Day 8-9 Recap

Here's what's happened in days 8-9:

1.  Settled on an apartment and they have agreed to my preliminary list of wishes and things they will fix.  Have an appointment tomorrow afternoon to check the rest of it out and make sure I didn't miss anything.  Everyone at work says I'm in a nice area, so everyone can't be wrong.
2.  ALMOST have a debit card.  Not close to having money in said bank, but that's another issue in and of itself.  I realize that a debit card without money in the bank is useless, but I'm taking little victories, even if they turn out to be useless.
3.  Learned that I will not be able to buy shoes here.  I met a new friend who is surprisingly smaller than me (immigrant from Vietnam).  She either goes back to Vietnam for shoes or has her parents ship them to her.  Apparently size 36 is my size, but it doesn't exist here in Holland.  I may investigate further, but at least when I come up empty I'll know why.  This may be a critical reason why I come home for Christmas (and to see mom and dad of course).  I only mention shoes because my work shoes that I got new for being here are KILLING me slowly.  On Wednesday, I got home and both feet were 2 times the size they should be and covered in blood from blisters.  Not pretty, folks.  At client site though, so what can you do?  I grinned and bared it all day.  Today I was at the office, so I chose to dress down and wear some more casual flats that I know don't hurt.  Still killer, but that's because of those old wounds.  Spending tonight off of my feet hoping they will heal up.  On the plus side, I feel like I've already lost a few pounds between all the walking and not eating very much.
4.  No issues so far with the option on the house - getting close to the end of the option period, so I may have a contract in my hands soon!
5.  I suckered a guy at work into checking out the car with me today.  It's still in the garage at work (thankfully, free).  He showed me how to use it (it's a hybrid - never used one of those) and we each took it for a spin around the garage.  Space in the Netherlands is super tight.  I am envisioning a lot of three point or more turns.  It was really funny.  I think he was nervous that I was going to hit something - however, I was going SOOO slow that there's no way damage could have been done - more embarrassing than anything else.  I still don't know what type of gas to put in it - tomorrow's investigation and a new victim to check it out with me.  I guess it's a good way to meet people.
6.  So while my parents are gone in Munich, I've had to learn to cook for a single gal here in the apartment.  Here's the menu thus far this week:  M - Leftover spaghetti from Sunday; T - Salad (Lettuce, Tomatoes, Carrots, Dressing on side, 1 piece of cheese, Chicken cold cuts; chips, grapes and half of incredibly delicious Dutch dessert that I can neither pronounce nor spell - heavy meal because I had to skip lunch for immigration services); W - More of the same salad type -lighter today because of decent lunch at restaurant for work; R - Tonight was Spaghetti (jar of sauce) and garlic bread night, with some vegetables to snack on and another half of that dessert.  I bought the fixings for tacos - incredibly, they have taco kits!  So I'm going to try that this weekend with the rents.  If you have any simple food ideas, please post a comment - I'll google translate it into dutch and then see if I can find it!  Breakfast is easy - the dutch love their eggs, so that's covered.  I pretty much live in the grocery store though.  If I go a night without going, it feels wrong.
7.  I went to the Young Professionals Bible Study last night for the American Protestant Church (The Hague).  It was a small group, but I felt comfortable.  Definitely going again - I liked it a lot.  Hopefully I can make some friends there.

On tap for tomorrow/weekend:  Finish out the week at work, work on getting the car to the apartment, go to new apartment to double check wish list items, grocery shop pretty much everyday, dry cleaning.  Amsterdam again?  Brugge?  Who knows!  I'm in Europe!