Working and looking for an apartment

This past week has been fairly quiet and uneventful. I have stayed with Nina for the past week as we wanted to spend some significant time together once her exam was out of the way. It was also an opportunity for me to save some money as living in hostels can get quite expensive quickly! None of the hostels in Amsterdam seem to have cooking facilities, so I have been reliant on eating out every day. I have only been booking hostels that include breakfast, which helps a bit. In fact, some of the hostels have quite an impressive breakfast. The best so far is the Stayokay Zeeburg; my favourite hostel (the converted school that I posted pictures of 2 weeks back). Their breakfast includes: 5 types of bread and rolls, 3 types of cold meat, 3 types of cheese, 2 types of jam, peanut butter, honey, chocolate sprinkles (which people eat on toast here!), Nutella, 2 types of cereal, yogurt, hard boiled eggs, 3 types of juices, milk, tea and coffee. Not bad for hostel food.

During the day I have been working, when there is work to do. So far it seems my work is averaging about 20 – 25 hours a week. I am hoping it picks up a bit, and if not, I will look for a part-time second job. But they are happy with the quality of work I am doing and have said so in no less than 3 Emails. Apart from the two visits to the office, all our communications are via Email and I never work at the office. I like the precedent that sets as my goal is to seamlessly move back to Canada at the end of the year and (hopefully) continue working for them when I am in Vancouver. The #1 advantage to that would be earning € but living in $ — it’s like receiving a 50% raise overnight.

So during the day Nina and I have each been doing our own thing. She goes to the barn and rides her horse (she has an arrangement with a local horse owner) and in the evening we spend time together.

On Tuesday she needed to go to Aachen to speak to her professor, so I took the opportunity to see a museum. The last museum I saw during my summer trip was the Ludwig Museum in Köln (Cologne). There are also two Ludwig Museums in Aachen; one with art from the 17^th & 18^th centuries and one with 19^th century contemporary art. I went to the latter.

I was hoping for modern paintings, maybe some interesting abstracts. Instead I got very modern sculptures and “arrangements” of random trash. It was an utter waste of time and effort. The “art” spanned the spectrum from boring to disturbing with very few pieces being worth more than a passing glance. It only cost me 3.50€ and 30 minutes of my time. No great loss.

Nina is one of the few people I know who loves playing games as much as I do, and with the same stamina. We have 3 games we play almost daily and really enjoy. One is a dice game called Kniffel; very similar Yatzee. The second is a card game called Uno and I don’t know the name of the English equivalent. The third, and my favourite, is Rummycub which is similar to gin rummy, but played with coloured and numbered tiles. This is how we spent 1-2 hours of our evenings.

Thursday was the morning market that sets up outside Nina’s apartment. We went down to see it as it was a warm and sunny day (like the rest of this past week). There were all the usual vendors; meat and poultry, fresh fish, fruits and vegetables, flowers, clothing, jewellery and mustards and preserves. I headed for the lunch vendor who sells one my favourite German foods; Reibekuchen mit apfel mousse (directly translated means grated cake with apple mousse). They are like giant latkes, but taste slightly different due to the spices mixed in. At all markets, festivals, carnivals and special events they have vendors selling them. I can’t get enough!

But I limited myself to only one as we had a lunch date at Nina’s grandmother’s house. Nina’s 86 year old grandmother has a lady who comes in daily to do the cooking for her. This lady is a fantastic cook and always makes us something nice when we come to visit. Thursday was probably around 22 degrees so we sat in her beautifully manicured garden.

In Europe asparagus are different from back home. Here they are white and about 500% larger! I am not exaggerating; they are eaten as a main course. We had them with a hollandaise-like sauce and some pan-fried potatoes. I had a portion of 6 spears and I was full.

In this picture of the market you can clearly see Nina's apartment. She occupies the attic suite in the building at the end of the road, on the left. The little white window among the grey shingles is one of 3 such windows in the apartment, complimented by a skylight in the middle.

Friday I headed back to Amsterdam for 1 night to view apartments. I had two appointments set up for that evening and one for Saturday morning. Two of the three apartments were not acceptable for my requirements. One of them is a two bedroom apartment that I would share with a gay couple. That part was fine, but there were two issues that caused a problem; they lied in their ad about being a smoke-free apartment and they wanted someone who would “respect their privacy” and essentially live in their bedroom. No thanks. The other one was living with a young single mother with a 2 year old and her overbearing mother (who doesn’t live there, but visits a lot). The third apartment was fantastic and perfect in almost every way. They are showing it to three people and will make a decision on Monday. I will anxiously await their answer.

On Saturday afternoon I heading back to Nina’s for 1 night. It had been my intention to stay in Amsterdam but there were no rooms available (in any hostel)! Nina will be out in the field doing research for her thesis next week so I will be in Amsterdam from Sunday onwards.

I have another appointment for Monday night and will try to get some more for the next couple of days, in case I don’t get the apartment I want.

Other than that there’s not too much new to report. I like the 2 ½ hour train rides through the Dutch countryside. It’s a great time to work and write (like this and the last blog entries).

Hopefully I will have a new entry this week with good news about my living situation. Until then, keep the snow shovels handy Vancouver.