Thanksgiving?

I have to say that yesterday, Thanksgiving Day, was rather bizarre to me here. Nobody talks about it. I couldn't find any Thanksgiving specific things at the grocery, nor in the mall. Efe had to work a full day. It is just totally different than at home when every single person is home and celebrating.

Tomorrow I will attempt to cook a mini-Thanksgiving meal. So far, every single item that I am making is missing one ingredient because I can't find it here. Oh well. Hopefully it will still be good. Have you ever used a real vanilla bean to cook instead of vanilla extract? I guess I have no choice, so we'll see what happens...

The Road to Nowhere

Yesterday, we decided to make a trip to a well-known pancake house here in Amsterdam. The TomTom led us to the edge of a park, where we did not see the pancake house. So, we went inside a restaurant to ask how to get there. They told us to take the path outside to the end, then turn right and it will be right there. They said it would be 10-15 minute walk.

OK, we figured Mason could probably handle walking 10-15 minutes, so we left towards the pancake house. Um, does this path look like 15 minutes?
No, it wasn't. Efe and I estimated it was about a 1.5-2 mile walk to the pancake house. It took us about 40 minutes to get there. We finally arrived, and we noticed parking just outside the pancake house, by the way >:-(
Mason walked most of the way, and Efe carried for a bit. We were in GREAT moods after our arrival, as evidenced in the following picture.
But, then we got our pancakes, and all was well again.
Mason got banana pancakes, his favorite as always. As you can see in the picture above, the pancakes here are not like our pancakes back home. They are very thin, more like a crepe without the filling, and they are covered with powdered sugar, with no syrup to be found.

I had banana chocolate pancakes...

Making Friends

Mason and I went downtown to meet some new people, as part of the American Women's Club of Amsterdam (AWCA). We went to Cafe Americain, which was supposed to be an American restaraunt, but I'm not sure why. None of the food really seemed American to me, except they did have "American Hamburgers".

Outside of the cafe, there was a fountain with green water, which Mason thought was about the coolest thing he had ever seen.

I met about 10 other women that came to the "new-comers lunch". I'm not sure how many women there are in the club total, but I'm guessing several hundred. They have smaller group meetings that any member can go to. We are planning to start going to weekly play dates through the club, but they also have excursions, book clubs, game clubs, etc.

And Mason made a new friend there, Gabrielle. She was about a year older than him. She was "teaching Mason to read".
Mason just adored her. They actually posed and asked me to take out my camera to take a picture. Too cute!

Amsterdam Zoo

Every time we have talked about going to Amsterdam over the past few months, the first thing Mason talks about is going to the zoo there. We took a trip down to see it the other day, and he loved it. He told me today he wanted to go again TODAY.
Mason thought it was cool riding the Metro.

The zoo was so cool because many of the animals were just surrounded by water, instead of caged, so it seemed like you could get so much closer.

Mason refused to open his eyes for this picture with the penguins. He was being a stinker, as usual these days.

Dinner

We went downtown to dinner last night at an Indian restaurant. It was pretty good. Definitely different than the Indian food at home. It was very sweet, and Efe almost had to threaten them the last time he went there to make it spicy. This time they knew he meant business and they made it (a little) spicy. The Dutchies do not like spice AT ALL. I'm sure Mason likes it that way though.

Dinner takes forever, which is a little hard to get used to. When they go to dinner here, they expect it to take about 2 hours. It takes forever before they get your order, then forever to get the food, then forever to get a refill (you have to stop them and ask because they won't even come to your table), then forever to get the check.

Efe told me he was complaining about the service to a local that he works with. The guy had been to the US and he said "That is not service, I don't want the waiter coming to my table constantly hounding me, I want to relax." It is funny how the perspectives are soooo different.

They think that Americans are too rushed. Maybe I will feel the same way when we get back :)

Seriously?

We took the metro (?? or maybe the tram or maybe the train, how am I going to get this straight?) downtown today. This is the name of the stop closest to our apartment. I was hoping to try to learn some Dutch while I'm here, but seriously? I swear every single street name has 5 syllables.

Doggie Paradise

People are CRAZY over dogs here. I was carrying Kaiser in a bag (that is made for dogs), and I had two different Dutch people ask me if I was sure he would be ok in there. I seriously thought they were going to turn me in for animal cruelty.

You just would not believe this. Yesterday, we walked to a mall. Kaiser was allowed in the mall. Dogs can go shopping with their owners. But what really tops it is that he also came in the restaurant and sat under the table while we had lunch. There was another dog at the table next to us, and she was actually sitting up in a chair at the table. It is insane! Dogs can pretty much go anywhere their owners can go, malls, restaurants, grocery stores, etc.

Safe and Sound

We made it to Amsterdam! We arrived early this morning. It was a long trip, but we are happy to finally have our family reunited.

The Things I Will Miss Most

I will miss going to breakfast at Bub's Cafe every Sunday.
... taking Mason to Holliday Park (his favorite).
... talking to Tina at work while I am supposed to be doing work.
... calling Leah on my way to lunch.
... having lunch with Amber to get a nice break from the day.
... being there when Amber starts trying to have a baby.
... meeting my mom "half way" for dinner.
... spending the holidays with family
... having Dave K. psychoanalyze my every move.
... coffee breaks with my coworkers.
... being surrounded by other geeks at work that are excited to talk about stuff that most people would make fun of
... fighting with Lam, just to see him get frustrated.
... working? nah, maybe not that.
... eating boneless wings at BW3's.
... peppermint white mocha from starbucks
... watching mind-killing reality TV
... seeing all of my friends' babies as they grow so quickly
... Mason's birthday parties with my in-laws, parents and Mason's Aunts
... playing games with my step-sisters
... seeing my Grandpa over the holidays, as I'm not sure how many more he will be around
... becoming closer with Maro, as we have been living with her
... the occasional lunch with Karen to catch up and see her little "bean"
... reading mine and Amy's contract (from college) about how we were never going to have a boyfriend
... seeing Brittany when she comes to visit
... visiting Uyi and Anita in the spring time
... my mother-in-law's cooking
... telling my dad and step-mom to stop spending so much for the holidays
... listening to my brother talk about his beliefs
... my house

Barack Obama Elected?

woohoo! yippee! hooray!

I just watched John Mccain give his concession speech. 'The American people have spoken, and spoken clearly.'

Halloween

Mason, Auntie Maro and I went Trick-or-Treating last night. Mason had lots of fun going up to the doors and ringing the doorbells. He loved that he was getting lots of candy. We let him have a sucker last night, and he was acting super hyper. Tons of fun to look forward to as he eats all of the candy.

I couldn't find my camera, so I couldn't get a picture. So, I'm uploading a picture of him in his costume that my mom took a couple of weeks ago.