SinterKlass has arrived!

(posted by John)

The holidays involving free candy just keep on coming!  First it was halloween sponsored by the American community at ISA, then on November 11th the kids went door-to-door to our dutch neighbors to celebrate Saint Maarten.  Now, on November 13th SinterKlass arrived in Amsterdam!  We attended a parade to celebrate his arrival and the kids received candy as part of the celebration.  We have concluded that SinterKlass http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas is smarter than his cousin Santa Claus becuase he has decided to live in the south of Spain as opposed to the North Pole.  The shops and streets are now lined with holiday lights in preparation for both SinterKlass and Christmas Day.  Our kids are of course excited for the additional gift day!

Last week was my first trip back to the US since we arrived on October 19th.  I left on Monday and returned on Saturday.  The purpose of my trip was budget reviews for AMS and thus I made the trip by myself, much to the chagrin of Jen.  The work trip was successful and I was able to see a few friends and family as well.  Having dinner with Mom and getting to see my niece Andie were the highlights of my week.  I also returned with two extremely full suitcases with goodies for our family and a few of our friends.  Winter fleeces, wool socks, peanuts in the shell (the ones here are unsalted) and popcorn (havent found any here as of yet) were some of the highlights of this haul.  Luckly I left on Friday, 11/19 just before the ice storm shut down much of the Twin Cites. 

We continue to settle in and make great new friends in Holland.  The Pemantels invited us over to celebrate Thanksgiving with them this Thursday and we eagerly accepted.  We also will make our first journey to Paris Nov. 27-29.  Bella will not make this trip but our neighbors Sylvie and Niccoli have agreed to watch Bella for us (Niccoli is 14 and as much a dog lover as Allison).  We continue to be thankful for how helpful and welcoming our expat and Dutch friends have been to us. 

We will be certain to provide the details of our Paris trip after next weekend.  In the mean time, we miss you all and to our friends and family in Minnesota, stay warm!

John

We're Here!!!

(posted by John)

Wow.  Moving a family across the Atlantic is a lot of work!  Our days thus far have been filled with trips to Ikea, eating out in new and exciting restaurants, trips to Ikea, starting school, trips to Ikea, starting work, and trips to Ikea!  All kidding aside, it has been almost three weeks since we arrived in Holland and we are having a great time.

We arrived on Tuesday, October 19th and spent our first three nights in a hotel.  We loved eating out for every meal, but a family of five, dog, eight suitcases can only last for so long... so we were very excited to move into our house on Friday, October 22nd.  Our house is located in Amstelveen, a suburb of Amsterdam.  The house is an attached house with three levels (very similar to a row house in the U.S.).  The house was built in 1938 and has a lot of character.  Steep stairs, wood floors, lots of windows and a great neighborhood! 

The kids started school at the International School of Amsterdam (ISA) on Thursday, October 28th and began to make great friends immediately.  Their classmates come from all over the globe, over 50 countries are represented at ISA.  All subjects are taught in english which has made the transition much easier.  If you're curious to learn more about the school, the website is http://www.isa.nl/. We will be sure to tell you more in upcoming posts!

Halloween has always been a big deal in the Feriancek household so we were a bit disappointed to leave the U.S. right before the big holiday.  Little did we know that the American Community at ISA sponsors a Halloween trick-or-treat event.  Halloween in Holland took place in our neighborhood and was a mix of about 15 houses and 20 or so cars.  Can you say "trunk-or-treat?"  Roughly 100-150 ISA kids participated in the festivities and Allie, Ryan and Matthew loved it!  I love having the candy bag available to pilfer over the next month or so!  We've been told that Halloween is catching on a bit in Holland, but not nearly to the extent as in the U.S.  You can imagine that we received some pretty funny looks from the Dutch natives.  This was the first time in about ten years that I didn't dress up the night of Halloween.  That will change next year!

Tonight we celebrated a Dutch tradition called St. Maarten Day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Martin's_Day).  Similar to trick or treating except there are no costumes.  The kids create paper lanterns and go door-to-door singing songs (in Dutch) to celebrate Sint Maarten and then receive candy after singing the song.  As you probably guessed, when my kids heard "free candy," they were motivated!  We visited about 30 houses and had lots of fun!

We have started to make friends, both with other expats (particularly the Pemantell's who moved to Holland from Eden Prairie last year, a very fortunate coincidence for us!) and with our new Dutch neighbors.  Most everyone speaks English which has made the transition easier, but we all hope to learn a little Dutch during our stay.  The kids will study Dutch in School, and Jen and I will start with a little computer training.  Everyone we have met has been very gracious and helpful.

Two and a half weeks in we are even more excited about the adventure we have embarked on.  We look forward to making new friends, experiencing the Dutch culture, and the traveling through all of Europe.  Please stay tuned to learn more about how our adventure unfolds!

By the way, work is going great as well!

John