Three weeks apple cheeks

February 28

Well, we've been here three weeks now. And we still rather like it here! We're getting used to bigger differences like the shops being closed on Sundays (as a new friend from New Zealand puts it: good god, what third world country is this??) bakeries on every street corner (!), a grocery store monopoly (conspiracy??) and manic bikes everywhere. I now naturally look both ways before crossing streets as bikes can come from any direction, while cars can still be relied upon to come from just one. Come to think of it, scratch that: tiny cars can be found driving in the bike lanes sometimes. Oh, and one-way street signs are taken as suggestions only. So, er, looking both ways is an excellent means of ensuring longer life when in Amsterdam.

I can now get my tram tickets stamped correctly by the conductor with a certain degree of understandability and, barring correct stampage, hope to be allowed to plead non-fluency if ever I am caught by ticket checking police. I even have dealt with horrid washing machine repair men and overzealous North American evangelists to Amsterdam (as is hive of sin and villainy).

We plan to check out a few more apartments next week. Appartment hunting is is Very Difficult Task for all newcomers, made moreso because we only speak English and are assumed to be American. Apartments here are a depressing example of the law of supply and demand. But in the matrix, some laws can bent and some can be broken. (how do I get there??)

In all a very good three weeks progress.

We've noticed the kids here are extremely cheerful and outgoing. They give me little fist opening-and-closing waves as they are biked past the cafe windows where I sit. They are usually placed in a tiny seat just in front of the handlebars and are guarded by plastic windshields. Toddlers get their own bikes, but without pedals. They zoom along straddling the bikes thrusting forward with their feet.

Dutch little people are almost all chubby and apple cheeked. Parents seem take them everywhere and let them run around through the cafes etc. The little people make friends and get into all sorts of mischief. Pete and I were in stitches the other day watching a pair of newly made friends guard the cafe door and only let a chosen few go in or out. Recall a CBC interview re: parents in TO being frowned on for taking kids out in town. The UN has declared Holland the top country for happiest children. Take that, Toronto!