After the last garbled post from Amsterdam — I think the Hero Chirac got the best of me — we’ve arrived home safely, at least in the physical sense. Mentally I’m still trying to figure out how we can relocate and start a new life as ex-pats, and I’ve spent the weekend trying to get my wits about me as I battled a stomach flu.

In other very exciting news, we are now engaged to be married. That’s right! Ryan proposed (inquire within for details)! And so, in this instance I willingly give in to my disdain of cliches, by saying, “We’ll always have Paris.”