Brrr – It’s cold in Amsterdam…

Here I am again sitting at the house with a plumber working on the drains!  He was supposed to come last Friday to finish the job but we all woke up to heavy snow and his van wouldn’t start so here we are today.

Not a lot of news from last week, of course, I can’t even remember everything I did.  On Wednesday Dave and I had to go to The Hague (Den Haag) to the IND (Immigrate en Naturaliastiedienst) office.  We finally had all the paperwork needed to file for our residence cards.  We are now temporarily approved residents of the Netherlands.  The process will take anywhere from 2-4 weeks to get our resident cards.  This coming Wednesday we have an appointment with the IND for the city of Amsterdam.  We also have to file papers there.  There are many issues you do not realize need to happen before you can work and live in a foreign country for an extended amount of time.



How could you resist?



On Thursday, I headed out in pouring down, cold rain to go to a women’s lunch I had signed up for.  I really don’t like to rsvp for something and then not show up.  It was at a new “all-you-can-eat” sushi restaurant.  It was good but not “over the top.”  But it’s always fun to get together with a bunch of ladies and just chat and eat.  One of the women, Laurie, who I met at one of these lunches previously, was there with her daughter who just graduated from college and has come over to spend a couple of months before she has to enter the “real world”!  Laurie invited us to dinner that night and was trying out one of her new Thai recipes that a neighbor had given her.  After leaving the lunch we went to the market that was close by and an Asian shop so she could get ingredients for the recipe.  While shopping the snow started and I was freezing so I headed back home.  Dave and I ventured out to her house that night and had a delightful evening meeting her husband and just getting to know them better.  They had 2 beautiful rescue dogs that they brought from the states when they moved over.  We had fun playing with them and it made Dave yearn for another dog.  His “want” is a Bernese Mountain Dog.  So we started talking about that and Laurie got her computer and the two of them started searching for breeders.  Tank may have a new friend when we get back!  We will have to see!

 

Friday morning we woke up to a winter wonderland – by the time noon came around we had a foot of snow.  Well, since most years Amsterdam only gets a light snow, they are not prepared for this heavy of snow.  Dave and the other guys working for him could not get out to the warehouse so he was stuck home with me.  We saw trams going by so later in the afternoon Dave wanted to go find a shop he found on the internet.  Here we go – bundled up and headed to the tram stop.  The tram eventually came and we got to the other side of town and then the tram stopped about two stops from where we were headed.  It was too cold and too far to walk so we just got on the tram headed back to town and went home.  Everything was moving so slowly I think it took us about an hour to ninety minutes to not go anywhere except enjoy a tram ride!

 

Saturday it was still snowing off and on but they had cleared the streets and tram lines so we headed back out to find the shop Dave wanted to go to.  We were successful this time and he found the perfect chess set for Joaquin.  Joaquin began going to an afterschool chess class and has really enjoyed it.  So he and Poppi will be playing chess while he is here visiting.  After getting the chess set we headed down the street which headed straight towards Central Station.  There are so many shops and cafes here I think you could walk, shop and eat for a year and still not find all the little treasures here.  We headed to the American Book Store for a couple more gifts and then headed home.  Oh, while on the tram today Dave and I saw something that is standard practice here but was so unusual to us.  Since here in the city of Amsterdam most everyone lives in apartment buildings that have at least three or four stories, we all have to take stairs to get to our apartments.  Very few have lifts.  The stairs are so steep and narrow there is no way you would safely get someone down on a stretcher.  Well today there was an ambulance with a fire truck and they use the ladder and lift on the fire truck to take someone out of their apartment that has a medical emergency and is on a stretcher.  We knew that is how they get furniture and building materials into apartments on the second and higher floors but never thought about when there is a medical emergency. 

 

Sunday the snow had stopped but so cold and grey nothing had melted.  One of the markets had advertised that it was going to be a Christmas Market today and it wasn’t far from the house so we headed over there fairly early in the day.  Well it was just the standard market that is always there so I was a little disappointed.  And again my toes were freezing so I told Dave I was going to shop just a little and then head home.  He went on to go to an Art Store and one of the museums.  We have purchased Museum Cards so we can now go to the museums as much as we want with no charge.  The rest of the afternoon we hung out inside – I wrapped Christmas gifts and Dave was working on a new art piece.

So I’m back to today and not doing much except making sure the plumber gets the drains working!  If I don’t write again before the weekend I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  Rachel, Joaquin, Gabriel and his friend, Michael, are arriving on Saturday for two weeks.  So I will be very busy entertaining and having fun with them for the next couple of weeks.  Then I will be going home with Rachel and Joaquin on January 8^th for a couple of weeks.  I may even see some of you while I’m home!

Love and Hugs to all!