09.13.07
Posted in Amsterdam, ApartmentSaga at 16:46 by Jeff
This is part 2 of Team McLennan and the Journey to a New Land. If you’re just joining us, check out Part 1: This Isn’t Heaven, This Sucks.
So after we took ~30min to let the shock of the university-supplied apartment wear off, then we decided to try and find a new apartment. The 5 of us (Staci, Christine, Marcus, Jon & I) went up to an internet cafe near an apartment Jon’s work had put him up at for a few weeks when he was working on a project in Amsterdam and began scouring the listings we could find online for anything that was available. We sent some emails and wrote down contact information so we could call the next morning.
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09.12.07
Posted in Amsterdam, ApartmentSaga at 17:27 by Jeff
So it’s been a while since Team McLennan last let the world know about their little adventure in Amsterdam. Well, I hope you’re comfortable, because this is going to be a long post. In fact, it’s going to be a few long posts. Today, we’ll start with a tour or the apartment the university assigned us.
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08.10.07
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.
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!
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08.08.07
Posted in Amsterdam at 14:06 by Staci
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.
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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.
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.
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07.25.07
Posted in Amsterdam at 19:49 by Staci
So, I went to my last day of work at OEC and assisted in interviews for my replacement (of course, who could ever really replace moi?!). And Jeff started his first day of his new job – getting some training before the move. The clock has started ticking LOUDLY! 14 days from now we will be on a plane headed for Amsterdam. Well Chicago first, then Dublin, Ireland and then Brussels, but we’ll be in Amsterdam come August 16th when we move into our shoe box of an apartment. Should be interesting. We head to Brussels first to spend some time with Jon (Jeff’s twin) and his wife Christine and their beautiful son Marcus (6 months old). And a weekend trip to Paris will be occurring before we move to Amsterdam and buckle down to a year of intense study (well, that is for Staci…Jeff will simply be lounging in his undies and working at whim!). So, Jeff and I can relive the proposal moment on the steps of the Sacre Coeur all over again. Ah, romance. I am definitely starting to experience all the crazy emotional moments associated with a move to another country – or maybe that happens for anywhere – excitement, fear, anxiety, nervousness, sadness, anticipation and a few moments of shear panic – just breathe, Staci, just breathe! Must run and fill out paperwork for health insurance and a residence permit in the Netherlands. Holy shit, we are moving!
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06.25.07
Posted in Amsterdam, General at 13:10 by Jeff
My goal of returning to a pants-free workplace is nearly a reality. In just a few short weeks, the necessity of wearing pants to work will be a distant memory. (Well, for as long as I work remotely, that is.)
What I’m saying is I got a new job. I’ll be working as a contractor for McGraw-Hill, building websites in PHP and MySql while working abroad from our apartment in Amsterdam. I’ll be working on an hourly wage as projects come up, but I’ve been reasonably assured that projects will be fairly steady.
My last day at my current job is July 13, then after a week in California and driving back, I’ll put in ~1.5wks at the home office in Columbus, OH. Then, once we get settled into our place in Amsterdam, I’ll begin picking up projects and working sans-pants. There may or may not be pictures.
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06.09.07
Posted in Amsterdam at 16:15 by Jeff
Tickets have been purchased and we’re officially 60 days from our scheduled departure date of August 8, 2007.
This is getting more and more real every day.
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