Day 46 – July 22, 2011 – Going local…

See? Even the package says "low-fat"! This is healthy stuff.

Number of days in Amsterdam – 46

Number of days without a bike theft – 42

Days since it last rained – 0

It was a very strange day today.

It started normal enough, with the office routine. It’s amazing how quickly I’ve settled into the routine of going into the office, working my hours and going home. After you’ve officed it for over 15 years, it takes more than two months to get it out of your system, I guess.

I popped out for lunch, hitting up a street stand for one of Amsterdam’s street food greats – Vlaamse Frites (actually Belgian, but the ‘Dam has plenty of great frites stands). The stroopwafel will always be my first love, but they’re for desert – and breakfast – never for lunch (maybe for desert after lunch, but you need more than that with lunch). Nothing says lunch here like a paper cone filled with frites and covered in fritesaus.

The best thing about it? It’s cheap and nutritious. For only a couple euro, you get frites, which are a vegetable, cooked in vegetable oil, which is another vegetable, and covered in mayonnaise-based sauce, which is… a vitamin, maybe? Not sure, but there’s eggs and vegetable oil in it, so it’s healthy.

After we got home, we discovered some nice official looking letters advising us to come down to some government offices next week in order to collect our residence permits. I guess that makes it kind of official – we’re not just on vacation!

We also signed up for a birthing class that kicks off next week. One more sign that we’re not on vacation. We live here, and we’re doing the stuff that people that live here do. I hope it will be a chance to meet other new parents, too.

We met some friends at a cafe this evening for drinks and snacks, and while I was talking about Detroit, I mentioned this all, and I mentioned the weather and also the heat wave all my friends are enduring back home. One person, an expat from California who’s been here for several years, pointed out that true indication that we’ve become established is when Amsterdam becomes “home” in conversation, rather than Detroit being “back home.” Who knows? It may happen.

Getting to the strangeness though.

I have to wonder how much talk is going on in the States about Oslo. It’s big here, where an explosion hit the government plaza, followed by a shooting at a youth camp. As the events unfolded, with confusing and conflicting events, it was sort of like watching 9-11 unfold all over again.

At first, one news source was reporting that the events were from a radical Muslim group, to Norway’s military presence in Afghanistan. This was later figured out to not be the case. With the dust settling, at least 93 people are dead, and the gunman is a nationalist who was making some sort of insane statement against multiculturalism.

No matter the reason for the attack, it marks an end of innocence for Norway.

Norway may be a few countries away, but Oslo is really only 500 and some miles away, just a little farther than the distance between Detroit and New York. That makes it very real here. And pretty scary.

And not to sound bad, but it sounded much scarier when the fear was that it was an orchestrated terror attack and not just the work of a lone psycho. Granted, if either one wants to punch your time clock, it doesn’t matter – your shift is over – but I think there was a fear associated with it anyway.

Later the night turned into one of those activities enjoyed by locals and expats alike, sitting on a night roof, having a drink and talking, even if it’s freezing.

The evening’s topic continued, and talked about the things that separate the residents from the tourists, the things that went along with knowing someone was not just visiting. It came down to babies and dogs. When you’re walking a dog or carrying an infant, people think you’re established, and you’re committed to life here.

Also? Buying fish at the market.

You can go to the market and buy an apple, and you might be taking it to your hotel. But if you buy fish? Odds are you’re not taking it back to your room. That’s a locals only activity.

If you go:

Get frites on the street. And if you really want to look like a local, borrow a dog and buy some fish. I don’t know what you should do with it afterward, though.