Dublin and a local number...

So we finally spent a weekend in the new apartment. We hadn't had a full weekend in the place yet. Was nice to get some little stuff done like getting a broom.

Our ground shipment, which is most of our stuff, is sitting with customs in the Dutch Harbor. This is frustrating as we have been drinking out of plastic cups and eating with plastic silverware. Anyone that has been to our house since our marriage knows that I miss our silverware.

In other news, we have registered a Skype number. This means we have a number that is actually registered in Oregon so it isn't long distance for anyone to call. The catch is it dials our computer so it will be hit or miss if you are able to reach us. However, it does have voicemail so leave a message and we can call you back for next to nothing.

Anyone interested in downloading Skype should check out www.skype.com. It's a free program and if you have this on your machine then it is free for us to talk as well. You just have to get one of those headsets with the microphones which looks stupid.

If anyone wants to try calling your best bet is to try around 11am or noon PST. The number is 503/616-3083.

Aside from that things are good. The weather keeps getting nicer and we've been told that the sun will actually be up until 11pm at some points in the summer. It's already light until about 8pm now.

Here are some shots from Ireland...

LINK TO SWEET PHOTOS

Back in Amsterdam...

...briefly.

Kindra and I are back. She was able to fly to Berlin Friday so we could spend the weekend together.

The trip overall was great. Some points of note...

LONDON
Very cold but sunny. I got my haircut in London by a guy from Kenya. It was the most professional haircut I have ever received followed by the strangest headrub I've ever had...I liked it.

PARIS
Our days were shorter in Paris so we had time to do a bit more. We went to the Eiffel Tower, got some great food and watched the Barcelona vs. Chelsey game one of the nights.

ROME
One of the guys I was traveling with liked to point out that almost everything is older than America. Everything from the Trevi Fountain on down to the light poles.

BERLIN
Was freezing and snowy and great. As a city Berlin is really interesting. Even though the wall came down in '89 both halves of the city have incredibly different feels. Apparently this is because the West tried to modernize everything to show how prosperous democracy was. The irony is the East, by not doing this, is now cooler cause it's retro.

We are leaving Friday to go to Dublin to see Ben and Kelly for the weekend. St. Patrick's day in Dublin should be interesting.

Here are some shots from the trip and the new apartment. Enjoy...

We'll post some more photos soon but in the interim here are some shots from the last month or so...

LINK TO SWEET PHOTOS

Photos, Contact Info, etc...

Internet access has been hit or miss but I was finally able to post some photos. They are from a couple weeks prior to our move and go through a week or so after. The shots of our apartment are actually outdated as we moved into our new place last Wednesday. It's great to finally be where we will be living for the next couple years instead of a temporary place.

Our new Address
Ceintuurbaan 251-1
1074 CZ Amsterdam
Nederlands

Our new Landline
+31 20 421 4790

Kindra's new Cell Number
+31 (6) 4622 8034 (+31 is international access code to Netherlands)
From a landline in the states you would dial (011) 31 6 4622 8034

Kindra's job is going well and she is crazy good at riding her bike around Amsterdam. She recently informed me she is going to be a BMX biker. I'm currently on a week long TV shoot that is taking me through London, Paris (here now), Rome and Berlin. Interesting way to see Europe.

We'll post some more photos soon but in the interim here are some shots from the last month or so...

LINK TO SWEET PHOTOS

_

Kindra got a job, Jesse went to London and we found an apartment...

Big news for us from Amsterdam. Kindra got a job at 180 Amsterdam (http://www.180bv.nl/). 180 is an amazing ad agency here in Amsterdam that works on a lot of big accounts including Adidas, Amnesty International, Motorola, Omega, etc.. She'll be starting Monday in their business/legal affairs department which is in charge of a wide range of contractual and legal areas of advertising.

In other news, I went to London for the first time on Thursday to meet the people I'll be working with. Everyone was super nice and it was a great trip. After flying over Thursday afternoon, some agency folks and I met up with the clients, went to see the Blue Man Group and then went to Hakasan, a super nice Asian restaurant down a back alley in London. Friday we had some meetings at the EA UK office in Chertsey. All very cool and not a bad first trip to England.

Lastly, we found an apartment. It's in a neighborhood called De Pijp which is in a great part of Amsterdam not too far from the center. Lot's of little pubs and random places to eat.

We still don't have the Mac hooked up so I can't post too many photos but here are a couple of us around town. Kindra being cute in the snow and me being an idiot, as per usual.

Getting Settled...

We've had some time to get over jet lag and are starting to take care of some of the smaller things. We set up our cell phones, got a bike, figured out where the grocery store is, etc.

We are currently living in corporate housing on a street called Utrechtsestraat. It is between the Keizersgracht and Prinzengracht canals. It's decent but right on a tram line which makes if fairly noisy. As I sleep through fire alarms this doesn't bother me but Kindra is wearing earplugs at night. Cute but dorky looking. :)

We are excited to find a place and have a house hunter that has been helping us look. We went out for about 3 hours last Wednesday and saw a range of apartments. We are interested in one and are going back to see it again on Monday. One concern we have is the Dutch people we tell about it say it's too expensive. However, we have been told that expats should expect to pay more and other expats seem to think it's reasonable.

The first few days here our internal clocks were all messed up so we spent our evenings trying not to fall asleep before 7p. As we're getting acclimated we've started to go out a bit more. The last couple nights we've spent out with folks from W+K. Two nights ago we went to a bar called O'Reiley's near the Dam square and last night we went to a dinner at a co-worker's apartment. Aside from Kindra's wallet and cell phone getting stolen at O'Reiley's both nights were fantastic.

Everyone we've met so far has been incredibly nice. It's also very interesting to hear the backgrounds of everyone. Amsterdam has a ton of expats so everyone is from somewhere else. For example at the dinner party there were three people from England, on from Australia and one from Holland...not including us yanks.

Overall things are great and our new cell numbers are below. We are nine hours ahead of the West Coast and six ahead of the East Coast so account for that when you call.

Jesse Cell: (011) 31 6 2060 8607

Kindra Cell: (011) 31 6 2146 6444

If anyone wants to mail anything to us you should use the W+K address as our home address will be changing. If you are mailing something specifically for Kindra put her name in parenthesis after mine but be sure to include mine as they won't recognize her name alone.

Jesse Long (Kindra Long)
Wieden+Kennedy
Keizersgracht 125-127
1015CJ Amsterdam
The Netherlands