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!