A Very Busy Week!

Wow! In the course of one week, I said a sad goodbye to one friend, said hello to yet another, and accomplished one of my biggest work goals for the year! Not too shabby!

Tuesday morning, Michelle and I sad a teary goodbye at the airport... it was so much fun to have a friend in town. I didn't realize just how sad I'd really be once she was gone, but I was really, REALLY sad. I had gotten used to having someone to hang out with every night, and it was kind of weird to be alone again. Luckily, another friend, Brad Hledik, who happens to be the boyfriend of another one of my Michelle's (Michelle Wald), arrived to Amsterdam early in the week. He was here for work, so we didn't really get to hang out until the weekend.

The main focus of my workweek this week was the costing class that I have been getting ready for during the past month. There was a course very similar to this one offered back at WHQ in Beaverton (that my wonderful former boss and mentor Toh Lau had written), but the one that I had written and adapted was specific for the European team. I have to admit - speaking in front of people is NOT my favorite thing to do, especially for three hours, which was the length of the class. I had 10 participants for this class, and, gladly, I'm happy to say that it went really, really well. It was fun to watch the "lightbulbs" going off. I have to do another one in a few weeks, but I feel much better about it now that I have one under my belt. This was a huge project for me, and one that is a big part of my performance evaluation for this year, so I'm really glad to have it over with!

The classroom, all ready for my students (note the candy - I needed to keep them awake somehow!)

We even had a textbook!

On Friday, Brad checked out of his hotel and moved in with me for the weekend. We had dinner at a hole-in-the-wall Italian place that evening, and met up with one of his friends that is in the process of moving here. We were both pretty tired from the long week of meetings and such, so that night was not a late one.

Brad is training for the Marine Corps Marathon in October, and this week was his first week of marathon training. Saturday morning, we did his first long run, which was supposed to be 6 miles. We got a little lost (I'm beginning to feel a bit like a broken record here!) and so I think we probably did about 7.5, but we both felt really good. After that, we made our way to Antwerp, which I had visited briefly on my trip back from Champagne and had really enjoyed. Chocolate, beer, and Belgian Waffles - what more could a girl ask for? We had some great weather, so we spent a majority of the day just walking around, enjoying the sights and smells of this great city.

Beautiful Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp

The interior of the Cathedral

Belgian Chocolate!!

Belgian Beer - yummy!!

One funny story about Antwerp... So, the name literally means in Dutch "Hand Throw". This comes from a local legend of this evil man who would cut off your head if you didn't pay his steep fines to enter the port. Kind of in David and Goliath style, there was a small guy who one day stood up to the evil dude, and cut off his hand, and then threw it into the river. And this, my friends, is how Antwerp got its name. :)

The statue of the hand thrower in front of the city hall

Dublin!

What a fun trip!! Michelle and I spent Friday evening through Monday in the fun city of Dublin! We packed a lot into a few days (seriously - would you expect anything less from me?!?). First of all, I have to re-iterate this once again - it is SO STRANGE for me to hear English being spoken! Secondly, I think that Irish people have to be the nicest, most helpful people that I have ever met! The bus drivers, hotel staff, heck, even people we stopped on the street for directions never acted bothered by our questions, and always went the extra mile to help us. Quite a contrast from my day-to-day life in Amsterdam, to be honest. So, for context, here is an analogy for my west coast readers. After being to both Dublin and London, I would say the relationship between the two is a lot like Seattle and Portland... London is big, there is a lot of money there, and people are a lot more proper. Dublin is like the rebel little sister... the feel is the same, but the people seem to do what they want and not really worry about what "the right" thing is... and, there are a lot of hippies, just like in my favorite town in the US. :) That said, on with the trip.

So, this was the first time I have flown Ryan Air... they don't fly out of Amsterdam, but out of a small airport in Eindhoven, about 1 hour and 15 minutes away from Amsterdam. The inconvenience was worth it - I think we paid 90 euros total for round trip tickets! The airline reminds me a lot of Southwest - low cost, everything extra costs extra, no assigned seats. But seriously, do you need anything except getting from point A to point B? The flight was comfortable and on time. Score!

We got into Dublin at about 5, and then checked into our hotel, the Burlington Hotel. Not much to look at from the outside, but it was SO NICE! That night, we were on the prowl for some good Irish food, and we found it at a beautiful restaurant in Temple Bar. Guinness. Check. Irish Stew. Check. Full, happy belly? You bet! We didn't do much else that night, because we were pretty tired, and needed to rest up for our extravaganza the next day.

Meat and Potatoes - Pretty much my dinner every night!

The first of many Guinnesses!

Saturday we woke up to lots of rain (common theme during the weekend - no wonder Ireland is the "Emerald Isle") but decided to head out for a run anyways - the most miserable run ever! But, with Michelle right by me, it wasn't too bad!

Two very dedicated, very wet runners!

This is the park we ran through - St. Stephen's Green - much nicer when there is not a torrential downpour going on!

Michelle with her new "black sheep umbrella" - you can't really see it, but the sidewalk has a built in gutter to let all the rain run off! Oh boy!

After drying off, and having a very yummy breakfast back at the hotel, Michelle and I set out to see the city! Our first stop was Trinity College, one of the most pretigious colleges in Ireland. It is also home to the Book of Kells, which is one of the very oldest written manuscripts of the four Gospels. It was very beautifully decorated and written, but we only got to see two pages! Still, very interesting to learn about the ancient art of book printing and binding. I was kind of inspired... but don't hold out for a hand-made book from me just yet! :)

Trinity College

That afternoon, we took the "historical tour" of Dublin. Students from Trinity College do two-hour tours of Dublin twice a day, and I HIGHLY would recommend this. I'm super interested in history, and having an expert (these are history PhD students) tell you all about the history of Ireland is WAY better than reading a book. I found it super interesting to hear about the many trials and tribulations of these people, that haven't really ended until just recently. It's unbelievable to try to get your head around the fact that these people were basically in a civil war until 1998, when the Good Friday Peace Agreement was signed. I feel like I have a much better understanding of Irish History now, and I really enjoyed the tour.

We just happened to be in town for the annual Gay Pride Festival - it was HUGE!

Me with the beautiful Customs House

That evening, we made our way to a pub in Temple Bar to join up with the Musical Pub Crawl. Two musicians take a group from pub to pub, teaching a little bit about Irish music along the way. It was really interesting for a music nerd like me, and I really, really enjoyed listening to the music they played.

Our tour guides

The next day was a pretty busy one for us. We started the day with a trip out to Kilmainham Jail, which is very famous in Ireland's history. It was the first jail to keep inmates separate, in the hopes that they wouldn't negatively influence each other. It was also where a lot of the political prisoners from the various uprisings were kept. It was a little spooky to be in this place that so many had died in. We had yet another great historical overview of Ireland's history - I feel like I could give the tour myself now! :)

The Interior of the Jail - if it looks familiar, it probably is because many films have been taped here!

Next stop - the Guinness Brewery! It was more of a museum than a brewery, but we still had a fun time! We learned all about the secrets behind Guinness's flavor (they roast the barley), and then topped the trip off with a stop in the "Gravity Bar" on the very top floor of the Brewery. There, we got a free pint and an amazing view of the city.

Cheers! Or, as the Irish say, "Slainte"

We were pretty wiped out after Guinness, so we went to our new favorite place, Butler's Chocolate Shop. Michelle had ordered this wonderful delight the day before, so on Sunday, it was my turn... this thing is called an Afogatto, and I have to say, it is amazing! They take vanilla ice cream, put chocolate sauce on top of it, and then put espresso over that. The word in Italian means "drowned", which I guess is what happens to the ice cream. Yum! :)

After our quick break, we walked around the inside of Christ Church Cathedral. It was absolutely beautiful inside. I think the strangest thing was a preserved cat and mouse, that had gotten trapped in an organ pipe hundreds of years ago, and were found when the organ was being restored. Gross!

Christ Church Cathedral

The preseved cat and rat... ew!

After the cathedral, our last stop was the Dublin Castle. It was pretty beautiful inside, but pretty similar to many other castles I've seen (am I getting spoiled? Yes, I think so!). Instead of describing the castle, I'd rather describe our tour guide. Oh my goodness. This girl was sweet enough, but I swear to God, I thought her boobs were going to fly right out of her shirt! Seriously, her shirt was so low cut that I could see the top of her bra! Michelle noticed too - I am not a pervert! Anyways, at one point she was describing the painting on the ceiling in the picture below. In this painting, Ireland is depicted as the woman on the right wearing a green dress. Her breast is exposed, which is supposed to represent the indecency of the country and its need for foreign rule. Oh my gosh, as she was telling this story, I just wanted to just burst out laughing, because I was thinking, "hmm... we sort of have a re-inactment right now". Oh boy! It was a bit much!

The painting that set off my giggles on the ceiling of the Dublin Castle

That night, Michelle and I decided that since we had enjoyed the music the night before so much, that we'd just find a nice Irish pub to listen to music again. We just hung out for a few hours and enjoyed. It was a great way to end the trip! :)

Not sure what point of the trip this picture fits into, but I loved these doors. There are colored doors in the "Georgian" style all over Dublin - they were so charming! :)

It's not easy, being cheesy!

As promised, here are the pictures from my day with Michelle in Gouda. Sunday morning after our long run (which we got lost on - I seriously need a running GPS!), we got cleaned up and drove about an hour south east to the town of Gouda. This is where Gouda cheese was first made, but, because the name is not trademarked, Gouda cheese can actually come from anywhere now! Because it's a pretty small town, virtually NOTHING was open on Sunday (Amsterdam has some things open on Sunday in the city center, but NOTHING in my neighborhood is open, just to give you an idea). But, the important things were open - the cheese museum and a nice outdoor restaurant. Michelle and I strolled around the city for a while (it actually took about 10 minutes - it's TINY!), and then eventually made our way to a cute outdoor restaurant, where we began our day of cheese eating. We had a cheese plate for an appetizer, which had about 6 different types of cheese on it. Michelle was in HEAVEN! After lunch (and WAY too much beer!), we went to the cheese museum. The museum basically showed the steps to making cheese. It was pretty interesting, especially having Michelle there, since she actually MAKES cheese! :) There was a museum guide, who was this really cute old man, but he only spoke Dutch. That didn't stop him from telling us his whole speech! He took us all over the museum, trying to use sign language to explain what he was saying. I would say we understood about 25%! But, it was really cute that he tried. I think his museum time just might be a fun hobby of his. After the museum, we had pretty much seen everything, so we made our way back to Amsterdam. Dinner that night? Why an assortment of cheeses, of course!!! :)

The Main Square in Gouda

Me at the entrance to the town hall

Michelle about to enter her very personal heaven!

Cheese, cheese, cheese!

K Pitty the Milk Maid

The rest of the week with Michelle has been a lot of fun... we've both been working during the day, and then having dinner at various places in the evenings. She got to meet my Scottish friend Julieann on Tuesday, when we cheered Holland on to victory again, and my Italian friends Fabio and Alex on Wednesday, when we had Thai food with them. It's been a truly enjoyable week.

Quick update on my work life (I know, I know - this is boring, but it IS where I spend a significant amount of time!). Things have gotten much better... this week was a real turnaround for me. I think that, as they say, the "lightbulb" has gone off and everything is just clicking. I have a great team to work with, and I really feel like I'm adding value. The costing class that I've been preparing for is next Friday, so I'm hoping that goes well.

Michelle and I leave tomorrow for Dublin, and return on Monday. I'll update my blog on Tuesday or Wednesday with more fun pictures!!

Alert! Alert! I'm coming home to Portland in August. I fly in on August 20th, and I leave again on September 2nd. The trip is a combo - half work/half fun. Mark your calendars - I can't wait to see everyone there!! :)

A "personal" problem

Okay, so this might be a little more than some want to know, but this is a freaking hilarious story, so I'm going to post it anyways...

So, I've determined that I have a little problem... a little annoyance called a yeast infection. If you have ever had one is the most uncomfortable sensation possible.

Unsure of what to do about this, I checked with my friend Karyn, and she gladly agreed to come with me to the "Apotheek", or pharmacy, here to assist.

Here is a little replay of our conversation with the lady at the desk there:

Karyn: “do you speak English?”
Lady: “yes”
Kristen: “I think I have a yeast infection”
Lady: “a what?”
KP: “A GIST infection” (spells out the Dutch word for yeast on a piece of paper)
Lady: “Oh! On your intimate part!!”
KP: “Yes, most definitely so”
Lady: “Have you tried yogurt?”
KP: “Yes, I eat it every day”
Lady: “No, not eating it, Washing with it”
KP: “Hmmm…”

So, anyways, she gave me some medicine, but I'm not super confident that it's exactly what we have back home... We'll see.

Hope you are not too grossed out, but this was just a small vignette of daily life here. :)

Euro Craziness, and a Day Dedicated to Sex (get your minds out of the gutter!)

So... let me be honest. I've never really been a huge fan of soccer (or what they call football here... our football is called American football, and they really don't understand why it's called football when you really don't use your FEET). I always was kind of aware that big football events were going on - World Cup, etc., but, frankly, I never really cared! This past week, the Euro Championships started here. Basically, it's arranged so there are four groups, each group having four teams. Everyone in the group plays each other, and then, based on a point system (3 for a win, 1 for a tie, 0 for a loss), the top two point-scoring teams advance to the quarterfinals, etc. Trying to be supportive of my new home country, I decided I better watch Holland's first game on Tuesday... and so I did... IN GERMAN! That was the only channel I could find it on (I later learned that the game was on channel 1, which I never had in the US, so I always start my searching on channel 2 - lesson learned!). Honestly, I was kind of unimpressed. The game is 90 minutes long, and, pretty much, there are only a few minutes that I found kind of exciting... which would be when a goal was scored. Anyways, it was kind of cool to hear the people in the street celebrating after Holland won, 3-0, against Italy. Kind of reminded me of a college American football game.

The Italians at the Pub, watching Italy play Romania

Fast forward to Friday... this was Holland's second game, and Italy was playing Romania in the early game that night. I decided maybe I was missing something by watching the game at home, so I went to the "Nike pub" (pub just around the corner from campus... and always chock full of Nike people) to watch the Italy game with my Italian c0-workers. After watching all the Italians boldly sing their national anthem, I think I get it. This whole thing kind of feels like it's the NCAA basketball tournament, but it's bigger - it's your home country, so there is a lot more at stake to defend. The Euro Cup only happens every 4 years, so if your team wins or loses, you have to hear about it for the next four years! (And trust me, there was a lot of trash talk going on in the office). Anyways, at the Nike Pub, I was with one of my Scottish co-workers, Kevin, who had brought along his other Scottish friend, Juliann. We decided that we wanted to watch the Holland game in Amsterdam, since we knew it would be CRAZY. We drove back to Amsterdam, and made our way to a pub right off of Leidseplein, the main party square. Oh my goodness! I can't quite describe the craziness of this place... nor how much fun I had at the pub watching Holland kick France's butt! After Holland won, which was about 11 pm, the streets of Amsterdam were flooded with people dressed in orange, horns blaring away, and people just celebrating in general. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen... kind of a mini-Queensday. I couldn't even get a tram home, because the streets were so full that the trams weren't able to drive through them. Anyways, I'm a convert. I can't wait for the game on Tuesday - HUP HOLLAND!!

Fun at the pub as Holland beats France!

Me with my new pal, Julianne

Saturday begain early for me... my dear friend from Portland, Michelle Middlebrooks, arrived at 7:15 am. I sure didn't mind getting out of bed - I was SO excited to see her! :) And, SHE was excited to empty her suitcase of everything she brought me - 2 pairs of Nike Golf shoes (she works in Golf), 3 Golf gloves, 5 boxes of Mexican style Rice-A-Roni (what can I say - I love it!), 3 boxes of Kettle Corn (yay yay yay!), a box of Fun-Fetti Cake Mix, and two jars of Fun-Fetti Frosting. Yippy!!

All my loot - thanks Michelle! :)

Michelle was surprisingly chipper despite the 9 hour time difference, so, we dropped her stuff at my place and then went for a 4 mile run. This felt entirely weird to me, as the way that I met Michelle was training for our first marathon together in 2003... we have run pretty much every weekend for the past 5 years together, but running together in Amsterdam was pretty surreal. It was a welcome change though - I miss my running group!! We got back, showered, and then I shared my very favorite part of the weekend with her - making a ginormous breakfast (complete with fresh squeezed orange juice - my apartment has a juicer, which totally rocks!)! :)

Ready to Run!

After that, Michelle had heard about the Sex Museum and was kind of curious, and I was also somewhat interested in going. So, we made our way to the center of the city and checked it out... and were somewhat disturbed. Some things were quite funny to look at, others disturbing. In a nutshell, it's basically a musuem about the evolution of pornography through the years. My biggest takeaway was this - there have always been kinky people in this world, even in the 1800s... a time when i thought that life was oh-so-proper. Honestly, I was not so impressed, but I did get a few chuckles.

Michelle getting comfy on a very interesting chair...

After that, Michelle and I went to the grocery store, because she wanted to see what it was like, and then we went to the glorious cheese store that is right across the street from my apartment. Michelle was in heaven... she's actually an aspiring cheese maker, so this was right up her alley. http://michellemiddlebrooks.blogspot.com/2008/01/cheese-making-part-ii.html. We bought a few kinds of cheese, and then make it back to my apartment for a well-deserved nap.

After we woke up, it was game on! My friend Karyn had set up a girl's night for about 12 of us... which included dinner at Rose's Cantina (which turned out to be a super-yummy Mexican place - very rare here!) and then going to watch the Sex and the City movie (FINALLY!!!). Michelle and I got all dolled up, and then headed out. Dinner was a lot of fun... it was a mixture of a lot of different nationalities, which always leads to interesting conversation. And, the movie was GREAT!!! This was my favorite show of all time, and so to get one more night with my girls was like going back to old friends. I have to admit, I started crying when the familiar opening music started, and I really didn't stop until the end. And, at the end, I just kept hoping there was more... I'm not ready to part ways yet! After the movie, we would have loved to have stayed all glammed up, but Michelle had had a long day, and honestly, I was exhausted too (physically because of a lack of sleep from the night before, and emotionally because I had just cried for 2 hours straight), so we went home and hit the hay.

Ready for a Girls Night Out! :)

Very funny co-incidence. I'm reading this book right now called The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet. It's absolutely amazing, and, since I knew Michelle also likes to read, I excitedly told her, "I have to show you this book I'm reading - it's great!". I showed her, and she kind of chuckled, went to her suitcase... and pulled out the SAME BOOK!! :) Too funny! It's a good read though, if you haven't read it yet.

Today (Sunday), we are going to the small town of Gouda (pronounced HHHOW-DA, like, Chowda!). It's where Gouda cheese comes from, and, so, of course, it's going to be a fun day for Michelle. We're going to a cheese-making museum, which will be fun. I'll post about that later in the week. Friday, we leave for Dublin - looking forward to that! :)

Ups and Downs, and Ups!

Hello, my faithful readers and friends! I'm glad that so many people are reading this! It makes me feel good to know that these words aren't just disappearing into cyber-space. :) Hopefully this finds you happy and healthy (and enjoying the sun - has it stopped raining yet, Portland??)

This week and weekend were a bit of a roller coaster for me. No need to get into the details here, but I'll be honest with you - every day is not just a frolic in Europe for me. I REALLY miss my friends and family, and when kind of crappy things happen, that feeling is just amplified, especially since during a good portion of my day, everyone that I usually talk to is sleeping! Luckily, slowly but surely, there are a few people that are turning into true friends, and I can't explain how happy that makes me feel.

I decided a while ago that since I had no meetings on my calendar on Friday (which is no less than a miracle at Nike), I would work from home, as I had a few things to work on that needed some dedicated brainpower. I also had to pick up my Dutch residency permit, which makes it officially legal for me to be living in the Netherlands. Okay, so to be honest, usually working from home is not such a good idea for me... I am very distract-able, so my eyes can't help but see that laundry that needs to be done or that shelf that needs to be dusted. However, this Friday, working from home rocked! I am getting ready to teach a costing class for the team here in Europe, and I was able to get all of the curriculum tailored for the European market, all of my Powerpoint slides just right, etc, etc. That made me happy! :)

That evening, I decided to check out a new, American-size grocery store! I didn't know that this place existed, so I was pretty freaking excited! I mean, the cute grocery store down the street is charming and all, but I want variety! :) The local store that I go to is called Albert Heijn, and the store that I went to on Friday is called Albert Heijn XL. And it was!! While not as big as a Fred Meyer (in Portland) or Meijer (in Ohio), it was HUGE in comparison to my local store. And, I could drive there! And, I could fill my trunk with groceries. And... then I kind of forgot about the fact that I don't have a garage nor a parking spot assigned by my house. Not a big deal. ;) This store made my day... I know this doesn't sound very exciting for my American friends who can get whatever the heck they want, but, seriously, I've been feeling deprived! They even sell Duncan Hines cake mix... albeit 5 euros each, which with the exchange rate is $7.50... for a cake! (no, I did not by the $7.50 cake mix... I'm making a list of all of the things I need to buy when I'm at home in August - I'm bringing and extra suitcase for this purpose). After I got home, I decided I needed to get caught up on Grey's Anatomy, which is a little behind here in the Netherlands. I figured out the trick though - I can download it from iTunes. So, I started with the third to last episode, and then ended up watching all the way to the finale. I couldn't help it! It was so good! And I was SO HAPPY with the way things turned out!

Saturday started off a bit bad. I don't want to get into the details, but I was pretty sad. I've promised myself that I'm not going to let the distance get to me... that's no way to live. So, trying to be strong, I let myself have a good long cry, and then I sucked it up and went for my long run. Running is always my outlet. Believe it or not, by the time I got home, I was feeling so much better, and having a better perspective. I decided that I needed to do things that make me happy for the day, so I went to the garden store and bought a bunch of flowers. I have a little balcony off of my apartment that was just begging to have some color, so I spent the afternoon being a gardener. I think it looks pretty nice:

After that, my friend Kristin (also from Ohio... how funny is that???) had told me about the "Democrats Abroad" group that was having an event that evening. I REALLY hate going to these things alone (Kristin wasn't sure if she was going or not because she had a friend in town), but I told myself "you are never going to meet anyone if you never try." So, again, I sucked it up, and went to this event. The main reason that I wanted to go was so I could register to vote abroad. Mission accomplished. To be honest, the crowd there was a little wacky... kind of REALLY into politics, which isn't really my passion. I hung out for a little while, and then decided that I had been there long enough, and started heading home. Which was precisely when I saw that I had a text message from my friend Karyn (this is the same girl that I went to France with a few weeks ago). She was out with another lovely lady, and they invited me to dinner. You know, I have to thank my lucky stars for girlfriends. Sometimes, they just KNOW. I really didn't feel like being by myself last night, and so hanging with the ladies and proceeding to drink only god knows how much wine was exactly what I needed. I went to home with a smile on my face, and feeling much, much better.

... and then I woke up this morning at 7 am. Despite still feeling tired and having a bit of a hangover, I could NOT for the life of me go back to sleep. So, being me, I got to it. By 9 am, I had baked a batch of brownies and finished a good chunk of my race scrapbook (which I had sadly not updated since the Portland Marathon of 2006). I'm happy to say, I'm almost 100% caught up now! :) It was fun to have the time to work on one of my favorite hobbies. I was just finishing up when Kristin called me and told me that she and her friend were going to the beach and wanted to know if I wanted to go. Since the weather was absolutely GORGEOUS, of course my answer was YES! We rode our bikes to Centraal Station (I'm getting pretty good at it!), and then took the train with our bikes to Zandvoort, where I went a few weeks ago solo. To our dismay, despite the wonderfully warm and sunny weather in Amsterdam, it was foggy and a little chilly at the beach! We stopped for a drink to try to wait it out, and, by the time we were done, the sun was out! It was so relaxing to just lay on the beach, read our books, and even take a little nap. A perfect Sunday!

So, now it's Sunday night, and I'm really amazed that the weekend once again has gone by so quickly. I have to say, all the pieces are really coming together... work is great, I'm finding my way in this new city, and I have some really amazing women in my life to spend time with. Everything that has happened is only making me stronger and helping me grow, which is exactly why I am here. Whew! I am SURE I made the right decision (yes, I'm waiting for the "I told you so" e-mails!). Miss you all! Have a great week!

Mosquitoes!

Okay, so I think that I'm a fairly tolerant person. With that in mind, I have to say that I'm losing patience! One of the best parts about living in Portland was the lack of mosquitoes, which I had learned to hate while growing up in the hot and humid weather of Ohio summers.

Anyways, I'm having a flash back to the past here in Amsterdam. The mosquitoes here are SO BAD, and I think I must be especially sweet because they seem to be attacking me more than anyone else that I know! Here are the issues: 1. It is hot at night, so I open the windows (air conditioning is a bit of a foreign concept here). 2. The windows have no screens, so the mosquitoes come in and have a little party on my body while I'm sleeping. 3. I wake up looking like I have the chicken pox (seriously, I have 5 bites on my face as of right now - MY FACE!).

It's really getting ridiculous! Last night, I slept in a long sleeve shirt (despite the heat) to try to protect at least the upper part of my body. Well, I guess I must have been hot in the middle of the night, so I pushed up my left sleeve past my elbow. Wouldn't you know - I have three bugbites on my left arm - one in the really inconvenient location of MY ELBOW!

Well, I've decided that it is time to fight back. I'm leaving work early today so I can get home before the drug store closes. I'm arming myself with some super strength bug spray. This weekend, I'm going to do my best to figure out where to by screen material, and I'm going to make screens for the windows and nail those suckers in! THIS IS WAR, MOSQUITOES!!!

A New Set of Wheels

Well, after over two months of being a total chicken, I've finally done it - I bought a bike! For those of you that haven't seen Amsterdam yet, let me paint a little picture for you - the statistic is something like this: for a city of 670,000, there are 700,000 bikes. Which means basically this: bikes are everywhere! People ride their bikes to work in 3 piece suits with a briefcase, people ride their bikes to play tennis with their big tennis bags on their backs, people even ride their bikes to fancy dinners in dresses and heels. Yes, it's a huge part of the culture here, and I've been missing out. So, when a friend suggested we do a bike ride this weekend, I could avoid the inevitable no longer... Because I'm a big wimp and I'm afraid of riding with traffic, I set my alarm for early this morning, so I could get to the bike shop right when it opens at 9:00 am, before most people are even awake. I went in, bought my lovely (purple) bike, and made my way out. I was pretty terrified to take my first few pedals, but after a while, I realized that it was pretty cool. I took mostly back roads home, because cars still scare me a little bit, but, bottom line - I MADE IT!! Now, more important than the bike are your locks. Here in Holland, most people use two locks to ensure that their bike doesn't get stolen - one lock is for the back wheel, and the other goes around the body of the bike, the front wheel, and something that won't move (like a tree or a pole). Bike stealing is pretty common here, as there is obviously a demand for them. Fingers crossed that my locks do their job for me. :)

Here she is: