Perks

Ok, so I guess I do enjoy the perks of living in Europe....James and I are leaving today for a weekend in Milan. Yep, that's right, just 2 days in and around Milan. We have been very fortunate to be able to take several of these types of trips....Paris, Ireland, Prague and now Milan. (Those trips took place in the months I have yet to post, so pictures and details coming soon.) Looking forward to speaking and hearing Italian all around...and the temp. should be warmer than here...the high is 80 on Sunday! Will definitely post a trip report!

Enjoy your weekend!

(photo from Yahoo Travel - Milan - Pictures)

FALL

So, the weather outside is turning to fall. And for some reason we are getting homesick. Saturday morning was slightly crisp with a bit of sun - perfect for tailgating. We were longing for a UK tailgate, drinking beers and bringing Barley along (our dog currently in foster care while we are in Europe). We haven't been watching much football using the Location Free Player because the games we have wanted to watch are evening games in the US, meaning middle of the night for us. And to top off our longing of all things tailgating....UK BEAT UL....man, what a thing to miss!!

In the spirit of the weather changing, we switched our wardrobes. I am not sure how much use our summer wardrobes got this year as we probably had only a hand full of days that were actually above 80 degrees. No need for cute sundresses this year! (just for the honeymoon of course)

And in the spirit of changing wardrobes.....am I so ready to shop for fall clothes. I did my best to create a good will pile (we'll be bringing it back whenever that is), but I think I could clean out some more if I knew I could do some shopping....hmm, I do have a birthday coming up (hint, hint) and the wares at Banana Republic and JCrew are looking pretty good!

Miss you all and hope you are enjoying your September....tailgates and such (even if the weather isn't changing yet)

apologies

Sorry for the delay in posting the rest of my catch up blogs. I have been under the weather. As it is already fall here (wait, I don't think we really had a summer), colds are everywhere. James caught it first and passed it on to me. Still with a runny nose, but going to try to add some blogs today. I realize I only have 2 weeks left on my goal to be up to date by the 1 year anniversary......

Miss you all!

October - Month 1

So, I arrived in Amsterdam on Saturday morning. We left for the UK on Sunday for Lubrizol training...chemical training on lubricants, yes it was loads of fun! We came back from training and moved into our extended stay hotel. I have no pictures and no good memories from that place. Let's just say, we didn't stay there long!

The weekend we got back from training, we had dinner at the Jack and Kathy's. A bunch of the US Valvoline Expats got together....it was a fun evening. We owe a lot of our adjustment to Jack and Kathy - thanks to them we had a place to store things and use internet so James could attend class.

In our second and third weeks here we went house hunting with our expat integration consultant. Some of the photos are below ....

Notice the purple carpet and paint....definitely not a taker......

This one was in Rotterdam...floors were not finished.... This one was in an area of Rotterdam, notice the shower is in the middle of the bathroom and did not have an enclosure...needless to say we didn't choose that one.

We liked this one. It is also located in Wassenaar, had a nice backyard area and several bathrooms. We didn't get it because the landlord had promised it to his friends in Belgium earlier that morning. It's actually a good thing because the biggest bedroom would have held our bed, and THATS IT. The dining,living and kitchen area were all open. The ground floor and backyard are what made us like it.
And after viewing about 18 different places, we came back to the first place we saw.......(see next post)

In October I met my new friend Courtney. James was travelling the day before my birthday, so Courtney and her mom (who was in town visiting and helping Courtney get organized, she moved here in August) took me to dinner for my birthday. It was a comforting momemt at the beginning of this crazy adventure. THANK YOU Courtney!!

Our Home Away From Home

So this is our Home Away From Home (well not really a home yet as it doesn't have any of our things...look for postings for January)

This is the outside view....our landlords have an office for the business on the ground floor (US first floor, though here its ground, first, second)

This is the kitchen area. Pretty small, but we are lucky with the cabinet space

The living/dining room area. This is the living room side.....
And this is the dining room side.....
This is the master bedroom area

November - Month 2

We spent the first week of November back in Lexington packing with the movers. It took 2 days to pack and I think the rest of the week for us to organize what we left behind in the house.

Back in Holland, we got the keys to our apartment on November 15...I was away for a training so James spent the first night there alone....and from what I hear it was a little cold! We brought our blow up mattress and a set of sheets and towels from the US in our luggage. That first weekend we got as organized as we could without our shipment....we borrowed a card table and chairs, tailgate chairs and dishes from Jack and Kathy. We went to the Media Mart (like a Best Buy) and bought a TV, DVD player (enabled for region free as different DVDs are not universal....and to watch DVDs from different areas of the world, you need your player to be region free), and microwave. I bought us a skillet and spatula. At least we could cook in one skillet and eat on borrowed plates!! We called it camping....but it got a little old.

Thanksgiving was our first real holiday away from home. Our friends hosted Thanksgiving dinner and each family brought a dish. It was as close to a family gathering as you can get when you are 6000 miles from home. I went to a church service in the morning in Leiden (there were pilgrims in Leiden, too) and then we had dinner. James was still in school so he did school work while I went to the service. Friday, it was back to work for us as it is not a National Shopping Day like in the US.

Those are the highlights for November.....

December - Month 3

December....the days are getting shorter and shorter....its dark when I get to work and dark by the time I leave...and by the way, it rains a lot in Holland!! More on this later...

I did get to take a trip to Germany this month. James is the German sales manager and had a Christmas dinner for his team in Hamburg. Really nice city. We did a dinner cruise with a folk theme on Friday night and went to the Christmas market and toured the city on Saturday with James' boss George and his wife, Jill. Some pictures are posted below.......

Us in Folk Costumes...given to everyone before dinner

And in our normal clothes....
A view of the Christmas Market

We also went to St Truiden to visit Lieven and Inga for a Champagne party. They served Champagne and foie gras ....needless to say too much Champagne without food (no foie gras for me) gets Jessi drunk quickly....we ended up having dinner a bit later at a local restuarant that James loves....we go there everytime we are in St Truiden....the food is really pretty good.

And then we flew home to share the holidays with friends and family, see coming posts.

December - USA

So, back in the good ole US of A for the holidays.

My wonderful fiance (at the time) was about to celebrate his 30th birthday and I couldn't let that pass without some fune including friends and family. So I organized, with the help of Bobbi and Leigh, a surprise party. Thanks to Adam dragging James to the movies we were able to pull it off without a hitch! Thank you to everyone who helped organize and pull it off (Mom, Dad and Emily even came to Lex for the party). Pictures below.

I think he was surprised.......

Christmas was fun this year. We had dinner with Jim, Ali, Adam, Brooke and Jon at Guiseppe's. It was very good. For Christmas Eve, we spent the day in Lawrenceburg and Harrodsburg visiting James' dad's side of the family and then the evening at Anne's house. Waking early on Christmas morning, James and I exchanged our gifts and headed to Xenia (not without a stop at Starbuck's first. This is a great tradition...starbucks christmas morning!!) We hung out in Ohio for several days and then headed back to Lex for New Years!

Adam, Brooke, Jim and James

Emily, James and I

New Year's Eve was a great time. We went to IHCC with Leigh, Bob, Anne and Warren. I think we all had fun, I might have had too much fun. The picture tells a great story!! Thanks everyone for a great night.

James and I flew back to Amsterdam on the 2nd...