London calling

This past weekend Brian and I took our first holiday together since we've been living here and flew to London to see Brian's sister Amy, her husband Jamie and our new 4-month old nephew Felix. The weekend involved lots of Indian food, people watching and walking for hours around the gigantic city. While we were there we spent some time by ourselves exploring London (we'd both been a few times before so we skipped most of the tourist stuff) and on Saturday got to hang out with Amy, Jamie & Felix on the waterfront of the Thames River. Felix was great, he barely fussed at all and seemed to enjoy the company of his new aunt and uncle.

It was a short but really nice trip and it was great to meet up with the Gambell's on this side of the world before they make their big move to Los Angeles in September. I've posted some of the highlights below:

Brian, Jamie, Amy & Felix talking about our plans for the day

Mom & son

Brian and me on the London tube

Enjoying the park in our brightly colored shirts

Brian and me in front of a big Lion - we were 10 feet up or so

When Brian and I were first looking into moving abroad, we had considered London an option - so it was really interesting to go there and see how different our lives would have been had we moved there instead of Amsterdam. Although we both think London is great, we were pleasantly surprised how much more at home we feel in the Netherlands. To me, London is more like New York - full of opportunities and culture, but gigantic and money-driven. It takes forever to go anywhere in the city, even with the Tube, and our standard of living would have been much lower if we'd moved there because everything is so incredibly expensive.

Amsterdam is quirky - full of long, windy staircases, people who don't necessarily go out of their way to help you, and completely unpredictable weather. Nothing is ever perfect - grocery stores don't have the same thing from one day to the next, the showers are less than luxurious, and nearly two thirds of all bikes in Amsterdam are stolen at some time or another (Brian's was taken last week). But both Brian and I have found that the quirky, laid back attitude here really fits us, and we're glad to be here in the city where guys and girls alike sport their skinny jeans, big Nike high tops and pea coats even on the hottest of summer days.

- Krista

WORK!

Hello all,

Biked into work this Tuesday!

Very fun. The view was incredible. Most of the ride was along rivers, and the rest was picturesque countryside and small towns. I rode with my new boss, Andy, and we kept a pretty good pace. The ride is about 40km from Central Station and it took about 1:20 minutes. Hoping to ride in a bit as the weather is finally getting nicer.


So work has been pretty fun so far, I am on good projects and learning a lot as always. It’s hard to describe without giving too much specifics as the projects are secret until they come out later, but I can try. For the most part, my job is to come up with tons of ideas for how to design something. Then my bosses pick one of the directions and we flush it out together. I am currently doing some special footwear packaging, a showroom space, some logos, and helping with the re-design of NikeTown, London. Each of the projects start out with some brainstorming around the general direction we want to take and then hopefully grow into something cool within those parameters.

When things are done and in the marketplace I can put them online.

The general work environment is cool, and small; we have about 10 Designers and Architects working under 4 Directors. I am primarily working on Sportswear with a Creative Director and 3D Designer. We sit in an open area with a bunch of desks and people are always in and out on photoshoots and vacations. I hope to go on lots of both☺
I am still getting the hang of everything and figuring out where I fit in, but I feel like I have made some good contributions already.

Here are some pictures of Nike Europe, it is a totally green campus, built by the inventor of Cradle to Cradle Architecture Michael McDonough.

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/05/mcdonough_slideshow200805?slide=15



- Brian

Museum hopping

I'm starting to get used to life here in the Netherlands, aside from the weather which is completely and totally unpredictable (I've yet to find a weather site that has been even 50% accurate). And since Brian is always working during the week (granted his hours are much better here than they were back in Portland), I've tried to figure out a little routine for myself during the weekdays in order to keep myself from getting bored. For the most part this includes walking/biking around the city for hours, going for a run, getting coffee, trying to figure out something interesting to make for lunch, and yes, possibly stopping by a bakery/gelato place/food market or something of the sort for a mid-afternoon snack. Since we've both been to Amsterdam before, we'd done most of the tourist stuff already, so neither of us felt a huge need to spend our Euros on tourist traps right away. But last Friday I decided to really take advantage of all the culture the city has to offer and got what's called a museum pass (or, Museumjaarkaart in Dutch).

It works like this: I get access to 400 museums in all of the Netherlands for an entire year for only €23. No strings attached. No feeling like I have to stay there for 4 hours and get that headset thing with the incredibly boring speaker that costs anywhere from €4-10 to feel I got my money's worth. I can go every day if I want!

So as you can tell, I'm very excited about this. I think it will be a great way to keep my brain working properly while I'm not working and while the weather is less than perfect. And what a deal!

On Friday I went to the Rijksmuseum, which has famous paintings by people like Rembrandt and Vermeer that I learned about in my art history class last year, and paintings like this one that I was forced to memorize:


Tomorrow I think I will go to the Amsterdam photography museum and possibly the Van Gogh Museum to see paintings like this one:


Pretty cool, if you ask me. Anyway, here are a few other random pictures from adventurous nights here in Amsterdam:

Brian at our favorite Italian/pizza place - recommended by Rick Steves, of course

Me after a few slices of that yummy pizza

Brian and I toasting to the city

Hope everyone is well back at home!

- Krista

Geography lessons

Well we've been here for nearly three weeks now (I can't believe it's been that long - that means I go back to Portland in less than a month!) and I think it is due time for a quick geography lesson on our new country. Here's a map to get your brain flowing:

You see, before we moved here, I would tell people both that "we're moving to Holland" and "we're moving to the Netherlands," using the two names as synonyms. Well, both statements were actually true - we are living in Holland and the Netherlands, although Brian and I recently learned that they do not mean the same thing. In fact, Holland is just a region in the Netherlands, actually broken up into two parts, Noord-Holland (North Holland) and Zuid-Holland (South Holland). Here's a map so you get a better idea of what I'm talking about:

Amsterdam is located in North Holland, while Rotterdam, the second largest city in the Netherlands, and the Hague (the third largest city and the location of the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice) are located in South Holland. Apparently these two regions used to be just one but was broken up into two in the 19th century because the rest of the Netherlands felt the one region had too much power.

I've also heard that other Netherlanders are still jealous of the two Hollands - because of the name confusion and the fact that when most of the world thinks of this little country, they think of Amsterdam and the other two biggest cities, not of the rest of the country. I guess they feel threatened by the power and international identity of these two provinces, and they probably should because virtually everything that goes on in the Netherlands goes on in its three biggest cities.

I hope you learned something!

Cheers,

Krista

Straight Outta Haarlem

Today we went to a small town outside of Amsterdam recommended by our friend Rick Steves; Haarlem. Pretty cool place, but about as dead as Elvis on this sunday afternoon. We were planning on going to the nearby beach, but it started to rain and that idea died. Maybe when summer really comes we can check the beach out.

Anyway, here are the photo highlights.

Consulting the mastermind on the train to Haarlem.

Krista and I mocking the historical monuments.

Eating MAOZ falafels. Why does Krista look so much better in all these photos?

We will have to return on a saturday when its nicer and see the famous market there. We are hoping to bike to Haarlem, and then to the beach next time.

Word up,

-Brian

Home sweet home

We have a new home!

Well, nearly that is. Brian and I went apartment shopping with the Nike relocation company on Tuesday and although we were told we had a low budget and there aren't many apartments open right now (renting is expensive here - I don't know how anyone affords it), we found a place we both loved.

The place is located in a very nice, kid-friendly neighborhood, and is just minutes away from downtown, the train station, awesome parks, etc... It's also right across from Amsterdam's only zoo called the Artis Zoo, which we're both excited about. Artis is really pretty, free everyday after 4pm, has a million parks and has the coolest advertising campaign involving a sock monkey going on right now:

The result is large billboards with sock monkeys all over town - awesome!

Anyway, our place is very nice. It's split level, wood floors, has lots and lots of light (tons of windows and half the ceiling in the living space area is a skylight), and is huge for us - Brian thinks around 1800 square feet (compared to our place in Portland which was 750). The landlord is going to repaint the whole thing for us, and we will need to buy an oven and new refrigerator when we move in, but he's giving us a discount off the rent because of that so we don't really mind. We don't have pictures of the inside yet, but we'll post them when we do. Here are a few of the outside:

Ours is the one on the right - the penthouse!


A community dining area out front, very cute


The outside of Artis Zoo, right down the street from our place!

The only downside of this whole thing is that I won't really get to live there till October, since we won't be able to move in until the beginning of August because the rest of our stuff won't be here until then. But our temporary place is very nice, so I can't complain... plus, it will just make it even more exciting to come back after the wedding!

- Krista

Biking the canals

One of the things we've both wanted to do since the second we got here was take a boat and tour the many canals in the city. There are always hundreds of boats out on the water, regardless of the weather, and it always looks like so much fun to us, especially the boats that are packed full of people and everyone is drinking wine and eating good food and looking like they're having a wonderful time. Unfortunately, since we don't know anyone here with a boat yet, this party boat ride is not yet an option to us. And since we didn't want to waste our money on one of those gigantic tourist boats where everyone looks like they'd rather be sleeping than be out on the water, we decided to do the next best thing: rent a canal bike!

If you've never seen one, a canal bike is a really small boat that can fit up to four or so people and the people up front power it by pushing the pedals, just like a bike. There is also a very rudimentary turning system (we soon found out this didn't work very well). Well, we brought our snacks of wine, cheese and chocolate onto the boat with us in hopes of a very relaxing hour of fun. But for some reason we didn't realize there would be some actual work involved through the peddling of the boat, and by the end of it we were both sweating as we fought the current to get the boat back in time. It was a gorgeous day and lots of fun, but I think next time we'll have to find a boat where we can just sit and relax!

Taking a break from peddling for the camera

Me smiling - what a pretty day!

A random couple on a boat with their dog - we hope this is us with Fishstick someday!

- Krista

Amsterdam on wheels

Since we've been here, walking has been our only mode of transportation as we have no intention of getting a car and the tram hasn't looked too appealing in the sunny weather. But after a week of sore feet and slow moving, I am proud to say that we are now official Amsterdam bike owners. As some of you may know, we also brought our road bikes on the plane with us (a big pain, especially since Brian's right hand was not working properly...), but those bikes would not be at all practical for using as everyday bikes, for the primary reason that they would probably get stolen within a couple of days. Everyone we talked to told us the best thing to do was to buy the oldest, most beat up and ugly bike that we could find, and that's what we did. Brian and I each got a cruiser bike, a very sturdy upright bike perfect for city use. We bought them from this place called Recycled Bicycles in town, a one-man-show that takes old abandoned bicycles from around town and takes the good parts in order to create a new, working bike. A very cool place!

Well after having them a day or so, we've discovered that bicycling is a much quicker way of getting around the city, turning a 25-minute walk into a 10-minute bike ride. Back at home, if we were feeling lazy and didn't want to walk to the grocery store, restaurant, etc. we would take a car. But here, if we want to be lazy we'll just ride our bikes!

Me on my cruiser

Brian on his cruiser - yes we both have women's bikes (everyone does here)!

- Krista

Learning to use my left hand

Hello family and friends!

Krista has been doing a great job with the blog so far, and I am long overdue for a contribution, so here goes.

Coming over here has been both challenging and incredible, with the obstacles we have overcome each day making it all the more worthwhile and meaningful. The experience has been very surreal, and that feeling has not quite worn off after a week. I told Krista living here feels like using my left hand; I am not used to it, it's more difficult than it should be, and it feels funny. But it has been totally awesome. This sensation could also be tied to the fact that I injured my right palm fairly badly the night before we left. I was disassembling our road bikes and sliced it open on the crank.

To add to the oddness, my new team went to Berlin on my second day of work. I had no idea what to expect, so I went into it looking forward to hanging out with everyone and doing whatever team-building exercises the giant corporation expected.

The trip was much more like a field trip for grown ups, and was quite fun. We took the train early wednesday to Berlin and during the 6+ hour ride I mingled between cars and talked to everyone. My new team at Nike Europe is called Brand Design. It is a group of about 20 people and is essentially the in-house design firm for the company's european operations. Half are designers, and the other half are producers and content managers who help the eccentric artists get our work done.

The trip was very well planned with nice group dinners and excursions. Here are some pictures of the highlights.

a real Banksy!


My friend Dona and I on the rooftop bar in Berlin. We worked together when I first started at Nike in 2004.


Very cool art piece at postmodern gallery built in an old WWII bunker.


The holocaust Memorial. Incredible.

The Berlin Wall! This is the west German side with new graffiti, the opposite side has the graffiti intact from before the fall. This is one of the last parts still up.

Very cool experience, and a pretty easy first week. This monday I am getting down to business. My position will primarily be working on our Sportswear brand, which is a more fashion oriented label at Nike.

More soon!!

- Brian

Learning Dutch (Nederlands leren)

We've been here almost a week now so you probably expect me to be entirely fluent in Dutch by this time, but unfortunately, the opposite is true. Despite my best intentions to learn the language, I currently know approximately two Dutch words: "hullo" (hello, duh) and "straat" (street). Before we left, I bought several books on Dutch, including a dictionary, an audiobook, a phrase book, etc... And not one of them have been opened yet. My main excuse for this laziness is that about 99% of Dutch people speak English, so that makes it slightly difficult to motivate myself to learn this crazy language. But every street, menu, newspaper, sign, etc. is in Dutch, so it makes it a bit hard to get around not knowing how to read anything at all. Plus, people have started speaking to me constantly in Dutch (at least they don't instantly peg me as an American... my last name is Stryker after all, which could be Dutch even though it isn't), and since I don't even know the phrase for "I don't speak Dutch" all I can do is look at them with a blank stare until they realize that they need to try again in English. People have even been coming up to me all the time asking for directions, and since I am constantly lost in the city and can't understand a word they're saying, I have begun to feel like it's time for me to open that phrasebook and get a decent map.

My other main excuse for not being a fluent Dutch speaker by now is that I have no idea to pronounce anything at all. Dutch words in general are way too long and have about 9 vowels each. They also tend to be pronounced with the throat instead of the mouth and tongue. One humorous native Dutch speaker told Brian and I the other day that if we wanted to be understood in Dutch, all we had to do is vomit and everyone would understand what we were saying. Another told us that her throat hurts after speaking too much Dutch because there is so much hacking when speaking it. Well, since my background is in the beautiful Latin-based languages (you know, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese...), these comments are a little bit unnerving to me. Dutch is not one of these flowy romance languages, and people do not sound beautiful when they speak it. On the other hand, English isn't the prettiest language either, and I always love a challenge.

So, here we go... ik spreek geen nederlands ("I don't speak Dutch!")!

Vondelpark, a very pretty park near where we're hoping to live

Fishstick thoroughly enjoying himself in the sun

Tot straks,

Krista

Paying to pee

After being here for a few days now I've discovered a lot of things I love about the city, but there are a few things I feel pretty nostalgic about from back home. One of those things is free public bathrooms. See, here in the Netherlands (I know this is true in other places in Europe as well), if you have to use the restroom, you have to pay for it. So today I was walking around downtown after my morning coffee and decided it was time to find a bathroom. Well, not only are there an extreme lack of bathrooms in this town (I don't know how tourists last here), you have to pay to use the ones that do exist. So after searching for a while I finally found one, and there was a little machine in front that said insert 50 cent coin here or alarm will sound. Well I didn't have a 50 cent coin, I only had two 20 cent coins and a 10 cent, so I couldn't go in! So then I had to look around again for another bathroom which took me 20 minutes, but I have to admit that once I found it this one was a pretty pleasant experience. It was only 40 cents (what a bargain!) and the nice old man that took my money at the beginning wished me a wonderful day with a big smile when I walked out. I have to say, being thanked and smiled at for using a public restroom was a pretty good feeling. But I don't know if it beats the free and plentiful public bathrooms in the US.

Anyway, in case you didn't like my story, here are a couple of random photos to entertain you. Brian is currently on a work trip in Berlin, so hopefully he'll have something interesting to report when he gets back.

Cheers!

x2

Lots and lots of boats here - very pretty!

Brian conked out in front of the canal

At an outdoor cafe one night - there are so many of these and they're all fun!

This one's from today - it started out as a beautiful hot day and all of a sudden the sky opened up and started pouring. And no, of course I didn't have an umbrella. I ended up looking like a wet dog by the time I made it home...

- Krista