Apartment
I moved in to my permanent apartment this week! While I'm writing this from my oh so comfy seat of hard wood floor due to a complete lack of furniture, I'm still super excited to start making my home here. My apartment is in the Oud Zuid (Old South) part of Amsterdam and over looks the end of the Vondelpark which I hope to take advantage of for running and biking in the near future. The neighborhood has a lot of local shops and restaurants that I'm excited to explore. I'm actually living above what I've been told is the most 'posh' Chinese restaurant in the city (don't worry, no Chinese food smell here!) - I will be trying it soon! Here's a couple views from leaning out one of my front windows...
While I love the views from the front windows, I am most excited about this:
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| My very own HUGE deck!! |
I'll share pictures of the inside of my apartment when I get it set up... hopefully by early December when my first visitors from the states arrive!
Also, a big thank you to my neighbors upstairs for sharing their internet password - I'm loving them already!
Nederlands (i.e. Dutch in English)
This past week my company was awesome and offered culture and language training to several expats new to Amsterdam. While I have a LONG way to go in learning Dutch, I definitely picked up on some useful things this week and it was the kick off I needed to get focused on my language skills. I've decided my goals here are to be able to speak Dutch in stores/restaurants for common questions (i.e. phrases you say to check out or ask for the menu, etc.) and to understand what other people are talking about (especially at the office). These goals are going to require some serious practice and effort but I'm going to try! Here's some of my favorite tidbits from class last week:
- Spruill looks like a Dutch name! The "ui" combination is very Dutch, but does not sound at all like how my family pronouces it. When I say the "ui" sound "correctly" here, it literally hurts by jaw and I've yet to figure out the American English equivalent. I'm working on it :)
- Two-digit numbers are spoken with the last digit first - i.e. 27 is zeven en twintig (with no spaces). But for three or four-digit numbers, you say the hundreds/thousands first and then go to the last digit - i.e. 184 is honderd achtenveertig. It's a whole new way of thinking :) But I've got my cell phone # and address down pat!
- Alsjeblieft = please. While I wasn't raised so Southern as to say "mam" or "sir" after everything, I was definitely raised as a "please" and "thank you" girl so I was very happy to finally learn this word! It's also used here frequently in an abbreviated form - when the coffee machine at work finishes brewing your drink, it says "beker a.u.b." meaning, roughly, "take the cup if you please."
- One reason the Dutch are known for their directness is because the Dutch language itself is very to the point - what takes us 10 words to say, the Dutch say in 5. Understanding this is actually helping me adjust to the directness a little better - I'm learning to not take things personally.
Friends
Now I can't speak for others, but I think (/hope) that I'm on my way to making some friends here! As I've mentioned before, I love the expat community for its acceptance of new people. and as expected, other expats are people I've spent the most time with so far. There's four American women who just moved here with the firm, so it's been great to share moving knowledge... and commiserate about the annoying things (the 100,000,000 forms we fill out, our love/hate relationship with IKEA, anxiety over life out of suitcase, to name a few) and to share in learning the amazing parts of life here (delicious bread and cheese, the beautiful canals and architecture, the appreciation for individuality, the proximity to so many other countries - this list could go on and on). One of the women moved her by herself as well so we've become fast friends and shopping buddies. The Dutch stores are SO MUCH more manageable when you have a friend! I've also been spending time with new friends from Spain and Poland living here and have had lots of fun American visitors that are currently living in other European cultures - it helps when a huge work training is just outside of my city - thanks firm! :) Here's a few photos to alleviate any worries that I'm sitting home alone all the time (one of my biggest fears in moving here)...
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| Canal boat tour with new friends from Munich - they made my first weekend here a lot of fun! Credit for the pic goes to one of them - thanks! |
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| Enjoying some drinks at the Leidseplein - great people watching spot. |
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| Out and about with my friend from Spain... really hoping to go visit her there in the Spring! |
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| Birthday night... btw, so excited when I received my shipment with coats this week - good bye fleece and North Face! What was I thinking to bring the most unfashionable (and screaming tourist) coats ever on the plane?! |
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| More birthday fun at Escape in the Rembrandtplein.... no upcoming visitors get excited about this bar though, I've been there 3 times and while a blast, that is TOO many for a city with so many places to check out! |
Everyday Life
A couple people have asked me what my days are like here... honestly, other than the moving issues, they're not too different than back home. I'm up and at work by 9am (ok, so maybe that's a little later... I'm not complaining!), work all morning, do the big group lunch at exactly noon with everyone on my floor where we all drink milk (still getting used to that one), work all afternoon, and if it's a good day, head home at a reasonable time! The work hours so far are fairly similar to the states. A couple days after work I've been able to make it to the gym in my firm's office. I've taken both Zumba and Cycle in Dutch now! Some nights involve dinner with friends and others are just taking care of business - like nights this week will be spent building IKEA furniture... that's an adventure all on it's own!
The biggest changes in my everyday life so far have really been getting used to public transportation and walking and figuring out how to use the phones here! It sounds silly, but the dialing rules are very confusing to me. Landlines and cell phones have different versions of what Americans think of as area codes. Then you have to sometimes dial a 0 in front of a number, sometimes not. Then my firm has a completely different "area code" all it's own, and it just gets very hard to keep straight! I still think my iphone that lets me google how to do some of this was the best purchase I've made yet here.
I'm hoping that biking to work will be my next significant everyday life change. I actually got a car last week but driving is almost scarier than biking because you have to watch out for the bikes and trams, so I'm going to leave the car parked at home and hit the pedals starting tomorrow! If I can get up the nerve to be 'that girl', I'll ask someone to take a pic - I know you all want a good laugh!
Upcoming Adventures
In the next couple weeks I hope to get settled in my apartment and am looking forward to having all of the moving things over so I'll have time to keep exploring Amsterdam and more time to spend with friends or even just at the gym! Although while I say I'm craving time to relax, I keep wanting to do more and more with my time here - saying no to an exciting opportunity is just not something I want to do! I'm heading to Frankfurt, Germany in a couple weeks to have "Thanksgiving" with some American friends from Munich. (Side note - I'm told it's almost impossible to get a Turkey in Amsterdam. You have to order months in advance and then most likely, your oven is way too small for it anyways!) After Munich, friends from home will be here and we're thinking about a 3 day trip, destination TBD (perhaps Paris??!!) - there's honestly too many options! I know saying goodbye again when my friend leaves will be really hard but I'm comforted by (hopefully) a trip to Germany for the Christmas markets the following weekend with some local friends! Then it's the holidays and my wonderful family will be here :)
Thanks for reading! Conciseness is still not my strong suit :) Blogs on Dutch Food and Make like a tourist - Part Twee up next!
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