Wednesday, June 17, 1954

[The 1954 calendar shows that Wednesday was actually June 17.]

Wednesday evening, June 17

Paul Gabriel Straat 132, The Hague

[The corner of this airmail letter which held the stamp was torn off.]

[Dear Father & Mo]ther—

— — — day’s warm and sunshiny day came today’s — — — one, with a fair amount of rain this afternoon. Yesterday at noon since it was nice I went for a walk after lunch and took a couple of pictures; the day had looked sunshiny even in the morning when I left for work so I had taken the camera along since I wanted to get a picture of the outside of the lab. Today since it was no day for a walk I played bridge, Mr. Yap being my partner. We had some fairly interesting hands so the noon hour was pleasantly spent.

Your letter arrived Monday, mother, and it was indeed nice hearing from you. I don’t know of any English churches here in the Hague, but haven’t really investigated, feeling that it would be no use looking. I suppose I could go sit even if I didn’t understand what’s going on. Mr. Boogard, the BOM roomer, (I finally found out his name) tells me that Holland is almost 50% Catholic which surprised me. Indeed the Catholics outnumber the Protestants as a whole here.

I’m glad to hear that you’ve been having the needed rain but didn’t get the hail etc. Also, don’t work too hard outside, mother, it isn’t worth it. As for the McCarthy hearings, I read about them in Time but never hear them mentioned in conversation with anyone.

This week I got back from Paris the colored slides I had sent there for development a couple of weeks ago. For my first roll of film I think they turned out pretty good. A few of them were over-exposed but at least half were just right and most of the rest close to it. I have the second roll almost finished and may get it completed this weekend. I don’t know whether I’ll have it finished on this side, now that I’ve a little confidence in my technique so don’t need to look at the results as a guide for the future.

Work continues to come along quite well. The difficulty of the past week or ten days has been straightened out (my predictions came out practically on the nose as to the mistakes that were being made so I feel a little proud of myself). To confirm the earlier date we will make a new series of runs and that will finish up the first series of tests. Whether this will mean that I will be able to leave late in June or early July I don’t know. Mr. Yap thinks I’ve achieved my object here just about & I think Mr. Hinge will too after our next runs are finished, but I guess before I can leave, the Hague office will have to approve. I surely hope that it does turn out that I can soon be leaving.

It’s getting on towards nine p.m. this evening and so far I’ve had supper of course and have written to Jean. After supper we sat around the table and had a rambling conversation for half an hour or so. Mr. Karelia, the second BPM roomer, seems to stimulate conversation. Mr. Boogard is off this evening to hear Arthur Rubenstein the pianist but Mr. Karelia dislikes his showy technique so is staying home.

This will be all for now. I hope you are continuing to feel well, and the weather stays nice.

With love

Carl

P.S. How much did the new furnace installation cost?