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.