SATURDAY - AUGUST 31, 2013

I have so much to share but it is late & I'm tired!! Here's a blurb from a quick email I just sent out to someone:

It is 11:45 pm & I just got the kids to go to bed (well Sabrina almost...) today they slept this morning until noon!  I need to get them on Amdam time by Tuesday...school starts

first day went great!! second day (today) had one hiccup but then great again! (Sabrina needed to get her lock cut off her bike because she lost the key in a matter of hours!! LOL!!) we are all settled in! we are unpacked!  have bikes!  have ridden all around our neighborhood & nearby areas but still have yet to explore the rest of the city... we saw A LOT from a canal boat tonight!  Realizing all these other areas I've not seen.  it is thrilling.  I have had spotty wifi for the past few days so we have not kept up with the blog but it seems to be working right now so I'll try to blog first thing in the AM tomorrow- when I'm not so sleepy...

the weather,,fortunately!! has been stupendous!   I cannot imagine how hard adding the overcoming of a foreign language thing would be for my brain right now!  I doubt I'll ever learn any Dutch, unfortunately, since everyone speaks perfect English.  I've learned two words in two days: Kaas is cheese & feits is bike!  at this rate I'll know 365 words when I return!

oh & the news of the day!  I found TWO babysitters!  should bryan & I wish to go out!!  one is the daughter of the landlord!!! : )

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and so blog followers I shall get some pictures & more details on this blog tomorrow.  Sabrina too.  it has been quite a whirlwind but so so great & I just cannot believe how fortunate we are to be here in this awesome place with the wonderful, welcoming Dutch!

WEDNESDAY - SEPTEMBER 4, 2013

Oh how I wish I could relay all the happenings in perfect order of occurance, complete with a photo to accompany all the clever tales!  But alas!  Life here is wonderful & fun & different & sometimes tricky... and sitting down to blog about it gets put the the end of the line!  So before I go off to sleep I will try to just jot down a few highlights, in no particular order...

~The WEATHER has been unreal & not a single Dutch or Expat will skip the opportunity to let us know that we MUST NOT GET USED TO THIS WEATHER!  Under no circumstances should we expect multiple warm & wonderful, short-sleeve-wearing, carefree biking, late-afternoon-picknicking, dinner-on-the-rooftop days & nights like we have been enjoying since we arrived... I keep trying to set myself up for the change but enjoy it we have & enjoy it we will until it disappears...

~ The TRANSPORTATION is pretty freaking amazing & no matter how much you try to prepare yourself for doing EVERYTHING on a bike, it is still rather mind-blowing.  Sure, we all doddled around campus on our bikes in college... of course we wobbled our way home from the grocery store a few times with too-heavy bags on our handlebars... but this is REAL, SON.  You don't have a car & when you want to buy some 'thing' to hang your clothes on or store your toiletries or heap your laundry into at the "Blokker" store, you better think about how that 'thing' is getting home before you put it in your shopping basket! 

~ speaking of food...GROCERIES are purchased on pretty much any street corner with a range of stores from mediocre to wonderful, small to huge, Dutch to English (Marks & Spencers, Elaine!) to fresh booths to fried everything & pickeled fish.  .  . Since you only buy a small amount at a time, you can try a different store each day. 

~ more FOOD... The restaurants!  The cafes!  The pubs!  The outdoor whatever-you-wanna-call-thems!  Every minute you pass a chair & a table on the sidewalk & are tempted to have a coffee, a soup, a pasta dinner, Thai, Indian, Vegetarian, healthy lunchy places, a wonderful place called 'The Place' I think? which is like a gussied-up cafeteria with everything freshly made before your eyes... any type of food you can imagine is here & we are trying to resist it all to preserve both calories & euros!  Coming from Lake Tahoe & our pretty limited options, we are trying hard not to eat out every single meal.  ...yummmmmy....mmmmcheesey....

~ EXERCISE is everywhere which Bryan & I adore.  We have a great apartment within three pedal strokes from the biggest park in the city, The Vondelpark.  It is a major thouroughfare to get thru quite a few blocks in the city but also the major hub of outdoor activities.  Dogs, bikes, runners, roller bladers, strollers, soccer... if you have lived in NYC I'm sure it looks a lot like central park without the crime element nor horse-drawn carriages.  I love being on my run & turning around to see behind me a bootcamp class with one super buff trainer screaming at a pack of 25 trainees who are sprinting right up my rear!  I joined the big gym today so pretty soon I'll be one of the bootcampers following the instruction of this scary man...I fear running outdoors is not a year-round sport...

~TRANSPORTATION, part II & NL BUREAUCRACY- tomorrow we take the tram.  We are heading into the Centrum to get a bunch of paperwork completed. We tried to get everything in order on Monday before the kids started school but true to any government office I've ever visited, we were given partial, inaccurate & sometimes conflicting directions leading us to chalk that first attempt up to "Epic Fail".  WORST part was trying to navigate the streets in that area with the kids on the bikes.  YIKES.  We are going to lighten our load tomorrow by ditching the bikes for just a few hours & take the blue tram that criss-crosses the city.  Stay tuned tomorrow to see how all this goes!  Hopefully by end of day we will have our long-stay visas & will be registered with the local municipality as well as have our bank accounts all set up.  Running out of cash quickly!  And the credit cards are sometimes just a piece of plastic in my wallet around here...it is a bit of a mystery.

~ APARTMENT LIFE is so much fun for all of us!  So different from a half acre in a patch of Lodgepole pine trees!!  We climb exaclty 74 steps to get to our humble abode!!! NO JOKE!  Bryan's brother aptly posted on his FB page: "Buns of Steel"  I say it now everytime we come up to the apartment.  No matter WHAT we eat here, there's no way we can end up less fit than now...no way!  Biking about 15-20 miles per day is a minimum.  Climbing the stairs about 6-8 times per day is also a minimum.  Jackie Peacock, it is like your BFIT class all day long around here!!  Our place is super cute & of course sparse, clean, modern & totally totally Dutch!  We are on the top floor, have huge windows I open all the time & a private rooftop patio which makes me the happiest person ever! 

Before I left to househunt, each member of our family was able to weigh-in on their most desired element.  Kai stated: "Must Have Wifi" (check).  One-story house resident Sabrina said "I want STAIRS!!"  (checkcheckcheckcheckcheck).  Bryan only desired that I stay within a certain budget (check...ish).  My requirement was some outdoor space & when I saw this roof I was sold.  One bathroom? who cares.  Tiny non-closet?  Meh!  I'm in heaven in this place, especially the location which I've been told is the best neighborhood in the city.  YAY!

~the DUTCH PEOPLE here are some of the best I've met around the globe.  I've always loved the friendly ways of the Canadians. Similarly, these Dutch are chill, mellow, happy, unfettered & very hip.  We read that no one wishes to stand out in The Netherlands.  "To fit right in is strange enough" which definitely explains the nondescript bikes.  Most bikes are black.  A few are white. No fancy decor (Burners you would hate this!) and no stickers, emblems, personality whatsoever.  Same with the clothes... very hip but not overly trendy.  I like this!  It is not me but I could learn from this!!  The Dutch neighbors have been so kind, welcoming & helpful.  They exchange numbers & emails & check in with us.  They love to meet our kids & tell us how to manage in a helpful & non-rude way.  Let's see if this is just the honeymoon stage!  I hope not!

~the EXPATS we have met seem to be pretty impressed with Amsterdam too!  We feel so lucky that on day 3 we walked out our front door & met the family from next door who are from Portland & have two young kids... we all hit it off right away & proceeded to stay up too late drinking wine the past couple nights!  Jordie makes awesome chocolate chip cookies and Barry is so happy that school is back in session!  Their kids are adorable, they go to the same school as ours & Sabrina has already done a little "babysitting" with them.  Looking forward to going thru this adventure with these guys!!  In addition, some other expat families from our school have told us that the school community is awesome, with several reminding me to attend the Thursday coffee meetings that begin next week...Bryan will be gone by then & I'm there!!

OK wow that was a lot of download for one night.  I'll get a few pictures up to add to this missive & I really appreciate all the wonderful comments & questions everyone has been posting, sending & texting to me.  Thanks for staying with us on this amazing journey!!

Janet & Sabrina (who is in bed but plans to post about her first two days of school tomorrow... )  good night!

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2013
Bureaucracy - Part II

Well, we definitely found the chink in the armor here and it is probably the same thing everywhere you go.  The Red Tape Machine is broken.

Here's how the visa process essentially  works, as far as we can tell:

1. Prior to leaving the US, we read everything we could find about the rules on living here and securing non-work, extended-stay visas. Everything tells us we need to register within five days of arrival and it's super easy. No way to do anything in advance... (*Side Notation: Bryan found a place where it states that you may travel to the US embassy in Washington DC to get visa in advance... non-starter...) Sounds so civilized!  Bring passports and birth certificates. Ok sweet...no problem!  We arrived on a Friday so after the weekend, this was priority one.  On it!

2. Before making the first attempt on Monday morning, I called the offices and made sure we had the address, the hours, the correct documents.  Sounded easy. Originally, they told me the next available appointment was September 30...! I was frightened because I know we need this BSN number to open a bank account and cash is starting to run low.  Then I said our kids need to be in school so she said if you are with children, ANY day M-F from 8:30 - 3:00 we could come and all of us would get registered.
((**Side note #2: ANY day includes Thursday, right? ))

3. Monday around 10:30 AM, we have braved a pretty harrowing bike ride into the Centrum to get going on this business.  First, we wait in a short line to get a ticket with a number and then go across the hall to wait for our number to be called.  We don't wait long at all and we walk up to bureaucrat #1 with a chipper smile and proceed to pull out passports. This is going to be way too simple!   She declares that we need a paper copy of our lease agreement from our landlord.  WHAAAT? This is brand new information. We have no lease on paper, we have no printer.  Work-arounds include: can you view it electronically on my phone? Can we have it faxed or emailed here and printed? Can we get everything else in order? Of course not. There's not even anyone else waiting in line but none of these were a consideration. Not being told this on the phone was most annoying of all - I think the game is to see how much running around you are willing to do to earn a slot in this casual, carefree city.  She also tells us ten more steps we will take in the registration process but not until we have said BSN number from this office.  You may have an appointment to return next Monday. Goodbye.

4. After receiving a paper copy of lease from our awesome landlord, we decide to venture over again on Thursday, this time via tram.  Let's make it even simpler this time! No bikes! Papers in hand! We have the kids so no appointment necessary!

We first get off the tram too early so we have a lot of walking to do but we found a Starbucks (shhh... that's our little secret... our yummy little secret...) and the streets were so quiet this morning. Like, SO quiet... ??? So the stroll in the sun was nice.  Bryan gets us to the building again with no problem. Except it's closed. Every office deserted and locked.  Thursdays everything opens at 1:00.  Whaaa??  FINE. Let's go to the Anne Frank Museum everyone!  Not too far and since we are missing a day of school let's do something educational.  So we walk (and walk and walk and where's my bike?!) & wait in line but since there's no kids around, the line is not bad and the museum was well worth the wait.  We killed a couple hours, ate and got back over to government bliss by 1:00.

5. We know the drill- get in line #1 to get ticket with number to wait to be called (think DMV).  We wait about 40 minutes and finally we are called! The girl (bureaucrat #2) says You. Need. An. Appointment.
OH HEyaLL NO.
Yes, she says, on Thursdays they are way too busy to process the BSN numbers without an appointment and the ticket number we were given was to wait for someone to book us an appointment. ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME.
I actually enlisted the oft-seen (by my kids) frustration breakdown hoping the tears welling in my eyes would give this woman (#2) a source of pity on me. Nay.

She says she will process our appointment for today (just for the kids!!?, knowing that we already have a Monday appointment for ourselves, since I let that slip) but we will be waiting at least another hour for our number to be called.

6. After another hour (& a bag of patates frites), our number is called and the huge bummer is that of all the bureaucrats in the building (again, think DMV) we get to see #2 again!  She patiently explains to the two dense Americans that since Thursdays are so busy, she will only have time to process the two kids' applications. She insists that "we" are not very good listeners due to Janet's frustrated sighs and claims that we have been given bad intel. Bryan's foot lands forcefully on Janet's foot under desk and she proceeds to remain silent for the remainder of this new "negotiation"... #2 also tried to shock and frighten us with proclamations that our birth certificates needed some in-obtainable secret stamp from US embassy- basically telling us our original birth and marriage certificates were null and void here. (***NOTATION #3: Bryan & I are both considered SINGLE in The Netherlands!!!! As a matter of fact I think he's left for the Red Light District just now!!)

Ok so basically Bryan has so much experience in securing permits etc with b-cats that he knows the "slow play."  #2 had to continuously tell us how busy they are and how long each application would take with Bryan's acknowledgements and nods before he quietly asks "since it's getting less crowded in here, do you think you might have time to process all four of us??" See why I married this smooth operator? #2 was also quite helpless against his charms! Indeed, two hours after walking in the door, we left with the FOUR pertinent letters that will *hopefully* allow us to set up our bank accounts and pay utilities, rent, buy groceries and tram cards like the rest of the residents...!!!!

A tram ride home includes chats with tourists impressed by our map skills, our awesome kids & even being mistaken for Dutch people a few times. ( I find that hugely complimentary so far... ) And after a day like today, one guess what we are doing right now??  The ever-patient & non-complaining children were rewarded with veg-out time on their devices and B&I have polished off yet another chilled bottle of prosecco ...all of us, yes, on the roof ; )