The past week or two have been so warm, you would have a hard time remembering it is only spring. Consistently the temperatures have been in the high teens - low twenties, with clear skies and sunshine. I am sure we still have some rain ahead before summer truly arrives, but at this rate, it's almost hard to believe.Last weekend Nina and I took advantage of the weather. We borrowed her parent's bikes on Sunday and went for a ride to the next town. Of course, we had to make a pit stop
first at the Italian gelato shop.Occasionally you see classic American cars in Europe, like old Cadillacs or sometimes even Corvette's and muscle cars. But on Nina's street - in a small German town - I was shocked to see a Delorean! It was parked near the gelato shop and looked completely out of place.
I am starting my search for a 2nd job now as the flow of work from my current employer is not steady enough to be reliable. As I have a lot of flexibility with my job, I don't imagine it will be too hard to find something.The positive side to this problem is that I have had some time to get out and enjoy the nice weather. Monday was spent on the train coming back from Nina's, then on the phone with the bed store. It seems some shops have a hard time processing foreign credit cards. I had to go to their other location across town to pay for my bed, but I finally got it sorted out. It will arrive on Saturday.
Tuesday was a fairly busy day. I had a meeting with Stefan (my employer) to discuss some details about the template I use. I went to the office and we had a quick meeting, which went well. I had my camera with me as I had been taking some pictures in the morning and captured these two shots of the front entrance to the canal house that houses our office (and a half dozen others).My letters from the bank had finally arrived, meaning my account was now ready to be activated. I went to the bank to deal with that, which was also rather quick and painless. With an open bank account, I could now be paid!
On my way out in the morning the sun was shining through Rembrandt Park. So I took some pictures of the park I walk through almost daily on my way into the city. In this first picture, you can see my building peaking above the tree line. As I mentioned in my previous post, it's an underutilized park. Vondelpark attractions locals and tourists from across the city
whereas Rembrandt Park (which is 80% the size) only seems to be used by locals. Both parks are well-lit at night and actively used as shortcuts.
Tuesday afternoon I headed East from my apartment. Outside my door is a small street that gives access to the row of apartment buildings lining the West side of the park. There is a lot of greenery along our road, melding in well with the park on the other side of the buildings. On the other side of the road is an embankment full of trees and shrubs creating a canopy over the road. That embankment is the raised A10 freeway that circles greater Amsterdam. There are a couple of tunnels (2 by my apartment) that 
connect my street to the residential neighbourhood on the other side of the freeway. On the other side there is a small shopping plaza with grocery stores, a few restaurants and small independent grocery stores. On the other side of the shopping plaza are the raised train tracks. If you look on the map it shows tracks and metro stations. I initially thought that would be an underground subway, but it's actually a lot more like Vancouver's skytrain system. The tracks are only underground in the centre of the city, the rest of the time they are at street level or elevated.
On the other side of the tracks is another residential community and then one of the larger lakes around here; Sloterplas. As I hadn't ventured to the other side of the metro tracks yet, I decided to explore this new park. It looked a lot like a park you would see back home, although the main difference is that here nothing is natural. All the vegetation, every tree, every plant has been planted. Remember, this part of the country used to be the ocean.
As would be expected, certain things are done differently here. Buildings and addresses are a great example. In Holland and in Germany, all numbers are used in addresses. It's not like home where you have hundred blocks and each block has a new set of numbers. Here they start at 1 and continue counting. On one side of the road is even numbers, the other side odd, but no numbers are skipped. So if you are in front of 184 and you are heading to 42, you might be walking another 3-5 blocks before you arrive.
At home apartment buildings have a building address and each suite has a unit number to distinguish it. Not so here. Each apartment has a regular street address. So if I lived on Postjesweg (a busy street close to here) and my apartment was number 143, my address would be Postjesweg 143. However on the outside of the apartment building it would say 120 - 210 meaning every number in that range is located in this building. Then the next building would be 211 - 301 and so on.
This mailbox sits outside my building. There are two sides in which to put your mail. Depending on your postal code depends on which side you use. Instead of listing the days and hours the mail is picked up, it has a readout which specifically tells you when the next pick up will be. Each time the postman comes by, he changes the readout.Last night I met up with my Expat group for some bowling and dinner. It was a great time, as it always is. This is the third time I have met up with the group and I have yet to see the same person twice. It's a large group of people and a great way to meet an ever changing diverse range of people.
Well, that's all for now. I have a few more things I need to get done before heading to the train station. I am going to Paris this afternoon to meet up with Dad and Marie for 2 days. It will be nice to see some familar faces, as they are my first visitors.
I think I will really enjoy Paris this time, as I will be seeing it with people who love that city. I think that makes a big difference.
