Birthdays and Disco-teking

February is a month full of friend's birthdays, including my very own husband's 30th coming up next week! But this weekend we celebrated our friend Kimberly's 30th birthday. It's a tradition of the Dutch that when you celebrate your birthday, you are the one to provide the entertainment/food/party. If you invite people to dinner, you pay...for all of them. If you have a party, you provide all your own food and cake! And apparently there is this tradition of the Dutch birthday circle, where at a birthday party, you all sit around in a circle and when a new person comes in they have to shake everyone's hand, introduce themself and say "Gefeliciteerd!", which means congratulations in Dutch.This makes no sense to me. Why are you congratulating people who are at the party? But, it's tradition.


Kimberly also made her own birthday cake and a beautiful one at that! After the gathering at her house, a smaller group of us took off for Rotterdam at 11. . .yes, P.M. We were heading to a "disco-tek" to dance the night (and morning) away. We finally made it to the club close to midnight and began getting our boogie on. Let me just say a few things about it.
1. The average age was about 20.
2. My ears are still ringing.
3. I was tired before we even got there.
4. It was even more apparent that I am getting old.


But, we had great company and had a good time, lasting until 2am before we had to call it a night. It's been awhile since I have gone to bed at 3am.

Spiderman

The night I got home from Amsterdam, I was exhausted. I told Dan I didn't really have the energy to cook dinner so he decided that we should go to the store and both get something we've always wanted to try but haven't because of budget constraints. So we walked over to the store and got pizza...ha! They don't have a lot of pre-prepared meals and we didn't want to cook so that's what we ended up with. Ah well, trying new things is overrated huh? Anyways, so we come home and as we are walking up to our building, Dan says, "uh oh". Uh oh can only mean one thing when you are approaching your building and reaching into your pockets to get your keys. Dan forgot his keys. This has been my fear since living here because the doors lock automatically when you close them so if you forget your keys inside, it's a bad deal because your door is locked. I had left my keys at home too because Dan believed he had his. 

So there we are standing outside in the cold, with a bag full of groceries. I did not bring a coat because we were just running across the street. The way our apartment works is that we share a common staircase with two other neighbors and the door on the street leads up to all of our apartments, but it is locked. 
 Then once we are inside, we have an apartment door, that is also locked but possibly easy to access with a credit card or something. So we start ringing buzzers of our neighbors but no one was home!  

We are both looking around, trying to figure out what to do and both look up at our windows. Dan asks me if our windows are unlocked and I hesitantly say yes. For those of you who know my husband, you must tread carefully with anything that involves any sort of risk. If it is risky and sounds like fun, he's all over it. Before I know it, he says, "I'm pretty sure I can climb up there and we can get in that way". Uhhh...well, what's a girl to do who is locked out in the cold with a bag of groceries and no coat? Dan gives me his coat(he is in a white t-shirt) and starts climbing the building. Yes, climbing the building. 

He uses the doorknob to hoist himself up onto the streetlight you see in the picture. At one point he is standing on the arm of the streetlight. People are coming by, stopping and staring at this crazy American. At one point a man approached me and says, " Is this a burglary in progress? Because if so, I'm going to have to call the police. " Uh yeah buddy, we're robbing the place, please go ahead and call. I mean really?? If we WERE robbing the place, do you think we'd tell you?? I explained what happened and I guess he believed us because the police never came. 


Dan works his way off the streetlight and onto the white ledge to the right of the lamp and then steps (gigantic step) over and up to our windowsill (where I am in the window-these pics were taken after we were successfully in obviously). Our windowsill was so narrow that his whole foot would not even fit on it. Then he had to carefully squat down and lift the window up enough for him to slide in. It. was. crazy. But we made it in!!! and no was killed or seriously injured! Ahh the adventure.

Amsterdam

I took my first trip to Amsterdam this weekend with a few girls from my church. It was one of their birthdays so we took the train to Amsterdam to spend the day shopping and getting pampered. We shopped on De Negen Straatjes, which means "The 9 Streets". They are a set of, you guessed it, 9 streets full of cute boutiques, cafe's, consignment stores, etc. We walked from Centraal Station to this area, which is also close to the Anne Frank house, but we didn't get to go there. 


Amsterdam is a lot like our little town of Leiden but bigger and older and a lot more tourists. When you come off of the train and start heading towards the city center, there is a a whole row of tourists shops where you can buy all the Dutch souvenirs your heart desires. In the midst of all those shops is the Sex Museum. I got a picture of it but not really sure what is inside. We also saw "coffee shops" which in Amsterdam translates into marijuana shops. You have to be over 18 to enter and they looked a little shady but what do you expect?


The end of the day we topped off with getting manicures and then making a fast walk back to the station to catch our train home. The city is beautiful and I can't wait to go back and explore it more. We didn't have time to walk through the Red Light District but apparently it's one of the nicest looking parts of Amsterdam, which is what you wouldn't expect from an area of prostitution.


Check out the pics-remember, if you double click on the slideshow, it will be made full screen and you'll be able to see the pics better.

Home Sweet Home

Today was a monumental day in the Caputo household. We got a couch. That is right, a real, cushy sit-able couch. And I could not be more ecstatic!! We have been here almost 6 months now and have been living this time without a couch. But yesterday I took a trip with my friend Suzanne to Ikea and picked out our beautiful couch! They were also having a sale so we got a great deal on it and it's a sleeper sofa! We really wanted to get one so that we don't have to use an air mattress anytime people come to visit us but they were all so expensive. So this couch is perfect for us and already our house feels more "homey". This means I can now start putting pictures and decor up on our super white walls!! Here are the pics!

As you can tell, the sofa came in several boxes and we, and by we I mean Dan, had to put it together. It even has storage space in the chaise lounge part! For all of Dan's hard work putting the couch together, he was rewarded with homemade calzones for dinner!!:)

Tomorrow I'm heading to Amsterdam for the first time with some girlfriends to celebrate a birthday! I should definitely have pictures from that trip!!!

Wind, Cats, and Superbowl Parties

This was me yesterday. Only imagine it's a bike and there is no protective cab to keep me safe from the wind. 


The winds have been out of control the past few days. I have never seen anything like it! Or maybe it's just that I'm usually within the safe confines of a car when it's happening. The first crazy thing the wind did was to assault an attack on our neighbor's cat. This cat likes to walk along the roof (probably between 3 and 4 stories high) and go into different windows to visit people. There are even cat stairs built up the side of the wall to allow it to get to the second floor. Anyways, the first day the winds swept in, poor Zeiko was walking along the side of the roof, as he always does, when a big wind came and blew him off the roof. Yes, blew him off the 4th story roof and sent him plunging to the canal waters below. Luckily cats have 9 lives and Zeiko grouchily climbed out of the canal, soaking wet and was fine. He's been kept inside since then.


It was all fun and games when the cat was getting blown off the roof but when the wind starts messing me, things get serious. Last night we were biking to a super bowl party (more on that later) and the winds were ferocious again! Dan and I had come up over a bridge and were on our way down when I was pedaling as hard as I could but the wind was apparently working harder. The wind literally stopped my bike dead in it's tracks by blowing against me and then appeared to switch directions and blew me over. Being the expert bike rider that I am ;) I was able to get my feet down just in time before I would hit the ground. Then the dust and grit came. While I was still recovering from getting blown off the bike, I was suddenly blinded by sand blowing in my eyes and was feeling the pelts of small particles. It was at that point that I thought about throwing my bike in the canal and walking to the nearest airport to catch the next flight to America. But then I remembered that I was on my way to a superbowl party and I'd be darned if I was going to miss it after refraining from getting online all day to avoid seeing who won!


Our friends, Brian and Suzanne, were having a Superbowl party at their house, which consisted mostly of Americans and a few Dutch spouses and football loving people. Another family from church had recorded it on slingbox. If you don't know what slingbox is and you are thinking about living abroad, you might check it out. Basically it's a box that gets hooked up to someone's tv back in the states and then you can record shows or watch live tv through your computer, no matter where you are. So we had the superbowl and all it's commercials. It was a fun time with lots of yummy food and drinks and good friends. And I was rooting for Green Bay so I was quite happy with the outcome! 


Then Dan and I got on our bikes, turned on our headlights (yep, our bikes have headlights and tail lights) and headed home. Luckily the wind had died down so we were able to practice our no-handed bike riding. 


The End.

verjaardagskalendar

In Holland, it is a tradition to hang a calendar in your toilet room. Not just any regular old calendar but a verjaardagskalender. This is a birthday calendar. It is specifically for birthdays. I guess the thought is that while you're sitting there, you have nothing to do anyways so it's good to be reminded of people's birthdays! With the start of the new year, I thought it only appropriate that we get one for our bathroom. 

As you can see, they are typically long and skinny and just have each day of the month with a line by it, to put people's names. 

You will find one of these in every "good Dutchman's" home. And even some foreigners homes, adapting new traditions. :)

Date night

This past Friday, Dan and I went out for dinner. The last few times we have gone out, we've always gone Italian because it's good and we know we both like it! Dan is one to try new things but my thinking is, if I'm fairly certain I'm not going to like it, why waste a good meal out? But somehow he convinced me to try this new restaurant, that I had originally thought looked pretty neat, until I saw the menu.  So we go here

about 6:45pm and walk into the restaurant. Remember, this is a Friday night. There is absolutely NO one in the restaurant.  We're both kind of looking around and the waitress asks if she can help us. Dan looks around and asks, " Do you have any available tables?" As I hold in a snicker, the waitress answers, "Yes, I believe we have a few".  She shows us to our table and brings us English menus. It should be noted that meals are not a casual affair here. When people eat dinner, it is a several hour event and usually does not start until a little later, as we were about to find out. 

Dan gets the brilliant idea to order appetizers, saying he'll choose something we've never had but first I have to agree to at least try it. Umm, when someone says that, it is always a bad sign. But I'm in a foreign country so I should expand my horizons a bit right? This is what he chooses

Oysters!!!! Slimy, salty, nasty oysters. Supposedly the idea is to take the shell, lift it to your mouth and swallow it whole. I tried friends, I really did. But the little oyster just would not go down my throat. It sat on my tongue, taunting me, until I was forced to spit it out. I literally felt like I had swallowed the ocean. So, oysters are not for me (or Dan for that matter, but he did end up eating the rest of them).

Next our waiter brought us something I'm still not sure of. I believe he said it was kale soup and a piece of cod on a spoon?? This is what it looked like

The soup was not so bad. I could do without the cod. But again, it could've been something entirely different because I wasn't really sure what the waiter said and Dan was in the bathroom. We weren't even sure if it was for us since we didn't order it.

By this time more people are coming in and the restaurant is getting quite busy. Dan talked me out of getting a fondue platter (you can't go too wrong with cheeses!) and I went for the veal. He had hare. Yes, hare. As in those little bunnies that are hopping around your backyard. Here is his

It also came with Hare soup. . .

and here is mine

Mine wasn't too bad. I wouldn't get it again but I was able to eat most of it.

Don't mine the picture quality. I was trying not to be too big of a weirdo by taking pictures of our food. I don't think it mattered though because when we got to the end of our meal, Dan wanted to take our leftovers home. We had minimal leftovers and I didn't feel like this was the kind of place that had doggy bags but we asked anyways. The waiter gave us a really confused look and said, "hmm, no we don't have any boxes but I can put it in a sealed bag for you". Ok, great! I was thinking he would come back with a restaurant bag or whatever. This is his idea of a sealed bag

Yep. 2 baggies tied up. We felt pretty backwoods walking out of there. Overall it was a fun experience and nice to get out for a night on the town! Here is me standing outside the restaurant, trying to not let my hair catch fire.