New Year

Greetings! Hope everyone is doing well in 2010. Yesterday I completed a 2 1/2 month visit in the US that was varied as it was long, and it couldn't have come at a better time considering the wickedly brutal winter weather Amsterdam experienced while I was gone. Mind you Orlando wasn't a tropical paradise during this period either, but it was substantially better than sub-freezing days and nights strung together endlessly, icy sidewalks and streets, and more snowfall than they have seen in decades. Two days before my return on the 24th they finally broke into the 40's (5 degrees c)!! By the weekend we're creeping close to 50 before another dip in the temperature hits. No, I haven't seen the sun since returning. But, that could be because I slept 10 hours (to noon today) after being awake for 38 hours straight. I got to the apartment around 11 after my arrival was delayed, placed 40 of Mom's (Radhika's Mom) precious homemade paratha's in the freezer, unpacked, fell on the bed for 10 minutes before I was picked up to go to a board meeting in The Hague about an hour away. Came back to Amsterdam around 6, where I was met at the door by our new maid and Radhika preparing for her Dutch language tutor and the other 3 students who share in the class that takes place at our apartment. I finished unpacking and ate after class was over and watched some TV to relax. Fell asleep I was so relaxed, but could not duplicate that feat again until around 2am.
Today I spent organizing and finalizing the two workshops that I will conduct this Sunday and on the 21st of March. I also scheduled a meeting for the commercial shoot I will be doing soon with the tour boat company. I will be back at ACCESS soon, as the board member I was butting heads with before I left has been asked to leave and has done so. They are deciding on compensation for the editors of the magazine too, so hopefully I will be back at that soon. I will be making some photography trips of several days soon to areas close by to continue building my portfolio, and also want to set up some other commercial flavored settings with local models to bolster my book, as well. Also following the path suggested by one of my professors that I talked to on one of my trips to Daytona Beach, getting work with US based magazines and clients. So, being busy in the coming weeks and months should be good. I will keep this up as often as possible. My next entry in the coming days will cover my trip to the US, and everything that happened along with pictures. Until then....