08.10.07

And so the adventure begins

Posted in Amsterdam, General at 07:14 by Staci

So our flights were rather uneventful, aside from having to go through security at each airport (Columbus, Chicago and Dublin) – take off shoes, jackets & belts, now pull out laptops, cameras and hard drives, bag of non-hazardous toiletries and place on security belt, & proceed through line, simultaneously grab luggage, shoes, belts, bags, & electronics awkwardly and proceed barefoot to the nearest chair to reassemble and head to the gate.

We made it to Brussels in one piece to discover two of Jeff’s bags (golf clubs and clothes/shoes) did not arrive with us. We made the decision to skip waiting in line with 100+ other people to file a claim, so that we could meet Jon on the other side of customs and deal with this later. A trip back to the airport later in the day to file a claim found a shorter line to deal with, but also resulted in a mild fender bender (fortunately no one was hurt). Ah, Jon and Christine must be so happy to have us here. :) Anywho, the car is getting repaired, the trip to Paris has been postponed, but everyone is safe and sound.

Marcus (our 7 month old nephew) is absolutely adorable with these smiles that just light up his face and you can’t help smiling right back at him. Jeff and I are very lucky to have such a gorgeous nephew and beautiful niece – we only hope the genes work for us some day too! So, we are going to help teach little Marcus English since he mostly hears Dutch every day. We will have him saying, “Aunt Staci and Uncle Jeff rock!” before we leave. Click picture to view gallery.
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Good news – Jeff’s bags have arrived. Let’s hope the next trip to the airport is less crazy. Well Jeff and I are off to walk to the local pharmacy and pick up some formula for Marcus. Let’s see how good our Dutch is now shall we? Hallo! Ik heet Staci. See, we are proficient already! HA!

08.08.07

At the airport

Posted in Amsterdam at 14:06 by Staci

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So, we successfully packed all of our bags to be just under the 50lb weight limit. We were seriously within 1.5 lbs on a couple bags. Had a nice lunch with the moms, sister and niece and now we sit and wait for our plane. Thanks again to everyone for all the nice calls, emails, hugs, etc. Hopefully, I have shed my tears at this point (every time someone called to say goodbye the waterworks would start). Anywho, tears are being replaced with excitement. It seems unreal that nearly 6 months ago we went to Amsterdam to meet the professor and check out the school, and now we are on our way! Woohoo!! So, you shall be hearing from us again soon. We are gonna miss you all but email, instant messenger, webcams and the occasional calls should help tide us over till December when we return over the break. Take care of yourselves and we’ll be talking with you. Click on picture to view gallery.

Goodbye (For Now)

Posted in Amsterdam, General at 00:50 by Jeff

So the time has come for us to say goodbye to our friends and family in the United States and begin our adventure in Amsterdam.

Click here for pictures from our Bon Voyage Party.
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Our flight leaves in a few hours, and we’re slowly but surely finishing up packing our belongings that will tide us over until we come home for Christmas. We eagerly await the journey ahead, and hope and pray that our luggage is under the weight limit. :)

Thank you to all of our friends and family for all of your love, support and well-wishes as we embark on this life changing experience. We’ll do our best to keep everyone up-to-date in a timely manner, but if things seem to get a little slow, feel free to write us and let us know, though I’m sure we’ll find plenty to write home about.

That’s all for now. The next post will be from across the pond.