In keeping up with our jet-setting ways, Staci & I headed out of the country again to catch a concert the night before the Ohio State/Michigan game. Turns out Amsterdam (and The Netherlands) is a pretty boring place. Ok, not really, but you’d think so with how often we seem to be doing fun stuff elsewhere. This time the fun thing was heading to Antwerp, Belgium to see Kaiser Chiefs and Silversun Pickups with, who else, Jon & CJ.
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25 Nov
Who’s Ruby?
24 Nov
Updating photos
As usual I am behind with everything. I have started adding photos to some previous posts when I didn’t know how to upload pictures. Jeff tries to keep me ignorant so he can hold his computer genius over me, but I will no longer be oppressed. I am woman hear me ROAR! Ok, so maybe he had to SHOW me how to use the picture gallery, but now that he has I am an independent blogger!
So, please click on the following pictures to access 3 photo albums (Bon Voyage Party, Trip Across the Big Blue Ocean and Our Arrival in Europe). Or you can click on August under the Archives menu bar to the right if you want to go to the original posts with updates.
Dank u wel.
24 Nov
Hey Kids, Look! Big Ben! Parliament!
The weekend of Nov 2-4, Jon, CJ, Staci & I went to London so I could get my passport stamped outside of the Schengen Zone so I could remain in The Netherlands (and the EU) as a legal visitor. I had to go outside of the EU because of the Schengen Agreement, which essentially removed the borders of the ratifying member countries so people traveling between those countries can do so without needing visas and having their travel documentation/passport checked everytime they cross into another country, which an be pretty frequently when you consider that even the biggest countries in the European Union are smaller than Texas.
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16 Nov
Pierogi making in Amsterdam: who would have thought it?
I know, I know, who would have thought I would need to travel all the way to Amsterdam to finally learn how to make pierogies from scratch!??! For those non-Polish people out there, pierogies are dough filled with potatoes, cheese, and onions (really any variety of fillings you could think of, but potato and cheese are the staples) that are served up best when lightly boiled and then sautéed in butter and onions with a little salt, pepper and paprika sprinkled on top. That is my preferred way to eat them at least.
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1 Nov
I’m a Model of Consistency
Staci pointed out the other day that I hadn’t posted in a while, so what do I do? I wait to post even longer. Not on purpose, I just kept finding other things to do:
27 Oct
Excursion to Volgermeer (part 2): a biking we will go
Well, now you know a little history about where we went on the excursion for school. Now for the details and a map to give you some perspective on just HOW MUCH PEOPLE BIKE HERE! If you read Jeff’s post about Amstelveen (the town we live in) you know we are about a 25-30 minute metro trip to Amsterdam central station. To date, Jeff and I have not rode our bikes into the city. We take the tram or metro. Well for the bike excursion we were told to meet at central station and take the ferry across the river to North Amsterdam where the trip would commence. Now we had to meet at 10am on the other side of the river, so trying to leave here and take the metro with my bike meant I would be traveling in peak morning commute and some rumors are that you CAN’T take bikes on metros at this time. I have not verified if this is true or not yet, but since other students were planning to bike from down in this area to central station, I thought I would earn my next Dutch merit badge and bike into the city like a true Amsterdammer. 
27 Oct
Excursion to Volgermeer (part 1): a history lesson
So, for my second course in the ERM program, we did an excursion to a hazardous waste site north of Amsterdam that is currently being reclaimed. The site is called Volgermeerpolder. The city of Amsterdam began dumping waste here after the peat was harvested for burning at the turn of the century. Turns out household waste was being deposited along with industrial waste through the 40s-70s. Think lots of unlabeled drums and materials that years later would leak dioxins, PAHs, agent orange, benzene and heavy metals into the nearby canals and soil. The waste is 4-6 meters in depth across the entire area with an estimated 10,000 drums of unknown substances. Come the 1980s and residents nearby call on Amsterdam to close the site. After a year of public outcry, the site is closed. (This is a link about the site, it is in Dutch, but you can see some pictures: http://www.volgermeer.nl/ua.asp).
15 Oct
Staci’s impersonation of a Dutch girl on a bike
Well if you know anything about Amsterdam (or the Netherlands) it is probably that people love their bikes. In fact, bikes are everywhere! You should be more scared of bikes than cars when walking through the city. You might recall from a previous post by Jeff that I get to ride my bike to and from school each day. Since we moved to the “nicer” apartment my ride has doubled. And despite Jeff’s earlier claim I actually bike 5.5km each way. Not that I am complaining. I figure my ass and thighs will thank me after a year of this exercise (and my ankle is holding up pretty well – thanks to my surgeon and physical therapists for preparing me for this!).
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6 Oct
Lesson #2: wine and laptops don’t mix
So, lesson #1 in Amsterdam was things here take time – develop patience or become a stress ball. Lesson #2: wine and laptops don’t mix. While I was living in our apartment sans TV and any decent radio stations I was using my laptop to play music. Curled up on the couch by the only bright light in our dark apartment (Dutch apartments have very limited lighting for some crazy reason) diligently reading for school, I turned to look up something on the internet and proceeded to knock my wine glass over onto my laptop. In case you were unaware, liquids and electronics do not go together very well! After standing there momentarily in shock, I ran to the kitchen for a towel and dried off my laptop. A frantic, ok hysterical, call to Jeff in Belgium concluded with me setting my computer on its side to dry out.
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30 Sep
New Photo Album
Sorry about the delay, but a photo album of our new & improved apartment is now available. It’s not quite complete, but you’ll get the idea. Only thing we haven’t posted pics of is the bedroom, but that’s coming soon. No, they won’t be dirty pics, though they will feature a water bed. That’s right, a water bed.
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