Hup Holland Hup!

What an exciting world cup thus far...be sure to be watching Sunday at 3:00 (edt) for Holland vs Portugal.

Skype and An Inconvenient Truth

There's a free internet phone program called Skype. You need a microphone and speaker for the computer or a headset system. I know my housemate prefers the little headset system. With Skype, you can call other people running Skype for free, anywhere in the world. If you have or install Skype and want to talk to me, e-mail me and I will give you my username.

Also, if you are running the program Skype, you can call any phone in North America for free. So I can run Skype, and call my parent's home phone and talk for free and they don't need to be using Skype. This will only be available for the rest of the year (but Skype to Skype calls will still work after that for free).

Finally, I just saw the movie An Inconvenient Truth which was really good and very educational.

Kite flying

Carly watching Bert's kite.

Tegan and Bert

Tegan having a conversation with her uncle Bert.

Heavy discussion?

Watching

Watching the Huitema "show".

Birthday girl.

The birthday girl!

The Band

Great music!!

Jivin'

The band's music was too hard to resist and Marijke and Carly just had to give it a whirl.

Birthday party

Maaike and Tom took some time off from fishing to talk with the birthday girl.

Looks like fun!

Stef must be entertaining Donna with a great story.....Stef has lots of those!!

New Blogger

Just signed on this "blog" deal...no pictures just yet, just a quick hello. Oh, and happy birthday to all those with b-days in May (or any month past) i've missed...there's just so many!

I just had to try this "easier" method of posting pictures and so I thought I would share this photo of my spring bulbs in bloom.

An easy way to add pictures

Hello,

Blogger has made some changes to adding posts to a blog and now there is an easy way to add pictures. You don't need to use the 'hello' program anymore, you just add the picture when you are composing your post. The add picture icon is right next to the spell check button (check ABC) and you just follow the instructions.

Meeting of some of the cousins.

Easter Sunday at Donna and Johnny's. Maaike and Jericho enjoying the beautiful weather that day.

Spring Skiing in Vancouver

This picture is from Grouse mountain, on a nice spring day you get a fantastic view of the city and you can even see Mount Baker (not in the picture though). Spring skiing is nice but it does get a little slushy.

Bert and I have made it home and the cold spell we are having here is quite a difference for us. This photo was taken in a courtyard in Rio Grande City where we had gone for lunch with some friends.

Dutch Passport

I have successfully received my Dutch passport. I am officially recognized as a dual citizen. I’ll describe my situation so my cousins who are interested in getting their passport can do the same. First off, your father should have been born in Holland but left before the age of …I’m not sure. At least 13 I think. Second, you must apply for the passport before you turn 28 (ten years plus the age of majority). You will also need a bunch of documents that take weeks to process. It took me about 4 months to finish everything. Here are the documents you need:

1) Your father’s Dutch passport or the passport which his name was mentioned in when he came to Canada. That passport exists and has all the kids names in it.

2) If you can’t find the passport, you need proof he was a Dutch citizen before he left Holland through:

Bureau Vestigings Register BVR

Spui 70, 2511 BGT Den Haag or Postal address:

Posbus 12620

2500 DL Den Haag

The Netherlands

Tel: 011-31-70-353-3171

Fax: 011-31-70-353-2850

3) You need your father's long form citizenship certificate. This was awkward for me because Canada no longer issues the long form, only the short form (which dad had). The long form citizenship form can be requested by the consulate directly to whatever Canadian department handles it. I brought both the short form citizenship form and the long form (we still had it but it had been invalidated) and that was accepted.

4) You father's large size birth certificate. This I got with much assistance from Fokke Ypma (thanks again!!) You have to contact where you father was born to get this birth certificate. Hmmm, I can’t remember the details of how all this worked out. Perhaps Fokke has some insight.

5) Your parent’s long form marriage license available at your provincial Bureau of Vital Statistics. This document must be legalized by mail or in person at the Department of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa. (see address below).

6) Your large size birth certificate. Also available at the provincial Bureau of Vital Statistics and this must also be legalized at the Department of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa.(they do have a website)

7) Two full face pictures (different size than Canadian passport photos). If they need to be signed I don’t know. I had my supervisor (Prof.) sign them just in case.

8) Your Canadian passport or driver’s license.

9) $77.20 cash in the exact amount.

Legalizing Canadian documents: The original certificates must be legalized by

Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

125 Sussex Drive

Ottawa ON,

K1A 0G2

So I gathered all the documents, went to the consulate in Vancouver and they helped me fill out the passport application, took my money and in 4 weeks I went back to pick it up. So I am officially a dual citizen, I have a European Union passport which makes working in the EU much easier.

Texas

Bert and I are now in Falcon State Park in Texas (along the Rio Grande River), where we have stayed in previous years. The weather has been just great with temperatures an average of 27 degrees. Not too tough to take huh?