Day 62: A Message from Christian

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Hello, this is Christian

I wanted to tell everybody about how my experience has gone here. It has been 2 months today, and we have all our stuff, school and soon, our car! School has been the big thing for me. One month so far into it I am doing great. The school teaches you how to think deeply into everything, even PE. Homework is so much cooler and easier because all the home work is due either 2 days after it is given or one week later. My schedule is different than a California schedule. In California, you have the same classes each day, but here you have five classes on a block schedule each day and then you switch and have five different classes the next day and then it rotates again. I take 2 electives: painting, design technology (not architectural) and 2 languages: Mandarin and Dutch. I am training for the basketball team with my friends. Speaking of friends, I have 7 new, great friends who are basically like an extra large package who consist of 5 Dutch boys, one French and one British. The Dutch friends have taught me some Dutch, and the French and British buds teach me great soccer. Today I shared a little bit of American culture, an American football!! My friends, Luca, Matt, Max, Xander, Henk, Wybe and I all played but eventually the other team made up of 3 inexperienced Dutch kids beat my team, 14 to 7. They were all happy and wanted to play again. I am probably most happy here now because I have friends, family, and a place where I belong. I love this country, the people places and how easy it is to travel around. 1 thing I do dislike is the rain, but overall I’m good. Hope whoever is reading from Sunnyvale, or from my family will comment, or subscribe to this blog and keep in touch!

Best wishes, Christian

I saw a double rainbow today!

16Sep2012

Day 53: Van Gogh and Friends

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We visited the Van Gogh museum with two other families today, which for me, was a HUGE success just to coordinate and execute the event itself before the museum closed.

Juliana and Van Gogh

I was fascinated watching our lively group move around the museum, especially enjoying the 4 young boys and Juliana with their Treasure Hunt map. Children are more than welcome at the museum and were given a treasure map, a writing board and pencil to discover clues to uncover a secret word. At the end of the treasure hunt, they received a prize – a post card they could choose from their favorite Van Gogh’s masterpieces. Even watching what they picked entertained me. I liked seeing what drew their attention, and by them picking, we got to have a conversation afterwards. The treasure hunt was a brilliant idea and occupied their attention, taking them from floor to floor and exploring the different works of art. They all became Van Gogh “Experts”.

One connection I had with Van Gogh, came on the first floor of the museum. When you first walk in, the room is filled mainly with art from other artists. What intrigued me was what was written on the wall about Van Gogh, and his interest and relations with the other artists and why they were important to him. He mentioned that he learned from the others and wanted to collaborate with them. He looked for kindred spirits and wanted to exchange ideas.

‘People strengthen each other when they work together, and an entity is formed without personality having to be blotted out by the collaboration. … We don’t actually work together, but we have similar ideas about many questions’

This made me think of the friends I choose to surround myself with – I want to collaborate and share ideas and help each other and promote one another. I want to make life better for all of us and enjoy the company of other women creating the same type of “art” as me – creating a balanced, happy, family life and supporting each other through the messy process. I don’t want to take away from anyone else or necessarily copy anyone else, but I want to watch and learn and adopt and create best practices. I used to do this for work once upon a time… hmmm… I like this knowledge sharing thing.

Girlfriends in Vondelpark

I also really liked the simplicity of Vincent’s work (he used to sign his paintings with only his first name – much less informal which I tend to appreciate!). I liked looking at his brush strokes, the colors and contrasts and details. When we walked over to Vondelpark afterwards, I especially noticed the colors of the trees changing to fall already. Already? Oh, and the light is changing too – it got dark much earlier today. Change is good.

Fall is coming soon

And before I close out today, I wanted to remember Christopher Stevens and his family – the US Ambassador to Libya. We were warned, as Americans, to stay away from the Mueseumplein today as that is where the US Consulate is located. We didn’t want fear to stop us and we thought if we felt afraid, then we would leave the area. When we arrived there today, the front of the building was being guarded by several police on horseback. The flag was at half staff and there were barricades surrounding the building. We did not feel threatened, but we did feel saddened for Mr. Stevens and his family, as well as the other Navy Seals who were killed in the attack. Rest in peace…Namaste…thank you.

US Consulate in Amsterdam.

16Sep2012

Day 52: If it ain’t Dutch, it ain’t much!

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I’m enjoying exploring Holland, meeting up with friend’s and hanging out with family. I’m appreciating the differences and enjoying slowing down and living it up at the same time.

This morning I met up with Beth, from PEO, for coffee in Amsterdam at her house. I loved her company and having a place to go and meet up. It got me out of the house, off the computer and out the door before 10am.

After our brief coffee chat, I headed home with a smile on my face and got ready to pick up Juliana from her Challenge trip. She had a good time with her new friends and we were happy to have her home again.

This afternoon, we headed to Den Bosche to explore the 900 year old Saturday Market tradition!! Isn’t that crazy? The streets were bustling with people (except Dorine and Nadja, whom I believe were out of town this weekend) and filled with fresh flowers and fruit, ice cream and stroopwaffels! I love this town and it’s unique feel. It’s a large place but it doesn’t feel touristy.

We explored a street that had open front patios with outdoor seating and most the tables were full but we found one that was a tapas place, which was good enough. We were trying to fill the time before heading over to Gerard’s house to celebrate his birthday.

The Dutch celebrate birthdays by inviting people over after dinner. This invitation was for 8- 8:30pm and typically late parties like this go until 2 or 3 in the morning. Coffee and cake is served first, when you arrive. Then beer and wine are shared – and crackers with cheeses and meats and salads and bread. Everyone sits around the kitchen table and hangs out. Later the deep fryer gets going and the company enjoys bitter ballen and frickadels! We made it until after 11:30 pm! Not a bad way to celebrate life. Happy birthday, Gerard!! Thanks for a great evening!

12Sep2012

Day 49: Let’s Go

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Mmm… A smoker with bacon in it!

Let’s Go – Amsterdam.

I love that I have kids and that through them being in school, I get to make new friend’s too. I hear if you have kids or a dog, it’s easy to make friends. I’ll stick with kids, especially since mine are potty trained!

There is a series of Let’s Go – Outings run by parent volunteers where a group of 20 or so will gather and explore different areas together.

Today after drop off, we ventured into Amsterdam and used different trams to get to different parts of the city. It’s always nice to go with someone who already knows the system and can tell you where to stop and transfer from tram to tram. It makes it so much easier.

Our tour guide also pointed out the best butcher, where to find spices, kitchen shops and fancy bakeries to name a few hot spots.

While journeying with new women, I got to meet new friends from Mexico, Barcelona and Argentina who have invited me to come and practice my Spanish with them. This trip was a way to socialize with women from different cultures, because when you arrive in an international school, women tend to gather by nationality. I think this provides comfort initially when everything is so new and different. I love my country and sharing stories with my American friends, and I also enjoy learning about the lives of women from other countries. I loved speaking Spanish today again and want to learn more Dutch too. I loved being out and exploring and feeling more comfortable navigating around my new home town.

Life is good!

18Aug2012

Day 24: I Am (Almost) Home

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I feel like I’m almost at home now. My comfy couch created a comfy nook in our great room and I love it. We were busy cleaning the house, I was in my pjs with makeup under my eyes and my hair in a messy ponytail, when the previous tenants of our house came by to pick up their mail and stayed and chatted for awhile, giving us so many tips and shared stories and I didn’t want them to leave! Sally has been an expat since she was a kid and has lived in 9 different countries! Her insights and attitude were inspiring and I wanted to hear more of her stories. We exchanged contact info and are planning to meet for coffee next week! Yippee!

Gerard and Anita and Kelsi came over to spend the day with us. They brought dutch treats for the kids and a beautiful houseplant for us. Thank you guys! We had coffee and cake when they arrived, and then took the tram up to the city for a few hours.

Wooden Shoe Boat on the Amstel

It was so hot today, that we thought we’d go up to the Albert Cuypmakrt and walk around in the outdoor market place. It was over 30 degrees here (80+ Fahrenheit) and we were all a little uncomfortable with the heat. However we joked about enjoying the sunshine now because winters are long here. We searched forever for a normal ice cream cone and couldn’t find one. We ended up at a McDonald’s for McFlurry’s and Sundaes and a nice, tall coke filled with lots of ice. They typically don’t serve ice here or water for free.

Afterwards, we walked back home from the tram and made tacos for dinner. We sat outside on the patio in the bit of shade we had. Even though it was hot out, coffee is always served after dinner. We had a drink together and then said goodbye to our guests.

(Too bad the ice cream truck drove up after we already had dessert!)

I’m glad to be sitting with the fan on and the windows open on my new comfy couch. And check out what’s on TV – Jeff found a way to get NFL game day casts on the computer and hooked it up to the TV. He’s happy. Life is good.

15Aug2012

Day 21: Three Weeks and A Little Off

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Amsterdam, Central Station

We left Sunnyvale three weeks ago today and by all means, I think we’ve done a good job getting settled pretty quickly and efficiently, until today.

Today just didn’t feel right and we had a few things go wrong and a few plans changed. No big deal, but you know the feeling when you just feel off? That was our day.

We made plans to meet up with the Peterson’s today, but both Scott and CJ weren’t feeling so hot. We were going to meet at the Nemo
Museum, but then plans changed.

Instead we went over to the music shop to buy CJ a musical keyboard. I had promised we would buy him one for his birthday when we moved here and we finally had a break in our schedule to get over to the music shop. All went well until we got home. The stairs at our house are very small and narrow and curve upwards. I was bringing up the keyboard stand in it’s box and missed the last small step and stumbled, spraining my big toe and bruising my right hip. I hate getting hurt and hate falling. This put me in a sad mood. We ended up hanging out for another hour or so, for me to recover and to give CJ some time to play on his new toy.

It was so hot and humid today and sitting around the house all day with three kids wasn’t in the plans either. My foot felt a little better so we decided to take the tram to Central Station and see the Nemo anyway.

I was so glad we actually got out to enjoy the day, even if it was later than we had thought. Central Station was busy as ever and the sun was shining brightly. We started to walk over towards the Nemo and enjoyed seeing the floating Chinese restaurant and the brand new Starbucks in the Double Tree building. There was a walking bridge that pedestrians and cyclists could use to get over to the Nemo. While we were walking, we had an incident. Juliana fell on the non-slip, sand-paper like surface with a little help from a “friend” and skinned her knee so bad and so deep. When I knelt down to help her, I fell over from the pain in my big toe that I was ignoring. We were a mess. And I didn’t carry the first aid kit today because we were just going to an indoor museum, and didn’t think we would need it. So much for our plans.

I ran over to a little floating boat bar and asked for a napkin and perhaps a large bandage. The man was so sweet and told me to bring her in. I cleaned her up with what he had and offered him a tip. He would not accept my money. I was thankful for his kindness and help.

He didn’t have the right type of bandage so we walked back to the Starbucks to cool off and for a drink and to see if they had a first aid kit. They were so helpful and sweet to us and bandaged up her knee for me. I was so thankful and appreciative, especially because they spoke English too and could understand me. That was comforting.

By this time, Nemo was about to close and I was just done with that idea. We made our way back at rush hour to the tram and endured a jam-packed filled ride, along with three loud, smelly, uncivilized drunk men that scared us and made us almost get off. But if we would have gotten off, we wouldn’t have seats for the two injured girls, so we just rode it out. Go with the flow, right?

Tomorrow is another day. And our shipment arrives from over the seas and I can’t wait to see all our stuff, especially my comfy rocking chair.

Hope you had a good day!! And Happy Birthday to my favorite little 6 year old!! Miss you.

10Aug2012

Day 16: SUPed the Amstel and Amsterdam Canals!

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I’m sitting on a kitchen bench in our living room with tired arms. The rental furniture was picked up today and our new furniture arrives tomorrow. We bought a few mattresses and blankets and sheets last week so we are able to actually sleep in beds, so that’s good! We went shopping today to buy a few more linens to cover the mattresses too. We also had fun walking around the Friday market place. On Friday’s, vendors fill the city center selling all sorts of things from cheese, to produce, to household goods, toys, linens, candy and other things. We are slowly (or quickly) getting familiar with our surroundings and making our house more homey.

As the movers were moving stuff out, the kids were exploring the canal in front of our house on our neighbor’s inflatable canoe. They had so much fun splashing around, and making new friends. One of the girls only speaks Dutch and the other little girl speaks English and Dutch. So between the three they found a way to communicate and play. It was fun watching them bond through play.

After “working” today, I got to go for a Friday evening paddle with 50 of my newest “friends!”. I found Morene on Facebook and have been following her since before we moved. She posted that she had rentals available for a Friday night paddle through Amsterdam and tonight I was able to join her. I was so excited!! It was awesome and peaceful and a workout! The weather was gorgeous and the water was warm. It was fun navigating the narrow canals and paddling with a “team” of other SUP-ers, under bridges and around boats and over wakes. Can you see my perm-a-grin???

Jeff and the kids drove me to the drop off location and then I paddled for two hours down the Amstel river and through several canals including the Herengracht. I love being on the water and seeing things from a different perspective. It was fun to watch the tourists taking our pictures and watching us as we paddled by.

I can’t wait to go again!

4Aug2012

Day 10: Day in Amsterdam

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Today was the gay pride parade on one of the canals in Amsterdam and we were invited to attend. I wouldn’t normally take the kids to this type of event but I felt like we should go for a short while to be with our extended family and to experience a celebration that is not usually ours to share. We like to learn about people, religion, culture, and geography, and when we are invited, we like to show our respect and participate along with our loved ones.

People were so happy and crowded all sides of the streets near the canal and over the bridges probably 10 people deep that you couldn’t hardly see. There was music and dancing and flamboyant costumes and streamers and horns and bright pink boas and tiaras every where. The canals were filled with boats and dancers and groups of people celebrating diversity and acceptance, including the police and the mayor of Amsterdam. I liked that and I liked seeing so many happy people. But I didn’t like my kids seeing nearly naked dancing people whatever their orientation is. So we kissed our cousins goodbye and went on with the day, looking for the best Frites place in town.

There was a little shop near the Singel that sells french fries in little paper cones with whatever type of sauce you’d like. They are hot and thick and fresh and the line wrapped around the side of the building. They have been in business since 1957 and they just sell frites and sodas and they aren’t cheap, so they must be making a fortune! We all enjoyed them, except for lil’ C who order BBQ sauce on his and it tasted like Thousand island dressing.

We decided to walk with our snack into the indoor shopping mall and just look around. That was until a security guard approached us and told us we couldn’t eat in the mall. Another learning… Looks like we should do one thing at a time and relax and enjoy our fries. Good idea! We walked back out and finished and then went back up to the top floor of the building to check out the 360 views of the rooftops of the city. We sat and ordered drinks and just hung out together. It was very relaxing and quiet and peaceful. Just what I needed after the stressful earlier part of the day. I don’t much care for crowds.

We also got experience with the fickle weather. We all left the house in short sleeves, and we’ve learned to carry umbrellas, but we’re not used to the weather going from hot to pouring rain and then back again. That’s ok, we’ll adapt and get used to it and add light rain coats to our day bags.

It’s nice to be home and watching the Olympics. We enjoyed watching the mixed doubles tennis, but it’s making me really want to play again and dust off my racket. Know anyone in Amstelveen area that wants to play with me?

Hope you have a good day and experience all that life offers you. xo

1Aug2012

Day 7: Fun in the Sun

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When the sun is shining, everyone. We tells you to go outside. It’s like the sun shining is a novelty and we better hurry up and enjoy it while it lasts. I kinda like that mentality… To enjoy the moment because it might not last.

And so we did. The big kids walked with Jeff to buy train passes for the day. He went off to work and they walked home alone. Baby steps of freedom in a new land. Once we finished. Lunch and cleaning up, we actually walked down town to do some bike shopping. We also had to return a bank card we found stuck in the ticket stand. We shopped around and then toothere train to Amsterdam.

Our adventures today took us to Starbucks, to my PEO sister’s bookstore, and to the Museumplein to play outside and read our new books.We waited for Jeff to join us and then we went to meet Beth from PEO. We walked to her beautiful home and met her husband. Such a gorgeous house and the kids were so excited to catch a glimpse of the Olympics! We still don’t have cable or Internet! They took us out for delicious Italian food and we enjoyed a great conversation together. Afterwards they drove us home and thank goodness! The sunny day turned into torrential showers. Its so nice to make new friends in a new city. So thankful.

Lesson Learned: always carry a raincoat! The weather can change dramatically in a day.

(no pictures again as I onlyiPads theipad and not my computer to share today’s images.)

27Jul2012

Day 1: Arrival in Amsterdam and Amstelveen

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We arrived safely and happily in Amsterdam today. Everything went smoothly. All the luggage was gathered and accounted for and we walked right through customs in less than 2 minutes! We reserved a mini bus to pick us up with all our luggage and the driver was right near the bus stand waiting for us, as expected. I love when things go as planned!!

He drove us to our new home where Lion was already waiting for us, with the doors and windows open and airing out the place. I believe it was 29 degrees celsius which is hot for here. There were flowers on the table from the furniture rental place, a bottle of wine from the home owner and a bottle of champagne from the realtor. We also had our first piece of mail addressed to the Hartley Family from Dorine and Nadja!

Once we got all the bags in the house, Lion took me and the two younger travelers to the Albert Hijn for groceries and assundries and to buy me some fresh flowers. It was wonderful since he drove us and I didn’t have to make several trips, even though it is in walking distance from our home. He helped me to read the labels, use our new bank card with a chip and pin, and use a euro coin to release the shopping cart. The kids were fascinated and C was picking out affordable cereal so I think he was happy too!

We rested shortly and then walked to dinner at an Indonesian restaurant where we enjoyed rending, sayer lodeh, noodles, rice, and mixed veggies. It was delicious, but the kids were fading fast! We hurried them thru and made one more stop at Dirk’s for bathroom soap as I missed that the first time around. I noticed that workers and shoppers don’t seem to greet one another and hardly even smile. It was especially apparent when we were so lucky to drop a set of 6 glasses out of our basket and they crashed all over the floor and no one hardly looked up, offered any help, or yelled at us. Nothing happened and it felt surreal. Nothing happened as we checked out either with glass every where. Nothing happened when the next set of customers kicked the glass pile either!! Why? I have no idea yet as to what to expect. I just wanted to hurry out of there!!

We walked back home with our paid for Dirk’s bag and were greeted by our first set of neighbors. They invited us in for a drink and we visited for a short while as we were waiting for the plumber to arrive. Its nice to have some friendly faces right next door, who invited us I. And shared some small plastic bowls for cereal in the morning.

And so now we are settling in for the night before 9 pm. Little C is sleeping in our room b/c the sun is too hot and shining directly in his room. Slap lekker! xo