Hey there!
A lot has happened since last we talked. Firstly, we made a trip up to Scotland to visit Kirk & Cynthia Zimbelman and their dog, Dexter. For those of you who went on the England trip with Kate two years ago, you can easily understand the enjoyment we felt at the Zimbelman home. They were incredible hosts as we explored Edinburgh for two days. I think our favorite part of the trip was on the first night we arrived when Kirk took us on a pub crawl to a few establishments in Armadale. It was nice to be away from the big city and to hang out with some seedy locals. We spent the next two days going to Edinburgh Castle, taking a bus tour of the city, sight-seeing, and going on a long stroll on a path along the Firth of Forth. The path was situated outside of Queensferry, a small sea-side town a couple of miles from Edinburgh. All in all, the trip was a success. We hope to make it up to Scotland to visit the Zimbelmans again.
Next, we traveled to Amsterdam for a weekend. Amsterdam was gorgeous, especially in the evenings. We spent the weekend visiting the Van Gogh museum where we saw the famous Sunflowers and Potato Eaters paintings, taking a canal cruise, exploring the Red Light District, and visiting the Anne Frankhuis where we were able to explore the secret annex as well as seeing Anne Frank's actual diary. This was especially interesting as we both participated in directing The Diary of Anne Frank last summer. On a less sobering note, the Red Light District was very interesting. We were worried that it might be a little shady (and don't get us wrong- parts of it were), but for the most part it was very touristy. When we saw old women, boyfriends and girlfriends, and families hanging around, we knew we were safe.
Upon return several wonderful things have happened. We finally got the Internet. It's both amazing and sickening that we are so dependent on having access to the Internet. We also purchased some much needed items as we were dangerously close to starting a fire in our flat with our over-used electricity converter. Now that we are hooked up to the web, Andrew has been applying for jobs so hopefully something will turn up in his favor soon. Kate began classes today with an introduction to the course. In short, the course runs until the beginning of July after which Kate will begin her dissertation either being written or performance-based. (Obviously she'll choose the later.) Her classes for this trimester consist of things such as stage combat, a 4-hour acting workshop every day, period movement, technical singing classes, and organic movement- to name a few. Her program will be performing Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" during this trimester. Her dissertation can be accomplished anywhere so hopefully over next summer friends will be able to come and visit, and we can do some more traveling.
Before I forget- We were watching a tv show a couple of nights ago called "Rude Tube". It's basically a British version of Tosh.O and Sioux City, IA was mentioned on it for their rendition of "We Built This City" (or We Built Sioux City) by Jefferson Starship. It gave us fuzzy, warm feelings about our home state.
It was also really embarrassing.
Well...we miss everyone and will hopefully be doing a better job of keeping everyone updated. Hope you are all well!
