I burned my mouth....

Friday, went to work like any other day.  It was Faroud's last day at TR so about 15 people went out for lunch to La Place in the mall (apparently this was a lot of people - usually not that many leave).  People were wondering who the next person to leave was going to be...starting in January they are going to be told who is being made redundant and who is being offered a job in London.  And their job (at least the job in Amsterdam) will be gone for sure by August.  So I think the Christmas Party for the children was this weekend.  When I left work it looked like they had things pretty well set up.  Sadly I probably won't see Santa Claus at work.

After work I got another free ride on the tram from the World Trade Center to Leidseplein.  This time - I was standing near 3 guys in FULL TUXEDO.  White tie, vest, black jacket, tails, shiny shoes, HOT!  They all got off at Leidseplein - I think they were performing in a concert at Stadsschouwburg (the theatre).  The train just stopped right before a normal stop.  The lady conductor said something in the speaker in Dutch.  People moaned some guy complained in Dutch...something along the lines of "always the trams in Amsterdam have problems".  The train sat there for at least 5 minutes without moving.  Made me a little nervous - I had no clue what was going on and had no ticket!  But eventually it started moving again.

For dinner on Friday night I went for Indonesian food at Puri Mas.  It was good - but WAY too much food.  The concierge told me I had to have a Rijsttafel (Rice Table) because this is one of the only places that serves a Rijsttafel for one.  I ordered it and had TONS of food - and TONS of food left over - here's what all came in my meal:  Rijsttafel Special.

After dinner I walked back to the hotel and was going to try to stay up until midnight - I started watching Felicity and fell asleep.....no Skype for me.

Saturday, I set my alarm for 8 but could NOT wake up.  The driver was coming to pick me up at 10:45 but I still needed to repack.  I finally got out of bed, got ready, got in the car and was taken to my apartment.  He told me that someone would be there in 5 minutes to let me in but a little lady peeked her head out the door and said I was in the right place.  She helped me carry my bags up 4 flights of NARROW stairs to my apartment.  It's nice.  Lonely but nice enough.  I think I want to stay in the smaller bedroom.  It doesn't smell as much.  The larger one has a closet thing that smells like wood (or something).  I don't like it.

 I strolled around the neighborhood, through a market and just wandered up and down streets trying to figure out where exactly I was.  I eventually decided to head to Centraal Station to get tram tickets.  First lady said she couldn't help me (shocking!  it seems as if nobody can help me get these stupid tickets).  I went to the tourist center - I was number 590.  Current number was 450 or something ridiculous like that.  Meanwhile you could look at the tourism website so I looked at that and it said that you could get tickets next door.  So I went there.  I only had to wait for about 25 people there.  At the tourism place the website said you could buy annonymous chipkaarts.  Yeah...this lady at the ticket booth knew nothing about them.  She gave me a packet to submit a ticket to get a chipkaart with a picture on it - not what I want.  I will bring it to the office on Monday and see if they know what is going on.  Meanwhile I bought a stripenkaart - so I have 12 1/2 trips to and from the office (although it will be a 20-25 minute walk to a tram since I live in the middle of nowhere).  And then another who knows how long to get to the office on the tram (my guess is umm.....maybe an hour trip total if I'm lucky!)  Lame.  I don't like living over here.  Not at all.  I would rather be somewhere there is life around.  Here it is dark.

Got off topic there.....so I walked down Damask Street.  Saw the Iamsterdam sculpture and made it to Dam Square again.  I decided to do the Rick Steves Jordaan Walk since it starts there.  I saw all that Rick told me to see (although I didn't go into the fluorescent light museum, Electric Ladyland,  yet).  I came back to the apartment, talked to Jill on Skype, uploaded pictures and then I was starving and it was dinner time.  I headed back out and was having issues finding somewhere to eat.  I walked the Anne Frank Huis and was back to Dam Sqaure.  I basically took the Rick Steves tour again and ended up eating at Eetcafe Jur.  I had a natural swiss cheese fondue - served with bread and a salad - and I burned my mouth.  The cheese was boiling hot.  I can still feel it.  I came back to the apartment, talked to Jill/Kat/Andie and Troy/Mom/Dad on Skype.  Blogged (right now!) and probably will watch a little Felicity until I pass out.

Tomorrow - grocery shopping (including toilet paper), buy an alarm clock, possibly attempt to take a tram to work (or at least find out where I can get on one and what time it leaves at) and possibly try to get a prepaid cell phone.

Check out my pictures here (it's too much work to put them within the blog):  http://lifeinamsterdam.shutterfly.com