First House Guests

  This week we welcomed our first house guests, Sam and Charlotte Brandauer (who we know from Gettysburg but who were coming from Copenhagen). But, unfortunately thanks to some airline difficulties, it was for a lot less time than we were hoping for.
  On Monday morning the kids reluctantly let me clean the house. I told them that as a reward they would get to play with Charlotte when she arrived that afternoon. Sam estimated that they would make it to Leiden around 1:30. At noon I noticed that there was a voice message on my phone. It was from Sam from earlier that morning. Due to some technical difficulties with the plane the flight had been cancelled and they would not be able to get another flight until the next morning. We were disappointed to say the least; I've been enjoying it here but I was excited to see a familiar face and I think Leif was as well (to Klaus not many faces are familiar yet). Plus all my cleaning would but undone by then. Leif pouted for a bit but he is a surprising optimist sometimes; all afternoon he would say things like "Tomorrow we will show this to Charlotte" or "Tomorrow we will play this with Charlotte."
     Tuesday morning, again with my Leif-Klaus shadow, I cleaned the house (admittedly not as thoroughly as I had done the day before). At around 9:30 my phone rang- it was Sam again. Their plane was not cancelled this time but it was going to be delayed. Apparently the captain's seat broke (it was at this point that I went back to the flight itinerary that Sam had forwarded to me and made a mental note not to ever fly on Scandinavian Airlines). Eventually the plane did take off and Sam and Charlotte arrived at our house around noon, almost 24 hours after they originally planned to.

   

After a brief nap-time (only Klaus and Sam actually napped) we headed out on a little tour of Leiden. First to Haarlemerstraat, a pedestrian only street lined with mostly clothing and cell phone shops. We exchanged some klompen slippers that we had gotten for Charlotte for a larger size and then continued on to the Burcht, the old city citadel. Leif and Charlotte enjoyed running around the old structure and Sam got a little view of the city. After that we had planned to meet Kurt at the indoor beach (see my last post) but it was closed. Instead we seated ourselves at an outdoor cafe and had a few drinks and appetizers. If we were true Europeans this probably would have lasted for hours but since we are not and since we had young children with us (two of which needed a nap) we stayed for about 40 minutes.    

 

On Wednesday we took Sam and Charlotte to the Naturalis. There seemed to be some sort of septic issue happening and the whole museum had a bit of a poop smell (yes I have two young children and I use the word 'poop' frequently) but none-the-less the kids had a good time feeding the animatronic animals, exploring the sensory room, and looking at the fossils and preserved animals. After lunch we wrestled the kids down for their naps and then spent a quiet evening at home.
  On Thursday we sadly said good-bye to Charlotte and Sam. Ironically it was the 4th of July but none of us seemed to remember even though we are all Americans. So needless to say we did nothing to celebrate the 4th of July on the actual 4th of July. Feeling as though we let our homeland down we decided to celebrate the 4th this weekend. We don't have any American friends here but we know a Belgian and an Italian who have lived in the U.S. so we invited them over for some American style burgers and fries. They brought Amstel Light (the Bud Light of Holland) and apple pie (with a lemon chiffon top layer but close enough). Oh America. I try to hide it but I do miss you.

One down. Five more to go.

Woah it is July 1! On Wednesday we will have been in the Netherlands for a month. One month down. Five more to go. This month was all about settling in. I hope to bring you more riveting adventures in the months to come as we get more confident in our living abroad skills.
  Updates from last week:
   I finally made it to the art supply store. I made the decision to bring only my brushes with me so I have not been able to paint for the last month as I have no paint. I am looking for a new direction in my art. I love landscapes and city scapes but I am aware that they are not the most creative thing that I could be doing. So I am hoping to spark my creativity with some constraints to butt up against.  What better restraint could there be than limited supplies and the need to be able to pack everything up in a suitcase to take home. Ok so where is the nearest arts and crafts store? The Dutch are not big on large scale signage so sometimes it is hard to tell what is a retail store and what is simply a warehouse or office. I have found that the best way to avoid an embarrassing situation is to research any potential places of business on the internet before waltzing through the door. I got the name of this particular craft store from the expat web group that I joined. It was described as the closest thing to a Michaels or AC Moore that Leiden has. With the boys in tow I set off for what looked like a industrial part of the city. I was somewhat worried but confident in my web research. Upon entering the store we were received by a tiny showroom. Nothing like the size of a Michaels. It was more like your typical mom and pop art supply business. But one that was really concerned about theft: One of every item was displayed on a foam core board with an identifying number next to it (like a highly uninformative science fair). Customers walk around with clip boards and write down the numbers of any items that they want. Then they bring it to the counter where an employee goes back into the warehouse the retrieve the items. In this store's case I don't think that the system was really aimed at theft prevention but rather was the product of a lack of presentable retail space. Anywho I purchased some paint (only the primaries plus white and black- oooo constraints!) and enjoyed my unique shopping experience. Today I found a roll of wallpaper at junk store. I think it will be the perfect canvas.  Now what to paint?
   The rest of the week was pretty typical. I've been taking the boys to a bilingual morning playgroup on Wednesdays. We usually go to the library at some point and also the park. Oh and we go the grocery at least 3 times a week. One highlight was the  Leiden University Bio-Physics department barbecue. We enjoyed some great food on the university's dime (Euro dime I guess) and I got to meet some of the people that Kurt is working with. There was even one of those inflatable bouncy castle things for the kids to hop around in. The weather was great by dutch standards- 60s and not raining.
  On Saturday, Jasper (our landlord's brother) was kind enough to guide us around the Leiden Culinair Festival. In this summer tradition, a handful of Leiden restaurants set up booths in a central location and serve up some of their best dishes. We enjoyed some mackerel in a citrusy butter sauce with mashed potatoes, carrots, and green beans made by the local culinary school. And also a buttery noodle stir fry from a place called Woo Ping. Leif, who was a little sad and soggy after a ill-conceived jump in a puddle, enjoyed some ice cream from Maccioto.
 

There seemed to be quite a few other smaller festivals tacked on to the Culinair Festival complete with boat races, music, carnival rides, and Belgian beer. We actually started our tour with some witte beers at an "indoor beach"- a bar near the stadhuis filled it's floors with 6 inches of sand, put out a few buckets, beach chairs and kiddie pools and voila an exciting afternoon adventure for kids with thirsty parents and an ankle twisting excursion for the stilettoed after dark crowd. Klaus loved it. Leif was less impressed. In an attempt to amuse our serious child we headed to the carnival rides next. Leif rode the merry-go-round three times. When asked if he had fun he said yeah but only after a pause in which he really seemed to be weighing the question. This kid is hard to impress. Good luck, Holland.

Katwijk aan Zee

High 70s in the Netherlands! Time to check out the beach!
"Wow!" you say "In addition to its awesome canal network, prestigious university, and cool museums, Leiden is also coastal!" Well not quite. But the North Sea is within biking distance (if you adjust your idea of biking distance from an American point-of-view to a Dutch one). Beautiful and quaint Katwijk aan Zee is a mere 10 km 35-minute bike ride from the center of Leiden (unless you are hauling two toddlers in a bike trailer and you keep taking wrong turns- then it is about 45 minutes). And when I  say that you can bike there I don't mean that you just point yourself in Katwijks direction and then try to muddle though traffic via sidewalks, parking lots, and highways. There are actual bike lanes the entire way there. Bike lanes that parallel highways! It is an amazing system. The lanes, like the road, always continue. They do not just drop off like they do in the US (if they even exist at all).
  Anyway Katwijk is an adorable little coastal town that I imagine looks something like coastal towns in the U.S. in the 1950s. It is touristy but still low rise and quiet. We biked right up to the sand, took off our shoes, and ran into the water. And then we ran right back out. Did I mention that it is the North Sea?!?!? The same sea that touches Norway? Yeah it was cold. Leif and I eventually warmed up to it but poor Klaus was not a fan. None the less we spent a very pleasant morning on the beach.

  At around 12:30 we packed up our things. I knew the boys would never make it home for nap so I accepted that they would just take their naps in the trailer on the way home. What I didn't quite realize is that this would mean I would be biking in the noon-day sun. Most of the bike lanes were not shaded and by this time it was definitely in the low 80s. I gulped down a can of Fanta and a bottle of water before we left the beach to try to avoid impending dehydration. I made it to the out-skirts of Leiden alright but soon started to feel as if I was overheating. I've had heat stroke before and I remember the symptoms of it rather well. Have you ever been so hot that you felt your pulse in your head? If it was just me I would have continued on (hence why I have experienced heat stoke before) but I had a responsibility to the two sleeping little guys in the bike trailer not to faint in the middle of the road. So I pulled off the bike lane onto a shady patch of sidewalk near the bio science park. It was a really quiet part of the route and I didn't figure I would be in anyone's way as there was no one around. No sooner had I extracted the water thermos from the saddlebag than some pedestrian starts chastising me in Dutch for being on the sidewalk. I didn't really answer him figuring that he would notice my obviously red face (also I was having trouble forming words in English much less Dutch) and just let it go. But he kept talking while I chugged some water. Finally he said "no drinking here" in English. I looked at him and, with an American brashness that I don't often use, I poured myself some more water and drank it. He kept walking.
   We made it home soundly and sandy. I immediately tossed the boys in the bathtub, took a cold shower, and then vacuumed up all the sand. All in all a pleasant little trip.

Slapen

  Another week has flown by and we are still in pretty good shape. Kurt put in a full work week and seems to be getting along with his colleagues rather well. The boys and I haven't had too much success making friends yet but we will work on that. We go on some sort of outting every morning. Mostly it has been to the grocery. Since we have no car and a very small kitchen and refrigerator frequent small trips to the market will probably be the norm.
  On Monday we were obliged to participate in some more government bureaucracy. This time we had to register at the Leiden Town Hall. The 'Stadhuis' as it is called has a fabulous 16th century exterior that lets you easily pretend you have traveled back in time (not so great for stroller access though). The interior was gutted by fire in 1929 but that has conveniently allowed the government to make it into a more useful modern space complete with a glass-ceilinged courtyard. While we were not thrilled to fill out another bit of paperwork at least we got to do it in a pleasant setting.
  Afterwards the boys and I checked out the library. It has a wonderful kids corner with lots of toys and games for the kids to use. Leif is already a bit bored with the small amount of toys and books that we were able to bring so this will be a great place for us to go play. Our landlord generously left us her library card so I picked up some kids books in English and Dutch. (I used the self-check out. Not quite sure if i did it right but no alarms went off when we left so hopefully 'alles is goed')  So far Leif does not care for the Dutch books but Klaus likes them and it is helping me with my language skills a little. 
   For father's day we went to the Naturalis Biodiversity Center. It is a great science museum within biking distance from our house. We bought a one-year museum pass there which is good for pretty much any museum in the Netherlands. There is so much for the kids to do there that I imagine, armed with our museum pass, we will go most every week.
   In other news: we have settled our sleep arrangement issues but we have broken our cardinal rule of parenting to do so: Leif is sharing a room with us. As you may recall from my last post this apartment is perfect except for the fact that it only has 2 bedrooms. The hope was that Leif and Klaus could share a room and that we would have the other one. Last week we tried several combinations at making that work. On Monday we put Klaus to bed at 7 and then tried to sneak Leif in at 8. When I opened the door Klaus immediately woke up and we spent the next hour trying to soothe both boys to bed. We tried this again on Tuesday hoping that it was just the jet-lag that made it so difficult the night before. This time we spent about an hour and a half soothing them to sleep. On Wednesday we tried putting them both to bed at the same time. Neither had gotten a good nap that day so they both fell asleep in about 40 minutes. We tried this again on Thursday and Friday with less success. As soon as one would quiet down the other would make some noise and wake the first one. I think they both made it to sleep at about 10:30. On Saturday we decided to let Leif fall asleep in our bed. At home in Gettysburg he enjoyed playing quietly in bed before falling asleep. I think he was a little resentful that we were not letting him do it anymore as it was keeping Klaus up. With him in our room he could play and make a little noise like he was used to at home. It worked like a charm. Leif drove his motorcycles around our big bed for about 30 minutes in bed and then fell asleep. When it was time for use to go to bed I just moved Leif to his bed in the other room. Everyone slept soundly until 6 am. Hooray! Problem solved!...until Sunday night... we tried this technique again and it failed in just about every way. As I tried to move Leif to his bed Klaus woke up and started crying. This woke Leif up and he started crying. At the same time the neighbor next door decided to blast some god-awful music (imagine a Yanni/Jimmy Buffet hybrid). Kurt shuffled Leif back into our room and tried to get him to calm down and I nursed Klaus back to sleep. At that point I made the executive decision not to try to get Leif back into the room with Klaus but just to let him sleep in our bed. Kurt opted for the couch and everyone tried to get back to sleep despite the music next door. After about 20 minutes Leif decided that he would rather get up and play. When I told him to go back to sleep he began to scream which of course woke Klaus back up. Kurt bolted upstairs to quiet Leif while I tried to quiet Klaus. I can't remember the specifics after that but I think we all got to sleep at around 2. Anywho as a result Klaus now has his own room and Leif sleeps on a mattress on the floor in our room. C'est la vie. We will just have to try to break him of the habit when we get home.

Kurt beginning work on his DNA pulling experiments

       

De eerste week

 It is Monday which means we have survived our first week in the Netherlands. If we had not it would have been a pretty clear endorsement of natural selection for it is really easy for an American to settle into Dutch society. It is a super cooshie landing. The Dutch are very friendly and accommodating and absolutely everyone speaks English (which has not encouraged me to test all the dutch I have leaned. More about that later.)
 Because we took a night flight we switched over to the time zone easily. We are still encountering a bit of sleep trouble due to the two bed room situation but I will tackle that in a later post. For now everyone is getting some sleep but probably not as much as we need. The 15 hours of daylight is not helping. We have darkened the boys' room with curtains but we keep forgetting to go to bed at the right time because it always seems too early. Hopefully we will get used to it soon.
  Anyway our first week was all about settling in. We reached the apartment at about 2 on Monday. Jasper, the landlord's brother showed us around and gave us the keys. He had left us some beautiful flowers and some stroopwafels as a welcome gift (made me feel bad for not doing anything of the sort for our renters. Oh well.).
   The apartment is wonderful. It has high ceilings, enormous windows, and an elegant wooden spiral staircase. The kitchen is a galley but the one side has a picture window which looks out onto the yard, making it feel larger than it is. There is one bathroom on the ground floor with a warm bath and luke-warm shower (I've only been taking baths). There is a shed in the yard that contains two bicycles and a washer dryer set. Up stairs are two size-able bedrooms. One overlooks the garden and the other has a great view of the canal across the street. We have really lucked out on the location of this place. Besides the canal, we are close to several parks, the downtown historic district, the shopping district, the train station, and the visitors center. Kurt's workplace is about a 10 minute bike ride but there are bike lanes the whole way. Actually there are bike lanes just about everywhere. It is awesome.

   Our first outing was to the nearby grocery store. We had a great time trying to decode the ingredients of various products with our limited Dutch. It was pretty exciting to see all the new and different foods and really to have no idea what to expect. It felt very adventurous. Leif and Klaus were a bit less impressed. We ended up with some toddler puffs that were covered in paprika.
   On Tuesday we toured Kurt's new lab/office and did some more paperwork at the HR office. As we finished up the HR employee informed us that she had made an appointment for us at the immigration office in Den Hage on Wednesday at 1:30. I wanted to say "1:30?!?!? Are you nuts? That is nap time." but what I said was "Dankuwel." So Wednesday we took our first European train ride with the boys. As expected they both loved it. All the trains going to Den Hage were easily accessible for a stroller.  The trains on the way home were not leading to some precarious double stroller high jinks. Everyone is ok but it made me wonder about disability accessibility laws in Europe.
   Kurt started work on Thursday and so the boys and I spent the morning scoping out various parks and playgrounds. There are a few good ones very close by. Now we just need some friends to share them with.
  On Thursday night we took a walk after dinner to the old city citadel. It has a great 360 degree view of the city and it is a pretty easy climb. While we were at the top we were pulled aside by a docent and camera man with the other tourists that were there at that time of the evening. The docent explained that they are putting together a grant proposal to get a giant map of the city installed in the citadel. They wanted a few pictures to put in the proposal. So Klaus and I will be featured listening to the docent with Kurt and Leif in the background looking out at the city. I'm not sure if the photo will be published anywhere else but I will let you know if we find a copy.
  So I must confess I have been too cowardly to use much Dutch this week. I really need to work on my vocab. I was able to respond when a woman on the train asked in dutch how old Klaus was. But that has been the extent of my success. I'm giving myself a pass until I get a few good nights of sleep.

We zijn hier!

   Above is a picture of the courtesy bags that I made for our flight to the Netherlands. As it turns out I should not have bothered; Both Leif and Klaus were excellent little flyers.  I was worried at first. Both of them were super energetic at the airport- running/crawling all over the place. I was afraid that they would be too excited to sleep and would get all strung out. As we sat down in our seats, Klaus was doing flip flops in my arms to try to wiggle out of my grasp and onto the floor. I could feel the dread in the passengers around me.  But not to worry- we settled Leif in with a few Bob the Builder and Dora the Explorer videos and Klaus fell asleep with a bottle of milk. Success! 

    Now for take off. We taxi to the runway. Leif is giggling with excitement, his nose glued to the window. Klaus is snuggled in my arms and softly snoring. 

  And then an announcement comes on. 

  It was given first in Icelandic (we were flying on IcelandAir). I don't know any Icelandic aside from takk (thanks to Sigur Ros) but I caught what sounded like the words "forty minutes". Then the announcement was given in English. Sure enough it was "forty minutes" - a forty minute delay in the take off time because of a storm in New York. Argh! Panic panic panic! Our connection time in Iceland was only an hour. What are we going to do with two already wigged-out kids if we miss our flight? Also we have a taxi reservation. Plus the landlord's brother is waiting for us at the apartment with keys and we have no way to contact him except to email his sister who is in Africa and hope that she can relay the message. Plus even if we somehow make the next flight there is no way that our luggage will make it. No no no! This delay cannot happen. I am about ready to pinch Klaus hoping that his screams will spurr the captain to take off or throw us off the plane and let me go home to my beautiful house and forget about this whole silly adventure.

 Then a miracle of aviation happens! The plane actually takes off in forty minutes as promised.  To ease the fears of anyone with a connecting flight, the captain announces that we will make it to Iceland before any departures are even scheduled to leave. 

    The rest of the flight was great. Klaus slept the whole time. Leif was easily convinced after several videos to lay down and go to sleep. I didn't sleep at all thanks to an ill-conceived dinner at Chipotle but I did enjoy snuggling with Klaus for 6+ hours. 

    The landing in Iceland was a bit bumpy but that made Leif love it all the more. He asked to go on another plane and we happily said yes. The plane let out on the tarmac (Classy, IcelandAir. Real classy) and we quickly shuffled inside to escape the wind and rain. We checked the boarding pass and followed the signs to our gate. When we reached the escalator there was a line. We waited our turn only to realize that the line wasn't actually moving. There was a gate across the escalator entrance. Perhaps it was the sleep deprivation but I couldn't seem to process the situation. "Why would someone put a gate there? And why are we all obeying it?" I started looking around for alternative roots. Kurt kept me in line and eventually some airline official removed the gate. We all proceeded upstairs and found out that the reason we were waiting was because the customs office had just opened. Oh no I forgot to factor in customs! We are going to miss our flight! Isn't there a special  line for people who need to run to their next flight?!?!? With true Icelandic brevity the line moved along and we made it to our flight. 

   Again Klaus slept and Leif watched videos and napped. I didn't even bother handing out the courtesy bags I had made. These kids were not going to be a problem.      

   We landed at Amsterdam's Schipol Airport with no problem and proceeded to the baggage claim area where we picked up most of the baggage on the flight as it was all ours. We loaded up two carts and put the kids in the stroller and then struggled across the airport to the taxi service, patting ourselves on the back all the while for giving up our silly plan to take the train to Leiden. 

  After a quick drive we arrived at Maresingel  57 and were greeted by our landlord's brother. He helped us get all our luggage in and showed us around. The place is absolutely wonderful. I will write more about it later. 

For now- we zijn hier!

Wat te brengen

  We are about two weeks out now from our departure date. We have visas, plane tickets, and renters for our house. Kurt is taking the cat up to Canada this weekend to the open arms of Nick Strazzabosco and Abby Scholer (thanks, guys!). The fish are scheduled to live with my in-laws(thanks, guys!). The plants are going to Luke and Pieta (thanks, guys!). The kids next door are going to mow the lawn (thanks, guys!). So aside from some serious household cleaning and organizing, we just have to pack.
  Makkelijk, eh? Easy, right? Well maybe but it is going to take some time.

Things to keep in mind:
   -We will be there for both warm and cold weather
   -The boys will inevitably grow
   -Clothing in Europe is expensive
   -Our income will still be in U.S. dollars

  IcelandAir allows each ticketed passenger two 50 lbs checked-bags and one 22 lbs carry-on. Infants can have one 50 lb bag and a car seat or stroller. Pretty generous I think. In my estimation this is what we need for each person: a weeks worth of warm-weather clothes, a weeks worth of cold weather clothes, 2 pairs of pajamas, 2 sweaters or sweatshirts, a swim suit, a raincoat, and 2 pairs of shoes. For the boys only: a winter coat (Kurt and I will just layer) and 3 days worth of diapers. We will reserve one suitcase for toys and any other non-clothing items that we are bringing but that don't need to be in the carry-on.

Other things to keep in mind:
  - We are going to take the train from the airport to Leiden
  - We can walk from the train station to our Leiden apartment
  - Leif and Klaus cannot carry their own bags and, in fact, are more like baggage themselves

You might say "Why not take a cab or rent a car to mitigate these factors? " Perhaps we will but it doesn't seem in the European spirit. Public transport is so good there that we want to show our support from the outset. (Also it makes this post more interesting if there are more complicating factors plaguing our packing efforts.) The short of it is everything that we pack we need to be able to transport ourselves.

  Ok so we are up to seven checked bags, 3 carry-ons, and a stroller. Add to that one pack n play, one two-seater bicycle trailer (packed in a box with a handle), and a small cooler filled with Kurt's medicine.

 Here is our plan: Kurt and I still have backpacks from our previous European adventure. We have one large suitcase and we plan to buy 4 more. Kurt and I will each wear a backpack and a carry-on, and pull two suitcases piggy-backed one on top of the other. We have a double stroller- Klaus will ride in the front with the cooler on his little lap. Leif will give up his seat to the pack n play and a suitcase. In turn, Leif will pull a wheeled carry-on in his typical meandering way. I will push the stroller with my free hand and Kurt will struggle along with the boxed bicycle trailer. Perfect!

This is not going to work. Screw it. Let's rent a car.