I want to ride my...

Bicycle! Bicycle! Bicycle! Come on, you know the Queen tune! In all seriousness, though, I love my bike. It's well engineered, it's fast, it has four gears, but it is a few years old and a little rusty so as not to attract too much attention. She's not flashy, but she definitely gets me from point A to point B. Riding my bike, besides being necessary in Holland with no car, is fun. I feel so free not having to find parking, worry about insurance or fuel, leave my car somewhere if I have a little too much beer... Though biking drunk here is not legal. But if I have two glasses of wine I can still get on a bike where I wouldn't get behind the wheel of my Honda given it is a large machine. Being active and riding places feels good both physically and mentally. You can ask me again when it's raining and windy for months on end how much I like biking, but for now I truly enjoy it.

Furniture Acquisition

Furnishing an apartment on a shoestring is an interesting project. It's amazing what you can live without and what becomes a priority when you're building from very little.

A list of what I currently own, after a few weeks of searching:

Bed, Fridge, Toast Oven, Gas Cooktop, Dining Room Table, Folding Chair (1), Coffee Table, Dressers (2), TV, Ikea Lounge Chairs (2)

A list of what I am still looking for:

Couch, Bedside Tables, Lamps, Porch Furniture (for my balcony!), Dining Room Chairs, Washer

Things I Plan to Live Without:

Oven, Kitchen Appliances, Dryer, Stereo

There are times when I feel like it doesn't really matter if I get more furniture, but the other night I realized there are some things worth getting. Two of my friends came over to help me hook up my UPC cable/phone/internet package. Great! I made dinner, we had some wine, they played with all the cables and Dutch instruction booklets. I put dinner on my lovely dining room table, which I had set with Ikea placemats and my new (used) candle holders from my favorite second hand shop. We pulled over my folding chair and the other two chairs that I own, which are more of a lounge chair to watch TV in. Sitting in those chairs, my friend's chins were about eight inches above the table surface. Not great.

Couch and dining room chairs... important so that if I have friends over, they have a real place to sit.

A rainy morning

I woke up yesterday to gray skies and a bit of rain. As I walked to work in the drizzle, I couldn't help but actually think to myself, this is actually rather nice. The weather has been gorgeous for the last three weeks and I'm so glad. It has been a really wonderful introduction to this country, especially since I keep hearing that it's going to get really rainy and unpleasant in a few months. If it never rained, would we appreciate the sun as much?

UPC

Ahh. UPC. Dutch communications company... television, internet, phone. All in one. Ok, sounds good to me. After a series of frustrating phone calls, I finally go and pick up the package containing the link from my apartment to the outside world. I should stop here and mention that the day I choose to do this is the Monday that I returned from a very quick weekend in Boston for a lovely wedding. Flew to Boston on Friday. Left Sunday afternoon. Arrived in Amsterdam on Monday morning at 7am. Went to work.

I unpacked the box and looked at all the different cables. Then I looked at the 8 instructions manuals in..... Dutch! Of course. Jet lag, package full of complicated cables and foreign instructions. I suppose I can wait another day for the internet. It's been a month.

iPhone Excitement

After much searching and many disappointments, I found a store with an 8 gig iPhone in stock. Again I am faced with signing forms that I can't actually read and understand, hoping that I can trust the person explaining what they say. I get the phone home, excitedly tearing into the well designed black iPhone box, imagining all of the possibilities that will unfold once I am again connected.

It's all in Dutch. Of course. Luckily I am able to connect everything and get the phone working. Trial and error. It's a beautiful thing.

Upon moving in....

Moving into an apartment in the Netherlands, and in Europe in general from what I understand, is an interesting experience to say the least. First and foremost, when the ad says an apartment is rented “bare,” that literally means nothing. Naked. As in, “you must buy the floor from us or we’re taking that, too,” bare. I bought the floor. And the blinds. And a bed. But that’s it. No fridge, stove, oven, microwave, light fixtures (though a few ugly ones did get left behind)…. you get the point.

Given the lack of furniture, I was very able to appreciate the actual space of my apartment upon my arrival. The light is lovely, the rooms are sweet, and the floor worth every penny.