We officially hit the one-month mark here in Amsterdam yesterday, and frankly, I can’t believe it’s been a month already. So much of our time here has been spent getting settled, dealing with all the administrative and logistical business that necessarily has to be dealt with when you move to another country, so I’m excited that the coming months should have a lot less of those tasks to deal with. There are still a lot more minor administrative things to complete in the coming months — how to make sure our utilities are being paid (the way these services work is so different than the US!), and getting Prim over to the Consultatiebureau for a general checkup and health assessment, among other things.

The highs so far have been exploring our new neighborhood and the city as a whole. We love the area we live in, and there’s so much to do and see everyday. Even just walking to the grocery store is a fun little excursion. It’s also been so nice to settle into a space that’s our own, after being displaced for so many months. It definitely doesn’t quite feel like “home” here yet, but I think after a few more weeks it will start feeling a lot more like us.

The lows, for the most part, are minor. Navigating another country and another language inevitably gets tricky sometimes, and we’re still working through some of the kinks of being outsiders here. The biggest low so far is something that I’ll be posting about later this week — it has to do with our new apartment, and involved me having a moment of laying in bed going, “What are we DOING here?” (mostly because I’m super chill and not prone to overreacting in the slightest. ahem)

A few photos of our new place are coming up tomorrow, stay tuned!