Isabella and I arrived back in Hawaii tonight.. it kinda feels surreal.. hope that feeling goes away, its bleh

Impressions, feelings and such… well, there are quite a few of course.

Let me start by saying that the feeling I currently have is a sick feeling as I got a fever here

How did the fever start? Well, at first I couldn’t really get into the new day and night schedule, a jetlag so to speak. A jet lag isn’t that bad, as long as you sleep and try to get into the new rhythm, and if that goes well, you can get rid of that jetlag in no time. But unfortunately there is a little girl that wakes up at the most impossible times (well, in Hawaii, because of the time difference, these are the normal times) and who then needs to be fed. So I stayed tired and my natural resistance became pretty bad too. My other daughter, Larissa, had a pretty bad cold, and she got us also infected. My mom got the cold a few days later, the same with Isabella, and me too. However, unfortunately I also got a 102.2 Fahrenheit fever (39 Celsius) next to that, and that’s something that I still suffer from..

Nope, that aint much fun if you ask me.. I haven’t been in the Netherlands for almost one and a half year, and when you get ill for 2/3 of the time that you’re here, that isn’t so much fun

Right, did I get some impressions and such besides the fever and cold? Well, first I want to say that it was extremely cold here!! It is becoming a bit warmer outside, but oh oh oh, this was much worse than I expected at first. You can really get used to the warm weather as it shows. Here a picture of the cold air:

Something else I noticed, and this I noticed quite fast after we left the airport, is that it seems as if everybody is in a hurry. Especially on the freeway people seem to have turned crazy. Of course I know that it isn’t much different than when I was still living in the Netherlands, but it looks so much worse since people are taking their time more in Hawaii.

Sometimes, on Hawaii, you can hear people say that there is hardly any ‘aloha’ left between the people on the islands (’aloha’ has many meanings, such as: love, compassion, affection, peace, mercy, etcetera), but when I compared it with the Netherlands, I always knew there was still aloha between the people on Hawaii. And now that I am in the Netherlands, I noticed this again. The people here are much more turned inward, which gives a very distant feeling in my opinion.

The lack of aloha here in the Netherlands is something you can see with more things. When you want to cross the street, for example. When you’re at the curb with a stroller, do you think anyone stops for you? Of course not. In Hawaii, about 99% of the people will stop for you, but it looks like 99% of the people in the Netherlands just drives on. Of course this is pretty dangerous for people like me, I got used to people breaking and I really had to be careful when I crossed a street over here.

Of course there are also other things in traffic which you have to be careful with after living in Hawaii for a while. For example on the highway when I went to the Hague, I drove on the third lane (out of four), and kept myself to the maximum speed.. what do you think, somebody drives a little bit faster on the far most right lane, comes all the way to the left to gain on me, and then goes all the way back to the right again, just in front of me. At that point I realized that it is not normal to keep your lane in Europe, but that is a bit different in the US.

I also forgot to let someone go first at a crossing, even though he came from the right, but I was like ‘I am first on the crossing, so I’m in my right to go first’, like it usually is in Hawaii: first come, first served. And then I became a bit ticked also when that guy honked at me haha.

Nah, I am already happy that I did think on time to stop in front of a red light when turning right, which is something you mostly don’t have to do in Hawaii (after a full stop that is) haha. I think I would hear a lot more honking if I did ignore the red.

I finally understood why Michelle always told me that she didn’t dare to drive in the Netherlands. I have no problems driving, but I do see where the fear came from haha.

And well, I don’t think there are many more new impressions, most of the things remained the same. I also followed the Dutch news all along while I was in Hawaii, so there were not much new things for me, I think. It might be different when we’re a few more years down the road, though.

• Michelle told me she has enough food and drinks, so that’s good news.. She should be safe during and after this #hitsunami #
• I’m glad to be in Europe with Isabella, but Michelle is still in #Hawaii.. thankfully she is high enough when that #tsunami happens. #
• #Earthquake in #Chile triggers #tsunami warning in #Hawaii.. looks like it can be pretty serious.. http://bit.ly/aLyp1c http://bit.ly/cNWhwD #

I’m glad nothing serious happened with the #hawaiitsunami ..things could’ve been a lot worse, glad my wife was safe - #hitsunami

Michelle told me she has enough food and drinks, so that’s good news.. She should be safe during and after this #hitsunami

I’m glad to be in Europe with Isabella, but Michelle is still in #Hawaii.. thankfully she is high enough when that #tsunami happens.

#Earthquake in #Chile triggers #tsunami warning in #Hawaii.. looks like it can be pretty serious.. http://bit.ly/aLyp1c http://bit.ly/cNWhwD

Isabella already had her United States passport (otherwise she couldn’t join me to the Netherlands, of course), but since she is also a Dutch citizen (because I hold the Dutch nationality), she can also get a Dutch passport and I thought that she should get one also.

I wrote it a while ago that requesting a passport for the Dutch in foreign countries would not be the easiest thing to do, I was kind of afraid that I would forget something, or that we would have to deal with some bureaucratic mess (especially after importing Flamey into the Netherlands). Fortunately it turned out to be a lot easier than expected.

In the morning of February 15, Isabella and I went to The Hague as this is the only place where we could request a passport for her (foreign consulates and embassies not included, but we have to fly a long way to get there.. the easiest is still to do this while we are in the Netherlands, like now).

Once we arrived in The Hague, we went straight to the city hall and asked for a place where we could make a passport picture for Isabella. Normally this is also possible inside the city hall, but they don’t take pictures of babies as these are much harder to take (according to them), so they told us to go to a photographer at the other side of the street (which turned out to be a cigar store that also made photo’s) who might be able to make the photo. The man who helped us (with an enormous Hague accent) asked me right away if Isabella was half Filipina, that was pretty incredible, not many people can guess this right.

After a short wait of about five to ten minutes, we went back inside the city hall to request the passport for Isabella, and to get her foreign (American) birth certificate registered in the Netherlands (if we ever move to the Netherlands, we wouldn’t have to travel all the way to Hawai’i for a birth certificate, but then we can also request one in the Hague).

Once it was our turn, it turned out things would be much easier than expected at first. I gave them my documents, they entered some information in the computer, they looked for a second if Isabella was really her, and the request for the passport was approved. While she (the city employee) copied the necessary documents I went to pay for the passport, after which I received all originals again. Everything went really smooth.

By the way, these are the documents that I needed:

- Passport photo (we only needed 1)

- Birth certificate with apostille (certified)

- Marriage certificate with apostille (certified) (I didn’t really needed this certificate as the Hawaiian marriage certificate was already entered into the Dutch system, I just brought it with me to be certain)

- A signed approval by the mother (and notarized by a notary public) for the passport (as Michelle was not there)

- Identification of the three of us

- My greencard (to prove my Dutch citizenship (a Dutch passport does not prove you are still a citizen))

I turned this into a expedited request as it normally takes about 10 days to pick the passport up again, and since that was a bit short on time. Now it would only take 3 days. It costs a bit more but it is better to be sure with these things (plus, it is always cheaper than 2 airline tickets of minimal 450 dollar each (not to mention the extra costs) when we had to get this in the US).

I hope things will be just as easy in five years from now, when Isabella and I have to renew our passports, but I am afraid it will take a bit more effort by then as, by then, I will (well, when everything goes according to plan) hold both the Dutch and the US nationality, and then I will have to bring extra documents to prove my Dutch citizenship. That might turn out to be pretty exciting again by then, but fortunately it is a long way from now

On February 9, 2010, Isabella and I went to the Netherlands for a visit of the family. They had never seen Isabella before, and they haven’t seen me either since 2008, so it was about time to do this. Michelle was unable to join us as she lost all her days off when she gave birth to Isabella.

So I went alone with the baby to the Netherlands. I can tell you that I was really nervous because of that trip as you have to travel for almost 24 hours. Will Isabella cry or not? That was my biggest fear, that Isabella would cry her heart out while we were in a plane full of people. Fortunately it wasn’t all that bad.

Michelle’s last cat, Flamey, also joined us on the trip as she was a present to my mother. Michelle has a pretty bad cat allergy and we decided that we should give this cat to my mom instead, so it would end up in a nice home. That was another factor of my worries, of course, will everything go well with that little one? Cats can be really stressed, and this was a pretty long journey.

Our plane would leave from Honolulu towards Los Angeles at 9.40pm, where it would make a short stop in order to fly on to Minneapolis/St. Paul, where we had to board another plane towards Amsterdam.

We arrived way ahead of time at the airport, but there was already a long row of people who had to be checked in. Because of the cat, we also had to line up in that same row (otherwise we would check in online). Once it was our turn, we had to fill in quite some papers and we had to show them the (health)papers of the cat, and we also had to deal with a broken printer (I wanted to get a receipt for bringing the cat, you never know haha).

So we had to wait for quite some time, and at the end of it all, after a short but emotional goodbye (like said, Michelle would stay all alone on Oahu), I had to hurry towards the gate. Once Isabella and I arrived at the gate, it turned out that everyone was waiting for me, everyone else already boarded, and they wanted to depart.. I can tell you, you will feel pretty embarrassed when you get on the plane at that time.

I quickly installed Isabella in her carseat on the seat next to me, and after one of the flight attendants told me that the cat was also safely on board, we were ready to depart.

Isabella remained pretty quiet during take off. I fed her during the take off, to avoid the popping of her ears. However, she did cry when the seatbelts light turned off. What I personally think is that Isabella was way too tired, she had been awake for most of the afternoon before our flight because her grandmother wanted to see her. Anyways, I grabbed her and walked up and down the airplane with her in my arms, and thankfully that calmed her down (I thought it was terrible, first to hold up a complete plane, and then a crying baby on board.. oh oh oh).

Next to me there was a man, and his family (wife and two kids) sat on the other end of the walkway in the same row. When Isabella and I were walking for a bit, the lady asked me if she could hold Isabella, and try to calm her down. I gave Isabella to her and I got some time to get some things done for myself, and Isabella calmed down even more. The man next to me said he would move to a seat more forward in the plane (the plane was pretty empty), so he could get some sleep and I would have more space to get in and out of my seat. I can tell you that this was very nice.

Isabella calmed down after a short while (fortunately) and I put her back in her seat where she slept for the remainder of the flight. With that, I had two seats for myself (and of course the space under the third seat of Isabella, to stretch my legs) and I had a pretty relaxed flight. Like said, Isabella slept for the remainder of the flight and after about 4.5 hours, we arrived in Los Angeles.

I ate some breakfast in Los Angeles, changed Isabella’s diapers, fed her and shortly after that all it was time again to leave towards Minneapolis.

I was curious to see how the flight to Minneapolis would be, especially because I did not know if I had someone next to me or not. Well, it turned out that this flight was even emptier than the flight coming from Honolulu (and Isabella stayed quiet also, she also slept most of that flight). We left at dawn and a few hours later we arrived in a very white, and very cold, Minneapolis.

In Minneapolis we had to wait for a few hours, which turned out to be ok as the Delta employees needed Flamey’s papers again, the vet that took care of her during that stop needed it. Once it was time to get on board again, we got into a very full flight. Because Isabella didn’t cry so much, I didn’t know exactly what I could expect, it could stay like it was but she could also become restless. The flight attendants were immediately sold by her and didn’t want to give her back, but yeah, they had to work so that was bit of bad luck for them haha.

Isabella also remained pretty quiet during the long flight to Amsterdam. A few times she wanted to cry, when she woke up from some noise for example, but a quick reaction helped a lot. After a long flight we arrived in the dark, and light snow, in the Netherlands. There was only one runway open at Schiphol Airport due to snow earlier that night, and since the wind came from our side, we went from left to right during our approach (I could especially see this when we drove home on the freeway, the planes landing at that time were bouncing a lot).

We got off the plane and went towards customs. At the passport check, I went through ‘all passports’, because of Isabella’s US passport (it turned out later we could also take the other line) and apparently I have a Dutch face because they greeted me in plain Dutch haha.

Near the luggage belt, I asked how it would go with Flamey, where I could expect her, and they told me that she would either be brought to the belt, or to the desk where I was at that time. I then went on to the luggage claim to get our suitcases and once I had those, they also brought Flamey’s crate to the desk. The KLM employee (I think she is from KLM as she was dressed in blue) asked on the radio if it was my cat, and they confirmed it but it looked like there was no cat in the crate…

No cat in the crate? How is that possible? They gave me a confirmation in Minneapolis that she was on board of the plane. But what do you think? Flamey got scared during the flight (I can’t blame her, it is really something for such a creature) and she hid herself under the blanket that we put in the crate for her, so it looked as if there was no cat at all. Luckily she was there, and fortunately she looked healthy also.

The comments from the girls at the desk were nice. Such a beautiful baby and beautiful cat, I had to be a very happy man haha. That was nice, I received a lot of compliments about Isabella anyways, that she is so beautiful, and that she was so nicely quiet during the flight and also because I was so brave to go on such a journey alone with a baby and cat.

One of the ladies offered me to walk me towards the exit, because I had so much with me (you could say I brought too much haha), and once we got to the exit, the customs stopped me. If I had all papers for the cat…

I did my homework and had all kinds of papers with me (USDA papers, EU papers, all kinds of certificates and so on) that one could think of. The woman who asked me for the papers took them with her, and together with 4 or 5 people they looked at them. I really got the impression that they did not really know what they were looking at, or that they knew at all what they were doing. A bit later they told me that they had to make a phone call, and after that call she came back to me and said she was impressed, it did not happen often for someone to have all needed papers.

At that point I felt a bit like “nice, I can see that I am back in the Netherlands”. I also noticed, during my wait time at the exit, that the customs only stopped a certain kind of people for a luggage check.. Welcome to the Netherlands…

Once we were cleared and got out, my mother, sister and daughter Larissa were waiting for us, and after an emotional reunion we went towards Breda.

My first impressions of the Netherlands at that time? It was extremely cold and it looked like everyone was mad on the road. Everyone was in a hurry and went from left to right on the freeway. It is possible that me being tired had something to do with it, but at the other hand, we are not that much in a hurry on Hawaii and we drive a lot easier. I finally could see why Michelle was scared to drive in the Netherlands when she visited me in 2007.

Yes, I could really notice that I haven’t been in the Netherlands for some time, I felt a bit like a tourist in my own country.

• http://twitpic.com/12e3j2 - Isabella flying.. #