Portable Beach Volleyball

I can't complain about Dutch weather right now because this weekend was gorgeous. Our neighborhood is holding some kind of festival which involved transporting a small beach's worth of sand to the front of the apartment building and holding a tournament. There is also a mini soccer field, skating arena, and dance party type thing for kids set up around the premises. We've been hearing the latest teen dance tracks piping into the apartment all afternoon.

Speaking of dance, Charles and I attended Today's Art in Den Haag yesterday and we ended out the evening at Paard van Troje (Trojan Horse, I think?) where we saw a punk band perform a strange mix of American pop songs including "Sexyback" and "Billy Jean." Pictures to come.

Papa's brand new bed

So last weekend, Rachael and I went to the Woonwinkels (lit. Living Shops) in Rotterdam. We went there with the sole purpose of securing for ourselves a new means of sleeping.

Our apartment was furnished, which is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, we had a full set of appliances and eating utensils upon moving in (as mentioned in a previous post), yet we have to deal with some very unfortunate curtain and couch upholstery.

Never the less, these minor transgressions I'm capable of living with. I do not ask much out of my color combinations. The biggest problem was the master bed.

You see our bed is perhaps one of the finest on offer from IKEA. Many metaphors leap to attention, so I'll pick one at random. That's like picking out the best smelling turd in the sewer. The mattresses we have (the dutch always use 2 for their larger beds) are here. I can't find the frame we have.

Anyways, after a month, it has slowly worked it's magic and now has me waking up each morning with my upper thigh killing me and my back stiff.

The first place we look at had some interesting models, but we had difficulty figuring out what the prices included. e1500 is a great deal on a full set, a crappy deal if it just includes the frame. When we were finally ready to get some help from a sales person, it was some sleazy guy giving us the hard sell. We got out of there, regrouped, and headed to:

Linker Lisse.




That is not in fact our bed. It was next to the frame we did get though! Picture it without all of the oranments on it. It's actually a really nice stainless steel frame.

Anyways, we'll get it in 5-6 weeks. They're delivering it 2 weeks earlier than usual, out of sympathy for the ikea stuff

The varied impressions of the Dutch work ethic

I am reading a book called Dealing With the Dutch right now and although I am only about 1/3 of the way through it has definitely got me thinking.

The book is directed towards foreign people working in the Netherlands or with a lot of Dutch people. It is written by a Dutch person. So far a large portion has emphasized the egalitarian values of Dutch culture and the work ethic which is described as very focused but also balanced with ample time set aside for personal activities.

One thing I have heard repeatedly from Dutch colleagues--and also from this book--is that Dutch people are motivated to work by a sense of personal satisfaction and achievement and not necessarily by money. I think there is even a Dutch word to describe this, but I don't know it. However a survey on Dutch workers reported on in the book revealed that over 3/4 of them would not go to work if they didn't need the money.

Last night on the train home from a BBQ for my husband's company, I was sitting in a train compartment with my husband, two of his foreign colleagues (one from Afghanistan and the other from Suriname) and a random stranger who is an immigrant but has lived in Holland for 17 years. We started talking about the Dutch work ethic and the random stranger strongly disagreed with the statement about the Dutch not being motivated by money. She seemed very angry and resentful about the topic and stated that she believed that the Dutch pretend to be motivated to work by noble and admirable reasons, but it is really all about the money.

I haven't been here long enough to state an opinion, but I think it's an interesting issue. I plan to keep my eyes, ears, and mind open.

My two favorite (and least favorite) Dutch appliances

Last week we made a trip to Media Markt to pick up some basic appliances we have been missing. We got a microwave which we desperately needed. Our convection oven just wasn't adequately heating up the tasty schwarma sandwiches we pick up at Jumbo. So the microwave is good, but my most favorite appliance is my Senseo machine.

Now most people probably know I am a bit of a coffee snob so they might be surprised that I am singing the praises of a contraption which uses prepackaged coffee pods. However, if you only have one minute in the morning and don't want to make a big mess, this makes a decent cup of Joe...especially if you buy the premium or fair trade blends. Seriously, I don't know why these things aren't more popular in the US.

My least favorite appliance here has to be our washer/dryer. It is one of those energy efficient combination machines and it is very small. It also takes about 3 hours to complete a load.

Gettin' our digits

We've got a SkypeIn account. You can call us at the US# +1 817 945 6615

We're at GMT+1. Texas is (mostly) at GMT-6. If we're not around it'll go to voicemail.

Allergies

With in a week of living in Rotterdam, I developed a nasty allergy attack. Full sinuses, constant drainage, itchy throat, all that jazz. That's not uncommon for me, when staying in a new place. My immune system just needs time to adjust.

The problem here is that the two most common treatments I take for allergies are Benadryl and Sudaphed, both of which are not available here.

Pot is, but allergy meds aren't.

All the lonely poodles

3 weeks in Rotterdam. You've all seen the pics my lovely wife put up. Rotterdam is a great city. We made an excellent choice living here. It's very clean, and very american friendly.

Crazy, keep your eyes out for some posts on the food, and the hell allergy suffers go through.

Residence permit and apartment photos

Today Charles and I went to the IND in Rijswijk to apply for our residence permit. Despite horror stories from coworkers, everything went pretty smoothly. Then we came back to Rotterdam to register at the town hall. Now this took a long time and required a lot of paperwork, but we FINALLY got everything done.

We also got around to uploading some pictures of our apartment. We have not received our sea freigh shipment of furniture yet so the only decorations are the rental furniture which came with the place. Here's a mini virtual tour...


The first thing you see hanging on our door (second floor)


Living Room with a tiny European TV that isn't visible in this picture


Kitchen (I love our Senseo coffee machine)


The stairs to the first floor which show off the old steel beams proving we live in an old factory


Our bedroom with a bed that is too small for Charles


Our guest room (we're taking reservations now)


My office on the first floor


Our bathroom


The view from the third floor looking down to the second showing off the crazy light


Charles on the third floor playing video games


Looking in at Charles from the terrace


Our neighbors from the terrace


If you still want to see more, check out our Flickr Gallery.

First Dutch lesson

Charles and I had our first Dutch lesson yesterday evening. We are taking an 8 week course that involves about 6 students: the two of us, an Australian, a German, a Romanian, and someone from Singapore. So it's an interesting mix.

I feel as if we're beginning to learn something about the language, but we are going to have to do some serious practicing. We can introduce ourselves and conjugate a few verbs, but nothing more than that. Supposedly the big challenge here is that it's difficult to practice Dutch. Because everyone speaks English here, you start speaking to someone in a shop and as soon as they hear your American accent, they decide it's easier to speak English. *sigh* We'll see what happens. For now I definitely am stuck with an American accent. The "ui" sound is particularly difficult.

Posts from both of us

I have now enabled the multiple authors function on the blog so that both Charles and I can make posts. From now on, you can tell who made the post by looking at the bottom of the entry ("posted by") or the tags.

I have also changed the layout a bit and made a links list which includes links to some of our favorite Dutch sites and resources for expats.