Congratulations, Mr. President

It feels a bit unreal, but America finally has a new president...


Brian and I watched the inauguration from our home in Amsterdam, and couldn't help feel a bit hopeful about the future of our country. We're both looking forward to what the next four years bring with President Barack Obama!

Here's Fishstick and I watching the event on CNN International:


- Krista

We sold our house!!!

It's official: After more than half a year of watching the U.S. economy and housing market get worse and worse, we have finally sold our Portland condo.

For those of you who know anything about the difficulties we've had with it over this past year, you'll understand what a big relief this is to us and how fortunate we feel to have gotten an offer at all.

We both had many good memories in this home - Brian bought it just before we met almost three years ago, and I lived there with him for a short time before moving to Amsterdam. We both loved the neighborhood, and really enjoyed living there. Its sale marks the end of one chapter in our lives, and a new, exciting beginning together.

A few memories from our old place:

Our old living room

A baby Fishstick in his first home

- Krista

Dutch lessons!

We've finally started Dutch lessons!

We're taking the lessons through Berlitz, and they'll probably last around five or six months.

We had our first lesson last week, and learned things like this:


A: Wie ben je? (What's your name?)
B: Ik ben Krista. (My name is Krista.)
A: Aangenaam! (Nice to meet you!)

A: Uit welk land kom je? (What country are you from?)
B: Ik kom uit America. (I'm from America.)

Ik spreek een beetje Nederlands! (I speak a little Dutch!)


It's going to be a slow learning process, especially since it's really easy to get by speaking English only, but we both hope to get at least a basic foundation of the language.

Here's Brian with our new Dutch language book:


Tot ziens!

- Krista

Waffles, french fries & Belgian beer

After coming back from the U.S., we had an entire week before Brian had to go back to work, so we decided to take advantage of our European location and go to Belgium the day after new years. It was a quick trip - just two nights - but we managed to make it to both Brugges and Brussels. We had a good time, and it was a pretty easy trip since we took the train and it's so close!

I'd been to Brugges before with my parents a few years ago, but this was Brian's first time. It's a really cute town, very picturesque with windy little streets full of shops, restaurants and people (there were tons of people out despite the bitter cold).

We enjoyed Brussels, even though we could have used a better map to get us from the train station to our hotel (Google maps was wrong!!!). The city is bigger than either of us expected, and reminded us at times of San Francisco. We didn't really get a chance to do anything very touristy since we were there mainly on a Sunday, but just walked around and got to see a bit of the city so that was nice. There just wasn't the same pressure to do every single thing as there would have been if we had come from the U.S. for a visit - it's so easy to go back!

Here are a few pictures from the trip:

Brian consulting with our favorite travel guide Rick Steves in Brugges' main town square

Mannekin Pis dressed up as a blind person to celebrate 200 years of braille (read more about the famous Brussels statue at Wikipedia)

Me freezing in Brussels

Together in Brussels

- Krista

Happy New Year!

I can't believe it's 2009 already!

We chose to celebrate the New Year with fellow Portlanders Andy, Elyse, Jesse & Michelle, since they were in Amsterdam for the holiday as well. We had them over to our place for drinks and games, then headed out to explore the city before midnight.

The crowds in Amsterdam on New Year's Eve are crazy, and we had to try hard not to get hit by a firework (there are not many organized fireworks in Amsterdam, just a bunch of crazy people lighting them off wherever they want). It was a great night - we had a great time walking around the city and seeing all of the interesting people around town!

Here are a few photos from the night:

Jesse, Brian & Andy being goofballs

Brian and I all bundled up

Happy New Year everyone, I hope you're all doing well!

- Krista