We've arrived!

Wow, what a week it has been! It was so hard saying goodbye to family last weekend, I think it finally hit that we were leaving. (Sorry for the delay in correspondence, we just got our internet service up and running in the apartment yesterday.)

Monday, April 7th was travel day. We had quite a bit of luggage, see below. This photo doesn't even include the car seat, stroller, or Ben!

Our flight was at 6 p.m., and thankfully we took off right on time. Ben did fabulous, this was his first flight! He was able to drink from his sippy cup and suck his thumb to relieve any ear pressure, so it didn't bother him (or others) too bad. We had dinner (chicken and mushroom risotto for Ben...mushrooms, whose kid is this??), and Ben was asleep by 8 p.m. Slept the entire rest of the flight! Greg was across the aisle, so he got some sleep. But, nervous Mom couldn't quite get comfy. I popped up with every noise I heard...thinking it was Ben, or that it would wake him up.

We landed safely on Tuesday at 9 a.m. Amsterdam time. Made it through baggage and customs easily. A "minibus" (minivan) picked us up at the airport to take us to our new home. We met the real estate agents and Catharina, our relocation specialist, there. Got all situated in the apartment and went shopping for some groceries. We have already found our fave place...kaasland. (see photo) It's a bread and cheese shop that sells all sorts of yummy things! (Dutch lesson for the day: kaas is cheese, brood is bread).

We were quite exhausted Tuesday evening, and Ben had a terrible time getting adjusted to the time and new environment. So, we weren't too rested on Wednesday morning for his first train ride (see photo), which was our transportation for getting to the immigration office in The Hague. We had to switch trains at one point during our travel, where we noticed that Ben was missing a shoe! Ugh! Oh well, if that was the worst of things so far, we are doing pretty well, huh? We met Michele once we arrived, who is another relocation consultant that is helping us with all of our registration activities. Thank God for such great help in getting acclimated to a new city! After the immigration office was the tax office, and then into Michele's car to travel back to Amsterdam for registering at the city hall. Another exhausting day, but glad that we are getting some of the "paperwork" out of the way quickly! It was another bad night of sleep for the Zabikows...poor Ben.

Greg went in to the office on Thursday and Friday (oh yeah, he has to work while we're here, huh?). He is about 40 minutes from door to door, which is great! He has enjoyed getting to meet his Dutch colleagues that he has been talking with over the phone. Ben and I did some grocery/essential shopping on Thursday. Groceries are packaged in small quantities, and our fridge (no freezer) is small, so we will be shopping about every other day. Good news for me that I only have to plan a meal or two in advance. Catharina came to meet us on Friday to take us to IKEA for a few things...rocking chair, small table, and lamp for Ben's room, desk chair for our room, child safety stuff. We sampled our first pizza on Friday evening. Pepperoni is referred to as sausage, and mozzerella is not the norm. Really tasty stuff! (No Lou's, but probably healthier). After dinner, we took a nice long walk around our part of the city. (see photos below) The weather has been great...about 40 deg F (we will have to get adjusted to celsius), sunny and mostly dry. Ben is loving being outside so much and seeing all of the action!

This weekend was calm, and Ben is doing much better sleeping now (so Madsens, you are back to claiming the no sleep title). We received our first bit of personal mail on Saturday, a very welcome sight! Overall, we are very grateful for a relatively smooth transition. It is eye-opening to be a "stranger in a strange land". I am definitely feeling a compassion for those in the U.S. who find it hard to feel welcome. Don't get me wrong...we have been greeted very warmly here, but it's just the small ways of living and doing things that you take for granted (oh yeah, and that speaking the same language thing). Really, we are loving every minute of this adventure, and we're already planning the "Stephanie turns 30 in Paris" excursion!