6 Weeks in Amsterdam

I wanted to document how it felt to have been here for 6 weeks. I still laugh when I see the shop called, 'Sissy Boy' and cream called, 'Slag', but I'm not laughing as much. The surprising is becoming normal.

It took me 6 weeks to take out my UK store cards, library cards and memberships for local London shops/softplays. I have Dutchified my purse.

We have our health cards, Museum Card, Albert Heijn (supermarket) bonus card, air mile card and local library cards. It also took me 6 weeks to put my UK mobile away and predominantly only use a Dutch number. Riding a bakfiets is mostly not a problem now, I even let my 7 year old sit on the back of it today. I'm becoming braver about cycling and am traveling further on my bike.

Most days are OK, but occasionally, I have wobbly moments triggered by something which seems too alien, or pushes me a bit too far out of my comfort zone. For example, activities which I didn't have to think too hard about, like a trip to the supermarket, become challenging as I frequently can't find what I'm looking for. The most missed events are genuine conversations with old friends and family. It's very easy to take those for granted when you're used to them. It's now been 6 weeks since I had a good laugh with a close friend. 

My Dutch is embarrassingly poor. I've tried listening to some language discs and clips on Youtube. The children are picking up the odd word here and there, but I realised today that we had been here for 6 weeks and didn't understand when someone asked what their name was in Dutch or how to say basic phrases. I've been told it can take 3 months for the children to pick up Dutch. Our first three weeks here were spent only speaking English to each other, so I must remember to be patient with it all. 

Sport

Teenagers and Sport

There are no teenagers lingering around on street corners in Amsterdam. You often see them whizzing past you on a bike, holding a hockey stick or wearing sports clothes. There are very few teenage pregnancies too. 

Which makes me come to the conclusion that the teenagers are not bored. They are playing sport or studying for exams. A test is taken at school each academic year in secondary school/high school. If that test is failed then the student repeats the year. 

Sport is big in Amsterdam. Firstly, most people cycle to wherever they're going and it doesn't count as sport. There aren't very many fat people here. It's been surprisingly very easy to sign the children up for sporting activities of our choice. 

I spoke to one parent tonight while watching my daughter do gymnastics. He said there is too much to choose from and the problem is that the parents end up ferrying their children from one activity to another. 

In London, we couldn't find football or gymnastics for either of my children. There are waiting lists, the organisers don't return your calls, the activities were only on Saturday's. A myriad of reasons why swimming had been the only activity my children had done for some time. Oh, and tennis. In Amsterdam, one email and they can do it. You can pick your day, there is an activity nearby. So Ava is loving gymnastics and we've managed to sign Aaron up for English speaking football on a Sunday morning. The gymnastics takes place in a huge gymnasium, see the below link. Aaron's football takes place on astro turn, in a very well kept ptich and with an indoor provision available if the temperature is below 0 degrees. Happy days and healthy kids. 

http://www.turnace.nl/

Being Vegetarian in Amsterdam

It's surprisingly not too bad to be a vegetarian in Amsterdam. I'm really impressed with the amount of vegetarian food alternatives in the supermarkets. 

There are whole isles full of tofu, quorn and veggie food. I felt very happy about that and became very relaxed about the food I was eating. Until a few days ago, when a friend mentioned that the cheese and bread had renet and pig fat in them.  I really hadn't realised. I'm so used to being able to eat most cheeses and all bread in the UK, I didn't think to check. So I raced home and pulled all the cheese out of the fridge. Yup, it all had, 'stremsel' in. Bugger. Had to give it all away and go in search of vegetarian cheese.

Vegetarian Cheese

There's no animal rennet in soft cheese, such as mozerella. I've also been able to buy Cathedral Cheddar and Leerdammer cheese has no animal rennet in it. Bio cheese (organic cheese) apparently also doesn't contain animal rennet.

Eating out is not great, but then it's often not so great in UK, so I'm used to always having the pasta option. We've been out to an Indonesian restaurant, which was great. 

Bread is not straight forward either. Some of the breads contain 920 L cysteine, also called 'broodverbeteraar', which is mostly made from pig hair. Particularly baguettes and pastries. Luckily, I have a bread maker and will be buying kosher bread from now on.

Animal products are also sometimes used in the production of wine and filtering clear apple juice too. It's a bit of a minefield, really. I think once you know which brands are 'safe', it's not too bad. 

Amusing Food

Mr Bean biscuits

Bastard Sugar

Slutty Food

Plop