Julie, IKEA, BBQ, Foreign Police, Wassenaar, U.Bob
Trip Start
Apr 06, 2003
1
12
69
Trip End
Ongoing
Amsterdam,
Netherlands
Friday, June 20, 2003
Hello again.
Sorry we haven't written in a while, the past week was pretty busy as usual and there just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day to do everything we need to do.
Before I get into what happened this week, I want to share very quickly that Julie and I booked our first vacations. We are going to Copenhagen, Denmark for 4 days in July and Geneva, Switzerland for another 4 days in August. We're pretty psyched! I'm sure you'll hear a lot more about them both as they happen. We've also talked very briefly about going to South Africa and a safari for 3 weeks later this year. Fun, fun, fun.
We are also expecting our first visitor on Saturday. Julie's brother David will be with us for a few days. He just finished his Masters of Fine Arts at the Pasadena Art Center. He is a commercial director. As a student, he wrote, cast, directed, produced, etc. a number of fictional commercials for his reel. His reel was used to get him a job, almost like a resume. His reel was submitted to the industry awards and he won them all. He completed a sweep with his winning of the Cannes Lion in France just the other day. So now he is taking advantage of the momentum and trying to get his career really moving - the awards might help but again, I'd like to think this is all happening because I bought a Vodafone mobile =) Assuming that he is able to get away from the craziness in France, he'll be spending a few days with us before moving on to some more meetings in London. Julie and I are really proud of his accomplishments, knowing all along that he would be recognized for the talent that he is. We are really excited to have him here and can't wait to show him our new home.
In the meantime, here is what else is doing in Amsterdam...
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JULIE'S POTENTIAL WORK
Obviously, it has been nice having Julie here finally. My days seem to be the same, although now I had dinner waiting for me when I got home =) I think this is pretty good practice for Julie to see what it will be like when she is eventually a mommy (I said "eventually" mom so calm down). Of course she will have exciting events like 'Mommy & Me' class and carpools throughout her day, but the net result is the same - keep yourself busy all day with 'domestic' duties as you will not have a job.
This is not to say that Julie will not work here. She has started to contact some potential employers and will continue thinking about other places where she might be able to use her Masters in Education. She contacted the International School of Amsterdam a few weeks back as we thought that would be ample time for the beginning of their late-August school-year but we were told that we were too late as they do all of their hiring in January and February. That's crazy, they hire 7 and 8 months before the school year. Oh well, there are a few other English-speaking schools in Amsterdam and a few in the Hague (Den Haag in Dutch), which is about 45 minutes away by train.
Den Haag is the center of Dutch government and houses a lot of foreign diplomats and international companies so there is also a large community of expatriates there as well, and thus English-speaking schools. Obviously, a commute to Den Haag and back every day is not ideal but by being open to this commute, she might find a few more opportunities to work.
I have been told by the bank as well as KPMG, who put together my work permit, that she should be able to find a job since I am here on an inter-company expatriate contract. It sounds like it makes a huge difference that I am here as an inter-company transfer as potential employers can ignore the normal process for inter-company relocations. Usually, an employer must first search for a Dutch citizen for all jobs. If a Dutchie could not be found, they must then offer the position to citizens from the European Union. If after that, a hire is still unsuccessful, there is still some more to the process but I forget what it is. In the end, it is a major pain in the ass for a company to hire a US citizen.
I was basically brought here because a mutual agreement was made by LaSalle and ABN AMRO to have a LaSalle employee come over for a few years to teach the Dutch what our business is like and learn about the ABN AMRO-way (those of you who work for LaSalle, please enter your own joke now). In other words, it was easy to argue that only an American can fulfill this type of knowledge-sharing role.
But with regards to teaching, there are plenty of qualified Dutch citizens, especially since every Dutchie speaks English. But Julie's potential employer doesn't have to go through the whole process or prove that she is the only person capable of teaching at the school since she is here as a result of my inter-company transfer. In the end, hopefully she will be able to find a place to teach.
IKEA
Saturday was spent at IKEA. It's the same old IKEA, only they pronounce it "eye-kay-a". Up until yesterday, I was proud to say that we had never bought anything from there. We had looked before but for some reason, if there was something they had that we wanted, it wasn't offered in black, so we always took a pass.
We took the metro train from city center about 15 minutes to the outskirts of Amsterdam proper. From there, we walked about 5 minutes until we reached that familiar blue and yellow center of mass-production. We grabbed our map of the store (like it was Disneyland or something), a golf pencil, and a paper measuring tape - although now in metric. We basically had to walk the whole damn place since we didn't understand what any of the signs were telling us.
Amazingly, it looks just like IKEA in the States. I thought maybe it would be a bit different as there are different tastes between the US and Europe and US homes are much bigger, but no. It was set up in the same way - as if every few steps was a new room, completely decorated with IKEA products.
We eventually found what we were looking for. We bought our first kitchen table. We're so mature now...no more dinner on the couch. Awesome! It's a really nice dark wood with white legs at each of the four corners. It seats four comfortably, and could seat 6 if you put 1 at each head. At one of the ends is an extension that folds up and can accommodate another 2 at the table. Of course the table was only the beginning as we also bought 4 white wooden chairs and another 4 white folding chairs...so we now have plenty of room to host Rosh Hashanah next year for those interested in joining us.
Julie also wanted a rolling wooden prep table for the kitchen. It is really nice. It has 2 shelves with wine racks and 2 small drawers. I think she is pretty happy to have it. I am also very happy to have it as I have been able to eliminate every excuse she has ever given me as to why she doesn't cook more - cleanup should no longer be an issue as the apartment has a dishwasher; fresh food shouldn't be an issue as there are a number of daily markets throughout town with fresh fruit, veggies, cheese, fish, everything; time shouldn't be an issue (at least in the meantime) as she doesn't have a job; and prep space should not be an issue as she has her nifty new prep table now.
*** Julie adds - I still don't have a good, sharp knife set. My five-year-old knives from Target aren't getting the job done. ***
Julie also suggested that we get a bench/storage thing for the entryway. The bench is basically a big wooden box with a removable cushioned seat. We will use the box to store all the shit that used to drive me nuts that was always just thrown on the floor by the door - things like umbrellas, the last 5 pairs of shoes that Julie wore, a half dozen black purses in varying size, shape, and fabric, etc. This was another great suggestion by Julie and hopefully it will help us keep a cleaner home.
The last purchase from IKEA was a TV stand. Amazingly, the one we liked was offered in black. It was truly my lucky day. It is a small stand on wheels that has the TV on top and has 4 areas for our VCR, DVD player, and 2 other things (right now it is holding our CDs).
As we finished shopping, we made our way downstairs where there was a ton of smaller items. It reminded me of a Crate & Barrel. Tons of plates, cups, utensils, all sorts of kitchen stuff. As we continued, we arrived at the Linens & Things section. Here you could get bed sheets, towels, curtains, and other fabric-type things. So we continue on to the garden center. Wow, you can even buy plants, pottery, and soil. Amazing!
We picked up a few little things from the C&B, L&T, and garden sections, most notably a mosquito net that hangs from our ceiling over the bed so that we can sleep with the window open without getting eaten to death by every bug that lives in the canals. On a sde note, the canals are very poluted as it has basically been a dumping site for the last 800 years. The houseboats actually flush their toilets right into the water (yuck) so they say if you ever fall in, you MUST go to the doctor to get all sorts of shots. Luckily, the canals don't smell but they do house quite a few bugs, which have enjoyed coming into our apartment since we like to have our windows opened. The bugs stay away from us, spending most of their time hanging around the ceiling, but now we can sleep in perfect peace. The net is pretty cool and a bit exotic. It almost feels like we are camping. I am a bit nervous that on one of Julie's 50 nightly bathrroom visits, she's going to rip the thing down and kill herself.
Anyways, back to IKEA - having never bought anything from IKEA before, we had no clue that everything you want to buy, you have to get from the shelves and load onto a cart. I suppose we were lucky we were paranoid about not speaking Dutch and therefore wrote down ever detail from the tags in the showroom so we were able to locate our stuff easily, but getting our carts to the checkout was amusing - look out, Americans coming through!
We made it to the checkout and paid. All this for the low, low price of just E540. I guess this is a bit more than I would like to have spent but I think it is about time we own a kitchen table (which accounted for more than half the total) and since the bank had given me a very generous move-in allowance for things that need to be replaced (usually used for electronics), I figured why not.
*** Julie adds - While in Ikea I observed the children and parents. These are my conclusions on how Dutch children and American children are raised differently. American children are expected to act as little adults in public. Be quiet, courteous, and not be too rambunctious. Dutch children do not seem to have the same restrictions. We saw children jumping on the couches and treating the displays like they were jungle gyms. The children were not being awful and weren't bothering other patrons. They were simply acting as children. The other thing we both noticed about parents and children is that the children weren't tethered to the shopping cart. Children were able to be several paces away from the parents. I guess they do not have "Stranger Danger" education in their schools or they didn't get the headline news about Elizabeth Smart etc. In general I get the feeling that parents here aren't as nervous about their children getting hurt. Case in point - I see un-helmeted infants on the front of bicycles. Also, there was this really cool E32 guitar in the children's section...Stephen wouldn't buy it for me. ***
Now was the problem of getting it to the apartment. I knew we were not going to schlep it onto the metro train and was told beforehand that we could have it delivered. I had prepared to pay a pretty sizeable amount for delivery and was pleasantly surprised. Delivery is handled by a company not related to IKEA that has a small shed in the IKEA parking lot. Talk about a GREAT business. Anyways, to have it delivered cost E27. Within 3 hours, they would have it unloaded to the ground floor. Being that we are on the 3rd floor, we needed to figure something else out because as you saw from Julie's last T-Pod and the adventures of getting our rooftop garden chairs, I am not the strongest guy around. So for another E16, they will deliver it up 3 floors. Done deal. They said I would have to help but it was still better than me doing it all myself. So basically, for E43, we got E540 of stuff delivered. In my opinion, quite a bargain.
The other cool thing worth noting about our trip to IKEA was how our stuff was delivered. The delivery guy was as interested in dragging all this shit up 3 flights of stairs as I was. So he connected his rope to the hook that hangs from the top of our building. While they seem to be decorative, the hooks are actually still used as nobody wants to maneuver up steep and narrow stairs. So we got to have our things delivered though our den window. The delivery guy stayed downstairs and tied our things up to the rope and then pulled them up 3 flights. I simply brought them inside through the window. I think Julie was nervous that I was going to end up falling but it was pretty easy as I didn't really have to lean out too far and the delivery guy actually had the hard part. This whole process took about 30 minutes. I can only imagine how long it would have taken to carry upstairs. The delivery guy was great so I tipped him E5. He looked at me like I was crazy. People don't really tip here, maybe E1 or something, but I really appreciated his help so what's E5 to me.
Just before the delivery man left Julie made sure that he would not forget about us. I think Julie was so worried about me falling, she psyched herself out and took the first spill down the spiral staircase. With one loud crash, she cleared at least 6 steps on her way down from the bedrooms to the den. She held back her tears until the delivery guy left but I think she took quite a fall. She had trouble sleeping that night and has a pretty healthy bruise but she's such a klutz, this sort of thing happens often. I still felt pretty bad for her though.
*** Julie adds - I was wearing my slippers and carrying the toolbox (yes, we have a toolbox) down the stairs. I lost my footing and took the brunt of the fall on my right arm and right hip and the bottom of my feet acted like stoppers, banging against each wooden stair. The delivery guy asked me if I was OK before Stephen did, Stephen was too busy laughing - OK that isn't entirely true. The delivery guy then asked where we were from as if he couldn't believe that someone just fell down the stairs. Stephen replied "Chicago". The delivery guy asked if we had stairs there and Stephen said "no, there aren't stairs there." I was thoroughly humiliated. Later that night my recurring neck pain kicked in (an old gymnastics injury). ***
*** Stephen adds to Julie's addition - Because I worry about my wife's safety on the spiral staircase, I am thinking of having one of those electric stairs that ride up the handrail installed for her. ***
BBQ AT BRUCE'S
Last Friday, Julie and I were invited to a BBQ. It was hosted by an Australian who works for the bank named Bruce. His wife, Ange, is a teacher as well and had been emailing with Julie prior to her move so I think it was good for Julie to get out of the apartment and see a face different than just mine. Bruce and Ange have been here about 20 months already. Since I found De Bier Koning beer shop earlier, we decided to bring a few Australian beers. When we arrived, Bruce said "if you have VB (Victoria Beer) in there, you're invited to every party I ever have." I think we earned ourselves another invite.
Bruce and Ange live in a really cool area north of Central Station. It is actually an island that was built a few years ago so that's pretty cool. Since most of the country was taken back from the sea, it is not that unusual, but I still thought it was cool that the island was not there a few years ago.
Anyways, the BBQ was great. Bruce and Ange had invited a bunch of friends, most of which work for the bank. There was Alfonso (from Columbia), Tom and Meghan (from Australia), Vincent, Richard, Astrid (all from the Netherlands), and a bunch of other people who I didn't get all the info on. Ange had prepared a great spread, complete with chips, cheese, olives, salad, pasta salad, and the normal BBQ stuff. There was no 'shrimp on the barbie' but she did make salmon for me since she knew I don't eat non-kosher meat. It was great.
They are so friendly. Bruce actually spent most of the night apologizing for not taking us out, just the 4 of us, prior to this. I kept telling him not to worry, especially since Julie had just got to town 5 days prior, but he continued to apologize. I think he might have enjoyed the VB a bit too much. We even got to groove to some Australian rock music.
*** Julie adds - The band is called Chisel if anyone is interested in checking it out. Actually, I think Josh has it in his CD collection, if you LA people want to borrow it. The Aussies really got into some song they described as an anthem that all Aussies under the age of 40 know by heart. I think it is equivalent to being at bar in the US and the whole bar singing along with Piano Man or Sweet Caroline. Although, this particular song was a Vietnam one and well, it sucked - even more reason to believe that Josh has it in his collection. It sounded like Air Supply. ***
I was about to tell Julie that she should get Ange's phone number when she told me that she was meeting Ange and Meghan for coffee later in the week. Neither of them work right now so Julie might be joining for coffee often. It is important to note though that Bruce is not on an expatriate contract but here as a local hire so it has been much harder for Ange to find employment because as mentioned earlier, potential employers have to go through the whole long process.
It seems like a lot of expatriates tend to stay together. There are a handful of Dutch who are well traveled and worldly, so often they take advantage of having foreigners around. I think it will be really cool to continue to hang around with such different people from different countries to learn about their respective lives and cultures through them.
I was amazed to hear about Alfonso's high school years in Columbia. He was telling me stories about traveling outside of towns and having to stop at 'military checkpoints' often. He said that at one point he commented to the 3rd 'military checkpoint' that he was impressed at how guarded the road was, the official responded with "this is the 1st checkpoint". Apparently, the other 2 'checkpoints' were guerillas. Alfonso said that the guerillas would ask a bunch of questions and if tey thought you or your family had money, they would kidnap you and hold you for ranson, even if they could only get a couple thousand dollars. Pretty different than my high school drives to Ventura Blvd.
Vincent had told me a little bit about his upbringing. His grandfather was a communist and was actually invited to Lenin's funeral. I thought that was pretty interesting. I don't think we're in Kansas anymore! I have a feeling that while I continue learning a lot about the US (through the eyes of others) and the Dutch, hanging around with people like Vincent and Alfonso will allow me to learn about their upbringings and cultures as well. And they are all really nice so I'm sure you'll be hearing more about them.
REGISTER AT FOREIGN POLICE
Our things have been legal in the country for a few weeks now and so it was time for us to do the same. This process was actually a lot smoother than I had expected. I received a letter in the mail about 2 weeks ago, which told me all the details for the meeting. Remember that everyone who receives this letter is non-Dutch. So does it make sense to send this letter in Dutch? For some reason, they did. So I had to bring this letter to work and ask someone to translate it for me. I had heard a few stories of other expats getting to their appointment and not having something and therefore, not able to get their residency card so I was a bit nervous that some of the translation would be lost. I basically just brought everything that was somewhat official looking. So we arrived with a big bag with both of our passports, bank statements, paycheck stubs, my contract, health insurance, apartment rental insurance, etc.
We brought a 30% tax-ruling certificate, which I really don't understand, but basically, KPMG will be preparing my taxes. Typically, taxes here are 50% but since I'll be paying US taxes also, I will only have to pay 30% taxes to the Dutch government. I really don't care about any of this since the bank is actually paying my taxes and it is completely transparent to me. It's pretty confusing and can't be summarized here so remind me to explain more around tax time. But for now, the note from the foreign police specified that I bring the KPMG application for 30% taxes so I did.
The last interesting item that was needed was a bunch of apostles. These are basically both of our birth certificates and marriage certificate that was sent to the state capitals to be 'verified' with a very fancy gold stamp. I think it is more official than just a plain birth/marriage certificate but to me, it looks like a birth/marriage certificate. But what do I know, the Dutch government wants it and I want to live here, so we just did it.
So we took the tram from city center out of town for about 15 minutes. Luckily we had an appointment so when we arrived, we checked in at the main reception. Rather than trying to tell the guy what we were there for, completely butchering the words, I just showed the letter to him. He gave us a number and told us to go to the waiting room.
We were basically the only Anglo-Saxons in the waiting room. Luckily we only had to wait for about 15 minutes when our number came up on the digital number thing. We entered a door, which was floor to ceiling and about the size of a bathroom stall. Once you emerge through the door, you realize that our side is small but on the other side of the desk is a wide-open room. It's sort of hard to explain but its like one side is in a cubicle and the official's side of the desk is a big, shared office space.
So we sat there very quietly, answering every question with very brief "yes" and "no" as to not say anything that might screw this up and cause us to have to come back another time. The process went very smoothly and seemed to go well.
We got to the end and the woman instructed us to leave her 'room' to pay the cashier, as she's not allowed to accept any money. This was the part I was worried about. I was told by another expat that we would have to pay E840 either in cash or by Dutch bankcard, no credit cards. The bank would refund the money but we would need to make the initial payment. We had been withdrawing money from our LaSalle account and depositing it into our ABN AMRO account so that we could pay via Dutch bankcard but we could only withdraw E300 from LaSalle per card per day. And Julie had left her wallet at the restaurant the night before and of course, the restaurant doesn't open until 6 pm. So we were E300 sort on our Dutch bankcard and could only withdraw E300 on my LaSalle card, which I had already done. So I thought this was going to screw up the whole thing. When we went to the cashier and played dumb - "oh, you can't use credit card?" - the cashier said we could actually finish the paper work and would just have to bring the lady in the small/big office a receipt that says payment is pending. We would have 2 weeks to pay, so we were clear. We returned to the lady who was processing us and she did a few more things, put a really cool and colorful stamp in our passports and told us to go back to the waiting room.
It was about 5 minutes back in the waiting when our number came up again. We went to another door and went through the process again. This time the woman helping us was not as friendly. And I'm actually not sure what we got done there. Why did we need to see 2 people? The other person couldn't have handled it all? Again, I have no clue what she did but she entered in our address in a computer and said "are you sure that's your address?" to which we answered "yes". She told us that the people who had lived in our apartment before us, the same people who completely ruined the carpet and almost cost us this great apartment, left the country without telling the proper government department. The woman helping us started asking us a bunch of questions that we just didn't know the answers to so luckily, I had the landlord's phone number with me and we just had her call him and get her answers. After a 5 minute phone call, all in Dutch so I don't know what was said, the woman told us that she was going to have some computer-generated mail sent to us in the name of the old tenants, which we would have to mark "no longer at this address" and drop in a mailbox. Once they receive the letter back, they would 'purge' the people from the 'system' and could add us. Again, I don't understand why she couldn't just add us in their place then, or what we were replacing, but like most of the morning, we just stayed quiet, answered politely and succinctly, and hoped for the best.
And surprisingly, we actually did it. When we left about 1 hour after our appointment, the line went out the door, down the steps, and out the main entrance - about 35 people in every color, size, and smell. After many attempts to get our Dutch bankcard balance up to E900 - which was hard given our weekend trip to IKEA - Julie finally paid the foreign police. So now we need to wait about 2 weeks before we will receive another letter (again, probably in Dutch) that should tell us where to go to pick up our residency cards.
Next I will need to get my Sofi number, which again I'm not sure exactly what it is, but it is tax-related. Every time I need to do something at work, they keep telling me I need a Sofi number first so hopefully once I have that, other things will begin to happen as well.
While this has been quite a process, it had gone very smoothly so far. Yes, there have been a few bumps in the road, but for the most part, it's been going well. I can't help but think about how luck I really am. I looked around the waiting room and realized that the majority of the people in there would be waiting there almost all day and probably had made many frustrating trips prior to the present ones. And what about those who have immigrated in the US? I have the luxury of having a very large and organized company telling me exactly what to do, where to go, and what to bring. Almost as importantly, they are paying for it all as this is certainly not a cheap endeavor. There are many people in the US who have immigrated without these luxuries. How difficult was it for them? And at least I have the ability to communicate with the government officials. What if I didn't speak their language and they didn't speak mine? What if my language was Russian? Or an African language? I can only imagine how difficult the process would be if language were an issue as well. All of this will likely make me appreciate how easy this has been for me and will give me a greater respect for immigrants upon my return to the States.
WASSENAAR WITH ADINDA
As I mentioned earlier, Den Haag has many expatriates. Wassenaar is a very nice, affluent suburb of Den Haag. So it is the home of the American School of the Hague. Many expatiates coordinate their moves back to their home country around this time of the year so that they don't have to take their kids out of school mid-year. This is a great opportunity for people like us who are just setting up our lives here. This is especially good for me as I am a cheap bastard and love buying things at 50%. We didn't bring any electronics to the Netherlands with us since the voltage and plugs are different here. So we needed to buy everything new that has a plug.
So the day before Julie arrived in town, I went with my friend from the bank, Adinda, to Wassenaar. Adinda is Dutch. I met her when I was here last year for the Young Banker's Association conference and kept in touch with her over the past year. So the 2 of us headed out to Wassenaar early in the morning. I bought a 1-year-old, 27" TV for the den for E280. This is kinda expensive but I had seen similar TVs at the Media Markt, basically the Dutch equivalent to Best Buy, and they were about E600 so this was a good deal. I also bought a 21" TV for E180 for the bedroom. I bought a really comfy black leather chair. It is sitting by the window overlooking the canal and I have already spend a lot of time with my feet kicked up on the window sill, windows open, beer in hand, music going, enjoying the day.
On a previous Wassenaar trip I had bought a 5-CD, 2-tape Sony radio system for E75, a 2nd bike for E30, and a power hand drill for E15. I definitely did not need a 2nd bike but I figured my will probably eventually get stolen so it'll be nice to have a backup. At the same time, it will be good for when friends come to visit, and of course, it was only E30. The power drill was all about price...E15 for God's sake.
Adinda bought a few things. I joked with her that this was "the real Queen's Day". I have continued to look at the school's website, looking for more deals, but I think we have everything we need so we're good for now.
I made one last call to Julie in Chicago before she boarded the plane and then went with Adinda to eat at the beach. It was pretty cool. It's strange to see a Dutch beach. It is very much what you would think a European beach would be like...lot's of Speedos on men who shouldn't be wearing Speedos (I was not one of them) and lot's of woman in thongs who shouldn't be wearing thongs. There were a few decent bodies, but for the most part, too much chips with mayo being eaten here.
We ate a few small dishes, things like sautéed mushrooms, asparagus with oil and cheese, potato omelet (tapas-like), and a few other things. It cost about E25 each and was really good. After dinner, we headed back to Amsterdam, I managed to bring everything upstairs, went to bed, and waited for Julie's arrival the next morning.
SEA SHIPMENT DELIVERED
I don't really have much to say about the delivery since it seems a bit dated now. I did notice that the 4 guys who moved us in took smoke breaks every 45 minutes. It didn't matter what was happening or where our boxes were, they all had a seat and lit up exactly every 45 minutes.
Everything was delivered by a portable elevator, which looked sort of like a forklift. They pulled up with our stuff in a truck, loaded each box, one by one on the elevator, and sent them up 4 stories to someone waiting for them in the den. He would then unload them and send the elevator back down empty. It was pretty cool.
Because our bedroom is on the front side of the apartment upstairs but doesn't have window access to the street, the movers had a little bit of difficulty getting our bed, dresser, and Joey's futon upstairs. They temporarily removed the handrail from the spiral staircase (which I'm sure Julie will use as an excuse from her Humpty Dumpty move when our IKEA stuff was being delivered) and barely managed to squeeze the dresser up the stairs. After that struggle, they decided to take the bed and futon through our whole apartment to the front door and down ½ a flight of stairs. From there, they opened a door, which leads to our neighbor's garden terrace. Our garden terrace is directly above the neighbor's so they handed the things up from the neighbor's terrace to someone on our terrace. Then they brought it in the upstairs and set up the rooms. I think this was a much easier and better idea than the previous attempt.
While this was happening, I visited a coffee shop and smoked my first marijuana joint. That's a joke, I'm just checking to see if you're still paying attention. Pretty long T-Pod, huh?
Anyways, back to the move. After a few hours, they were gone and I was left with an apartment full of shit. I started unpacking, hoping to make a dent so Julie would arrive to an orderly apartment. The very first box I opened was stuff from the kitchen. I got a good chuckle when I realized that it was the same food I have moved to 3 or 4 different apartments in the past and have yet to eat. Maybe we'll eat it here, if not, I'm sure we'll end up moving it back to the States.
UNCLE BOB
My family lost another very special person recently, Uncle Bob. He is actually not a blood relative of mine but you would never know it for as loved as he is by my family. My father's mother developed MS when she was a young woman. She was moved to the east coast from Texas to be closer to my dad, who was in the service, and her sister, Aunt Bobbie. Uncle Bob is married to Aunt Bobbie. My father is very close with both Uncle Bob and Aunt Bobbie and basically lived with them while he was stationed in NY. He developed a very close relationship, almost brotherly, with their children, Mitch and Jeff, as well.
In fact, the relationship goes even farther as my maternal grandmother and Aunt Bobbie were friends from the golf club. My mom was just home from college when Aunt Bobbie had seen my mom in the backyard. She was thrilled to see a tall woman to set her tall nephew up with. And the rest is history.
But as you can see, this family has been very close to us. My dad's mom died when I was very young but I am lucky to have my Aunt Bobbie to tell me all about her and the family. This is another tough loss, but again, I am happy that Julie and I had a chance to spend some time with Uncle Bob recently. And I am especially happy that my dad got to spend a lot of time with Uncle Bob just 1 week prior to his unexpected passing. I know how close my dad felt to Uncle Bob, thinking of him as a father-figure. My memories o Uncle Bob are great. He is loved and will be missed.
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Well, this ended up being really long. Sorry about that. We are hoping to upload some pics pretty soon so hang in there. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer and speak to you soon.
-Stephen
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FROM JULIE:
This last week I have been getting to know my way around Amsterdam and doing errands to set up our apartment.
Grocery Story - Every grocery store is an Albert Heijn. I get the feeling the Dutch don't have the same monopoly laws that we do. Our refrigerator is quite small and our freezer is literally an ice box. So, there is no such thing as bulk shopping in Amsterdam. I will probably end up going to the grocery about twice a week to get meals. My first trip to Albert Heijn, I wanted to get dinner for 2 nights. I think I was at the store for over an hour. Not because the market is so big, it is small (a lot smaller then the MarketPlace - where I shopped in Chicago) but because I have no clue what anything is. There is also not as large of a selection of anything - again monopoly issues. For example, the are 2 options for tomatoes, normal sized or cherry. Not plum, grape, vine grown, Israeli, yellow etc. that you find at most markets in the States. When you shop in the States, you know what everything is and you throw the usual stuff into the cart. I know what nothing is, so I have to examine each container and try to discern from the picture what it is. I have figured out the vet means fat. I bought 0%-vet yogurt, it tasted like chalk, the yogurt with 4,5 g (I have no idea if that means the whole container or what a serving size is, products here do not have to have nutrition info on them) vet was so good and creamy. I need to find a happy medium. There are pre-packaged fresh fish meals that include sauce and fresh vegetables, they look really good, but since I can't read the label I have no idea how to make it. Which brings me to my next issue as a Dutch housewife...
The Oven - We don't have a toaster oven and decided not to get one. I said I can toast my bread in the oven. To get the oven working you need to turn three knobs. 1. To turn on the power 2. To choose the temperature 3. To set the time. All three must be set to get the oven running. One of my first attempts at toast (yes, it has taken me several tries to make toast) I set the oven to 150 degrees to do the job. 10 minutes later my toast was burning. What went wrong? I am sure most of you know what I did wrong...I set the oven to 150 degrees Celsius, a little hot to be warming toast. I need to make a sign of the conversion and hang it up by the oven. I have not attempted to make anything else in the oven.
Flowers and Plants - I have had a good time buying plants for our apartment and roof top terrace. Stephen and I went to the Blomenmarket Saturday morning and bought some big planters, soil and plants and are having them delivered b/c it is too heavy for me to carry. Every time I pick out a plant I ask how to care for it, whether it likes sun, shade, water etc. I can't keep it all straight. So, if my plant in the sun starts to die, I will move it to the shade etc.
-Julie
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