Amsterdam Day 208: Barcelona Day 1

Aaaaand we're off! 7 night cruise in the Mediterranean. Babysitting included. No cooking. Just gotta make it thru the flight there.

We arrived in Barcelona late at night. We checked into the hotel. And then had the task of finding food. Jannica and I ventured off a few blocks from this hotel. I had heard of this guy Antoni Gaudí before and we have seen some of his works before, but I didn't realize that he had done so many odd buildings. We were walking down the road and saw this building. It was literally surrounded by normal looking buildings so it stood out so much more. Casa Battló is the name of this one. 

Casa Batlló is the result of a total restoration in 1904 of an old conventional house built in 1877.  Gaudí used for it the typical constructive elements of the Modernisme(Catalan Art Nouveau) that include ceramics, stone, and forged iron.  Even though it was highly criticized by the city during construction due to its radical design that broke all the bylaws of the city, in 1906 the Barcelona City Council awarded it the recognition of being one of the three best buildings of the year.

Depending on how the time works today and how fast and a straight line we can get Chatlie to walk, we plan on visiting two of Gaudís other works, La Sagrada Familia and Park Güell. 

Amsterdam Day 207: Ryan's Birthday Party

My little girl is now 10. And this post is two weeks later than it should. I came back from the store two weeks ago and found 12 extra kids in my house, mostly 9 and 10 year old girls. I thought this picture showed the chaos some that we "enjoyed."  That is less than half of them.

It was a fun international crowd. We had girls from all over like Portugal, Italy, Japan, and Kentucky. Here is a picture of a tower that they built. I'm not really sure why the face on Ryan. I think she was just trying to look cool. And she pulls it off well here. 

The theme of the party was "Minute to Win It."  There were 10 different minute long activities and a competition to see who can complete the most activities. The had a donut eating contest, a ballon bouncing contest, and my favorite in film below. There were 5 gummy bears hidden in the whipped cream. Their challenge was to find the 5 gummy bears with only their mouths and spit them to the side. I thought it was quite enjoyable, to watch.

Amsterdam Day 206: School Busses

I was riding home for lunch today and I saw one of these "vehicles". I've seen them before but I've never been able to take a picture of them. They are basically small school busses that use the bike paths. It is essentially a Segway with a big bucket on the front. I usually see them full of kids, probably 5-6 kids each. It must be some sort of service that picks up your kids for you. Pretty cool and fits in with the biking culture. 

On the other side of practical is Disney High. Their school busses consist of a fleet of Mercedes minivans that all look brand new. They probably load those with 5-6 students also but with a lot more space. 

Amsterdam Day 202: Tulips

I am so excited for the coming months. These beautiful things are starting to pop up everywhere. 

The price is right so we have them all over our house. And they are wonderful. 

Peak season to look at the fields blooming is from late March to mid May. And I can't wait to go tiptoeing in the tulips. 

Amsterdam Day 200: Green Birds in Our Trees

These are three parakeets that we found on our road. Jaimee has been telling me for months about how she has seen these green birds in the trees around her house and I have mocked her about seeing things. Finally, one day, the truth came out to mock me. There was one of these green birds up in our tree. I took a picture and started to go back inside to admit I was wrong. Two more birds flew into the tree as I was leaving just to make sure that I was absolutely wrong. 

I was doing a little research to be able to share why we have green birds in our trees. Instead of doing my own writing, I thought it would be easier to just steal this persons writing and pass it off as my own. So I did. 

Among the first strange things I noticed when moving to Amsterdam (yes, there were a few) was a green parrot, nesting in the large tree which stood in the backyard. Bear in mind it was the middle of winter, so I was really surprised about how that small exotic bird could live outside during such weather; but the bird itself appeared to be quite happy. Over the next few days, I noticed that it also had some… family and friends — there were actually five parrots living in that tree! Then I recalled an article that I had read in the newspaper about the increasing number of wild parakeets living in the UK, and I thought that it could be the same situation in the Netherlands as they were quite close after all (not surprisingly, the story turned up indeed to be the same). After a while, I got used to seeing green parakeets (this seems to be the right name, and not “parrots”) in trees all over the city. Once I even saw two or maybe three large flocks flying over the canals and fighting about something — maybe nesting spots, who knows?

I did a bit of an investigation and found out that the first group of parakeets living in Amsterdam was observed in 1976, and it is thought they were the descendants of pets set free by their owners. Since then, these birds which have their origins in India and Sub-Saharan Africa have grown in number — over 3,000 in Amsterdam and 10,000 in all of the Netherlands — flourishing throughout the country. They are very adaptable and don’t have any trouble finding food and shelter in the (not so) cold Dutch winter, and actually thrive all over western Europe, especially in Belgium and the UK. Specialists there are even afraid that the parakeets could pose an ecological threat to local bird species, because of their competition for food and nesting locations.

I will let them worry about the ecological issues while I continue to admire the beautiful, noisy green birds whenever I get the chance — as I did with this guy who was eating acacia flowers right in front of my window. And I will wait for the day when they will speak something to me, as both male and female of this species are known to have the ability to mimic human speech 

http://amsterdamian.com/see/living-beings/wild-parakeets-living-in-amsterdam/

Amsterdam Day 199: Potty Training update

Potty training for Charlie seems to have been going rather well. In general, he does a pretty good job at remembering to go, and goes usually when we remind him. 

One evening, Jannica mentioned that she thought that was a hint of poop smell in the air. I went over to Charlie and found this balloon. 

I was easily able to dispose of the ballon, but that meant I still had to find the offending items. 

Well I found it. It looked like it had been stepped in quite a bit, and there was quite a bit of stuff on Charlie still. I think you get the major points here and that I probably don't need to go into anymore detail. Potty training is great!

Amsterdam Day 198: Personal Projects

Tonight, Disney High had their evening to show off the personal projects that the 10th graders have been working on all year. 

Each of the students made a presentation on their personal projects and had to present them to the staff and parents at the school. Personal projects ranged from making a prom dress to studies in the effect of smiles, and from making homemade root beer to replicating the Humans in New York blog, but by a teenager in Amsterdam. The 9th graders were also required to attend so that they could start getting ideas for their project next year. 

Jannica's project was on teaching te correct way for youth to look at and appreciate art. She spent a lot of hours learning the techniques in the Rijksmuseum looking at Rembrandts, Van Goghs, Vermeers, and Steens. She created a website for people to visit in order to learn the "slow look" technique. 

And here is the link if you would like to learn more. 

http://howtoslowlook.yolasite.com/

The craziest part to me about the night, was that Disney High had catered the event including waiters walking around with appetizers.