Day 1 - Donderdag (Thurs)
I'm back to a winter world. It was about 11-17 degrees celsius in Amsterdam. There was little shower and thunderstorm. To me, the wind is the toughest. It's not as strong as typhoon but the wind is blowing non-stop at all time which exhausts you easy.
We had welcome dinner at the parents' place. After the dinner, it was funny to flip through all the shopping catalogs to find a new washing machine & a "droger" (a dryer for our clothes). You'll find all types of catalogs from supermarkets, drug stores, boutiques, home appliance shops etc selling things for all you need, and with great discounts! What if you don't like these handcopies? You can remove the sticker on your mailbox saying "No, I don't want catalogs!" And you can always surf on the catalog app on iPad ;)
Day 2 - Vijdag (Fri)
Jetlag is still intruding my sleep and the Sun here never goes to sleep. It goes off around 10 plus. When i was awake at 6am (=12pm hkg time), it's already UP there! "Hello, Sun", that's a bit too much.
We went shopping for a washing machine and dryer in the morning. It's very efficient to buy immediately the next day morning after confirming the models on those "shopping catalogs". The shop is called "expert" selling home appliances only. I'm learning to greet the shopkeepers every time when we were in and out of the shop. It's totally different from the HK way! We never say "Hello", "Good morning" when entering and "Thank you", "See you", "Fine Day" when leaving the shops. It was a bit rude for me to be silent at the first few times, well, I knew it after the shopkeepers shot me their surprising looks, "Hello Asian, say sth back!" ;)
Robbert drove me around the city to get me familiar with the places.
IJburg - Zeeburg (where our friend lives) - Waterlooplein (near the Amstel river with very nice but expensive steak restaurants alongside) - Nieuwmarkt (China town with 2 big Chinese supermarkets run by HongKongese, thanks GOD for the HK food!!!!!!!!!!)
I was shouting and screaming while my eyes were talking to all kinds of food from the HKG-land, 維他奶, lemon tea, 菊花茶, 李錦記, 你講得出的呢度都有! We bought oyster sauce, soy sauce and some HK snacks before heading home for our 1st homemade dinner (荷蘭豆鈔 kip = 雞). Smakelijk!! (好味... 但D豆 ok 硬.. to be improved) ;)
Day 3 - Zaterdag (Sat)
First priority on this Sat was to shop for Vader's Dag (Father's Day). His dad loves chocolate. According to National Geographic, Puccini is topped the top-ten list of the best chocolate shops in the world. So, why not?! And not surprising, his dad indulged in it...... :)
We walked around the city centre a bit to also get myself more familiar with AMS Centrum. There's the largest "warenhuis"(shopping mall which they called it warehouse) situated really in the centre near the Madame Tussands. There I found the Shishedo counter to check the prices, and I was impressed by:
- a tall & slim guy (obviously he's gay) to serve me at the counter.. well, he looks good..
- he's very friendly even I just asked him about the price (yes, I did it also very direct in the Dutch way "what's the price of this and that?")
- surely... it's damn "duur!!!!"(expensive). Day cream costs 52euro each! Welcome to the tax-not-free world! :(:(:( That's a double of the hk price!
After dinner, I had a lesson on how to get on a bike. The seating of Dutch bikes with big wheels is always high. To me, it's extremely high! We used to first take our sit with our feet touching the ground before setting off in HK. But here, "nee", they give the bike a move and jump on the seat then go! Without killing anyone / animals, I survived and am ready to go!
Day 4 - Zondag (Sun)
The next day, of course, is the biking day! We did a bike tour from our home to the city centre. It takes about 30 mins. Bike traffic can be very busy here. Roads and even bridges are specially built for bikes and scooters. We passed though a very modern and narrow bridge which no cars are allowed.
It's not easy to bike in the city centre whereas you have to conquer all kind of traffic:
- bikes & scooters with guitars/ doggies/ shopping bags (next time i carry a piano on my back) :P
- bikers who are hugging/ chatting/ eating (i wonder if they can also dance while biking) :P
- trams / cars/ locals/ tourists who may crash into / stop in front of you
- traffic lights for all...... cars... trams.. pedestrians...
- and last but not least, the non-stop horn from the bikes behind me.... ya.. i'm very slow in the Dutch eyes
And I almost crashed into 2 ladies & 1 scooter. My butt & legs hurt so much after a 2-hr bike ride which I couldn't even tell why. Friction with the seating perhaps.
Day 5 - Maandag (Mon)
It was another shopping day with his parents for a closet when he was back to work. The parents came at 10am to pick me up to IKEA. First question from his mom when we arrived, "showroom or coffee first?" haha.. "Coffee then." Thereafter, we were munching 3 pieces of sweet cakes & having free coffee from the "IKEA family" card before heading to the showroom. That's the European way of shopping i guess. ;)
It's impressive to see how his dad put and secure the newly-bought-3-door-closet to his 4-seat car with the ropes at the back. I had never ever seen this in my home land before. Don't forget that we, 3 persons in total, were taking the same car back to my place!
Getting the closet up to our 1/f is another challenge without a lift, we managed to send every piece up to the room slowly. Afterwards, it's about my TB (Tuberculosis/ 肺癆) scan, which is mandatory for all new comers in the NL, in a health check clinic in the city centre.
After 1 hour of waiting and checking, we were home again with his parents to construct the new closet together. His mom read and gave us the instruction while his dad and I assisted each other to fix the screws and the rest. It's very funny to communicate with them with my very basic Dutch and we worked well together for the 1st time. :) It was a long day for us.
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