Lazy Days and Ikea

So we are finally into 2013 as far as this blog is concerned. I hope that your year is going great so far :)  Mine is pretty fantastic.  The 1st was a pretty lazy day but we found time to make a few pictures...so with embarrassment I'll show some now...

 This is how Lars suggested I wear my new beret that Corrie made me...I'm pretty sure this isn't it.

 Ahh....that's a better look.

This is a Diet Coke. I got this one at the mall here in Rotterdam.  It looked like fish-net stockings.

The 2nd was a special day for me.  I don't remember when I'd first heard of Ikea, but I have had catalog's for a long time, but I'd never been to one. Its not like I can run to Chicago any time I want to.  SO - Lars took me to Ikea here :D.  I was pretty excited...I won't lie. I was like a kid in a candy store.  

 I love this little kid's table.  Wouldn't this be adorable for Thanksgiving/Christmas dinner? :)

 The map is very misleading...this does NOT show you how huge this place really is.  I was deceived when I saw this...and incredibly tired when I left.

 This is a chair that I want in my photo studio one day...like waiting chairs set up in the gallery section.  Probably in a gun-metal gray.

 The office I'd love to have in my studio.  This doesn't show it all well, but I'm in love.  We did find a high-back orange desk chair that would go perfectly also.

 We decided to have lunch there after all.  The price wasn't bad, like I thought it would be.  We had Swedish meatballs (of course) and some kind of apple cake/pie.  Mine had walnuts on it...so yummy.

 How adorable is this? Cart parking!  Love it.

 We had a lot of fun decorating the apartment.  This would be the soap pump for the kitchen.

 This is the toilet-paper holder for the loo,

 The top bars, the horizontal ones, is the towel rack that we want for the shower room. We also found some shelves to match it that would look great. Since his shower is just one room (nothing like what we have in the states) there needs to be a place off the floor that you can put your clothes or dry towels. We also plan to get a couple of the shelves for the kitchen.  This place would look so amazing if we could do some of the work that we can see in our heads. We did buy some rods for the kitchen. They have attachments that you can put on them that will hold buckets/planters for herbs or hooks for utensils.

This is us during our 26 minute wait for the bus to go back home.  We had gotten there just a one was leaving :(.  He looks frightened or annoyed but I promise he wasn't....he is just a brat.  I will get him used to having his picture taken.

What I didn't get a photo of was Lars flailing around in a chair. He had been trying out nearly every couch and chair as we walked along and at a point he flopped down in one but it turned out to be a rocker/swivel chair and his arms and legs kicked out at every direction and his bag went flying out of his hand.  I couldn't help it...I doubled over laughing and I thought we'd gotten away with him not being seen but then I heard people laughing beside me. It was pretty awesome. He handled it like a pro...I wonder if anything phases him. I would have been mortified...and that is probably why I don't try out chairs in public places :)

Fireworks over Rotterdam :)

So I really wanted to do this post on New Year's day, but...yeah...things have been crazy and Lars is really, REALLY distracting.  I'm posting a 13 minute video of fireworks.  We went upstairs, which is like the 4th floor, where the shower and a bedroom are located...his apartment has space on the 2nd and 4th floor.
When we got upstairs the fireworks were already going off and we still had 5 minutes until midnight.  Well...they had been going off for 3 days already...but at this point it was pandemonium.  I'm also including a video I took from before we went upstairs that I just remembered.


I was expecting to see the fireworks in the distance that would be going off over the Erasmus bridge...I wasn't expecting a panoramic view of fireworks all over the city...and I didn't know they'd be going off for over an hour after either, lol.



 It was breathtaking and awe-inspiring...just as most of this trip has been.  When I thought 'fireworks display' when I was a kid, THIS is what I had imagined.  I wish more than anything that I could have everyone see it in person the way I did....this video can't even start to convey how amazing it was.  BUT I do hope you get some enjoyment out of it.

Time Flies

Ok so the days are merging together at this point, lol. I am having such a hard time remembering what I did on what day so I'm going to compile some highlights here so I can get this up-to-date and stop stressing about it...because I AM stressing about it.

I told Lars that I wanted pancakes...the kind they have here...as I've been hearing about them for the last 2 years.

They are a lot thinner than ours..and very yummy. He layered them with syrup and I was pretty much in heaven.  Makes me want to go on the pancake boat even more now. We also had Oliebollen - which for those in the USA, imagine the yumminess of a funnel cake in a ball....omg.  A couple days after we had them from the little vendor by the subway station, Lars' mom taught me how to make them. Well, I mainly dropped the dough into oil and then ate them later...but saying I learned how makes me feel more accomplished.

I know...so attractive :)

He has also made me breakfast in bed ...yummy eggs and toast.  I didn't take a pic of this as I was in bed and I was stuffing my face.

On the 31st we went to see his parents...for me it was the first time actually meeting them and my first day in Dordrecht.That was the day we made oliebollen and Corrie had made an amazing pea soup with smoked sausage.  I was apprehensive about it at first but it was delicious and we had many containers to take home.  Its the best comfort food ever. (As a matter of fact, we just ate some for lunch). 

I'll admit to not knowing 85% of what went on around me.  Not knowing the language is so frustrating. Not only can I not understand, but it seems impossible for them to get to know me as well.  It shows me what aspects of our personalities we rely on to show who we are to the world.  I use humor, mostly self-deprecating I'll admit.  I'm not an outgoing person.  I'm not the person that can make friends with people just by walking into the room.  I talk with my hands, but not in a way that conveys any meaning...its more like waving my arms around in the ocean waiting for someone to come rescue me.

I'm painfully shy at times and tend to shy away from any physical contact...unless I've known you for a while.  I'm not entirely sure why this is...I'm affectionate with my kids and with Lars...but there seems to be some sort of block within me that keeps me from initiating contact and I'll admit it seems to be one of my biggest flaws here.
 I'm including a few pics of the day below and my next post will be about the New Year's celebration we witnessed.

 The first photo is my first live view of Grote Kerk (Great Church)...I have better pics of this later on.  The pic of me with the pink bear - the bear is a gift for Lylli from Piet and Corrie and I'm wearing the arm warmers that Corrie made for me. I love them :) The pics of the trees were taken on the walk from the train/bus station to his parent's house.  They are some really old trees in a park there and you can see that on one of them it is getting so large that they have bars under it to hold it up....its also the one I'm standing by in the last photo.  I'm turning Lars into a photo bug.

 In these last two pics you can see the Oliebollen we made and the ones that look like doughnuts actually are Oliebollen with apple inside...and the little round ones have banana in them. The cake is like an apple upside down cake.  Very yummy.

 This is Bezem - she is such a cutie but really did not like the flash in her eyes.  I had to sneak this pic.

This is Mocca - he is pretty much a cuddle bug and yes, he is as big as he looks. 

Day 2 - 12/29

Day 2 was my first excursion :)  This post has pics and videos..yay! I know some of you are screaming "FINALLY!!"

So we start with a video that DOES NOT depict the horror of these stairs in an accurate way, BUT I'm just putting it here for posterity's sake.


So we left the house and got on the subway that took us to the Erasmus Bridge..that is truly impressive when you are standing near it and terrifying to walk across for someone who kinda gets freaked out by bridges :) In the following video you see the escalator that we just came up from the subway and some of the surrounding buildings that I giggle over just for their sheer size and I've obviously lived in a bubble because tall buildings make me giggle.

 I love architecture...this building is so cool to me :)

Across the bridge

This was an 'island' to the right of the bridge.

...And the bridge that connects it to the other side of Rotterdam

Me in my new hat outside a souvenir shop under the bridge.

The Pancake Boat that I would love to ride...they serve all you can eat pancakes, lol

The bridge at night...um...obviously :)

The following pics are of the Wereld Museum where they had a samurai exhibit. Lars had seen it already but when we walked up and I saw that they still had it I HAD to see it too.  I was jealous when is brother took him for his birthday :).  No cameras were allowed inside, but I took these two shots of the outside.

Day 1 - 12/28

Technically the last post also took place on the 28th, but for the purpose of this, my day here didn't feel like it started until I could set down my bags and not have to haul them all over heck and back.

So...he opened the door to the insane stairs. I groaned because I wasn't sure my body could take much more, but I did it. They were actually a lot easier to climb than I'd imagined. When you can put your hand out on the step in front of you its really more like climbing a ladder than climbing a set of stairs.
Then I had a surreal moment...like Alice through the looking glass.  I've only ever seen these rooms from the other side of a computer camera...but now here I was seeing the layout and details that I've missed before. Its a lot bigger than I imagined. The french doors into the bedroom are sliding doors. There are doors in the bedroom that go onto the balcony (which also has a door to the kitchen). There are storage places above the doors to the bedroom....you get the idea.
So I explored the downstairs and at that point was just too tired to make the crazy climb upstairs (I have video of these, will be on the New Year's post), so we hung out for a bit.  I got the full tour of the apartment and while in the kitchen I giggled when Lars started showing me the cleaning supplies.  I then had to explain that it reminded me of the time I was starting a job as a housekeeper.
Lars needed to run to the store to get a few things and I wanted to go with him but at that point I was so exhausted that when he mentioned it I almost started crying.  I stayed here and he went out.  Some time later he woke me up.  I think I had about  a 30 minute nap.
For dinner he made a yummy chicken (this man knows how to cook), mashed potatoes and a carrot/pea combination that was absolutely delicious. Granted I helped with the veggies...learning his microwave was interesting.
After dinner I made the massive climb upstairs, which is 2 flights above his downstairs.  The view from the bedroom that is upstairs is amazing and is where I took the New Year's video that I will be posting very soon. The shower and washer/dryer is up there also.
When we came back down I took the bedding out of my suitcase that we bought for the new bed. Before we put it on I noticed the exceptionally dusty ceiling light above the bed and alerted him to the situation.  He was so helpful to mention that I knew where the cleaning supplies were kept.  (Brat!) When I tried a new approach of pointing out that I am quite short, he came back with the valid argument that I could gain access to the ceiling light by simply climbing on the bed and using his shoulder as support. My rebuttal regarding my sore knee was a waste of my breath...which ended with me climbing on the bed and cleaning a light fixture that he admitted he has never cleaned since he got here.  It took quite a few of his cleaning wet-wipes and it turns out that, to his surprise, the fixture is red and not brown like he had believed.


(just a little video of when I first arrived :) )

Train Ride

There are some things that I find hard to describe.  For instance, we had Starbucks (yummy) and sitting there in the food court type setting, I could see the doors to go outside.  I wanted to much to go out and breathe the air.  I wanted to jump and shout because it was such a phenomenal and insane and amazing thing that I was sitting in an entirely different country.  It was easy to forget where I was, in some aspects, because one airport is like another.  Sure the signs were in a different language, but there was enough English signs that I could give into the disbelief that I was anywhere but home.

We finished our drinks and hauled my bags down the escalator to the train platforms. We waited for our train to arrive and the feeling I had when a train went whooshing through the station...feeling the wind off of it and the thunder of it...I just had this surge of emotion run through me and that damn big grin spread across my face again.

Once our train arrived and we had to haul my jumbo bags on board I wasn't so excited anymore.  There was this woman in the back of the train, sitting right next to the door, that I had to squeeze my bag passed. She was giving me a dirty look and Lars asked me at that minute if I needed help.  I responded in a short way, simply because I was irritated with the woman and completely overwhelmed by the whole issue...it had been such a long day already and here it was the beginning of a new day. It was 10:30 (or around there) and I hadn't slept more than 30 minutes in 26 hours and I was looking at a full day of being awake.  I was NOT in the mood for Miss Cranky Pants in the back of the train. Poor Lars :(.

We got seated and the ride began and I got to see my first part of Holland.  I saw water, and green, and trains speeding by us at less than an arms length away. I saw a windmill and beautiful old-world buildings and boats....lots of boats.  As tired and cranky as I felt, I was amazed, thrilled and excited...and scared as hell.  I felt so completely out of my element.

* * * 

We arrived at Rotterdam and the station there was amazing.  It was a partially open-aired place and I experienced more escalators.  I learned how to scan my travel card so I could board the subway that would take us to the part of Rotterdam that was closer to home.  I had never ridden a subway before so, weird me, I was excited about this also.  We boarded in a tunnel-like environment and soon the doors closed and we were moving again.  Gradually the tunnel fell away and the city surrounded us and inside my mind I was clapping my hands like an excited seal. I have never felt such feelings of awe. I was seeing things that I'd only seen on Google Earth or in photos and I was reeling.

The subway arrived at our destination and he led me out of the subway and into the Rotterdam air in our 3rd leg of the trip home - walking..... :(.  Its not far from the station to the apartment but when you are as tired as I was...well, it seemed like forever.  I crossed in crosswalks and avoided pedestrians and other cars until finally we turned a corner and I said "Oh! I know where we are now!"  I recognized his street and the store at the corner of his building...we were nearly home.

So he says that he can see how tired I am and that he will carry the bags upstairs. I was relieved but when I saw the stairs to get to his door I just wanted to turn around and start walking again...they terrified me.  Shallow steps, which is good, but so steep that when you are on one you have the higher steps right in front of your face.  We got to the front door, breathless (well, I was) and I giggled...I had never seen his front door before and for some reason this just made me happy.

THEN HE OPENED THE DOOR and what do I see? More steep f'ing stairs, lol. 

Arrival

So I landed finally.  We had to sit and wait for about 15 minutes...felt like forever...but then I heard "Welcome To Amsterdam" and I sat there grinning like an idiot.  I was in a foreign country, I was in Holland and even though I wasn't in the air anymore, I felt like I was flying.  I was also a bit tired and cranky...I stood behind the woman who had just had her chair in my lap for 8 hours and she walked slow then had this stupid wheeled bag.  I was trying to follow her out of the plane but she'd stop and that damn bag would nearly trip me...I just wanted to grab her by the ponytail and throw her into a seat to just get her out of my face.

But, I behaved.

I exit the plane and hear people chattering around me...not a breath of English.

I follow the mass of people down the tunnel and into the airport.  There is a long hallway with 2 floor escalators and the wall is lined with billboards to my right.  Finally I'm at the end of the big empty hallway and I turn, trying to follow a sign that says "Baggage Claim, Arrivals Hall" and suddenly I'm in a sea of chests and shoulders.  I'm like a midget over here.  So here I was in a new country, with people around me speaking a language I don't understand and they are all so tall that they don't even see me.  I'm bumped into and stared at and really starting to feel overwhelmed.  I see another baggage/arrivals sign with an arrow pointing straight ahead so I follow it and it leads me into an intersection.  I stop just to make sure I'm going the right way still and the next sign i see in front of me for baggage is behind a glass wall and then it says something like 'immigration' and I'm not entirely sure that is where I'm supposed to go so I look left and see another sign for baggage/arrival and I'm looking frantically around me for Lars but I don't see him and I'm trying to reach him on facebook to find out where I'm supposed to go and I can't get him to answer me and then I start thinking Oh God, I didn't message him in Chicago so what if he isn't there?...I walk around a little more panicking that at some point someone is going to point at me and yell that I'm in the wrong place, or "Stupid American, you are doing it WRONG!"  Logically, I knew that Lars wouldn't be in this area.  I knew that for safety reasons, there are parts of an airport that only ticket holders can go and I knew that I was still in that area...but logic was not my best friend at this point.

Then I just thought to myself "Kendra, get your shit together, you can do this! Go back to the immigration/baggage sign that you saw and just go for it...it can't be any worse than standing in this mass of people you can't look in the eye." So I did.  I went down the stairs and dug out my passport and I handed it to the guy who gave me that "dumb american" look and I just grinned and went through the entry into Holland :).

I thought all my troubles were now over.....idiot.

So I walk out into the area where I'm hoping Lars will be...and I'm wrong.  I realize I have to find my 2 massive suitcases and wheel them, by myself, for God knows how long until I find him.  I finally find my luggage carousel, which is not labeled in any way, and my poor suitcases are just taking a ride all by themselves...it took me that long to finally figure out where I was supposed to go.  I grab them and head toward the Customs area, which wasn't manned. If I see something important like "Customs: Do you have anything to declare?" and there isn't anyone there, I'm just going to naturally assume that the guy is on break and I need to find somewhere else to enter....BUT people are going through the little glass doors.  They get on the mat and the doors open and they disappear into the other side.  By this point I was hot, sweaty, tired, hungry, terrified and a little pissed off so I thought "F it...I'm following them"...thank GOD they knew where they were going.  I FINALLY enter into the actual arrivals hall and see my Love waving at me. 

I just wanted to snuggle into him and melt.  I saw him and the first thing out of my mouth was "I'm so done with this!  I must really love you!"

Not the most romantic thing to say to the love of your life after not seeing each other for 11 months :). Thank God that he knows me and he just grinned and gave me a big kiss and I, for once, could breathe.

This is a shot of me that Lars took not too long after we found each other. I was just trying to find Starbucks but he found the fluffy clogs that he wanted to buy for me.  It was a great buy...they are so comfy and keep my feet warm as I sit here and type this.  More to come soon...I am trying to get 'up to date' on this :)