Ellen In Amerika!"MY EMIGRATION TO AMERICA AND MY ADJUSTMENT TO LIFE IN CALIFORNIA SINCE SEPTEMBER 2008"

Monday, after I saw that the Dutch soccer team had won the game, I called my sister Marja, and we talked as true soccer specialists (NOT) about the game It was nice and funny to talk excitedly about something someone else also likes so much. Eight teams now remain to play the quarter finals. Of course, I hope the Dutch will win again! I will have to work Friday morning when ESPN will broadcast it, so I’ll will record it and watch it later that day.

	Netherlands	vs.			Brazil					-	Jul 2 7:00am (PT) on ESPN
	Uruguay	vs.			Ghana					-	Jul 2 11:30am (PT) on ESPN
	Argentina	vs.			Germany					-	Jul 3 7:00am (PT) on ABC
	Paraguay	vs.			Spain					-	Jul 3 11:30am (PT) on ABC

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After the match, I worked on things here in the house and during a 1 hour phone call with Coby, I ironed a pile of laundry away. Two things at once, that is what women do well!  Ryan was here, so I made some nice bread rolls with cold meatloaf on it. It tasted good!

After dinner, Dan and I went to the gym, and we had a nice workout. The new series we watch on TV, Persons Unknown, is not as good as most series here, but it relaxes us a bit after working for Ruysdeal Design.

Not much happened on Tuesday. In the early morning, I saw the end of the match between Japan and Paraguay. Japan lost, and it was heartbreaking to see the Japanese players crying. For them, the show is over.

Niels, my oldest son, has a new house in Holland. He lives in our apartment but the contract only goes until 1 September 2010. For some time, he was looking for another place to live, and now he found it. All the utilities of our apartment are still in our names, like Internet/telephone contracts, heating, etc., so this morning I wrote cancellation letters. They are all now scanned and sent to Niels’ email address. He will send them by certified mail with signature. It has the tendency that cancellation letters that are sent by regular mail get “lost”  in the mail in the Netherlands.

After cleaning the bathrooms and other little chores around the house, I went to the stores for my groceries. The weather is very much June Gloom. It almost feels and smells a bit like Holland.

The news this evening was again so indescribably sad. All the animals and the beaches in the Gulf of Mexico are covered with that oil. All the people are broke now because of the horrific disaster BP and the American Minerals Management Services caused. I cannot even imagine what it is like to be there – to see that your part of the world is ruined for decades.

Here is a link to a very eye-opening article in the New York Times, about the way the American  Minerals Management Services, who had to oversee the drilling in the Gulf of Mexico,  did their “job”! http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/us/25mms.html
I hope they do not sleep well.