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.