Travel, briefing (pt. II), and more

Here I am in Amsterdam again - it sure seems like I was just here! Everything felt strangely familiar when I arrived...it was much more comfortable arriving in Schippol this time than it was last time. The jet lag, the strangeness of the airport, the customs process: the impact of everything was much less taxing than it was the last time I came through. I guess at this point it seems almost familiar - at least international arrivals does.

So...the last few days have certainly flown by. I had two nights in New York which were nice. Thursday night was a bit of a blur, with emotions from having left Seattle hitting me quite strongly. Found my hotel (after a 3 hour shuttle ride), rustled up some dinner at a local Irish place, and pretty much crashed. Friday was the infamous briefing in New York, which in retrospect I appreciate more than I let on previously. The information was certainly useful/helpful, just not for the next nine months. If I had attended Welcome Days in New York instead of the PPD course in Holland, I wouldn't have had to stop by on Friday. Since I went to Holland (and I'm glad I did...the Welcome Days is much less comprehensive) I was required to get a little bit of face-time in NYC.
Friday night I met up with my good friend Sarosh, who lives in DC. When he heard that I was going to be in New York for an evening, he decided that would be a good time to visit his sister who lives in Manhattan. It was really nice - I hadn't seen him for nigh on 9 months, if not longer. And it was particularly nice to finally get to meet some of his extended network - including his sister Zu, some folks I'd first heard about from Tania waaaay back at BU (Fowzi), and Noam and others...These are all folks I've heard all kinds of wild tales about for almost 10 years...which is quite a hoot, really. The whole idea that someone I met in college (Tania) happened to know someone I met 5 years later in Seattle (Sarosh) and they all knew the same people...well, that still blows my mind even now.
Saturday morning bright and early I went to meet my brother Z, sister-in-law Amy, and their two absolutely stunning little ones Willow and Elliot. We met for dim sum in Chinatown where we probably spent almost two hours noshing and talking (and, for me, playing "I Spy" with Willow). Elliot was the hit of the retaurant - all of the staff wanted to play with him and hold him and get him to smile, which he did with aplomb! Once we finally decided we were stuffed (and we were definitely stuffed), we headed out to walk a bit to get to some bakeries that Z had identified through his multitude of baking books as 'places I need to go'. The first one was closed as it was a jewish bakery and of course it was saturday. The second one was a fairly hopping, trendy kind of place, but the pastries were quite good. From there, we went back to Chinatown, picked up the car, and Z & Amy took me to Newark (ahead of the storm) to fly to Heathrow.
It was very, very nice to see them. Both the kids are growing up so fast it's incredible, and I don't see Z and Amy often enough. While it would have been nice to get to go out to Allentown and finally see their house and relax a bit, I'm glad I stayed in NYC - I think the added stress of leaving the city and having to come back in would have gotten to me.
Second to when I departed from Seattle (and Sky), I was probably hit hardest emotionally when Z & Amy left me at the airport. Having mulled it over a bit, I can definitely say that I recognized, when they left that it was the last time I would see a friendly familiar face for the next nine months. That was a hard one for me...took me a bit of time to go ahead and work through it; to recognize, accept, and transform the emotions. I'm feeling a lot better now :) Fortunately, I feel I'm someone who makes friends easily and is generally pretty amicable, so I'm quite excited to get opportunities to get new friendly, familiar faces to add to my list.
From NYC I flew to Heathrow in an airplane that I think contained every Indian family that had a small (read: infant) child and its grandmother. Lots and LOTS of infants and fussy grandma's on the flight - made for quite a ride. Got to Heathrow, had _another_ 5 hour wait for my flight, during which time I strongly believe I could have walked to A'dam if it weren't for the bloody channel. The flight from London to A'dam takes about 45 minutes. Got in last night, caught a shuttle to the Hotel Arena (where I stayed last time), scrounged up some excellent green pea soup with rye bread and bacon (note to self and others: the dutch serve their "bacon" cured only - not fried or cooked), had a heinekin or two while thinking that I should stay up until at least 10PM...and then I literally woke up, having fallen asleep right there at the table in the cafe. Not for more than a few seconds, but it was certainly a bit unexpected! Went to bed about 8:30PM and woke up this morning at 8AM. Excellent night's sleep, and not feeling too jet-lagged!

So here I sit in the library at the MSF (Artsen zonder Grenzen) in A'dam, waiting for my briefing to begin. It turns out I didn't need to be here until 11AM, not the 9AM I was originally told. i think I'll go have some of that good Dutch coffee, maybe read a country report on Liberia or something.
Take care all - I'll write as often and much as I can (when there are things worth writing about)...