Feeding pigeons:

Chasing pigeons:

But the seagulls are the best show:

This is a common sight around the city, and one that I always find amusing. It must be quite a shock to find something like this where your bike used to be.

Aidan was anxious to get outside.

The stroller has held up pretty well in the snow.

I guess this is the equivalent of having to brush your car off in the morning. Snow doesn’t seem to affect the bike-culture of the city.

Snowy streets. We live in the building on the left. Amsterdam (usually) doesn’t get enough snow for plows or shovels, although the streets are sometimes salted.

Winter canal. Not cold enough to be iced over, but pretty chilly.

St. Nicholas Kerk.

Aidan has been doing much better this week. He seems to be adjusting and he loves to play with his new friends: ‘Sam’ his old buddy from before (although they mostly fight over toys), ‘Massiva’ a little Algerian girl who lives down the hallway and is close to Aidan’s age, and Rivka, an older girl from Venezuela who plays really well with Aidan.

FIS is going really well, but the days are long and very full..hence the lack of posts!

The FIS start date was pushed back a week due to some of the students who had immigration difficulties. It was actually a big relief… another week to get organized and get over the jet lag.  Today was the first day of class; it’s looking to be a great school. We were looking at our schedules last night and realized how fast these three months are going to go. I’m wrapping up my thesis project and staffing the FIS, Becka is taking classes and teaching English, and somehow Aidan is going to be in the middle of it all!

Speaking of Aidan, he is definitely missing everyone back home. For some reason this has definitely been the hardest transition for him. But it helps that everything here is somewhat familiar to him, and there are no shortages of trains, buses, and other exciting things to see! He loves to say ‘no’ to every question you ask him these days, except he is very polite; he randomly started saying ‘no thanks’ to just about everything. So a normal conversation will go like this:

Me: Aidan, do you want to have a snack before bed?

Aidan: No thanks.

Me: Ok, then its time to go to bed.

Aidan: No thanks, daddy.

Me: Well, I don’t think you understood, it’s not really a choice. Lets brush you teeth.

Aidan: No thanks mommy and daddy. I play toys.

He also likes to repeat things he’s heard from Thomas and Friends (as I’m writing this, he’s yelling, “bust my buffers Thomas!”)

Here’s what Amsterdam looks like in the winter:

It’s amazing how much light affects mood, schedule, etc. It doesn’t get light until after 8:30am (which makes it hard to get out of bed!) But one of the things I like about Amsterdam is that (on the rare occasions) when the sun is shining,  the whole atmosphere of the city changes.

We’ll be jumping right in; the FIS starts on Monday. Last I heard we have a group of around 16, with students from Eastern and Western Europe, USA, Africa, and the Middle East. It’s looking like it will be a very busy three months; along with helping to facilitate the FIS, I will be finishing my thesis project and Becka will be teaching English. And we will both be doing our best to make sure Aidan doesn’t fall into a canal…the secret fear of every parent in Amsterdam.

Becka made this great tractor cake.

Blowing out the candles.

Opening presents.

Amsterdam. We leave January 8th, which is right around the corner. It’s both exciting and strange to imagine being back there. We arrive on a Saturday morning and the FIS starts the next Monday-just enough time to put air in our tires and hit the ground pedaling. I’m  really hoping it will get cold enough this year for the canals to freeze. Hypothetically, you could ice skate all over the city…or even the country.

We spent this weekend in Kentucky visiting some friends. I forgot to bring a camera, but when we got home it was snowing and Aidan was eager to play in it (pic below). We are all excited for his birthday…Becka is planning to make a tractor cake. And I’m looking forward to seeing his reaction when he opens his presents. Let’s just say there’s one or two things with wheels!