Hamburgers for Christmas

Opening Our Presents, Part 1

Well, look what Santa left for Erin--a new headlight for her bicycle. No more worries about lights that won't work in the rain--we hope. Now John just needs to figure out how to install this thing. Apparently when we sent our change of address form to the North Pole, we forgot to specify that we don't speak Dutch. So, Santa only left us Dutch directions. We'll see if John is up to the challenge.

We continued our holiday tradition today by enjoying a dinner of hamburgers and french fries, complete with fancy sesame seed buns and John's secret seasoning mixture (it's really just a dash out of every bottle of seasoning we had in the cabinet).

That's not to say we didn't do any cooking today. Erin has all the meals planned out for the next week and half, and we continued in our advance preparation (this has really been going on all week). Today we made chili, sweet potatoes, and cider roasted chicken. For the first time, we've actually maxed out the space in our refrigerator and freezer.

We also found time to make it to church this morning. Erin sang in the choir so she had to be there at 8:15, which meant waking up around 6:30. This is in addition to the two services last night. Erin has had her fill of singing for the week, and while she was singing John had his fill of Christmas bread and cookies. The service was a unique and creative experience, and we're trying to figure out how to upload some video that John made. Until then, you can see the still pictures at our Flickr site.

We also managed to ride our bikes into the city centre this afternoon to check out the goings-on. To our surprise, there were several shops open in addition to a Christmas carnival complete with ice rink, merry-go-round, and Christmas shops.

In between these activities, we've been enjoying the almost-constant Christmas tunes playing on our Dutch radio (in English, for the most part). When they decide to play a non-Christmas song, we go to Plan B and download streaming audio from KLTY in Dallas.

It's beginning to feel like Christmas, and we're anticipating the arrival of John's family in the morning. They will begin their flight here about the time we go to bed, and we'll head for the airport shortly after we wake up. We'll then celebrate Second Christmas for as long as we can keep them awake. That's right, Second Christmas is a national holiday here (kind of like Second Breakfast in the Lord of the Rings). This is one tradition we are hoping will come to the United States someday. So, we're only halfway through Christmas now. Stay tuned for more of the celebration...

A Love-Hate Relationship

As we write this blog, we realize that a "love-hate" relationship could well describe much about our life here in Amsterdam. This particular post, however, is specifically aimed toward Erin's bicycle. Living in a place where a bike can get you almost anywhere you need to go has tremendous advantages. 1. It's much better exercise to cycle around town than it is to sit in a car. 2. Since we only have one car, normally used by John during the day for work, biking is a much faster alternative to walking. 3. In a city as crowded as Amsterdam, parking a bike saves both time and money over having to park a car. Usually to park a car takes 15 minutes of driving around in circles waiting for a spot to open up and anywhere from €1-5 per hour to park the car in the spot once said spot is found. A bike, on the other hand, can be parked almost anywhere for free. We say almost anywhere since Erin has been scolded by an older man, in Dutch of course, for parking her bike (ever so briefly while she runs into the green grocer for all of 2 minutes, really just 2 minutes, to buy a squash) too close to an apartment window. Apparently near windows is one of the only places one cannot park their bike. 4. With bike bags, we can go shopping and buy a whole lot more stuff than if we were having to walk or take public transport back to our apartment. 5. So far all the maintenance we have had done on our bikes has been absolutely free.

This brings us to the reasons Erin hates her bike. 1. Though maintenance is free, it is apparently not very effective. The headlight on Erin's bike continues to work only sporadically. After a tune-up the light will seem to work properly only to refuse to operate correctly the next time Erin has to ride her bike after the sun sets (which, by the way, is now as early as 4:30 or 4:45 in the afternoon). Erin can choose to continue riding her bike once the light stops working, but there is always the risk that the police will be out and hand her a €30 ticket for no headlight. Unfortunately the headlight seems to opt for a vacation when it's raining. And speaking of rain... 2. Riding a bike when it's raining is a miserable experience made all the less pleasant by cold temperatures. There is no way to avoid getting wet while riding in the rain. Legs become soaked to the bone, rain seems to pelt directly into the eyes, and the face is absolutely dripping with water during the entire ride.

Last night Erin had the exciting experience of arriving at her bike (after waiting an hour for a client to show up who never arrived nor called to let Erin know he/she would not be coming for his/her appointment) just as it started raining. Then afte peddling a few feet Erin realized, not only was it raining, but the headlight on her bike, which slowly started flickering on, had decided to discontinueue its efforts and remain unlit altogether. Despite the threat of a ticket for having a nonfunctioning headlight, Erin decided to just keep riding in the rain so as to get home as soon as possible to change out of her soaking wet clothes. Yesterday was not Erin's best day.

Oh, another reason to hate the bicycle mode of transportation: 3. While bikes function well in the city, it is most difficult and time-consuming to go to places farther away, outside the city, by bicycle. Tomorrow night Erin has to join the choir she sings with in a city about 20 miles away at 6 p.m. Another choir member has offered Erin a ride and now it turns out that this choir member wants to leave Amsterdam at 4:30 in the afternoon to make it through the horrendous traffic to be in Almere by 6 p.m. Getting to and taking the train, followed by a bus, followed by walking to the appointed meeting destination barely takes less time.

What does Erin do during the day? Well, when it takes her an hour or more to get to some places by car or other public transport, you can bet she spends a good part of her day in transit. Oh well. No one can absolutely love everything.

Put on Your Thinking Caps

Just when we think most permits, forms, licenses and registrations have been taken care of and we're done having to deal with government bureaucracy and important documents sent to us in Dutch, we receive another e-mail explaining yet another complicated procedure we must go through. This time the instructions are for obtaining a driver's license and, fortunately, they are in English. We thought we would share with you the little game we call "Decipher what these instructions really mean and what we're supposed to do about it." Here is what we received from our relocation agent this week in response to our question about turning in our US driver's licenses for Dutch ones:

Below is the US driving license exchange procedure:
Step one:
At the Town Hall buy an Extract from the population register "Uitreksel GBA" ( costs Euro 11) and a Medical declaration "Eigen Verklaring" ( costs Euro 19). The medical declaration should be filled out, signed and sent to the CBR, the Town Hall will provide a pre-printed envelope with the address. You should bring your passport and a copy of US driving license. I can do the first step if I have a Power of attorney to obtain the extract from the population register on your behalf.

Within 10 days you will receive a letter from the CBR (bureau for driving license) returning your Extract and a grey card called "Verklaring van geschiktheid " stating you are allowed to drive in the Netherlands. Once you have that we have to go back to the Town Hall for the step 2 of the exchange with the following:
1. Residency card
2. passport
3. your ORIGINAL US driving license
4. 2 passport size photos
5. The card you get back from CBR " Verklaring van Geschiktheid"
6. copy of the letter from the Tax Office granting you 30% tax ruling
7. application form which you will receive at the Town Hall.
8. approx. Euro 52 (but I have to double check the price with the Town Hall )
It takes 4 weeks before you will have your Dutch license sent to your home address by registered mail. In the meantime you will have a letter from the Town Hall stating that your original driving license is being exchanged.Your ORIGINAL driving license will be sent to the issuing US state department, please try to find out if it is possible to request a duplicate US license prior to the exchange in your State as it depends on the State what they will do with the original US licenses sent to them. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Did you figure it out?

When we receive instructions like these we have to put our thinking caps on and usually read the instructions at least three times before we are almost sure we understand where we need to go, what we need to bring, and how much money it will cost us. In this case, for one of us to obtain a Dutch driving license it will cost approximately €82 and for some reason we must turn in a "medical declaration" in order to drive a car. Apparently Erin can still use her US driver's license since her residency card has not yet appeared (even though 3 weeks ago our HR contact at the office informed us that the Dutch letter we received meant everything went through OK and she should be receiving confirmation about when to pick up her residency card "shortly").

In the meantime, John will be the guinea pig in dutifully fulfilling all required steps and hopefully obtaining a Dutch driving license. No wonder many expats we have talked to simply forgo exchanging their US license for a Dutch one and take the chance that no one will ever ask to see their driver's license.

No Rain for Three Days!

We have survived our week apart. John's plane arrives back from California tomorrow morning.

Amazingly enough it has been sunny here in Amsterdam for the past three days! That's right, three entire days and nights with no rain. God must have known Erin needed something to boost her spirits a little bit this week, and sunshine was just the thing. For most of you, especially those of you in Texas, this is probably not a very amazing or exciting event. We have definitely come to appreciate sun more in this country where wintertime means the sun moves low across the sky and can be seen (when not obscured by clouds and rain) for only about 8 hours a day. Yeah, sun for only 8 hours a day unfortunately means John rarely sees daylight during the work week. He's hoping he got a good enough dose of sunshine while in California to last him a while.

Christmas is only 15 days away! Can you believe it? After Sinter Klaus Day last week all the stores and flower stands started putting out their Christmas trees for sale. We have always bought a real Christmas tree so we hate to not get one this year, especially since we do have family coming to visit right after Christmas, but our apartment is quite tiny. As Erin has been riding her bike around this week, she's been trying to figure out how small of a tree one can purchase. There are some pretty small ones out there so we'll have to be sure and take a picture of our "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree when we get it, hopefully next weekend.

Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire

On Saturday we saw chestnuts roasting on an open fire, browsed through stall upon little stall of Christmas crafts, walked along narrow streets bedecked with Christmas lights, and enjoyed our fill of bratwurst. After a two-hour drive with relatively no traffic problems we arrived late in the morning in Düsseldorf, Germany to discover the Christmas markets there. Germany, especially, is famous for its Christmas markets. Although there are towns with more elaborate set-ups and many more tourists, Düsseldorf was the closest town in Germany suitable for a day trip…and there were a good number of tourists. We heard lots of people speaking English from the UK, the US, and Australia as well as some French, Spanish, and of course Dutch. Spending a day at the Christmas markets will really put you in the Christmas spirit! We came home all ready to buy our Christmas tree, put up decorations, and get all of our remaining Christmas shopping done.

We also visited a pink palace near Düsseldorf called Benrath Palace. We are much smarter now and did not bother to pay to go inside with a tour group as all the tours are in German. We did walk around the grounds though, which were pretty and are probably even more beautiful when the weather is warmer and there are actually leaves on the trees. We could have walked around a bit longer, but we couldn’t figure out where to park the car. The last think we needed was for our car to be towed leaving us stranded in another country the day before John had to leave the continent for a business trip! We just parked on the street in a very fancy neighborhood next to the palace that did not seem to have any signs indicating restrictions on parking. (However, experience in the Netherlands proves that just because there are no signs posting the speed limit or dictating how far away from a curb you must park does not mean it is OK to do what everyone else seems to be doing without severe consequences.) When we returned after our walk around the palace grounds our car was, fortunately, right where we left it with no tickets plastered on the windshield. The day was a success!

Just before heading out of town (which was quite a feat as we really had no map of Düsseldorf, just some Mapquest directions and at atlas with a map of Germany in it) we had to pay a visit to the Wal-Mart Supercenter! Yes, Wal-Mart is taking over the world – except in the Netherlands, where, as John points out either there are laws in place against such huge commercial enterprises or there is sufficient bureaucracy, to the point of being ridiculous, that Wal-Mart refuses to waste its time operating in this country. Apparently Wal-Mart has many stores in Germany, so we decided to stop and remember what it is like to shop in a place where you can get underwear, motor oil, and bananas under the same roof. Of course, Wal-Mart in Germany caters to the culture and needs of Europeans, so we did not find the things we would normally buy at Wal-Mart in the US. We did purchase some super glue to glue the handle back on our dishwasher. (Gotta love IKEA appliances!)

By the way, John is in California this week, our trip to Munich next weekend has been cancelled, and Erin is finally driving the car (it’s a manual transmission and Erin has never had to drive one before) with much trepidation and lots of prayer!

Sunny Spain

Last Friday, after an eventful Thanksgiving, we headed out of the country once again. Barcelona turned out to be a beautiful and interesting vacation weekend. After enduring near-freezing temperatures, constant cloudiness, and continual rain almost all last week we were looking forward to the warm weather and sunshine Spain promised. While we were blessed with three days of sunshine and cloudless skies, we didn't experience the typical warmth of Barcleona. Even the locals were complaining about the unseasonably cold weather they had last weekend! Instead of daytime temperatures in the upper 60's, it was more like low 50's, which was still considerably warmer than in Berlin, London, or Amsterdam. Overall, we were extremely pleased with the weather. It's amazing the difference being in the sun for a few days makes!

John did not exactly print out the hotel itinerary for our weekend, but he remembered the name of the hotel. When the taxi picked us up Friday evening (after being delayed, delayed, and delayed some more because of the fog in Amsterdam), John found the hotel name in our travel guide and showed the address to our driver. Since our flight was late, we got to Barcelona just in time for rush hour. After spending 45 minutes in the taxi, our driver dropped us at our apparent destination. However, it seems the driver decided to let us off at a side door of the hotel. After wandering around aimlessly for 15 minutes, we finally found the front lobby and reception desk. By this time, Erin was so tired of traveling, she just wanted to get to the room to take a shower a little nap before dinner at 9. To our dismay, the hotel we arrived at did not have reservations for us. Hmmm. Apparently there are three different hotels in Barcelona owned by this hotel chain. Who knew? The hotel was kind enough to call the other hotels to help us figure out to which one we really belonged and then hailed a cab for us. (The doorman took forever to hail a cab, so Erin had a good long cry wondering if we would ever reach our destination after traveling far too long that day.) This taxi ride was only about 5 minutes, and ended happily. To our surprise the hotel we were staying in was nicer than any hotel we have ever stayed in, or probably ever will stay in again.

We both had to try out the super fancy shower in our hotel room and got to rest a little before meeting some other people for dinner at 9. We ate with a group both Friday and Saturday nights at extremely nice restaraunts, though we are not completely sure we would choose to eat octopus or duck liver if we had our choice. It is indeed true that the Spanish people eat pretty late and enjoy their meals over a long time period. Our reservations at 9 were about an hour early than most people start eating, but we're glad we started at 9 since meals both nights lasted about 4 hours! Besides the octopus and foie gras, the food was really excellent!

Saturday we took a van tour with the group we were in Barcelona with. During a few hours we saw everything on our list to see in Barcelona and learned all the history and interesting facts there are to know about those sights. It turned out to be a good thing we saw so much on Saturday because after dinner Saturday night John started a fit of throwing up everything he'd eaten in the past two days, which was to last all night Saturday and through the day Sunday. We don't know quite what the food poisoning was from, but we're guessing the shellfish salads that we ate as appetizers on Saturday evening. Needless to say, neither of us got much sleep Saturday night. Erin was feeling fine, just tired, when she woke up Sunday, so she went downstairs to eat breakfast and returned to take another nap. Sunday afternoon Erin wanted to take a walk to the big park nearby the hotel and also go out onto the beach. John insisted he felt better and went along too. He only got sick once, in the Parc de la Ciutadella, which Erin will now always remember as the park where John threw up in the bushes. Fortunately after sitting with Erin at dinner that evening John felt completely better. We say fortunate because Erin started feeling pains in her stomach after dinner Sunday. She never lost any of her food, but she sure didn't sleep well Sunday night.

Ah yes, Saturday afternoon. This was the afternoon at the spa. We do not know how to "spa." Erin has had massages before, but never full spa treatment. It turns out the package Erin got at the spa included time in the steam/sauna/ice fountain/jacuzzi room, a massage, a manicure, and a facial. This was too many hours of sitting for Erin so she cut out the facial at the end. When the woman left her in the changing room she was not quite sure what to do. She had not brought a bathing suit with her since it is obviously not swimming weather right now. So, wearing the cotton bathrobe provided, she stood around in the sauna/steam/ice fountain/jacuzzi room wondering what to do. The sauna and steam room were just too hot to stay in. She still has no idea what to do with an ice fountain. Yikes! Fortunately soon after the masseuse came in to get her for her massage. Even John got a manicure and massage! While Erin enjoyed her manicure lying down, eyes covered, with a hand and arm massage, John had his manicure while getting his hair cut. John also enjoyed his very first massage. It was a unique experience, but we are definitely not "spa" people.

In summary, Barcelona is absolutely beautiful and sunny. In fact, Spain is so beautiful we would really love to travel back there sometime, hopefully without any illness to disturb our vacation. Our trip was stressful, fun, relaxing, and miserable all rolled up into three days. It is good to be home. If you go to Barcelona watch out for the shellfish.

Zwarte Pete

If you get your Christmas gifts wrapped in paper with pictures of little black men on it, it's because Erin has yet to find any wrapping paper not featuring the head of Sinter Klaus' little black elf-like helper with a fro. Zwarte Pete is black, we think, because according to the story he was the elf that delivered gifts from Sinter Klaus and got all black from going down chimneys and landing in soot. We realize this would never meet U.S. standards for civil rights and equality so we wish to apologize in advance if we indeed fail to find any other wrapping paper before gifts have to be shipped over for Christmas.

French Fries for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving week has never been quite like this before. Erin was actually out of town until Wednesday visiting some friends from the US that happened to be in Cambridge, UK. England was cold, rainy, and foggy as expected, but Cambridge reminded Erin so much of the time she spent in Oxford during college that she absolutely loved it! Really just being in a country where everyone speaks English is all that is necessary to make Erin's vacation perfect - even if they do drive on the wrong side of the road! We even had lunch one day in a great pub complete with leather furniture, a roaring fire in the fireplace, and Guinness and beef pie. Mmmmmm.

Thanksgiving Day had no Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade or turkey...though we tried to get turkey! We took our friends to Harlem, a city only about 20 minutes away from Amsterdam where we got to take a tour of Corrie Ten Boom's house...eventually. When we arrived at the house the first time, the sign said an English tour was to begin in about 30 minutes. So we decided that, rather than stand around in the rain and cold, we would walk the short distance to the town square and see the church where Mozart and Handel played organ concerts. Well, then we ran into a cheese store on our way back to the Ten Boom House and had to buy some cheese. This took longer than expected and when we arrived, only a minute or two late, at the door for our tour, the sign had again changed to read that the next tour would not take place for another couple hours! Ah well. We toured the church and introduced our friends to a real Dutch lunch: coffee, tea, croquettes and toasties. We made sure to get to the door of the house about 10 minutes early so as not to miss the tour.

It was well worth the wait. Corrie Ten Boom was a Christian who organized safe hiding places for Jews and Dutch Resistance workers during World War II. Her own house had a tiny hiding place where seven people ended up being hidden for two days before being rescued and escaping to other hiding places. Corrie Ten Boom and several of her family members were arrested and taken to concentration camps. Corrie survived, miraculously smuggled a Bible into the camp with her and led Bible studies, and then spent the rest of her life evangelizing all over the world and writing many books about her faith and life.

Traffic on the way back to Amsterdam was horrendous. By the time we got home it was about time to take the trams into the centrum for Thanksgiving dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, one of the only places in Amsterdam that serves Thanksgiving dinner. We apparently got there too early since our reservations were not until 7:40, so the hostess would not seat us. We wandered around the canals of the centrum for about 20 minutes and then returned to eat dinner. We must have set a world record for the longest time a party has stayed in the Hard Rock Cafe. Once seated it took a while to get our drinks and for the waitress to return to take our orders. Unfortunately, she told us the last of the Thanksgiving dinners had just been ordered. We assumed the table of 38 next to us had something to do with that! Oh well. We had all decided that if the turkey was gone, we would all be OK with ordering other things. We did ask if there was any pumpkin pie left. Our waitress went to check and indeed there were some pieces left, so she assured us she would reserve four pieces for us. Everyone ordered hamburgers and french fries (except for Erin - chicken pasta for her) and sat back to wait.....and wait, and wait, and wait. I think we waited about an hour and a half for our food. Our friends were about to chew their arms off they were so hungry! When we finally saw our waitress again, we asked for some crackers or something, which she promised to bring but never got around to. The manager had to visit our table several times to apologize for the slowness in the kitchen. The food was good when it finally arrived, but then we waited again for our desserts to appear. Once again, the manager visited our table to explain something about a mix up in the kitchen: no pumpkin pie! Actually there was one piece left, which we let one of our friends have and the manager gave the rest of us free desserts. Our waitress showed up after the fact to explain she was too upset to come talk to us herself. Apparently she and the chef were having an argument and not talking to each other so the pies got sold to other customers without her knowledge. She offered us any coffee or tea we wanted on the house, so we got some free coffee to go with our free brownie sundaes. After four hours, no turkey, and no pumpkin pie, we got a bill for our meal cut in half with free desserts and free coffees!

Even though dinner was much longer and not quite as holiday-ish as we had planned, we had a great view of the canal and boats and a long time to catch up with our friends from the US. All in all it was a good Thanksgiving. (Erin definitely prefers chocolate brownies to pumpkin pie anyway!)

Brrrrrrrrrr - lin

A little over a week ago, almost two weeks ago now(!), we left for Berlin. The last 12 days have been a whirlwind. Thursday afternoon we left for Berlin and arrived home Sunday night. Monday morning Erin left again for Cambridge and returned with some friends Wednesday afternoon. She was home for less than 48 hours before we both left again Friday morning for Barcelona. We got home yesterday afternoon for good. Well, at least for this week. John leaves next Sunday for a week in California and Erin leaves in a couple weeks to fly to Munich; she'll meet John there for more adventures. But we're jumping ahead of ourselves.

Despite the freezing temperatures, heavy winds, and various types of precipitation, we really enjoyed Berlin! It is a much larger city than we had imagined. It is a shame most of it was destroyed in World War II, but that allows it to have many more open green spaces than most cities that just continue to be built up with more and more buildings through the years. While there are cranes, construction crews, and boarded-up windows everywhere you turn, there is also such a reminder of recent historical events around every corner. We were amazed and incredulous to be standing directly on top of Hitler's underground bunker where he spent his last days, to see the very train tracks where so many were carted off like cattle to concentration camps, and to be just feet away from the Berlin Wall. Thanks to our guided bike tour in English we learned more history, or should we say we were reminded again of all that history that somehow lodged into the recesses of our brains during many years of elementary, middle, and high school, and saw more sights than we would ever have been able to had we been walking around on our own. We highly recommend Fat Tire Bike Tours and Mike's Bike Tours if you're ever in a city over here in Europe.

Ahhh, the varying precipitation! Erin experienced snow flurries and light rain on Friday while John was cozy and secure in a small meeting room for 8 hours learning about really exciting accounting updates. Luckily during the heaviest snow, Erin and Annette were eating lunch (in a Schlotzsky's! yea for Schlotzsky's!) with a beautiful view of the city being covered in snow. Then Saturday during our bike tour, we witnessed hail followed by snow flurries. Again, we happened to be enjoying some potato soup, chili, and hot chocolate while trying to thaw out our frozen hands and feet in a biergarten when the sky decided to drop a lot of hail. Once back on the bikes, we only got rained on a bit. This is not to say the biking was by any means comfortable since we were so cold we were beginning to wonder what the signs of frostbite might be. It's funny how even the most uncomfortable situations are balanced out by the fact that you are seeing astounding historical sites and beautiful buildings and are learning interesting city facts!

We do not think it precipitated much on Sunday. We spent much of our afternoon at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum discovering all the ways people attempted to cross the border between East and West Berlin. It was a great museum. Everyone else thought so too; it was so packed that at times Erin was thankful she is not claustrophobic.

After Erin spent so much time walking around Berlin Friday with Annette, she decided the maps make things look deceptively closer than they are in reality. The rest of the weekend John and Erin traveled as much as possible by the U-bahn and the S-bahn. Erin read in her literature the difference between the two: the U-bahn is the underground rail system that sometimes travels above ground, not to be confused with the S-bahn, which is the aboveground rail system that sometimes travels below ground! We only suffered one unfortunate mishap. Erin knew from riding to the center of the city on Friday which U-bahn line to take from the hotel to get to the radio tower where the bike tour was supposed to begin Saturday morning. It seems the city decided to do work right in the middle of this line beginning Saturday morning. About five stops right in the middle of the line were inaccessible. When our train got to the last stop possible going toward the center of the city, an announcement was made, in German of course, and most of the people on the train got off...not everybody, just most. (We later found out that the only people left on the train were those who couldn't understand German!) After sitting on the stopped train for about 10 minutes, we finally started moving again...in the direction we had just come from! When we arrived at the first stop back, we decided to get off. Fortunately for us, just as we arrived in the station, another announcement was being made about the line in English! This is when we understood that this U-bahn would not be able to take us where we needed to go. With expert public transport map-reading skills we ascertained that we needed to go back almost to where we had started and take an S-bahn to the radio tower. We hesitated several times about which S-bahn to take as not all the stops were posted when a train arrived at the station, but we finally figured it out. By this time, of course, we were going to be very late for the bike tour. The brochure had said it starts at 10, but if you're late it's OK since they spend the first half an hour or so just talking at the meeting point. Well, making it by 10:30 was cutting it close! Who knew 45 minutes would not be enough time to travel just into the city center. What took 25 minutes on Friday took us over an hour on Saturday! We did make it to the bike tour meeting point just a few minutes before the group was about to set off. We think all we missed was a chance to chat with the other participants and have some coffee and tea.

With a more comprehensive knowledge of the public transit system and an expectation that temperatures are very cold in Berlin, we would definitely like to visit there again. Perhaps next time in the spring or summer when it might be, oh, 40 or 50 degrees farenheit.

Berlin

We returned from Berlin a few hours ago, and are getting ready for a very busy week. Erin goes to Cambridge tomorrow to visit some friends for a couple of days. She'll then bring them back on Wednesday for Thanskgiving dinner before we leave for Barcelona on Friday. We enjoyed Berlin very much and would like to return sometime soon. John had training on Friday so Erin and Annette explored the city during the day, and they met up with John and Jacob Friday night for dinner at a nearby mall. On Saturday we took a five-hour bike tour and learned quite a bit about the city. We also enjoyed some tasty hot chocolate and soup at an East Berlin beer hall. We saw snow and hail during the tour, and had lost feeling in most parts of our bodies by the time the ride was over. Make sure to visit our photo album to share in our experiences. We have a whole lot more to say, but we have to rest up for the rest of our adventures this week.

More Shootings

Yeah, so there has been more gangland activity around our neighborhood lately. We think we're up to 5 now--a politician was shot Tuesday night by some dude on a bike. But, there is another incident that is getting quite a bit of press lately-- a poor little sparrow that knocked over a whole lot of dominoes. More than 100 people from 12 countries have been working for over a month to set up 4 million dominoes in an attempt to set a world record, and they weren't about to let this little bird get in the way. We have a feeling we haven't seen the end of this. A DJ and some Dutch website have offered rewards to anybody who knocks over the dominoes before Friday, and there have been death threats against the guy who shot the bird.

Aankondiging van beschikking

Loosely translated, this phrase means "aha! We caught you parking in the wrong spot! We're going to fine you 45 euros!" John walked out to his car in the rain this morning to find this yellow notice under the windshield wiper of his car. A secretary in the office helped translate the rest of the notice and found out that although he parked in the "parkway" area in the outside of the apartment, he must have been too close to the corner. Either that, or he crossed some invisible line between valid parking spaces and sidewalk. She thought this was unfair and called the Regiopolitie to explain the matter. Apparently we can choose between paying the fine or filing a dispute in writing (in Dutch).

Real Life

Amsterdam is becoming less like a vacation, or a bad dream depending on which day you're talking about, and more like real life. We live here. We know people here now. We have everyday activities to do here. We both have people who now expect us to be here doing certain things. Evening activities like watching movies, having dinner with friends, going to meetings at church, attending a small group and working out at the gym are now all parts of a relatively normal schedule. John is becoming accustomed to his job and the different people he works with. Erin is counseling again and may have a part-time job as head of the counseling ministry at church in just a few months.

We haven't written in several days because, well, sometimes life is boring. Boring is welcome here sometimes.

We can promise that "boring" will not always define life, so please stay tuned for more adventures. After all, we do live in Europe. We do have several trips coming up to other countries. And we've never really known life to be boring for very long.

Ijmuiden

This morning we awoke bright and early to drive out to the North Sea. Ijmuiden is a coastal town only about 20 miles away from our apartment, so we decided it would be fun, if cold and windy, to drive out early enough to see the sunrise and eat some breakfast. Just as we suspected, it was cold and windy, but the sunrise was gorgeous. By the way, Ijmuiden is practically impossible to pronounce correctly unless you are fluent in Dutch. We have asked several people to teach up how to pronounce the "ij" and "ui" sounds in this word correctly and have failed miserably.

Since it is November, we were two of only four people on the beach when we arrived. Even after walking along the shore for about an hour only four or five other people had joined us. We were, however, accompanied by 2,000 seagulls who stayed at a comfortable distance since we had no food with us on the beach. It was so beautiful to start the day outside by the water, hearing the ocean. We found a few lighthouses and watched several large boats come into dock. It would have been nice to eat out on the beach, but we decided it was much nicer on such a cold morning to eat the picnic we had packed inside the car with the heater on!

The only thing we might regret about this morning is waking up so early when we're still awake at midnight or 1 tomorrow morning visiting the city's museums, which are open from 7 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. tonight for a special event called N8. We think it might be a good idea to take a little nap right now!

Filing Cabinets and Sausage

There is a shortage of filing cabinets, both in our apartment and in the Netherlands.

Our shipment arrived sans filing cabinet and we desperately need one! We have been to nearly every furniture store we can think of, or that has been recommended to us, with no success. We attempted to visit a huge office-supply store, but apparently one has to obtain a special card from the Chamber of Commerce to even enter this store, let alone buy anything. We have found one-drawer filing cabinets that usually also come with another regular drawer for the insane price of around €200-€250! Apparently the Dutch do not prefer hanging files. We are now seriously considering converting all our files to what is obviously the Dutch method of paper organization: hole-punch every single piece of paper and store everything in giant three-ring binders on a shelf.

There is, however, an overabundance of sausage...in the Netherlands, not in our apartment.

The grocery stores, however small they may be, devote entire aisles to sausage. Erin is not quite sure how to decipher the labels or how many different kinds of sausage there could really be. She's sure there must be Italian sausage here somewhere; we just haven't found it yet among all the other piles of sausage. Even after buying some, she is still not entirely sure what kind it is.

Out of Favor with the Lunch Lady

In the U.S., John usually went out to a restaurant with the audit team every day for lunch. In the Netherlands, the custom is to go to the first floor of whatever office building he happens to be in and dine at the company cafeteria. He has come to expect quite a variety of quality in the food, depending on the cafeteria, and also depending on the day. There are always a few constants--plenty of bread, cheese, and lunch meats. Milk is always an option, and the cafeterias will usually have two choices of soup. Even the smallest cafeterias will offer kroket--a fried, roll-type snack containing a mixture of an unknown meat and gravy. It's actually quite good. It is fried, after all. Herring is something he hasn't tried yet, but it comes highly recommended by his Dutch colleagues. This is a Dutch delicacy and is eaten raw, sometimes with onions. You pick the fish up by the tail, let it slide gradually into your mouth, and swallow it whole. Wow. The one thing to always remember about the cafeteria, no matter which country you're in, is this: don't ever, ever mess with the lunch lady.

Today John was eating at the cafeteria of his current client, which is usually quite good. Today was no exception--they were offering something that resembled Hamburger Helper. When going through the hot line at this particular cafeteria, all you have to say is "small," "medium," or "large." There is a 30-35 cent difference in price between each size, and the medium and large meals come on a larger plate with a blue rim. This is where it starts getting confusing for the cashiers. Since the medium and large meals come on identical plates, they have to be specially trained to notice the difference between the four spoonfuls of Hamburger Helper you get with a medium meal and the five spoonfuls that come with a large.

Last week one of John's colleagues ordered a medium plate, and another ordered a large. They happened to be comparing receipts during the meal and noticed that both were charged for a medium. One of them (Carl) remembered this today and decided to opt for a large plate. As John ordered his large plate, he explained the pricing discrepancy to Brooke in what he thought was a quiet voice. After the lunch lady served up five heaping spoonfuls of Hamburger Helper, she starting running off at the mouth in Dutch. He replied with his usual response--"I'm sorry?" and she proceeded to say some other things in Dutch. His Dutch friends, and all of the other Dutch people in the vicinity, immediately understood that she was saying, "You should tell the cashier that you have a large plate." Apparently he wasn't talking as quietly as he thought.

Needless to say, John paid the full price for the large while Carl again got away with paying the medium price. But that's not the worst part. Now every time he goes through the line, John has to face the lunch lady and wonder how or when she will choose to retaliate.

Goings-on in the Hood

So today when John arrived at work his colleagues had some news for him about some happenings in our neighborhood last night. This was unusual, because John is usually the one that entertains his co-workers with bizarre apartment stories. They decided to fill him in on this one because they know that we don't have access to most of the local news, which is broadcast in Dutch.

Apparently yesterday evening around 6:00 there was a shooting less than a mile from our apartment involving a gunman with an automatic weapon of some sort firing at a lawyer who used to represent "underworld" criminals including "criminal godfather" Sam Klepper. We don't know who any of these people are, but it sounds like these guys weren't messing around. As far as we know we don't have any ties to the criminal underworld in Amsterdam, so we think we're safe.
Here is the full story we found on an expat website.

Resolution

For those interested, the laundry debacle has been resolved. Erin put the whole mess back into the dryer and checked on it 45 minutes later. Sure enough, the heat and tumbling worked to undo the twisted knot of laundry and life is back to normal. We use the term "normal" loosly.

Also, Erin found springform pans that can serve as cake pans. Surely there are regular cake pans in some store in this country somewhere, but Erin only found springform pans so that's what we have. Friday night we made a cake for a Saturday night dinner with some friends - mostly accountants from Ernst & Young. The cake turned out perfectly! It was fun to eat dinner with people from all over the world. The party included a woman from Ghana, a man from Brazil, us, and another couple from the U.S.

Erin walked to the store Saturday afternoon and on her return journey she noticed the Olympic Stadium tower, on which the Olympic flame burned during the games of 1928. There is a clear view of this tower, complete with lit up Olympic rings at night, from just outside our apartment. The 1928 Olympics made history in a couple ways. It was the first Olympics in which women were allowed to participate in gymnastics and athletics. It was also the first Olympics in which an Olympic flame was lit. Apparently Queen Wilhemine was against the Olympics because it was a "demonstration of paganism," so government funds were not given to support the event. The money for the games was raised by civilians who started the tradition of lighting the Olypmic flame to spite the queen's distaste for such paganistic ritual. We live right across from such a historical place. We live in a 75 year-old apartment building in a European city filled with canals, cathedrals, row houses, and bicycles.

Yet somehow the romantic, charming, exotic ideas we had in the U.S. of living in Europe are not quite true. No matter where you live, you work hard to get by...to maintain the necessities and pleasures of life. You spend your time figuring out how to get things done and how best to communicate with people. And somehow very quickly the charming, exotic surroundings become familiar. This European city seems so much like any city, only with more difficulties. Noticing a historic landmark or a field of sheep every once in a while brings back that feeling of romanticism, if only for a few minutes. In those few minutes we cannnot believe we actually live here - in a place Americans study in history class in school, in a place filled with buildings and monuments much, much older than the country we came from.

Then the moment passes and it's time to start thinking of what you need to make dinner or where to get starch to iron shirts or how to pump up your bicycle tires. Hmmm...what should we have for dinner?

Broken Laundry

Here we have today's mess. In case you can't guess what this is, we'll tell you. This is a damp, quite large cover that goes on the down blanket we have on our bed. Inside the cover is at least one pillowcase. When the dryer buzzer went off, Erin went to take the laundry out only to discover this mess: the cover has engulfed other pieces of laundry and twisted in on itself so that not even 30 minutes of serious attempts will undo the damage. Of course, none of these linens belong to us - they belong to the landlord and out of all our sheet sets this is probably our favorite. We are currently considering putting the whole mess back in the dryer from whence it came hoping that heat will shrink the material, dry it out, and thus undo the tangle. There is no end to the frustrations here!

Erin also decided today that she spends about a quarter of her life looking for misplaced, lost, or simply nonexistent items. Today she spent 45 minutes in several stores looking for cake pans. She spent another 20 minutes in the grocery store trying to find vanilla extract to no avail. She then came home and spent 30 minutes searching for the wallet she carried in the US, which had a debit card in it that she needed to use to pay for airline tickets. After finding the wallet and afore-mentioned debit card she discovered that the airline site would not accept this card as a VISA debit card even though the card clearly states on the front that it is both a "VISA" and a "debit" card. Erin also spent 25 minutes today looking for a letter from the bank that included a 10-digit number that she must have in order to activate her credit card here. The letter is nowhere to be found. Several minutes ago Erin spent 10 minutes emptying the newly stocked spice cabinet (thanks to the arrival of our shipment) in search of ground red pepper, which she could have sworn she bought just a couple months before moving to Amsterdam. She used chili powder instead.

And that's why it is a full-time job for Erin to do everything here (except go to work and do accounting for 9 hours a day).

Summer Time!

Well, it's not really summer time since it's nearing the end of October (can you belive it's already October 27?!?) but the weather in Amsterdam the last two days could fool you! It has been cloudless, sunny, and around 70 degrees. That calculation is in Farenheit since it still takes too long for Erin to convert to/from Celsius.

Of course, last week it was in the 50's during the day and it rained for four days straight so we finally went on the dreaded shopping trip Saturday to buy coats. (By last Saturday the shipping company still could not tell us when our shipment, including our coats, might be delivered.) We once firmly believed Texas was the only place where weather could change so drastically without a moment's notice. After this past week in Amsterdam, we feel Texas is not alone in unusual weather phenomena.

Just in time for the summer weather, our shipment arrived! The coats and sweaters we so desperately longed for a week ago are sitting unworn and unappreciated in our closets. We will be sure to appreciate all those winter clothes if the weather becomes more seasonable! As the Dutch quickly point out, "It's nice weather today, but tomorrow it will be cold/rainy/windy/dark."

Bright and early Wednesday morning, the movers arrived with our container of goods. This is, we think, the first time anyone has arrived on time, even early, for an appointment. The company told us our shipment would come between 8 and 9, and when John was leaving for work at 7:55 he looked out the window to see the container already sitting in the street! By 9:30 the movers had carried all the boxes up and unloaded everything onto every available table, countertop, and piece of floor existing in our apartment. The only damaged item was our particle board computer desk, so we'll be off to IKEA once again next weekend. Oh, and our filing cabinet is MIA. We were never sure if it fit in the container to make the trip over here but we never heard otherwise. We are currently trying to locate this item. If anyone reading theblog has seen our four-drawer wooden filing cabinet hand-stained by John himself, please let us know.

Erin spent all of Wednesday trying to find places for all our "new" items. After living so long in a relatively empty apartment, things seem a bit crowded now, but we know we will get used to our homey apartment soon. Just looking at all our books on the bookshelf, seeing our own pictures decorating the walls and table, using familiar cooking items in the kitchen, and listening to our own music rather than Dutch radio is putting a smile on our faces. Speaking of music, John is already playing piano again on the electric keyboard we bought before moving. It's not quite like the grand piano at home, but the piano sound is surprisingly realistic.

As a side note, Erin interviewed with the church today to be part of the counseling ministry and got the job...or the volunteer position to be more precise. She should be seeing clients in a few weeks.

Also, no news on the ring, but there are a lot of people praying for us to find it and many people have told us stories of lost rings that took several months to turn up so we've not given up hope completely yet.

Let's Be Fair

After experiencing the culture in the Netherlands for the past two months, we realize we have had some pretty frustrating things to say about life and people here. Although we still miss the States right now and wish desperately that we were there rather than here, we must be fair. From across the ocean we can see some pretty frustrating things about the U.S. as well.

We had a chance to talk with a Dutch woman tonight at church who spent a couple years in New York at a Bible school. Talking with her confirmed some our suspicions about the way Americans are versus Europeans.

The way Americans work is slightly crazy. Did you know it is actually illegal here for employees to not take their vacation? Three weeks of vacation per year seems to be the minimum in the Netherlands though most people have about five weeks and will take an entire three weeks of vacation at one time. We know many Americans who forgo their vacation time completely, and taking a full three weeks off work is absolutely unheard of! Europeans find this a bit ridiculous, and frankly so do we. It kind of makes America seem a bit like a machine: all work, all the time. While the Dutch might be a bit slow for us Americans, we Americans are insanely attached to our identity being about how much we accomplish in a day, how little sleep we get, and how overly busy we are.

Feeding into this machine mentality is a lack in the American education system to teach people how to really think. Exams are multiple choice and classes generally consist of a group of students sitting, usually sleeping with their eyes open, while an educator lectures. Few questions are asked and rarely will a student disagree with what a teacher is saying. Europeans are generally taught to think for themselves, back up what they think, and learn how to describe and define why things are the way they are or why they are doing what they are doing. Erin can definitely agree that she feels ill-prepared to give reasons or debate issues, mostly because her whole educational life has been spent memorizing information rather than thinking through things. Disagree with a professor? Never! Well, at least rarely.

This then leads to the point that Europeans seem to be generally much more knowledgeable about world events and politics. Americans seem rather foolishly insulated from the rest of the world and annoyingly apathetic when it comes to politics. Of course, what with working 60 hours a week and not taking vacation, there's precious little time to be well-read or investigate political and world events. Europeans get the impression that Americans are happy to barge into world situations without knowing anything about how the rest of the world really operates. The woman we spoke with said she was in the States when we invaded Iraq and said many of the people she talked to said they were "for" the war because the president said it was the right thing to do. She wondered if most of these people could even point to Iraq on a map. I wonder the same thing. After all, I remember history lessons being about 15% world history and 75% Texas history. (This could of course simply be a phenomenon of living in Texas - "It's a whole other country.")

Of course, there are exceptions. There are exceptions in the Netherlands like there are in the States, and everywhere in the world. We just wanted to be a bit fair. America is not the perfect culture; there's not a perfect culture. The only reason we are fine with so much work and so little vacation, with simply memorizing facts, with living insulated with little knowledge of other countries and politics is because we grew up like this. So, in this stage where we hate it here, it is at least a little soothing to remember that our own culture is not ideal either.

Stage Three

This little graph was presented to us last summer in New York during Ernst & Young's Global Exchange Program orientation session. The typical expat family goes through several stages in the initial months of an assignment, they told us. The stages go something like this:

Stage One Excitement and eager anticipation of moving to a new and different place.

Stage Two Feels like vacation. Every little detail of the new culture is exceptionally fascinating and is perceived as being better than home

Stage Three Frustration with the new culture, and a strong desire to just go back home where everything is more comfortable and familiar.

Stage Four Frustration and feelings of homesickness gradually fade and life begins to feel normal.

After reflecting on the past week, we realize that we are slipping into Stage Three. This is actually a good sign, if you look at the graph, because we're about two months ahead of schedule. We hope to move to Stage Four quickly, but first we'll tell you why we think we're not there yet.

We are different than they are
Every time we interact with the locals, we quickly realize that while we were not raised in this culture as almost everybody else was. This means they are likely quite comfortable with the way things are here. They are used to paying 25 cents to go to the bathroom, paying 40 cents for one packet of ketchup at McDonald's, and making a deposit of up to €1 for the privilege of using the shopping cart at the grocery store. And it is expected that there are 4 omni-directional wheels on every cart. For us, pushing one of these carts is a very awkward way of learning about the laws of motion and inertia.

These and other small little details of life were novelties for the first several weeks, but now it's just starting to get annoying. Can we please just a big wad of free ketchup (not mayonnaise) packets to go with our french fries?

Everything is in Dutch
We expected people to speak Dutch here, but expecting something and actually experiencing it firsthand are two completely different things. Many people here can speak both Dutch and English, which is good for us. But we can't get around the fact that everybody here still prefers Dutch, and will speak their first language whenever possible. This means that when people are communicating directly with us, they will speak in English, then revert back to Dutch when talking to others. This can become uncomfortable when we are still present and have no idea what they are saying. Should we laugh when somebody has told a funny joke, even though we have no idea what it was about? Or maybe they're just laughing at us?

We receive all kinds of mail in Dutch. Phone bills, letters from the office, letters from the government. Even the correspondence explaining how to obtain our residence permit is in Dutch. We think the chances are high that if somebody is applying for a Dutch residence permit, they probably were not born here and therefore probably speak some language other than Dutch. Maybe we're wrong.

We still don't have our stuff
We've been living out of suitcases for over two months. When we call the moving company each week, they tell us they think they know where our stuff is, but they're not quite sure. We can FedEx a letter across the world and receive 4 updates per day until it is finally delivered. We think this should also be possible for our 35 boxes. We would probably feel more "at home" here if we had our shipment already.

Missing ring
Included in one of our 35 boxes is Erin's ring holder. This is where she is used to putting her engagement ring when she takes it off. Since we don't have this yet, Erin has been finding other places to put her ring for the past two months, most recently on a table beside our bed. Well, somehow we are unable to locate the engagement ring. Erin wishes she could remember more about Monday, but she has been racking her brain all week to no avail. Many prayers have been devoted to this subject this week. We have tried hysterical crying, retracing steps, frantically searching the entire apartment, and then moving and removing every single item and piece of furniture in the apartment in an orderly manner but the ring is still missing. It is possible that losing the ring is helping us along to stage three.

They're always watching
In Europe they have found a very effective way to prevent speeding on the roads. The Netherlands is apparently known throughout Europe as the place that you do not want to be speeding. The situation is more complicated for us because much of the time we don't actually know what the speed limit is. On the highways, if the speed limit is not posted, it's probably 120 km/h. We think there are set speed limits for city streets, but we don't know what those are.

Actually, we now know the speed limit in Otterloseweg--50 km/h. This is the location of the national park we went to on October 1. Yesterday, we got a notice in the mail from the auto leasing company that says "Omschrijving overtreding: OVERSCHRIJDING VAN DE MAXIMUMSNELHEID BINNEN DE BEBOUWDE KOM (GEDRAGSREGEL) TOT EN MET 10 KM PER UUR."

There are lots of other Dutch words on this letter, but the most recognizable part was "Toegestane snelheid - 50 km/h; Gemeten snelheid - 62 km/h." We think this means we were going 62 in a 50. So we now have a choice of either paying the €30 fine or protesting with the Divisie Executieve Ondersteuning, however you do that.

Yeah, so we didn't actually get "pulled over" as is customary in the US. The Dutch authorities don't want to waste their time with this; they simply strategically place cameras throughout the country, catch every single offender on a given stretch of road, and send notice of the fine through the mail (unless you happen to be within the stingy 1% margin of error, which in our case would be 52 km/h). And they are constantly moving the cameras around so it's impossible to predict where the cameras are (there is actually an unofficial hotline that people call to report the camera locations, but the hotline is in Dutch). This wouldn't be such a problem if we actually knew the speed limits. It is a common belief that this system is just another form of taxation on the residents here in the Netherlands.

They're always watching, part 2
Aaron Krabill, a U.S. Senior Manager in the Amsterdam office, was kind enough to host a party yesterday evening in honor of the new expats in the office, us included. This was a great time to see people outside of the work environment, and we got some very useful advice about trash. Rule #1: Never put your trash outside on the wrong day. Rule #2: Never break rule #1 more than once, or you will be fined. If you leave your trash out on an inappropriate day and it is not readily apparent who the offender is, the sanitation department will confiscate the bag of trash and meticulously search through each item in the bag until they discover the offender's identity. They will then send an €80 fine in the mail. We know someone who has received multiple fines for this offense.

Rule #3: Always dismantle your boxes before placing them in the recycling bin. Neighbors are watching you from their windows and they will come outside and gripe you out in Dutch if you break this rule. Why do they care so much? Luckily we haven't been caught breaking this rule yet.

So this hasn't been our favorite week, but we expect to proceed to stage four eventually, and hopefully life will be somewhat normal soon.

Two Months Later

So, we finally have word about our shipment of goods from the U.S. We have been wearing the same clothes over and over and over and over since we arrived in the Netherlands two months ago. We are grateful to have a furnished apartment even though as more time goes by Erin realizes how many kitchen items, like a vegetable peeler or casserole dishes or pie plates, are noticeably absent from our place. (Our landlord is a single man in his 40's whose idea of showing us how to use the kitchen appliances was to point to an electric hot water boiler and say, "That's pretty self explanatory" and then explain how to use the microwave by describing what he does to heat up TV dinners or pizza.)

Ah yes, our shipment. Ernst & Young told us to expect the shipment to take 4-6 weeks. It has now been 8 weeks, but we heard this week that our items have been tracked down and are now in the Netherlands. (For some inexplicable reason our stuff has spent the last two weeks in Belgium.) We should expect to have our clothes and household goods delivered next Wednesday! Since Erin is home more than John she is much more excited about this. Imagine having a computer at home during the day, familiar pictures on the walls, and our own pillows!!! Since the shipping company has told us every week for the last month that our shipment "should come in 2 weeks," it's hard to actually allow ourselves to believe the promised delivery date will be a reality. Just to be on the safe side, we're going to go buy some coats tomorrow since the weather is getting a bit colder.

Paris - Thanks to Ernst & Young

Last Friday we left about 1 p.m. with the Coopers and all our luggage (in our tiny car) to drive to Paris. And we drove. And we drove. And we drove. Until 8 p.m. we drove, though it was still better than catching a bus at 5:30 a.m. Saturday morning to ride for 8 hours to Paris. Ernst & Young paid for the whole office to go to Disneyland Paris on Saturday, eat, and stay in a Disney resort as kind of an office party. We decided driving would give us extra time to see a little of Paris as well. (With all the wrong turns we took, we ended up seeing a lot of Paris!)

On the way out of the Netherlands John was hungry and wanted to stop at McDonald's. Woe to us - it was on the wrong side of the road. In the U.S. this would not be a problem, but here it is much more difficult. Though it was fairly easy to find the McDonald's, getting back on the highway going in the correct direction was a challenge to say the least. Exits and entrances are never in the same area for getting on and off in either direction, so exiting and crossing over to the left side of the road means that after John successfully ordered and ate a Quarter Pounder we drove around aimlessly for 20 minutes trying to find an entrance back on the highway in the appropriate direction! (This tidbit of information about exits and entrances to the highway proves to be important to remember for the rest of our journey. Missing an exit or taking the wrong exit is torturously punishable by having to drive in the completely wrong direction for at least 10 km before being able to turn around.)

Our plan, not the plan when Erin was printing directions but the plan decided upon once in France, was to bypass our hotel and go straight on into Paris to see some stuff Friday night. What with the wrong turns, horrible Paris traffic, and circling the Arc de Triomphe, we finally parked and were on our way to the Eiffel Tower by 8 p.m. (It should be about 6 hours to Paris - so not too bad!) John took a business meeting call from the U.S. while we waited in line to get tickets to the Eiffel Tower. What an amazing view at night! We took the elevator to the very top and saw all of Paris by moonlight. Although Erin has been on the Eiffel Tower at night, she didn't go to the top nor was she with John so this was a great second trip to the Eiffel Tower for her! On the way up the Tower John wondered how many people were proposing marriage that night on the Eiffel Tower. Just 20 minutes later we witnessed at least one of the night's proposals! The bride-to-be seemed too busy showing off her ring and hugging family and friends to notice, as we did, that her fiance was looking more relieved and shocked than deliriously happy. :-) Erin decided she was glad John had looked so happy after his proposal 4 years ago.

By the time we left the Eiffel Tower it was between 9:30 and 10. All four of us were hungry, though Erin was willing to just give up on dinner and go to the hotel since she realized it would probably prove quite difficult to find coming from the opposite direction now. However, everyone else seemed intent on eating and we did find an open cafe near the Tower about 10 p.m. After a leisurely dinner, we left about 11 to find the hotel. Once again, Erin began worrying about finding this place because the directions she'd printed out were from Amsterdam going south, not Paris going north. Sure enough, we started out driving in the wrong direction for an hour, backtracked, then could not find the right exit if our life depended on it. The directions had been a bit vague in the first place: take exit 13, take the first exit at the first roundabout, at the second roundabout take the third exit, at the fourth roundabout take the fourth exit toward the Marriott, look for the sign. Hmmm. All we can say is, the French countryside is beautiful, but driving around in circles at midnight for 2 hours is NOT fun. We were so stressed out and tired. We stopped once at a gas station to ask directions, but the cashier did not speak English. Jacob also had a little trouble understanding the guy anyway as he was behind a foot of bullet-proof glass! The man at least told us we needed to turn around. Ummm, thanks. Eventually we figured it out. Don't ask us how. We were all deliriously tired by the time we found the Marriott's Village d'Ile-de-France at 2 a.m. Fortunately this story has a happy ending.

We woke right up when we saw our €119/night accommodations: a 2 bedroom, 2 1/2 bathroom, 2-story townhouse complete with a full kitchen, washer and dryer, living room, and dining room overlooking a lake! All of us decided this was much nicer (not to mention much larger) than our own apartments! We cannot describe the elegance, especially after driving for about 10 hours that day. Tasteful decor, dishes, four pillows a piece, fluffy towels, bathrobes, down comforters. Oh the bliss! Too bad we were only there 9 hours. :-( What a fantastic deal, too! All we can say is, Wow!

After seeing those plush accommodations we moved our departure time the next morning back by 30 or 40 minutes. Disneyland could wait. We needed sleep.

If you've ever been to Disney World in Florida, there's no need to go to Disneyland Paris (unless of course it's free thanks to your firm!). We enjoyed the rides we went on, but it takes away a lot of the ambiance when instructions, narrations, and pre-shows are all in a language you don't understand! Thankfully, the big shows provided narrative in both French and English, which is tedious, or headphones were provided so you could listen in your language of choice. Don't expect Disneyland Paris employees (or "cast" as Disney calls them) to be happy or even pleasant, or to speak English. Attention to details is lacking, and since Erin is a bit obsessive-compulsive she noticed. There was dirt on the carpet in our hotel room, mildew in the shower, cobwebs everywhere, trash all over the parks, and croissants and fruit for breakfast - that's all. We know, we know. We're in France, what do you expect? But this is Disneyland! There are people from all over the world here. At least offer some waffles or scrambled eggs or something. All this and we were staying at the second to the nicest Disney hotel!

Ernst & Young spent a fortune on this party. We think there were 3000 people attending, and we were all appreciative of the free holiday! The party Saturday night at Disneyland was fantastic! It began with a speech by one of the partners, in Dutch of course. OK, so that part wasn't that fantastic, but then there was a dance show and those people could dance! After hors d'oeuvers and drinks, we went to eat at a restaurant in Adventurland for an excellent dinner buffet. We also got to ride a couple more rides. We rode the roller coasters with one of John's coworkers and her husband, both from Ghana, who had never ridden a roller coaster before! It was so fun to be on the rides with them and see their reactions! After "Space Mountain" Pamela decided she had had enough of this roller coaster thing. Both of them said they'd never been so scared in their lives. At the last minute, William decided he would give it another try on "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril." He definitely had more fun on his second roller coaster. We have to say Indiana Jones is the perfect ride to go on at night!

At about 11 they had a concert for us. It was a big compilation of songs from the 1970s through today. We guess the Dutch are more into drinking and less into dancing. There were only a small group of us near the stage that were dancing, but it was so fun! About midnight John and I could no longer stay awake, so we headed to the hotel.

Sunday we met the Coopers to leave for Paris at 9:30...well, 10. Who knew it could take so long to eat croissants and drink hot chocolate? We all toured Notre-Dame and got to hear their awesome choir sing for the Sunday mass. Then we and the Coopers went our separate ways for the afternoon. We walked over to the Centre Georges Pompidou and visited the modern art museum there. That was quite entertaining and sometimes a bit bizarre. The current exhibition is called "Big Bang" with the artwork divided up into different themes like destruction, subversion, melancholy, sex (yeah, that was interesting), war, and re-enchantment. Then we ate at a cafe overlooking Notre-Dame and had a typically French meal: John had a Croque Monsieur, Erin had a Quiche Lorraine, and we shared a créme brûlée for dessert. Mmmmm. :-) We saw the Pantheon from the ticket area inside. (We were too cheap and short on time to buy tickets.) Then it was back in the car for the ride home.

Once again we left the center of the city in a huge traffic jam only to discover 30 minutes later that we were driving in the wrong direction. We got to see all areas of Paris this way, though it took a bit longer to get to the road we needed. We think all sense of directions just disappears in Europe. Possibly this is due to the fact that it takes so much attention just to try to read the signs written in foreign languages with about 8 lines of text on each one! Jacob drove on the way back home and we only took one wrong exit. The sign clearly read A22 when we exited only to promptly read A27 after we exited! This, however, proved to be the most convenient wrong turn of the trip as it only took 5 minutes to get back on track. Overall the weekend was a success. We got home at 10 last night, weary but happy.

And then we discovered we had no hot water...again! Good news though. We now know we just have to push the "reset" button on the water heater. We still do not know why we must do this or why the heater decides to just turn off by itself sometimes. It's just one of those things we're learning to put up with in our new country.

Put Down That Guide to Life in Holland!

That's right. Put it down. Throw it out the window. Completely ignore everything the books say about the Dutch and how life is in Holland. So far almost everything we've read has been a complete and total lie. (Except that the cost of living here is about twice as much as it was in Dallas; that is absolutely true!) Let's have a look at some myths and truths about the Dutch and life in Holland:

Myth: The Dutch are extremely efficient and hard-working.
Truth: The Dutch work about four hours a day, as best we can tell. Whether one gets to work at 8, 9, or even 10, really does not matter - when 5 p.m. hits, or even 4 p.m. in many cases, it is time to go home regardless of how much actual work has gotten done. Keep in mind that 31% or people in the Netherlands smoke, thus requiring several smoke breaks during the day. Besides a 30-minute lunch, the Dutch must also observe the 10:30 and 3:30 coffee and tea breaks. Combined with the many breaks throughout the day we must consider the generally slower work pace of the Dutch, so we believe four hours of work a day is a fair estimate. (Unless, of course, you work for an accounting firm, say, Ernst & Young; business hours are relatively the same as in the U.S. there.)

Myth: In order to meet with a Dutch person, you must set up an appointment at least two weeks in advance and always be on time.
Truth: Although the Dutch may make appointments, they are rarely on time. In addition, we have not once encountered someone who made an appointment with us earlier than a few days in advance. Just as with most service companies in the U.S., you will still have to wait all day for someone to come fix/look at/deliver something "sometime between 10 and 4." In our experience neighbors are more than happy for you to just drop by since they have no idea what their schedule might be in two weeks time. The one strict rule we've come across regarding appointments is with our doctor's office where we must either walk-in between 8 and 9 a.m. or call for an appointment between 8 and 10 a.m. If we were to get sick, say, after lunch, our doctor told us we could call to see if we could come in but he would be severely unhappy and we might still have to wait and just call the next day during appointment-taking hours. (Our doctor, by the way, leaves the office at 4 p.m. See Myth #1.)

Myth: The public transportation schedules are not suggestions, they are promises.
Truth: Don't bother looking at the posted schedule because if you arrive one minute before the scheduled transport is suppossed to come it probably either came 7 minutes ago or will not come for 15-20 minutes. In any case, the average wait should be expected to be around 20 minutes. Bring a book. If the tram or train or bus comes to pick you up on the dot, praise God that He is blessing your day!

Myth: The Dutch are extremely straight-forward, even more so than Americans.
Truth: Perhaps the Dutch are brutally honest with each other (we have no way to tell since they speak to each other in Dutch, of course, and we understand nothing), but the Dutch seem to be quite gentle when communicating with Americans. In fact, the couple times we have practiced being straight-forward with Dutch people seemed to cause surprise and hurt feelings. Maybe the Dutch are told that it is the Americans who are completely truthful at all costs and so the Dutch are a bit afraid of what we might confront them with if they are too honest.

Myth: Many of the things you are used to in the U.S., like peanut butter, cake mixes, and Mexican food, will be impossible to find in the Netherlands.
Truth: Some of the first things we noticed in the grocery store were peanut butter, cake mixes, and an aisle of Mexican food. In fact, most everything the books say are hard to find can be found at any grocery store. (Note: Baking soda, black beans and pancake syrup as Americans are accustomed to it are both difficult to find and expensive.)

Myth: The Dutch are extremely environmentally-conscious and recycle everything.
Truth: There are the same number of environmentally-conscious people here as there are in the U.S. However, the Dutch do not recycle everything. Glass. Paper. Period. Even in Texas we recycled plastics, tin, and aluminum. Erin still has not found a place that recycles any of those in Amsterdam or the surrounding area.

Myth: Everyone speaks English in Amsterdam.
Truth: While many people do speak English in the city, be prepared to run across someone almost everyday who will only speak Dutch. Most older people and many employees in grocery stores and other small shops will not be able to speak English. Erin has experienced several uncomfortable episodes in the store where an older woman will strike up a conversation or ask a question to which Erin can only smile and try to communicate that she speaks English. If you plan to move to the Netherlands without learning Dutch, brushing up on sign language or charades is advisable.

The books are right about some things. It is cloudy quite a lot. Everyone rides a bicycle. Yes, you can buy pot and smoke it legally. Prostitution is legal as well. Dutch is an extremely hard language to learn.

One thing we never read in the books is that the Dutch are really very hospitable, sweet, and friendly. Amidst all the frustrations we continue to find silver linings. Come visit anytime to experience true life in Holland! (Warning: We do not gaurantee any visits to our apartment to be ordinary, calm, or unexciting.)

Proud to be Bears

We don't want UT's win over OU today to overshadow another important game that just ended minutes ago--Baylor actually won a Big 12 football game today against Iowa State. This marks their first road win ever against a Big 12 team. We're proud to be Baylor Bears, and we're glad we were able to listen to the final moments of the game from across the ocean.

Cops and Cranes

On Friday John came home around lunchtime to have a meal with Erin before our appointment with the doctor down the street. Apparently it's important to have an initial appointment with the doctor before we actually get sick. If we're not already in the "system," then we can't be seen. So, while John was heating up some leftovers, he casually wandered into the living room and peered out the window. He glanced down to the street below to find a guy on a bike and his friend being detained by three cops. They were questioned for fifteen or twenty minutes, before the guy on the bike was allowed to leave. He had apparently told them what they wanted to hear; his friend wasn't so lucky--she was escorted to the back seat of the car and they hauled her away. Meanwhile, one of the cops stayed behind to question a random guy standing by a tree across the street. We have no idea what this was all about. Could this be related to our psychotic neighbor next door? Or perhaps these characters knew something about the broken window in our neighbor's car, which was being replaced just a few meters away. Or maybe they got caught somking some joints--oh wait--that's legal here.
We'll probably never know for sure, but John is beginning to wonder if these kind of goings-on occur every day while he is at work.

After our trip to the doctor, which was a new and different experience, John had to go back to the office to finish up some work. He walked out of the apartment and found a crane blocking the street. It appears that the new neighbors next door got a better relo package than we did, because they get to use a crane to move their furniture into the apartment. Are you wondering how the movers got our stuff into the apartment? Well, we don't know how they're going to do it either. Yeah, we're still waiting on it...

Anyway, to get to work John had to drive in reverse for quite a long way down the street, which was probably enough excitement for him to last the rest of the month. By the time he returned from work, all was calm in the neighborhood, just like it is every night when he comes home, with no evidence of all the commotion that went on just hours earlier. Since John can't work from home every day, he might attempt to install a webcam in one of the trees outside so he doesn't miss out on the commotion that is likely to continue in our neighborhood on a regular basis.

Disaster Averted

"What?!?" you say. "John and Erin didn't actually meet with disaster today? It's been a whole week since something catastrophic happened!"

That's right, we just missed another exciting event. When Erin got home from the outdoor street market this evening John was already home. We baked some potatoes and ate earlier than usual since we had a meeting at a nearby fitness club to find out what ridiculously high price we would be quoted this time. (We've yet to find a fitness club, including the one visited tonight, that is less than €700 per person per year. We might just have to get fat while we're here.) :-) Just before leaving for the meeting, while rinsing dishes, John found that the hot water was not getting hot. Erin noticed the water pressure in the bathroom sink was a bit low and there was no hot water in the bathroom either. Since we had to leave for the fitness club we decided the problem would have to wait an hour or so.

When we got home, the hot water was still not working. John took a look at the gas water heater in the closet, which was blinking a zero at us. Is this how it always looks? Hmmm. We should pay more attention to these things when they are working! I mean, we look at it all the time since we keep the vacuum cleaner, the ladder, the broom, the ironing board, and the mop in that same closet. The only instructions to be found for the heater were, of course, in Dutch, so John called our landlord - the number actually turned out to be the landlord's mom who also knew nothing about gas water heaters. She did, however, promise to call her son but did not know if she could reach him tonight. Erin vowed that she would not shower until the hot water was fixed and John decided to take extreme measures at this point. He found a reset button on the gas water heater, closed his eyes, and pushed it.

The blinking zero starting counting up to 5 and another number, a 90, above the "temperature" button appeared. Aha. We both decided this looked more familiar than a blinking zero. The heater came on and the hot water from the faucets proved to be working once again. John called the landlord's mom again who said she had talked to her son and he was so upset at the people who installed the heater because apparently it does this regularly. The landlord says we should not have to push anything to get the heater to work. His mother also informed us that the landlord is calling the heater company to complain and set up a maintenance contract that will include service in the evenings. We do not know what this means or if someone from the company will be knocking on our door in a couple hours or not. Erin's just happy the hot water works again. She doesn't care if a button needs to be pushed every once in a while and John is relieved that she will be showering again!

P.S. It's 9:30 at night and the people next door are hammering away on the wall. This construction project has been going on all day. We're wondering how long this will last tonight and just waiting for them to hammer their way right through the wall into our living room!

Park Hogue de Veluwe

Yesterday (Saturday), we decided to travel for the day to one of the national parks in the Netherlands. It was pouring rain all through the night, and the rain was still falling, though a bit slower, when we awoke early Saturday morning. We felt pretty adventurous taking a trip to a national park to be outside most of the day in the rain, but then, we're in Holland and you can't put your life on hold because of rain since there's a good chance of rain every day of the year!

Park Hogue de Veluwe is a park situated in Eastern Netherlands between Apeldoorn, Ede, and Arnhem (for those of you who want to look this up on your map since I'm pretty sure most of you don't have a clue where these places are!) Actually, we don't have much of a clue either since we can't find a map of the whole country anywhere. We look up driving directions on the internet and have a book that shows different cities and towns in the Netherlands, but nothing that has the entire country on it. The drive was relatively smooth until we got off the highway. The only directions the park web site gave was to follow the signs off the highway. Well, that worked for a few miles. Then construction blocked the entire road. Hmm. We made a U-turn drove back down the road almost to the highway and made another U-turn. (John is very accomplished at U-turns since coming to the Netherlands!) We noticed a sign in Dutch that apparently meant to take a detour. The only reason we figured this out this time was that we knew the road was completely blocked a few miles down the road. So, we took the detour. We both swore we were going in a circle, but it was hard to tell as we were on tiny roads surrounded by 8-foot tall corn stalks, sheep and cows the entire time. It felt like we were driving through someone's farm. We finally emerged back onto a more well-traveled road and spotted signs once more pointing to the entrance to the park. Yea! We made it to an entrance! Though, oddly enough, it was an entrance on the complete opposite side of the park than where we had intended to enter. Oh well. We paid our money (to get in the gate, to park the car, to see the art museum, to get a tour of a hunting lodge...) and found the main visitor center.

By this time, it had stopped raining for the most part, though it was still quite cool outside. We ended up looking around the visitor center museum, an interesting conglomeration of scientific facts, dry humor, disgusting partially decomposed animal carcasses, and interactive dioramas with recordings of a nice woman telling us facts in Dutch. The museum was basically focused on the composition of the earth under the park, animals found in the park now and long ago, and the amount of water that falls and is put to use in Park Hogue de Veluwe. By the time we finished wandering around, the sun had started to come out and we decided to try out the "white bicycles."

The park has hundreds of white bicycles parked in lots at various places around the property that can be used by any visitor. You just take a bike and then leave it at any bicycle parking facility when you are done using it. We decided biking was a great way to see a lot of ground in a little time. Saturday morning and early afternoon on a semi-cloudy, cool day is a great time to have the park to yourself! We loved riding through the forested areas and the grass plains. The weather was perfect. We didn't see any wild animals, but we thoroughly enjoyed the nature we did see. Beautiful!

Part of the park was previously owned by a very rich family, the Kröller-Müllers, at the turn of the century. The family had a hunting lodge built by a lake on the property by a famous architect, H.P. Berlage. Erin heard that a group from the American Women's Club was going to take a tour of this lodge in the future so she knew tours were offered of this lodge where the royal family still stays sometimes. Tickets for the tour were only €2 per person so we figured, "Why not?" After a few minutes into the tour we discovered why not. The tour was completely in Dutch. Erin figured they would at least have English printed guides or something. Nope. Erin decided to make the best of it; after all, she really just wanted to get to see the architecture, decorations, and furniture inside the lodge. John was bored out of his mind. As the group moved from one room to the next, John insisted on making funny remarks about what he imagined the tour guide had been saying about this room for the last 15 minutes! The tour was 45 minutes, and after about 30 minutes John began secretly wondering how he could just sneak out of the lodge and forego the rest of the tour.

Whew! We survived the tour of the St.Huberts Hunting Lodge. Now we can say we've been.

There is also an art museum in the park because Mrs. Kroller-Muller was an avid art collector. The museum has tons of art and a large collection of original Van Goghs besides a 25 hectare (don't ask me how many acres that is - I'm not so good with my metric conversions yet, should've listened better in 5th grade) sculpture garden. There are over 100 sculptures and we didn't get to see them all, but the grounds are great and the ones we did see ranged from a modern display of brightly painted barrels stacked up to floating white plastic shapes in a pond to bronze nudes sculpted in the 1800s.

It was a satisfying day and we were so tired when we got home.

We bought refrigerated lasagna from the store to have for dinner last night. Unfortunately it came in a plastic container. John decided to follow the oven bake directions, which said nothing about the fact that the lasagna was in a plastic container. After 10 minutes John pulled the lasagna back out to check the progress and found that, sure enough, the plastic container was starting to melt. Since we're low on kitchen paraphenalia we had only a pot to transfer the lasagna to, but it seemed to work.

Note: Do not put plastic containers in the oven even if the directions say you can. The cheese in lasagnas in the Netherlands is...different. We never figured out what it was. Not mozzarellaa or Parmesann. Nevertheless, we ate the whole thing. You can also get excellent chocolate bars with hazelnuts in the Netherlands. Yum!

Naked Neighbors and Outdoor Markets

Before we moved to Amsterdam we read that the Dutch keep their curtains open, even in the evenings. To close your curtains here would be suspicious. It is true that many people do not close their curtains in the evening. Many people don't even have curtains. The latter is true for our neighbors across the way. Two guys live there and they are more likely than not wearing only their boxers. In fact, Erin can count the number of times she's seen them both wearing full clothing on one hand. Tonight about 7:00 one of them, once again clad only in a pair of boxers, decided to open the front window and lean out to examine the happenings in the street below while brushing his teeth. Erin thought this quite funny. However this was nothing to what happened just minutes ago.

As John caught up on his e-mail, Erin sat in the living room talking to Annette Cooper on the phone. She happened to glance out the window to behold another neighbor across the street, on the top floor of the building, prancing around his bedroom, with the curtains wide open, in his birthday suit. As Erin blurted out to Annette that there was a naked guy across the street, she realized it sounded a lot like an episode of "Friends." John fortunately, or unfortunately, missed the whole episode because everytime he walked into the living room to observe the spectacle, naked guy would move away from the window just out of view.

Erin went with Annette to an outdoor market on Tuesday. Tuesday was cold and rainy so of course we chose that day to get out and about! It has been sunny since then. Erin decided that no matter how much rain gear you have, riding your bicycle in the rain is just miserable. The market, however, is quite a sight! This particular market goes on for about four blocks. Most things are much cheaper than the regular stores and you can find almost anything: clothing, shoes, umbrellas (quite handy on Tuesday), produce, CD's, fish, lingerie, incense, liquer, porn videos, plants, jewelry, cheese, and nuts among other things. Erin's one problem Tuesday, besides the rain, was that she had only €8 in cash so she was limited in her purchases. Next time she'll know better. Maybe next time she'll decide to go on a sunny day!