Around the Neighboorhood

This is our apartment.  A canal view!

Just kidding....

This is the real building.  We are on the second floor. Second from the right.

  This is the view of our back balcony.

Here is Elder Moore standing at our front entrance.

Where are the missionaries??

Elder Moore, having a "senior moment", asked Sister Moore if the missionaries were around when he saw these two bikes.  "Duh!!!"  He forgot he was in Holland.  Two bikes here don't necessarily equal missionaries.

Oh yeah,  it seems like everyone rides a bike.  Which way do you look before you step out?  

 The red path is for bikes only (or motor scooters or jazzies)

 and if you get in the way you are likely to get run over.

Every day is a new adventure here.  Going grocery shopping is an "every man for himself" game.It seems all the shoppers are in a hurry and I am always in the way trying to read the labels on the boxes and jars.  Items are not grouped by category.  There were eggs in at least 3 different areas of the store and they were not refrigerated.  They come in cartons of 10 and they are brown.  Bread is sold by 1/2 loaves, and we spent 1/2 hour looking for brown sugar only to find out that it is called "bastard" sugar.  Elder Moore was very disappointed to find out his only two choices for cereal were Corn Flakes or Toasted O's.  You have to put a coin in the handle of your shopping cart in order to get it out, but the coin pops back out when you return the cart.  You have to remember to bring your own carry home sacks or buy new ones.  So far we have been able to put together some good meals, but it will take a while to master this system.  I did manage to get my Albert Hijn bonus card, however.

The next adventure was figuring out the washer and dryer.   They are both front loaders and very small capacity.  I kept thinking it was broken because it runs for about 15 seconds and stops.  Then it goes again and stops.  I was told that's how it works, but it still doesn't seem right.  The dryer cannot be vented, so there is a container that collects all the water and you have to empty it after every load.  It is amazing how much water comes out of a load of towels.

Our most exciting adventure, however, is the driving.  Thank heavens for our GPS.  We absolutely could not go anywhere without it.  The streets are so very narrow and you have bicycles coming from every direction.  On a 5 lane road, each lane could be going a different direction, so each lane has its own signal.  When we don't move fast enough, or go the wrong direction (which is frequently) we get honked at.  We finally made it to the church without getting honked at once.  We considered that a real victory.

We had our first meeting with the Yo Vo's this week for dinner and an institute class.  There were 16 there and the lesson was on Eternal Marriage.  I was so impressed with their participation and comments.  They kept referring to  general conference talks. I am really excited to get to know them better.  I get to prepare my first meal for them next week.  They asked for Sloppy Joe's.  I think I can handle that.