Amsterdam Adventure!

It's been a long time since I posted a blog but thought it would be wise to try to keep up with one to document our new adventure. Since I last posted, Alex has grown ALOT! He's now 3 1/2 and we have a new little munchkin, Emily. Emily is 11 months old and such a happy baby!  Now that we're up to speed, on to our new adventure...moving to Amsterdam!!!!

When Jake mentioned possibly moving months ago, I shrugged it off and thought he was messing with me. Nope, we're here! We'll be living her for ~3 months while Jake trains someone at his job. It's exciting and a little overwhelming.

We left on February 13th, my birthday, and flew to Minneapolis first. The kids did well and we rested during our layover. The long flight to Amsterdam was in fact, LONG! Alex did great, but Emily wanted to be held the ENTIRE time! Neither Jake nor I got much sleep. We arrived bleary eyed and ready to be in our new apartment. Once we gathered our 4 suitcases (50 lbs each), 2 children, 3 backpacks, jackets and my purse, we hopped in a taxi to go to the short-term housing office. It felt great to leave our bags there and walk around for a bit to find some food. We still had awhile before our apartment would be ready. Problem is, we were so tired and hungry and in the middle of a busy tourist section. After walking around for ~30 minutes, we decided to just get some bananas and hot dogs and park it back in the short-term housing office until our expat helper and taxi arrived. Once they arrived they took us to our apartment but informed us that the apartment above it had a leak and was leaking into said apartment. We got out and looked around. The apartment was amazing and right on a canal. However...the leak was still causing water to drip from the ceiling to the floor every 90 seconds or so. Tired and not wanting to live through repairs, we chose to take a second option. We loaded back up in the taxi and headed to the outside of the city near Jake's work to the luxury corporate housing apartments. Though not in the heart of Amsterdam, this apartment is pretty swanky. It is absolutely gorgeous and has tons of amenities including an indoor pool and sauna, maid service, and a beautiful layout. Here we crashed and rested. Jake went to grab some pasta at a next door restaurant while the kids and I relaxed. We stayed up until ~6 pm (Thank you Ningxia Red and Nitro) then decided to call it a night. We all snuggled up in bed (we put 3 single beds together) and crashed.  We slept so well and then woke up refreshed....at 8 pm! Yikes! We seriously felt like we had been sleeping for hours. Once up, we worked on unpacking and finally got back to sleep around midnight.




We awoke at 11 a.m. the next morning a little groggy but ready to tackle the day. We explored the apartment a little more, visited the Metro (2 minute walk) and took a 15 minute walk to the grocery store, Albert Heijn.

It's crazy walking around a grocery store with everything written in Dutch. We were able to figure out enough to get some fresh fruits and other necessities. It took us awhile to find the eggs. Eventually we came across them down a center aisle just hanging out on the shelves (not refrigerated). The trek back home was a little difficult as we had heavy bags and I was wearing Emily and pushing Alex in a stroller. I've decided I was crazy in thinking I would not need a double stroller over here...(I"m working on acquiring one here ASAP). That night we made homemade spaghetti and drank our welcome basket red wine :)

Monday morning arrived and Jake headed off to work. There I was...alone in Amsterdam with 2 kiddos! Both kids are adjusting well but going a little stir crazy. In turn, Alex's behavior has been less than stellar (Joy is constantly running in my diffuser). While trying to keep the kids occupied, I figured out how to use the dishwasher and attempted to wash clothes. The washer and dryer are super small (barely fit 3 pairs of jeans in one load) and the dials are in Dutch. You should see me trying to translate each setting, lol After finishing unpacking and setting up the apartment, the kids and I ventured out to the Metro area to check out a few little shops and stretch our legs. All this sounds easy, but it takes FOREVER to get everyone properly dressed (hats, gloves, heavy jackets) and ready to go. The kids are definitely not used to all the warm gear yet.  The weather is chilly (40's) and a bit cloudy. The rain is set to come later in the week.

 


I'm enjoying our stay so far but looking forward to moving back to our original apartment in two weeks. While super luxurious, this apartment isn't really close to any kid friendly areas and I'm not quite ready to navigate public transportation by myself. Our other apartment is supposedly walking distance to many places including the zoo, parks, etc. The jet lag has eased up but we're all still on weird schedules...going to bed late and waking up at 10 am+. I'm hoping to get back to normal soon (as normal as normal can be) and start venturing out more to explore.