Arrivals and Atonement

After an epic quest that spanned both the Atlantic Ocean and both sides of the country of Ireland, I arrived in Amsterdam yesterday. My last minute flight brought me from Boston to Shannon to Dublin to Amterdam. Most notably, the journey was made interesting by seeing men drink Guinness at 7am in Dublin, and sharing a plane to Amsterdam with immigration deportees. By an act of God, my bag made it and there were very little travel problems.

Today, Lee joined me here in Amsterdam. And after some napping, we joined Lee's sister Laurel and a group of her friends to see Atonement at the local American style movie theater. One of my favorite parts of Amsterdam is going to the movies. There is a fabulous old Art Deco style theater which serves beer and wine, and has assigned seats, that makes me think this is how movie go-ing must have been when it first began, but there is of course also more modern megaplexes. Despite this movie theater being of the American variety, the experience was still marvelous, Dutch people are much more polite in the theater and do not even begin to leave until the ending credits are at least 3/4 finished. I must say our group were the rowdiest people there.

I am currently reading Ian McEwan's novel "Atonement", after purchasing it in the Dublin Airport. It was great to go and see the film, and get a more visual idea of the author's intent. The novel is truly gripping, not a light read, the film makes it seem like a fluffier story, but the novel truly is dark and brooding. I won't give away much of the details here, but definately go out and give it a read, or see the film.

Happy 20th Birthday Ashley!!!

-Liz