The first blog.

*So the little girl that was born in Iowa City, and raised in Rochester, MN, without ever really leaving, grew up, became a nurse, and fell in love with a Dutchman. She left her family, her job, and her awesome RAV4, and moved herself and her dog Max across the ocean to be with her Dutch love, Ralph, in Holland. And that is where this blog begins.*

I moved to Holland on July 13, 2008, after months of preparation involving: mountains of important paperwork (both for myself and for Max), selling my car, shipping my belongings, and leaving my amazing job as an OB RN at Mayo Clinic. I was really worried about shipping Max on the plane in the cargo hold, and getting him through customs at Schipol, but our arrival in Amsterdam was anticlimactic. After going through all the trouble to get Max a federally certified health certificate and a European-grade microchip, customs let us through with nothing more than a glance. I felt ridiculous for worrying as much as I had.

Amazingly enough we fit all of our luggage (4 suitcases, 2 carry-on cases, a golf set, and a dog kennel with dog) into Ralph's father's station wagon, but still needed another car to carry people to our new apartment in Amsterdam. The two cars were separated from the start, and I learned afterwards that Ralph and his mother had found the apartment immediately, unlike myself and Ralph's father, who drove around completely lost for what seemed like an hour before finding it. I started to freak out a bit when Ralph's dad handed me a map to help him locate the apartment. For those of you that know me well, you know why this is a problem. I have no spacial sense. No sense of direction. None. It's a common joke that I got lost in Rochester after living there for almost 20 years. And the map was in Dutch. And the blue lines are water-filled canals, not roads. Let's just say that I was less than helpful. ;o) But I tried...
Anyway, we found the apartment thanks to a cellphone call to Ralph (hands-free of course).

After entering the front door of our apartment building I realized that climbing the incredibly steep (by American standards) winding 3 flights of stairs to our apartment with luggage and a leashed dog would be the next challenge. It ended up working out just fine, but the entire time I was quite focused on leaning forward to keep from falling backward and causing an avalanche of luggage and people to go cascading back down.

Our apartment is lovely. We are subletting for 3 months in Amsterdam from a sweet Dutch couple working at Mayo. The apartment is furnished, so we don't have to worry about any details until we find our next apartment for October.

My time since arrival has been spent adjusting to the big city. I had no idea I would be so overwhelmed by all the activity. We've been catching up with Ralph's friends and family, and have had some time to bike and walk Max around the city and go to the zoo. I already got my first Dutch bike stolen, so I've heard that the only other thing I need to do as a foreigner is to bike into a tram track and fall over. I got a second bike, and this time I have 3 heavy duty locks. I went to the market once and got groceries by myself, which made me quite proud. I learned the Dutch word for receipt during that adventure. I am really looking forward to the beginning of my Dutch language course, which begins August 4th. More later...