Moving into Stage Two

Amanda, Grayson and I have been in Amsterdam now for a little over six weeks. While we are certainly still in a bit of a "honeymoon" phase, enjoying all of the little quirks of a different culture and city, the first official stage of our life here is coming to a close.

I would call this first stage, "settling in." Getting settled has involved:

• becoming comfortable moving around the city (bikes, trams, metros, etc.)
• making our apartment a home
• learning how to live every day life, such as buying groceries

Though our learning curve will continue, there is only so long one can spend merely getting settled. It is time to move on to Stage Two.

Let's call stage two, "language learning." Similar to settling in, language learning will be something that takes quite a while - it will actually take our entire time here. But, these next few months will be devoted to spending the vast majority of time to the process of language acquisition.

Here is a brief description of what (we expect) our lives will be like. I will be in class four days a week, for four to five hours a day. Amanda will spend that time with Grayson (as he is doing some language acquisition of his own!), and will potentially be able to develop some friendships that she's made so far. I'm expected to put in as much time studying per week as I am in class, so Amanda and I will do a fair bit of studying together. That way not only will we get to spend time together, but she'll be able to get a head start for when she starts classes next quarter. For the most part, the only other things that we will be able to give our time to is our team, small group, and church.

Please be praying for us, because we're about to enter into a very busy and diffucult time! But we are incredibly grateful, because without the Lord's provision this certainly wouldn't have been possible. About a week ago we thought that we would both have to wait until February to start language school...but here we are.

And God has been so good to have blessed us with an incredible weekend as we are ending Stage One. We got to spend time with our team: eating homemade Chipotle burritos together, talking about church, and laughing a lot.

We also got to visit a great bookstore in town, Amsterdam's version of "Barnes & Noble." Grayson loved the Kinderboeken section. We even bought him his first Dutch book. On the way home from the bookstore, the little guy fell asleep in the bike seat for the first time! In a proud parenting moment, Amanda even got him all the way upstairs and into his crib still sleeping.

But the highlight of the weekend by far was the arrival to the Netherlands of Sinterklaas. Yes, today is the day that the "Sint's" steamboat from Spain docked in Amsterdam. He, along with his helpers, paraded through the streets to much joy of all the children - most of whom were dressed for the occasion. Grayson will never remember this, of course, but we got plenty of pictures to prove to him that he saw Sinterklaas when he was a baby.

All I have to say is, I feel sorry for those of you in America waiting until Thanksgiving day to see Santa ride his over-sized sleigh through the streets of NYC. We've got the real guy here in Amsterdam! And yes, this is a picture that we took of Sinterklaas as he rode by...

Be sure to check out our facebook pages over the next couple days, as we're sure to upload a ton of more pictures from the last week or so. You're not gonna want to miss some of the Grayson pics - way too cute!

UPDATE: For a great description of my first day in language school, along with the very philosophical question, "what would you say," please read Julia's blog entry for the day.

Language School

Just a quick update/prayer request. Julia, Amanda and I have all hit a slight road-block for language learning. The three of us were trying to get into the Winter quarter at a university here in Amsterdam for a Dutch as a Second Language program - but we have all been wait listed! Please pray that we would either somehow sneak into the course, or find something else soon...

With language learning in mind, I thought I'd pass along a blog I just found called Dutch Word of the Day. Check it out, and learn some Dutch with us!

AFAC

"What is AFAC?" you might be asking yourself. That is a good question. Until this past Friday, Amanda and I didn't know what AFAC was either. It stands for De Amsterdamse Fiets Afhandel Centrale - or, basically, the Amsterdam bike police. They haul away bikes when they don't like where the bikes are parked.

It turns our that our bikes are likely in the possession of AFAC, not a bike thief. We'll find out for sure this afternoon when we head down to their headquarters with our bikes' serial numbers and our passports in hand.

Amsterdam is an interesting place. People leave their bikes everywhere; chained up to anything. Often I'll pass a bike chained in a random place and wonder, "are they allowed to just leave their bike there?"

So this past Monday, when Amanda and I left our bikes at the metro station chained to sign along with a moped (because there were no bike racks left), I wondered, "are we allowed to leave our bikes here?" But then I brushed the fear aside because, after all, people chain their bikes to everything in the city. When we returned to find our bikes gone, we just assumed they were stolen.

On Friday, however, Amanda got into a conversation with a Dutch girl at Julia's birthday party (which was amazing, by the way!), who mentioned that our circumstances sounded more like a confiscation by AFAC rather than a theft by a junkie. After talking to a couple other of our Dutch friends, they agreed. So we're off to AFAC in a couple hours to hopefully reclaim our bikes (and praying that Grayson's bike seat is still attached).

I guess we can chalk this one up as a learning experience. What did we learn? Don't mess with AFAC. The only problem is, I still don't know where I can't park my bike!

For more interesting tidbits on the bike culture of Amsterdam, along with some amusing pictures, click here.

UPDATE: We made our way out to AFAC and they had our bikes! We were so happy to have them back, that we didn't mind the 1.5 hour ride back home...all is right in the world.

Finally IN Amsterdam

Amanda, Grayson and I arrived to Amsterdam Thursday morning, October 2nd at 6:50 local time (that would be 12:50am eastern standard time). It was a moment of joy after a teary goodbye in the airport the day before and a somewhat stressful plane flight with tons of luggage and a screaming baby! Well, ok, Grayson didn't scream the whole way, but he did for a while which was stressful enough.

As we were waiting for our luggage at customs, we saw our first friendly faces in Amsterdam: Julia & Gigi Pickerill waving to us from behind a glass wall. After three trips through the customs gate with our 11 checked bags and a cartfull of carry-ons, we could finally give big hugs to all of our friends who were waiting to pick us up.

So now we've been in the city for almost three full days, and it has been a surreal experience in many ways. The first thing that we did after we arrived (after taking a nap, of course!) was to go out with a broker to look at two apartments. One of them is a possibility, but we are going to look at a few more next week.

Later that evening we had a little party with all of us Americans who are here so far: the Pickerills, Brooke, Allie Klein (who is attending University of Amsterdam), and Rachel Baransi (who will be the Pickerill's nanny for the next six months). It was great to talk, eat and laugh together.

The last couple days have been a joy as well. I have had the privilige of attending a conference in Utrecht for the Benelux Vineyards, at which one of my favorite preachers, Don Williams, was teaching. I've had the great opportunity at the conference to reconnect with my Dutch friends, as well as meet so many wonderful people from all over Netherlands and Belguim, as well as a few from the UK, Sweden and the Baltic states (look it up on wikipedia). It is just an awesome feeling already being a part of this little slice of the Vineyard family in the world.

Amanda has also had a great time these last couple days. She has stayed back with Grayson to help him continue to adjust to the time difference, and they have just been exploring all over the neighborhood where we are staying. She's been able to walk along a canal and go into shops and hang out with Julia. This weekend has genuinely been such a blessing from the Lord.

We can hardly begin to express how much we are thankful for you who have made it possible for us to be here. It just seems like an overwhelming gift from God. No doubt, though, we will continually miss all of you - so stay in touch! We need our family back home as much as we need our family here.

Only one thing left to say for now: GO CATS! BEAT THE TIDE!