Nieuwe Huis!

Well, this month has been busy indeed! The search for a new apartment, which has been going on for the past three months, has finally yielded results! And what wonderful results they are! Last night, Albert and I signed the lease for a new, sunny apartment close to the center of Amsterdam. Here are some pictures:

This is the nice, sunny bedroom, overlooking a grove of trees. (Okay, it also overlooks the train tracks... but it's a new building with a special design to insulate it from the sound of the trains. We saw two going by and didn't hear anything.)

The dining room, nicely situated on the corner of the building... note the floor-to-ceiling windows on both walls?

The SUPER fantastic kitchen! Really, this kitchen is AMAZING. First, for Amsterdam, it is HUGE. Second, it has unheard of appliances. An oven! A dishwasher! A freezer! Honestly, these are very rare commodities in this town. I am excited for the return of whole grain berry muffins!

And, last but not least, the living room. There is a big space between the building and the road, where they are currently building a moat, and allowing lots of nice plants to grow. A moat? Well, yes. The building is called "the castle". Hmm...



So, the place is ours as of 15 August! I am SO excited!

Other than that, everything else in life is also fabulous. I'm taking an intensive Dutch class, which is really fun and an incredible amount of work. It's four hours of class per day with about three hours of homework. But, I'm learning quickly! Soon spreek ik heel goed nederlands.

My internship is also going along very well. The abstract proposal I wrote for the International AID Conference in Mexico was accepted, and my boss and a colleague are there now presenting our Call for Action - the connection between HIV and violence against women. I've also been offered a very nice, exciting job... more details when the contract is officially signed, which should be by the 20th of August.

Tot ziens!