Apr '06 Apartment

As always, I will post some pictures of the apartment we are staying in. This apartment is in the Jordaan, a residential area of Amsterdam. It is an area that is less touristy, but still close to the heart of Amsterdam.



This is the street the apartment is on. It is a typical side street in the Jordaan quarter - narrow street, a few very small cafes and pubs interspersed with residential apartments. It is a very quiet area, especially at night (no loud drunk American college kids like near Dam Square!)



Justice is in the red coat, outside our apartment, with red doors.

I'm always intrigued by the unique layouts of the apartments here. The houses are extremely old, so many of the structures are historic landmarks and have regulations about what parts can be renovated.

This building was recently purchased by a man who has renovated the apartments to lease as furnished short-term rentals. We are his first tenants. When Jeff got here the place was freshly painted, so he had to open lots of doors and windows to air the place out before our arrival.



The living room is one very large room right now. The owner plans to move the living room furniture closer to the front doors and add dining room furniture to the area where the windows are to create a living room/dining room combo.



If you look closely at this picture, you can see the white railing off the living room and another one at the far back of the house. These lead to the downstairs bedrooms and bathrooms.



This view is from the other side of the living room. The bottom floor of the house used to be a storefront. The large front windows were used as display windows, while the shop keeper lived in the apartment portion of the 1st floor.





The kitchen is like a long hallway. It is stocked with all the necessities - dishes, utenstils, pots & pans, spices, tupperware, and appliances.



This is a typical European refrigerator - the size of some dorm fridges - holds enough stuff for 1-2 days (for a family of 5, that is!) On top of the fridge you can see an all-in-one oven. It is a typical oven, convection oven, and microwave!



This is the dining room. We take our food from the kitchen and eat it here (just a few short steps away). The owner plans to move the table and chairs to the living room area, as I stated before. He will add a large desk to this area to make it an office.

The windows you see in this picture and the others, lead to a small courtyard/patio area. The door to it is off of the kitchen.

This is a picture of the little courtyard. A neat place to eat dinner or get some fresh air!



This is the back staircase, off of the dining room. It leads down to "Journey's bedroom". He claimed this room as his when we first got here, but he has only slept in the bed once, the other two nights he has crashed on the couch! The stairs are very steep, but they are newer stairs, so they are easy to navigate.



This is Journey's bed. See Teddy Jr. tucked into the comfy bed? The bedroom are 1/2 below ground level, so when you look out the windows, you can look up to see the courtyard.



This is Journey's bathroom. The shower is brand new - more about that when we visit the other bathroom!

The really unique thing about this apartment is that it is like 2 apartments with a shared kitchen. Journey has his own little "bachelor's pad" here, but he has to come up the stairs to the dining room and across the house to the front to go down the other set of stairs to get to the other bedrooms! So even though the bedrooms are on the same level (1/2 underground), you can't get from one area to the other without going up one set of stairs and back down the other. I guess that's the price you pay to have a little courtyard in the center!



These stairs are off the living room, at the front of the house. The stairs were built in the late 1800's - hand crafted! They are a historic part of the house, so the owner was not allowed to do anything to them, other than paint them! They are very steep, uneven, and the surface of each stair is rather bumpy and rough. It took some practice, but I think we are finally used to them!




This is the bedroom that Justice and Jagger share. It has it's own door to the front street, with a unique entryway. You can see Jagger passed out on the bed, recovering from jet lag!



This is the master bedroom, which Jeff and I share.



The master bathroom has an extremely large bath tub with water jets! It also has a brand new luxury shower (matching the one in Journey's bathroom).



The shower has sliding circular glass doors and a mirror inside! It has a typical water faucet, a rain fountain that spouts water from the ceiling of the shower, and a water jet massage area with built in seat.



The shower controls are pretty high tech - you can pre-set the water temperature, choose which jets you want to spray water, and even turn on the steam to make a sauna!


This is one of the unique washer/dryer combo units. You put your clothes in, add some soap, and turn the dials to the appropriate settings. The unit while wash and spin your clothes and then turn to the dry cycle and dry them too! The downside is that it takes a looooog time to run - usually about 1 1/2 hours and then the clothes are still a little damp so you have to add some dry time. The unit is very small too - this morning we washed 2 towels, one pair of children's size 10 jeans, and a shirt. With a family of 5 laundry could take forever!

~FOOD!~

It is so neat to go grocery shopping here- you never know what you will find!

Journey has decided that he prefers the European trend of eating mayonaisse on his fries instead of ketchup. So when we were grocery shopping the other day, Jeff took him up to the produce section to get a bag of aardapples (pre-peeled potatoes cut into neat little shapes) while I headed for the condiment section. I was surprised when I found these tubes of mayo that looked exactly like tubes of toothpaste! (no, I'm NOT crazy, they were right next to the jars of mayo and bottles of ketchup - I'm not gonna make my kid eat mint toothpaste on his aardapples!) The best part was that each tube of mayo was only E.29 - yep - TWENTY-NINE CENTS! Journey thought it was so cool....

They make these awesome little fruit crackers here - cracker layers filled with dried fruits. Our favorite was the berry flavor - chunks of dried strawberries, blueberries and raspberries - YUMMY! Well, now they have teamed up with the YOGO people and put a layer of sweet yogurt on top of each craker to create a granola-bar-like snack. We have gone through waaaayyyy too many boxes!

Jagger absoloutely loves the drinkable yogurts here - not the sugar-filled Danimal/Dannon ones back home, but the real yogurt fruit-sweetened ones. They make one kind that comes in a foil-like pouch (similar to the Capri Sun foil pouches, except this has a drink spout at the top) called Breaker. They come in different flavors like cherry, raspberry, strawberry, peach,etc. And all of them contain sunflower seeds! Seriously, as you are drinking the yogurt you get these pieces of soft sunflower seeds in your mouth and have to chew them up (sunflower seeds are normally pretty crunchy, but they lose some of the crunch after soaking in the yogurt for awhile).

Jeff loves the liverwurst/braunschweiger here. It is soft and spreads onto the bread. I can't get past the nasty smell of the stuff, let alone taste it. He pairs it with rye bread and this thin goat cheese with rye seeds in it. YUCK! But it satisfies his late-night munchies!

I guess the Dutch think that hot dogs don't have enough additives - throw some aluminum in there! They have all varieties of canned hot dogs! Yes, I bought a can the other night. Jagger loves hot dogs and these were only E.59 so I thought we'd give them a try. He and Journey seemed to really like them, but I don't think I'll buy them too often!

I'm still amazed at the number of products on the store shelves that contain Saccharin - gums, mints, candies - even the toothpaste!

Serious Mid-Life Crisis

I went to Albert Heijn last night. It is the grocery store behind the queen's palace. I arrived just as most people were stopping by after work so the lines were very long. As I stood there waiting to purchase my stuff, I was listening to the couple behind me. The man had a very THICK Boston accent. The woman was speaking English but definitely had a Dutch accent.

As I was bagging my groceries, I realized that the clerk had accidentally put the couples' milk on my side of the counter (the end of each check-out is divided so that the clerk can start ringing up the next order while the customer is still packing their groceries). I moved the milk over to their side and the man looked at me and said "Oh, thanks. I guess that is our cah-ton (carton) of milk!" But then he made a face and turned to the woman with him and said "I keep fah-gettin' the people he-ah don't undah-stand me!"

I looked at him, smiled, and said "What part of Boston are you from?" He looked shocked for a second and then asked how I knew where he was from! I told him we lived north of Boston for about 6 years.

He told me that he grew up in Foxboro, but moved to Peabody after college. And then he said "My wife and kids still live there!" The woman with him made a "Tsk Tsk" clicking-like noise and looked away.

He smiled and reached over to hug her and said "Yeah, yeah. My friends and family think I'm throwin' my life away, but I love this girl and I'm gonna marry her!"

I wished him good luck and walked off. But I couldn't stop thinking about it as I walked home. I bet this young girl went to college in Boston and they met there. He had an affair and left his poor wife and children to follow this woman half-way around the world. I felt like screaming - "GO BACK TO YOUR FAMILY MISTAH!!", but I didn't. He looked like he was in his mid-40's and she couldn't be more than 21. I wonder what will happen when she tires of him.....will his wife take him back?

Another houseguest

This time our houseguest doesn't have beady little eyes, a long tail, and hang out behind the garbage can ;) Jeff's friend and co-worker Joel came to stay with us for a few days. He has never been to Amsterdam and Jeff has been wanting him to come over and visit, so he arrived on Saturday.

Yesterday Jeff and Joel spent the morning walking around town enjoying the atmosphere and beautiful architecture. The kids and I did some errands and then met them at the Holland Experience 3D movie theater. We arrived early so the guys spend some time running around in the Waterlooplein square. The square normally holds a very large outdoor street market. There is usually a wide range of products there, but I have noticed that most items tend to have more of a hippyish feel - lots of patchwork bags, guatemalean fabric wraps and scarves, hand-made hemp jewelry, incense sticks, buddha statues, neat wooden carvings, and natural undyed fibers and clothing. It was a really interesting market, very different from the Albert Cuyup marketplace which seemed to have more trendy brand name clothing, leather jackets and coats, furs, and animal hair rugs.

Since the marketplace was not open yesterday the kids had a nice big area to run and play (and feed the pigeons,, of course!) Journey sat and studied the tree in the courtyard. It is a typical tree amongst a group of trees planted in squares amidst the plaza. But this tree has a number of brightly colored stuffed animals hanging from it. They are typical children's animals - mainly teddy bears but there were a few stuffed dogs and one cartoon character. They are hung from strings from the tree branches. Journey was very distraught. He collects teddy bears and was really upset that someone would do that to these bears. When we were visiting before and saw this tree I was thinking that maybe this was where Theodore Van Gogh was killed. I don't know if any of you followed the story, but Theodore Van Gogh was a prominent film maker. (yes, he is a descendant of Vincent Van Gogh). He made a number of controversial films and documentaries and his most recent one detailed the violence within the Muslim religion. His film partner is a woman who is in exile from Turkey because she spoke up about Muslim voilence. Theo was shot to death in the middle of the day a few blocks away from the town hall. His alleged killer was a devout Muslim. Theo's death caused a lot of racial tension within Amsterdam and the Netherlands in general. Anyway, I'm thinking that the teddy bear tree is probably a memorial to Theo (Teddy?) Van Gogh. I've been meaning to ask someone on one of the discussion boards, but I keep forgetting to.

So the show we saw was a 30-minute show that showed various places all over Holland. It was in 3D so we got to wear those *super cool* glasses! The theater was also on a moving platform that bumped and twisted in conjunction with the images on the screen. And when the movie took us through the Holland tulip fields we even smelled flowers! Okay, I'll admit that it was pretty hokey (and it was my idea to go too, darn it!) but the kids thought it was cool. I thought it was neat that the entire movie had no words - only music to go along with the scenery. Pretty clever idea since this is such a multi-cultural area with so many different languages spoken!

Today we went on a canal cruise. It took us through various canals throughout Amsterdam telling us about the history of the canals and the houses and buildings along it. Jeff, Joel and Justice then went to the Anne Frank House. We have been there before as a family, but I thought it would be good for Justice to go again. When we were there before Jagger and Journey were a little impatient (they just were not old enough to be interested) and we had to move through the house quickly. I could tell that Justice wanted a little more time to read things and visit the rooms, so I was happy when Joel suggested that they go for a visit. Jeff mentioned that when you go a second time you see things that you didn't see before. I'm thinking maybe I should stop by again myself before we leave.

I bought myself a cool speedy little stroller while we were here! It is a Quinny Zapp - a cute little stroller that folds even smaller than an umbrella stroller! It comes with it's own carry bag and folds down small enough to fit on the back of a bike or in the footwell of a car! I bought the steel blue color. Jagger likes it because it matches his eyes ;)

The only complaint I have about it so far is the lack of storage space. The one-handed steering and maneuverability helps make up for it though! For anyone who is interested in purchasing one - I highly recommend babycare.nl Erwin was a pleasure to work with and was very prompt in answering my questions. I ordered from him because I heard so many things about his good service. It was all true! And since I'm in Europe I only had to pay 6.95 shipping instead of the outrageous shipping costs to the US!

I've given up on my knitting projects until we get home. I have made a couple scarves while we were here. I also did a lot of practice with different stiches, needle sizes, and yarn weights. I'm still learning it all from a book :) I've put it aside until we get home because the yarn prices here are so high. I just can't justify paying so much for yarns when I can get them so much cheaper at home. The little yarn shop here is great but there is no competition and I miss the chain store selection and prices!

Since my stroller shopping is done, I've put my knitting aside, and we have 3 computer addicts but only 2 computers, I've started reading The Da Vinci Code. It was here on the bookshelf in the apartment and since we visited Paris I thought it would be neat to read it. I'm enjoying it so far - can't put it down at night until my eyes are droopy!

Vlaa

I was grocery shopping the other day and picked up a container of chocolate milk. I was totally surprised when I came home and tried to pour a cup of it and this thick, pasty stuff plopped out into the cup.

I checked the expiration date on the carton to see if the milk had spoiled and curdled and then I realized that the label said it was chocolate vlaa. The brand name was Campina, a company that also makes cartoned milk, so I hadn't realized that it was something else. so I smelled the cup of chocolate stuff and it smelled good! I tasted it and it was pudding! Vlaa is pudding! I was totally thrown off by the fact that this pudding was in a liter milk carton (for those of you who didn't go through that year in elementary school when the US decided to convert to the metric system, a liter is similar in size to a quart.)

When I really took a good taste of this stuff, I realized it was delicious! This is not the Bill Cosby J-E-L-L-O instant stuff (or the cooked stuff that always ends up with lumps) – this stuff is made with real cream and is yummy!

So I tried to hide the whole liter from the kids, but it was impossible. These darn European fridges are so small that you can barely fit things in it, let alone hide the good stuff! So the kids fell in love with the vlaa too. Since then we have tried the Ardeibel vlaa (strawberry pudding) and the Dubbel Vlaa (vanilla on one side of the carton and chocolate on the other).

I've seen the boxes of Kindersmak on the shelves in the store (kinder =children) near the few boxes of cereal on the shelves, but I didn't know what it was. I took a look at it today and after shaking the box I realized that they were a box of jimmies! You know – the sprinkle things that go on top of ice cream. They had them in all different flavors and colors and even in chocolate and white chocolate shavings. The pictures on the box show the kindersmak on top of vlaa. Pudding with jimmies on top! The box also showed the jimmies on top of a piece of bread...I though this was strange...the showed a jar of Nutella (the nut spread similar to peanut butter but made from hazlenuts), a piece of bread and the box of jimmies together. So I guess that is a common children's snack.

I have noticed that there are very few boxes of cereal in the stores. They do have a variety of granolas (called museli), but only a couple boxes of corn flake type cereals (unless you go to the US Foods Market on Reigulerderwarsstraat where they sell boxes of Lucky Charms and Captain Crunch for 6,50 Euros per box). They eat breads, cheese, and meat for breakfast and of course they have yoghurt.

These people love their yoghurt! Plain, vanilla and flavored yoghurts come in cardboard liter cartons (like the vlaa). You simply pour the yogurt into your bowl or cup. Yoghurt drinks are big too – I don't mean the little Dannon drinkable yogurts – here they have large cartons of drinkable yogurts in many different flavors. They also have Fristi – a mixture of yogurt and fruit juices that is really good! You can buy it in cartons or in small bottles or cans from vending machines and soda coolers. Frise is another brand name of mixed yogurt and juice and Dubble Frise has more than one fruit in it.

Active yogurt cultures and good bacterias are readily available here. They advertise Actimel for women – these are yogurts and yogurt drinks that are low fat and are loaded with extra bacterias that are good for your body. They also sell these tiny little bottles of live beneficial bacteria, called Yakult. They are in the dairy case near the yogurt and they come in a pack of 6. You can buy the regular version or the low fat ones. The kids love them! Jagger calls them “Skittle Juice”. The first time he tried one he said it tasted like Skittles candy. These good bacterias are supposed to be excellent for the digestive tract and they boost the immune system. It intrigues me that they sell so many products that combat candida (systemic yeast overgrowth), but so many American doctors deny that the illness even exsists.

Random Ramblings

The toilet in our apartment has two different buttons for flushing. We could not figure out why until we realized that the left button (which is a little bigger) is for a “big flush” and the right button (which is a little smaller) is for a “small flush”. Now the question is: how exactly does one determine whether their “deposit” requires a big flush or a little flush? I mean, there could be instances where one just cannot decide....

That brings me to public restrooms. First of all, when you need a restroom you must look for the sign that says “WC”, which stands for “water closet”. Sometimes they use the word “Toilets”, but I have found that “WC” is more common.

Public restrooms always have attendants. Department stores, malls, fast food restaurants, etc have a person who sits there all day and tends to the restrooms. They have a little bowl or plate on a little table that they sit behind and they collect anywhere between 20 and 50 Euro cents for each person that needs to go to the bathroom. Don't try to go past without paying or you will get an earful! There was no one at the desk so I just walked past – I'll never do that again!

We've been underwear shopping in the department stores lately. Jagger has decided that he only wants to wear regular big boy underwear, not the thicker cloth training pant underwear. I couldn't find ANY little boy's underwear in any of the department stores I was going in to. I couldn't figure out why until I finally asked a cashier (kassa). The underwear is all in the underwear section! Clothing is divided into departments: men's, young men's, womens, young womens, boys, girls, and infants. The underwear are all in one general underwear section. The men's boxers are on a rack beside the ladies white granny (hah! I was typing the word “granny” and the auto-complete on my word processing program thought I was writing granola! - that just suddenly struck me as funny!) undies. Boy's underwear is in the same section as the girl's underwear so that children can be even more embarrassed when they are underwear shopping with their mother and run into a classmate of the opposite sex. Unlike our trusty old Fruit of the Looms, European boy's underwear do not have the piss-hole (I asked Jeff and he said that was the technical term) that no one uses in the front. Instead, they look like girl's underwear but have a little seam on either side in the front to allow some extra space. And sizes? I have no clue. I'm familiar with European shoe size, but the clothes have me stumped. I ended up buying Jagger (age 3) size 140 underwear.

So now you may ask, if the underwear are all in one section, then where is the sock section? What about bras? The socks are with the shoes, of course! And bras seem to be only sold in lingerie shops. For some reason there are lots of those here. I'm not so sure a plus size woman would feel good walking into a lingerie store to get a size 48D bra when the window display has leather thong underwear and see-through bras.

Speaking of window displays, I saw a really funky one the other day. I know they say “pink is the new black” (I'll be really happy when that trend is over) and this window took that to heart (no future pun intended). The display mannequins were wearing clothing that was ALL pink and white – solids, stripes, dots, etc. It was a total pepto-bismol explosion. The floor of the display was red and scattered around on the floor were heart shaped pink squishy looking things and white marshmallows! Someone must have been hungry when they were making the display.

Speaking of marshmallows, Jagger and I were shopping the other day and he saw a neat little package of candy. They were little rectangles that were yellow and pink. They looked yummy so I bought a small pack. They tasted exactly like the marshmallows from Lucky Charms! Isn't that a child's dream? A box full of Charms without the Luckies!

I ordered a pizza!

Yeah, that doesn't sound like much of an accomplishment until you realize that I ordered it online and the whole website was in Dutch! I'm really starting to understand this language! I'm picking up bits and pieces just from reading signs, shopping and talking with people and I'm to the point where I can read bit of newspaper stories and headlines! Sorry, no pictures of the pizza guy, but I can tell you that the pizza delivery guys drive mopeds. They have a rack on the back of the bike that is an insulated pizza warmer and they drive around town delivering pizza. It tasted pretty yummy - the company is called New York Pizza. Their slogan is "Damn Tasty!" Gotta love the blunt Dutch.

NEMO

We took the kids for an educational (and fun!) trip to the NEMO science museum. We have a membership to the Baltimore Science Center so it was neat to compare the exhibits.



This is the footbridge to the NEMO museum. It is also a drawbridge.



Jeff, Justice, Journey and Jagger in front of the "garbage fountain". There was a ton of litter in the fountain - soda bottles, cigarrett butts, candy wrappers - you name it.



The green boat shaped museum is built overtop of the IJ tunnel, part of the A-10 highway ring. The roof of the museum is a beach! There are large fences all around, along with a sand volleyball court, and a children's water sprinkler. I've heard that it gets pretty crowded there in the summer!



I think the bubble exhibit was probably the kids' favorite.



Journey in a bubble



Jagger giggled the whole time we played with bubbles!



Jeff had some fun pulling bubble tubes up over the kids' heads too!



Justice enjoyed a computerized card game sponsored by KPN, the telephone company. You used microphones to communicate with the other players and could even take pictures of yourself for the oter players to see.



Journey enjoyed the hands-on exhibits while Justice preferred the computerized ones.



Jeff enjoyed the water play. You can see him in the background in a white shirt. He and Journey spent about 1/2 hour building a bean bag dam in the water.

One of the most interesting exhibits was the embryonic exhibit. They had embryos from many different species in jars. They had common animals like a baby pig, monkey, rabbit, etc. But then they also had mutated animals such as siamese monkeys and a two-headed kitten.

The most moving was that of the human embryos.



The smallest jar showed the embryo when it was barely visible. The jars continued up until the baby was 5.5 months of age. I wasn't able to fit the whole display in this shot, just the last few containers. Justice and Journey seemed quite fascinated by this and Journey asked a number of questions.

I think that one of things about this museum, and Amsterdam in general, is the fact that they don't try to cover things up for kids. One display in this museum was about physical beauty. They showed pictures of different people around the world with different items/features/looks/styles that are popular in their culture. There were pictures of tatoos, body piercings, extremely long fingernails, etc. But then there were also pictures of the tribe that hollows out a hole in their lip and adds a circular object, and a group of people who put large objects in their earlobes as earrings so that the holes left are enormous. There were many more examples of this. In many of the pictures from other countries the people were barely clothed or had no clothing. There was even a picture from some sort of tribe where the men wear this long animal horn attached to animal skin overtop of their groin area! It was quite....uh...interesting? Anyway, I doubt a display like this would be allowed in a museum in the US. Too many parents would complain that the material was not suitable for children, blah, blah, blah...then there would be the threat of lawsuits, etc.

Another exhibit in the museum tested your emotional reaction to images. You had to put two fingers in a small slot and then sit still and look at a random collection of images on a computer screen. After viewing all of the images it told you which image you reacted to the most and then gave a chart of your reactions to all of the images. For instance, the image that I reacted to the most was a barred jail cell with hands reaching out of it, some with cups in them, waiting for food (you couldn't see the people's faces). But then I also reacted strongly to a picture of a cute little white kitten sitting in a tree. I hardly reacted at all to a picture of farm animals. I reacted somewhat strongly to a little girl on a wooden swing hanging from a tree (the swing was in motion). When Justice did the same test one of his images included a picture of a woman that was almost naked. Jeff's test had a picture of a mother nursing her baby (her breast was visible). My point here...and I do have one...is that the people here do not see the naked human body as being wrong. People here do not get all upset and cover their children's eyes because of a picture of a naked person. There were even school groups at the museum while we were there!

Drugs

Yep, legal too, at least certain ones are. The Dutch Ministry of Health has concluded that marijuana does not cause harm to the human body. Wanna buy a bag of weed? Go over to the nearest coffee shop and look at the menu. No, I don't mean a restaurant menu, I mean the marijuana menu.





The coffee shops in the Netherlands sell different strains of marijuana in different amounts and sold in different ways (little baggies, pre-rolled joints, joints with a mix of marijuana and tobacco, etc). (You must be 18 to enter). They also sell coffee and munchie foods. You can waste the day away hanging out in a coffee shop, smoking, drinking coffee, playing chess, and just chatting. If you are looking for a true coffee shop for a good cup of coffee, then look for a Braun Cafe (brown cafe), named this because of the dingy brown tobacco-stained walls.

Speaking of tobacco, I find the warning label on packs of cigarettes here interesting. In the US you get paragraphs about how cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, emphysema, and harms unborn children. In the Netherlands the warning label (and the signs in tobacco shops) say “Roken is Dodelijk” or “smoking will kill you”. Pretty simple.

Does this liberal drug policy mean that you walk through the streets smelling pot? No. People are pretty respectful about it. Occasionally you see the rude American dude who just arrived in Amsterdam and insists on walking down the street smoking a joint, strutting his stuff and making an ass of himself. “We all know you're smoking a joint, buddy -get over it!” (His next stop is the Red Light District). For the most part, people smoke marijuana in the coffee shops and at home. It's not politically correct to light up a joint in a restaurant or crowded area.

Another type of store is called a Smart Shop. This is a store that sells herbal concoctions that mimic other dangerous drugs such as ecstasy. They also sell sexual stimulants and other herbal mixes similar to Viagra. These Smart Shop products are manufactured under regulation and tested and found to be safe for humans – they are herbs – not products manufactured in a laboratory.

The Smart Shops also sell Hallucinogenic mushrooms. The Dutch Ministry of Health has found these to be safe for human consumption also. However, they must be in their natural state – fresh refrigerated mushrooms. They cannot be dried or processed, or they are considered illegal “hard drugs”. I'm not sure why there is this distinction, but that's the law.





If you have any questions about drug laws you can go to the Cannabis College. This is a non-profit organization that will supply you with information about laws, effects of certain drugs, drug interaction precautions, and they will even test your marijuana to make sure it is pure

The Dutch treat drug-addiction as a medical problem instead of as a social problem. The drug addict will not be thrown into jail along side the man who murdered his wife. Instead he will be hospitalized and receive proper medical care to help him detoxify his body and begin a drug free life.

The Dutch feel that marijuana is simply a relaxation plant and it is used similar to other herbs. Because the growth and distribution is regulated, the product is in it's pure form, not laced with dangerous substances found in illegal drugs in other countries. The distinction between “soft drugs” (marijuana, hash, and mushrooms) and “hard drugs” (cocaine, ecstasy, heroin, and others) is the difference between legal and illegal. Soft drugs are legal. Hard drugs are not. Of course that is not to say that hard drugs are not available. They are. Jeff has had the word “coke” whispered in his ear as he is walking by someone in the street. That's their method – whisper the substance they are selling into a person's ear and they will stop if interested. I have never had it whispered to me, but that probably has something to do with the stroller I'm pushing and the children hanging from my arms.

So what about the statistics? Less drug related-deaths than in the US and less drug related-violent crimes than in the US.......Let's face it, people are going to smoke pot whether it is legal or not. Which is better - regulated and tested baggies of pure marijuana or a baggie bought from the guy who hangs out on the corner?

Prostitution

Yes, it's legal. Just mosey on over to the Red Light District and you can pay for sex. Prostitution has been in the Netherlands since the 1200's when sailors would come in to port. If you have any questions about the legal issues surrounding prostitution you can go to the Prostitution Information Center to gather information (and free condoms).

The prostitute stands in a display window, similar to a store display, with a red light surrounding it (hence the name “Red Light District”). She displays her scantily clad body to those who pass by in the street. A very small bedroom is behind her with a small bed and bathroom. Once she gets a customer, she closes the drapes across her window.

There are no pimps, no forced sex slaves, and condoms are required. The prostitutes are licensed, file employment taxes and even have an employment union! (In case you're wondering, in order to get a license you must have a clean criminal record, submit to STD testing, be drug free, avoid minors, and use condoms.) Each prostitute rents her window space from the Kamerverhuurbedrijf, which is a central room rental office. She pays for a 6-8 hour shift in advance and then does her day's work. Rental space during the day is cheaper and the prostitutes are “less appealing” (so I've heard). Night space is more expensive to rent.

Each prostitute window/room has a buzzer that she can push if she has troubles or sees trouble in the street. A large bouncer or police officer appears and takes care of the issue. The police regularly patrol the area on horseback (many streets are too narrow for cars) and there are small cameras all over the area.

Each prostitute is required to sumbit to HIV testing. If a prostitute does contract HIV she is given an apartment in the city, along with a nice lifetime pension plan. This is an attempt to combat the spread of HIV.

One thing you need to steer clear of in the Red Light District is taking pictures! Snap a picture and a bouncer will appear in a second and your camera will most likely be taken or smashed. Because most of the prostitutes are someone's niece, daughter, grand-daughter or even wife (!), pictures are NOT allowed under any circumstances!

If you hang out near Centraal Station (the train station) on Thursday evening, you will see the “working women” coming in to town for the weekend. Skinny, high-heeled women in tight clothing arrive on the train with their overnight bags. They're in town to work for a few days and earn enough money to live on for a week or two.

Of course the Red Light District is filled with lots of interesting shops too. Want a pen shaped like a penis? How about a t-shirt with naked women on the front? Raunchy postcards to embarrass your mail carrier? Maybe a copy of a low budget porn movie? It's all here!

I was reading an interesting article the other day. It was comparing the rates of HIV and active teenage sex in Amsterdam to those in the US and the UK. The article pointed out that the US launched an abstinence program, telling young adults to just wait. The UK simply ignores the issue. And the Netherlands shows a special program for teens (on some prime time channels and shown in some schools) explaining how sexual diseases are transmitted, how teens can protect themselves, and giving tips on how teens can still have “sexual fun” without actually having intercourse. The Dutch know that teens are curious and will experiment, so why not teach them how to protect themselves?

So what about crime? The crime rates in Amsterdam are CONSIDERABLY LOW, especially compared to comparable cities in the US (however, Amsterdam is more densly populated than major US cities). Pickpocketing is a big crime here – and there are signs in the “hotspots” to warn you. But remember that these are instances where a slick thief takes your wallet out of your pocket without you realizing it (usually in crowed areas or when there is a fake ruckus in the street to distract you). These are not violent muggings at gun or knife-point (something that happens all too often in my neighborhood in the US). Rape and murder rates are considerably lower than in the US also.

Lots and lots and lots and lots of young men flock to Amsterdam because of it's laws on prostitution and soft drugs (to be covered later). When you say “AMSTERDAM” to someone that's the first thing that comes to mind! This is really sad because Amsterdam is so much more.....rich history, beautiful architecture, breath-taking sights, and an interesting mix of people. There are millions of things to do and see outside of the Red Light District. If you don't want to see the sex stuff, then you just don't go there. Jeff and I had to laugh when he was reading a discussion board where a man posted a question about visiting Amsterdam. He was going for a business trip and wanted to take his family along, but his boss and other colleagues told him that Amsterdam was no place for a family! How untrue!

And by the way, if you do ever happen to walk through the Red Light District and see some windows with blue lights in them instead of red ones, keep in mind that the women in the windows may look like women, but they're not......

Another interesting bike...

As you walk around town you will see a number of these bikes with a large bin in the front. The bin has a bench seat on each side for children to sit on. I have seen mothers biking around with as many as 4 children in the front compartment! No wonder these people are so fit and lean!

The weekend....

We have had a few days of pretty cold, windy weather. On Saturday and Sunday we walked around the town just exploring and then went out to dinner.

On Saturday we ended up at a Venezuelan restaurant on Kerkstraat. The kids loved the festive atmosphere and the food was delicious! We tried 3 different types of fresh salsa, an assorted appetizer tray and some delicious enchiladas con queso. Journey, always the tomato soup lover, had some Venezuelan tomato soup con queso!

Yesterday we ate at a Greek restaurant called Zorba the Griek. The food was delicious! We had an appetizer tray with hummus, bread, veges, fried feta cheese, grape leaves stuffed with rice, and lamb meatballs. Jeff had a lamb meat casserole with tomato sauce. I had chicken breast, rice, and fresh veges with parsley sauce. Justice had the broiled salmon and rice. Journey had tomato soup - this time with a bit of feta cheese and some fried mussles. Jagger ate a little bit of everything - he especially liked the lamb meatballs.

Believe it or not there are some places in this world that are closed on the weekends! Some stores are closed on Sundays and others close at 5pm. Most stores are closed on Monday mornings too! In the US we're so used to 24 hour as stations and mega department stores that open at 7am!

Typical Dutch parent's bike

This is a picture of a typical Dutch parent's bike for three. You can see that there is a child seat on the back and another one on the front behind the handlebars. When the bike only has one child seat it is always the one at the handlebars. I'm not sure why this is? Maybe it distributes the weight better and helps with balance? Most bikes with the front child seat have a clear plastic windscreen that shields the child from direct air. There is usually a basket over the front wheel, where the belongings and packages are kept. We have also seen dogs riding in these front compartments.

It is very common to see men and women in business attire riding their bikes to work. Even the elderly use their bikes as their major mode of transportation. As you walk up and down the streets you will see bikes locked to every possible railing, post, pole, or even mailbox!

Bicycles have the right-of-way on all roads. I have seen some really crazy moves where cyclists dart out in front of cars, cut them off, or ride behind them when they are trying to back up! Crossing the street as a pedestrian takes some practice because you must watch out for cars, bikes, and trams! If you step out in front of a biker they will certainly let you know it - most likely with a ringing of their bell and a nasty hand gesture!

Which one of you sent the snow over here???

It has been snowing non-stop since last night!! Amsterdam does not usually receive much snow and when it does get the occasional storm the snow doesn't accumulate.

Right now there is about 5 inches of snow on the ground and everything is a mess! According to the news channel, they have 60 salt trucks for the whole state and they are out of salt. Everyone (including natives) is walking around taking pictures because they know this will not happen again soon.

I bundled Jagger up this evening and took him for a really long walk. He was covered with the plastic stroller rain cover so he had a good view and was nice and warm. It was quite a workout to push an umbrella stroller with a 35 lb kid in it through the slush and snow, but I needed some exercise. I was quite impressed with the Silver Cross Micro's performance, especially since I was pushing it to it's limits. I think the bigger wheels are what made the difference.

The tram stops were swamped with people waiting for a ride home from work. The trams usually come every few minutes, but tonight there are very few of them because they are running into ice jams on the tracks in the areas further out of town. As Jagger and I walked past a group of people we heard them cheering when a tram came into view. The cheers turned to boos when the tram went right past them because it was full of people!

We have been watching the people out the window and counting the number of people that fall down! Is that terrible or what? It's unbelieveable to see all of these people trying to ride their bikes in this snow, but I guess they need to get them home somehow! We have even watched a few snowball battles and saw a car full of young guys stop on the bridge and make a bunch of snowballs that they put back into the car. Wonder what they were gonna do?

Yesterday we all went for a long walk to Dam Square. The courtyard in front of the Royal Palace had a little festival. They had a merry-go-round, street performers, lots of food booths, and a temporary ice skating rink. The kids each got some Sucre Spin (sugar spin = cotton candy) and then we came home and dealt with the sugar meltdowns!

We haven't been out to do much yet, as the temperature has been cold and the kids still seem to be getting used to the time change. Jagger slept for 16 hours a few nights ago! Hopefully we will be able to find an indoor activity for tomorrow.

Grocery Shopping

People around here go grocery shopping at least once or twice daily. Most people walk or bike everywhere, so stocking up on groceries or buying in bulk is not possible. The grocery store near us does not even have grocery carts because there really is no need for them. Everything you are going to buy has to fit in a blue handbasket or you won't have a way to get it home!

The stores are very crowded, especially at 5pm when you sometimes have to wait your turn to get a handbasket. People seem very rushed and impatient. They know what they want and need and get impatient with those who stop to read labels!

Everyone brings their own bags for their groceries -mostly backpacks and cloth tote bags because these are what fit on their bikes the best. If you do show up at the store without a bag you can buy a plastic one for sixteen Euro cents! Is it just me or is that pretty expensive?

Shopping in a foreign grocery store without knowing the language is a bit rough. I rely on pictures a lot. Product placement is another big issue. I mean, you wouldn't pick up a jar of white powder in the aisle with the laundry soap and expect it to be coffee creamer, right? I have made a few mistakes though.....

The first mistake was with pancakes. Journey really wanted to buy these cute little packaged pancakes the size of silver dollars. We grabbed a package and went in search of the syrup. Imagine his surprise when he stuffed his mouth with a big forkful of pancakes topped with molasses! It looked the same color and was in the baking section!! LOL! I later found out that the people here eat their pancakes topped with powdered sugar!

Another issue was with the pre-packaged "apples". I thought it was neat that these apple pieces came cut in all different shapes and sizes - small balls, bigger balls, slices, etc. I knew that the word for apple was appel and that the word for orange was sinasappel. I didn't think about the fact that this package said it conatined arrdappels. I bought a package for the kids to nibble on as a treat. They were quite surprised when they chomped on a piece of potato! So I ended up frying them in a little butter and we ate them with ketchup. They were actually pretty good and I will probably buy more.

The third mistake was tonight. I bought a package of the pre-cooked cubed meat to mix with some vegetables. Journey wanted a few chunks of it when he saw me open the package so I put a few pieces on a plate for him. He said it didn't taste right. Justice tried it and said it wasn't chicken. I tried it and realized it was some sort of pork fat! Seriously, these were big chunks of lard! They do eat a lot of fatty pork products here and I've heard that the sausages are very fatty, but I never expected a full package of fat! And this was in the section of chopped meats for use on salads and on brodjkes.

And another incident happened this evening. I took a shower and washed my hair (used shampoo and conditioner). I found this bottle of hair gel that was left here and decided to use it since my hair is so frizzy in the humidity. The bottle was labeled as Douche Gel and stuff inside was clear. After I rubbed some in my hair and it formed a lather I realized that "douche" means shower!! Justice was nice enough to rinse my hair over the bath tub so I didn't have to get undressed and back in the shower again.

I'm sure there will be more mistakes - nothing too detrimental so far though!