Amsterdam Day 329: Longest Day of My Life

The best part about having very short days in the Winter is that you have very long days in the Summer. The bad part of very long days is that some of our children (Beverly) like to get up when the sun is up. That tends to be way too early for me. The cool part is that it is light until very late. And this time is the official sunset time. Since the sun is going down so slowly, it is still light enough to do activities until around 11pm. We will need to enjoy it now because Winter is coming again. 

http://kartchner.blogspot.nl/2015/12/amsterdam-day-144-longest-night-of-my.html?m=1

Father's Day

Today is Father's Day and our gift to Kelly was being as far away from him as possible. He enjoyed a nice quiet weekend in Amsterdam all alone, and we enjoyed our Georgia friends.
 I gave the kids a quiz about Kelly to help me share our love from across the ocean.
Some children answered quickly and easily. Others (one in particular) proved to be quite difficult.
Overall, I just wanted to be sure that this guy knew that he means the world to us and that we would be lost without him. What a blessing it is to get to be with him forever. 

RYAN
What is Dad's name? Kelly
How old is Dad? 34
How tall? 5'5"
How much does he weigh? 100 lbs
What color is his hair? none
What color are his eyes? Brown
Dad is smart because he knows.... how to make us laugh.
At his job, Dad.... prices flights.
My favorite memory with dad is....sitting on the roof, playing ipad.
Dad's favorite food is.... hashbrowns.
Dad's favorite treat is.... peanuts.
One of my favorite things to do with Dad is.... wrestle.
Dad makes me happy when he.... tickles me.
I make Dad happy when I.... rub his feet.
Dad always tells me/or says... "Have you finished your homework?"
Dad is good at.... annoying Mom.
If Dad could go anywhere he would go to Hawaii and take Mom.
I really love it when my dad....takes me on trips.
Dad makes me laugh when... he makes a funny joke.
Dad spends the day... working.
Dad taught me... how to be loving.
Before kids, Dad... played iPad.
When I grow up I hope I can  ___BE__ like my dad.
I know Dad loves me because... he wrestles with me.
If I could give Dad anything, I would give him... a private jet.
What I love most about my dad is... he gets us money.

CAMERON
What is Dad's name? Kelly
How old is Dad? 30-something
How tall? Um...maybe 14 feet
How much does he weigh? Um....um...14 pounds.
What color is his hair? Red
What color are his eyes? Brown (I'm guessing)
Dad is smart because he knows.... times problems.
At his job, Dad.... works for Delta.
My favorite memory with dad is.... wrestling.
Dad's favorite food is.... onions.
Dad's favorite treat is.... candy.
One of my favorite things to do with Dad is.... wrestling.
Dad makes me happy when he.... wrestles with me.
I make Dad happy when I.... wrestle with him.
Dad always tells me/or says... Um...I don't know.
Dad is good at.... wrestling.
If Dad could go anywhere he would go to the beach and take Mom. 
I really love it when my dad.... wrestles with me.
Dad makes me laugh when...
Dad spends the day... going to work.
Dad taught me...
Before kids, Dad... I don't know, I wasn't there.
When I grow up I hope I can get money like my dad.
I know Dad loves me because...
If I could give Dad anything, I would give him... a cotton candy room.
What I love most about my dad is... when he doesn't go to the toilet when I want to play with him.

BEVERLY
What is Dad's name? Daddy
How old is Dad? I don't know.
How tall? Very tall.
How much does he weigh? 1,000 lbs
What color is his hair? Nothing.
What color are his eyes? I don't know.
Dad is smart because he knows.... how to help others.
At his job, Dad.... cleans up. 
My favorite memory with dad is.... playing with him. 
Dad's favorite food is.... fish.
Dad's favorite treat is.... chocolate.
One of my favorite things to do with Dad is.... play thumb war.
Dad makes me happy when he.... makes funny faces.
I make Dad happy when I.... be kind.
Dad always tells me/or says... "Clean up."
Dad is good at.... doing work.
If Dad could go anywhere he would go to the ice cream place and take Bev.
I really love it when my dad.... is happy.
Dad makes me laugh when... he does funny faces.
Dad spends the day... going to work.
Dad taught me... to be nice.
Before kids, Dad... I don't know.
When I grow up I hope I can  ________ like my dad.
I know Dad loves me because...
If I could give Dad anything, I would give him... a present.
What I love most about my dad is... when he is nice to me.

CHARLIE
What is Dad's name? Charlie.
How old is Dad? 3.
How tall? No.
How much does he weigh? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10....thru 15.
What color is his hair? Yes, today is Sunday.
What color are his eyes? I don't want to see it.
Dad is smart because he knows.... no, no, no, no, no, take a nap.

Thus ended Charlie's questionnaire. I decided to answer the rest for him.

At his job, Dad....
My favorite memory with dad is.... spelling with Dad.
Dad's favorite food is.... Charlie loves to sit in bed with Kelly and eat pistachios.
Dad's favorite treat is.... Charlie knows it's cookie dough and would say so if he could be bothered right now.
One of my favorite things to do with Dad is.... Charlie loves to read books with Kelly. 
Dad makes me happy when he.... Charlie loves to ride bikes to school with Kelly.
I make Dad happy when I.... use the toilet appropriately.
Dad always tells me/or says... "Spell ____ for me, Charlie."
Dad is good at.... Reading maps. The guy is amazing. (Direct quote............ but not really a direct quote.)
If Dad could go anywhere he would go to Jerusalem and take no one, because nobody would go with him, because nobody is stupid.
I really love it when my dad.... wrestles.
Dad makes me laugh when... he knocks charlie over with his belly.
Dad spends the day... at work missing Charlie.
Dad taught me... how to read.
Before kids, Dad... was lost, had nothing to live for. He pined for children...I'm sure of it.
When I grow up I hope I can  be as awesome as my dad.
I know Dad loves me because... it shows in everything he does.
If I could give Dad anything, I would give him... a good night's rest.
What I love most about my dad is... how hard he works and how much fun he is, especially when he takes Charlie exploring.

Amsterdam Day 326: France vs. Albania

My job is to coordinate pricing strategies with out Joint Venture partners. What this means is that I am constantly communicating with our partners at Air France, KLM, Alitalia, and Virgin Atlantic. 

During normal times, communication works pretty well. But there is a time every two years where coordination, cooperation, and friendship completely fall apart (I'm taking a little poetic license on how bad it gets since it is really not that bad). 

Every four years the World Cup comes around. But a little lessor known cup to those of us in the U.S., is just important to those in Europe. The UEFA European Championship, or Euros, is also played every four years, two years apart from the World Cup.  And it is almost as important to those in Europe as the World Cup, with almost the same energy, pageantry, and status. 

Unfortunately, the Dutch really blew it this year and they didn't even qualify. Pretty sad for a team that came in third two years ago at the World Cup. So all the excitement and energy that comes to the Netherlands normally during the Euros is gone. And it is depressing.

Have no fear, for I have many French colleagues that have volunteered their team for me to support. With that, we decided to go downtown to Rembrantplein to an expat bar that is well prepped for large groups to watch soccer. I walked up to the place a little late, and was amazed by the amount of French people gathered to watch the game. 

Man was this an experience. The fans were chanting, singing, and dancing while cheering on their team. They taught us several chants but the favorite was something to the sentiment of screw you Albania, but a lot more crass. 

The game was exciting in the second half, where you could feel that France was going to score. But it didn't happen until almost the end at the 90th minute. And then the place went crazy.

And here is a video to share about the excitement that George filmed right after the goal. Notice the poor devastated Albanian fans as he runs outside.

France ended up winning 2-0. And it got me excited for the rest of the Euros.  

P.S. I'm still a true US fan, but I'm not waking up at 3am to watch their games. 

Amsterdam Day 348: Rotterdam

I decided to go explore this city of Rotterdam today. A quick almost 30 minutes by fast train and I had arrived. Unlike most cities in the Netherlands, Rotterdam was completely destroyed by the Germans in World War II. There is almost nothing old about Rotterdam but that is what brings some more charm to the city. 

There are two sights that I wanted to see. The Markthal is a new building. It's a big residential building with a fancy upscale market down below. 

It had cool fruit and vegetable stands next to fun food truck type of restaurants. I found the whole thing pretty interesting. 

The other interesting attraction is the cube houses. Yes, these are actual houses. 

I spent a good 20 minutes wandering through here figuring these things out. Fascinating. 

I didn't spend a lot of time in Rotterdam. It kind is seems like a big city missing a lot of the charm of most cities in the Netherlands. Still a cool city by European standards, but I've been spoiled by cuter Dutch towns. 

Amsterdam Day 335: Container Houses

Walking through the north wharf of Amsterdam, we came upon this small village of shipping containers. The shipping containers have been converted into homes.  

Next to the homes was a really cool restaurant made out of more shipping containers. 

Isn't that a cool way to recycle? I mean, I wouldn't want to live there. But it is great for someone else. 

Amsterdam Day 333: Birds Outside our Office Window

We came into the office the other day to see a mommy bird and a daddy bird frantically starting to move sticks and mud to a central location right outside our office window. We watched them all day as they hurriedly built this nest. It was really cool to watch. 

The very next day, this is what we saw. There was an egg in a mostly finished nest. The daddy bird continued to build the best for the next two days while the mommy duck took care of the egg. 

We are not exactly sure what was happening next, but there was a lot of what I would describe as duck wrestling during one of those days. And then a second egg appeared soon after. 

We are now watching on a daily basis for what happens to this cute pair of birds. This picture was just to prove that it was literally right outside our office window. Nature is so cool. 

Amsterdam Day 330: Backpacks Hanging from Flagpoles

I was riding into town to watch a soccer game with some friends when I came upon these houses. I thought it was interesting but figured it was some kind of prank. 

But then I continued along and found more bags hanging from more flagpoles. 

The further I went, the more curious I got. They started looking like backpacks hanging from the flagpoles. I had to figure out what was going on here. 

And as always, the web has the answer. Now that is a cool tradition. 

Q: Why do the Dutch hang backpacks on flagpoles in June?

A: Putting the flag out and hanging your child’s school bag on the pole is a sign that they have passed their high school exams! You will see this all over Holland around the second week of June.

Schools started the bag-on-a-flag tradition when they hoisted a flag to mark the end of the summer exam period. A few decades later it was common practice for households to do this too, when a child passed his or her exams.

By the 1970s politicians questioned the legality of the use of the nation’s flag for this frivolity, but were overruled on the basis that it was ‘harmless’. These days the tradition is like a right of passage. I can remember being slightly embarrassed by all the fuss and the congratulations from the neighbours, nevertheless the bag-on-a-flag marks an important step in growing up.

Be warned: skipping the bag-on-a-flag could mean years of therapy to process the uncelebrated transition from teenager to adulthood!

Hedda Pier, 1 June 2012