Well, its actually been a month in Holland to-date.

I am in a quiet city in the north of the Nethrlands, in Hoorn! Yes I agree, a strange name that insinuates different things.

None-the-less, Hotel MariaKapel HMK is the art space hosting me for 2.5 months to focus on the my research and actaully, this place it the perfect space for concentration.

My adventures to date of coarse included bicycles, which are so much fun, as long as you don't fall off in the middle of a busy tourist area straight on your butt!

Also in the meantime, I visited Den Haag which in comparison to the charm of Amsterdam really stands no chance, but it seems everyone knows that. And I went into Rotterdam for half a day, and that was all construction and tall buildings. But what I learned about the Dutch from my friend Onno who lives in Den Haag is that the Dutch are really good at tearing down buildings and bringing up new ones.... constantly! So they seem to have little qualms about heritage..... but I am sure Amsterdam is the exeption to that rule.

Otherwise, the Dutch smile at you and say hello for no aparent reason.... and no not just in small town Hoorn, but even in the big cities! Perhaps its because its been really sunny since I got here - well most of the time - at some point I doubted the reputation of bad weather, but I got a good taster.

Unfortunatly, no one is interested in the stereotypes of the Arab world here, so no belly dancing episodes, although I did manage to cook Mloukhieh for my reisdency collegues from Canada, and they liked it! They are working on a performance work Life of A Craphead http://www.amylamwebsite.com/craphead.html

The performance is in a week, so the stress is on!

And this is HMK

http://www.amylamwebsite.com/craphead.html

And this is lovely Hoorn