Amsterdam Day 187: Sama Sebo Indonesian

When we were looking for a place to live in Amsterdam, a couple that lives here took us out for a treat that we had never tried before. We grew up in Utah and then moved to the suburbs of Atlanta, so we really have not been exposed to a lot of foreign restaurants. So when we had our visitors, we decided to treat them to the same restaurant. 

I'd like to introduce you to Sama Sebo Indonesian Restaurant. The couple told us that we would order the Rijstafel or Rice Table. They basically bring out dish after dish of fun and exotic Indonesian dishes, with white rice and fried rice. I can't count this high, but there are a lot of dishes at this table. 

There was absolutely too much food for four people. We did a pretty good number on this though. I think that out visitors where torn on if they like the place or not. Once looked like he was in heaven when dish after dish came out. One appeared to be very concerned that she could not pick her own dishes. I think in the end we won her over though. 

Amsterdam Day 186: Drunk guy on the train ride home

We were on our way back home after a full day and this guy boarded the train with his bike. He stumbled on and his bike fell over immediately. And he looked straight at Charlie and told him he loved him. And then he continued his drunk conversation. If you are going to be a drunk, be a happy drunk.

Amsterdam Day 185: "Ice" Skating Rink

Today we took off with on an exciting adventure. We took off when it was still raining and that almost ruined our day from the very beginning. We headed off to the city and went to the market at Waterlooplein. We then meandered over to Rembrandtplein for a quick walk around. And then we headed to the main event, the Crepe cruise. The crepe cruise was exciting again with all you can eat crepes. We then went to the boat playground for some additional fun. 

And then we headed off for free ice skating at a Coca-Cola pop up event. 

We walked in and they had free skating for anyone that wanted to skate. They had free rentals skates. While the kids skated, I wandered over to the bar where there were bottle after bottle of free coca-cola.

And then there was also a picture booth where the kids took thousands of pictures just because they could. 

And here are some videos of the experience if you'd like more. 

Amsterdam Day 181: Mama, die, die, die

Amsterdam Day 179: Ice Skating and Potty Training

We're skating at museumplein while Kelly works on potty training Charlie.  Fun to be had by all members of the Kartchner family!

We found a really great deal in a cruise out if Barcelona next month during most of the kids Winter break. After getting very excited about the kids clubs, the youngest is for 3-6 year olds, we discover that there is a requirement to be potty trained. And so with a month to go, we decided that it is a great time to get Charlie potty trained. In case you are wondering, here are some of the updates I sent to Jaimee while she was ice skating it up. 

Amsterdam Day 178: Mailman

I guess since I am at work when the mail comes so I have never really thought about how it is delivered. One might think that the mail would be delivered in a truck like in the U.S. Or one might think of mailmen on foot walking from house to house. That actually happens at our place and is probably how most of the delivery happens. But how do you get from the post office to their delivery area. This is the Netherlands, so of course it is by bike. And also since it is the Netherlands, they where orange. 

Amsterdam Day 177: Icy Cold Bicycle Seat

Have you ever thought about what happens to a bicycle seat when there is a little bit of precipitation and then a freeze. Yea, me neither. But it ends up being really cold in places of the body that do not normally touch things that are this cold. And for the record, a little layer of ice is not easy to remove from a bike seat. 

Amsterdam Day 175: Office Decor

Our office is a rented space in the building of another company. As such, we do not have control of the decor in the public places of the office building. The office building is organized with several different areas and rooms that are themed by cities around the world. The Cape Town room has an amazing picture of Cape Town and the tabletop mountain behind it. 

And then there is this piece of art, that must have been in or near a Rio de Janeiro room at some point. This is in one if the two hallways leading to our office. Great painting. And it continues the theme of several recent posts. 

Amsterdam Day 174: Ice on the Canals

It had been particularly cold here for the last couple of days. I'm not sure why I'm particularly surprised since it is the middle of January and we are further north than Calgary. 

The other day, we noticed what we thought was floating ice in the canal. We didn't have time to investigate, but today we did. 

The ice was definitely not thick enough to walk on, yet. But it was pretty slick. We threw rocks and sticks across the ice and they slid pretty far. Quite impressive. It almost made us want to hope for more cold so that we can have thick enough ice to ice skate on. I said almost. 

Apparently that is a real thing. Every so many years, when the freeze is deep enough, they have a canal ice skating race. Athletes train for years and years in the hopes that the ice will freeze enough to hold the race. And it has been quite some time since the race has been held. Global warming sucks for the ice racers. 

Ryan was very excited to pull the ice out of the canal in pieces. Cameron was so excited that he started to lick the ice sheet. Jaimee had to remind him that we do not lick ice that comes from the nasty dirty canals. Gross!

It was kind of fun taking out the big chunks of ice. So much fun that we had to take several home with us. They are now sitting in our front yard looking like big decorative chunks of ice. They are beautiful.

Amsterdam Day 173: Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum

One of the interesting things about my job is that I get all my regular U.S. holidays. And my company gives us off Martin Luther King Day. The kids, on the other hand, do not have a U.S. holiday schedule. So Jaimee and I had the day to ourselves, or at least until 1pm when we had to pick up Charlie. We decided to take off and visit the amazing art museums in Amsterdam. A short 15 minute tram ride is the Van Gogh (van-KHOKH in Dutch) museum. We started walking through the museum and immediately noticed how easy it is to walk when you are not always telling people to catch up, come this way, or get over here. It was also weird not to to be saying don't touch that, don't lick that, or get your face off that. We walked around the three floors of the Van Gogh museum and really enjoyed ourselves, although there was less nudity than I expected. I found that maybe I do not quite have as big an interest in Van Gogh as I do in others Dutch painters, and it's not because of the lack of nudity.

After the Van Gogh museum, we walked over to the Rijksmuseum to see the other famous Dutch painters. This one has the big Rembrandts, Steens, Vermeers, and more Van Goghs. And much more nudity (the good kind with women and not as many men). 

One of my favorite pieces is this gem. I would love to have this as a door knocker for my place. 

Jannica is doing a school project in the Rijksmuseum complete with a webpage. We will be sure to share a link with everyone when it is complete. It will be interesting to see her view on the museum (and it better not revolve around the nudity). 

Amsterdam Day 171: Random Photos

They were on the bus because Jaimee hates driving in amsterdam in the dark and rain. This is Carlotta and she is my favorite. She is from Milano, Italia and she has the cutest accent in the world. I ask her questions just so I can hear her talk. She has that typically Italian accenting and pronouncing of every vowel, but does it with a 9 year old voice. It is amazing. I may have to figure out a way to record her voice to share.  

"What letter make a puh sound? P! Write it with me! Now two O's make eww sound. Let's write O. And another O. Good job! Now what letter make a sound puh? Good! P! Write it with me!" (This is how charlie talks. All day. Or reciting mickey mouse club house. It's always time for the mystery mousekatool) I am quite sure princess presto never wrote poop. Which means, my son is taking this to a new level and thinking of words on his own! I am REALLY excited!

Amsterdam Day 168: Slightly Explicit Poster

I was walking down the road the other day and saw this sign. The first thing that stuck out to me is that the singer has the same last name as me. Kartchner was switched when my ancestors immigrated from Germany. Kartchner and Kirchner probably came from the same village at some point. The second thing (or the two next things) that popped out at me are pretty obvious. It looks like I have a show to see on April 11th. 

Apparently, looking at the sign a little closer, it is put on by the Kirchner Museum Davos in Switzerland. Here is more information. 

Not just Kirchner 

Kirchner museum Davos

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner lived in Davos from 1918 until his death. His comprehensive work was pioneering for German Expressionism. The Kirchner Museum Davos opened in 1992 and boasts the largest collection of his works in the world. The museum building was designed by Zurich architects Annette Gigon and Mike Guyer and, with its plain and logical form, is highly esteemed in international architectural circles. 

Amsterdam Day 167: Christmas Trees

It turns out that our Christmas tree towers over the Christmas trees of everyone else in the neighborhood. January 12th is the day to dispose of your Christmas tree. As we dragged out our Christmas tree to the corner with all the other trees, we began to realize how huge our Christmas tree was, in comparison. I don't think that you can really tell well from these pictures, but most of the trees are in the 3-4 foot range. Ours was in the 6-7 foot range. It seems a little embarrassing now, but no one will know who brought out which tree to the corner. I think our secret of American excess is safe for now. 

I did check with a couple of American coworkers, and it looks like they did the same thing too. So at least we are the same as the other Americans. 

Amsterdam Day 164: The ride home

I left the keys for Cam and Ryan's bikes at home. I noticed this as I was walking out of the school with the 4 that are always with me. 2 had run ahead looking at the fish in the fish tank, eager to tell me that the fish that was there two days ago, wait for it, WAS STILL THERE! One was dangling from my arms screaming toddler obscenities. The oldest of the 4 talking nonstop about something I was pretending to listen to. 

I figured that we could pile on to the 2 bikes we had and make it work. But then Bev's bike key was gone. I had been the last one to have it. Grrrr. So I emptied my purse while Ryan ran all over the school checking in security, everywhere we'd been, and the lost and found. Charlie laid down on the floor under an elephant statue, exhausted from a night and day of being awake. And Cam and Bev were enjoying unsupervised time running like monkeys around the atrium. 

Ryan arrived, key in hand, I herded the monkeys and scooped up the limp child and we were off. 

These are pics of the ride home.

I loaded Bev between Charlie and me. It was a pleasant ride home. 

Ry was a trooper with Cam on the back of Bev's bike.

The thing in all of this that struck me the most is that no one gave us strange looks. I said hi to my neighbor when I go home and she just waved. I told Jac about it, and she was waiting for some strange end to the story. That I only had 2 kids on the bike was nothing. A third wouldn't have made a difference either.

This is life here, and I like it.

Amsterdam Day 163: Charlie Is So Frustrating

We have been back from the states since Saturday. The first night Charlie was up at 230 in the morning and crashed around 5am. Monday morning he woke up at 1am and went back to sleep at 6am. Tuesday he was up at 3am. Jaimee fell asleep watching him from 11am to 3pm. He just puttered around trying to wake her up, unsuccessfully. As soon as she got up to get the kids from school, he crashed. Fortunately, she was able to wake him around 5pm, and then he went to sleep around 11pm. Wednesday he also went to bed around 11pm. And he is waking up early still. Finally onThursday, he went to sleep around 7pm. And we hope he sleeps through the night. It's so much harder to adjust from the jet lag when your 3 year old won't adjust with you. 

He is so frustrating it makes me want to scream. But then he does something adorable like this and all is forgiven. 

"What letter make a puh sound? P! Write it with me! Now two O's make eww sound. Let's write O. And another O. Good job! Now what letter make a sound puh? Good! P! Write it with me!" (This is how charlie talks. All day. Or reciting mickey mouse club house. It's always time for the mystery mousekatool) I am quite sure princess presto never wrote poop. Which means, my son is taking this to a new level and thinking of words on his own! I am REALLY excited!

Amsterdam Day 159: Amsterdam Day 1

Life sucks rights now. We have traveled long and far. Our bodies have no idea what time it is and we are pushing to keep awake to be able to adjust back to our home time. 

The trip back home started pretty good. Kids were happy. 

Charlie was the hardest one to adjust. He fell asleep on the way to the airport and then once we were on the plane he stayed awake way too late. While I was having a hard time staying awake, he was watching movies and generally behaving, but awake. 

Finally, with 5 hours left to go on the flight, he fell asleep. And he did not want to wake up once we arrived in Amsterdam. 

At this point, we are just waiting and pushing through until 7pm and then we can all go to sleep. And hopefully, we will all sleep through the night and not wake up at 3am. This changing time zones is getting so much harder. I thought that it was my aging, but I think the problem is really my young kids that do not adjust well. 

So as a recap, life sucks right now. We are all tired, ornery, and irritable. I hope we still like each other tomorrow.  

Amsterdam Day 158: U.S. Last Day (For a While)

After a week in Idaho, I had to travel by myself back to Amsterdam to work for a week. The drive from Idaho was amazing. It had some of the most breathtakingly views with the morning sun rising over the snowy mountains and valleys. 

I may have been enjoying the views a little too much because I got pulled over just outside of Rexburg for speeding. It's not like I was even going that fast. The Georgia patrol wouldn't pull you over in the freeway normally for anything under 15 over. But Idaho's finest decided to pull me over for 9 over. He took one look at my drivers license though and decided that it just wasn't worth the effort to write me up for anything. 

The rest of the ride to SLC was uneventful though until I filled up the rental car with fuel. One I got back in the can, I noticed a 1 foot crack in the window. And I was wondering how much I was going to have to pay for this. They simply made me fill out a accident report. And I haven't heard anything else about it. 

I made it to the airport for a very uneventful flight, except for the upgrade to business class. After a few days I made the journey back to pick up the kids and the wife, again with the upgrade to business class. Spent a day with friends in Georgia and headed back to Amsterdam with the fam.