Highlights from the First Two Weeks

 First Impressions

    Our first two nights in the Netherlands were spent in a hotel close to the Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam.  We were exhausted from traveling, but also wide awake with jetlag at all the wrong hours.  Our favorite parts of this hotel stay included breakfasts in the hotel, and our mini expedition to the grocery store nearby.

    The breakfasts at the hotel were absolutely heavenly!  The hostesses were so kind to us, and loved playing with little Ella.  They treated her like a princess, offering more of whatever food she seemed to like best, playing peek-a-boo with her across the room, bringing her a high chair and straws and any other items to make her comfortable.  They were also very kind to us.  They asked us where we we headed and what we were doing in the Netherlands.  They told us their own stories and offered any advice they could think of to make our move more bearable.  I really think of those sweet women as angels sent to ease our minds and nerves on those first couple of days. The food was wonderful too!  I was delighted to see that my mom had been right about European breakfasts being full of breads and spreads and meats and cheeses and fruits galore!  We sampled as much as we could and took any pastries we could carry with us back up to our room.  We definitely felt spoiled on those first two mornings. 

Our adventure to the shopping center was exciting too.  The first thing we noticed along the way was that we were going to spend a lot of time being wet with rain in this country, but honestly, after coming from 90 degree weather in Utah, we didn't mind much.  The second thing we noticed was that there were seashells everywhere!  Seashells in the dirt along every path we walked!  There were miniature shells, fragments of larger shells, swirly snail shells, and even a couple that looked like mini conch shells.  It made me wonder how recently this land had been covered by ocean.  I still need to look that up...

Here's a video of us on our walk!  Sorry the resolution isn't great, but you can sort of see the seashells if you look closely when I stop to point them out to the camera! 

Apartment Arrangement

    Our first priority after getting the keys to our new apartment in Houten on day 3, was to arrange our cute little one-bedroom-without-a-door space into something that would work for us.  Our eventual solution was to set up the bedroom as Ella's room, and to move the queen bed out to the living area for me and Brandon.  This required rigging a shower rod and black-out window curtain in the doorway to the bedroom, as well as setting up an Echo Dot for white noise.  This way we can block or drown out most light and noise from the living area while Ella sleeps. 

Here's a quick picture tour of how it turned out! 

Chocolate Therapy 

    Important Dutch words: Puur, melk, en witte chocolade.  Dark, milk, and white chocolate. 😋

    The first time we needed to buy groceries after moving into our apartment, I had to go on my own.  I think Brandon was in the middle of class, and Ella was sleeping, and so I went alone to find and figure out the grocery store closest to us.  Brandon knew I was anxious about doing this, and so before I left he encouraged me to stop somewhere and try something really European for myself.  He meant for me to try out a bakery and a pastry or something like that, but I decided to try a European chocolate bar instead.  After perusing the massive selection of chocolate bars at our local grocery store, I decided to pick one brand to try for the day, and that I would slowly work my way through each of the brands to see which we liked best.  The first brand I picked was Cote D'Or. I chose a milk chocolate bar filled with caramel, because chocolate is my favorite thing, but I knew Brandon would appreciate the caramel.  I think that one is still my favorite.  The next one I tried a few days later was a hazelnut studded bar from the Delicata brand, also incredibly delicious.  Our most recent chocolate bar is a salted toffee flavored one from the more popular Verkade brand.  I like this one too, but feel it doesn't quite measure up to the others.  I think it's Brandon's favorite though.  

Anybody have suggestions for what we should try next?? Let me know in the comments!