Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I hope you all had an enjoyable, relaxing time filled with good food and friends and family.

Although Amsterdam does not actually have a Thanksgiving holiday, there are enough ex-pats here that we were able to have our own little celebration.

We went over to our friends Andy and Elyse's apartment, where they had a gathering of around 15 people. We brought over homemade pumpkin pie, garlic mashed potatoes and our own little veggie-meat concoction - yes, that's right, I made a pie! For all of you out there who have ever doubted my cooking abilities, the pie and the mashed potatoes turned out great (my Mom tells me that at one point I told my brother I didn't know how to make a peanut butter sandwich... oops)!

Anyways, we ate a lot of really good food, played a few games and stayed till around midnight even though Brian had to work the next day. We had a great time, even though we really missed being with our families. It helps to think we'll be back in the States soon.

Here are a few photos from the night:

Food! And lots of it

Brian and Colin

Me eating... like I did all night

Brian and I being goofballs

Love you all!

- Krista

Snow!

It snowed here this weekend, much to our surprise. It was very picturesque to see snowflakes falling on all the old buildings and canals, although once it hit the ground it instantly became mush - the only things it actually stuck to were cars and rooftops (and our hats and jackets...).

Even though we were both really excited at the idea of snow (I still get like a little kid hoping for a snow day whenever I see a single flake), we froze while walking around in it! Apparently we need to get some warmer clothes for the winter here... puffy coats anyone?

Me braving the wind/cold

Brian and I covered in snowflakes

- Krista

Sinterklaas!

Sinterklaas has arrived!

For those of you who don't know who Sinterklaas is (most likely anyone without a Dutch or Belgian background...), here's a little history lesson for you.

Sinterklaas is the Dutch version of Santa Claus, although he delivers presents on St. Nicholas Day, December 6th, instead of December 25th. He looks like a cross between the pope and the American Santa Claus:


He brings presents and leaves them in wooden shoes that children leave out for him, which is why Holland is so famous for wooden shoes (I've never actually seen people wear these...).

Sinterklaas also has a helper, called Zwarte Piet (translation: Black Pete), and yes, if you're wondering, it's a very politically incorrect figure. The historic explanation is that he is an imported African servant - today's reasoning is that his face is black because "it's black from soot" from climbing up and down chimneys while delivering gifts. Apparently the Dutch government has been trying to change the image of Zwarte Piet for a while now - but you still see kids on the streets dressed up in Spanish colonial outfits (the traditional Zwarte Piet clothing) with their faces painted black. Brian thinks it's atrocious, and I'm not too fond of it either...

Anyway, the Dutch Sinterklaas is really the basis for the American Santa Claus (we had to Americanize the name like we always do). Apparently during the American War of Independence, New Yorkers living in the former Dutch colonial town of New Amsterdam took the old Dutch tradition and made it their own. So there you have it - that's where Santa Claus comes from!

Check out this Wikipedia article if you're interested in more of the story.

Here are a few pictures from this weekend (Sinterklaas comes a few weeks before St. Nicholas Day so he can see whether the kids have been good or bad, and everyone dresses up and runs out to see him):

This is a terrible picture, but Sinterklaas is at the very front of the boat

Everyone in their boats chasing Sinterklaas and people lined up along the canals to see him

- Krista

De Bazaar in Beverwijk

On Sunday we joined some friends from Brian's work and took a 40-minute train ride out to a town called Beverwijk to visit what is supposedly the largest market in Europe. It was huge - more like a village than a market - I guess there are somewhere around 2500 stalls, and at least 10 gigantic tents.

And you can buy anything you ever dreamed of; we saw everything from computers, to power tools, to old cameras and clothing items... the list goes on. In fact, a lot of the stalls in the tents we went in (3 out of 5 of us were tuckered out after the very first tent, so we only went in around 3 total I think) were filled with absolute junk. It literally looked like some of the people went in their attic and took out everything they didn't want and tried to sell it. And people were actually buying it!

There was also a stand where there were pre-wrapped presents, and for 10 Euros you could buy one and get a "surprise" gift out of it. €10 for something you have no idea what it could be? I have better things to spend my money on, thank you.

Anyway, here are a couple of photos from the day:

In order: Colin, Andy (hiding in the back with the hat on) Elyse, and Brian

Elyse, Andy and I in one of the massive tents

- Krista

Housewarming

After talking about it for about a month, Brian and I finally got organized enough to have a housewarming party last night. I was a bit nervous about it because I don't consider myself much of a hostess, but we had a lot of fun and I think everyone else enjoyed themselves as well. Our place isn't huge so we couldn't have a ton of people, but I think at one point there was somewhere around 20 guests - a mix match of Brian's co-workers, their significant others, neighbors, a few former Portlanders (friends-of-friends that happened to move to Amsterdam at the same time as us), and a hodgepodge of Finnish people we didn't know.

Unfortunately, despite my good intentions, my camera never made it out of my purse all night - meaning we have absolutely zero photos to post. But the good thing is that it was not as traumatizing of an experience as I thought it might be, so we may actually have another party again in the semi-near future - and I will be sure to post photos from that!

Also, we found out from our neighbors that we are actually living on a street that has been nominated for the past ten out of eleven years as the most beautiful street in Amsterdam - we knew it was pretty, but had no idea it was that pretty! So I thought I'd post a photo of Henri Polaklaan (our street's name, if you hadn't guessed) so you don't feel completely bogged down by text:

Pretty, right? The zoo is at the very end of the street.

Also, here's a pretty cute picture of Fishstick, if you're wondering what he's up to these days:

He's pretty happy, and yes, very warm and cozy.

- Krista

London x2

Brian and I went to London this past Wednesday - him for work, and me for, well, play. I wasn't planning on going - in fact, I got my plane ticket on Tuesday, the day before we left - but we both decided that since I got a free hotel out of it and the plane tickets were so cheap, there was no reason for me not to go.

It was a fun, quick trip - we stayed two nights, and left Friday morning (if I had actually thought about it I would have stayed until at least Friday afternoon or so, but for some reason I tried to fly out at the same time as Brian which made no sense since he had to go straight to work from the airport). We got to stay right in the center of London, by a cool shopping area called Oxford Circus (pictured below):


Even though Brian was at work most of the time, I had a really nice time just walking around and exploring the city. I've been to London somewhere around 5 or 6 times, and especially this time it really felt like I was going to the big city, since Amsterdam is so small and quaint. Plus, since I've been getting a bit homesick lately, it was strangely comforting to see familiar American sites like this one:


I also got really excited at the thought of Christmas, which is in full swing in London already, when I saw department store displays like this:


It was a nice reminder that we are headed home to the States for the holidays in just a little bit more than a month.

I also got to attend part of a photoshoot (Brian's reason for going) while I was there, which was pretty interesting since at one point I thought that's what I might want to do with my life. And, since Brian was there with some London-savvy eaters, we went to some great restaurants, which is always a plus.

We really miss you all at home, and would love to hear from any of you that we haven't heard from for a while!

- Krista

Museumnacht '08

Last weekend, Brian and I went to our first ever Amsterdam museumnacht (museum night) - a once a year event where all of the museums in Amsterdam stay open until two or so in the morning and have special attractions aside from their normal displays.

We met up with some friends from Brian's work (some former Portlanders, in fact) and walked around the city, trying our best to avoid long lines but still see interesting things. Our favorite was the Van Gosh Museum, where we saw a great jazz/soul band and had toured the exhibits with Andy and Elyse and their friend Kyle another former Portlander who now lives in Geneva.

Here are a few pictures from the night below:

Brian and I at a wierd alchohol museum


Brian, me, Kyle, Elyse and Andy (yes, we stole this picture from your blog guys! forgive us)

- Krista