This update is going to be a little longer, mostly because I have time right now. I have to say, I got very lucky on my apartment. It is in a nice area with a good shopping street that is between my apartment and work. I pass through it every day and can shop easily on my way home. I’m also very close to the beach. A few minute bike ride or a 15 min walk. The apartment its self has three floors. The bottom floor is a full floor and floor two and three are half floors with the apartment next door occupying the other half of the space. The apartment has been fully renovated. The kitchen is very modern with green slate floor and black marble counter tops. The cook top is ceramic. All the floors are wood except for the stairs which is carpeted. The windows are a great feature; because the ceilings are so high the windows are large and can be opened two ways. Ether swinging out wards with side hinges or can be tilted open from the top to just to let in a little fresh air. As you walk in there is a long hall. By going straight back you will walk into the kitchen and the back of the house. By the kitchen is the stair case. Also down this hall, the bathroom laundry room and storage closet are all on the right side, just a series of doors. Buy the kitchen to the left is the door to the living/dinning room. It is a very large room. Off of the dinning area are the doors to the walled in garden area. I have access to it off the kitchen as well. I already hung up my prayer flags. Now onto the upper floors; the stairs are very steep, typical Dutch grade and are a half moon shape as you ascend. The second floor has a very short hall way that leads to the main bedroom. The bed room is a good size with a nice closet. There is also a sink and vanity mirror in the room (Steve smith eat your heart out). The house came furnished and this room has a nice black iron bed. The third floor room is a bit smaller and only has a dresser in it. The room also has a little balcony off of it. I plan on making this my guest room and office area. It will be a great place to hang out in the spring and summer. I’m very lucky that I have the back half of the upper floors because it is quieter and the balcony over looking the gardens is a plus. I will try and post some pictures of my street soon.

Next my first day at work: After filling out paper work I sat in on the Prlic case, there are six defendants with Prlic as the main one. This is one of the mega trials. He is responsible for setting up the first concentration camps since WWII and every thing that goes along with these camps he and his men are being tried for. My first time in court was very telling. The witness was a colonel from Canada who was with a peace keeping force and had to testify on some of the atrocities he witnessed. These things happened to him thirteen years ago and you could see on his face that what he saw was burned into his brain.

Day two was a day I got to experience the Dutch system first hand. I got to ride into work as the sky decided to open up and drop a deluge of rain. I was wet for three hours. I came into work (wet) and continued my training in court room one with the Prlic case. There were two protected witnesses which meant the trail was in close session. It is still recorded thou the public will not see it. The witnesses were two women and I will leave it up to you what kind of victims they were. About five minutes after the trial started my trainer Vincent had me take over. He sat next to me for about five minutes then got up and left. He let me alone for a while then a woman for victims and witnesses came in and sat with me. She is in charge of watching the witness to make sure they are not too stressed while testifying. Then the court register called me on the phone and said they where smelling smoke in the court room. We all have two-way radios to communicate with the technicians so I gave them a call. With in two minutes about four of them came running into the room and one of them was carrying a fire extinguisher, and they were all laughing. The first joke of many I’m sure (thou they were really smelling smoke in the court room). I then needed to leave the tribunal at 12:30 to head down to the Fred to try and open up a bank account. I had an appointment at 1:00 pm with ING bank. I hopped on my bike and away I went. Once at the bank I realized it was a total waste of time because they need a sofy number which is a Dutch social security number that I don’t have. Then I headed down the street to the next bank, Abm-Amro. I walked in and took a number. Once I was called up to the teller I explained that I needed to open up an account. She said that they could not help me today so I proceeded to ask if I could make an appointment and what documents I was going to need. She asked me where I worked. After I told her that I worked at the tribunal she said I would need a copy of my contract and my passport, and then they would help me right away. Again off on my bike back to the tribunal to HR for a copy of my contract. Once I got that, then back to the bank. At the bank they were getting my account all set up and then the computer system went down. The lady helping me said she would call me when the system was back up and I would have to come back and sign the paper work after I was in the computer system, so back on my bike and back to work. At work I had one of my Dutch co-workers help me with my phone because all the setting are in Dutch. My phone is a pre-pay and I was also running out of minutes. Geato was also helping me set a pin for my voice mail all the while my minutes are clicking away. I was worried about the bank not getting a hold of me, so back on my bike and down to the Fred to buy more minutes for my phone. At the Albert Hine (the local grocer) I bought my pre-paid card and a sandwich because by this time I was starving. Back on my bike to the tribunal and as soon as I locked up my bike my phone rang and it was the bank, I needed to come in and sign the paper work. I unlocked my bike and back to the Fred I went (get the picture?). After everything was done I road back to work and by this time it was around 3:30 pm. At work I was telling my fellow American co-workers about my bank experience and Gene, also from Oregon asked if they gave me the little device I was going to need to do my internet banking. I looked at him blankly and said “no”. He then explained to me that it was a security feature and you place your bank card in it and then you send a code to do your banking. It began to become clear to me that I would not be able to start my banking until I get my bank card in the mail and I would also have to go back to the bank and get this little device. I wanted to bang my head on my desk. By this time I was exhausted from all the bike riding and dealing with a system that you really need to know the questions to ask. Now Well no need to stress about it because I can’t do anything about it. I needed to go back to HR and give them my banking info and then it was off to home. But instead of going home I biked by the store, bought a bottle of wine and some desert and headed off to Frank and Kristina’s house for dinner. What a second day at work!