We've been here now for two months

Today we hit the two month mark of living in Amsterdam. In some ways it feels like we've been here for much longer than that. Our first visitor comes this weekend and then from now on every single weekend (maybe we get one off in April) we are either traveling or hosting visitors until June.

It's been hard being alone for these first couple of months, so we're looking forward to seeing some familiar faces. However, I am sure that somewhere by mid-April or May we will be looking back on these quiet winter months fondly.


This is the view out of our front window of snow falling. (Make sure to click on the image to enlarge it if you want to see the snow.)
 

What is cuter than this?

I love my fur babies.
 

Today we got caught in a freak snow/rain/hail storm!

Good thing we had our... umbrellas!

Thai food and then Belgian beers at Gollem

Mission accomplished: I now have my very own Wellies

Of course they are purple!

They call this fondue

I thought fondue needed to have flames involved. Since when did dipping things in little bowls of chocolate sauce get renamed fondue?

We got in!!!

We auditioned... and we got in... to the Studentenkoor Amsterdam! They are a choir affiliated with UvA and they rock! We are so excited to get to sing with them this year.

I love my kitties

Recycling in Amsterdam

The recycling situation here in Amsterdam is quite different than it is in the US, so I thought I should share it with you all. Dave was actually the one who stopped me when we were walking by our recycling place and said, "take pictures of this!"

So, start with the little recycling bins that sit out in public places. You can tell how small they are by that looking at that man in the orange suit standing next to it. However, when you drop something into one of them (cardboard, glass, or "rest") you hear it fall way way down into some pit of recycled matter.



You only really get to witness the depth of this recycling pit if you happen to catch a glimpse of the collection truck lifting the little bin up and out of the ground.


Woweeee! What a sight. :)

It's still cold here

Happy New Month! Happy February! We've been in Amsterdam for almost 2 months now. I keep waiting for it to stop being so cold, but there is no warmth in sight.

Here is a picture that will be going up on my photo blog tomorrow. Why should that blog get all of the colorful fun pictures???

Things we miss from home...

Friends and the Cheeseboard!!!


My brother and Lynae are in the Bay Area this weekend and happened to visit Berkeley today. And, of course, when you're in Berkeley, how can you not stop for some Cheeseboard pizza with John and Jess!
 

Burger Meester

Tonight we had a mini-burger feast from Burger Meester. Below you are viewing a falafel burger, a goat cheese burger, a duck burger, a tuna burger, and a pheasant burger. Since neither of us eat red meat we tried one of each kind of burger they offered that wasn't beef or lamb. YUM!

We had a guac-off

We all miss Mexican food so much we decided to make an event of it. We had a guac-off at Erin's house and she had tacos and nachos and margaritas. Ruth's famous guac won. The secret... lots of garlic.

Stuart rides

Stuart got sick and so I had to take him to the vet... on my bike!

Ok, so, maybe I'm famous now

I took the plunge and added my photo blog to City Daily Photo.

Check it out!


 

Because it's MONday

What little guy do I miss the most??? Erik!


I just wanted to make a little shout out to my bestie and her bean. Miss and love you both!
 

Quote of the day: Sunday

Since I was at home all day doing homework, and not much else happened to blog about, I thought it would be nice to share my favorite quote from my readings today.

It comes from a book called "Family Life Education" by Stephen F. Duncan and H. Wallace Goddard.

"Knowing a child means rediscovering him or her afresh in each encounter." p. 275
 
 

Ice Bar... in January?

Tonight we went to this Ice Bar here in Amsterdam. It was pretty ridiculous, yes, we are all wearing Heineken jackets they handed out, but we had a lot of fun nonetheless. It kind of felt like hanging out in a meat locker... not that I've ever done that before... but I imagine it's like a big refrigerator.

Let's do something cultural

Today we went to the Tropen Museum. It was really neat. It was all rainy and grey outside, but we found some warmth and coziness in this cute little red roofed cafe near the Brouwerij't IJ. We can't wait to go back in the summertime!


Is this kid CUTE or what?

Library tour

Today the AWCA went on a tour of the central library. Very cool!