Although I thought I would finally have more time to update my blog, another week has passed and it was busy busy busy!! We sort of finalized our household arrangements by transporting the fridge from the Kringloop shop to our storage room (with the help of Colette and her car, we could also finally show her our place while having a lunch together). Aaaaah, it´s so great to have a fridge just for ourselves where I can store loads of veggies without worrying about the very limited space, hihi :-p
I am still waiting for the confirmation letter about my registration – last week we went with Jurgen, our landlord, to the special office in town which does registration for foreigners. Luckily it was very quick and smooth, probably thanks to the fact that I have already registered in Holland two years ago so I already had a tax number and my data was verified by the town hall in Renkum…Now I can also finally set up a Dutch bank account and get the damned “pinpas” (locally issued credit card), as they often don´t accept Visa in shops, for some odd reason!!
Nardo is currently working on cutting the lock of his “new” bike, a bike that was standing in front of our house for several weeks already before our arrival without being claimed by anybody (the old inhabitants apparently left it here). We were allowed to take it for ourselves, but it had a chain on, so Nar had to get a tiny saw for metal, cut the chain, and now is working on cutting the bikelock itself…tough job! BUT he will have a great bike for free, a much better one than he has right now, with a much better saddle and pedals…
Last weekend we made an awesome bike trip along the Nieuwendammerdijk taking plenty of pictures (check my gallery), there was a canal festival at the café ´t Sluisje (so we didn´t manage to sit down at its lovely terrace yet!). We also biked around the Schellingwouderbreek lake which lies just about 200 m from our house and where several fishermen gather and where there is a large duck and goose colony often fed by the locals. We biked around Vliegenbos, the little forest/park nearby, we yet have to explore the inside of the forest though. There are still so many places we want to discover on our bike trips, unfortunately the weather is not cooperating lately with a lot of heavy rainfall and unpredictable changes! I really like the area of Nieuwendam where we live, it used to be a fishing and shipbuilding village separate from Amsterdam until 1921 when it was connected with the city. The colourful wooden houses along the harbour and the narrow cobbled streets going down from Nieuwendammerdijk with houses covered in wild vegetation of old gardens make up for a very special atmosphere of good old times…
In about a month Dario, our housemate, is leaving for Italy, so we are looking for somebody to come live in our attic room while we will move into his room one floor down. Tomorrow a Belgian girl (who we know through couchsurfing) is coming to meet us, and on Monday she will meet up with Jurgen, as well as another girl whom Jurgen invited. Really curious to meet both! And I reeeeally want a girl coming here to keep the place tidy and give me some female company 
In town I´ve already twice visited the Kushi Institute and its shop called Deshima – I like it there, the shop and the cafeteria! Both times I had a lunch of soup and ohagi (rice balls with different fillings and coatings). A purely macrobiotic shop is something we don´t have back in CZ…so cool!
Last week we had several meetings with both friends and family. We met up with Denise, who we got to know through couchsurfing (for some time we were planning to rent a flat with her and her bf Diego) and had a yummy macro dinner at her place together with her new housemate Toni. Denise worked and studied at the Kushi Institute, so I can learn a lot from her, especially practical stuff about cooking 
We planned to meet up next week to cook at our place. We also had a big meeting with the old 228 crew from Uilenstede, where we lived with Nardo two years back (and where Nardo spent several years during his studies), so nice to reunite with all of them and hear more about their current lives! We were lucky to meet even Barend, who came with his girlfriend all the way from Singapore, which he does only maybe twice a year. We first went for some drinks to a pub at Nieuwmarkt and then moved to an Italian restaurant which I found online, supposedly one of the best pizza places in town…of course, I could NOT have any pizza :-p On Thursday we went to Zwolle to a big family dinner of Nardo´s family – his dad and sister with her bf Guillaume, Nar´s grandparents (who organized the whole event), his uncle and aunt, and 3 cousins, one of them had her 2 year-old girl with her. The dinner was at an awesome oriental restaurant where you could eat unlimited, scoop several different ingredients on your plate (and there was a huge variety, even for me!) and they either prepared your meal in front of you on a wok or on a hot plate. Some people had even 4 plates of food for dinner, I was full even after 2, but I probably had more rice than anybody else :-p We also had a starter included in the price and unlimited drinks, and of couse then there were salads, and soup, and fruit, and desserts…I had a créme brulée and icecream, which I didn´t do (and won´t do!) for months…a big dose of sugar for me, but hey, I need to break my rules at times! :-p It was very nice to meet people from Nar´s family I didn´t get to know before and talk to those I already did know! After the dinner we went back to Amsterdam by train, but luckily travelling by train in Holland is always so quick and easy…we just picked up our bikes at the ferry and biked home at midnight, through the quiet Nieuwendammerdijk…
The next day Tami and Guillaume arrived to Amsterdam to do some walking and shopping in town and to see our place. We went to town with them and saw some of our favourite shops again, for dinner they and Nardo ordered food from a grill/fast food place, and we watched “9″, an odd but quite nice movie :-p
Last Monday I had my first (and so far last…) job experience at the dog-walking service. The day before I biked to town to Museumplein with Nardo to memorize the route I needed to take the next day, it´s actually pretty easy though of course biking through Amsterdam is always an adventure. On Monday Nar biked there with me once more in the morning to make sure I get there ok :-p At Museumplein I met with my boss Philip and colleague Barry and we went to pick up the dog-clients at their houses, mostly in the fancy neighbourhood of Oud-Zuid and in the inner canals area in the centre. That itself took about and hour and a half and actually is already counted in the time of the paid walk. We picked up two little terrier female dogs who weighed almost nothing, and then a German shepherd and a gigantic fluffy Newfoundlander (who weighs 80 kg!!). We spread them out between me, Philip, Barry and a new girl called Esther who came to try the job for the first time as well. When we had them all we took them to nearby Vondelpark where they could play with some toys and swim in a pond (especially the Newfoundlander who really loves water!). A lot of tourists came to watch us and take pictures :-p Then we took the dogs back to their owners, the whole thing took about 3 hours, but it was pretty exhausting, because it was hot weather that day, a lot of walking through the streets (I got a map for myself!) and two of the dogs are really strong…I wondered how I would manage to have 5 of them on leashes, which is what you are supposed to do when you´re walking without the other people assisting you…Unfortunately, in the next days I couldn´t try, because there were not enough clients for me and Philip didn´t need me…I hope next week I can work and see if this is the right job for me! Walking dogs is great, but I have to see whether I am physically capable of this…
