Oh, Laundry

Oh, laundry.  Just when I thought you couldn't be any less appealing.  Suddenly all of the settings are in Dutch.  (I've already ruined a few shirts because I washed them in super hot water accidentally.  Oops.) And each washing cycle takes 2+ hours.  Oh, and the dryer takes that long, too.  And each machine fits about a third of the capacity of an American machine. And then both machines are located in Andy's bedroom, which is tricky considering naps and all.  And then the washer is in a little dungeon, as I call it.  (No light, I have to stoop to get in there, makeshift door, etc.)  And then dryer does strange things like make our clothes smoke and require me to empty water after every cycle.  It will be a wonder if we ever have clean clothes here.  Considering my usual weekly four loads will now require 8+ loads, and each load will take 4+ hours (dismal math, I know), I think I can safely guarantee our laundry will ever be "done" here.

Just one of those quirks of living in Europe!  But, good heavens, I am grateful to have these machines.  Especially a dryer, which I only had once on my mission.  So maybe I'll stop complaining. :)

The dungeon that houses our washing machine.  I have to duck to get in there. 

Washing Machine

Our dryer is in a nice little room. 

Random Holland Thoughts

-The women here are gorgeous. They're blonde, tall, skinny, and stunning.  They all could be models. They all look like this: 

-People here are so tall.  You can tell the Netherlands has the tallest population the world.  Everyone towers over me.
-It's cheaper here than I thought it would be.  In fact, I may spend less on groceries here than I do in Texas.  Prices are definitely cheaper in Texas, but I only buy what we absolutely need here because I don't want to carry unnecessary things all the way up to our place.
-Cam got his bike today, finally!  A great used bike for 120 euro.  He's a true dutchman now.  We're all excited about this because it will be a much faster way for him to get to and from work.
-H&M is the best.  And there are three different stores within a five minute walk and one of them is exclusively kids clothes.  Amazing.
-Stroopwafels will be the death of me.  When I come home 50 lbs heavier, we will all know why.  And how is each one seriously 180 calories? Life isn't fair.

They don't look that great, but they are divine.

-Basically, the only American TV channels I get here are MTV and TLC, neither of which I watch a lot of at home.  So don't be surprised when I come home being well versed in Teen Mom 2, Say Yes to the Dress, and Cake Boss.  They do have BBC 1 and 2 here, which have some promising programs.  We'll see.  That's it for English speaking channels.  Of course, the plus is that they have way less commercials here.  Is it sad I care this much about TV?
-They have the best ice cream and gelato everywhere here. Pistachio is my favorite.
-The produce is awesome here.  So fresh! It's really affordable too.  5 tomatoes for 1 euro.  A big avocado for .80 euro.  A zucchini for .49 euro.  Red pepper for .60 euro.  Not too bad!
-Remember how I said Cam's work hours would be a strict 9-10 AM to 5 PM?  Sadly, that was a lie.  He does leave about 8:30 AM, but he's usually home between 6:30 and 7.  Ugh.
-I have an old school Nokia brick phone.  We just bought cheap prepaid phones to use while we're here, pretty much to just text and call each other.  I think it's almost identical to my first phone ever, which I got almost ten years ago.  Ha! No color, no camera, no internet. Very...basic.
-I'm finding cooking here to be tough.  I'm sure I'll get the hang of it as time goes on, but I'm having a hard time coming up with dinner ideas.  It seems like all of my usual recipes have at least one ingredient I can't find here.  And it doesn't help that everything at the store is in dutch.
-Have I ever shown how they moved our crates into our place here?  It was crazy! It's way too hard to move stuff in here through the way we enter our place, so they had to come early in the morning when the shopping street wasn't open yet and put our stuff on a little elevator, which they brought up to our living room window, which is five stories high. And this is a common practice here!

The movers at our living room window waiting for boxes on the elevator.

Some boxes on the little elevator on their way up.

-I hate the mosquitos so bad here.  I can't even stand it.  They bite us all night long. I think we each have 20+ bites.  Seriously.  We sleep in a mosquito net now, which is helping somewhat.
-I have to light our burners on the stove with a match.  Ugh.  I guess it's time to overcome my fear of lighting matches.
-I have a cleaner here.  Isn't that incredible?!  A cleaner comes weekly to work for 1.5 hours doing whatever I want them to do.  Amazing.
-Here's a great story about how I got locked out of our place for an hour the other day.  Some background: I love our downstairs neighbor, Kaas, but he's a bit on the paranoid side.  We really do live in a safe area and it's so difficult to get to our place, it feels a bit like a fortress.  You have to go through quite a few doors with locks.  Anyway, back to Kaas' paranoia--we share one door that leads to our place with him.  It has a normal lock, but he really wants us to do two deadbolts (TWO!) in addition to the normal lock on that door if neither of us is home.  This wouldn't be a big deal if I didn't already have a baby and a bag in my arms I was juggling.  But it's pretty tricky--especially since the keys are ancient keys that are really finicky.  So here's the story:  When I left our house Kaas was home, so I didn't have to deadbolt it.  When I came back, he'd left, so the deadbolts were in place.  I sat trying to open them for an HOUR until Kaas came back home.  I'd forgotten my phone too, so I couldn't call Cam to come save me.  I thought I was insane and didn't know how to use a key.  Turns out my deadbolt key was broken! We'd always used Cam's so I didn't know.
-One thing I love about our place is that, if you listen closely, you can hear the faint hustle and bustle of the shopping street below.  It makes me feel like my long-time dream of living in the middle of the city have come true.

Our Amsterdam Home, Part 1

We couldn't be more thrilled with our home here!  It looked nice in the pictures, but in person we were pleasantly surprised at how nice it really is.  The owners are apparently super classy people, and everything they have here is high end.  This is both wonderful and terrifying: wonderful because we're not used to such things, terrifying to imagine what Andy is going to break while we're here.  It is bigger than any place we've ever lived!  Who would have thought our biggest home thus far would be in europe?  And it has all the musts we're lucky to have in europe: dishwasher (!), washer, dryer.  The overall style of the place is beautiful; definitely old Amsterdam style mixed with some modern elements.  The top two floors are ours; a nice guy named Kaas stays on the bottom floor.  (I think Kaas will hate us very quickly, with all the banging on the floor Andy does.)

How did we find it?  Dell gave us 8 or so choices of places we could stay.  They varied quite a bit, especially by location.  Our priority was to be as close to downtown as possible.  And this place is definitely right downtown, which is why we picked it.  The back of the house sits against the main shopping street in Amsterdam.  (Hindsight: I don't think we realized how small Amsterdam is.  Really, I think about half of the housing options would have had the downtown feeling we were looking for. But, nevertheless, we're glad we ended up here.)  It came fully furnished.  We've stayed in a "fully furnished" apartment before that had nothing, so we've been pleasantly surprised how how fully furnished this really his.  They even provided brand new linens!  We did ship over a few crates of things: mostly clothes, toys, pictures, a year's supply of diapers (not kidding), toiletries, etc.  

Here are some pictures of the main floor: 

Kitchen:

I am obsessed with this table.  And how cool are these lights? 

Not pictured: the fireplace.  How amazing will that be in the winter?!

Kitchen Balcony: 

View from the balcony. We've never had a view from our kitchen before.  Cameron says he doesn't mind doing the dishes, now that he has a view.  He does seem to jump on dish duty quicker now, which I'm not complaining about. :)  Oh, and that's our picnic table to use down there. There's a barbecue, too. 

Cute little table and chairs on the balcony.

Half Bath:

We've never had a "guest" bathroom before.  We are excited about it!

Living Room:

View from the living room to the kitchen.

This is one of our favorite aspects of this place.  The backside of the house overlooks the main shopping street in Amsterdam.  This is our view from the family living room.  Our bedroom, which is right above the living room, has the same view. Yes, that is an H&M in the distance.  And impressively, that's not even the closest H&M to us.

I'll do a post sometime soon that shows the upstairs.  I also need to do a post that documents how we actually get to this place.  It is a journey! Also, a post dedicated to our laundry situation.  This place is great, but it definitely has a few "european quirks," as I call them.  :) 

Brugge

We just spent this weekend in beautiful Brugge.  We initially had planned on going to Paris, but then decided it might be better to do a "trial" vacation somewhere a little more low key, so we could figure out how to travel best with Andy.  We also wanted to test out doing a rental car instead of a train or plane.  Anyway, we had a blast!  It was the perfect first excursion for us.

We woke up early Saturday morning and took the tram to the rental car place.  It wasn't too far, but it was tricky with Andy's car seat and our luggage (though we only brought one piece). This was the first time we tried out our new fancy backpack, the Osprey Poco Plus, which we forked out a ton of money for and hoped it would be worth it.  We didn't even bring a stroller.  Anyway, we made it to the rental car place and drove off about an hour later.  (Apparently efficiency isn't a priority in european car rental facilities.)  Cam was worried about driving here, but settled in quickly and then became a pro.  The drive to Brugge was beautiful.  Lots of flat, green land with lots of cows, corn fields, and windmills (both old and new ones).  The drive was supposed to be about 3 hours, but with construction it ended up being more like 4.  

Brugge is stunning.  We both think it feels similar to Amsterdam, but older.  And it feels much smaller.  We finally got into the city about 3 or so.  We spent the day wandering around the city exploring.  Of course we bought some chocolate and tried some waffels, all delicious.  We took a boat cruise, which was beautiful.  Sadly, Andy wasn't exactly cooperative so neither of us enjoyed it too much.

Sunday morning we knocked out some of the tourist checkpoints after a great breakfast.  (Why can't croissants taste this good in the US?)  We went to the top of the Belfry tower.  So basically Cam carried Andy up 333 stairs on his back.  He's such a trooper; I was tired after and I didn't carry anything but myself.  For some reason, Andy loved it!  He couldn't stop laughing as we climbed the stairs. The view was incredible.  Afterward, we headed to the Picasso exhibit.  Does it make me sound uncultured if I say I didn't enjoy it that much?  It just didn't have any standout pieces that I loved.  After that, we headed to the Church of Our Lady to see the Madonna and Child by Michelangelo.  Beautiful!  We got more chocolate and waffles, and then headed out for the drive home about 1.  We thought about walking around longer, but decided with a kid, it's best to quit while you're ahead.  Sometimes less is more!  We drove home and ended up back at our place about 6.  

Andy's favorite parts?  

Like I said, he loved going up those stairs in the Belfry Tower!  He also loved the waffles and chocolates.  We took a little time every day where he could just run around in a park; he loved that!

What did we learn?  

Like I said, this trip was a bit of an experiment.  Driving was really cool in some ways, but I think we'll prefer the train or flying in the future.  The car ended up being super expensive once they added all the fees, fuel, insurance, GPS, etc.  And we hit mega construction/traffic both ways.

As far as stroller vs. backpack.  This one is tough.  That thing is heavy.  I don't know why I thought if we spent enough money on a backpack it would feel like you weren't carrying anything at all?  Ha.  Not exactly true when your child is a solid 25+ pounds.  Of course, I can't complain at all.  I carried him for 30 minutes and Cam carried him for 10 hours.  :)  We'd assumed a stroller would be tough because of cobblestone, tourist sites (like the tower and boat ride), etc.  But really, I think a stroller would have been fine 95% of the time.  We're not sure what we'll do in the future?  It seems like a stroller wouldn't really work in places like Paris (eiffel tower, notre dame, etc.).  We would just bring both, but it's hard to carry both around.  I guess we'll see!

As far as Andy goes--there's no doubt about it, travelling with a baby in europe is tricky.  I need to get in my head that travelling here this time around is just going to be different.  And that's okay.  One thing--we definitely have to plan his food in advance a little better.  Bring lots of stuff with us that's easy for him to eat.  Going out to eat is tricky.  We mostly have to get street food, which is a bummer because little restaurants in europe are my favorite.  I think I've had enough paninis to last me a lifetime. :)  Overall though, he did very well.  He was definitely extra tired on Sunday, but he was a good sport most of the time.  And we're thrilled that Andy loves his Kidco Peapod so much.  This way we don't always have to stay in hotels that have cribs.  

Overall, it was a great experience!  Sure, there are inconveniences with travelling with a baby, but how lucky are we to be able to drive 3 hours and be in Belgium?  We can't wait for our next weekend travel adventure!  

On the way to the car rental place in Amsterdam. 

Entering into the Brugge city center.  

Cam with his lunch.  Andy looking adorable. 

Cam and Andy in Market Square. Good view of the Belfry Tower.

Other side of Market Square.

Boat Cruise. 

Back of Church of Our Lady. 

Tower on Church of Our Lady.

View from our hotel.  Seriously gorgeous.

I told you Andy loved the climb up the tower!

View from the Belfry Tower.

During one of Andy's exploring times.

Madonna and Child by Michelangelo in Church of Our Lady. 

Inside Church of Our Lady.

One of our amazing wafels! 

Our car!  Our orange fire bolt.

Amsterdam: The First Week

I guess I've never formally announced it on our blog, but we're living in Amsterdam for 6 months.  (It started out as Dublin for a year, then switched to Amsterdam for a year, and is now Amsterdam for 6 months.)  We just got here on the 24th.  Cam is doing an international rotation for work (Dell), and we couldn't be more thrilled for this opportunity!  It's been a long time dream of ours to live internationally, so this is perfect. It has been quite the week!  Things are so different here.  Especially with a baby.  It makes you realize how convenient the US is.  But it's kind of fun to adjust to a more "no frills" lifestyle.  Anyway, here are some highlights so far:

The Good

• Andy was amazing on the flights!  Amazing!  I had anticipated the absolute worst, so this was a lovely surprise.  He slept like a champ for about half of it and was somewhat easily entertained for the rest.  No complaints here!  
• Our hotel is super nice.  We've stayed in a hotel this week until our place is ready to move into tomorrow.  (Tomorrow...Yay!)  It's a great location and the staff has been amazing.  And it has a delicious breakfast we'll miss dearly.
• The hotel chocolates.  I steal extras off the maid's cart every day.  (I think I inherited this maid cart stealing from my mom.  I swore I would never do it, but here I am with ten extra chocolates.)  
• We went to visit the area our house is in, and we love it.  It will be so nice!  We wanted to stay downtown; I don't think we realized how downtown this place is.  Right in the middle of everything!  Some pluses: Seriously, I'm a few doors down from H&M.  And there are about three other H&Ms within a ten minute walk.  Can life get any better?  I'm also a few doors down from an awesome gelato shop.  Also, three doors down from the most famous fry shop in Amsterdam.  Also, we're one street away from a huge shopping street.  Again, can it get any better?
• Speaking of H&M, I love their kids section.  And it's not picked over like Salt Lake's! 
•  Amsterdam is beautiful, with the canals, the bikes, the cafes, the architecture...seriously beautiful city.  It's the perfect city for us and I think we will love it here.  
• We made it to church Sunday.  (Just to the last 30 minutes.  Long story.)  That was so nice.  The familiarity was so refreshing.  Everyone was so nice.  We can't wait to go back next week.  It's about 30 minutes away by tram, but maybe we'll bike there from now on.  Sacrament meeting is in dutch, but we listen in English through headsets.  They have an English sunday school class, which is cool. 
• We've done some fun things so far.  Lots and lots of walking, which we've loved.  It's been so cool to see everything.  We went to a really cool museum on Saturday called Museum Ons' Lieve Heer Op Solder (Our Lord in the Attic).  It's a house that houses an old Catholic Church in the attic.  It was built when Catholicism was banned in the reformation.  That was fascinating.  We're excited to do more of the bigger touristy things; we want to go once tourism season ends in a couple weeks to avoid some lines.  We also walked through the red light district for a minute on Saturday.  Saddest thing I've ever seen.  I don't know what I was expecting, but it was way worse than I thought it would be.  There are no words to describe it.  There are definitely some seedy parts of the city we'll be avoiding.  (I am already so sick of the smell of pot. I haven't smelled so much pot since...my mission. Ha.)
• We're so excited to start travelling!  We've made our list of destinations and we're excited to get started in the next week or two.  First up: Paris!  
• Cam has spent a few mornings at work and already loves it.  He gets to ride his bike to work, which he loves.  Everyone at work is super nice.  And the hours will be amazing.  He says they all get in between 9-10 AM and leave promptly at 5 PM.  Europeans have it right!  
• We got all our immigration and settle service appointments figured out, which is good.  
• We're going to get bikes in the next few days!  It's so cool: everyone bikes here.  (Even girls in skirts and heels.  It's amazing.)  They have special bike paths.  They even have special seats for little ones like Andy.  
• I was kind of nervous about the language barrier, but seriously everyone speaks English.  It's really nice.  We'd heard that people speak English better here than any other European country, and I think it's true.  

The Bad

• Jet lag has been rough.  Luckily I *think* we're through the worst of it, but wow.  Jet lag is rough enough on its own--but when you and your baby are jet lagged, that's a whole new story.  Andy's used to a pretty structured schedule so it's really thrown him for a loop to have his days and nights swapped.  Long story short, we're up a lot in the middle of the night.  Thankfully, I think he's finally getting adjusted!
• Staying a hotel with Andy.  Good heavens, we are ready to move into our apartment.  We're really trying to get Andy's schedule set up here, so it pretty much means Cam and I sit in the dark during his naps (3 hours during the day) and at night, starting at 7 or 8.  We can't use the bathroom (Andy's crib is blocking it), we can't leave, we can't really hear the TV over the sound machine...it's super annoying.
• It's been tricky trying to get food figured out.  The first couple days were rough, but I think we've got it figured out better now.  Because we've been in a hotel, we pretty much have to eat out every meal.  I'm not a big fast food fan in general, but it's hard to find other places to eat that are conducive to a baby. Basically, I've gone to bed hungry every night.  It's also been really hard to feed Andy.  He's really hard to feed when he's not in a high chair.  He just wants to run around and play and doesn't want to be held.  It's also hard to find food he wants to eat.  A couple days in we bought some bread, peanut butter, yogurt, etc.  That's helped a ton!  And it will be amazing to get into our kitchen! (Have I mentioned how excited I am to get into our apartment?)  
• It rained a ton for the first couple days we were here. But it's beautiful now!  It's a nice break from Texas heat.  T-shirt and jeans weather=amazing.  So I guess this should really be on the "good" list.  

Anyway, we are loving it here.  Even the "bad" list of things already has improved or should improve significantly once we get in our apartment.  It's definitely an adjustment, but this is such a great opportunity to experience a culture different than our own.  We feel so lucky!  

At the airport, right after we landed. 

Andy on the way to the hotel.  Don't judge us: we couldn't get our carseat put in right, and supposedly this seat converts for someone his age?  He looked so grown up in it.  Don't mind the strange outfit, someone had a blowout.

Dam Square 

Typical street here.  So pretty!

He's been such a trooper!  Good thing he loves his stroller so much.

The street we will live on.  So cool! Yes, no cars.  Apparently the movers are planning on parking a street away and lifting boxes through a window.  And they're acting like that's a totally normal moving practice. ?!

Our place! We're interested to see how it will work, because you can't really see our place from the actual street.  Maybe the door on the street takes us to some sort of courtyard where you get this view?  We'll see.