Author: Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Choosing a High School in Amsterdam, Part 3

Choosing a High School in Amsterdam, Part 3

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

See also Part 1 and Part 2.

While I was chatting with Donna Bardsley at Amsterdam Mamas after she interviewed me last week about this whole process, she said something that I can’t stop thinking about. She had asked me during the interview what I thought about the Dutch education system, and in particular about the streaming system that separates kids out by ability at the age of eleven. I’d responded fairly positively (as I have on this blog), partially because I’ve always had an inherent hesitation about publicly saying something overtly negative about the culture in which I live at the time, and partially because I really do see some clear benefits to the system.… Read more

A Home That No Longer Exists, or That Never Was

A Home That No Longer Exists, or That Never Was

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

The Welsh have a special word for homesickness. Or I should say, a special word for a special kind of homesickness. Hiraeth can be defined as longing for a home that no longer exists, or that never was. It is homesickness tinged with grief or sadness over the lost or departed. I guess it’s a form of lost love, but more for a place than for a person. It’s a longing that by definition cannot be filled, because its object is in some way unattainable, whether it has been lost or never existed in the first place, or has yet to be created.… Read more

Choosing a High School in Amsterdam, Part 2

Choosing a High School in Amsterdam, Part 2

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

See also Part 1 and Part 3

We visited a couple more schools with Axa this week. By now we pretty much have the drill down (and she knows to keep her eyes out for where they have the cookies). I am starting to feel more confident about the process, and a bit less shell-shocked. After all, at the end of the day she just writes down all her choices and then we wait for the lottery. And none of my agonising or nit-picking about this or that advantage of this or that school will make much of a difference, if at all.… Read more

Weekend in Maastricht – City Tour

Weekend in Maastricht – City Tour

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Maastricht is definitely one of our favourite places we’ve gone in the Netherlands so far. We took my parents there when they visited last October, and had a wonderful time. And since I never blogged about it, I thought I’d share some of our favourite Maastricht sights and activities.

We took the train down from Amsterdam, and it took about two hours and forty-five minutes. That’s a bit longer than by car, but we like riding the train, and it was nice not to have to worry about parking once we got there. Our hotel was just down the street from Maastricht’s lovely main square, a location which I would definitely recommend, since one of the delights of Maastricht is just wandering through its picturesque streets.… Read more

Adventures in Trello

Adventures in Trello

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Several months ago, I found myself quite overwhelmed with my to-do list. Or should I say to-do lists. I had them on post-its at my desk at work. I had them on post-its in various places at home. I wrote them on little pieces of paper. I had a great many in the “reminders” app on my phone. Tony had invited me to Wunderlist to keep track of the shopping, so I had some there too. To say nothing of the shared Google calendar without which most events in our life and our children’s lives would simply not happen.… Read more

Choosing a High School in Amsterdam

Choosing a High School in Amsterdam

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

We’ve already visited our first few high schools in Amsterdam with Axa, and there is so much to love. You might remember last month’s post about choosing whether to stay at her current bilingual Dutch school for the next six years, transfer to an international school, or go Dutch. She’s leaning heavily towards the latter, which is exciting and overwhelming and nerve-wracking all at once. In fact, she’d like to go all out and do Gymnasium, which is a full-on classical college preparatory education complete with French, German, Greek, and Latin. As her languages-loving, nerdy mother I couldn’t be more happy for her (and I can assure you it is her own decision, although of course she knows I’m thrilled with it).… Read more

Tony’s First Tattoo

Tony’s First Tattoo

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Yes, he did it. While we were in Malta. And it was the most romantic thing ever.

Because he did it on holiday, you might think that it was a spur of the moment (and possibly regrettable) decision. But he’s actually been planning and talking about this particular tattoo for years. So when he saw a snazzy looking tattoo shop just down the street from our AirBnB, he figured it was a sign. From the inside, the tattoo shop was even better. There’s so much of the weirdly wonderful going on here, from the guy sitting to the right–who is not a guy, but a ghost–to that piano/shrine/home bar with all the candles gloriously melted over it

Maybe all tattoo shops are this cool; I had never been in one before.… Read more

Malta – Postscript

Malta – Postscript

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

This is a post for some random interesting stuff from Malta. Such as the language. What Maltese sounded like to me was a mixture of Arabic and Italian. Which in fact it more or less is! It originally descended from the version of Arabic being spoken in Sicily around the turn of the previous millennium (9th to 12th centuries A.D.), and it’s still considered by linguists to be a variety of Arabic, although it’s written in Latin characters (with some lovely funky additions like an H with an extra bar) and only perhaps a third of the current vocabulary descends from Arabic.… Read more

Malta – Għar Dalam Cave and Hiking the Marfa Peninsula

Malta – Għar Dalam Cave and Hiking the Marfa Peninsula

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Our Malta trip was winding down, but we still had one item left on the sightseeing list: Għar Dalam Cave. I get the impression that this cave was probably always known to the inhabitants of Malta, but the first recorded mention of it was in 1647 in a text compiled by the historian of the Knights of St. John.

The place didn’t really get excavated until the 19th century, when paleontologists dug into the floor of the cave and discovered incredible numbers of fossils in it, of things like pygmy elephants, hippopotami, and deer, all of which have been extinct on the island for thousands of years.… Read more

Malta – Boating and Horseback Riding

Malta – Boating and Horseback Riding

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Malta abounds in natural beauty, and how better to see it than from a colourful Maltese fishing boat or the back of a horse?

When we first booked our tickets and started thinking about Malta, the two things the kids said they wanted to do were horseback riding and kayaking. Unfortunately, kayaking seems to be a summer activity in Malta, and we couldn’t find anyone who would take us during what to Maltese people is the dead of winter (yesterday it was a sunny 15 degrees outside, and we were listening to the radio weather person commiserating with her fellow Maltese about the bitterly cold temperatures, and exhorting them to bravery).… Read more