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!
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Monday, September 26, 2005
Girl
The good news is, it's a healthy baby girl. Her name is Ava and she seems to be doing fine. We talked to her aunt today and apparently she has been sleeping quite a bit. Hariette is doing well also and is so happy! That's about where the good news stops. There is another reason we were talking with the neighbors upstairs...
Erin was in the living room finishing her lunch when she heard what seemed to be water pouring down from somewhere. The noise got quieter and she assumed it was just water flowing through the pipes from a flushing toilet or a shower upstairs. Five minutes later, Erin was on her way to the kitchen with her lunch plate when she was shocked to see spots of water all over the hallway. She quickly realized that water was indeed flowing--pouring almost like a waterfall from the light fixture in our bathroom onto the floor. There was water all over the bathroom floor, spots of water soaking the ceiling, and water running down the walls into the hallway.
Needless to say, the electricity wasn't exactly functioning in the bathroom at this point. On further examination, Erin found the electricity was off in the entire apartment. Erin ran upstairs to Hariette's apartment to see what the problem might be. Hariette's mother answered the door. Erin asked if something was wrong with water somewhere and Hariette's mother, who spoke very little English, said, while smiling, "Yes, something's wrong. Come see." Erin saw well enough that the birthing pool Hariette had used in the living room yesterday now had a siphon hose coming out of it all the way into the bathroom tub. The bathroom (sunken lower than the rest of the apartment, thank goodness!) was covered in about 2 inches of water. Our neighbor's mother knelt down and began collecting water in a tupperware and dumping it into a bucket. Looking up she said,"I'm trying. Do you know what to do?" No, Erin did not know what to do! How did this happen?! Maybe the hose slipped out of place or something, because substantially all of that water came through the floor and into our bathroom. Yeah, we were thinking the same thing you're probably thinking right now.
So, not knowing quite what to do or who to call, she decided to ride over to use the phone at Annette Cooper's, the wife of a fellow expat at the office. (In her panic, Erin forgot that we bought a cord phone last weekend for times such as this when the electricity goes out.) On the way out the door, she ran into the aunt mentioned above, and explained the situation to her. She was horrified. She went upstairs and returned to our apartment 5 minutes later. She said the mess was all cleaned up in their bathroom. The water was dripping much slower, and she helped Erin dry off the drips on the ceiling while Erin used towels to mop up the rest of the mess. Hariette's sister was quite concerned that we not bother Hariette about this, so Erin assured her that she would call the relocation company to see if they could just tell her who to call to fix this chaos.
Anyway, being experienced in power outages, Erin knew just what to do. She packed up all the food she had just bought at the store, loaded it up in her spacious bike bag, and took it over to Jacob and Annette's place. Erin made some initial calls to let the relocation company know of our woes. John spent most of the afternoon on the phone with various people that were making attempts at getting in touch with the landlord. One of the real estate agents was able to get in touch with the landlord's mother, who instructed us to book a hotel room for the evening since the power was out. She also just happened to be flying in from the U.K. this evening and promised to come over as soon as possible. About 30 minutes later we were informed that the landlord was also flying in from Russia and he would be over soon to inspect the damage. How miraculous! After booking the hotel room and finishing a bit of work at the office, John went to the apartment to wait for the landlord to arrive.
So our landlord showed up at our apartment a bit before 7 p.m. to take a look at things. He was satisfactorily disgusted and awed at the situation. He flipped the breaker back on - yea, electricity! He told us the breaker would automatically shut off if something went wrong again, saving us from a fire hazard. He reassured us that he'd find someone who could come paint, but that he wanted to wait at least 2 weeks for everything to dry out.
Erin thoroughly washed and disinfected the bathroom and hall floors, and the kitchen floor just for good measure. John attempted to cancel our hotel reservation all to no avail. "It is not possible to cancel your reservation." John is becoming quite familiar with the popular Dutch phrase, "It is not possible." Unfortunately it really turned out to be impossible to cancel our reservation. The company who made the reservations for us apparently had to be the one to cancel the reservation and all those employees were comfortably at home watching TV by this time! Aarrgghhh. €99 down the drain, no pun intended.
The Coopers were gracious enough to feed us a Mexican dinner tonight, complete with surprisingly authentic chips and salsa. It's nice to have people around that appreciate Mexican food as much as we do.
Opening windows, doing laundry, and lighting candles is helping the smell. We also have a fan set up in the bathroom to aid in the drying process.
One thing can be said: Our life is never boring. :-)
Erin was in the living room finishing her lunch when she heard what seemed to be water pouring down from somewhere. The noise got quieter and she assumed it was just water flowing through the pipes from a flushing toilet or a shower upstairs. Five minutes later, Erin was on her way to the kitchen with her lunch plate when she was shocked to see spots of water all over the hallway. She quickly realized that water was indeed flowing--pouring almost like a waterfall from the light fixture in our bathroom onto the floor. There was water all over the bathroom floor, spots of water soaking the ceiling, and water running down the walls into the hallway.
Needless to say, the electricity wasn't exactly functioning in the bathroom at this point. On further examination, Erin found the electricity was off in the entire apartment. Erin ran upstairs to Hariette's apartment to see what the problem might be. Hariette's mother answered the door. Erin asked if something was wrong with water somewhere and Hariette's mother, who spoke very little English, said, while smiling, "Yes, something's wrong. Come see." Erin saw well enough that the birthing pool Hariette had used in the living room yesterday now had a siphon hose coming out of it all the way into the bathroom tub. The bathroom (sunken lower than the rest of the apartment, thank goodness!) was covered in about 2 inches of water. Our neighbor's mother knelt down and began collecting water in a tupperware and dumping it into a bucket. Looking up she said,"I'm trying. Do you know what to do?" No, Erin did not know what to do! How did this happen?! Maybe the hose slipped out of place or something, because substantially all of that water came through the floor and into our bathroom. Yeah, we were thinking the same thing you're probably thinking right now.
So, not knowing quite what to do or who to call, she decided to ride over to use the phone at Annette Cooper's, the wife of a fellow expat at the office. (In her panic, Erin forgot that we bought a cord phone last weekend for times such as this when the electricity goes out.) On the way out the door, she ran into the aunt mentioned above, and explained the situation to her. She was horrified. She went upstairs and returned to our apartment 5 minutes later. She said the mess was all cleaned up in their bathroom. The water was dripping much slower, and she helped Erin dry off the drips on the ceiling while Erin used towels to mop up the rest of the mess. Hariette's sister was quite concerned that we not bother Hariette about this, so Erin assured her that she would call the relocation company to see if they could just tell her who to call to fix this chaos.
Anyway, being experienced in power outages, Erin knew just what to do. She packed up all the food she had just bought at the store, loaded it up in her spacious bike bag, and took it over to Jacob and Annette's place. Erin made some initial calls to let the relocation company know of our woes. John spent most of the afternoon on the phone with various people that were making attempts at getting in touch with the landlord. One of the real estate agents was able to get in touch with the landlord's mother, who instructed us to book a hotel room for the evening since the power was out. She also just happened to be flying in from the U.K. this evening and promised to come over as soon as possible. About 30 minutes later we were informed that the landlord was also flying in from Russia and he would be over soon to inspect the damage. How miraculous! After booking the hotel room and finishing a bit of work at the office, John went to the apartment to wait for the landlord to arrive.
So our landlord showed up at our apartment a bit before 7 p.m. to take a look at things. He was satisfactorily disgusted and awed at the situation. He flipped the breaker back on - yea, electricity! He told us the breaker would automatically shut off if something went wrong again, saving us from a fire hazard. He reassured us that he'd find someone who could come paint, but that he wanted to wait at least 2 weeks for everything to dry out.
Erin thoroughly washed and disinfected the bathroom and hall floors, and the kitchen floor just for good measure. John attempted to cancel our hotel reservation all to no avail. "It is not possible to cancel your reservation." John is becoming quite familiar with the popular Dutch phrase, "It is not possible." Unfortunately it really turned out to be impossible to cancel our reservation. The company who made the reservations for us apparently had to be the one to cancel the reservation and all those employees were comfortably at home watching TV by this time! Aarrgghhh. €99 down the drain, no pun intended.
The Coopers were gracious enough to feed us a Mexican dinner tonight, complete with surprisingly authentic chips and salsa. It's nice to have people around that appreciate Mexican food as much as we do.
Opening windows, doing laundry, and lighting candles is helping the smell. We also have a fan set up in the bathroom to aid in the drying process.
One thing can be said: Our life is never boring. :-)
Sunday, September 25, 2005
It's a...
We don't know, but the baby was born about 45 seconds ago--we can hear it crying now. Yipee!
Another Screaming Neighbor
Right now we're hearing more screaming coming from our building, this time from the apartment above us. Not to worry though--it's our neighbor Hariette having contractions. She was due last week, and it seems that today is the day. The midwife just rang the bell and came up the stairs, so she must be getting close. It looks like we'll have a new neighbor very soon. We'll keep you posted on the developments.
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Today was exciting! We planted plants and made chocolate chip cookies. The plants are exciting mostly because now we have some green in our apartment to break up the white, tan,...and more white. Making chocolate chip cookies sounds easy enough until you try to gather all the necessary ingredients in Amsterdam.
We think people here just go to the bakeries that are on every corner to buy their sweets. Granted, this is much easier but not as fun as making cookies at home! Erin has known for two weeks now that she needed to be looking for items like baking soda, flour, and sugar. Two weeks, five bike rides, and four stores later - Success! Almost.
Granulated sugar comes in larger granules here than in the U.S. Baking soda can be found at an American food store: a whopping €7 for a tiny box. Chocolate chips are (thus far) nonexistent. John spent a little time this evening making his own chocolate chips from a bar of chocolate.
We have only one measuring device in the apartment: a 16 oz. plastic cup that goes with the hand blender. We think it's for making smoothies. It's in metric units only, and obviously it is suppossed to measure wet ingredients. We just used our handy laminated metric conversion chart and ignored the fact that flour and sugar are not wet ingredients. Measurements like teaspooons and tablespoons are educated guesses around here. Since it was difficult to measure "a stick" from a block of butter, the dough ended up a bit dry and Erin eventually added a little milk to make it the right consistency.
The final results: Excellent! Now that the last batch is baking, we can definitely conclude that these are good cookies! Wish you were here to have some with us. Oh well, we'll just have to finish them off ourselves. :-)
We think people here just go to the bakeries that are on every corner to buy their sweets. Granted, this is much easier but not as fun as making cookies at home! Erin has known for two weeks now that she needed to be looking for items like baking soda, flour, and sugar. Two weeks, five bike rides, and four stores later - Success! Almost.
Granulated sugar comes in larger granules here than in the U.S. Baking soda can be found at an American food store: a whopping €7 for a tiny box. Chocolate chips are (thus far) nonexistent. John spent a little time this evening making his own chocolate chips from a bar of chocolate.
We have only one measuring device in the apartment: a 16 oz. plastic cup that goes with the hand blender. We think it's for making smoothies. It's in metric units only, and obviously it is suppossed to measure wet ingredients. We just used our handy laminated metric conversion chart and ignored the fact that flour and sugar are not wet ingredients. Measurements like teaspooons and tablespoons are educated guesses around here. Since it was difficult to measure "a stick" from a block of butter, the dough ended up a bit dry and Erin eventually added a little milk to make it the right consistency.
The final results: Excellent! Now that the last batch is baking, we can definitely conclude that these are good cookies! Wish you were here to have some with us. Oh well, we'll just have to finish them off ourselves. :-)
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Goings-On in the Neighborhood
We have had numerous conversations that typically go something like this:
"So, where do you live in Amsterdam?"
"We live in Old South...kind of close to the Olympic Stadium."
"Ooooo, that's a really good place to live. It's very nice!"
OR
"Ooooo, very nice. That's a great place to live. Lots of families. And it's very quiet."
Thus far, we have found our neighborhood to be very nice. There are lots of families, and we're close to pretty much any store we could want. Our apartment is quite spacious and homey. However, after today, we're not sure how quiet the neighborhood is.
After getting back from her meeting with the head of the counseling ministry at church (which was very productive and encouraging, by the way), Erin decided to eat some lunch. She was enjoying her leftover pasta from last night, reading - well, trying to read - some ads that came in the mail printed in Dutch, when explosively loud noises began issuing from what sounded like the apartment one building over. Now, there has been quite a bit of noise recently because of some construction going on further down the apartment building, so Erin didn't think too much of this at first. As she began listening more carefully, she realized the noises were much closer, perhaps only a couple walls over. It sounded like someone was banging the concrete wall with a hammer, followed by loud crashes, glass shattering, and shouting (in Dutch of course so she didn't know what was being yelled). After so many counseling experiences with victims of domestic violence, Erin's heart started beating a little faster. There was more loud banging, breaking glass, and yelling. However, Erin could hear only one voice yelling. Then the only yelling and banging to be heard was coming once again from the construction workers further down the building. Even if she had wanted to call 911 she couldn't as she did not know the number. (We made sure to look that up this afternoon: 112, in case anyone's interested.)
About 20 minutes later, Erin got her things together and went downstairs to ride her bike to the Super de Boer to do some grocery shopping. Upon exiting the staircase onto the sidewalk, Erin looked up to see an ambulance parked in the street, surrounded by about three police cars. Several medics were walking around the sidewalk, and in front of the building next to ours a man was crouching on the ground draped in a sheet. OK. A bit strange. What were obviously the man's clothes were in a pile next to him on the sidewalk. One of the medics picked up the clothes and shoes and carried them to the ambulance.
Erin went across the street to unlock her bike, wondering if it was even safe to be hanging around. There were clusters of 5-8 people up and down the street, staring, talking on their cell phones, and whispering to each other. (In Dutch again, of course!) She was standing with her bike contemplating whether to go ahead to the store with all this commotion or return to the apartment. She thought returning to the apartment might be more dangerous since she'd have to walk past the mysterious scene again. Just then, Erin looked up to see a man, stark naked, running like the wind down the sidewalk, followed closely by two policemen. One of the policemen quickly returned to his car, backed it all the way down the street since the ambulance was blocking the road ahead, then zoomed back up the other side in pursuit of the run-away naked man. Erin didn't see much injury to the man other than a couple cuts and some taped up places on his arm and back. Soon a few other police cars joined the chase with lights flashing and sirens roaring. About this time, Erin saw someone riding their bike down the street and figured it was at least safe to be on her way. Besides, everyone was talking to each other in Dutch and she figured she wasn't going to learn much more about this crazy incident. She did put two and two together and decided the shouting, crashing, banging, and breaking glass next door must have something to do with the naked man running down the street. ("What exactly?" you might ask. Hmmm. Erin is not quite sure. Strange noises followed by a strange naked man on the street followed by strange actions, like running away from the police with no clothes on? Must be related somehow. John hopes one of his coworkers might see something about this on the Dutch news tonight and update us tomorrow.)
Unfortunately, Erin ran into the naked man yet again. No, not literally! A couple blocks down, the police had caught up with the man. When Erin rode by on her bike, she glimpsed the man, face down, spread eagle on the pavement in front of another apartment building surrounded by several police officers. Once again several clusters of people had gathered to witness the bizarre occurrence.
And let's hope this is indeed a bizarre occurrence rather than the regular goings-on of our neighborhood!
Maybe this has something to do with that "coffeeshop" just down the street.
Or maybe Erin is destined to be surrounded by psychotic, mentally ill people the rest of her life. (Which is OK at work, but not preferable at home!)
We'll keep you updated.
"So, where do you live in Amsterdam?"
"We live in Old South...kind of close to the Olympic Stadium."
"Ooooo, that's a really good place to live. It's very nice!"
OR
"Ooooo, very nice. That's a great place to live. Lots of families. And it's very quiet."
Thus far, we have found our neighborhood to be very nice. There are lots of families, and we're close to pretty much any store we could want. Our apartment is quite spacious and homey. However, after today, we're not sure how quiet the neighborhood is.
After getting back from her meeting with the head of the counseling ministry at church (which was very productive and encouraging, by the way), Erin decided to eat some lunch. She was enjoying her leftover pasta from last night, reading - well, trying to read - some ads that came in the mail printed in Dutch, when explosively loud noises began issuing from what sounded like the apartment one building over. Now, there has been quite a bit of noise recently because of some construction going on further down the apartment building, so Erin didn't think too much of this at first. As she began listening more carefully, she realized the noises were much closer, perhaps only a couple walls over. It sounded like someone was banging the concrete wall with a hammer, followed by loud crashes, glass shattering, and shouting (in Dutch of course so she didn't know what was being yelled). After so many counseling experiences with victims of domestic violence, Erin's heart started beating a little faster. There was more loud banging, breaking glass, and yelling. However, Erin could hear only one voice yelling. Then the only yelling and banging to be heard was coming once again from the construction workers further down the building. Even if she had wanted to call 911 she couldn't as she did not know the number. (We made sure to look that up this afternoon: 112, in case anyone's interested.)
About 20 minutes later, Erin got her things together and went downstairs to ride her bike to the Super de Boer to do some grocery shopping. Upon exiting the staircase onto the sidewalk, Erin looked up to see an ambulance parked in the street, surrounded by about three police cars. Several medics were walking around the sidewalk, and in front of the building next to ours a man was crouching on the ground draped in a sheet. OK. A bit strange. What were obviously the man's clothes were in a pile next to him on the sidewalk. One of the medics picked up the clothes and shoes and carried them to the ambulance.
Erin went across the street to unlock her bike, wondering if it was even safe to be hanging around. There were clusters of 5-8 people up and down the street, staring, talking on their cell phones, and whispering to each other. (In Dutch again, of course!) She was standing with her bike contemplating whether to go ahead to the store with all this commotion or return to the apartment. She thought returning to the apartment might be more dangerous since she'd have to walk past the mysterious scene again. Just then, Erin looked up to see a man, stark naked, running like the wind down the sidewalk, followed closely by two policemen. One of the policemen quickly returned to his car, backed it all the way down the street since the ambulance was blocking the road ahead, then zoomed back up the other side in pursuit of the run-away naked man. Erin didn't see much injury to the man other than a couple cuts and some taped up places on his arm and back. Soon a few other police cars joined the chase with lights flashing and sirens roaring. About this time, Erin saw someone riding their bike down the street and figured it was at least safe to be on her way. Besides, everyone was talking to each other in Dutch and she figured she wasn't going to learn much more about this crazy incident. She did put two and two together and decided the shouting, crashing, banging, and breaking glass next door must have something to do with the naked man running down the street. ("What exactly?" you might ask. Hmmm. Erin is not quite sure. Strange noises followed by a strange naked man on the street followed by strange actions, like running away from the police with no clothes on? Must be related somehow. John hopes one of his coworkers might see something about this on the Dutch news tonight and update us tomorrow.)
Unfortunately, Erin ran into the naked man yet again. No, not literally! A couple blocks down, the police had caught up with the man. When Erin rode by on her bike, she glimpsed the man, face down, spread eagle on the pavement in front of another apartment building surrounded by several police officers. Once again several clusters of people had gathered to witness the bizarre occurrence.
And let's hope this is indeed a bizarre occurrence rather than the regular goings-on of our neighborhood!
Maybe this has something to do with that "coffeeshop" just down the street.
Or maybe Erin is destined to be surrounded by psychotic, mentally ill people the rest of her life. (Which is OK at work, but not preferable at home!)
We'll keep you updated.
Sunday, September 18, 2005
Our Car
Peugeot 206
Originally uploaded by john_and_erin_rogers.
We've had several requests for pictures of our car, so here it is. It's a Peugeot 206. You might be asking yourself--who makes Peugeot cars? Well, Peugeot does. It's a French automaker and its cars are fairly popular around here. The car is smaller than we're used to, but we can't complain. There are only two of us, and it can actually haul quite a bit when the back seats are folded down.
Last night we returned luggage to Jacob and Annette Cooper--the expats from Chicago that have just recently joined us here in Amsterdam. They went on a trip last week and we stored their luggage for them in our living room. They probably had 8 suitcases, and we managed to squeeze them all into our tiny car.
The transmission on the car is standard, which is okay for John, but we're still working on teaching Erin how to drive it.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Random Tidbits
We went out on a limb and bought a shelf for the bathroom at IKEA that you put together yourself. There's a line of products made of unfinished wood. Basically, you can decide what you want to build and choose the appropriate parts in the warehouse. John was excited about building something himself AND saving money by doing it this way rather than buying something already put together and stained. The challenge was choosing the right parts from a chart and list all printed in Dutch. Hmmm. We though we had it though...until John put it together. It looks good...if you don't touch it. You see, the shelf won't really stand up by itself. I think we're missing a vital component and we'll be making another trip to IKEA this weekend to try to remedy this problem.We visited Crossroads International Church on Sunday and loved it! The church is quite large, made up of people from all different cultures, but the services and ministries are in English and there are plenty of ministries going on for us to get involved in. Erin is going to see if she might be able to sing with the praise team - there's a meeting on Saturday. She also has a meeting with the woman who heads up the lay counseling department at the church to see how she might be able to use her counseling skills while we're in Amsterdam.
Albert Heijn is the grocery store that's everywhere here. There's one right around the corner from us. However, after two shopping trips to get only enough food to last us 5 days and bills that added up to €55, Erin decided she needed to explore the area for other grocery stores. After only a couple hours, her mission was accomplished. Super de Boer (the store whose commercials taught us the phrase "Graag gedaan" - you're welcome) is the equivalent of Walmart food prices, and there is a Super de Boer fairly nearby the apartment. Yea for cheaper groceries!
We will still utilize the bakery and fruit market that are right around the corner.
The woman who lives upstairs from us is very nice. She is also very pregnant! Her baby is due any day now, and she will be giving birth at home. Apparently there is a special tub right above us where she will give birth. So, soon we will have a baby in our building!
Coming soon: pictures of our apartment on the flickr website.
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Laundry
We have two washing machine-looking appliances in our bathroom. The man telling Erin how to use them when we checked-in to the apartment on Friday pointed to the top one and said, "I only put that in because a previous tenant wanted it; I never use it." So, that was helpful! He then proceeded to punch bottons at lightning speed while rambling off what "he" finds the most useful settings to be on the washing machine. By the time he left, Erin didn't even know whether that bottom appliance was a washer or a washer/dryer, what they call "combis" over here.
Today we decided to try to do some laundry. Just some towels. It took 45 minutes of looking up things on the internet and searching for a manual before we decided we kind of knew what to do and just pushed some buttons and started the washer. After pushing the start button, John laughed when the LCD screen reported the time remaining to wash this load of laundry: 2 hours, 34 minutes! Wow. John said at this rate the washing machine will be running the entire time we live here. About 20 minutes later, as Erin was cleaning the bathroom, she found the manual for the washer on top of the top machine. The manual stated that the machine is just a washer, no drying (we think). Therefore, the previous tenants must have wanted the top appliance (a dryer) for this very reason. Apparently the owner of the apartment who gave Erin instructions does not dry his clothes in a machine. We decided, after consulting the newly found instructions, that we did just fine.
We just went to check the laundry. During the spin cycle, the machine was spinning so fast, it sounded like it was about to take off. All the spinning must have started drying the towels. They were only damp when we opened the door. Now we're trying out the top dryer. It turned on, so we guess that's a good sign. We'll let everyone know if it turns out well or if we end up with a lot of washcloths rather than full-size towels!
Today we decided to try to do some laundry. Just some towels. It took 45 minutes of looking up things on the internet and searching for a manual before we decided we kind of knew what to do and just pushed some buttons and started the washer. After pushing the start button, John laughed when the LCD screen reported the time remaining to wash this load of laundry: 2 hours, 34 minutes! Wow. John said at this rate the washing machine will be running the entire time we live here. About 20 minutes later, as Erin was cleaning the bathroom, she found the manual for the washer on top of the top machine. The manual stated that the machine is just a washer, no drying (we think). Therefore, the previous tenants must have wanted the top appliance (a dryer) for this very reason. Apparently the owner of the apartment who gave Erin instructions does not dry his clothes in a machine. We decided, after consulting the newly found instructions, that we did just fine.
We just went to check the laundry. During the spin cycle, the machine was spinning so fast, it sounded like it was about to take off. All the spinning must have started drying the towels. They were only damp when we opened the door. Now we're trying out the top dryer. It turned on, so we guess that's a good sign. We'll let everyone know if it turns out well or if we end up with a lot of washcloths rather than full-size towels!
The Exciting Trip to Kinderdijk
On Saturday, August 27 we went to Kinderdijk to see the 19 windmills there. Getting to it was an adventure. John called his Mom the night beforehand to have her look up directions for us on the internet since we did not have a computer until John started work the following Thursday. We received general directions from Amsterdam and figured we would be OK.
We took the train to Rotterdam Centraal, asked for directions again there, and were told to get on yet another train. Then we waited with several other people for the bus to Kinderdijk. We almost got on a bus going the wrong direction, but luckily the couple in front of us asked the driver if this was the correct bus and discovered it wasn't. We didn't know about stamping our train ticket on our first train trip, so the conductor got mad at us--but not mad enough to make us pay the €30 fee, whew! An American in the next seat helped us figure out what to do at the next stop to avoid another chastising.
Kinderdijk was cool; we got to go inside a windmill. People still live inside windmills! Besides the mills, we saw an earthworm, chicks and a mother hen, goats, sheep, horses, cows, and a frog who jumped out on the footpath next to us. We walked into the town (Aldersdam, we think?) and stopped to watch a soccer game--looked like high school or college-aged guys. We then watied for the bus again for about 45 minutes! While waiting we witnessed a family from Italy in a winnebago drive up to the entrance to the windmills across the street, look puzzled, hold up traffic while doing a U-turn (on a timy street in a winnebago!), then drive back and forth and back and forth, each time the man craning his neck to figure out where to see the windmills. The whole lot of us waiting for the bus was quite entertained! Erin realized how confusing the entrance to the windmills is, though. The "Kinderdijk" sign had an "X" marked through it, as did every other sign (though she couldn't tell you what any of the signs meant other than a lot of stuff is prohibited). Speaking of signs, just as the bus drove up we noticed a sign warning that "dogs can't poop here". Yup, it was an actual sign with a silhouet of a dog squatting next to a big pile of poop! We'll have to find another sign like that and get a better picture. This is the one we got (see beginning of entry.) Oh--Erin cracked up over that one!
We only had a slight mishap on the trainride home. They made us get off the train in Haarlem because a suspicious package had been spotted at Amsterdam Centraal (where we were going). It was quite confusing as all the announcements were in Dutch. You can tell who the foreigners are in these instances. One Dutch woman started telling a passenger what was going on in English, and as she began to speak about 20 people from all over the platform congregated to hear what she had to say, us included! Apparently it was really a false alarm because we were only stalled about 20 minutes before we took a train on another platform. We ate dinner at a really good Italian place (LaModonna) in the Centrum. It was a fun day. We love being out in the country, in smaller towns.
As an aside, there are actually fields of flowers here, grown to harvest and sell. It's so pretty and green.
Friday, September 09, 2005
Our New Apartment
Today we moved out of the Novotel and into our new apartment. It was bittersweet saying our goodbyes to the hotel staff, many of which know us by name now. We promised to come back for occasional visits. John went into work early today hoping to get quite a bit done before our 10:00 appointment at city hall for our registration. Not much actually work got done, but he did get a mobile phone, which is a completely new experience for him. After fiddling around with it for a few minutes he realized it was in Dutch, so a colleague helped make the conversion to English. It takes 24 hours to be activated, so we'll see how it works out.
Upon our arrival to city hall we found out that we're not really married--not for Dutch government purposes anyway. Since we've been married for less than 10 years, they apparently don't trust our marriage certificate--they're going to have to obtain special permission to classify us as married. Who knows, maybe we'll just get married again over here. That way, we can two anniversaries--one in the spring and one in the fall. Don't be surprised if you get a wedding invitation in the mail.
After the trip to city hall we went back to the hotel to pack up all our belongings in John's car (a sweet 4-door Peugeot 206). We figured out how to take apart the seats in the back so we could fit everything in. Then John went back to work for a little while, before figuring out that it was about time to go withdraw a large sum of cash from the bank. It's a long, sad, story, but what it comes down to is the wire transfer for the deposit and real estate agent's commission did not go through, and we did not receive an invoice for the first month's rent until last night. Because the Dutch have migrated away from using paper checks, and instead rely on electronic transfers, it was not possible to make the transfer quickly enough to get it to the landlord's bank account by our 4:00 check-in appointment.
So, John spent a fair amount of time dodging cars, bikes, trams, and pedestrians in the city center. There is only branch in Amsterdam where cash is accessible from a teller. When he arrived, he quickly found out that special approval was required to obtain the cash, and usually requests should be made in advance. After spending more time than he would have liked in the bank, he emerged with the rent, and made it to the apartment by 4:45. By this time Erin had already completed most of the check-in procedures, and she was happy to find that his mission had been accomplished. We signed all the paper work, forked over the cash, and they handed over the keys.
We then went to eat with Jacob and Annette Cooper, who arrived from Chicago about a week ago. The Italian restaurant was called Pasta E Basta, and it was quite unique--throughout our three-course dinner, the wait staff showed off its musical talents. We were entertained delightful performances including "Here on the Street Where you Live" from My Fair Lady.
After dinner (we had to hurry out because our €6.50 parking pass only lasted for 2 hours) we returned to the apartment and unpacked our suitcases. Erin has already been busy making shopping lists and cleaning the apartment. We are both excited about the fact that we finally have access to the internet. The computer will work all night uploading the 258 photos we have so far. We'll add descriptions to the pictures later, but feel free to look at what we have. Many of the pictures are from our apartment search--we took pictures of all 11 so we wouldn't get confused when we were making our decision.
It's almost midnight now and we're going to turn in now. Tomorrow will be a full day of shopping for new things for the apartment. Over the next week or so we'll try to play "catch up" on all the adventures we've been having.
Upon our arrival to city hall we found out that we're not really married--not for Dutch government purposes anyway. Since we've been married for less than 10 years, they apparently don't trust our marriage certificate--they're going to have to obtain special permission to classify us as married. Who knows, maybe we'll just get married again over here. That way, we can two anniversaries--one in the spring and one in the fall. Don't be surprised if you get a wedding invitation in the mail.
After the trip to city hall we went back to the hotel to pack up all our belongings in John's car (a sweet 4-door Peugeot 206). We figured out how to take apart the seats in the back so we could fit everything in. Then John went back to work for a little while, before figuring out that it was about time to go withdraw a large sum of cash from the bank. It's a long, sad, story, but what it comes down to is the wire transfer for the deposit and real estate agent's commission did not go through, and we did not receive an invoice for the first month's rent until last night. Because the Dutch have migrated away from using paper checks, and instead rely on electronic transfers, it was not possible to make the transfer quickly enough to get it to the landlord's bank account by our 4:00 check-in appointment.
So, John spent a fair amount of time dodging cars, bikes, trams, and pedestrians in the city center. There is only branch in Amsterdam where cash is accessible from a teller. When he arrived, he quickly found out that special approval was required to obtain the cash, and usually requests should be made in advance. After spending more time than he would have liked in the bank, he emerged with the rent, and made it to the apartment by 4:45. By this time Erin had already completed most of the check-in procedures, and she was happy to find that his mission had been accomplished. We signed all the paper work, forked over the cash, and they handed over the keys.
We then went to eat with Jacob and Annette Cooper, who arrived from Chicago about a week ago. The Italian restaurant was called Pasta E Basta, and it was quite unique--throughout our three-course dinner, the wait staff showed off its musical talents. We were entertained delightful performances including "Here on the Street Where you Live" from My Fair Lady.
After dinner (we had to hurry out because our €6.50 parking pass only lasted for 2 hours) we returned to the apartment and unpacked our suitcases. Erin has already been busy making shopping lists and cleaning the apartment. We are both excited about the fact that we finally have access to the internet. The computer will work all night uploading the 258 photos we have so far. We'll add descriptions to the pictures later, but feel free to look at what we have. Many of the pictures are from our apartment search--we took pictures of all 11 so we wouldn't get confused when we were making our decision.
It's almost midnight now and we're going to turn in now. Tomorrow will be a full day of shopping for new things for the apartment. Over the next week or so we'll try to play "catch up" on all the adventures we've been having.
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