Twee La Chouffe alstublieft...

We've taken two Dutch lessons so far and my god is it one difficult language to learn. It's funny because even Dutch people will roll their eyes and agree with how crazy the language is. There are so many words that don't translate into English and vice versa. I have no hopes of ever becoming fluent or holding conversations in Dutch, it's more just wanting to be able to greet and thank people and read a menu. 
I'm holding my own so far, Matthew is another story ; ) Alstublieft! Veel Goed! 

Went to the movies last night and saw Casino Royale at the Theater Tuschinski. I've been looking forward to going there for a year, and it did not disappoint. It's a stunning theater that has been recently rehabbed. The architecture inside is very art deco, with extremely modern chairs and tables around the bar. Yes a bar/cafe right in the lobby.

There's an Irish pub called O'Reilly's not far from our apt. that we went to during a football game. It's so gezellig (cozy and warm)! Dark oak walls and floors, candles on every table. We ate fish-n-chips and bangers and mash while watching the game and more importantly, watching the people watching the game. Sipped on a few pints of Heineken and walked home. It was a good day.

Couple Discount?

ok, just a quick note...

my first job interview didn't go so well.
tomorrow, i'll try again.

this time at w+k, yes thats right, mo and i working at the same place.
watch out!

-matthew

Rozenstraat 43 -1

The move into our new aprtment went well. It basically entailed Matthew and I lugging four overstuffed suitcases down the cobblestone streets of Amsterdam for four blocks. Probably the easiest move I've ever had. Now we are waiting for confirmation on when the rest of our belongings will be delivered. We just need to wait for them to be cleared through customs. I can't wait to put some personal touches on the place. The formalities of all of the paperwork seems to be slowing down. Matthew was sent off to Den Hague (neighboing city) in order to get the non-marriage certificates legalized. I took a ride out to the IND offices in order to register my address with the city. After several roadblocks, our bank account is up and running. Wire transfer info and bill payments all set up with our US bank accounts. Next is processing my CV in order to obtain the 30% tax ruling. We've been busy to say the least.
I've learned a lot in the past couple of weeks at work. Putting together an estimate is not as easy as it once was. We have figures that are submitted in Rands, Euros, USD's, NZD's, etc.. Every week there is a new currency exchange rate that is printed off that we use as our guide. However, some of these estimates are rather large and are done far in advance of the actual production, so when the time comes to reconcile all of the costs, the fluctuation can change dramatically and can sometimes cause problems when trying to recoup the funds form the client.
On a side note, I never realized how often I wear tennis shoes to work until I started working here. As most of you know, one of W+K's main clients is Nike. You cannot wear any other brand of athletic style shoe ever. I had to find this out after wearing a pair of Adidias during my first week, I know I know, bonehead move but it never occurred to me once when putting them on! Needless to say I'll be buying some this weekend (Nike just recently bought Converse too, which I was glad to hear).
We walked down to the organic food market on Saturday which was amazing! It's about six or so blocks from our place. What a treasure.

US Embassy

We were told by my HR department that we needed to go to the US Consulate to obtain a Certificate of Non-Marriage in order to process our visas. Apparently we are the first non-married couple that they have moved over from the States. Matthew and I were honestly a little excited to walk over to the Embassy and see what it was like. It's on the other side of town in the Museumplein, a very beautiful part of the city. We woke up early and headed off not really knowing exactly where it was, but found it easily enough by the big American flag. I guess in the recent past there have been some protests around the building so they have constructed these huge iron gates all around it with police presence. Pretty intimidating. We rang an intercom and needed to wait to be escorted in, bags searched and got the metal detector wand. The guard then walked us into the this little tiny vestibule where we had to claim our phones, camera, bags etc... Both of us took a peek inside and saw the crowds of people thinking this was worse than the Secretary of State or the DMV at lunchtime. Thankfully enough we got to go to a different line for our information. It didn't take long, basically paid $60 to fill out a form stating neither of us has ever been married and took an oath saying all of the information was true.
Moving into the apartment on Monday. Can't wait!

I'll just add my 2 or 3 cents, to Maureen's post:
-Approaching the US Consulate, we noticed the flag was at half-mass, is that for James Brown or Gerald Ford?
I'd like to think it was for the "Godfather", but I have my doubts.

-In the waiting area, there were some interesting posters.
One was for "Explore West Virginia".
Not to offend anyone from the great state of West Virginia.
I was just like, is this poster really going to drum up tourism, placed in Amsterdam?

Another poster caught our eye, the text read "Catch The Spirit", and the picture was of an Native American.
You can connect the dots, just seemed strange to me.

-Continuing on the American theme for the day.
I had lunch at McDonald's.
No a "Royale with Cheese" was not on the menu. Regardless of what "Pulp Fiction" has lead us to believe.
It tasted like the same crap as back home, but hey I had to try.

Tonight we are going to our first European art opening!
Its at a place called Foam, and they are showing crime scene photos from the Amsterdam police department.
Damn, I should have done something with the crime photos from my photo lab days.

One other item of note,
I've got a job interview already. Its at another ad agency in town, started by former W+K employees.
If I get it, Maureen and I will be working at rival agencies. Let the fireworks begin!
Kidding, they have a very good relationship with each other.

Random Amsterdam

"Our Apartment ?"

Today, January 8 2007...

We looked at apartments, with the best agent in town.
Donovan, was the best!

He showed us high end, low end, and all the end's in between...

I took pics of all the apartments.
The apartment we've verbally agreed to is amazing!

I only took a few shots, being I thought it was out of reach...
But here ya go...

"First Day"

Monday January 2 was my first day of work. I am so excited to be a part of this agency. There are people from all over the world. In the business affairs departement I am the only American, there are two people from London and my supervisor is from Malaysia. Within the first week of work I made phone calls to Italy, France, Germany, Mexico, Canada, Poland and New Zealand. I love that aspect of this new job. Learning about all of the broadcast rules and regulations of all of the different countries is so interesting. Hell, just watching television here is fun. There is an Actimel milk commercial that shows a naked man running into the ocean. Try clearing that through the networks back home.
My first project is an Old Spice campaign that is only being shown in Eastern Europe. I'm helping out with some Wyborowa vodka (which we bought this weekend to taste test, pretty good!) ads and researching renewal info for some HVB (Hypovereinsbank) spots. I have to practice pronouncing things before getting on the phone with people, it's funny but everybody does it.
There are sixty stairs that I walk up and down everyday in order to get to my desk. Yes there is an elevator, but I will not be the only person using it. My calves were actually sore by the third day.

It's going to be a fun year.

We're Getting There

The grocery store we have found ourselves frequenting is the Albert Heijn. It is getting better each time we go, but gone are the days of simply running into a store and quickly grabbing whatever it is you need. It takes time to read through each label hoping desperately to see one familiar word to make sure that I'm not buying decaffeinated coffee. Matthew surprised me with Heinz ketchup and Tobasco sauce. Now if I can find Hidden Valley Ranch and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese somewhere I'm golden!

The options for food here are amazing. Anything you could possibly want is here. We've had great pizza at an Italian restaurant, Indonesian at Bojo which was a great find, Chinese (Chinees here) in Chinatown, even done dinner Anthony Bourdain style with some street food of falafel and shwarma. The only fast food chains that we've seen are McDonalds, Burger King and KFC, of which there's only a handful of. I love it. However I'm pretty sure that they may be the only places to get a fountain soda. Soda is served in teeny tiny glass bottles. I'm a guzzler and this poses a bit of a problem. Febo is a Dutch fast food chain where you stand outside and put your money into a slot and grab whatever processed fried sandwich is inside. People seem to love it, but I'm a little weary.

The night before my first day of work the power in the apartment went out. Now we blew a fuse on the first day here when I plugged in my American blow dryer. (I've since heard this is a common occurrence, so needless to say a new dryer was my first European electronic purchase) So at first I thought we would simply need to flip the switch on the circuit breaker and we'd be back in business, but that was no go. It was nine thirty on New Years Day, nothing is open. Obviously we had to get in touch with the rental company, but had no phone and no idea how to make a phone call from a pay phone. Thinking this was the perfect time to figure it out we headed out to figure it out. The whole time visions of me arriving for my first day of work in wrinkled clothes and frizzy hair is making me crazy mad. I started fumbling around with the phone menu not understanding anything, sticking the credit card in when I thought you were supposed to, finally getting in touch with the operator who told me I was on an international phone and needed to find a local phone. Screw it!
We just went home and sent an email to the company and went to bed. In the morning getting ready try the whole thing over again, Matthew flipped the switch to double check and the power was back on. Thank god!

So far so good. I bought a cell phone this weekend, we're looking at apartments tomorrow, we went out with some new co-workers of mine, things are slowly coming together.

New Years Eve

New Years in Amstedam is like nothing that either one of us has ever experienced before. We headed out after dinner to wander Dam Square where they were holding a huge festival with DJ's, lights, dancers etc.. We tooled around and took advantage of the local treats ; )until the crowds became too overwhelming and crazy (crazy Italians kicking cans and screaming, not knowing where we were, Chinese firecrackers being let off for twenty feet). At midnight the entire city for miles and miles lit up with fireworks. This is the only time in NL where fireworks are legal. So every corner of every street in the city is letting them off. For an hour and half, non-stop people walking out to the canals with glasses and bottles of champagne to watch it. I've never seen anything like it, utterly amazing.