Busy Season in Amsterdam

Yes, accountants have busy season everywhere in the world, in case you were wondering. And this is why our adventures in Europe will be a bit less adventurous for a while, maybe for the next month and a half. Erin might attempt a few adventures and is sure to run into the occasional ironic/funny/terrifying/embarrassing situation in the midst of her daily routines, but John may be working quite a lot, including weekends, for several weeks. So, if you'd really like to keep reading, we'll fill you in on our quite unexciting but very relaxing weekend.

Instead of traveling this past weekend, we decided to enjoy what may be our last work-free weekend together for a while. That and John needed to take some suits in to be altered so he seized the moment. John's trip to the tailor was quite successful: the tailor spoke English, and, in fact, the customers before and after John were both English-speaking; the cost turned out to be reasonable; and John found what has to be the absolute cheapest place in Amsterdam to park other than the Ernst & Young office, which is free. He paid only €0.10/hour!

The rest of our weekend was probably rather unexciting: movies, Yahtzee, a walk around town in the snow, reading, sleeping. We did run into our neighbor while we were out and found out how we might get someone to clean our windows. Since we live on the second floor, third floor for Americans, there is no way for us to clean the outside of our windows ourselves. Every once in a while someone comes by and seems to be washing everyone else's windows using an adjustable electric ladder/cart thing. (Our neighbor doesn't know the word for it either, in English or Dutch!) Our neighbor explained that some previous renters apparently never paid the window-washer, so he stopped washing the second floor's windows or ringing the bell to ask if we want our windows cleaned. She told us she would tell him we were new renters next time she sees him and ask him to clean our windows. The mystery of the window-washer who skips our apartment has been solved!

Everywhere you go in Amsterdam shops are selling flower bulbs: tulips, hyacinth, daffodils, narcissus. On our way to church Sunday we noticed little tulip and daffodil plants poking up out of the ground all over the place. Erin decided our apartment could use some hyacinth bulbs (those are the kind that smell really good) so as we wait for spring weather we're also waiting for the bulbs to start blooming.