Is it Thursday already?

Dag from Amsterdam! We made it!

Monday morning we arrived after a pretty decent flight and were lucky enough to be able to check in at the hotel at 7am with no problem! We are staying at the Tulip Inn Amsterdam City West. The cats have no idea what’s hit them! So far they have been sharing space in a chair – probably to keep warm!

And Monster has been glued to the window – lots of birds outside.

I had a file folder FULL of paperwork on the cats. I didn’t want to take any chances. I had copies of their vet records, the vet certificate, the USDA certificate, the microchip information, anything you can think of. So what happens? They take one look at the first document and it was “Ok, thank you!”. That was it! Hopefully our residence/work permits go as smoothly! We have a meeting on March 13th.

On Tuesday we slept in then promptly found a Maoz and had falafals.We keep going back to Leidseplein as it is the most familiar area for us. It seems pretty lively all the time. Wednesday we were on the hunt for an adaptor to plug in our computers. In search of that we stumbled into a really yummy and cheap cafe – Panorama. We’ll definitely be back there!

Today the sun has decided to show itself. It’s been gray and rainy the last couple of days. I have no idea what the temperature is. Although that might be better. It doesn’t seem so bad but I think my excitement is making me think I am warm. Heath went to De Waag (http://www.indewaag.nl/?Building) for a meeting with his new co-workers today and tomorrow. It’s a very old building with a lot of history. They figured they would get more done outside of the office.

So being on my own, I met with Marcel and Sophie from the relocation agency this morning. We took a little tour of the city as we looked at 7 apartments. There is one that I really like! It’s in Amstelveen. Just outside of the city, but very accessible via public transportation. I took pictures of all the different apartments and will show Heath this evening. Hopefully Heath will like it too. I’m ready to unpack my bags!

I learned the words for left, right, road and square today. I also learned why there are two buttons on the toilet. As it was explained to me: “One is for bigger uhh… and the other for smaller.” Ok, I get it! They both seemed to be doing the job but I figured I would ask!

I think later this evening I will meet up with Jessica (Heath’s friend from GP in DC) in…where else? Leidseplein. We’ll shop around while we wait for Heath to get off work. Apparently on Thursdays the shops stay open later. So far I’ve noticed that 90% of the city closes at 6pm! Of course the coffee shops, Red Light District and parts of Leidseplein seem to be open later.

Saturday Heath and I talked about taking out the Frommer’s book and spending a day exploring the city. Need to get to the Anne Frank House at some point! The flowers are already starting to pop out around the city. I can’t wait until Spring. 

They sell stroopwafels in the vending machines! Awesome!