#fromwhereistand #latergram #sunset #iaminamsterdam #amsterdam #her #thetravelingspoons @thetrvlngspoons @jobbeumer
iaminamsterdam
#fromwhereistand #her #sunset #thetravelingspoons #iaminamsterdam #amsterdam @jobbeumer @thetrvlngspoons
The Mix Up
*As for anonymity’s sake, I will be replacing the names of streets here with random names and post codes with random numbers, but anyways, let me tell you about my already so exciting day… So exciting that things have already happened and it’s barely 10 AM.
Let me just first explain some logistics. In Amsterdam, many street names either end in “straat” meaning street or “plein” meaning square. Also, in the Netherlands, post codes directly correlate to an exact street (it’s brilliant). We live on *Bakerstraat with post code *4812QR. When we first moved here, we believed, according to our lease, that we lived on *Bakerplein with post code *4812QT.
When we went to city hall to secure my BSN, in America, a BSN is like an SSN (Social Security Number), The woman asked us for our postal code and then our street. We told her, but she said that the information we gave her did not match the lease. The lease said we lived at Bakerstraat 4812QS. Also not correct. We ended up using Google Maps to figure out that we actually live at Bakerstraat 4812QR. We thought it was Bakerplein because of the bus stop that is near our house.
Anyways, we get a lot of mail that is neither ours, or Job’s brother’s/his brother’s family’s mail, as we are renting from them right now. We thought at first maybe it was the people who were here before them. Then recently, we received some mail for two little girls. The envelope was kind of squishy like some sort of fabric was inside. We knew it was probably something important and that we had to get the letter back to the people it was intended for.
A couple of weeks passed and it was now the night of my birthday. (You read all about that the other day.) Well the gift I received from Job’s parents was a MuseumKaart, a membership card to the majority of the museums here. Job’s dad informed us that we should have… or would within the next day receive it in the mail. Awesome!
Well, come February 18th, we still hadn’t received anything. Job was getting worried. He called his dad, just to double check and asked him what address he had sent the card to, and sure enough, he had sent it to Bakerplein 4812QT. (This of course was our fault because we had given him initially the incorrect address.) Well that was the reason as to why it hadn’t gotten here yet.
As Job was leaving this morning, he strongly advised that I go around the corner to Bakerplein and go to house number *25, the same as us and speak with the people who live there and let them know that we thought that we had their mail and they maybe had (HOPEFULLY) my museumkaart. Job left around 9AM for work. About thirty minutes later, I sent him a little message in my awful Dutch and asked if it would be okay to say this to the people who lived on Bakerplein, if it made sense. He made a few tweaks. I then rewrote all of the message down on paper and left my phone number in case they didn’t answer.
I then asked if it was too early to go over there. He told me I should be fine, so I went. I slowly walked over, mostly because I was rehearsing my Dutch and looked for number 25. There it was! I looked at the name on the mailbox and wrote it on the envelope. I also had in hand, the card for the two little girls, and that was their house! I rang the bell hesitantly and waited. I was really nervous that I was going to trip over all of the Dutch words, so I did what I always do when I get nervous. ”Hoi, uhhh… Ik spreek Engels…” “Oké,” the woman replied. I then went into English and told her how I lived at Bakerstraat at the same number and how I thought my boyfriend’s father sent me mail to their address accidentally and that we had some mail of theirs as well. The woman welcomed me inside, and I told her that in the card I had written was also my phone number in case it happened again and we needed to switch mail. She looked through her things and found my museumkaart!
(A little worse for wear, but hey, it happens)
Job and I had been so worried that his parents had spent money on something that might have accidentally gotten thrown away and then what! No museumkaart for me, but I was super lucky.
The woman was so nice and we decided that if accidentally we got the wrong mail again, it was just a quick walk around the corner to bring it to the correct place.
PHEW! Crisis averted!
Now! Time for some breakfast!
Valentines Day… (times two) [Part Two]
We left off in the valentines day story on the evening of valentines day after the amazing chocolate soufflés, but that was just the beginning of the soufflé saga.
We also still had to go out to eat.
The day started out with an amazing rendition of Job’s French Toast which in most cases is better than any french toasts I’ve had in restaurants. I’m hoping that when he does tell his tale, he’ll include directions to make his french toast because it is out of this world.
Additionally, he made some bacon and eggs and everything was perfect as it always is with practically all of the things he cooks.
(We did eat this french toast with maple syrup from AMERICA)
We had slept in and after breakfast, the majority of the day on valentines day part two was spent relaxing at home (we slept until around 11, so there weren’t that many more hours before dinner), me, working on the blog and Job browsing and catching up on the internet. We also looked into multiple recipes for a lighter soufflé, and watched both some Dutch TV and the olympics.
Around 18:30, I think, we decided that we were starting to get hungry. The day before, while Job was at work, I had thought to myself, man, I haven’t had sushi in some time… so when presented with the question as to what I wanted to dinner, I moused out, “… sushi?”
Lucky for me, that was the exact thing Job had been thinking, which is great, because, DAMN, I really wanted sushi!
In Amsterdam, there are a bunch of all you can eat sushi places, so we started on our adventure.
Things we didn’t think about:
- It was a Saturday night
- It was dinner time
- it’s kind of a holiday weekend and maybe others had the same thoughts on valentines day as us
- maybe making a reservation…? It never crossed our mind.
We threw on our coats and walked to the tram stop which is conveniently located next to Albert Heijn. We decided we would just quickly stop in and get the ingredients we would need to make our next type of soufflé.
IT WAS SO SUPER WINDY OUT. At one point we had to use force to actually keep walking into the wind.
We decided a lemon lavender soufflé would be up next on the docket. We needed to get more milk, eggs, lemons, and lavender oil.
We ended up only getting lemons because we decided we had enough eggs and milk, and didn’t want to carry those to dinner, and we were unsuccessful in finding lavender oil.. or lavender…whatever you would use in food.
At this point, well actually, after not finding anything in Albert Heijn, we actually walked to C1000 (pronounced saydousand; I kept calling it “see-thousand”) which is where we weighed and purchased our lemons, Job started to feel a little ill. Now as previously posted, I always carry water with me and offered him some of that. He was feeling light-headed and dizzy. From C1000, we walked back to our tram stop and Job sat down and we waited for the tram. I think Job was just a little dehydrated and hungry, and since we had been inside all day where it was warm, the temperature and wind sort of shocked his body. I also gave him a piece of chewing gum.
The tram arrived about eight minutes later and we went straight to Leidseplein. As we walked up to the restaurant, it started to rain. (…Typical) We went inside and Job spoke to the host. He turned back to me and said well they are full. We walked out and Job profusely apologized for not thinking about needed a reservation and not making one. Of course I told him there was no need to apologize and that we could go somewhere else. At this point, I was just hungry. On our way out of the restaurant, I had grabbed their business card. They’re a chain restaurant and so we called another one in Amsterdam who was also full for the night. Next we walked to a third one of these types of places to see if we could get in there. Also fully booked, but the restaurants were so empty. Oh well. At this point we were very near to UvA (Universiteit Van Amsterdam, or the University of Amsterdam). Job told me he knew of a good burger place and would that be okay? Well you all know of course that was perfectly fine with me. We made our way to Cafe ‘t Gasthuys.
We were seated almost immediately. After all of this, it was probably close to 20:00. We were hungry. We ended up ordering bread with garlic butter and arugula or rocket croquettes to start. We also both ordered the cheese burger.
It. Was. So. Much. Food. But it was happily welcomed into both of our mouthes and stomachs.
The bread with garlic butter was crunch on the outside and so soft on the inside, and the garlic butter just aromatic and tasty.
The croquettes were perfectly fried with a brown crunchiness on the outside and soft hot melty cheesy arugula on the inside.
The burgers were juicy and of course came with whisky sauce which is not something i’ve yet written about, but it’s a thing here for burgers.
We also enjoyed the side salad and fries that came along. Job of course ate his the dutch way with mayo and I ate mine the american way.. with ketchup.
From there we decided to take a quick stroll through the red light district. I wish that Ayla, Chauncey, and my sister were there with us. The nights we took them respectively to the RLD were both rainy, so they didn’t get to see any of the girls or what the RLD is really like… It’s such an oddity to me still. From there we walked a little further to our bus stop (normally we catch our bus from central station, but since we had eaten a lot, we decided to walk to the next bus stop) and got on and went home.
By the time we arrived back from our excursion, it was close to 22:00. We decided that was a bit too late to be cooking soufflés.
We did however end up making them the next night, which I guess would make this Valentines day time two part three, but instead, I’m going with Soufflé Saga, which will be a different story for a different day.
Although we didn’t get sushi like we both wanted, and we didn’t make our second soufflé, and well, we really didn’t do a whole lot, the second day of valentines day was just perfect for me. It was relaxing, delicious, and I got to spend some quality time with Job.
Additionally, I apologize for the lack of photos in this post, but I didn’t take pictures of dinner.
Making the world a better place – 200 dollars at a time (hers)
Just because I know you are dying to know how this hair whisperer has solved her problems. I went on an all out treasure hunt to find a hair dryer yesterday. I even left work early to ensure I didn’t miss any shop that closed at 18:00. I went to the first place that everyone said had hair dryers….
I feel your pain. I’m a hair dresser and I knew right off the bat (because of an experience two years prior in London) that my hair dryer was not going to work in Amsterdam.. and I love my white hair dryer. I told Job the first thing I was going to buy when we arrived in Amsterdam was a Hair Dryer. Three days after landing, we went to the local Saturn near the Amsterdam Bibliotheek and I shoveled out eighty something dollars. It is a necessity.
Making the world a better place – 200 dollars at a time (hers)
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.
The Traveling Spoons 