Sweet Home Chicago

I woke up this morning bright and early (about 11pm Chicago time... 6am Amsterdam time) to catch my flight back to Chicago. It's eerie how dead the streets are in Amsterdam at 7am on a Saturday morning. I made my way to Central Station to catch a train out to the airport. The only people I saw were some random weirdos talking to themselves and the people cleaning up the messes on the street from the night before. I would not want that job!

I ended up getting to the aiport way earlier than I needed to... lucky for me there are plenty of shops at Schipol airport! I stopped in the Duty Free shop and picked up some Vincent Van Gogh Vodka (special request from Matt). They were handing out samples of chocolate and I had one and was hooked. So, I bought some chocolate, too. I was looking at some of the other stuff they were selling and saw the packs of cigarettes... in the states, last I saw we just have a small warning label that says smoking is bad and harmful if you are pregnant... blah, blah, blah. Well, in Europe, they are much more descriptive...

Then I boarded the big plane and made my way to Chicago!



The flight was not all that great. The area I was in had like four babies, two of which took turns screaming throughout a lot of the flight. I was also one of about ten lucky people whose sound did not work on their headsets. Yep, no movie for me. I could watch it, but could not hear it. And it was subtitled in Dutch, so I couldn't even follow along by reading. I had brought my parents' portable DVD player and set that up to watch... wouldn't you know it, I forgot to charge the thing up last night so the movie stopped about half way through. So, I listened to my IPOD and did sudoku puzzles for most of the flight. Not exactly my idea of a good way to spend 9 hours of my life, but I made it.

Dan and I got into Chicago and were waiting for our bags to come in and there was a security dog sniffing around. He got a "hit" on my bag so the lady asked me to lay my bag on the ground... apparently, you are not allowed to bring in any produce items with you to the states. I had an apple in my bag that I had planned on eating on the flight, but did not. The dog was so cute and so excited that he found the apple... he was most happy because he got a cookie for his great work! : ) But, of course, I got a flag on my customs sheet, so when I went to leave, I had to go through a special area and they scanned my bag (you know, just in case I was trying to smuggle in a suitcase full of apples or something!). Poor Dan... they asked if he was with me and he said "I guess so" and they made him go through this additional scanning, too. Sorry!

Matt picked me up from the airport and took me out for lunch. Now we're watching some football... Illinois won again today - Go ILLINI!!! I think it's about time for a nap... it feels like midnight to me. : (

The long way home...

Tonight, I decided to walk through the shopping street on my way home from work. I took the train to Central Station and walked from there instead of getting out at my normal stop.

Here's a pic of the shopping street I walked down. There are already a lot of lights up around here for the holidays.

I walked by a McDonalds and a Burger King. At Burger King, you can get an "Angry Whopper", which is basically a big cheeseburger with onions and jalapenos.

McDonald's has some promotion here called "Road to America" and they have a few options of burgers. One is called the "Canada"... so maybe the promotion should be called "Road to North America"???



The 80's are definitely popular here... I saw this ghettoblaster bag for sale. I know you are all going to be begging me to bring you home one! : )



Then, I was a block from home and saw a Santa directing traffic in the middle of the street. There was a whole film crew set up taping the scene... cameras, spotlights and all. I took some pictures, but they didn't turn out all that great.

Best night of sleep so far

So, I actually slept the entire night last night... first time since I've been here. It takes me forever to fall asleep and then I usually wake up about 4am every morning. Not sure why that time is significant, but it seems to be a trend. I think I may finally be getting used to the time difference and the new apartment, bed, etc.

Just in time to head back to Chicago for a week or so... nice timing, eh?

Some random notes on a Tuesday...

Update on my work visa... it seems the approval process is getting messy. I was originally supposed to be back in Chicago on Nov 17th, staying for only a week and then head back to the Netherlands on Nov 24th. I just heard today that that may not be the case. The approvals for the work visas are supposed to be coming our way by Nov 23rd... which, of course, is a holiday. Since we have to go in person to the Dutch Consolate, I think it may be at least Tuesday 27th by the time I fly back to the Netherlands. It's definitely annoying not knowing. At least I can be home for Thanksgiving this year! : )

In other news, I got an email from my uncle telling me that the Sammy Fund event this year raised a record $41,000! Amazing! Since I didn't have this blog up and running back in October when the event took place, I'll add a couple of my favorite pics here now. : )

The Sammy Fund event weekend starts off early Saturday morning with a 5k run/2m walk.


Afterwards, we always head to the bar (even though it's only 10am!) for beer and chili dogs.


On Sunday, there is a golf tournament, dinner and silent auction.

Here, Erin sinks an awesome putt and Matt celebrates. Our team did not come in last place this year (as we have in the past)... maybe that has something to do with the new addition to the team this year. : )

Another day... another rainbow

Just a typical Monday... nothing too exciting going on. The weather was crazy again as usual. I can't believe how many rainbows I've seen since I've been here!



A little bit of touristy information for you... this area is called the Nieuwmarkt and is where my metro stops. The Nieuwmarkt has a lot of bars, restaurants and "coffeeshops". On the weekends, people set up stands to sell fruits, veggies, flowers, wooden shoes and other random stuff. The castle looking building is called 'De Waag'. It was once one of the city's gates back in the medieval times before the walls were tore down (1400's). It has also been a weighing-house and a place where surgeons would perform public dissections (nice, huh!). Now, the building is a restaurant. I have not eaten there, but some of my work colleagues have and said it's very nice (apparently, it has an awesome interior lit by hundreds of candles.)

In case you were wondering what is shown on TV over here... there really aren't a lot of English channels. Maybe more if you had something other than basic cable and 15 channels like I do. Some of the Dutch channels will play English shows every once in a while. But, nothing too recent. I am lucky enough to get to see the A-Team every night, though! : ) Also, Seinfeld and South Park are on most nights.

Dinner and Wii

Tonight, Marc invited us over to his house for dinner. His girlfriend, Chantal, made us a great meal of shrimp pasta and meringue dessert and we had a very fun time hanging out with them.

I was so excited because they had a Wii... so, of course we had to play!

The language of the Wii was a mix of English and Dutch. This (very important) screen was in Dutch, though.



Here is Chantal bowling...



And the final scores... the girls kicked butt! : )



Dan hanging out in the purple chair (it's some huge bean bag type chair):

Lennart also joined us after putting his new baby to bed. We went to the Heineken circle to a bar called Barca and had a few drinks.

Lennart and me:



Marc and Dan:



And for something totally random...

Funny thing they have here in Amsterdam... outdoor urinals for men! Crazy! I guess if you gotta go, you gotta go! It's really strange to be walking down the sidewalk and look over and see someone going to the bathroom.

Time to stock up on groceries

So, today I headed over to the big grocery store to pick some stuff up. The one I've been stopping at after work is in the NeiuwMarkt by my train stop and is just a little store.

On my way, I passed through Dam Square and there was some sort of kids soccer tournament going on. Is it just me or does it seem like a bad idea for kids to be running around on wet bricks?



One of the big grocery store chains in the Netherlands is called Albert Heijn.



The flavors of things sold over here are very interesting... so of course, I decided to take a few pictures. : )

Flame Grilled Steak Flavor Pringles



Or if you like... Barbecue Ham flavored Lays Chips.



They also had Ketcup flavored chips, but they were all out... must be a popular flavor.

This pic is for Matt... hot dogs! (sold in cans and jars here)



This was just funny to me... you can get "Old" cheese or if you are really adventurous you can get "Very Old" cheese.



And then there's a whole section of the store dedicated just to cheese... the Dutch love their cheese!