Silver ( Montreal III )

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Like in any other sports event one encounters nice and friendly people and some really unsavoury horrid folk. Our cutie from Montreal is called Louis and apart from being cute he’s also a super nice guy. The worst was called Roland, we found out afterwards, who doesn’t even introduce himself and the moment the board’s up he walks away. Absolutely no breeding there……
After three days of playing bridge I had sort of reached the end of my tether. We did remarkably well on Wednesday morning but in the afternoon I caved in much to the dismay of my partner Pim. So no medals for us!!
The Dutch do very well where medals are concerned so the gold medal for Ellen and Jolanda (tennis doubles) is not a big surprise. Swimming and cycling is another discipline we do well.
Needless to say that I’m very proud of my husband Paul, however, for getting the silver medal for the cross country run.

The general atmosphere here in Montreal is wonderful and walking through the “Gay Ghetto” on Sainte Catharine in the evening gives you quite a buzz.

Last night we went to “Outsplash”, a closing performance by several swimming clubs. Two Dutch ones…: Ketelbinkie from Rotterdam (2nd place) and Upstream from Amsterdam (3rd place). Winner was the group from Melbourne, Australia.
Apart from partaking in a sport you can also go and watch a lot of other ones. Anne, Paul and I went to the diving on Thursday morning and the body building extravaganza in the afternoon. They call body building “Physique” in US English and “Culturisme” in Quebecois French. It’s amazing what these men (didn’t see the women) can do with their muscles. Country and Western and ballroom dancing are also very popular here.


Today is the big day for Paul, Nick and Anne as they’re doing the half-marathon. The weather is good, breezy and not hot. We were all there cheering them on as the passed by.
This afternoon at 4 pm. is the closing ceremony with Liza Minelli as the main attraction (hope she can still sing with all those drugs keeping her standing upright). Should be fun anyway.

And this is almost it. Flying back home via Munich to good old Amsterdam tomorrow and that basically concludes my year in Nagasaki. It won’t be my last entry since I still have to evaluate the pros and the cons of this year.
One of the cons is the absolute nasty attitude of the teachers at Nagasaki University. I got an email from Bart saying that only 5 students will receive their certificate. Apparently you must have 7 credits in the 1st semester and 7 in the 2nd but did they ever tell us that….no. So for those who got only 5 or 4 credits in the 1st semester and subsequently worked their asses off to make the total of 14 credits will not receive the certificate. Well I’m sure you know what I think they can do with their precious certificate……#$%&*%$#

Need more Zen ... maybe .. In with anger out with love......