Survival of the Fittest

8 weeks into Dutch living and I'm finally starting to feel normal again.  We, or maybe just me (ok, probably just me), had a tough time transitioning and learning to feel comfortable with the inability to comprehend anything written or spoken around us.  I've since resigned myself to being the "dumb" American, and now I just own up to my inadequacies.  I will point blank tell people that I don't understand what they're saying, and I ask for help whenever and wherever I need it, which goes against everything I am, thus the difficult transition.  Our most interesting experiences with my new communication strategy have been in Asian restaurants.  The employees understand their native language and Dutch, and we don't understand either one.  Menu selections have been made by pointing at pictures and nodding...but it just goes to show that we can still communicate, even if it's not with words.

We are also getting out and exploring a little more, which helps cure boredom.  A couple of weekends ago we went to Amsterdam.  The trip was not so much a sight-seeing excursion but more of an experiment to see whether or not we could figure out the public transportation system.  So 3 hours into what should have been a 1 hour trip, we finally made it.  But, hey, we now know how to travel via the Metro AND the trains (2 completely separate entities), should the need arise.  Score not 1, but 2 for the Crane family...woohoo!  And on top of that, there were some cool places to look at that were still open once we made it to the city. 

There is so much to see and do in Amsterdam that there was no way we could cover everything in one afternoon, but we should have no problem going back once we have another free weekend.  Here are just a few photos from that day...

This "bike parking lot" shown above was the first thing we saw as we exited Amsterdam Centraal, the train station located in the center of the city.  Three full floors of nothing but bicycles...

It was impossible to get a clear shot of this iconic symbol because people climb on it and in it and just sit so they can people-watch or take pictures of their own.  But we took a picture anyway because a trip to Amsterdam would be incomplete without it.

As the city is surrounded by canals, people seem to spend a lot of time in boats.  I was hoping to capture the picnic table and small grill in the boat below, but I was a bit too slow.  Natives sure know how to get the most out of small spaces. 

One of the cool places we visited was the Rijksmuseum (Rijks rhymes with "likes").  It is a museum that is dedicated to the history and art of the Netherlands.  We actually saw REAL Rembrandt paintings! The picture below is a little crooked because I had to shove my way through 50 people to get to it, and then I knelt down and took the photo between the knees of two folks who wouldn't budge.  But I got it!  (Sorry Michelle, we didn't make it to the Van Gogh museum before it closed, but there's always next time.)

As a former science teacher, I once covered the topics of natural selection and, by close association, the term "survival of the fittest".   The basic concept is that organisms that are best adapted to their environment are the ones that will prevail. It doesn't inherently mean that an organism must be in the best physical shape, only that the ability to adapt is available and used to combat adversity.  I suppose it's a good thing I wasn't in a life or death survival situation as I probably would've been eaten by some large reptilian predator by now, but I think I've finally got this.  Here's to more adaptation ahead! Cheers!!

Old School

We have been in Holland 5 weeks now, and our life has been very different from what I expected.  Before we left the States, I pictured us on excursions to exotic locations and day trips to France, Belgium, and Germany.  Silly me to expect anything other than the mundane chores that come with setting up a home.  Dishes have to be washed, dinner has be cooked, mounds of laundry must be washed, dried, and folded... And then Sara is still working to finish up her second grade schoolwork.  She got a late start on the material from the very beginning, and moving around slowed us down even more.  So for the most part, we have just been trying to get into a routine and have some semblance of normalcy in our lives.

Of course, with the settling in comes obstacles.  Most days I feel like we have not only moved across the planet but that we have time warped back at least 25 years, maybe more.  For instance, I've been kickin' it old school on my snazzy new Dutch bike.  The Dutch ride bikes that look like this one everywhere...I guess when you're country is roughly the size of Maryland in land area but nearly 3 times the population, parking can be a problem. 

And whoever said you never forget how to ride a bike obviously never had to learn to ride a Dutch one 15 years after his most recent biking experience.  I never actually fell off, but let's just say that relearning wasn't pretty.
And then I'm making ice in ice trays again...something I haven't done in probably 10 years.  Oh and let me not forget that gone are the days of other modern conveniences.  I can actually say that I miss Walmart and its 24 hour availability.  I never thought I would say those words, but it's true.  Stores here are open from about 9 or 10 am until 5 pm.  If you're lucky, they're open later on Thursday and Friday evenings, but you can forget about them being open on Sundays at all.  What is this...the 1970's?  It's bad enough that I'm having to learn to enjoy a big juicy hamburger without French's mustard or dill pickle slices, but what happens if I have a true emergency...like a craving for peanut butter and chocolate ice cream at 10 pm?

As usual, I feel I must counter these trials with some bright points from our travels.  One in particular was our trip to Zaandam, which is a quaint little touristy town northwest of Amsterdam.

We climbed through an operational windmill that was constructed in the 1700s.  We watched it make dye for paint.

We also visited a cheese farm, and of course, sampled cheese...

And we watched a man who made the iconic wooden clogs.  A process that used to take hours has been modernized with a machine that can make a pair in 5 minutes.

 Sara and Levi tried on a pair...

It seems that I always end with some form of an apology so that I don't sound like some grumpy, ungrateful expat's wife.  My goal is to give you all a glimpse into what it's really like living here.  Life is never easy, and living the expat life is no exception.  The idea of living abroad can seem a bit glamorous, and frankly, I was so excited about the prospect of a year-long adventure that I didn't stop to consider the inconveniences we would encounter.  We are adjusting and we will be fine, but just remember all of this so when I post pictures of our trips to France, Belgium, and Germany, you'll know I earned it.  ;)