Today my mom called to say that she was in the process of booking her ticket to come visit us in Holland. It was easy to tell that she was excited, but I must say that I’m excited too! She was at the computer right then choosing her seats for the flights here and back, asking for our advice on what seats to pick based on our previous experience.

This trip to Holland will be a series of new experiences for her starting with the flight itself. She’s never flown on such a long haul flight before and she’s never flown alone either. I will be meeting her at the airport so she doesn’t have to navigate the train system by herself. And then, of course, being in Europe for the first time will be something she has nothing to compare it to.

For Brad and I, we had been to the old part of Montreal prior to traveling to Europe. On our first trip, we would catch ourselves comparing the tiny streets in London to Montreal when really we should be comparing Montreal to London. Now that we are living here, the old buildings, cobblestone streets, and the narrow lanes have become part of normal life.

Interestingly, now that my mom has booked her ticket, I am starting to look at my city and neighborhood again through new eyes -- the eyes that my mom might look through when she comes. I notice the garbage on the streets, the graffiti on the decrepit old building about to be torn down, and the rusty abandoned bicycles. While this isn’t dirty, crazy Berlin with punks and poverty and old political strife, Groningen isn’t the cleanest city I’ve been in.

Of course, we will try to take my mom to all of the nicest parts of Groningen to give her the best impression. That might mean we’ll have to change our bike route a bit. We often try to take the fastest route, but that isn’t always the most scenic. And we’ll try to avoid the red light district so she won’t be freaked out on her first day here like we were when we arrived. And we’ll certainly avoid biking down the Boterdiep whose abandoned shops and boarded up buildings leave a little to be desired.

But the reality is that she probably won’t notice these flaws because there will be so much to take in and so many new things to experience. Like biking to IKEA on Tuesday morning in the sunshine, or taking the train to church on Sunday, or shopping downtown on Saturday at the market in the throngs of people. I think the 10 days will go really quickly!

Anyways, I am really excited that you are coming Mom! We promise to give you a fairly accurate picture of our life here and hopefully a little bit of it will be seen through rose colored glasses. It will be a fun time no matter what because we will all be together!

I’m counting the days…