Week One: Finding our footing
We are one week in and I’m close to having my sea legs.
Day one was rough. Like really, really, really rough. The compounded stress of completely uprooting our lives and taking a toddler on a transatlantic flight made for two very unpleasant mommies.
It took all of our resources to manage Alder which didn’t leave anything left for any one/thing else. The whole rigamoral of checking and retrieving 11 bags, in addition to a carseat and stroller, after a long international flight was a comedy of errors. Arriving “home” to unlit, extremely steep Dutch stairs was enough to send anyone over the edge. And we definitely went over the edge.
We groused, we anguished, we prayed, we barricaded the baby, and we ultimately/finally/after-a-coupla-days made peace with our monumental decision to (temporarily) upset our comfortable California lives for this European adventure.
Alder has taken the whole thing stride.
He didn’t see any compelling reasons to sleep through the first few nights and happily played while his exhausted moms took turns humoring him while absolutely no one slept. It continued that way for just under a week and we are finally on a close-to-normal sleep routine.
He loves the stairs. BTW. 😱
In the meanwhile we’ve stocked our pantry. (Should I admit to our trip to Starbucks at Centraal Station to buy out their inventory of Verona after two bad local purchases? Or no? I’m guessing no.) We’ve joined a gym. We even made friends.
Yes! Friends!
Wow.
I was honestly worried about social isolation. It can happen easily when you are a stay at home mom, even in the best circumstances. But we immediately met a handful of super nice neighbors who were quick to share their What’s App contact info and schedule time to hang out. Alder and I had our first Friday playdate with a delightfully bossy fellow toddler and smart laid-back mom exactly one week after we arrived.
When we were here seven years ago I spent a lot of time feeling sheepish about only speaking English. This go ‘round I’ve simply embraced it. I’m too busy managing Alder to fret over offending a fellow English speaker by speaking English with them. And everyone speaks English here. Anytime we’ve asked someone about it they’ve explained that they see it is as essential. The Netherlands is a tiny country and their world would be too small if they didn’t have a couple of languages under their belt. Bless them.
But just because everyone speaks English, doesn’t mean English is the primary language. Dutch rules print and I’ve found myself very grateful for the little bit of time I’ve spent building my Dutch reading skills on Duolingo. Any recognized word feels like a revelation and I’ve found myself quickly expanding my repertoire as a way to navigate grocery stores and registration forms.
Speaking of registration, that is something you have to do with the City here. As part of our immigration process, we had to go to a nearby government office to have our biometric information taken so we can receive ID cards. The government office had free (good!) coffee. And tastefully mix-matched chairs. And a children’s play area. And a view. And state of the art technology. Basically it was everything the DMV is not. Sigh.
The immigration process is complicated, even with a corporate sponsor. I’m still not sure we’ve scheduled all of the appointments we need to, but there is a centralized office we’ll be visiting and we’ll soon know more about what we don’t know now.
Our apartment is lovely. Our neighborhood dreamy. The whole thing feels pretty on track at this point. Even if I’m still too overwhelmed to get on a bike.
Rome wasn’t built in a day. Neither was Amsterdam.
Day one was rough. Like really, really, really rough. The compounded stress of completely uprooting our lives and taking a toddler on a transatlantic flight made for two very unpleasant mommies.
It took all of our resources to manage Alder which didn’t leave anything left for any one/thing else. The whole rigamoral of checking and retrieving 11 bags, in addition to a carseat and stroller, after a long international flight was a comedy of errors. Arriving “home” to unlit, extremely steep Dutch stairs was enough to send anyone over the edge. And we definitely went over the edge.
We groused, we anguished, we prayed, we barricaded the baby, and we ultimately/finally/after-a-coupla-days made peace with our monumental decision to (temporarily) upset our comfortable California lives for this European adventure.
Alder has taken the whole thing stride.
He didn’t see any compelling reasons to sleep through the first few nights and happily played while his exhausted moms took turns humoring him while absolutely no one slept. It continued that way for just under a week and we are finally on a close-to-normal sleep routine.
He loves the stairs. BTW. 😱
 |
| Don't be fooled. These are the "wide" stairs. |
In the meanwhile we’ve stocked our pantry. (Should I admit to our trip to Starbucks at Centraal Station to buy out their inventory of Verona after two bad local purchases? Or no? I’m guessing no.) We’ve joined a gym. We even made friends.
Yes! Friends!
Wow.
I was honestly worried about social isolation. It can happen easily when you are a stay at home mom, even in the best circumstances. But we immediately met a handful of super nice neighbors who were quick to share their What’s App contact info and schedule time to hang out. Alder and I had our first Friday playdate with a delightfully bossy fellow toddler and smart laid-back mom exactly one week after we arrived.
When we were here seven years ago I spent a lot of time feeling sheepish about only speaking English. This go ‘round I’ve simply embraced it. I’m too busy managing Alder to fret over offending a fellow English speaker by speaking English with them. And everyone speaks English here. Anytime we’ve asked someone about it they’ve explained that they see it is as essential. The Netherlands is a tiny country and their world would be too small if they didn’t have a couple of languages under their belt. Bless them.
But just because everyone speaks English, doesn’t mean English is the primary language. Dutch rules print and I’ve found myself very grateful for the little bit of time I’ve spent building my Dutch reading skills on Duolingo. Any recognized word feels like a revelation and I’ve found myself quickly expanding my repertoire as a way to navigate grocery stores and registration forms.
Speaking of registration, that is something you have to do with the City here. As part of our immigration process, we had to go to a nearby government office to have our biometric information taken so we can receive ID cards. The government office had free (good!) coffee. And tastefully mix-matched chairs. And a children’s play area. And a view. And state of the art technology. Basically it was everything the DMV is not. Sigh.
The immigration process is complicated, even with a corporate sponsor. I’m still not sure we’ve scheduled all of the appointments we need to, but there is a centralized office we’ll be visiting and we’ll soon know more about what we don’t know now.
Our apartment is lovely. Our neighborhood dreamy. The whole thing feels pretty on track at this point. Even if I’m still too overwhelmed to get on a bike.
Rome wasn’t built in a day. Neither was Amsterdam.
Neither one of my comments has gone through because (as Matthew discovered) I did not have a gmail email address. I wrote you and hit publish, but it didn't go through. Thank goodness for Matt's knowledge. I hope now that this third comment will go through.
ReplyDeleteI am delighted for you three to have such an adventure, even a beginning arduous adventure. It is a joy to read Rachel's comments and to see Andrea's photos. Sorry about the rocky beginning which Alder sailed right through and left you two Mommies sleepless and exhausted.
Now that everything is going well, let's hear more, more more! What opportunities you three will have for exploring the countryside. You abode is delightful; sorry about the steep stairs outside.
I am so glad we get to share our adventures with you (and that Matt helped you sort out commenting). We will do our best to keep everyone updated. We miss our family so much already.
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