Amsterdam City Center

Another long day has passed. Matt is crashed out, trying to get enough sleep to be ready to train the new hire who starts tomorrow. Can't really believe it's November already. Fall is speeding by.

We had a good 10 am meeting this morning, in part facilitated by having arrived on time, not missing the hotel shuttle (40 minute run intervals can kill your day), and having it be a whopping 11 degrees Celsius (51 degrees Fahrenheit) instead of a windy, rainy 7 (44.6 degrees Fahrenheit) outside, bringing out clear blue skies. We were actually the first ones there for the English because with the shuttle/train/bus schedule we have to take for the next few days, we are either 30 minutes early, or 15 minutes late. Early today :) That meant we got to meet a few people from the Dutch and the French congregation who were also meeting at the same time. There are 3 meeting rooms after all. I think there may have even been a Hindi group meeting. Twi (Tree) isn't until 1 pm. No service today, but we did get invited for dinner at a sisters house, and again due to poor bus/metro routing, and cell phone interference, we didn't make it. We waited in the vicinity until it began to get dark, and being that it's not the best part of town, we had to call it quits when the cell died.

Between the meeting and the non-dinner, we took the metro into Amsterdam City Center finally. One week after arrival. We barely scratched the surface of the hub of Amsterdam cultural life, mostly because we went straight there instead of back to Schiphol-Rijk to change clothes. My pointy heeled shoes kept getting stuck in between the paving bricks as we walked, and carrying the bookbag for so long put a kink in Matt's neck. He did buy me a lovely recycled army bag with retro embellishments in 70's material from Norway to help carry my things, sweet man that he is :)

It was somewhere after lunch time when we got there, so we wandered and wandered until we found somewhere that looked good and was actually open. We're learning that in Holland, not much takes place on a Sunday. Banks are closed, most markets, and even the canal tour we wanted to take...all closed on Sundays. So, we crushed our way into a tiny 4 table & 4 stool hole in the wall Thai place that served some of the best soup I've had in a long long time. Matt's chicken in coconut broth soup was fantastic, and mine made my cry it was so spicy and good. The place is so small that people often share tables. We offered to share with a couple who walked in, but they opted to move on down the way. So our waiter pulled up a seat instead and had a bowl of the same soup as I had ordered. He showed me the proper things to add to make it better: Sour pickled peppers, hot chili paste, sugar, and nuts. And he was done with his serving in time to clear our plates and bring our check. Tonight, at the room, Matt found a notation in one of our guide books about that place ("Bird Snack Counter") being one of the best finds in town, and the most economical for the quality of food. Score.

Tomorrow, I pack the room up, and hope that we actually get to move into the new place on Tuesday. Here's to money and bureaucracy. They get along like a house on fire.