings and take them in and appreciate what was right in front of you.  If you did try to take pictures though and were caught, in one room there was a really tall Dutch guard with a big booming voice that would thunder, "NOOOOO PHOTOOOOOOS," drawing out the vowels like that.  Since I wasn't the one trying to take pictures despite the policy being posted practically everywhere, I found it amusing :)  On top of that, I really enjoyed learning more about Van Gogh's life as well as being able to appreciate the art that he created in his lifetime (even if it wasn't appreciated until after his death).

Our next stop was the Moco Museum just down the road, which is a museum that displays Banksy's art as well as the work of other street artists.  This would not have been on my radar if Jack hadn't figured out that this museum existed.  I was semi-familiar with Banksy, but I found another artist(s) that I really liked.  Icy and Sot were another duo whose art was displayed in the basement.  For all of this art that we saw, I really appreciated that it was meant to make you double-take.  It's taking this thought of what art is and making you think again.

The last thing we did was go to the Vondelpark.  In 2014, Jack and I got engaged here and when we figured out that we wanted to go back to the Netherlands for our honeymoon, we planned to return to the park and put a lock on the place where we got engaged.  Just like love locks on bridges in major cities around Europe.  There was just one problem: we weren't entirely sure where it was in the park that we got engaged.  So we decided to wander and try to figure it out.  We got lucky.

We did find the place where we got engaged.  But there wasn't a bridge, really, like we thought.  There was a bench though.  We decided to put our lock on the bench instead.  I figure it would be less likely to be removed than if it were on a bridge.  On bridges, periodically they have to take the locks off because the bridge gets too heavy and they don't want it to break.  Not many people want to remove locks from benches, really.  So I'm hoping that our lock will be around for a while to come.  But we won't know until we get back to the Netherlands.  What was extra special was that we were here really close to our second wedding anniversary.  I married my best friend August 2016 and I was so happy to be back there with my favorite person.

This brings us to the end of our trip.  We did a little bit of venturing out (to the Escher museum), but the rest of our trip was spent packing and stocking up on Dutch goodies we love and that we wanted to take home.  This was an amazing trip for us and we're so happy that we waited and took the trip that we really wanted.

Thank you so much for reading!  Until next time (which will likely be this summer)!

--Jude