Baltic Winter Drinks for Charity

Some of you might have already heard - some crazy Baltic people (+ our great Dutch team member) are organising a charity event here in Amsterdam on December 18!

It started as an idea "Let's do something good this Christmas and let's popularise Baltic countries" and it grew into this wonderful event. Baltic Winter Drinks for Charity is organised by youth from all 3 Baltic countries (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) to have a nice winter evening, to educate people here about our countries and to donate income to the charity (soup kitchens in Baltic states).

Able to join on Dec 18? Living nearby Amsterdam? From Baltic states or having an interesting about these countries? Just come!

Every day we are e-mailing each other, updating about news, supporters (today we got to know that not only the embassy of Latvia, but also the embassy of Lithuania is supporting us!), making sure the agenda, promotion and everything else is as good as possible. Feels like back in NGO times! :)

Caricature

What do you think about this version of Anita? :)

I got this caricature last week from my Dutch course mate who is a professional artist-caricaturist. Every lesson he is drawing some people just for fun (while studying Dutch), so finally I also got my picture.

Michael already gave his opinion - the straw symbolises me drinking capirinhas and the smile symbolises me making fun of Michael. :)

Other opinions?

Friends of/with beer

I have entered in a new photo contest, this time run by Van Gogh Museum.

Please, vote for my picture via Facebook and/or Twitter! :)

Many thanks!

Great food at "Moeders"

I am sorry for not writing so often here anymore, but somehow it doesn't feel the same... Maybe I am getting even more lazy than before? :)

Anyways, as I heard that today there is Blog Action Day 2011 and the topic is "Food", I decided to write about the great restaurant we went today - "Moeders".

I have passed by the place quite a few times and always been amazed by the great interior (as much as you can see without going in), but never had time/opportunity to check it out. Today with a few friends-visitors we finally did it!

At first I thought that it's a bar, so it was a surprise to go in and find out that actually it's a restaurant. As the name implies ("Mothers"), it has a particular design, all full of different mums' pictures, really cute. Also the plates and glasses, and all other cutlery is very diverse as it all has been donated by visitors when they opened the restaurant.

The restaurant is not very big, around 10-15 tables, so we were lucky to get a free table without a reservation. It seemed that usually it is completely full and there were still people coming in and being turned down (as there were no free seats anymore). Good to know and make a reservation for the next time!

The food was very good, and the dessert - cheesecake - was simply the culmination. Michael already said that we should bring his mum next time she comes for a visit. So if you are in Amsterdam with your mum - bring her as well!

Ik spreek Nederlands

For those who did not know yet - a couple of weeks ago I finally started my Dutch language classes, which are paid by the city council. Thanks, gemeente! :)

How did I get them? Well, the long to free Dutch courses was not so easy...

1) Register as living in the Netherlands

2) Find information about these courses. Not so easy, because it is (almost) nowhere written that also EU citizens can take them voluntarily, so you need to know about them in advance.

3) Send an e-mail to make an appointment with the city council regarding the courses

4) Go to an appointment and answer to questions like "why do you want to study Dutch?", "what will you do with the skills?", "how much time do you have?" etc.

5) Have another appointment where they test how fast can you learn aka "stupidity/IQ test" :) No language skills necessary.

6) Have yet another appointment with their chosen language school for you where for 1 hour they test your writing, speaking, listening and reading (15 min each) - all in Dutch, of course!

7) Wait results about your current language level. I got A2 for reading and A1 for everything else with a note "uses a lot of German words".

8) Start your classes for one year!

Next time I will tell you my opinion about my classes, which are twice a week for 3 hours each time (+ homework).

Calendar with my photo

I am rocking again!

Some months ago a shop/food place Kitsch Kitchen made a photo competition, asking to submit pictures showing the intercultural diversity of Amsterdam. Of course, I took part and sent a few pictures from Indian festival "Diwali".

Just last week I heard back from them saying that my picture has been selected for the calendar of 2012, yehuu!

Prize - a copy of the calendar, which I got just yesterday. My picture is placed in the (in)famous last week of the year/first week of the next year and there is also my name in the list of all the photographers.

Wanna get a unique calendar with my photo in it? You can do it on their website.

Problems with the car

Seems that we are quite unlucky with the car. Within less than a year we have got already problems with it already four times... :(

1) Once we arrived in our car park (as parking there on a street is for free) in Amsterdam Zuid to find that somebody has stolen our car's windscreen wipers. I don't know who would need just them, but it took quite a lot of time and days to find new ones as apparently this specific car type (and therefore also wipers) is not so common in the Netherlands...

2) In February during the Maastricht Carnival some carnival car was apparently too big and wide. At night/evening it was passing through the street where our car was parked and completely broke our right window and another car's window! Luckily the guy was nice and left a note with his address to clear the insurance papers etc. Unfortunately the garage which can fix the problem is not so fast and even now (after half a year) we still do not have a fixed mirror as they are very slow with ordering the new one. Hopefully soon...

3) Another time Michael was driving the car and suddenly noticed that the breaks were not working! Luckily he was not to the garage, so could go (very slowly) and fix it, but it could have been very dangerous if he would be already on a motorway...

4) And last weekend - see yourselves! Somebody wanted to steal the car! Luckily he did not succeed, but now we can't open the right doors and the driver needs to crumble inside the car through the co-driver's seat. Not very convenient, but we hope to fix it already this week...

Conclusion: don't park in the Netherlands your car, it's dangerous!

Open-air cinema

You know what is one of the things I love the most about Amsterdam?

The huge amount of cultural events, possibilities and things to do. I can't get enough of it!

Especially I love those free open-air cinema evenings, when it is dark outside, loads of people sitting together, having fun and watching great films on a big screen. Random people pass by, stop and stay even without planning to do so.

Why didn't we have such things back home?

One of the first open-air films I saw two years ago in the festival "Pluk de Nacht" - when I was living in Amsterdam for the first time.

This summer I was sure I want to enjoy the festival again as last year I missed it. So two weeks ago we want to see a nice French film "Les Emotifs Anonymes". We arrived two hours before to make sure we had a good spot and had a great time with champagne bottle from home and pancakes bought on the spot.

Yesterday we went to another festival with another open-air film - this time it was World Cinema Amsterdam and Israeli/Mexican film "Salsa Tel Aviv". So amazing, laughing all the time! Even a bit of rain didn't spoil it.

Now just need to find another film - I am sure there are some more in the upcoming weeks, e.g., in Het Ketelhuis etc.

Freecyclers

I hope that after this post the group suddenly won't have a lot of freeloaders... :)

Just wanted to share with you a nice idea which I found a few weeks ago and have used a few times so far. Here in Amsterdam (and other cities around the world) we have a group, called "Amsterdam Freecycle".

The idea is simply - you have something to give away or you need something? Subscribe and give or take things for free! TVs, sofas, books, clothes, cables, furniture and anything else you can imagine - especially useful if people move and do not want to throw away previous furniture which do not fit in the new apartment.

So far Michael and me have got a scanner and beautiful champagne glasses. We have also contributed and given away one of our bikes, a plant and an extra iPhone cable.

So - join if you can contribute or you can't afford buying some new things you might need! And make a similar group in your city if it does not exist yet!

Very cultural life

There are so many things going on in Amsterdam and our busy lives, that it is impossible to mention and blog about all of them. Pity, because it would be worth to!

But let me just mention the main cultural things I have been doing from last Sunday till this Sunday, so you would get an idea what I am speaking about.

(last) Sunday: free open-air cinema in "Pluk de Nacht" festival

Tuesday: hosting concert in our living room

Thursday: a small film night at home

Friday: an insight into "Leidseplein live" festival and the opening concert of Grachtenfestival (absolutely amazing)

Saturday: stand-up comedy in Comedy Theater with four comedians from the UK, the Netherlands and Australia

Sunday: attraction park and water park "Duinrell"

Besides that - hosting two American CouchSurfers for three nights and two Brazilian CSers for other three nights!

Concert in our living room

One day on CouchSurfing a saw a post - an American guy was writing that he is offering to play free concerts in random living rooms. Who is interested to do that in Amsterdam?

Me, me, me!

So I e-mailed him and we established a date for something unusual - a concert in our own living room! Never had any and never attended any, so it was something interesting to try both for me and Michael.

The concert happened last Tuesday, and it was simply amazing. Wes Swing and Sophie, travelling musicians from the USA, were singing, playing a cello and a guitar as well as selling their CDs. As stated above, the concert was for free, but they were accepting donations.

The concert had also a surprise - a couple of songs, played by another American musician who is living in the Netherlands and whose friend got in touch with Wes asking if it's possible for the other girl to play. Sure, it is! We also bought her CD :)

In the beginning I was scared if our living room is too small, if we will have enough people, if people will like the music and buy CDs etc. But in the end it turned out great! Invited friends also took a couple of friends with them, so we ended ~20-30 people, which was perfect amount. As everybody was bringing some food and drinks, we did not have shortcut of those and we still need to drink the last bottles left after the party!

So if you ever have an opportunity to host such an event in your living room - do not hesitate to do it!

Latest tracks by Wes Swing

Me and drugs

In this Magazine Libertas edition I wrote two articles - both of them about drugs.

1) "I do not smoke tobacco or weed. I have never even been inside a coffeeshop and I am determined to keep it like this. Yet I live in Amsterdam, “the capital of cofeeshops”, and I am writing an article about coffeeshops."

2) "I am convinced that internet and online media are the biggest addiction nowadays. Facebook, Twitter, online newspapers, e-mails, Skype, YouTube and more, and more, and more. Once you turn on your laptop / computer, you can't switch it off. It just seems wrong. There is always something more to read, to watch, to check. Sounds familiar?"

Read both articles (and all the magazine) in full here.

Here comes the library

Almost two weeks ago I finally subscribed for OBA (library).

More than half a year ago I won a year long free membership card (worth around 25-27 EUR) for the library (thanks to I amsterdam!), but turned out that only registered Amsterdammers are able to subscribe.

When I finally registered as living here, I immediately wanted to use the opportunity to subscribe. All I needed - the present voucher, my passport and the letter from the city council stating that I am registered here.

I have been to OBA quite a lot of times - studying Dutch, showing friends the nice view from the top and escaping from the rain. Now I will also be able to take books, films and CDs home! And it is really great, because one can take books for three weeks for free and films & CDs for a week for just one euro. Great service and big choice!

Last week we went to the library to take something and we opted for DVD "The Da Vinci Code" because Michael hasn't seen it yet (we watched it on Monday) and we couldn't agree on anything else. Next time - maybe some book? :)

It was amazing that both the registration system for renting the DVD was automatised (put your library card on point A and the DVD on point B) and also paying for it (1 EUR) was possible only in the machine. Great! As far as I remember, at least one gives back the items to a real person. :)

A new shop

I have yet another shop here in Amsterdam! :)

Official Amsterdammer!

Finally we did it! After months of complains both in Facebook and IRL, e-mailing our landlord and receiving back reply "you will get it soon" and pulling some strings at Michael's company - finally we got our renting agreement!

As it is not possible to register as living in the Netherlands without this agreement, it was very important. If I would have had it a few weeks before, my SOFI number, bank account, insurance and all other things would have been much easier...

But it does not matter any more. Last week we got the renting agreement and immediately scheduled an appointment in the city council to get registered. As EU citizens we needed only two things - passport and the renting agreement.

This morning we had a meeting in the city council (for us it was on Stadhouderskade as our flat is in central Amsterdam). It took around 15 minutes, and then it was done - very easy and without any problems. As we already had our SOFI numbers, the clerk took this information as well and then asked us to sign the form that we want to be registered. Afterward he issued both of us a paper saying that we are registered, and that was all!

Now I can finally get registered in OBA (library), apply for free Dutch language classes, get a sticker in my passport (according to Maarten) and make my life much easier! Maybe later I will find some more benefits :)

Got a new job!

You can congratulate me - I have got a new job with a real salary. Yehuu, the time has come and let us hope it will continue for a long time!

So from now on I am not working with IamExpat.nl anymore, but at Booking.com (the online hotel reservations, I am sure you have heard about it) as a Latvian translator, meaning that I am going to translate the information about the hotels you can read online from English to Latvian. Do not worry, my Latvian is much better than English and my grandma (former Latvian language and literature teacher) should be proud of me! However, I am not the only Latvian translator there, so do not blame me if some sentences online are not correct. :)

I have spent only two days in the office (which is huge), so we will see how it goes. I am happy that I have my employment contract and that I will have money - which is badly needed. My flat back home in Riga, my language classes (need to decide - take Dutch or British English classes), paying for dinner (instead of letting my cute boyfriend pay every time), buying some flight tickets etc. That's what the money is needed for!

How did I get a job? Simply - saw an ad on their website, applied, did a translation test, had a job interview and then got selected for the job! Never expected to use my Latvian skills in Amsterdam, but it's good :D)

BB 30-1

A few glimpses from Michael's birthday party in blue tones!

After a long discussion about endless amount of topics and themes for the party this was the one we came up in the end as blue is his favourite colour.

Another article, another website

My first article for a cultural online magazine Overdose.am.

"Although I am not a (very) religious person, there is one event this weekend I do not want to miss: Kerkennacht (or Church Night) Amsterdam. It is an event not only for religious ones, but also for those who simply adore architecture, darkness and unusual happenings."

Read all the article here.

SOFI number

After being in the Netherlands for so long time, finally it was time to get SOFI number.

What is SOFI number?

SOFI number - social security number - is needed if you want to work in the Netherlands, although it is not a working permit. For EU citizens it is quite easy to get it once you are registered with the city council. However, I am not registered, so it was a bit tricky to find out what is the procedure...

How did I get it?

Luckily it all went much easier than I thought...

1. Call 0800-0543

2. Ignore the voice speaking in Dutch and press "3" at first and "4" at second

3. Tell that you want to apply for SOFI number (not BSN number - do not ask me about the difference between both)

4. Tell to the lady that you are from another EU country, have just arrived in the Netherlands, about to start a new job and need SOFI number. No more info needed.

5. Make an appointment for the meeting (I scheduled mine for their Amsterdam office in Sloterdijk).

6. On the day of the meeting take ID/passport with you.

7. Go to the reception, get a number and wait. Once they call you, you just need to fill the form and you will get a paper with SOFI number within five minutes.

8. Be happy and find a job!

Easier than I thought :) No more questions, nothing. Happy with my SOFI number!

Top 5 places in the Netherlands

Some months ago I wrote about my favourite places in Amsterdam, but this time I thought about revealing my favourite places out of the city - but still in this beautiful country.

1. Hoorn - although I have been there only once, this small and cute town left a big impact on me. I still remember strolling around almost empty streets, admiring old buildings from several centuries ago and falling in love with the yachts in the port. Around half an hour away from Amsterdam (by train), Hoorn feels like a different world without tourists and yet with its own beauty.

2. Maastricht - this city and me met several years ago, even before I knew that I will ever have a chance to live in the Netherlands. I went there to visit a friend of mine for the weekend and instantly felt that I like it, although it might be too small to live and work there. Since that I have been back to Maastricht several times, including three carnival editions when the city turns into a wild street party and seems so different from other, more peaceful times.

3. Leiden - I believe that AEGEE people (those who had a chance to participate in Spring Agora Leiden 2010) will object, but I really like this small student city. It has a special beauty and its canals remind me Amsterdam, but luckily there is no huge crowd of tourists. The special feature is the endless amount of poems on the walls and last time I even managed to find a Latvian one!

4. Naarden - thanks to another friend, I had a chance to visit the medieval Naarden. When I was there for the first time, it was a silent and empty afternoon with almost no people on the streets and we were wondering around the fortifications and exploring "almost forgotten town". My second visit was just the opposite - it was full of Dutch people, enjoying their sunny day, shopping and sitting outside. Nevertheless, it was possible to feel the special vibe of the small town.

5. Zaanse Schans - I hope that locals will forgive me for mentioning such a touristic place, but I can't help myself. Several working windmills in a raw and extremely cute and sweet houses from fairytales sell good, and I am one of their victims. Typical Netherlands in a nutshell!

Now you all know how much I love history and cities / towns which look like nothing would have changed in the last few centuries!