Wind, Rain, Hail, Snow

Sorry, I've been a bit busy. We've had too many late nights in a row to come home and post after.

Here are some random odd things:

For those of you who watch Dora the Explorer at home, you may be surprised like myself, to know that here, She's Dutch, not Hispanic. So now Matt sings, I'm the kaart I'm the kaart I'm the kaart, instead of the map song.

For those of you who watched the Irish cartoon "The Adventures of Piggly Wink" (thank you Latham's for the introduction), you know that it's an Irish Grandfather (Piggly) telling his American grandkids tales of his youth. Here, the grandkids are British. I don't relate nearly as well... It's the strangest thing to realize that our stereotypical predilections are preyed upon so blatantly by marketing teams around the world, with us all the time unaware. Shocking.

We met more of our elderly neighbors. It seems that the building is made up of foreigners and older people whose house stairs seemed too daunting to keep living with. So they move to the 10th floor of an apartment building with an elevator. Hank and his wife "Mesch" (spelling unknown) met us at the elevator and chatted while the guys on the 6th floor that we passed up accidentally waited and waited for the elevator car to come back up. I've seen them in passing before, but this time we got to talk a little. When I tried to repeat the wife's name, I said "Miss?" They laughed, said her name again, and Hank said, yes, I guess that's right, she's "Miss Mesch". She told me that she feels lucky because her husband is a little crazy. I think she meant that he keeps her laughing. Something is always lost in translation here.

Thursday evening we went out for Indian food in Amsterdam. It was a little quiet on a weeknight, which was enjoyable. It's still odd to not have bookstudy on Thursday. That was the first time being in Amsterdam that we've not felt so very very touristy, but more like locals eating in an off the beaten path place. We tried to gage the spice level at this place; Matt aimed high. The spice in his lamb madras actually made him cry. I ate most of my dinner, because I could still feel my mouth, whereas he only had about a third. Maybe that's the secret to weight maintenance. We'll go again (and order more conservatively) on a touristy weekend because they have live music then.

Friday I got to join a sister, Charlotte, (whom we met at the dinner party last weekend) from the North English congregation who has a very similar situation to my own. She and her husband are here from Texas for work, however they get to stay on for 2 years. I'm trying not to be jealous. She is also pioneering, and needs support for longer days to make up from time lost packing and moving. We even drive the same car back in the states. She inherited a few studies from a sister who moved to Nigeria, and I was privileged to accompany her on two of them. That lasted us from 11 am to 6 pm because of the travel time involved. I got to see Holland as far north as Uitgeest (pronounced Out-haste, which translates literally to Out Mind) and east to Haarlem, which is a really amazing little town, just as packed with history as Amsterdam. Think, Harlem NY, the Holland Tunnel, New Amsterdam which sold for a dollar to become New York... I look forward to spending some time there. The weather was brutal, and traveling by foot, bus and train all day really made me miss what I take so for granted back home. Cars! And Heaters!

To help us cope with the weather, after bookstudy Saturday morning (and after Matt's much much needed hair cut at a place in Amstelveen), Matt took us shopping. I think the fact that a lot of our moving expenses finally got reimbursed helped. He's very good at surprising me...I knew he wanted to find a messenger bag to carry the umbrella, his books, and extra warm layers to and from work, but I thought he had a particular shop in mind. Nope. He surprised me by taking us to the biggest outdoor market in Amsterdam. The one I'd been jonesing to get to. The Albert Cuyp Markt. I love the way the Dutch spell. Markt. It's like they were IMing from way back. This market goes and goes and goes for the length of Albert Cuyp Street. The market began trading in 1904, and now over 300 stalls line both sides of the street. It seems to be that the stores that already exist along the street throw out tents and expand their shops and claim the sidewalk and parking stalls as extra shop space for the weekend. You can find clothes (like Matt's new insulated jacket, my new 5 euro leather gloves, and leggings), every imaginable kind of food (similar to a farmers market, but add a lot more prepared foods), antique furniture, electronics, bicycle parts, toilet plungers. You name it, and you can probably find it here. We actually had things in mind that we needed (including Matt's new messenger bag) and shopped according to plan, but still managed to stay from around 3pm to closing, at dusk.

We had a great fish dinner at the Irish pub called a Hole in the Wall, watched some ice skating (way too cold to think about taking our shoes off to put on skates), and caught our tram home just in time for the sleet to come in. I imagine that I will wake up to white streets and tree tops out the windows in the morning. I don't have any service plans (or appointments, as they say here) for tomorrow, so I might just head to town to take some pictures first thing, (since the landlady won't come until evening) because a lot of folks here are telling us that snow doesn't really happen that often anymore. Most seemed quite surprised, and said it was early for snows. They expect plenty of rain, but the canals don't freeze over for skating every winter anymore, and the snow isn't a guarantee at all. Gotta snap a pic while I can :)

Today, after meeting, we turned down two dinner invitations to take care of a few things at home. We've had such a whirlwind of work, service, setting up house, playing tourist, meeting people and socializing, that we've hardly spent time with just each other. We did however, go to sister Davis house for a few hours this afternoon so that Matt could tweak her laptop a bit. She's dealing with Vista and a pre-loaded machine when all she wants is CNN and email. We're cooking in tonight, in part because nothing is open on Sunday, and in part to use up the fresh meats and veg that we've bought from the markets. Tomorrow evening we have the fix it guy coming, along with the land lady again. She should be bringing the final missing items, and he should be installing stable coat hooks, checking the heater panels, and measuring for curtains. And anything else I can think of :)

I can't believe it. "The Young Ones" are actually still on TC here. Time to sign off and squat down!