One Month!

Today we have been in our home in the Netherlands for exactly one month.



Hope you have been enjoying the blog. I've enjoyed making it and I've found some websites that make books out of blogs so I know this will be a great keepsake for our family as well. To mark the one month, I thought I'd list a few funny, embarrassing, or interesting things that have happened since arriving here:

1. Unintentionally ordered eggplant on our first pizza delivery order (the girls were not pleased!)

2. Wrecked my bicycle in front of the school after Amanda wrecked right in front of me (we were both fine!)

3. Used what I thought was "extra lean" ground beef in a recipe. Later I did the actual translation and it was "extra cheap"...Yikes!!

4. The girls and I have all almost been hit by a bicycle while walking. It truly is a separate lane of traffic you have to be aware of at all times!!

5. Thought I clearly ordered fish and chips (off of an English menu) and somehow ended up with an interesting looking fish soup.

6. Had a great time at the Heineken Experience as my first group outing with some parents from the International School!

7. Surprisingly have not killed my engine while driving a stick for the first time in 20 years.

8. Had a hard time finding brown sugar - took a wild guess and picked the right thing.



9. Have had more family dinners together in one month than we probably have had in the last two years combined. :)

10. Have met interesting people from all over the world.

Dutch Pancakes

Today we took a nice bike ride and stopped to get Dutch pancakes. As a family, we honestly never took bike rides like this in the US and we all enjoyed it. We rode to the Amsterdamse Bos. It is a forest and recreation area that has many bike paths. Our total trip today was a little over 15 km. The restaurant, Boerderij Meerzicht, is in the Amsterdamse Bos.



The pancakes were great! You could get sweet or savory. The girls and I chose sweet pancakes and Dave had one with bacon, cheese, and syrup. For the sweet pancakes, the actual pancake was not sweet like American pancakes, but the toppings were very sweet.



We obviously enjoyed them. Here's a picture of Grace's clean plate :)





All of my pet lover friends would love being in the Netherlands! From what I have seen, you can pretty much take your pet anywhere! There were multiple dogs with their owners at the restaurant today. I've also seen them in the mall and in stores.

On the way back, we rode a different way and went by a place in the park known for its rowing regattas. There was a group practicing today.

Resident Cards and new phones!

Yesterday we finally were able to go get our Resident cards for the Netherlands. We applied the first day that we were here. You then have to wait to get a letter for each person in the family that says they are ready. Once we had the letters, we had to go to IND and pick them up in person. To do that, we chose to take a tram and then had a little walk. I loved the view in Amsterdam as we walked:



We were the 2nd family there, but somehow we ended up waiting for 40 minutes for our turn. Oh well...I am getting used to getting a number and waiting here!!! They give you a print out of a letter and number (like D901). You then wait until a screen lists the number. Different reasons for being there have different letters and they don't appear to go in any certain order so you never really know when your number is going to show up on the screen. Had to do the same thing trying to get the car registration and at IKEA the other day to return something where we had bought the incorrect color.

The photos on these cards are horrible. You had to tuck your hair behind your ears and weren't allowed to smile. I look a little scary in mine!!! I'll show it to you when you come to visit :)

The resident card allows us to get a cellular phone and plan here!! That is why I have been anxiously awaiting its arrival!!! After school the girls and I went and got new phones and Dutch telephone numbers!! So happy. Before, I would be at the store and wanted to translate a word and couldn't because I only had internet when there was WiFi. Same way with Google Maps!! It also allows us to start communicating better with our new friends here since we now have local numbers.

With our new phones, the girls and I will be slowly contacting everyone we have information for by texting you. If you have an apple phone or ipod, we can use IMessage to keep in touch for free. If you do not have an Apple product, please consider downloading the free WhatsApp app and we can use that to keep in touch for free. Please email me at poorbaughs@gmail.com if you want us to be able to text each other or the girls and have any questions. We would love to keep in touch with everyone from home!! Please do remember there is a 6 hour time difference, though. Don't be surprised if you text us at 8pm your time and we don't respond right away!

New Car!!

Yesterday I got my new car!! Although I have said that you really don't need a car for day-to-day living, I've never not had a car and with Dave working an hour away from our house, I wanted to have one. I'll mainly use it to make trips to get items too big for the bike or if the weather is too bad, etc. You usually have to pay for parking almost everywhere you go and it can sometimes be quite expensive.

We decided to lease a car and chose something small. I was used to driving a minivan but I'm really happy about the small car! Parking and even some streets are really just easier with a little car. After reviewing some choices online, we chose the Volkswagen Up!. I don't think that it is available in the US. It is smaller than the Golf and has a 3 cylinder engine. I won't be winning any races with it!! I had thought I was getting a 2-door, so I was pleasantly surprised when I ended up getting the slightly larger 4-door. Makes it easier with the girls. I do have to get used to having a manual transmission though!! I haven't driven one since my little red truck (in college).



I actually think that picture makes it look larger than it really is. Here's a couple more pictures:



Getting the car was actually a little bit of a process and our first exercise in frustration here. The car registration needed to be put in Dave's name. Typically you can do that at the post office here. We went there with the car dealership representative and was told since Dave still didn't have his residency card that they couldn't do it there because of a change that had occurred Jan 1. We then drove to Amsterdam to an office that could take care of it. We waited 1 1/2 hours and when our number was finally called, the woman typed in a few words into the computer and said, "I'm sorry, the server is down, you'll have to come back another time." After multiple phone conversations and a few more stops, Dave was finally able to have success several days later. He had to do all of this during working hours and I really appreciated his persistence on getting it done.

Since we are in the Netherlands, the car came standard with two hammers to break open the windows if the car ever becomes submerged. It's been years since I got a new car, but I don't think they come automatically in new cars in Ohio? I guess you need to have that when you live in an area under sea level and constantly near the water with canals. I will be sure to make sure I don't ever need to use them!!



If you are wondering about what Dave is driving, he received a nice temporary car (Volvo) our first day here and is in the process of picking out his car. He'll be getting a nicer car since he unfortunately spends quite a bit of time in it each day!!

Soccer Update

Thought I would give you a little update on how things are going for the girls in soccer.

Soccer
The girls started practicing last week on Monday with Buitenveldert SC in Amsterdam. This club has the largest girls program in the Netherlands. To get there, we take the tram. They have practices two times during the week.



The club is in a great location. It is right off of the tram line and they have three turf fields and a clubhouse that are surrounded by city buildings. I love the way it looks as they play under the lights. I'll get some better pictures but here are a few with my phone.



The experience has been great, but joining the club mid (soccer) year has been challenging. Teams were set and we are trying to work with the club to find a spot for both Grace and Amanda. I am so proud of the girls and their efforts so far. For Grace, all the team members and the coach she has practiced with are Dutch. The coach speaks in Dutch to the team and Grace just has to figure out what they are doing by the way she demonstrates a drill or by asking a teammate to translate it for her. I know soccer is soccer, but it still must be a somewhat intimidating situation. The head of the girls program has not yet decided what to do with her as far as assigning her a team. Until then, she continues to practice with the 1st team. She has practiced with them 4 times now and it seems to be a good fit for her. They have 5 teams in her age group, many of them very full. The age group is 2001 and 2002 birth dates. They play 11 v 11 on a full size field.

For Amanda, there are a couple native English speakers on her team so that helps a little. She does have one coach that does not speak English, though, and some of the Dutch girls can not speak English very well either. Again, so proud of Amanda and her efforts. Amanda's age group is 2003 and 2004 birth dates. They play 7 v 7 and play on half of a full sized field. This level is much more laid back than in the US. No offsides, goal boxes not clearly marked, substitute on the fly, etc. She has not yet been officially assigned to a team, but they did have her play in a friendly last weekend so Amanda was the first to wear the Buitenveldert uniform:



The game was at Haarlem DSS. The 2nd team in Amanda's age group recently had a set of twins move away so they actually need people to help out (unlike Grace's age group). She played goalkeeper one half and forward the other. She scored a goal and had a good time. Her team won 4-0. Unfortunately the weather was cold, windy and rainy. We were all soaked!

After every game, they shoot penalty kicks. The kids enjoy it. A dad of one of the daughters on the team has a theory that they instituted that because the Dutch team lost a big game a few years back due to penalty kicks. It is a nice way to have kids get comfortable with penalty kicks against another team!

After the game, we went to their clubhouse and watched the women's 1st team from our club play another team for a few minutes. Both girls have coaches that play on the women's teams for the club.

Dutch Bicycles!

Today we finally purchased Dutch bicycles for the girls and me. I know we have still not even been here two weeks, but a bicycle is a requirement around here!! The girls will use them to go to school everyday and I will use it to go to the grocery, baker, and produce market. In fact, tomorrow I have to take a trip to the town hall to turn in a few documents related to our residency in the Netherlands and the best way for me to go is by bicycle. It is only 1.5 km away. Yes...I've started only using the metric system! Before I mostly just used it in my science classroom and when at a meters swimming pool : ).

Dave will get one soon too. We had looked at several shops, looked at and talked about getting used ones, but in the end, we decided to get new ones from a local shop. The bikes are nice, we know where to go for maintenance, etc. The bike shop helps you get insurance too. We use two bike locks at all times on our bike and one needs to be a heavy chain. We are told that it is common for bikes to be stolen here so insurance is definitely needed. Hopefully we will be able to sell them to another expat family when we move back to the US.

So today, the girls and I took a tram to one bike shop, didn't like their selection and then took the tram and a bus to another shop called BILK. It was our second time there. Those trips all went smoothly. We purchased our bikes, locks and the bags for the back of the bike (absolutely essential for me!). The girls wanted them too, but now many kids use a big plastic basket on the front of theirs instead so we'll see if the girls change their mind in time. We then started on our way to ride our bikes home! The bikes all have petal brakes instead of hand brakes. That took a little getting used to for me. The main issues is when you stop at a light and get back on the bike again. You can't just spin the petals backward to position them where you want. I'll admit all three of us had a few awkward starts at different parts of our trip...I'm sure we would have been hilarious to watch!

Sometimes the bike paths are part of the street, and sometimes they go off on their own. We were on one that was nice, but didn't follow a street and we had some difficulty figuring out where we were. We had written down directions to get home, but definitely took the long way home : ). Turned a 5 km trip into a 10 km trip and during it had to break down and ask someone for help with directions. Luckily the older gentleman was very nice.

Even though we got a little (or a lot) lost, we stopped at the grocery on the way home and successfully brought home our first cargo using our bikes!! Overall the day was a success...although I will admit that my legs are a little bit tired tonight!!

PS. Although there are not old, traditional windmills "everywhere you look" in Holland, we have seen several since we have been here. There is one in Amstelveen. I took a picture of it today.

Our Adventure Begins

We had been talking about going for a while now, but it kind of seemed like a dream that we were actually going to live in the Netherlands. After many difficult goodbyes, we had the house packed up, boarded the plane, and were on our way!






We arrived the morning of December 29,2013. It was admittedly very exhausting trying to stay up all day. The first night we stayed at a Hilton in Amsterdam. It was within walking distance to the Museum district. We had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. Our table overlooked a canal! We then walked around the area. The city was busy and it was such a nice night. There were two outdoor ice skating rinks and we enjoyed having a white chocolate covered waffle from a waffle stand for dessert. Yum!! You'll have to try one when you come to visit!





I've created this blog to share some of our experiences while we live in the Netherlands. I hope you enjoy it!