Orange Police

April 25th

This morning we went to Crystal cathedral again. This time the sun was shining and there was no service. Therefore we could make some pictures of the interior. It really is an impressive building. After a short GSE-meeting, during which we evaluated our first week in the USA, we got a burger at In N Out. The conclusion of the meeting: the first week could not have been better. Everybody is so nice and generous. We really feel at home. Tomorrow we will have to leave our hosts and go to the next host family, but we don't want to go....

This afternoon we visited the Orange Police and literally saw everything. Sergeant Mike gave us a tour, we watched the SWAT truck and we had a discussion about crime rates and crime prevention.

Easter is a family day

April 24th, 2 PM

This afternoon we went to Huntington beach to visit family. I finally saw Slater, Mike's and Jean's great grandson. He is a wonderful boy! We had a BBQ (despite the fact that we had just eaten a Vietnamese lunch....) and we really had a nice team. After our BBQ we went to the parc: we played egg toss (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_tossing) and really talked about everything. We talked about vaccinations, the use of vitamin K, politics and religion.

It is a fact that almost everyone in the US is concerned about the current problems regarding the economy and the health care system. Everyone I speak has different solutions, but nobody is sure that these solutions will work. Today someone told me: when you consider Europe as an , adult, the US are just a teenager....Changes take time, but they will come. At this moment both the US and Europe are facing great problems, and the solutions are difficult and not very popular.

Crystal cathedral

April 24th, 10.30 AM

Today it is Easter and it is raining.... After working on my blog, Michael takes me to Crystal Cathedral. It's a magnificent building! After looking around, we attend part of the service.

Crystal cathedral is a large building, but not so large as Saddleback church.....

Disneyland

April 23rd, 10 AM - 10 PM

We have been to Disneyland all day! And we all really enjoyed. We took all great rides en saw the most beautiful things.
The Fantasmic show was so nice to see. I know that my wife and son will be jealous! Annemieke en Hasse, I promise that I will take you to Mickey and his friends in Disneyland.

http://disneyland.disney.go.com/

Saddleback church

April 22nd, 5 PM

At Eastern it is almost impossible to go to church, it's so crowded. Therefore we went to church today. This week the Eastern service is hold 12 times (the same service). Saddleback church is huge: 3,000 people can be there together.... This day a miner from Chili, wo had been underground for 69 days (you will all remember the story), talked about his time underground.

The service was really impressive, but not my cup of tea I suppose. I really like our own small congregation in the Netherlands. However, in the Netherlands we are are talking whether or not to get a beamer and stuff like that which will cost us 4,000 dollars, but here they raise 43 million dollar when they want to built a new building for the teenagers.....

Lunch....

April 22nd, 1 PM

In the States you don't lunch with a cheese sandwich! You go out lunching! And when in Rome, do as the Romans do. So we had a wonderful Mexican lunch, it was enough for about a week, but we ate it all. The dessert was delicious: fried ice-cream (remember, it was just lunch....)

Same sex marriage

There would be a wedding in the Richard Nixon library, the day we visited it. Of course we began to talk with our hosts about marriage and about the fact that we have the same sex marriage in the Netherlands. We had to demonstrate that and Spud helped in performing the ceremony.

Richard Nixon Library

April 22nd, 9 PM

This morning we visited the Richard Nixon library, which is actually a museum regarding the life and work of Richard Nixon. We visited his birth house and entered his helicopter. We learned everything about his life and of course about watergate.

Angels- Red Sox 2-4

April 21st, 7 PM

The first baseball game we ever saw and we lost.....

Fortunately, we had a wonderful night and we really enjoyed ourselves in the stadium. So many people in red. We had Churros and Hotdogs and we talked about the game, unions, the helath care system and so many more.....

Mental Health Services

April, 21st

Together met Dr Michael and Linda, we went to St. Joseph Hospital. We spoke to the personel of the psychiatry unit and we got a tour. Linda showed some pictures and everyone was really impressed. Money seems to be a great problem in mental health care in US, as 'it is not a money maker'. A psychiatric patient shares a room with 3 other patients!

We talked to the manager (a liberal) and heard a very different opinion concerning the health care system in the US compared to what we had heard before. It's very nice to hear everyones opinion about both the Dutch and American health care system.

Chapman University

April 21st, 9 PM

This morning we went to Chapman University, a private university in California. Here we got a tour and we attended a lecture. In this lecture, a course about conflict and conflict management was presented. The information shared was comparable to the courses about tis subject in the Netherlands, however, the classes are much smaller and probably therefore, much more interactive.

A new morning

April, 21st

5 AM and already awake: this is what they call jetlag! After working on my computer for an hour or so, we had breakfast with melon and delicious toast....

At 8 AM we left for the city hall. At city hall all members of the GSE team were dropped of. This morning we will be heading for Chapman University.

A very warm welcome

April 20th, 6 PM

This evening we had a welcome party at the house of Johrita and Bruce. Of course all GSE members were there, and also around 50 Rotarians. We talked with a lot of people, explained our goals and told everyone about our lives in the Netherlands. A lot of US citizens told us they had been to the Netherlands!

The food was good, and so was the company. Around 9 PM we all went home and directly fell asleep.

The first vocational visit

April 20th

At 10.30 AM Dr Michael Abdalla picked me up from the Double Tree Inn. He and his wife Jean will be my hosts this week. They both are really lovely people!

After installing myself in my new bedroom, we left for the Children's Hospital of Orange County (CHOC).

We had a lecture about Ewing sarcoma and afterwards the chief resident, Kevin, gave us a tour.

CHOC is a children's hospital with more than 200 beds. Every subspecialism in pediatrics, oncology, neurosurgery, etc even has it's own ICU beds!

The rooms are big and very sophisticated. Money is never a problem as a lot of people donate money to children's hospitals in the United States.

Sweet dreams

April 19th: it's only 6 pm, but we are so tired! We take a quick swim and go to bed at 8 pm.

We are in California!

After an eleven our flight, we arrive at LAX airport. Four members of Rotary pick us up and give us a very warm welcome! The take our suitcases, drive us to the hotel and help us check in.

We buy sim-cards for our telephones, have a drink with Johrita, the district governor, and with Greg Owen, who will be next year's governor.

The beginning of a long journey

After months of informal and formal meetings, filling in forms and making powerpoint presentations, the time has come.

At 7.30 PM we take the train to Schiphol airport. The first night we stay at the van der Valk hotel at the airport, tomorrow we will fly to the USA!

Our son and my mother in law help carrying the suitcases....

Mijn laatste werkdag

Vandaag is dan toch echt mijn laatste dienst (en tegelijkertijd laatste werkdag) in de Isala Klinieken. De laatste brieven worden geschreven, de laatste foto's verstuurd en de medische dossiers bijgewerkt. Vanaf morgen ben ik vrij en zal ik mij volledig op de reis naar Amerika gaan richten. Eerst maar eens een lijstje maken met alles wat nog gedaan moet worden. Vandaag hebben we in ieder geval vanuit Amerika te horen gekregen dat we op bepaalde momenten toch echt met jasje en stropdas verwacht worden: samen met de andere heren in ons reisgezelschap zal er daarom in ieder geval nog een winkelsessie volgen. Maar welk jasje past er nu bij een zwarte blouse met Delfts blauwe (Delftware in English) accenten?