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Tuesday, March 21, 2006

WE MADE IT!!

We are officially abroad!!



The flight wasn't too bad, I'm really surprised. I was pretty anxious right before we took off and for about the 1st 15 minutes or so and then I leveled out. Mark's version wouldn't be so nice... He wasn't able to get any sleep and was having bouts with RLS and because we had moderate turbulence the entire trip, the pilot never turned off the 'fasten seatbelt light', so he could never get up and walk it off. I feel terrible for him but he was a trooper and made it until about 9pm here. The sunrise on the plane was beautiful and we opened the shade for a moment as we crossed over Ireland! We saw a little green through the clouds! It still hasn't really hit me I don't think - I'm kind of slow that way.

The airport was nice but didn't get to explore much (there is supposedly a full museum inside). We were too busy trying to find the Englishman we were meeting, Danny, who will be working with Mark. That was its own small adventure; find a man that you have never laid eyes on, have no physical description of, in a foreign country, in an airport neither party has ever been too, with no working cell phones (on our side). We found Hollands answer to the pay phone, a very odd looking contraption that does, fortunately, take credit cards. I haven't looked yet to find out how much we were charged for the 30second call... I'll try to remember to look soon. Grabbed a quick bite and went to rent a car.
Car rentals are expensive! Over 1000euros for the month. Mark and Danny will be carpooling to work, much to Danny's delight, he is from the UK and they drive on the wrong side of the car and road. He was more than happy to grab the map and work on the logistics of how to get us 'home' while Mark takes the wheel.





They did a fabulous job!! The drive was suppose to take us an hour and we did it in 2h 20m! Not too shabby for being in a different county! I sat in the back seat and snapped pictures mostly, occasionally I would add my two cents but mostly left it all to them. We finally experienced the 'turnabout' and got turned around but did finally figure it out, right after we got turned around and played 'chicken' with a delivery truck! Don't worry, it all came out okay.


This is our house, Danny lives next door.


Our house is pretty cool! Big for just us and cold at night, I can't figure out how to work the heater! We are staying in a vacation community. Its a small neighborhood full of detached cottages, duplexes and condo-type housing. I think that some of the homes have permanent residents by the looks of it. We sit on the edge of a little water inlet that is home to some ducks and a lot of seagulls (the beach of the North Sea is very close). The facility has a community center with a small market/shop thing and a restaurant/bar on premise with excellent food and surpassingly tasty Heiniken on tap. I've never been a fan of that particular brand but had no complaints last night. The house we are staying in is fully furnished with dishes but obviously no food and you can't just hop in your car and drive to Walmart or Krogers to get groceries. We thankfully, found out last night at dinner that we can order breakfast and take it home with us that night since the place wouldn't be open as early as we would be getting up. We blindly placed our order after we heard oj and milk. I got up with Mark this morning at 5:30am to fix him some breakfast... he let me take off my job for 2 months and brought me to Europe, the least I can do is fix the man breakfast before he goes to work in the morning. :) Anyways, breakfast was a loaf of really good multigrain bread, some super thin sliced peppered ham and some other unidentified meat and some cheese, jam, peanut butter, butter, milk and oj... a little different but not bad. Mark ended up breaking out a skillet and heating up the ham... it is just smoked I thing so it seems kindof raw... its the same ham that wine tasters are into... Dad, can you help me out? Do you know what I'm talking about? I can't remember what it's called... oh well. It was pretty good though, oh, and we got a pear, that was yummy.


And that is Holland so far. I haven't ventured far today, I walked up to the main office to buy the wireless internet access and I unpacked. Now I'm just waiting for my love to come home. I don't know what time he gets off and he can't call me because we don't have our cell phones set up yet. We have a phone here that we can receive calls on but I haven't actually seen it yet... (I'm sure its on a table upstairs where) and I don't think he knows the number anyways. oh well, I know he'll come home to me! I'll just sit here and wait. :)

Let me see if I can't get some pictures attached and call it good for today! Thanks for checking in and talking to me, come back soon!!

Jen

if your are interested this is where we are staying: here

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, am I glad to finally hear you made it okay!! How are both of you doing on the time difference?? Can't wait to hear about all the fun things you are going to see. Do you have the car or is it the "work" car?? Looking forward to pictures & updates.
Dad's going to check on your babies tonight. I better go--gotta work today.
Love you both

pack of 2 said...

Cool...you made it. Since you are in Holland...make sure to see the tulips...is it the right time of year for that? It is here:0

I love the cottage you are staying in...very cool.

I hope you are having a great time.

Love you,

Shelly

Kami said...

TAKE LOTS OF PICTURES! Looks awesome.

I haven't gone overseas yet because of that whole gotta-get-on-a-plane-and-go-over-the-ocean thing. Not so into that.

XOXO

pack of 2 said...

I'm so excited for you two. The cottage looks really cute. I'm glad you made it safe and sound.

Love you,

Angie

Anonymous said...

ummm, the ham might be proscuitto? Atleast that's what the Italians call it and eat and it's usually raw looking.

Very excited about your trip, what an experience!

Monogram Queen said...

this is so cool and prolly the closest i'll come to getting overseas. I'm like Kami, scared. Enjoy it cos' it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

Anonymous said...

How exciting for you two and all who are sharing it with you!
The kids are all fine but already miss you,Jacob in particular. Could not find a thing out of place. They are very well behaved. I will check on them Friday.

Love, Dad

J said...

Glad you made it, both in the plane and the car! I'm really getting excited. Only 16 days to go and we'll be there with you. Oh, Have I mentioned that our flight arrives at 8:30 in the morning? A guy at work has already told me of a place to get a really good english breakfast. He's single and said it's like Hooter's, only they're wearing a little less material! Keep us posted with plenty of pictures.
Love ya,
Jason

jakulin5 said...

Mom: The time difference didn’t really bother either of us. He was tired on Monday because he hadn’t slept on the plane but there was so much going on he didn’t have time to think about it . He slept pretty well that night and then was rolling as normal Tuesday… I on the other had was up most of the night Mon. because it was so cold. I was tired all day yesterday (Tuesday) and had to fight off taking a nap so I was good and tuckered out and am fine today. Still haven’t figured out the heater but finally found some blankets… (more on that later). Mark has the car but I think they (Mark and Danny) are going to start carpooling with another guy who passes this way so I can have a car at least a few days a week. I need to get those pictures up – the roads and signs are kind of wild!!! Send our thanks again to Dad for looking in on them. Something is wrong with our cameras so I can’t see them – Mark is going to have to get with Chuck on Sunday to get it fixed. ☹

Mom&Dan: HI!! Expoloring is slow so far but should pick up soon. We went to a grocery store last night, that was kind of cool… for a grocery store… ☺ Its only been a day but he seems to like the plant, said the people were very nice and raved about some miracle ‘coffee machine’ that spits out a coffee or expresso, or cappachino or latte, etc. w/ or w/o cream and sugar…. All for free, sitting around like a normal coffee pot… ☺ he was raving about it all night last night – (he was pretty hopped up on the caffeen!) hahaha I’m working on the address, I just haven’t left the house yet today – I’ll email it to you soon.

Pack of 2: Thanks for the link fix!!! It was a nice surprise this morning! This is a pretty cool partnership! ☺ We drove past quite a few fields and greenhouses but there wasn’t anything to see yet. Evedently they have had a longer than normal winter so everything is late – they say its due to warm up in the next week or so and get back on track! I’ll watch for them and take plenty of pics, I wouldn’t miss them. I have more pics of the house I’ll try to get up today sometime.

Kami: I am no fan of flying these days but I love the typical quickness of the travel. I was really nervous about this one but I slept most of the time and it wasn’t too bad. I’m sure the excitement helped too!

Angle girl: That’s it! Proscuitto! It looks it and Mark and Danny both said it was raw—I was starving yesterday – it tasted fine to me!

Patti_cake: that seems to be the concensis – I’m hoping this will just wet my appitite for it so I will come back some day!

Dad: Glad to here they are behaving! Tell them we love them and miss them – kiss Jacob for me! We are having trouble connecting to the computer so we are going to have to get with Chuck on Sunday and see if we can fix it.

Jegarg: can’t wait to see ya’ll! Email me your flight info. Am I picking you up or are you taking the train?

D: that’s what I thought too! It has a thatched roof! It is actual straw!! Very cool – never figured out the heat but am adjusting just fine - thanks

pack of 2 said...

Hi Shan:)

Shelly

Anonymous said...

The link finally worked that your Mom sent - I've enjoyed looking at all the pictures and comments. Hope you have a wonderful time - so nice that you can do this.
-- CC (Dan's sister)