Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!!! I hope you get to have a great time celebrating and eating with family and freinds. Today is just another day for the Dutch folks. I couldn't even find some stuffing in a can to cook. It's a little weird for me knowing that most people in the states are settling down for a big meal and I won't be.

I managed to make it to the city center (Centrum) all by myself yesterday without getting lost. Here are some pictures from Groningen. The first picture is the Groningen Art Museum and a houseboat on the canal. The second is of the trash cans in Groningen. There isn't a regular trash man that comes and picks up your trash once a week. Here, you pay to put your trash in these receptacles.

These pictures are of some buildings in Groningen.

The left hand picture is buildings along the Fish Market in the city center. The right hand picture is of a street in Groningen. I'm getting used to the narrow streets here.

More Fun with redecorating

A couple days ago, John took the day off from work so we could remove the wallpaper from our bedroom. One wall had one layer of wall paper, a layer of paint, plaster patch work, another layer of wallpaper, and then paint over that. Most of it came off pretty easily. But it really made a huge mess, as you can see from the pictures below. One of Johns freinds, Harry, came by to assess replastering the walls. He started looking for loose plaster and found some on the wall. Now we have a an angel on the wall. We are on our way to making our place spectaular :)

Fun with Immigration!

On Friday I ventured to Zwolle to revisit the IND (dutch immigration). I took the train all by myself. I saw some snow while I was ridin' the rail. It was pretty gross outside, very cold, windy, and sleeting. I got to Zwolle, and found the IND again. I had to wait about 20 minutes until they called my number. The woman who processed my residence permit application went over all my details very carefully. I spent most of the 30 minutes looking at her look at my documents. Eventually I paid 830 euros and I was sent on my way. I now have to wait 3-6 months for my residence permit application to be approved or not. If it is approved I have to go back to Zwolle to get it. That will be a very happy day. :)

Sinterklaas

Sinterklass (St. Nicholas) arrived Saturday November 15 with his assistants, The Zwarte Piets (The Black Petes). St. Nick arrives with his assistants by boat to all the dutch towns that have canals. He arrives by horse if the town doesn't have a canal. The Zwarte Piets are St. Nicks mischievous helpers. The all have special talents. There were Piets that were good with a kayak. The most impressive Piets were the ones who were doing gymnastic stunts on a barge while it was floating down the canal. Following 100 Piets, the man in red sailed in on a big boat named the Madrid. St. Nick and the Piets all live in Spain and visit The Netherlands from November 15 until his birthday, Dec. 5. While they are visiting they visit houses and leave little presents for the good kids. If you are bad, then you get a bag of salt in your shoe. The kids are supposed to sing a song saying how good they were the past year, write a little rhyme, and leave some carrots for St. Nick's hoarse.

After he arrives via boat, there's a parade through town to the city center. The Black Piets give away small bags of little brown cookies called pepernoten. There were lots of little kids dressed up like a black Pete. The black Petes all have black faces, curly black hair, big poofy hats, pants, and shirts. Some kids were dressed up like St. Nick. St. Nick is like the US's Santa, but he's dressed in a more of a priest outfit. He has a big red bishop hat, red cape, and a white cassock.

In a big ceremony, St. Nick is welcomed by the mayor and the city council. Then St. Nick and the Zwaarte Piets gets busy visiting all the dutch people.

The Saturday Market

Every Saturday there is a big market in the city center of Groningen. Lots of vendors gather and sell their stuff. I saw people selling fruit, fish, cheese, and veggies. I posted a picture of a fish stand. Some stands also sell fried fish and a dutch delicacy, fermented herring. We got to see a guy eat the herring. Looks like you take the fish by the tail and bite off hunks until it's all gone. mmmm. looked tasty.. or not. I also got to taste some good goat cheese.

Winkelwagons

I ventured to IKEA to look for some kitchen ideas since John and I want a new kitchen. I noted a couple of things. First of all, Shopping carts are called winkelwagens. I like that name. From now I will use my winkelwagon when shopping. I also learned "ingang" is the word for enter. It turns out dutch IKEA's are the same as american IKEAs. The major difference is that everything is in Dutch. In the end, I did come up with some kitchen ideas.

Fun with Immigration

Yesterday I registered myself with the alien police in Groningen. It went pretty well. I showed up, got a number, waited, and then chatted with a freindly lady. I handed her some of my paperwork and then she handed me a printed sheet back that has to get mailed back to the police by the dutch immigration folks. Today John and I went to the IND (dutch immigration people) in Zwolle, which is about a hour drive south of Groningen, so I could apply for my residence permit. Our trip to the IND was a little more painful. Turns out I was missing two pieces of paperwork for John. The instructions for the residence permit application weren't very clear. I get to go back via the train next week to hand in those two little pieces of paper. grrr. I'll have to hold off on the "I've completed all my paperwork" celebration for one more week. :(

Remodeling fun

Yesterday John and I made lots of progress towards making the apartment more our style. We managed to remove all the wallpaper (and just a little plaster) in the dining room. It took a combination of a midevil torture device and a steamer to get the job done. We just have to figure out how to replace the plaster that came off the walls and it'll be all ready for new paint and no wall paper. Wallpaper is an aweful idea.

I also figured out that the language of spinning is universal. I went

to a spining class near our place and even though I had no idea what the instructor was saying, I could still figure out what he wanted.

St. Martin's Day

Yesterday, November 11, was St. Martin's Day. Dutch kids make paper lanterns and go around to different houses to sing a song about St. Martin in exchange for a treat. Last night John and I went to his sisters house in Assen so I could see it for myself. It seemed every group of kids each had a different song about St. Martin. It was a little bit like Halloween, with out the costumes. Here's a picture of some kids who came to the door.

Donderslaan 124 Pt. 3

Here's some pictures of the bathroom, shower room, 2 views of the living/dining room, and the view from our balcony. From our front windows we can see a school, park, the gas building, a pond, and the highway.

Donderslaan 124 Pt. 2

Here's some pictures of our kitchen, hallway (on the right is the kitchen, bathrom, shower and on the left is the guest room and our bedroom) leading to the dining and living rooms. I've also put some picutures of the messy guest room and part of the soon to be dining room. The guest room is serving as my closet and get ready area.

Donderslaan 124-Pt.1 (bdrm, balcony, building)

Picture one is our building. We're in the middle of the eigth floor. I've also included pictures of our bedroom, balcony, and part of the dining room.

I made it!

After flying all night (my arms are very tired) I arrived at Schipol (the airport in Amsterdam). John was there and I was very happy to see him again. We drove for about an hour had a typical dutch lunch of kroket and brod (fried yummy concoction and bread) in Nunspeet. We arrived in Groningen and I got to see where I'll be living. The condo is pretty nice, 2 bedrooms, living room and a dining room with a balcony. I think we'll be able to make it a nice cozy place for the two of us. It's on the eigth floor and it overlooks a nice park and the gas building. I'll post some pics in a bit.

So far the things that are different from the US is, the cars are a lot smaller, the shower is a separate room from the toliet, the grocery store only has about 1/10 the amount of different cereals to choose from, and everyone speaks dutch.

Only 11 more Hours..

In 11 short hours I will be sitting on the plane flying to Amsterdam. I will be looking forward to seeing John again and starting a new adventure in The Netherlands. I will really miss everyone in the states. But I hope I can keep in touch with everyone. I managed to pack all my possessions into 2 big suitcases and my carry-on. You really should try getting rid of almost everything you own. It's oddly liberating. I guess all those "live simply" self-help books really do give good advice. I really like to thank everyone for their help and good wishes. I especially have to thank Art for letting me crash at his place for the past 10 days. I also have to thank my parents and family for letting me store stuff at their places and letting me go to The Netherlands. I love you guys! :) See you all real soon! John and I have a 2 bedroom place, so let me know when you want to visit!

Summershack Sillyness

I had my farewell bash at the Summershack last night. Lots of people from work came out. It was nice to talk with everyone. Here are a couple of pictures from the night. The top one is my little exploratory group (L-R: Me, John T (JT), John M, Art, and Lori). I really learned a lot from these guys. I will miss them a lot! The bottom picture is of some more great people I worked with (L-R: Andy (actually works at Sam Adams and married to Lori), Art, John M, Marianne, Doug, John T, and Nate). I will really miss all the great people from work. Thanks for the great send-off!

mmm...barbeque

This week my last week working at Wyeth. I've been keeping busy going out to lunch with friends and trying to eat "all American" food. I went out yesterday with my good Friends Ming and Weston. Today I had all American barbecue with my office mates, Reinaldo and Doug. It was very delicious. Tonight is my farewell bash at the Summershack, a local bar/resturant.