Bike, concert, apartment, flight back, and more of the same

Don't really have much else to update everyone on, but from the title of this post you can see what the things are :-P

I finally bought myself a bicycle here.  Took a couple of trips to the bike store as the first time i went to it, they didn't have any used bikes out that would fit me (ie. i'm too short in this country, haha).  Said they had a couple others in the back so i went back the following day (yesterday).  The bike should work to get me to places that i don't want to walk to and that i really don't want to take a bus (or if the bus doesn't go to where i want to go).

This evening I'm going to an All American Reject concert in Amsterdam, so a bit excited about that.  The fact that the tickets were pretty cheap helps in that :-) Don't know many of their newer songs so i'm trying to learn those right now.  Assuming they'll play some of their older stuff.

On Tuesday, I'm going to be going to look at a couple of apartments, so I may have a place of my own towards the beginning of next month.  I'll get pictures up of whatever place I move into, especially after i make it to IKEA in order to personalize it a bit more :-)  I think i am a little set on the place, but my opinion could change depending on the vibe i get once i see the apartment in person.

I have flights booked to fly back to Denver on October 27th.  I'll be there until November 7th when i fly to Iceland for a couple days.  I will continue onto Amsterdam on November 11th.  Things i know i'm already looking forward to are: celebrating a late 3rd b-day with my nephew, seeing my niece (who is hopefully born by then), see other family, and of course friends :-)

Oh, there is one other thing.  There's a possibility that i might get to go to Sweden for work for a couple days.  Don't really know any of the details (ie how many people my work is going to send), but i'll try to keep people updated.  I just realized that I've actually gone to Geneva between my last post and this one.  That will have to be another post later on.  For now though, you can see my pictures here, and below is a single preview.

flower clock

Slacker

So i am definitely a bit of a slacker when it comes to keeping a blog.  There could be a variety of reasons to explain why don't keep up to date more regularly.  I'll let everyone come to their own conclusions :-P

Alright, lets see if i can remember everything i've done since my last post.....

Several weekends ago the weather was very nice (ie it was actually sunny), so i did as much as i could outside. The fact that it was a 3 day weekend was quite nice as well.  On the Saturday i made my way to the beach which was fun.  the water was definitely too cold for me.  I don't know how some people were actually playing and swimming in it.  On the Sunday, i made my way down to Rotterdam for the Dunya Festival.  The festival was fun as well.  Multi-culture festival with various kinds of music on multiple stages and food booths, what's not to enjoy?  After the festival, i then made my way back up to Amsterdam and went to an American comedy show titled "Can't Dutch This" at Boom Chicago.  It was hilarious and i definitely plan on taking people to a show there if they visit (hint hint).  On the Monday of the 3-day weekend i went back to the beach, but at the beach itself it was foggy/misty, windy, and chilly which definitely isn't beach weather.  Instead i ended up going back to Haarlem walked around for a bit.

beach in Zandvoort

Dunya Festival

I think that was really the only "exciting" weekend since my last post.  The weather changed back to being cloudy/rainy most days, especially on the weekends.  Although it is a bit nice that by the time i'm getting done with work the sky does clear up a bit which makes for a nice run after work.

I've also started to look for apartments in Haarlem, for when i'll be moving out of my current living arrangements.  There is a place that i found that looks really nice.  Just not sure if i should go after the 1st one i see/like or if i should look around more.  I know i probably should look around  more, but i also don't know how long i would have before the one i like might be gone.  I also haven't seen very many that really jump out to me.  One reason i want the one i found (even though it's slightly on the expensive end) is that it has an actual oven and has a washer and dryer :-)  doesn't have a bath tub or terrace, but i can live without those things :-P

hmm...speaking of ovens, i may have to have an entry or 2 about cooking/baking in Europe as it has been a bit entertaining, especially with trying to use a microwave-oven combo thing that only makes some kind of sense (the instructions are in french and dutch).  The dial is rather interesting too (see below).  I did manage to bake some banana bread that turned out rather well though.

some look pretty self-explanatory....others not so much

Anyways.....this week i finally was able to go and pick up my residence permit, so i guess that means it's official that i'm a resident of the Netherlands right now.  With that i am now going to go get a cell plan today so i will have internet on my phone again.  The cheap little prepay phone i got just isn't cutting it anymore :-P  Also, now that i have a residence permit i will be able to get a movie pass.  For 19 euros a month (or something like that) i can go to as many movies as i want.  When a single movie ticket is about 10 euros, the pass will pay for itself in after 2 movies. Plus the place that i currently would like to rent is a block or 2 away from the theatre :-)

Also this week there was a late night shopping event in Haarlem that was a lot of fun (and i probably spent more money that i should have).  Quite a few stores stayed open until midnight and each different shopping section had a different decade theme...or they were at least suppose to.  Didn't see much of the different 70's, 80's, 90's, or 00's theme, but i also didn't get there until about 10pm so didn't have much time to do shopping there.  Had gone to dinner and then shopping in Lisse (another town close to Hillegom) as Thursdays are when stores tend to stay open until 8 or 9pm.  While walking around/shopping there, we realized that we should have gone to Haarlem, so we decided to go there.  The stores participating in the night shopping also had sales going on (and in some the closer it got to midnight the more the item would be on sale).  Multiple shops also had dj's and beverages for customers.  It was quite fun walking around the G-Star store with a complimentary beer (they also had wine/champagne, water, and pop) :-P

This coming Wednesday I will be flying to Geneva after work to meet up with my cousin.  I should have some stories and pictures after that, so be on the lookout for that post.

Alright, i think that is all for now.  Hopefully my next entry won't be 3 weeks in the making, but i'm not going to make any promises. 

Oh yeah, i'll probably be trying to personalize how my blog actually works at some point to.  If i do change it and it makes anything hard to see/read feel free to let me know :-)