In Step~ with Wendy Crandall

Most people around the world have heard of California, that beautiful state that is situated along the west coast of the United States of America. Orange County is one of the more famous counties that make up California. The OC is home to Mickey Mouse, Disneyland, surfers, Laguna Beach, those famous Desperate Housewives and much, much more. But when I think of all those things and those “California Girls” there’s one girl who I’ve met here in The Netherlands who really sticks out in my mind as the essence of California. Free spirited, one with nature and the beauty that surrounds her no matter where she is living… meet Wendy Crandall.

Wendy and I met through an organization I joined after moving to The Netherlands, The North American Women’s club of Eindhoven. Sitting together at lunches or next to each other during coffee, our conversations always would flow very easily. Wendy is one of those rare people who without even knowing it, has brought joy and beauty to my life. I had wanted to start a blog about my experiences here in The Netherlands but had no idea how to start a blog. I found out that Wendy had a blog called Crandall Family Adventures in Limburg, and asked her for some help. She gladly said yes and invited me to her home for some blogging 101 lessons. After a couple of clicks on the computer my blog American Girl in Holland was born. She served up the perfect hot lunch on a cold Dutch day, ham and cheese toasties and French Onion Soup. Then Wendy took me on my first trip across The Netherlands border to Germany.

What I learned on that short trip from Venlo to Kaldenkirchen was that Wendy’s random act of kindness toward me was not random. She is like this all the time, always willing to help others, always ready to help others become better people. But what caught me by surprise was Wendy’s genuine inner inspiration that is contagious to those around her.

A few years ago when reflecting on life and what makes her happy, Wendy began thinking to herself… “When in my life was I most happy?” It’s a question all of us eventually ask ourselves as the day to day monotony draws us down. What can I do to feel happier, to be a better person and be more productive to the world around me? Well, Wendy thought and thought about that simple question and then it became clear to her. As a child, there was a time when she lived on a particular street in California that had a bunch of kids her own age. Every day they would all play outside and ride their bikes all day long. This feeling of happiness and freedom was a fleeting time in her childhood but one that could be easily fixed in her adulthood. She needed to step outside and play. And she did!

Wendy spends a good portion of her day outside enjoying everything nature has to offer. After moving from California to Bellingham, Washington she first worked for Habitat for Humanity and also a church. She then took a job at a Western Washington University where she helped others find alternative transportation to driving around not only the campus but the city as well. Using a bike, busing or taking a train are all great transportation alternatives to driving a car and creating more pollution.

Since moving to The Netherlands, Wendy has enjoyed exploring new places many different ways. Within two months of moving here she and her husband biked across The Netherlands. They rode a tandem bike on their more than 500 kilometer trek across the country. Starting in Den Burg and traveling all the way to Maastricht, Wendy and her husband stayed overnight with various hosts. Wendy’s dream of playing outside all day long was at its best… biking, enjoying nature, all kinds of weather, meeting new people and loving the local food and beer.

Follow this link if you’d like to read all about her biking adventures http://crandallfamilylimburg.blogspot.nl/search/label/Cycling

Another activity that Wendy does to keep herself outside is walking. I don’t mean a walk around the block or to the market, I mean serious walking. But how does a free spirit like Wendy link the word serious into her walking? She does this by usually having a destination in mind. Two amazing things she is doing with her walking are Geocaching and tackling the Pieterpad.

Geocaching as Wendy describes it is a destination for a good walk. As Wendy sets out the door on any given day, she has with her a backpacked filled with snacks, water, gloves and her cell phone with the app http://www.cgeo.org/  loaded and ready to go treasure hunting. With the coordinates loaded she will set off at any given time to go find a hidden container. The geocache may be in a city located in a random building or hidden out in the woods. There are over 5 million geocachers throughout the world who play this game with over 2 million places to find the caches. One day Wendy and I had set up to meet at her house for lunch. She asked if I’d like to take a walk and of course I said yes. Once again, we crossed over into Germany to walk with a geocache in mind. We found one in a coconut hanging from a tree. Not something you usually find in Germany. Inside we signed our names to the log showing that we were there and Wendy logged our find on line. Then we carefully placed the cache back in place for others to find.

For Wendy’s birthday this past year her daughter made her a cache. Here is the link if you would like to find Wendy’s birthday cache http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GC42866

If you would like to find a cache go to this site to get signed up. http://www.geocaching.com/

Another amazing walking experience Wendy is taking on is the Pieterpad. The Pieterpad is a 485km walking path through The Netherlands. The path is divided into 26 different sections with each ranging from 11km to 24km per section, a comfortable walking distance for Wendy. Wendy likes to train or bus to the start of each section that she has picked out to walk for the day. She loves discovering new places and meeting new people along her way.

Here is a link to Wendy and her progress along the Pieterpad. http://crandallfamilylimburg.blogspot.nl/p/pieterpad.html

I could go on and on about the ways that I find Wendy inspirational… whether it’s trying 50 new beers before she turned 50 or trying something new each week before her birthday this year, the list goes on and on. But I think the main reason I find her so motivating is that Wendy is true to herself. All the things she does just comes natural to her because she is not trying to be anyone but herself.

In Step.. with Wendy Crandall~ I wish!

In Step…. With Ruxi Darie

If you had to choose a color from a box of Crayola Crayons that you would like to use for the day, what color would it be? I’m not talking the small box… I’m saying the big box~64 crayons. For me, it would be blue. I love how cool blue is and how it calms my heart and soul. My favorite thing to do is to sit on a sunny day when the sky is as blue and wide as the eye can see, looking out over the ocean. The sound of the blue water crashing is very calming and peaceful to me.

But I asked my friend this question the other day and her smile became brighter as she lit up the room searching for an answer. “All of them”, she finally said.

Meet Ruxi Darie!

Ruxi is a friend of mine I met through the International Women’s Club of Eindhoven. Her quiet but dynamic personality was like a beacon calling to me to get to know her. First we sat next to each other at a few meetings of the club enjoying our time chatting. Next I found myself in an art appreciation class with Ruxi and loved hearing not only her accent but her take on the art that was being discussed. I had heard that Ruxi was an artist but when I saw her work, I was shocked! She is an amazing artist!

Ruxi invited me to her home to share a cup of coffee and a chance for me to see some of her work. I had been to her home once before with mutual friends. It was then and there that I fell in love with her amazing style.

But today as I walked into her home, colors splashed about the room and leapt from painting to painting beckoning me to look at one painting after the other. My eyes wandered from a painting of

 a fish with silver gills glistening through the water,

 to a girl with an earring,

 to the streets of New York,

 to the blob in Eindhoven

 and back to canals in and around the streets of Amsterdam.

Ruxi was born and raised in Romania. As a child she would doodle with her pencil and paper during school, occupying her mind as she listened carefully to her teachers. I asked Ruxi when she or her parents knew she had artistic talent. She said she was always drawing as a child.  Just little things here or there, but her first memory is of a painting she did of a still life when she was only eleven. She had been told by someone that it was hard to do a still life and that it probably wouldn’t turn out. Game on! Her inner artist burst out and that painting still hangs at her mother’s home in Romania.

Ruxi continued to draw through her teens. Growing up in Romania, fashion was very conservative at the time but Ruxi made sure to leave her mark. She would design her own dresses for dances. Flare and color were a big part of those designs and fabrics. She remembers designing a green leopard dress for one ball. Her mother was shocked that she would leave the house in a dress so bright with color and different from the other girls at her school. Now today, people think nothing of wearing leopard print or bright vibrant colors. Little did Ruxi know, color would become a major influence in her life.

In 2001, Ruxi and her husband took an exciting work opportunity, leaving Romania and headed to The Netherlands ready to explore new international opportunities. Searching for an international connection, she joined the International Women’s Club of Eindhoven and eventually joined the board as Special Activities Coordinator.

Eleven years ago a friend of Ruxi’s from the International Women’s Club of Eindhoven inspired Ruxi to start painting. Jenny Bertenshaw was a very positive influence in her life with her kind words and encouragement and helped to put Ruxi in contact with her first gallery experience here in The Netherlands.

During college, Ruxi had developed a fascination with buildings. She earned her degree in Civil Engineering and now as an artist, she is able to keep that love of line and angles in her work. With the privilege of being an artist, she is able to add what she wants to her work. She likes to add color and feelings to the buildings she paints, whether it’s the row houses in Amsterdam or the Blob in Eindhoven.

Ruxi feels that she needs a personal connection with her work. When she paints something, she has to love it or have feeling for it. She will only paint something she has seen. For example, Ruxi would never paint a picture of my childhood cottage in Michigan. I could tell her about the emotional feelings I have with my cottage and the smell of the pines and the sound of the whippoorwills, but she needs to feel the emotion. Without seeing a place or a person, there would be no emotion, and without emotion, she knows it would not turn out the way she would like. Once Ruxi has decided what she would like to work on, she takes a lot of pictures of her subject catching the different light and angles. She will leave the photos up and research her subject. “Then one day, I can come back to it and look at it. And it hits me! That’s what I want to paint!” said Ruxi.

Ruxi enjoys finding things to paint near where she lives. Having the beautiful landscape, the history, the striking buildings and the wonderful history of famous artist like Vermeer, Van Gogh and others surrounding her all are such an inspiration for her. That is simply what makes her happy.

Ruxi says, “Once a person decides to be an artist, you have to develop your own style.”   She likes to mix medias and experiment with different materials and techniques. She also enjoys layering different pieces into her work. If you look closely, you might find a ticket stub or a clipping from a newspaper in her paintings.  Ruxi says she of course is influenced by everything around her. She just finished her classes at the Knust Academie in Arendonk. There she was able to learn how to intertwine free graphics into her paintings.

In Ruxi’s life, color means feelings and happiness.  It could be a rainy day and you look at a piece with color and it can change your emotions. There are a lot of rainy days here in The Netherlands. She wants others to see the amazing colors here in The Netherlands, not just the grey.

Ruxi loves living in The Netherlands. It’s such an inspiration to her. She has done many paintings of Amsterdam, canals, and fields but right now she is focused on Eindhoven. She loves how Eindhoven is building its own personality where old meets new. She is fascinated with how The Blob sits right along with other buildings that are older. Ruxi enjoys how organic and rectangular forms are able to work together to make Eindhoven the dynamic city it has become. She says, even if you don’t love The Blob, you know where it is and it’s a focal point in the Centrum. Just like she enjoys mixing her medias, she also enjoys the buildings who’s ages are intertwined. It provides a lot of interest in her artistic view.  Other cities may be finished with the building of their city but Eindhoven is a work in progress. Eindhoven is such an inspiration.

Ruxie Darie~ Story teller of life with the use of color.

www.ruxandra-darie.com

Ruxi’s work has been shown in France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Canada, Hungary and Romania. 

In Step... With Silke Georgi

On a lazy Saturday afternoon, I walked into Douwe Egbert’s Coffee shop in Eindhoven to conduct my first personal interview for Eindhoven News. I chose my first person, or victim, as she laughed, because we had one common interest, Stolpersteine. Meet Silke Georgi.

I had met Silke at a North American Women’s Club luncheon hosted at her home. And after adding each other on Facebook, she read my article* about the Stolpersteine (stumbling stones). She messaged me that she was very involved with the stones and asked if I’d like to help some day. What I discovered is that she is not only very involved with the Stolpersteine here in Eindhoven, she is also in the middle of writing a book about them. 

Silke was born in Germany but moved to the United States just a few weeks after being born. She was raised in a “Currier and Ives” atmosphere in Boston as her dad was a professor of Theology for Harvard University. As both parents were German, only German was spoken in the home and English was spoken in school and in public. After attending public school she went on to Brandeis University in Boston where she studied politics. Silke then went on to Law school in Berlin where she arrived coincidentally on the day of Germany’s reunification. What an amazing day to arrive in Berlin!
Silke later married and had two beautiful children where they first lived in Aachen, Germany and then in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. She fully immersed herself into the Dutch culture. She learned how to speak Dutch, loving how similar it is to German. She quickly discovered though, that as ideal as her upbringing was, as wonderful as her background in education, even having a law degree, that simply was not going to work here in The Netherlands. She did not have a law degree from The Netherlands. 


Silke began volunteering for many organizations. She spent many years volunteering for Vluchtelingenwerk, a nonprofit organization that helps refugees. It was very humbling for her to go from earning a law degree to making coffee and other simple tasks. But she discovered a love for helping others that were new in the area. As her desire to do more increased, she went on to an organization called Indigo World. Here Silke worked on a variety of projects geared towards bringing people from different worlds together. She is proudest of a project she helped to initiate at the Technical University of Eindhoven, working with the wives of PhD students from countries all over the world. She says “it is mindboggling, the amount of talent and ambition that these women have which is going completely unnoticed here in Eindhoven”. 


About a half a year ago, after a chance meeting with a friend, she received a job practicing law with German clients at the law firm of Swart & de Schepper. “It is quite extraordinary to have found an employer who sees the benefits in that which I have to offer as an international and doesn’t zoom in on what is missing on my résumé according to a Dutch context”. She is also involved as a liaison where she works with a language and translating company. The company called Forefront matches translators from around the world.

It was beginning to get dark outside and we knew our afternoon needed to end, but I had one more question. Tell me about your involvement with the Stolpersteine. She smiled and began her story how she stumbled upon the stones. Near her vacation house in Germany Silke had one day discovered a Stolpersteine. Being curious, she did a little research to see what they were about. She then wondered if there were any in Eindhoven. Silke discovered there was a man by the name of Phocas Kroon that had just begun a project here in Eindhoven. He had begun researching the history of each of the 800 Jewish people living in Eindhoven at the beginning of the war in 1941. Silke quickly joined in the effort to help with honoring each of the 246 murdered victims by pouring through documents, photographs and interviews with family members and much more. Silke is now in the process of writing a book about the Stolpersteine. With financial help from her Alma mater Brandeis, she will soon be able to share this story with others. 

We smiled and hugged goodbye. We both knew that this meeting was about an interview, but what had taken place was the beginning of a wonderful friendship. 

In Step with Silke Georgi… this amazingly intelligent, funny, kind woman was a pleasure to discover.