Here we are at the food and wine festival. The little girl dancing is Amy, Niki's daughter. We had a lot of fun there. Catherine is there dancing too standing next to Rob and Niki, also Catherine's Bulgarian friend, Pieter came. The music was special but everything else great. I really loved the chocolate covered waffles. We are off to Ikea today.

The lofty tour

Our first homecooked meal. A lazy Sunday morning after cleaning the apartment.

Not being homeless anymore

Tuesday 8:00 am.... WAKE UP!!! Yep, it was the first day we finally made ourselves get up early and stop pretending we were on vacation, though we're definitely still enjoying summer and the holiday before "the party" starts.  This is our postive way of saying the insanity that is school. :)  We had two appointments set to view apartments in the afternoon so we decided to make ourselves useful and go help over at school.  We had our usual breakfast, bananas (it's the cheapest, healthiest option that can be stored in your hotel cupboard.)  We were at school by 9:00 where we were immediately put to work.  We loved it though. One of my favorite parts of teaching is getting the room ready.  What a fun adventure we have helping get the whole school ready.  As of Tuesday morning the floors were not in, the doors were not in and there was no furniture except for a computer table in each room and two stools.  The excitment of the day was that bulletin boards were being installed.  Now, let me tell you, bulletin boards to anyone besides maybe myself or other teachers may not be a big deal.  But, Matt and I were geeked.  Once each board was hung by the professional dutch company, Matt and I woud set quickly to work covering each board with cardboard and then putting up some cutesy boarder so that when the teachers come next week, all they have to do is put on their posters.  Suprisingly, we worked really fast and made a great team, which I guess isn't too surprising but we are both curious to see how life will be for us constantly together, sharing our profession.  We've been doing well though and have remained friendly throughout the days.  As long as we are still friends at the end of each obstacle, we know we're doing pretty well.  Sometimes it takes reminders of you're not being a good friend right now or hey be my friend please, but we're making it. :) 

At noon on Tuesday after the stapleing and cutting of the bulletin boards ended, we were able to meet both of our teaching parnters and the four of us had lunch together.  It was fun and lots of questions were thrown around the table.  Beginning ideas were discussed we only have to plan for two days the first week.  Matt and I asked mainly about how many things will work and we tried to all get to know each other a little.  Matt found out he gets to take his kids out to the country camping to celebrate the end of the year.  So I'll be here for a week by myself, luckily this is at the end of the year and I can come hang out at night since the camp is 20 minutes from here.  We found out our class sizes, Matt will have 16 and I will have 18.  We are in awe.  Though we know this will be necessary because the kids are on so many different levels.  For groupings we will have about 7 groups of reading levels between our class and our team teachers' so lots of differentiation will have to happen.  Catherine said rarely will we stand up in front of class and teach one lesson to the class because they will all be at different levels depending on English levels and where they have previously been schooled.  I am super jealous because one of Matt's students does not speak any English yet; he is French! :)  Hopefully, I can help and build my French up. 

We have talked with Catherine and we are all thinking of taking Dutch lessons at the university or at least together through someone.  (Bonus: she said we may be able to have the school pay for it.)  This is so enthralling to me because I am hoping by the time I leave here I will be converstational in both French and Dutch.  Ahhh....trilingual.  I always thought Spanish would be the next language I learned but I guess you never know where life is going to take you.

Tuesday afternoon, Catherine drove Matt and I to our first apartment viewing.  It was on Lyonnette Straat and right next to the movie theater.  We liked it a lot.  It was big and resonably priced but not furnished.  We then had a bit of time to kill so after figuring out Cath's car wasn't dying (the fan wouldn't turn off even after we turned the car off, we laughed, kicked at it, pushed a lot of buttons and then moved on. Don't worry the button pushing turned it off.)  Where's Kyle Baareman when you need him?  European consultation??? :)  Cath took us to the amazing book store I have been waiting to see.  It's in an old 16th century cathedral.  It has won many awards and is simply breath-taking.  We had coffee with Cath there and just talked lots of school.  Cath and I also got to discuss our love of reading and it's so exciting to have so much in common with her.  We told her how sad we found it that a church so beautiful was turned into a book store.  Not that it isn't cool but we can't understand why you would want to use it as a church.  There is also a church here for sale for one Euro.  No one wants to buy it because it is filled with pigeons and pigeon poop.  Catherine replied that it wasn't really a big deal because there are so many churches around here.  We laughed to ourselves that Cath must never have been to West Michigan to know what a lot of churches really looks like. 

Our last apartment viewing of they day was the one we had been waiting for.  It was in the eves of a 17th century mansion.  Yes, up four winding, skinny flights of steps. The entry is so beautiful and leads to the stairwell as well as a back garden where we  can store bikes and have plants, yeah!!  A garden was my must have.  I just need a plant that needs me to take care of it and somewhere to eat outside.  Though, not sure I want to take my food down four flights of steps. :)  The upstairs was so cute.  The bathroom is small, though not the smallest we've seen. There's  no tub and the shower is really small but it's a decent bathroom overall. We loved the kitchen with a breakfast nook. The kitchen has a dishwasher and a combi microwave oven.  Yep, here their microwaves double as their ovens.  They function the same just are super teeny.  We also have the biggest fridge we've seen here so yeah!! This however, is about the size of a large dorm fridge. The living room has a black couch with red pillows; it felt like home.  The bed or should I say beds( here they can't fit queens or kings up the stairwells so married people sleep in two twins pushed together. :) Even our hotel is like that.) The beds are in a loft above the living room, Matt is so stoked about this. I on the other hand am a little more apprehensive.  But the deal breaker is a GIANT walk in closet.  Christina and other guests, this is where we'll put a bed for you to sleep in. :) Just kidding.  But no, the closet is great and has space probably for everything we brought and more.  Maybe Matt's scooter.     YEAH, we do have washer and dryer, boo it's in the wine cellar of the house. The deep basement, five flights down and it's shared with the others who live in the house.  But it's free.

After we saw the house we liked it but still weren't sure.  We left Cath and walked around a bit.  On our way back to see the apartment we ran into a couple.  Young German grad students.  We had seem them moving into the house when we viewed it.  They invited us in to see their place in case we wanted to move their when they move out in a a year.  They were really nice and we're excited to have them as neighbors, especially to be around people our own age.  (We learned at lunch with Audrey and Suzanne our teaching partners, that most of the UWC teachers live outside of Maastricht.)  The German couple also told us the other guy living in the house right now is a missionary and we thought this would be awesome for us and maybe a great way to get connected.  Right now the bottom apartment is empty.  It doesn't have a kitchen or anywhere for food so I am not sure who will want to live there, maybe another student but it's pretty pricey.  We left thinking that was the one but we wanted to make sure so we set up two appointments for Wednesday.

Wednesday, we went to the appointments by ourselves.  We wanted to love the first house we saw since it was actually a whole house and included everything but no utilities.  We actually decided it was TOO big for us.  Crazy we know.  We went for lunch and a small chain sandwhich shop. Bufkes.  We each had yummy ham sandwiches they shaved off the ham right there.  We then went and walked around Maastricht for awhile because our last appointment was until 3:00. We stopped and had an afternoon coffee overlooking the river.  It was fun to people watch and we saw lots of tour buses.

 We thought we were going to fall in love with this last place.  It was the cheapest and we did love it.  It was literally a hop, skip and a jump from the river in an awesome part of town and had a private garden entrance on a big courtyard with a great restaurant.  But unfortunately it was under construction.  The landlord guaranteed us a bed and a table by this weekend but we weren't sure.  Plus, it was connected to a new jewelry store that isn't open yet but there was no door between the two yet.  The landlord was great and assured us that everything would be there.  We trusted him but just want to be all settled before school starts so we decided to go with the loft apartment.  We were excited and went to see it one more time.  We then walked forever in the park nearby.  We love, love, love this park.  It's all along our side of the river.  You can stroll on the old city wall, go to the petting zoo, or just sit and enjoy people walking by.  There are beautiful flowers and one of the best parts is it's right on the edge of the music conservatory so you can hear sweet music flowing out the open windows of this holy building.  Yesterday we heard violins and piano. ahhh...

So we decided and 16 D Witmakersstraat is ours and today we found out we get the keys at 2:00! Friday! We wired money today (which was not fun trying to send millions of faxes and other crazy things but thankfully even though most people don't know what to do with our unique situation they are willing to work with us and figure things out.)  Niki is going to pick us up at 1:30 from the hotel and we are going to go move in.  YEAH!  First we will jump on the bed, run up and down the stairs, maybe not too many times. :)  Then go grocery shopping and we'll be all set.  :)

On Wednesday, when we were shopping I got to experience my first market day.  I loved it.  I was so sad I couldn't buy food so tomorrow that's my first stop after we're in.  I love the smells of the market and the people.  The fresh fruit lined up is the best.  The blueberries and raspberries called to me!  Tomorrow.  I couldn't get over how small the strawberries were.  You know they look different when they are grown naturally and not pumped full of crap and fertizliers. Matt and I also went to the larget grocery store in that area to see what we could find.  Can you believe it, we found every brand of every product we use, or really close to it, same toothpaste, shampoo, soap, medicines, face products.  However, deodorant might be a different story.  They have lots of sprays and roll on sticks. uggghhh... :)  We also haven't found allergy medicine for Matt so we may have to have someone send some soon.  We didn't go to the drug store yet though.  I must note though, things are quite smaller sizes and quite a bit more money.  So I think we'll still be stocking up on visits home. 

Mainly we've just relaxed today we stayed at the hotel all day and made calls, faxes, sent e-mails.  We ran into the school group and had lunch with them so that was nice.  I think we are about to venture out for pizza and then hopefully watch a movie on the computer. 

Friends, this may be our last post for a bit because we aren't sure with the move how long it will take us to get connected.  So blessings, be safe and hopefully this will hold you for now.  Tot ziens!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

It was in the early hours of Thursday morning.  Matt and I had not yet gone to bed.  Sadly, this is how we are when we are leaving for long flights across the world.  We freak out, try to cram more things into suitcases and then realizing there is nothing left to do, go to sleep in utter exhaustion. (Just ask Christina about the time we flew to Costa Rica.)  Thursday morning Mike Sr.,Jr. and Robin drove us to the airport.  We had one last stop at Walgreens, I will honestly admit for pads and deodorant, (we weren't quite sure of our Netherlandish options.) We arrived at the airport, loads of love and support on hand, aka lots of people fretting on us and being really helpful.  We managed to get all our luggage on the plane after some rearranging, a few under the breath curse words and many dirty looks from the lovely Continental ladies behind the counter.  Oh those Cooley's, they just kept saying.

After many tearful hugs, pep talks, kisses goodbye we rounded that blasted Gerald R. Ford airport corner.  You have to wait in the security line, but you can't see your families anymore. (You just have to know they are back there crying.)  We made it through security and got what would be the first of many weird looks as we brought our ginormous hiking backpacks onto the plane.  We quite freaked out when we got to the gate and the stewardess told us they had to go below, only because they were too big for our small plane.  We got them back in Jersey.

Jersey was great. We saw New York (thought about sneaking over for a quick visit) across the tarmack as we ate one last American meal at the Jazz Cafe.  Tuna Salad and a Cheeseburger with chips and cheese.  We also each had three glasses of water because supposedly water helps with Jet Lag.   Okay really, no it just keeps you peeing throughout your seven hour flight and having to annoyingly ask the nice man sitting next to you to move. 

The plane ride was long to A.dam (this is how the locals abbriviate Amersterdam.  This is how Matt and I abbriviate it because we think it's funny.)  Matt slept a little on the plane; I didn't.  Kudos to me for giving him the window sit. It must be because I am so caring and didn't want to sleep. We did get those cool eye masks thinking they would really help, we even had ear plugs.  Neither of these overcome turbulence or bladders.  Nonetheless, it was a restful flight.  We got to watch movies and the food was good.  Flying over England got our hearts racing and seeing the North Sea as we flew in started to make it real.

We arrived in A.dam about 6:30 local time.  Went through check-in and customs scaringly easy.  Then we waited for Willemijn to meet us.  I knew her the minute I saw her.  Tall, lovely, dressed quite charming of course.  We locked eyes and she said, Victoria?  I said Willemijn?  It was sort of like meeting a long lost Grandmother.  And what Grandmother wouldn't buy you Starbucks, buy you extra snacks to make sure you didn't get hungry on the train, give you a cell phone so she can call you, scold you for bringing way to much stuff, hug you and safely put you on your train to Maastricht, with, of course, the tickets she already bought you.  And of course she'll call you and hour after you've been on the train to make sure you are okay and awake so as not to miss your stop.  She is truly a wonderful blessing.

We made it to Maastricht safely, exhausted and only injured with one badly run-over toe.  (Yes, my big toe was run over by my ridiculous 70 pound bad, oh karma.)  You see, we had to change trains in Utrecht.  This involved lugging four big suitcases off one train and onto another in a matter of six minutes.  We got many strange looks since we took up four seats with all of our stuff.  Oh well, we knew we'd stick out as Americans coming over.  There was no getting around it. 

Catherine, (our AMAZING wonderwoman principal), Niki, (our sweet-tuplip assistant principal,) and her four year old dutch/english daughter, Amy met us right off the last train and helped us with our mountain of baggage.  (Will called to tell them to bring another car because we had SO much stuff.) Opps!  They drove us to our great hotel and took us to lunch.  Which lasted about two hours.  Mostly because we all had so much to talk about, but also because Matt and I had lots of questions.  Niki made us a map of Maastricht and highlighted all the things we needed to know and drew in the chinese restaurant, pizza places, and super markets.  She also made us a welcome bag of snacks and other goodies.  Gotta love great people. 

After lunch, Niki and Amy departed and Catherine played tour guide.  Let me tell you, this woman wears many hats and enjoys them all.  Cath showed us all around they city and Matt got to learn some new facts.  The best part was defintiely the old mill and the gelato Catherine bought us.  That's never going to get old.  We located some supermarkets, fun shopping and lots of good restaurants.  Cath is also a foodie so we're all going to be great friends. 

On the way back from the city center, Matt and I stopped at Albert Heijn (the super market) and bought food we could have for dinner.  We fell asleep before we could ever eat it. 

Saturday we slept until 12:00 noon and then met with Cath she had found some rental agencies for us to begin looking at apartments. So we walked around with her for a few hours and then went to dinner on the river.  It was our offical welcome dinner.  Cath was there and so was Niki, Amy and Niki's husband, Rob.  Also our other assistanct principal Janet (from Sault St. Marie, Canada side) and her boyfriend (German) Mike, came too.  Janet is awesome as well and is definitely the doer of the group.  She has more energy than 10 people put together.  Dinner was great and I got to take Amy to the playground.  Always good to make friends with the small people.   They really back you up.  And Amy speaks more Dutch them me so I am hoping she'll give me lessons.

Sunday, Matt and I finally had a day to take it all in and be to ourselves.  We rented bikes from our hotel and made our butts saddle-sore from the ridiculous amount of riding.  We went everywhere and Matt showed me all the spots he had been, where he studied, and bought me pizza at his favorite, Nora's.  It was good and the owner is a riot.  We came back exhausted again and looked at a lot of online apartments and set up the ones we wanted to see. 

Monday,  Call one to the rental agencies:  no your favorite apartment is for sale, not for rent.....le sigh.... so quickly your dreams are crushed.  But no worries we saw three others today and have four more to see tomorrow.  We liked two today and hopefully will settle on one tomorrow.  It's much different here when getting an apartment because you have to go through a rental company like a relator to see an apartment.  And then of course pay them a lovely fee.  Only it's not so lovely, just exspensive. 

After apartment hunting Matt, Cath, and I went back to the school and Matt and I ran our first errand for the school, buying scissors and staplers.  We did it with not too much drama, we just couldn't figure out how to use the school credit card very easy.  (Matt and I had seen the school earlier this morning, Niki gave us a tour.)  It's got a long way to go for the opening and the countdown is quickly dwindling, 16 days!!! 

Tonight, Matt and I just relaxed and had a good dinner at our hotel. We saw our first bit of rain and happily our first sunset.  More hunting tomorrow!  Cheers.