Amsterdam Day 51: Immigration into Senegal

We had my arrival in Senegal all planned out. It was simple. I would go through immigration and there would be guy waiting for me with a sign with my name. So simple it couldn't possibly get messed up. 

So I deplaned from the Air France plane. It is one of those airports without a jetway  so you have to go down the stairs, just like the president or a movie star. I was feeling pretty good about myself because I brought a backpack that I was carrying on my back. Everyone else had to stop to pick up their roller bags. If I have learned one thing with my travels, it is that it is almost always easier to get around with a backpack over roller boards. If you get on a bus, a backpack is easier. If you walk down cobbled streets in Europe, a backpack is easier. If you are walking in dirt roads in South America, a backpack is easier. If you are going straight from the airport in a taxi and are staying in one hotel the whole time, a roller bag is easier. I think you get the point. So I had a backpack instead of a roller bag. 

There were two buses and people were getting on both buses, so I chose the front one. Only there were only about 10 people on this bus and they all looked really important. Two people were told in French, that they could not take this bus and how to go to the other one. This was a plane with 400 people, so the other bus was going to be very crowded. And I just wanted to make sure to get through customs and immigration before I had to wait in line with 400 people. I must have looked like I knew what I was doing or I looked important enough, cause nobody said anything to me. 

The bus took us around to the side of the airport to a small room with only 2 immigration officers. Everybody else there seemed to have someone meeting them and helping them through immigration.  So I just went up to the immigration officers and they stamped my passport. And I was directed to a small door that looked like only employees should use it. So I went through and I was outside the airport. I thought it was a little weird as there was no place to pick up luggage. Not a problem though since I didn't check luggage this time. So I exited the airport and starting looking for my name. This was the quickest and easiest immigration that I had ever done and there was not a throng of people. 

There were very few people around and no one with a sign. So I asked them what area this was and they said VIP, like the very VIP people (think dignitaries or Justin Beiber, or they Senegales equivalent of Justin Beiber), not me. That is when I first realized that maybe I shouldn't have gone that way. So I asked where the non VIP area was and I was directed to the other side of the airport. When I arrived I saw the longest line of people waiting for people to arrive that I have ever seen.  There was no way that I was going to find this guy in this mess of people. No panic though. I'd figure it out. So I sent an email to the guy that was picking me up and he called me. He asked me how in the world did I ever end up there.

Later at dinner, I spoke to the Delta Station Manager who was very surprised that I was able to sneak through the VIP section. In fact she was so surprised that she thought maybe I had skipped the immigration process completely. But I do have a stamp in my passport that says I entered the country. She is going to check tomorrow just to make sure that I am in the country legally. And more importantly, check if I'll be able to leave on Friday. 

Amsterdam Day 50: Trip to Senegal

I am leaving Amsterdam for Dakar, Senegal today. As part of my responsibilities for pricing Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, I occasionally get to travel to far away places to visit travel agencies and entice them to sell us more. Our partners at Air France and KLM get to visit all the beautiful cities in Europe, and so I am left with the more adventurous cities in Africa, the Middle East, and Russia. I have been to Nigeria, Dubai, Moscow, and now I'm headed to Dakar.

The whole reason for visiting Senegal is to prepare for the holiday Eid Tabaski, as it is called in Senegal, or Eid al Adha, as it is known in the rest of the Muslim world.

We are visiting to attend our annual sales Operation Tabaski, which is when we award out top travel agents in Senegal with sheep for the Tabaski festival?  It is quite a show, and very, very “Local”.  We ride with sheep in a big open truck that we brand Delta, with local talking drum players announcing our arrival at each agency.  It is hot, dirty, smelly, and wonderful!!  The agents, and community, really respond it. At least this is how it has been destined to me. I'll let you know soon exactly how it goes. 

Here is a link about Tabaski if you would like some more info. 

http://www.aramcoworld.com/issue/201401/senegal.s.shepherds.of.tabaski.htm

This next part is more for the airline nerds that read my blog since a lot of it focuses on the differences between Delta and Air France. There is no nonstop flight flight to Dakar from Amsterdam so I have to change flights in Paris and both flights are in Air France. I was very excited when I exited the plane from Amsterdam as I looked at the Air France app, and I had been upgraded to business class. The business class on the AF 777-300ER has a 2-3-2 configuration and is an angled seat instead of lie flat. No problem with the angle though since this is a 6 hour daytime flight. My assigned seat was the middle seat, which means that if I need to get out and go to the restroom, I have to straddle someone else to get out. Not a problem if you are sitting next to an attractive women. Really a problem when you are sitting next to a big Texan going to an oil rig that won't see a women for the next 28 days. No luck here today. 

They have socks, slippers and headphones covers for you when you sit down. The headset is built in and so they give you the headset covers for sanitary reasons. 

They hand out a nice amenity kid before take off with the standard mouth wash, comb, lotion, etc.. 

The safety video was pretty fun. It has been described as chic with a very French style. It was very French with in a model style. It is worth a watch if you enjoy interesting safety videos. 

http://youtu.be/0N3J6fE-0JI

The food on the Air France flight was pretty good. A lot of fancy words that taste really good served with cheese and the most wonderful French desserts. The flight attendants were really great also. The moat difficult part of the flight is the slight language barrier. Most of the people on the flight speak French since this is a flight between two French speaking countries. It was not really that much of a problem though. 

Amsterdam Day 48: Jaimee and Cam on windmills

Today was Family Outing Saturday. As I am beginning to call all Saturdays. They are great. Really. 

We rode an hour and a lifetime on the metro up to a cute/stinky little town full of windmills. Well, full of 8 windmills.

Cameron will be our picture describer today.

"In this one I am covering my nose so I don't have to smell the stinky smell."

There were big wooden shoes everywhere.

We are sitting in shoes, that's just weird....

Mom took this. Charlie was whispering in these kid's ears. He was helping them read (the kids are statues). 

I took this picture. There is a better one that I  took of mom's bum. (He is literally rotfl)

Charlie found some shoes that fit. We were inside a windmill. It was bad because it was really tall and I had to climb a scary ladder and it was really slippery (but really he loved it). 

This shoe is REALLY REALLY SHINY. I want this shoe. It was my favorite thing about today. My second favorite thing was climbing in a shoe. 

The time we spent in the village was actually quite fun. The kids (Cameron) did not complain about legs hurting even though we walked A TON. We had some delicious goude cheese. We visited the first Albert Heijn, a local gocery store chain. We went on a fun little boat ride to check out the windmills. 

The kids got to see how wooden shoes are made. We saw how windmills are used to mill many different things. Overall, fun, albeit exhausting, day. 

FYI: the stink comes from the nearby chocolate factory. Which is sad. 

Amsterdam Day 47: Birds

I was driving to work the other day (and by driving I mean biking) and saws eventual of these duck like animals all gathered around one area of the canal. I stopped to take a closer look and it appears that there is a piece of wood floating in the water. The birds appear to love sitting on it and taking a rest. The day before I had seen a heron sitting in that same spot and it looked so comfortable. 

I was in the bedroom on the 3rd floor of our house taking a work call the other day and I heard a knock on the window. I thought that was strange so I opened up the curtains and this is what I saw. 

He was just chillin there sitting at the window. I knocked in the window a few times, but he didn't care. 

Also, I have an update on the very annoying and loud seagulls. They are no longer a problem. I have no idea what happened to them. But they are no longer annoying us. Maybe it was a mating season thing. 

Click hear to be reminded of the annoying sound that the seagulls make.

Amsterdam Day 46: Old People on Bikes

I keep trying to take pics of old people on there bikes. We are talking about old people not just people that are close to retirement age. But these guys are faster than you might think at least on their bikes. 

Sorry that the shot here is not that good. Here is an an example that I see pretty commonly. 

The other day, I saw three ladies biking by together just chatting away. I'd say they were all in there 70's.  

We were walking through the market a few weeks ago, and there was this really old man, had to be in his late 80's at least. I didn't see him on the bike. He was walking the bike through the crowd. But he was shuffling along so slow that I am sure that he uses a cane or a walker when he doesn't have his bike. 

Apparently, there are special bikes for old people. They have a much lower bar so that they are much easier to get on and off. Jannica has one. 

We have seen a few other fun things on the bike paths. Yesterday we saw a teenage girl trotting along on horseback while texting. 

But then again, we saw some weird things in the golf cart paths in Peachtree City, Georgia, like a golf cart pulling a canoe behind it, 12 high school kids in one golf cart, or someone transporting their gold fish on the golf cart. 

All that to say, if I can get another good shot of an old person on bike, I will get that picture for you. 

At the same time as I was writing this, my mother found this article about my great great grandmother roller skating at age 72. So maybe biking at that age isn't so weird. 

Amsterdam Day 45: More Statutes

We were walking through the streets o Haarlem and can upon this beauty. One of the ladies is naked and the other is clothed. Also, I like the tree in the background. You can see the branches reaching up and then folding back down.  

I don't even know where to start with this one. I think it is a footman soldier leaned over with a shield. Or is it a UFO crashing into a tree that is falling over. In the background here is just to show you that there are also normal statues here. This is in the main square in Haarlem. 

 This is a communist looking statue with a giant bird, a fist striking, a ladder, and a wagon wheel? It really looks like there were leftover parts from 20 other statues that they just threw together and hoped Thea people would be convinced that it looks good. This is outside the modern art museum here in Amstelveen. Maybe the modern art thing explains why it is so weird. By the way, we were in the Pompideau Center in Paris a few years ago and they had a toilet on display as modern art. It wasn't even an attractive looking outhouse or a fancy old toilet. It was just a good old regular toilet bowl. 

This little guy is also outside the modern art museum. But I like him. Seems like a statue that you would find in the South Pacific. 

Apparently the burgers here are amazing. 

This is part of a lion?  I found it outside the train station in the south o Amsterdam. I kind of expected to see another statue with only the middle of the lion. Or a statue of a dinosaur eating the middle part of a lion. 

This one sits inside the KLM complex. At least it has an aeronautical theme to it. Or at least I think it does. 

This cute little girl sitting on her pony resides in the park near our house. That is one skinny girl and one fat pony. 

And this one I thought was a lot of fun also. It is a tree hugger. They left enough space between his arms for quite a bit of growth. I have no idea what the words say it mean. There were about 10 of these guys in close to the same position, but not exactly the same. These are also near the train station in the south of Ansterdam. 

I enjoy taking pictures of all these weird statues, so I am sure you will see more in the future. 

Here is the link to my favorite statue in case you had missed it. 

http://kartchner.blogspot.nl/2015/08/amsterdam-day-32-interesting-statue.html?m=1

Amsterdam Day 44: A few happy things

I have, on several occasions, seen middle aged women pulling off the bike path to pick wild flowers.  They look very serious about choosing the right ones. Love this.

Lovely church friends told us how to get American Netflix.  Super Why is now playing as needed in my home. This is makes two people VERY happy.

Charlie loves to spell "goede" (said hoodah). This is super cute. The way he says goede is precious.

When the sun shines here, my whole day is made perfect. Like, I giggle, I find a reason to keep on keepin on. I am a touch concerned about the winter.....

A mom at Ryan's school stopped me the other day. She is Japanese and speaks very little English.  She wanted to thank me for Ryan being kind to her daughter. This nearly had me in tears on the front steps of the school. I asked Ryan about it, and she says that her friends are Hikari (Japanese), Carlotta (Italian), Bianca ( Spanish) and Sarah (Japanese). Ryan and Sarah are the only ones who speak fluent English.  But it's all good. Ryan has a play date on Friday with Hikari. We are stoked.

Cameron has a bestie at school and we have playdates scheduled for next week. And he got a Kaos trap. Nuff sed. 

Jannica is generally content and helpful. And talkative.  These are are wonderful and completely unexpected. This girl, who does not like change, is thriving.

Bev is a bit of a mess, but she is beyond sweet to Charlie and always so happy to help out.

I have finished my first dutch course. Ik ben Jaimee.  Ik heb broun haar. Ik kom uit de V.S. Ik kun bestellen in een cafe. Ik kun leeren kinderen boeken.
And a bunch of other stuff I can't remember right now. These classes have been so fun and a nice little get away.

There are so many great FB groups here. People are so happy to meet up and talk about how to live here. It is so encouraging.

We are getting a car. We have gone back and forth on this one. But a car will open up so many more exploring, extracuuricular and playdate options. Plus, we will be happy on Sundays.  So here we go. A car it is.

Lastly, we are ready for visitors. Amber is coming in a couple weeks. HALLELUJAH! Let's have her be the person who opens the floodgates. The more visitors I have, the more excuses I have to decorate my house. On that note, if one of you visitors wanted to find ways to help me decorate, that would be fabulous. You may not know this about me, but esthetics are not one of my strengths.

See you soon!!