Does Publix Have a Gift Registry?

We have decided when we come back to the states, we are going to bring an empty suitcase back with us just for food.  Before we moved here, I thought of a business that would cater to Americans or "Expats".  It would be a store with nothing but food from the U.S.  We would have everything from cereals, cake mixes to candy bars.  Everything over here tastes a little different, but a store like this would be great for American's who were missing that "taste from home".  My wife of course thought that I was crazy and thought that I was dumb.

After we got here, we took a walk around the town and found the store I was thinking of.  A store that caters to Americans.  Did we find American heaven?  This store had everything little thing you wanted to remind you of home.

Apple Jacks, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Froot Loops and Oreos.

Jiff Peanut Butter, Jack Daniels BBQ Sauce and Kraft Mac and Cheese.

I didn't even say a word, I walked right into the store to check this place out.  No need to get use to the food here, we have our own little taste of America right here and that taste comes with a price.  Here is an example of that price:

                                          Kraft Mac and Cheese: € 2,99 = $ 3.87
                                      Apple Jacks/Froot Loops: € 7,49 = $ 9.68
                                    Reese Peanut Butter Cups: € 1,99 = $ 2.57
                                         Betty Crocker cake mix: € 4,99 = $ 6.45
                                               Aunt Jemima Syrup: € 6,99 = $ 9.04
                                     Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate: € 5,99 = $ 7.74
                                                                    Oreos: € 6,79 = $8.87
                                                   Jiff Peanut Butter: € 4,99 = $ 6.45

Those prices are out of control.  Time to go on American "detox".  I bought some local stuff here and you quickly realize that it isn't as good as American food.  Peanut butter tastes different, there isn't American Cheese here (my wife is having a hard time with this) and the Cool Ranch Doritos (called Cool American) taste different.   So for Christmas, rather than gift cards (which we can't use there as they are in dollars and they use Euros here) I have decided to start a gift registry at Publix.  We will register at Publix for birthdays and Christmas.  I can't wait to open up my first Christmas present to discover a box of Kraft Mac and Cheese.  And don't forget, Charmin with Aloe makes a great stocking stuffer for me.

Tour de Amsterdam

When we decided to move to Amsterdam, we decided to not have a car.  With the transportation system in Europe, we figured we would be able to get around without a car.  So what if we have to walk in the rain a little, so what if it is snowing outside and is a little cold, we will be able to get around to most places via trams/buses/metro or bikes.  Recently Carmen and I went out bike shopping.  This was a big decision.  We waffled between a new bike, which is € 600,00 ($ 775.00), or a used bike, which € 250,00 ($ 322.00).  The main driving force behind the waffling is the fact that bike theft is very high in Amsterdam.  Can you imagine spending € 600,00 and coming outside to find your bike gone?  Decision made, we are buying used bikes.  We looked at several used bikes and to be honest, they all looked junkie.  "Why would we spend € 250,00 on a junkie bike, we should just get a new one, but it is going to get stolen so lets get a junkie bike, but it looks junkie and we want something that looks new."  This process went on all week.  We could not decide what we wanted to do.  Well Saturday came around and it was crunch time.  We had to get a bike, at least Carmen did, to get to work on Monday.  The decision was any easy one and what most Americans would have made, we are buying new bikes and hope they don't get stolen.  I present to you, my new "whip".

My new 2013 Batavus bike.

Now I know what you're thinking, "Isn't that a girls bike?"  Yes it's a girls bike, but that is what most people over here (including guys) ride!  I chose a "girls" bike because Dutch bikes sit up very high and it will be easier to get on and off the bike. They sit so high, I can barely touch the ground with my toes when I am stopped.  I upgraded it and had them install what I call the "E.T." Edition basket on the front of it.

Today, I decided to ride to work with Carmen.  How fun would that be, riding to work with my wife?  I get out of the house, we'll get some exercise and I can condition my body to get use to riding a bike after not riding one on a regular basis.

According to Google Maps it's only a 23 mins ride.  This shouldn't be too bad.

I can tell you I would regret this decision.  In fact, 15 mins into the ride I started to rethink the car thing.  First off you would think "The Netherlands are flat, that shouldn't be a bad ride."  Wrong!  They are flat, but that means you have to pedal 100% of the time.  Since there aren't any hills that means no coasting to catch your breath and to relax your legs.  Second is the wind.  The wind was blowing so hard I felt like Jim Cantore reporting live for the landfall location of Hurricane Andrew.  At one point, I'm pretty sure I wasn't moving. I felt like I was staying in place.  I thought "I hope I don't have to make this ride everyday.  This sucks and I feel sorry for my wife."  And just imagine rain and snow, oh my God what a nightmare.  What the hell have I got involved in?  This was the longest 5.8 km (3.06395 miles) ride in my life.  At one point I wanted to stop and relax but I was afraid I wouldn't get back on the bike.  I kept riding and finally made it. I am no Lance Armstrong.  Maybe I should do some steroids to help with the ride.  Now have to ride it back home!!!

Finally, Success!

I can fully appreciate what Nationals go through when they come to America not knowing anything.  Yesterday we received mail from the bank with our Pin card codes.  Exciting right, well not so fast.  The only thing we can read on the letter, besides our name and address, is the pin number.  Everything else in the letter is written in Dutch.  I guess it was arrogant of me to assume that it would be in English.  My response to my wife was "Now I know how Mexicans feel when they come to America".  This isn't a racist statement, but a statement of truth.  I now know what it is like to move to a country where everything is written in another language and not know what it says.  At least they speak English here which makes the transition a little easier.

Today I had a mission, get cable and internet (keep in mind we don't even have a TV yet, but we need cable and we need it now)!  My first attempt was online.  Not really an issue cause I use Google Chrome as my browser and it automatically translates any language to English for me.  I found the package I wanted but had further questions that I couldn't find the answers to.  I decided to click on the box that will have UPC call you to answer your questions.  I put in the phone number for the location I am at and they called right away. How I wish they made Google Chrome: Phone Edition.  I was not able to understand anything the recording was telling me.  So like most everyone else, I hit "0" thinking it would get me to a live person.  Nope.  Once you do that, the phone rings busy over and over.  I hung up and tried it again.  Can you guess what happened next? If you guessed the same as before you are right.  So I decided to look up UPC online and found a location very close to where I have been spending my days.  I drove to the location and parked in a parking spot.  As I was walking up I asked a women if this was paid parking.  She said yes and helped me with the marking meter.  She asked me where I was going to determine the amount of time to put on the meter.  I told her I was going to UPC and she said she worked there and would take me there.  After I couldn't get my card to work in the meter she said she would pay for my parking and walked with me to UPC.  Once at UPC I told the guy what I wanted and he was able to help me.  Within a matter of minutes I had internet and cable without a pin card or money, take that cell phone providers.  This by far has been the easiest transaction I have done to date in Amsterdam.  Oh I forgot to mention, the internet connection here is 150 mbps vs. the connection in the US which is about 50 mbps to 105 mbps.  

Feeling high from my transaction (and not from the weed that is sold here), I walked back to my car which was parked across the street from a Burger King.  I decided to go inside for a celebratory breakfast.   I was then shocked to find out that they stop serving breakfast at 11:30 am!  Take that US with your 10:30 am cut off.  Who the hell is ready to eat lunch at 10:30 am?  When in Rome, I decided to try something I have never had.  I introduce to you, the Breakfast Burger.

100% delicious.

Let me preface the following with, this is not an everyday thing I will be getting or would be getting.  I saw this on the menu and thought "I need to try that!"  This is not your typical breakfast sandwich.  Not really knowing what to expect I thought perhaps the term "breakfast burger" might have been miss translated considering yesterday we ate at KFC and I ordered a "Tower Burger".  This was not a burger at all. It was a bun with a breaded chicken patty on it.  Thinking this might be case here, I ordered it.  I was surprised that the translation was not mixed up.  This is really a breakfast burger. It is a hamburger bun with a Whopper patty topped with egg, cheese, bacon, tomato and mayonnaise.  It was really delicious and worth trying it once.

So what did I learn today?  Setting up cable/internet is the easiest thing I have done so far in Amsterdam and the breakfast burger is really a "breakfast burger" and it is delicious.  

Learning Curve

Going into this move, I knew things were not going to be easy.  I decided to embrace the move as a "learning  experience".  The first thing I learned was take everything you know and throw it out the window as it doesn't apply here.  Everything from banking to eating is different here.  In order to do anything here (get utilities, cable, internet and phones) you need a back account.  We had to wait 6 days to get an appointment at a bank.  Once there, we were able to set up a bank account with $0.00 in it.  Apparently, it take 6 weeks for the banks here to process a cashiers check.  Not good enough for us, so we asked about doing a wire transfer from our account in the U.S. to here, that takes 2 weeks to process.  How you can get a debit card (pin card) with a balance of $0.00 is beyond my understand, but that is the way it works here.

Also the saying "Nothing in life is free" strictly applies here accept to WiFi in cafes.  Drink refills and condiments are not free here.  I had to pay $1.00 for (2) small packets of ketchup yesterday at Burger King.  If they were the size of the ones you get a Chick-fil-a that might ease the pain, but they were smaller than that.  I did get (2) free packets of frietsaus yesterday, friets are french fries.  So being the creative person I am, I have decided to get a travel size shampoo bottle and fill it with ketchup and I will carry that around with me daily.

Words I learned this week:

Nee = No  (I heard that word a lot yesterday when we were opening up a bank account).
Kip = Chicken
Friets = Fries
Kaas = Cheese
Fiets = Bike.

If you can't remember what things are, take maters in your own hands and label everything.

This is what I did to my washing machine.  Nothing a label maker and Google Translate couldn't fix.

Driving is another story here.  You truly have to always be on the look out for bikes, cars, people and now add trams to that list.  The trams travel in the middle of the street, so you have to take extra caution when making a turn while driving a stick shift.  Now that the first week is over, I'm sure the next few weeks will be interesting.  The lady at the Expat Center told us the first month is the hardest.  I hope it goes easy.