One week

Seems impossible that we have been here only one week. And only in our apartment 5 days.

Really, we have been doing pretty well. We have bikes, food (we've found some better grocery stores with the help of an expat friend, and the english manual to our damn oven with the help of the internet!), Elena is transitioning at Ukkie (right now only staying with a parent), and Jake has been getting to work for a half day.

We had really high expectations of ourselves. We expect to be able to do things right away. Last night Jake and I talked about taking it a little slower and cutting ourselves some slack. Things just take us a lot longer here. Finding a store involves a phone book, mapquest, and then looking at our detailed paper maps. Then loading up on the bikes, getting lost, getting lost again, and then finally arriving! And of course, shopping means trying to read labels in Dutch and know what different types of food are called. And everything is peppered with, 'do you speak English, please?' when we need help.

So this weekend, we are just going to 'explore.' We have gotten our basic needs taken care of for the next few weeks. Maine and Newark seem so distant right now.