S'november

It’s November, there isn’t supposed to be any snow yet! This past weekend the temperatures dipped a smidgen below freezing and Sunday afternoon the snow slowly started to fall. By Sunday night there was almost an inch of the stuff, so I donned my scarf, toque and gloves and headed outside to take some pictures. It also confirmed, for me, that the beauty of it does not outweigh my dislike of the cold.

By Monday morning the only evidence of the snow was found on rooftops as the majority of it had melted away. By mid morning it had started again and by the evening there was even more than the previous day! My 3 day weekend was over, back to Amsterdam I went.

Well, maybe I should back track a little bit more or this will be a very short entry.

Nina swims in the winter for exercise and I decided I would like to join her. We started swimming together 2 weekends ago, but to my horror, I found myself with water trapped in my ears for the following 48 hours. When I was young this used to happen, and sometimes lasted for weeks on end, but it was usually due to diving down too deep. This time I barely breached the surface! I am pretty sure it occurred when I swam the front crawl. As my head turned to gulp in some air, water was penetrating my opposite ear. Maybe it was a suction effect, I don’t know, but my first “serious” swim in ages almost became my last.

I went to the pharmacy and got some waterproof earplugs, which worked wonders this past weekend. I still had the problem to a small degree, but maybe only 10% as bad as the previous weekend. I am up to 36 laps on my second visit to the pool and glad I will be able to keep going without immense discomfort.

I have been reading a fabulous book called The UnDutchables. It’s advertised as “an observation of the Netherlands: its culture and its inhabitants.” It is written tongue-in-cheek from a foreigner’s perspective and it’s a great read. It discusses the amusing Dutch idiosyncrasies, like how they call brick roads (like in the picture) Lego roads. There are quotes throughout the book and I just came across one of the more comical ones: “the Dutch language, in its written form, looks like someone sat on a typewriter.” This, of course, is confirmed by Nina’s parents who say Dutch isn’t a language, it’s a throat disease. Being an objective outsider I find thisquite amusing as Dutch sounds far more soft and gentle than German.

Nina likes to bake and this past weekend she allowed me in the kitchen to help. We made batches of Christmas cookies. I cut the shapes out of the dough and Nina decorated them as they came out of the oven. They tasted alright, cooked, but I preferred eating them as they were a work in progress.

Last Thursday I went out with my expat group for some drinks in a pub across town. I found myself talking with a few Americans and Brits and of course, the conversation drifted toward the troubles in North America. With the housing crash, the large number of retail stores closing, the bank problems and the impending auto bailout (which I am against!) it seems it’s a good time to be an ocean away.

Working in a company at the heart of Amsterdam’s IT industry, we haven’t noticed a big impact here. A few companies have enacted hiring freezes for 2009, but overall, companies are still hiring in this industry. Mom and I discussed that a few weeks back when she was here. Technology will always move forward, regardless what other industries are doing. This is quite good news for me, it offers some security in a job where I really don’t have any.

I am still painting, but my production has slowed down a bit. Work has been better lately and I have been trying to get myself to go out more with my expat group and with Marc.

When mom was here we enjoying going to the free Wednesday lunchtime choral concert at Amsterdam’s concert hall. I attempted to go last week, but arrived too late as the auditorium was at capacity and they were turning people away. I tried again today, only this time I got a flat tire on the way and had to detour to the closest bike repair shop (as common here as gas stations are in YVR). So hopefully 3 times will be my charm next week.

I forgot to mention, speaking of baking, some (if not all of you) might have received an Email from dad with a microwave cake recipe. Being a little adventurous (with 2 hours of cookie baking under my belt) I tried the recipe on Sunday for Nina's parents. We didn't have any vanilla extract and 3 tablespoons of oil seemed like a bit much, so I only used two. The recipe called for milk, but I had Baileys handy so I substituted it. I now recall someone saying you can play around with food recipes, but baking is an exact science... they were right! This "cake" was not very good at all! We served it with creme brulee ice cream, which made the dry cake tolerable. I mostly ate around the cake, good waste of wonderful ice cream!

I reported 2 months ago that we wouldn’t be coming back to Vancouver. It took me the better part of that time to fully make peace with it. Having Shawn and then mom here certainly helped me with that realization. The contrast of seeing familiar people and talking about politics and issues from home helped me see that I am not the same person I was when I left home 8 months ago. I don’t know if I would be able to live in Vancouver now after adapting to this different way of life and mentality.

Seeing Amsterdam through the fresh eyes of Shawn and mom helped breath new life into my love of this city. I was in a bit of a rut, unable to go home, unsure of where I was going next and unsure if I wanted to go back home. Now I am happy where I am, and I have to take advantage of this because I don’t know how long I will be here for. I have also started taking an active role in discussing and researching the places we could go next. And, for the first time, I am excited about the possibilities these places will offer.