The Crafting Begins

I have a lot of time to myself here while Job is working.  I like to busy myself with familiar things, like working on this blog, or tidying the house, or being creative.  

I really enjoy crafting and have really been itching to work on a project.  I really like to make hand made gifts, but since I don’t know the area that well yet, I’m not 100% sure where I can get all of the supplies I want and need, especially on a really tight budget.  

I decided to use my trusty sidekick, google, and found this blog with a very nice listing of crafty stores in the area.  I decided to go to Van Beek because it seemed like the closest thing to a Michael’s or A.C. Moore… I think I went to a smaller Van Beek.  It had basic art supplies, like scissors, glue, staplers, rulers, paper cutters, colored paper, markers, pens, inks, pencils, paint, pastels…

I purchased a box of colored pencils, a glue stick, a hot glue gun, glue gun cartridges, a red metallic marker, and a silver metallic marker.  

My friend Ayla got me a package of awesome blank cards with a colorful frame.

I stopped by the local Bruna which is a store that sells books and cards.  I purchased some stamps, and some gem stone/rhinestoney things.

I decided I was going to make some personalized cards. 

When I got home, I opened up the Pages application on my computer and found a nice font that I liked.  From there, I wrote the names of people I wanted to send cards to.

From there, I would very lightly sort of sketch out the name with one of the colored pencils.

 I then went over the sketch a few times with the same pencil,

and then would use other colors very similar to make a nice blended color and thicken the name.

I added some fun gem stones to the card and then would proceed to write my friends a nice letter.

It’s a really easy and simple craft project that doesn’t make too much of a mess and doesn’t take too long to create.

If you’d like a nice personalized card, just send us your address to either thetravelingspoonsblog@gmail.com or jobandhannah@gmail.com

or..Write us a letter and we’ll write you back!

A Taste of Leiden: A Photo Journal

A few weeks ago, while Job’s mom and sister were in Cambodia visiting Job’s brother, his brother’s girlfriend and their beautiful baby, Job and I went to Leiden to experience the city he grew up in and have dinner with his dad.  Here are some photos, some with explanations about the sights we saw that day!

To start you off, here is a map (kind of) of where we walked and the photos we took.

A windmill near Leiden Centraal

The view from outside of La Place/V&D

Again..

And again…

And one last time.  I really liked how you could see all the red tops of the houses.

Appelbollen (seriously the best things in this world.  They’re kind of like Apple Pie balls, but not pie. They’re a different pastry and they’re covered in sugar. They get topped with Vanilla sauce and you can see the container of it in the back right of this photo. SO GOOD.)

This is a gravestone that makes up part of the floor from Pieterskerk (Peter’s Church)

Here is a panorama of the inside of the church.  It is so vast and gorgeous.  This photo does not do it justice.

I liked the top of this building.  There is a coat of arms carved in the top.

Everything here is very “towny” and cute.  This building had a french poem painted on the side.

This building is from 1683.  OLD.

Pilgrims in the Netherlands!

A splash of color!

A statue.

This car lost it’s license plate… 😦

De Burcht

The entrance.

View from the top

View from the top, inside of De Burcht

More red housetops

The sun setting over a church

Another view from the top, inside.

And again.

Some more sunset over the church.

Another church and some other buildings

The side view of De Burcht

The sun setting near a canal.  I loved how the sun hit the canal houses.

Waiting for dinner and relaxing

The amazing dinner Job’s father made. Meat with roasted parsnips, carrots and potatoes!

The meat was juicy, the veggies roasted perfectly with a nice herby taste and a nice crisp.  The company was wonderful.  A very nice day for us all!

Some Dutchisms: What I’ve learned in one month

Suffice it to say that living here has been great, however there are many need to knows that I wish I knew more about.

1. Free Water: You may be thinking.. what do you mean free water? Well, in the United States, whenever you go to a restaurant, you always get free water.  Hi, yes, I’d like a glass of tap water to start… Yeah. Not here.  Good luck finding any restaurants that give you a glass of water.  Basically you pay for a bottle of water, whether it is barely 8 oz or you get a gigantic bottle, you still pay for your water.  And one last thing… AMSTERDAM HAS GREAT DRINKING WATER.  It really is a shame, because I’m a huge water drinker.  It’s practically the only thing I drink.  I have come around to carrying a huge water bottle with me at all times and get very sad when it’s empty.

2. Coffee (Koffie): If you’re not a coffee drinker (I will have to say I definitely was not a coffee drinker.  I probably had one to three coffees a week if that before moving here, and that was only recently) you will become a coffee drinker.  Wherever you go, whenever you go, you are always offered coffee. Coffee at your friend’s place, coffee with your parents, coffee at the bank, coffee for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert.  At the Bijenkorf Nespresso counter, coffee for a snack… the list goes on.  And I’m not sure if this last part is true, but saying no to coffee at least feels to me like a big no-no.  So I just say yes..and then get really dehydrated because you can’t get water anywhere without paying.

3. The weather (in the winter): I would say that on average, at least in the winter, it will rain at some point every day.  It is also severely windy, or at least has been, with howling winds every night that sometimes carry through the next day. The air here is humid and it hasn’t dropped below freezing since I landed.  I have not seen snow like all of my friends and family on the east coast of the United States.  I will just say that the type of rain it is is that spitty misty rain for the most part so it just makes my glasses really spotty and hard to see and makes my hair frizzy… in other words, I wish it were just actually raining.  The best part of this rain is seeing the bicyclists attempting to bike with umbrellas and the like.

4. The grocery store:  Albert Heijn, The Marqt, C1000…First off, you have to pay for a shopping cart.   Edit: you get the money back… Job has this cool coin keychain thing that he can put in the shopping carts and we don’t have to pay which is great, but won’t be ours for much longer. I am going to look into seeing if we can find one somewhere.  Anyways, i’m not sure on the price of carts, but basically, take a basket and hope you don’t need more than that, or go with someone and each of you take a basket.  Also, bring your own bags because otherwise you will be paying for a bag to bag up your groceries, and be prepared to do it quickly and efficiently because the cashier will start sending the next customer’s things through and you will only be halfway done and if you’re like me, you’ll get frustrated.  I now bring a backpack whenever I go to the supermarket and fill all of the outside pockets of my backpack with shopping bags to make sure that just in case it doesn’t all fit in my backpack, i’ve got extra bags and don’t have to pay!

5. Bicycles: Everyone here bikes. Everywhere.  So that’s cool. I can do that.  I brought my bike here from home.  it’s good to go.  You should bike here too.  It’s the easiest way to get around.  Things to know about cyclists: some are crazy and must cycle past you no matter how fast you’re going so that they can just go faster.  Some are not paying attention to anything and bike 2km/h and don’t care that there are other bikers on the road.  Tourists. Just look out for them because they’re probably the most unsafe thing about bicyclists.  They don’t know where they can and cannot bike, or about the nifty bike traffic lights or the hand signals to let people know which way they’re going, or how to maneuver that turn because they’re not sure that you saw them make the hand signal.  I promise I saw you now GO! Also, watch out for the motor bikes/vespa/scooter things on the bike path because sometimes they go really fast and it’s really scary when they pass.  Just stay to the right and you should be fine. And make sure to go to the HEMA to purchase €3 bike lights because even though you bought really cool rechargeable ones from America, they’re not that cool.

6. Learn enough Dutch to be able to say sorry (sorry), excuse me (pardon), thanks (Dank U, dankuwel), please (Alstublieft), do you speak English (Spreekt u engels?), I don’t speak Dutch (Ik sprek geen nederlands), yes (ja), no (nee), bye (Dag, tot ziens), and hello (hallo).  And if you’re going to be here for an extended time, when you’re at the supermarket, the last thing the cashier asks you is if you want your receipt.  These few words/phrases will come in handy.  I went to the bank the other day, and I really don’t like being a rude american, so I will always ask the person I need to talk to if they speak english.  I think it’s more polite.  Otherwise, you can just start speaking english to the Dutch.  Most of them know it enough to answer your questions… Most of the time.

7. Get a map or a data plan for your phone (so you can use maps).  The city is super old, full of canals, lots of little alleys, bridges and is curved.  It’s really really really beyond helpful to have a map.  And Google Maps is great for when you’re biking and lost because you can get bike directions.

8. Fries and other fried delights: There are snack bars on every corner.  And it is AWESOME.  They serve fries with pindasaus. It’s peanut sauce, or satay sauce.  Fries here are double or triple fried for some extra crunchiness, and you can get them everywhere.  The first week I was here, I’m pretty sure I ate fries with pindasaus every day.  Also, croquetten, kaassouffles, and bitterballen.  All amazing as well.  Try them at least once. They’re usually served with mustard and the common fry topping here besides pindasaus is mayo. FEBO is your one stop shop for all of the above, however you can definitely find better fries around the city.

9. Waterlooplien: Go there.  Go there any day but Sunday.  There is a huge flea market every day with lots of cool things for very cheap prices and also some good food.  Loempias. That is what I would suggest.  They are spring rolls and I love them, and sometimes there is this awesome/ crazy lady who basically just sings to herself really loudly.  She prepares the loempias.

10. Money:  This is super important!  BRING LOTS OF CASH. LOTS OF IT! It is very rare that any place here takes your american credit card.  Even if you have the chip inside, because guess what America, Chip and signature isn’t a thing.  And that is what is in the American Chip credit cards.  No.  It’s chip and pin here, and if you don’t have a pin to go with your chip (I promise you, you don’t) Then you won’t be able to purchase anything except for at huge retailers, like De Bijenkorf (basically a huge Nordstrom/Bloomingdales/Macys/Departmentstore-like place).  So bring cash because if you don’t have a residence permit/are a citizen here/ have a BSN (the dutch equivalent to social security number), you also will not be able to obtain said chip and pin card (PINNEN is what it’s called here). Just bring cash.

Bonus! ChipKaart:  This is what is used to ride the tram/busses/ and on occasion, trains depending on how much money you have on your chipkaart.  You must tap your card every time you enter the train/bus/tram and also when you exit.  This is very important.  A)At some stations, you will not be able to enter, and you will not be allowed on a bus or tram without doing so, and you will also be yelled at by the tram driver. B) If you don’t check out, you’re immediately charged €6 because they assume you went as far as you could go.  So remember to check in and check out by holding the beautifully holographic card to the card reader.

I will try to think of more helpful/insightful things later on.  I know this is a bit out of the range of what I normally post about, but thought it was a bit of fun information to know.

Let me know what dutch things got you, or what other things you want to know about in terms of living here! 

The Stressful Birthday

February 13th is my birthday.  This year is the first year I am not in America to celebrate with my friends and family from home.  This year I got the opportunity to celebrate with my Dutch family.  

The day before my birthday proved to make my birthday a bit stressful.  As many of you know, I’m was still waiting for a job offer as well as my residence permit.  My birthday marked the one month mark of living in Amsterdam and I still didn’t have these two things.  Well, on the 12th, I received a call from the recruiter for work and we spoke about a possible job offer, but I really had to think things over with the specifics I was given.  That night I sat and pondered away if the contract was fair and a good choice to take.  I felt a little cheated at what was offered and spent the whole night thinking over the pros and cons.  If you’ve ever gone through a grueling interview/job application process, you know how stressful this can be.  I contemplated all night long and into the next morning.  I felt guilty and scared for what I was going to ask for the next morning from the recruiter, but I was not off base with the questions I had and the counter offer.  I was just super stressed.

It was difficult to sleep and I woke up a but uneasy on my birthday.

Job however surprised me in the morning by bringing me to my favorite breakfast place, Gartine.  

Gartine is a super adorable little joint in a small street off of the Rokin.  It is owned by a husband and wife who are always in a very pleasant and friendly mood! It’s just a fabulous atmosphere.  They have a gorgeous chandelier hanging from the ceiling,

a huge painting on the wall, about 10 tables and a huge branch with some color of flowers hanging on the wall, depending on the season.

 It’s just a very intimate feeling place… and you always need a reservation otherwise it’s almost impossible to get a table.

Anyways, the morning started off alright.  We went to Gartine and got “the usual” for us, which is the yogurt

(This picture of the yogurt is from a previous visit.  All of the food is seasonal some some ingredients change.  The yogurt we had was decorated with dates instead of dried cranberries and coconut)

and the french toast, which is perfectly grilled and is so moist but has a caramelization of sugar that is to die for.  It’s complimented by an apple compote as opposed to the traditional (at least for an American) maple syrup.

I had noticed a raisin bread on the menu that also looked intriguing and delicious, so we got that as well.

(You can’t see the bread in this picture as it is covered by old cheese and lettuce, but it’s there.  This is also a photo from a previous visit, with a rhubarb jam)

We both ate our french toast and the raisin bread and started on the yogurt, however, the stress started to come back to me as I still had to call the recruiter back.  I soon because uneasy and I totally lost my appetite.  I decided we should go back home so I could call the recruiter, however before making our way back, I suggested Job call immigration because at this point, I still was waiting on my residence permit and it had been a month… it was only supposed to take two weeks to get my residence permit.  

Job called the IND as I unlocked our bikes.  He gave the normal information, my V-Nummer, date of birth, my name.. his name… and finally we were connected to a woman who looked up our case.  She told us she could see it was taking a long time and that we applied five months ago and that we had come in a month ago for pictures and prints and all of this other stuff… finally she told us that the residence permit was at the IND in Amsterdam (that was good news…) and that they had been working very hard to mail out letters stating the cards were ready.  Job informed the woman that I was working on getting a job and that it was necessary that I had my residence permit.  He asked if there was anything else she could do… and low and behold someone at IND was helpful.  She said she would just send an email stating that it was an emergency case and that we could just go over and pick up the residence permit.  That is exactly what we did.

Upon arriving at the IND, we received a number and were asked to sit in the waiting room until the number was called.  We only waited about five minutes and the bell went off that indicated it was our turn.  We went over to station number six and sat with a woman. We explained that we had called in and that the woman we spoke to told us the residence permit card was indeed ready and that she emailed the office to say we would be allowed to pick it up (normally you need the letter they mail you to pick up the card.) The woman told us to wait a moment as she went to look for the card.  She looked in one place and it wasn’t there, so she came back and told us she would look in the other spot.  That is where she found it.  She returned a few moments later, had me look over all of the information, gave us a little packet and we were on our way with residence permit in hand!

Next stop: VODAFONE!

Now that I had my residence permit, I could finally get a phone contract and not have to worry about topping up my prepaid SIM.  (You need your residence permit card or European ID. A passport does not work.)  We went to the Kalverstraat and spoke with a very helpful gentleman who set up my contract.  That was fast and easy.  

From there we took a minute to walk around the Kalverstraat because there are a lot of shops there.  We stopped into a bookstore that was going out of business.  It was nice to do some of these activities.  It really helped me to try to de-stress.  The bookstore was really sad…  Everything was 70% off and books were just strewn about everywhere.  I found a book about American food from before the time we froze things and had microwave meals and it looked interesting.. and was only €3.  We also go a large map print of the city of Amsterdam. €12 well spent!

At this point, we finally biked back home to make the torturous call I had been dreading all day.

We arrived home and I made the call.  Voicemail.  So I left a message.  A little bit later I finally received a call back and we negotiated the rest of the contract to fitting terms.  I start on March 3!

Whoa…

Residence Permit… √

Phone Contract… √

a job… √

wow… I was a real citizen type person in Amsterdam…Established.

It was a fitting way to celebrate both my birthday and my one month of living in the country.

The stress finally subsided.  We spent the rest of the day sort of relaxing and just being with each other.  I also checked the mail (my favorite activity of the day) and found an awesome birthday card from my BFF Ayla.

The card is now hanging on our refrigerator with all of the other nice cards we’ve received.

At around six in the evening, we met up with Job’s father to enjoy a nice birthday dinner.  Unfortunately Job’s mom couldn’t make it.  She had just returned home from Cambodia a few days prior and wasn’t feeling too good.

We went to Bird, a Thai restaurant located in Amsterdam’s chinatown and near the Red Light District.  I have to say that I have not had a whole lot of asian cuisine yet in Amsterdam, but I have had Bird every time I am in Amsterdam and it is top notch.  Since we frequent it so much, as well as it’s cheaper counterpart, Snackbar Bird, which is across the street, we kind of have our favorite and “regular” dishes here as well.  We always get Tom Ka Kai

which is a coconut milk based soup with chicken that is to die for, (unfortunately this trip, the soup was really salty.  For compensation, we got free coffee and tea at the end of the meal) and Chicken Pad Thai.

 This time, however we tried some new dishes with Job’s dad.  We had some Beef with Mango and Pineapples that was both sweet and spicy and very delicious and Beef with Green Curry, which was also really really tasty.  We even got dessert, which is not something Job and I ever really do because by the time we get to dessert, we are really really full, and I promise you, my birthday night was no different.  For dessert, I had Sticky Rice with Mango, Job’s dad had some Thaise Cakes and Job had some sort of Sticky Rice with taro and Ginko nuts.  It was super tasty.  We left pleasantly stuffed and happy.

 It was a lovely birthday evening.