Guys something super exciting happened this week – the other EY US GEP members came to Amsterdam. Work friends! I have been getting along well with the people in the office so far but it’s different to have other Americans here especially when they are going through the same random struggles as I am. We can definitely bond over all the random stuff that would be no problem to figure out at home but in a different country, different language it’s a brave new world. We had a small work event on Tuesday and a few of us decided we would meet up on our own Thursday as well and those of us with spouses could bring them along. Bill and I were running a little ahead of schedule so we decided to stop for a drink and a snack before meeting the group. We went to a bar we had discovered when Barnes and Cathy came to visit called Helst. I can’t remember how much I may have written about it in a previous blog so I won’t get too in the details. It reminded me of a bar we would go to in Arlington with Derek and Drew as they have one of those boards that tell you what beers are on tap and how much is left in the keg. The only difference is this place also has food. After making some beer selections we ordered the Dutch specialty – cheese board – to accompany the beverages. One drink was all we had time for so we headed a little farther down the road to our dinner destination called Paskamer. The restaurant was a wine bar with tapas style dishes. You probably have gotten the sense from my other posts that I appreciate a good tapas establishment. The place was very cozy and it was nice to spend time talking with new friends over some tasty treats. The best of our tapas was hands down the eggplant dish we had. It had this tomato sauce on top with a fresh basil leaf. After a few glasses of solid Tempranillo, it was time to sleep and greet Friday.

Friday work was completely forgettable but I do want to share with you all something that is common practice in the Netherlands that frankly, needs to make its way to the States. They have happy hour every Friday at the office. Let that soak in. Every single Friday all EY employees can come to the cafeteria on the ground floor if the office and have free beer and wine and snacks. It was like a Christmas party or something. I hadn’t been to one of the happy hours yet as Friday’s since we arrived have been pretty booked. Now that I am staring to feel more settled and the new batch of GEP people are here I figured it was about time for me to start meeting more people in the office. I’m glad I went and got to know some new people but I didn’t want to leave Bill alone for too long so I returned home to find a dinner spot. We had been eyeing this restaurant on Ferdinand Bolstraat for a while called the Seafood Bar and I was craving oysters so that’s where we settled. The atmosphere was very chic, clean with white subway tiles and neon lights. Everything was bright and light and the distinct smell of seawater filled the room. There were no tables so we sat at the bar which I personally thought was more fun. We got to watch as the cooks prepared elaborate seafood towers. The towers were out of our budget – shocking I know – so we went with a more modest display of 8 oysters and 2 appetizers, pesto scallops and crab cakes.

It was all excellent. The oysters were all from France and to my uncultured oyster palette tasted very similar to oysters from home. That’s a good thing though since I like the oysters from home. It was interesting because instead of cocktail and horseradish sauces they were served with onions and vinegar. That’s probably how you’re supposed to eat them but we already established I don’t have a huge knowledge of the finer points of oyster eating and I like horseradish and cocktail sauce. Never the less they were very tasty. It would be fun to come back here and splurge on an elaborate tower and/or more oysters. It will go on the recommend list. We still had some space in our tummies so we attempted to find froyo. We failed. We did, however, find gelato and that was delicious. Bill said “I think we messed up” after taking one bite implying that there was a good chance we would be visiting this stand many more times to come and endangering our general physiques.

Saturday was brunch and beer day with our new GEP friends. Christy (from Seattle) joined us for predrinking brunch. I had been looking on TripAdvisor the day before and the number two ranked brunch spot in Amsterdam (Brunchroom – very Dutch name i.e. very self explanatory naming) happened to be 2 blocks from the brewery we were visiting. How could we not go?? These are the important questions of life. I didn’t think we could make reservations so we just showed up. Turns out you could make them (not sure how still) but they happened to have three spots at the “reading bar” where we could sit. This was in retrospect very lucky because there were no joke maybe 5 tables and as we were sitting we saw several people come in only to be turned away. We started with drinks – lavender latte for me – and progressed to the main events. I had the “Eggs on Fire” which was a poached egg in a spicy tomato sauce with lots of basil and the bacon I added because bacon. I also tried the peanut soup. It was a little thick so more of a sauce than a soup but I love Southeast Asian peanut flavored dishes. The chef came out to ask how everything was and was particularly interested in getting our thoughts on the soup. Turns out they had just turned over the menu for the fall season and I was the first one to order the soup. Call me a first adopter.

Now that our stomachs were adequately filled it was off to the Windmill Brewery. I call it this because the brewery is in fact in a windmill but also I cannot pronounce the name of the beer – Brouwerij IJ. It’s been our favorite beer we have tried in Amsterdam. We have been meaning to go so with the return of nice weather this was the perfect chance to check it out. It opens at 2 pm so we arrived on time to be sure to get a table. Within the first 30 minutes the place was packed so that was definitely a good choice to arrive early. We learned a thing or two at Oktoberfest I guess. After a while a few of Bills new friends from KPMG also joined. A regular public accounting party. Bill and I had purchased tickets to a Simple Favor (highly recommend by the way) so we said goodbye to the group and headed out to catch the movie.

Sunday was a much more relaxed day. We didn’t have any major commitments so we started out the way every good Sunday starts out – more brunch. We went back to Omlegg but the one in the Pijp this time. It was just as good the second time as it was the first. I mixed things up and got the pastrami avocado omelette which tasted like a sandwich surrounded by eggs instead of bread. I approve.

We decided we wanted to get some culture on this Sunday as well so post brunch we headed to the Moco museum to see the permanent Banksy collection and the Icy and Sot exhibit. For those of you unfamiliar with Banksy, he is a graffiti artist from Britain who is a bit of an enigma – no one knows who he actually is. His pieces namely seem to be social commentary focusing on an anti violence message. Many of the pieces were interesting and made you think. I tend to not favor more modern art but both Bill and I were fans. We learned a lot of fun facts but here were a couple of my favorites:

• Banksy is represented by a series of agents known collectively as “Pest Control”. If you think you have an original Banksy piece, it must be sent to Pest Control for authentication. If it’s a fake, it’s destroyed. If it’s real, it is certified and you get half of the £10 note made by Banksy (see below). Fun fact about that piece, Banksy had those passed out but they looked so similar to actual currency people used them and Banksy is in trouble now for “forging” money. Good thing no one knows who he actually is.
• Banksy’s sister at one point starting getting rid of his pieces prior to his rise to fame. When he asked her why she was getting rid of them she responded “well it’s not like you’re in a museum”. With that, Banksy decided to randomly hang his works in the major museums of the world – Lourve, Met, etc. – complete with description plates. Many stayed up for several days before being removed.

With Banksy’s pieces were works by Icy and Sot – 2 Iranian brothers who are also street artists. Their work was very reminiscent of Banksy, however, in the Iranian bubble they had no idea who Banksy was so it’s truly their own vision.

There were a few other pieces in the museum from a variety of artists including the 3D room which when photographed looks like a 2D room.

There was also a sculpture in the garden you could climb and take a picture on. Of course, Bill wanted a picture. So I will leave you with a photo of Bill on a metal horse. Until next time!

Time again for the Bartholomew’s to hit the road. It feels a little like 2012 though because our second trip while living abroad was to another city we visited on our Masters study abroad trip – Munich. As with London, however, we had a very good reason for returning to Munich. The timing of our visit probably gives it away but Oktoberfest was the motivation for our trip. The famous festival of beer and pretzels and music. We had seen the pictures, heard the stories, and now we were going to experience the event first hand. In order to maximize the fun both Bill and I took Friday off of work and left Amsterdam on Thursday evening to meet Vartan – Bill’s KPMG Fort Worth coworker living in London – and his wife Paola. We had a direct flight on Lufthansa but it did not leave until later. I had assumed Lufthansa would have a boarding process more in line with airlines in the States. Not the case. Just as with EasyJet it was one big free for all. I don’t necessarily mind this (especially since my status is with American Arline’s and is all but useless here) but it does mean you have to be slightly aggressive to get on the plane. If you don’t have enough hustle the overhead space will be full by the time you board. Arriving in Munich also made me appreciative of the ease in which we can get to Schiphol at home. The journey in Amsterdam to the airport takes maybe 30 minutes. Munich was at least an hour. There is a direct train into Munich, however, so we couldn’t complain too much. With our slight delay it did make for a late night which would make the next morning’s alarm less pleasant.

Friday morning had a strict agenda. Everyone we talked to said we needed to get to the tents early to secure a table. For those who haven’t done Oktoberfest a table is key for a few reasons. First, the wait staff will not serve you if you aren’t at a table – beer or food. We did learn Saturday that this isn’t entirely true. In the hacker tent there are also spaces signified with a white box where you can stand and they will serve you. The second reason you want a table is more self explanatory, to actually sit down. Aside from the tables there is no seating in Oktoberfest. Literally. There may be some somewhere on the grounds but if there was I didn’t see it. Without a table you also aren’t able to set your heavy beer stein down. I consider myself to be fairly strong but a whole day holding a beer stein would be a lot of work. I guess it’s one way to burn the calories. Anyway, good accountants that we are, we followed the advice we were given and tried to arrive as close to 10 am when the gates opened as we could. Before making our way to the tents there was one important element to the experience we needed to procure – authentic Bavarian garb! Bill found an outfitter online where you could rent drindels and lederhosen for less than it cost to purchase them and we decided to go with that option. With the minimal shelf space in our new apartment and my recent hatred of clutter following our move, I was more than happy not to be the owner of an outfit with no other immediate use. I did not realize this but drindels are basically the Bavarian version of a corset. Very tight and lots of boobs. My years of skillfully maneuvering into skin tight racing suits finally had a practical application! Looking our German best we were ready to take on Oktoberfest. Walking into the Oktoberfest grounds reminded me of walking into the state fair. Rides, games, vendors, the smells of praline nuts and sausages filling the air. Essentially this felt like an amusement park for adults.

With a slight detour for a hat for Bill (complete with feather) we set course for the Hacker Pschorr tent. Many of you have probably seen pictures of this tent with its painted ceiling cluttered on your social media feed. We thankfully were there early enough to secure a spot at a table and we were ready! The day was filled with beer, new German and Italian friends, and spatzle (think German Mac and cheese).

Before we knew it it was already 5 pm. Sufficiently drunk and a little restless we decided to leave the tent to explore the fairgrounds a little. We rode a couple of rides and got some yummy snacks.

I was starting to need actual food though and wanted to actually sit down to eat so we went back towards our Airbnb for dinner. We found a small Italian restaurant that did the trick. The tightness of the drindel made the post-dinner food coma less than ideal. We ended up going back to the Airbnb for a short pit stop before heading back to the tents. When we arrived back at the tents we learned the next lesson of Oktoberfest – once you are in a tent, do not leave. Getting back in can be particularly challenging. You can get reservations in a tent but you need a large group and tickets sell out essentially a year in advance. It can also be very expensive. For our small group it was easier to get in but it requires a lot of waiting. You have to wander around the outside to find the general admission entrance and wait behind a barricade until the bouncer decides to let the group in. After trying a handful of tents and wandering around, it looked like the Hofbrauhaus tent was our best option. Although it was frustrating having to wait, I’m actually glad we went back out that night and learned how to get in to the tents later. The early morning was wearing on us (mostly me) and I knew tomorrow I would not be able to get to the tent at 9 am and survive into the night and the night is when the fun starts. The Hofbrauhaus had a live band playing “classic” American songs. I say “classic” because it’s interesting what songs they choose to play. They had everything from Blink 182 to Sweet Home Alabama and Sweet Caroline to Angels by Robbie Williams (What??). Everyone at this point is also standing on top of the benches at the tables, swaying, and singing at various levels of intoxication. The benches were so sticky I could barely lift my feet. I kept praying someone actually cleans all of it off before the next morning. At 10:30 the band said auf wiedersehen and we did too until tomorrow.

The next morning Paola and Vartan woke up early to get to the tents when they opened. Paola was unable to get Friday off of work so Saturday was her chance to experience Oktoberfest. We on the other hand decided on brunch. Yesterday we only had McDonald’s finest egg McMuffin for breakfast and something a bit heavier would be in order if I was going to make it into the evening. Flipping on the trusty TripAdvisor we found a spot called Cotidiano. I knew it would be good when we walked up and saw the line. It was in a cute little square and it was a perfect fall day, slightly crisp breeze with the sun shining down. After about 15 or so minutes standing in line I noticed the couple behind me suddenly leave the line and take one of the outside tables that just cleared up. At that point we realized the outside tables were first come first serve. With a divide and conquer strategy I continued to wait for a spot inside and Bill stood on look out outside. After some heavy lurking and fast maneuvering, Bill secured us a table. Excellent practice for the table hunting that lay ahead in the tents. We enjoyed a hearty Belgian Breakfast (scrambled eggs with bacon on toast) with some lattes and a delicious almond croissant. All the food was pretty reasonably priced as well. If you find yourself in the center of Munich this place was worth seeking out.

With a solid base in our stomachs we were ready for round 2 of Oktoberfest. Paola and Vartan had again found themselves in the Hacker tent so we made our way there. When we arrived we found our way to the barricade and began to wait. There is no way to tell when they will let you in so you just have to be patient. Not a strong skill of mine but nothing we could do about it. At one point someone did try and make a break for it. He made it pretty far but eventually got stuck in a crowd and the security guard caught up with him at which point the burly bouncer showed him the way out with a certain amount of force. With the security guard out of his post a few girls at the front of the line saw this as their opportunity to also attempt to make a break for it. They made it about 10 steps before the bouncer was back. These security guards are no joke. They looked like they could snap you in half so merely the look of this angry giant man was enough to scare the girls back behind the barricade. Eventually our patience paid off and we were allowed into the tent. Originally, Paola and Vartan had a table but unfortunately the table was reserved starting at 12:30 so they had to give it up. We found them standing in one of the designated server areas I previously mentioned, however, so it was all good. Eating dinner did prove to be a little interesting and my feet are now throbbing from all the standing but it was fun to be in the tent. We made friends with a couple guys from Düsseldorf who were standing with us and that paid dividends later when they found a table and invited us up. At our new location we met some more Germans who were super friendly. They even invited us to their hometown to stay for their local festival. Don’t know if we will take them up on their offer but it was nice to make friends for the night at least. From our new table we danced the night away before returning home after the last song played.

Sunday was the travel day home. Three day trips are kind of the sweet spot we decided. You get two full days in a city – usually plenty of time to see the main sites – then a day to travel home and you can plan it so you get home at a decent time. On the plane home I came up with my list of suggestions for anyone planning on heading to Oktoberfest which I will leave you with to end the post:

1) two days is a good amount of time. One day, I would go to one of the tents early so you can see the morning experience. Then before you drink too much, leave and walk around the actual grounds, ride some rides, eat fair food, etc. The second day start a little later so you can make it to the evening.

2) You don’t necessarily have to go to the tents right when they open. If you have a smaller group (2-6) and can be patient, you can wait outside for a while and eventually they will let you in.

3) If you’re doing 2 days, Thursday and Friday I think are good choices. I would have your late night be Friday. Saturday was insane. Looking back I would not have gone on a Saturday.

4) Eat a big breakfast or lunch if you’re planning on drinking.

5) go to the atm before going into the fair. The tents are essentially cash only and the lines for the atms are long. Just go before.

6) Dress up. At least 75% or more of the people there were in lederhosen and drindels. You will feel weird if you aren’t wearing one. Plus it’s fun.

7) wear comfortable shoes. Chances are you will be doing minimal sitting and dancing on the benches can be treacherous. We saw many a spills.

8) plan ahead. As soon as you know you want to go book an Airbnb or hotel and flights. We booked 6 months in advance and there was not a lot of options even at that point. If you plan early enough you may even be able to get a table.

The time has come for our first European adventure, well outside of Amsterdam anyway. You would think we would pick somewhere new to explore. That would be logical. But that is not in fact what we did. We went to… London! Both Bill and I have been to London before, myself on three occasions. We did have a good reason to make London our first stop, however. Not only was my early childhood friend Kayla and her boyfriend in London but one of my friends from the Fluor Corporate team, Melissa, was also in London for the Fluor site visit. So off to London we went!

This was our first experience with one of Europe’s many discount airlines. This particular carrier was called Easyjet. Easyjet was not particularly organized. We got to the gate and there is essentially no process for boarding – no groups, no organization just one big line to get on the plane. I was thankful we had seat assignments. My only sense of calm in the chaos. It took them forever to let us on the plane then when we finally did get on, the flight attendant told us we needed to hurry and sit or we would miss our departure window. Well turns out the collective we was not fast enough because we did end up missing our window and the captain got on the intercom to announce we would need to wait an hour and 45 minutes for another window. The plane let out a frustrated sigh. But guess what! We could still buy refreshments! I was relieved by that until they announced refreshments did not in fact include alcohol. Buzz kill. Literally. Thankfully we only had to wait about an hour so it could have been worse. The rest of the trip was pretty easy, arrived at gatwick and took the train to the underground to a bus. I forgot how long it takes to get around London. The trip from the airport solidified in my mind that we made the right choice of what city to call home. Amsterdam has the big city feel but it takes so much less time to get around. Also, soooooo much cleaner. Anyway, we arrived in an Airbnb in the Shoreditch neighborhood. It was a very interesting Airbnb to say the least. We walked up to the entrance and it was weird because we didn’t see a door leading up to apartments, just store fronts. Well turns out one of these store fronts was in fact our accommodations for the weekend. The space was a large studio that we think was actually a working studio during the week. Some of the art was… art? There was some picture of a man on a barstool with like pieces of hair stuck on him. To each their own I suppose. Exhausted from the flight we decided to turn in to prep for a day of fun tomorrow!

We woke up bright and early to go meet Kayla and her boyfriend (Reed) for breakfast. We said we would meet at 9 which Bill and I being the accountants we are we were there at 9 on the dot (more of less). Kayla and Reed underestimated travel time and made it by 9:30ish. When she walked in I immediately noticed a very shiny ring on a very particular finger. I was very confused, however, because just the day before she had referred to Reed as her boyfriend – not fiancé – and I had not seen anything about her getting engaged in social media so I kept my mouth shut since I probably had missed the post or something and I didn’t want to look like an idiot. We went of a bike tour post breakfast and I was praying this bike tour was more successful than our first (see previous post where I immediately fell off my bike and lost the tour group). Our guides from the start already felt more friendly than our Amsterdam guide so that was a good sign. Another good sign is the area we were picking up the bikes was not in fact in the busiest section of Amsterdam where bikers are out for blood and will run you over if ya I do not get the f out of their way. The tour over all was really nice. We saw some of the main tourist spots but also some spots we never would have found on our own. Some of the highlights in the photos below were parliament, a street with basements that were bomb shelters in WWII, Westminster school (fancy private grade school – ages 8 to 18 – that basically guarantees admission to Oxford or Cambridge for a cool £13K a trimester), London’s premiere wig shop (yes lawyers and judges actually wear these to court here), and a street in London where graffiti a la Banksy is legal and encouraged. Another fun story, we had a small break in the tour in Covent Garden and after about 20 minutes on the patio of Punch and Judy, I feel a tap on my shoulder and I turn around and it’s one of my old coworkers from EY Fort Worth Amber! What a small world we live in. How is it that of all the places in all of London she happened to be in the same part of Covent Garden at the same time as us. Crazy.

Post bike tour (now one bike tour without incident thank you) we attempted to go to Sky Garden. Kayla and Reed looked into going here the day prior and were told you had to have a reservation but you could get in without one before 6 pm. So we tried. That was false. We were told we could try and get in after 9 without a reservation but we had to be “smartly dressed” she said as she gave us all a once over. I will say we were casually dressed but the way she said smartly dressed she had like such disgust in her voice. Rude. As T Swift would say, why you gotta be so mean? After her attitude we decided we didn’t want to go there anyway so we headed up to Notting Hill to check out the Churchill Arms bar and Portobello market. Churchill Arms you have probably seen on some social media influencers page. It’s a cute little bar with flowers all on the outside and when you venture inside there is all the memorabilia covering the walls and ceilings.

Portobello market was crazy! I can best describe it as a market for old trinkets being marketed as “vintage” and “antique”. You can call it what you want people but it’s all trinkets and trinkets give me anxiety. I think moving and having to go through every trinket I have purchased over the last 10 years has permanently turned me off of wanting to purchase trinkets ever again. We did finally make to the food portion of the market and found a cool gin distillery we decided to park at for a snack.

After a few snacks we decided we were hungry for real dinner so I made the executive decision to take the group to Dishoom. If you like Indian food, Dishoom is fabulous and you should definitely put it on your list if you’re in London. For being so yummy it’s also not too terribly priced which is like crazy for London. On our way over there the mystery of the engagement ring was finally revealed. Turns out, Reed has proposed to Kayla THE NIGHT BEFORE but they didn’t say anything. Now I felt like an ass for trying not to be an ass and not asking about it earlier. She said they didn’t want to make the day all about them but for the record, that would not have been selfish of her at all. You only get engaged once! When we got to Dishoom we were able to have a proper cheers to their engagement and celebrate them. The food was fabulous and with full tummies we went back to Shoreditch to have some post dinner drinks. On our way, we had to switch tubes at the Kings Cross station so of course, we had to go up to Platform 9 3/4. What an interesting experience. I thought we would just be able to walk up and take a picture. Warner Brothers, however, was not going to miss out on such a prime opportunity to capitalize on tourists. They have now set up a store at Platform 9 3/4 and there is a line to have your photo taken. There is also someone to help place your scarf on you, properly make the scarf billow for the actual shot, and help you organize poses for a group shot. What should have been a 5 minute detour quickly became 45 minutes of tourist nightmare. The poses were so dumb they had people do and we completely unrelated to the location – why would you be dueling with someone on a luggage cart while trying to pass through to the train. No plot accuracy! In rebellion we took one normal picture with the scarf of our choice (#Ravenclawforlife). We walked through the store (you have to in order to leave – Disney strategy to force exit through the gift shop) and they asked if we wanted to see our photo they took to which we said nope and walked on. For your viewing pleasure, the perfectly acceptable, plot accurate, photos we took ourselves.

We finally made it to Shoreditch at which point we met up with Melissa who had been with her family during the day. We were like the Goldilocks of bars before settling on a bar with a bunch of beers on tap – one bar had too long of a line, one bar was too clubby, and finally this one was justtttt right. After good conversation over a few brews it was time for sleep. Even with the bike tour we were encroaching on 10 miles of steps and these puppies were tired.

Sunday we slept in (praise be) and went to a traditional Sunday brunch at the Princess of Shoreditch. This was presented to me as a very British activity I needed to try and it felt like the kind of meal Ann cooked for Easter. We started with some beef tartare and moved on to our mains of roast beef and roast pork. Both were good but to be honest Ann makes a better roast. Sorry Princess.

I thought our flight was at 4:30 but it turned out we did not leave until 6:30 so we went and paid a visit to Paola and Vartan. Vartan is Bill’s coworker from Fort Worth who is on rotation in London. It was nice catching up with them before we started the long trek back to Gatwick. Easyjet was just as disorganized returning home as when we flew out. This time our flight was delayed from the start but they also had a last minute gate change. Basically it was just like herding cattle for 30 minutes before we finally got on the actual plane. All in all, London was great to visit but being there, both Bill and I felt like Amsterdam had been the right choice for us. Coming back from this trip felt like coming home which was a nice feeling. We are starting to feel less like visitors and more like locals. After such a busy trip we were looking forward to a quiet weekend in Amsterdam before our next adventure – Oktoberfest! Prost!

Less than a week after arriving in Amsterdam it was time to start work. Monday morning I woke up, calculated my google maps route to the EY office and was out the door. Upon arriving in the office I quickly realized I was not the only one starting at EY today. Apparently today was also the first day of work for all the new staff in the Amsterdam office. What this translated to was me waiting in lines for all the things I needed – badge, computer, etc. Thankfully it didn’t delay the process too much. The most exciting part of the morning was receiving my new work phone with a Dutch number. One of the classic first world problems of world travel is that of cell phone service abroad. Never is one more desperate for wide spread WiFi as they are when they are avoiding data overage charges on an adventure through Europe. Now I could contact the world to my hearts desire although the 7 hour time change makes that difficult until about 3 or 4 pm. After a quick check in it was off to the client for the first time. The funny thing is, my first week in the Netherlands office happened to be the week of the Corporate team site visit. So when I entered the room I was greeted by two familiar faces from Dallas – Forrest and Matt. Shout out. It is so crazy that I moved thousands of miles away and my team looked much the same as it did at home. It was nice to have a bit of a safety blanket these first two weeks. Everyone on the Netherlands team is very nice and I think we will get along well but to have people there I knew really well helped make the transition easier.

I will fast forward through the boring work stuff and get to Wednesday – our three year wedding anniversary! It’s a bit odd because I have never actually spent our anniversary in the US. Our first anniversary Bill and I were in Berlin, for our second I was in Canada and now we are in Amsterdam! To celebrate we had a special dinner planned at one of Amsterdam’s one Michelin star restaurants. How cool is it that we have multiple one and two star Michelin restaurants right in our backyard?? The restaurant we went to is called the Dutchess and it was absolutely great. The venue itself is an old ticket station that has been converted to a restaurant. They had beautiful chandeliers hanging from the stained glass detailed ceiling.

Moving onto the real reason for the visit – the food. The concept of the restaurant is smaller plates to share – kinda tapas style. I personally enjoy this style of eating because it lets me try lots of yummy things. We started the meal with two appetizers – crab and lobster avocado salad as well as a seared calamari squid ink pasta. Both were excellent but the salad took the cake. Fresh and delicious. Lots of crab and lobster meat. Moving onto the entrees, we tried the Dover sole and the broccoli and truffle gnocchi. Seriously the Dutch are obsessed with truffle. I am still in full support. The most fun course was the dessert. We got the signature “Chocolate Explosion”. Basically it’s a dark chocolate dome they present to you and they pour in some liquid nitrogen or dry ice or something for effect then they slam down the ball and reveal the contents of the dome – mousse, brownies, macaroons, chocolates, a chocolate explosion literally.

We left the restaurant full and satisfied. This was the perfect place to celebrate 3 years.

The following evening we invited Matt and Forrest to explore our new neighborhood with us and try one of the many restaurants in the Pijp. We decided on one of Matt’s suggestions – a bazaar with middle eastern food. The star of the show was definitely the baklava. There was this interesting cotton candy type stuff on top that was slightly less sweet. I think it was made with honey maybe. I will say as good as it was though, my dad’s friend Sophie still holds the title for the best baklava I have ever had.

Friday came it was time for a new visitor! Enter Carrie Stires (shout out)! Unfortunately I had to work but Bill was unassigned so he was able to greet her at the train station. While I slaved away at the office Bill and Carrie went on a biking adventure into the country side. Bill mimicked some of the sites we saw on the bike tour we took the week before with sites that included windmills and farm animals. Once I was finally released, I met Carrie and Bill at our apartment and we headed off to the House of Bols. For those of you that are not familiar with Bols I was also not familiar so we are on the same page. Bols is a type of liquor that comes in a plethora of flavors all of which you have the opportunity to smell on the tour. There is a lot of scents at this particular venue. Honestly, too much smelling. It almost made me sick to my stomach. The tour did end with a delicious cocktail of your choosing however so all in all it was a nice hour but if you’re in Amsterdam I would not necessarily put this at the top of your list.

Something I would recommend is where we went for dinner – Restaurant Classico. A hole in the wall Italian restaurant run by some real Italians. I swear the wife of the owner was trying to fatten us up because before we even had a chance to order to was presenting us with delicious delicacies. First up, was simple, fresh and delicious bruschetta followed by warm toasty bread with delightful herbed butter. When we did finally order we started with an appetizer plate with various meats. The pastas were fabulous. They even had a special where they put the freshly cooked pasta on top of the Parmesan wheel and it absorbs the cheese. Yum cheese. When we were finished it was raining so we decided on some boozy coffees to pass the time until it died down. Post dinner we were headed out to hit the town. We went to an area called Spiegelgracht which was very lively on a Friday night. The first bar we went to was way too touristy so we tried again and found – you guessed it – a hole in the wall! This particular hole in the wall was a whiskey bar with a bar tender that was a dead ringer for Ryan Gosling, not a bad view. It seemed like a local spot and one of the bartenders off for the night happened to be sitting next to us. We left after a couple drinks but promised to return and to bring them some TX whiskey when we came back from Christmas. With a slight buzz we decided to check out the Amsterdam club scene. Of all the clubs I been to this was one of the calmest but we still had a great time. The venue is called Paradiso and it was converted from an old church. One thing I have seen in Amsterdam is that a lot of stuff has “been converted from an old church”. The population here is predominantly Christian but like most of Europe, most Dutch people do not actively practice their religion. Back to our night out, my style of dancing fits in very well with the Dutch – a combination of subtle bopping around and standing with very little actual skilled dancing. The DJ took a while to get going but there was about an hour to an hour and a half where I was really enjoying the music. He switched back to what he had been playing at the beginning of the set though and it was late so we decided this was our cue to go home. We attempted to find late night snacks unsuccessfully on the way home (probably for the best). Man I missed me some triple bacon toppers sticks.

Waking up the next morning, Carrie had already departed for the train station back to Paris. Our big endeavor for the day was a trip to Ikea. Someone recently compared Ikea to one of the circles of hell and I think that is a pretty accurate description. The one time I went to Ikea in the States I got so lost and couldn’t find the exit. This time, Bill and I literally turned the wrong way right out of the gate and we were going the wrong direction from the start. Salmon swimming upstream. When we finally did get in order and gathered all our belongings we were running quite tight on time for the wine and cheese tasting we had with our new evening guest, my former swim coach Alexis. To make things more stressful as we approached the check out the lines were insane. They only had 5 cashiers open for a crowded Saturday afternoon. As the clocked ticked down we realized we would never make it on the train so we audibled to an Uber. Thankfully we were able to make it home, drop our belongings, and rush to the city center. We made it to the cheese store with a minute to spare. The store is called Reypenaer (ripening) and the cheese was fabulous. We of course bought way too much following the tasting including some fancy mustard with who would have thought truffle. I told you it’s everywhere! We can now treat our guests to our own cheese board. Even more incentive for all of you to visit us! Post cheese were Dutch pancakes as big as our faces because we definitely needed more food after all that cheese. At this point Alexis went to the Anne Frank house as we went home to unload our Ikea treasures. We did meet up with her again for drinks at a cozy spot called GlouGlou. It was nice but the service left something to be desired.

Sunday was a day for just Bill and I. With no specific plans we started with a nice brunch at Bakers and Roosters. There was an hour wait but they have this fancy feature where they take your phone number and you can track the waiting list then they will text you when your table is ready. We lived right around the corner so we just went home and relaxed until we got the message. Look at us being urban city dwellers. Breakfast was worth the wait. We resisted the urge to order the huevos rancheros, reserving those for when we are more homesick, and instead ordered the salmon stack (Bill) and Navajo Eggs (me). Both were fab. Check plus. After lunch we went home and realized our power was out. There was construction outside which was our immediate suspect as the culprit but we were slightly concerned the power outage meant our utilities were not properly set up. Thankfully it was construction related and after our run the power was back. The rest of the days details are pretty vanilla but Bill was super excited because he found a way to get NFL redzone and was able to watch the first games of opening weekend. Very exciting for Bill. Yay Bill.

Next weekend we are off to London to visit a few friends. Until then cheers!

After the craziness that was finding an apartment, it was finally time to start settling into our new city. In order to be locals there was one purchase left to make and no it was not weed. It was a bike! So Saturday our adventure began with a trip to the Albert Cuyp market to the used bike shop there. The Albert Cuyp is a long street market set up everyday except Sunday in de Pijp. They have everything you can imagine for sale from bread to fish to olives and spices to tourist trinkets and of course, used bikes! While we were there we figured we could try some of the local fare as well (no, still not weed). First on the menu was a local grilled cheese stand called Greg Monsieur. I wasn’t hungover this morning but whenever I am one of the top things I crave is a good grilled cheese. Carby and cheesy and delicious. I am so thrilled this stand is now minutes from our house for the next Saturday I wake up hungover. Fort Worth was limited in grilled cheese speciality restaurants. Aside from being great hangover food, grilled cheese is basically delicious in every situation so this was a perfect lunch. If you find yourself in Albert Cuyp (which you should) make a stop at this stand. You can even build your own sandwich. They guy in line in front of us asked for a grilled cheese with chorizo and, wait for it, peanut butter…. At first the guy thought he was kidding but when it was clear he was not they made it for him. So you can really have anything your heart desires. The star of our Albert Cuyp foodie experience, however, was the Stroopwafel. A Stroopwafel is a traditional Dutch cookie you are probably familiar with if you have frequented Delta or United Airlines flights. It is a thin cookie sandwich with delicious caramel type filling on the inside. If you have ever tries a sticky bun made by Ann Oster – the center basically tastes like the sticky bun syrup. I am now mildly addicted to them. The stand we went to in the Albert Cuyp is the “Original Stroopwafel” and they make them fresh right before your eyes so they are warm and delicious and googey. Heart meltingly delicious.

Post food it was time to refocus on the reason we actually went to the market – bikes. No one told us the bike place is literally the last stall of the market itself but we made it. I had assumed they would be fairly inexpensive since a brand new basic bike at Target in the states is like $100- $150 or something. Wrongo. The man informed us the bikes were 200-250 Euros. Gross. Standing there we decided to call an audible and go with a different option. Swapfiets. Swapfiets is hip new subscription bike service in the Netherlands. For 15 Euro a month they deliver your bike to your apartment and take care of any maintenance issues you may have – flat tire, broken light, etc. They come in fun colors – red, orange, blue, tan, etc. and are marked by the signature blue front tire making them easy to distinguish in a crowd. Each bike is also chipped so it is less likely to be stolen but in the event it is stolen, a new bike only costs 40 Euro to replace. Based on what we have heard from everyone who lives here, you can count on your bike being stolen at least one time during your rotation. As accountants we did some quick mental math and considering how expensive the used bikes were, we decided this was probably a decent deal for someone living here short term. So we left the Albert Cuyp with full bellies and no bikes.

The remainder of Saturday revolved around the most important thing to any former college frat boy – college football. TCU was playing its inaugural game of the season vs. Sourthern. If you have never heard of them don’t feel bad. Even now I am only 90% confident that was actually the name of the school. Bill is obviously going to miss college football a little more than me but I am definitely going to miss walking over to TCU from the Waits house on Saturdays to support the Frogs, eating some tailgate food (shout out to the Goats Tailgate), and the energy of the stadium when you walk in. In our attempt to re-create a college football Saturday, we simply had to “tailgate”. We decided on Bier Fabriek which is a brewery in the middle of Amsterdam near the Rokin metro stop. The beer was really inexpensive and pretty good. They had 4 on tap when we went – a pilsner, an amber, a whit and a porter. After trying all the varieties I think the amber and the pilsner were the winners. They also have a very nice cheese board. Bless the dutch and their love of cheese. They have a board for 2 people and one for 4. The board for 2 people was a lot of food though so you could easily spilt that amongst 4 people and still be fine. Now that we had a tailgate pre-game buzz going we needed the za (pizza). Bill did his research and found a place called Il Sogno where we could carry out some pepperoni pizza. It was Neapolitan style with a nice thin crust. I don’t know if it was the absolute best pizza I have ever had but I would give it a solid 7/10 probably. With pizza in hand we went home to cheer the Frogs to victory through our VPN app that tricks our computer into thinking we are in the US so we can still watch American television. Thank you technology.

Sunday started with a healthy jog through Westerpark. I can’t remember if I have mentioned in the blog before but we found it a day or so after we first arrive and had been running there ever since. Once you got out of the busy centraal area, the park is about a mile or so west. It has nice paths, shaded areas, fresh air. There is even a large grassy area where people were picnicking on the gorgeous Sunday afternoon. Once we checked the heath box, it was on to the main event – food journey – starting with a traditional Dutch snack, frites. I will say I call them Dutch in a loose sense because I don’t think the Dutch can really claim fries. The way they are served is pretty unique though. The put them in a paper cone and slather them in sauce. We went to Manneken Pis which has a signature blue cones and is just up the road from Dam Square. They sell these things everywhere though so don’t feel like you need to necessarily seek this particular venue out. One nice thing about Manneken Pis, however, was they have a wide variety of sauces to select from. The regular sauce is mayo – weird I know – but it tastes a little different than mayo in the US. We also got the Amsterdam sauce which is basically mayo with green onions. I would say it was the better of the two but I am looking forward to going back to try more options. I think peanut sauce is on the top of my list for next time. Also expert tip – the portions are super big, even the small. I would get a small to split and ask for 2 different sauces on the side. Then you can try a couple and dip your fries as opposed to having the sauce all over. It’s much less messy.

Post fries we tried out another of Rick Steve’s free walking tours – the Red Light District tour. The Red Light district is not my personal favorite area but I liked the tour Rick Steves gave. First it’s free which you can’t really go wrong with but he also focused on the history of the area which is the oldest part of Amsterdam. It was also fairly short – only about 45 minutes to an hour. I would recommend going in the middle of the afternoon so it’s lively but you don’t have all the crazy party people out yet and there are fewer ladies of the night in their windows. But maybe you’re into that no judgement. By this time our bellies were rumbling again. We walked for what felt like forever to a place called Foodhallen. It is in the southwest part of the city and has about 20 international permanent food stands serving everything from traditional Dutch bitterballen – more on that later – to Vietnamese fare to oysters and burritos. Many choices.  Although I still have some regrets about not just taking the tram down there, it was 100% worth the walk. We started with a sampler of bitterballen which are essentially the Dutch version of a croquette. I LOVE croquettes so I was very excited to give these bad boys a try. They lived up to the hype. My favorite of the ones we had was probably the truffle one. They put truffle on like everything here it feels like and I support them in their truffle love. After some debating as to what to commit to next, we settled on the dim sum. The duck gyoza and the pork dumpling were the stars of the show. I can’t wait to go back to foodhallen with visitors and try more stalls.

Our last activity of the day was a visit to Vodelpark, the central park of Amsterdam. You may remember me mentioning it in my House Hunters International blog. It was so pleasant on this beautiful 70 degree Sunday afternoon. Bill and I found a spot on the grass near the tea house and listened to the free concert happening behind us. Side note – the grass is so soft here. I could legit have fallen asleep and been perfectly content. I can already picture spring picnics with friends and family. There were also runners and bikers everywhere. This could easily replace Westerpark as my new outdoor running area. After about an hour of relaxing in the sun, it was time to head home. I had my first day of work the next day so back to the “real” world. Already can’t wait for the next weekend of freedom in our new city.

I am struggling a little with how often to update this blog. I posted yesterday so does that mean I shouldn’t post again today? Or should I wait until tomorrow when I will have more to add because tomorrow we go apartment hunting and I know tomorrow I will I will want to blog about that as well? As you can gather from the fact that this post exists, I decided it was not too obnoxious for me to post 2 days in a row. If you do find it obnoxious I am sorry. Hopefully we can still be friends.

So yesterday was our first day as residents of Amsterdam. We arrived at our temporary apartment which is literally next to Amsterdam Centraal station. Very convenient for travel, super crowded. There are tourists EVERYWHERE. Am I considered a tourist still though? I sort of feel like it even though we “live” here. Still waiting for the local vibe to settle in. Anyway, not only is our flat next to the train station, it is on the border on the infamous redlight district. It is a little strange smelling the distinct aroma of weed in the air. My Colorado-ness betrays me. Before you ask no, we have not had any but it is strange how completely acceptable it is here. Not a ton of people walk around with a joint in there hand but there definitely are some people that do. But back to our temporary home. The layout of the apartment is very strange. Essentially there is a giant cube in the center of the room. On one side of the cube is the kitchen. Moving clockwise around there is a small water closet (toilet and sink only – literally the smallest sink I think I have ever seen) followed by a larger bathroom (the overhead shower head is broken so we have to ben European and use the handheld one) and lastly the bed (a murphy bed that comes down into the living room). It’s a loft style which is not my favorite. I like it when there is an actual door you can close. Overall the place is very modern, well located, and will suit us just fine until we find our “permanent” home. You can see pictures below.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

After setting down our belongings we opened the ever reliable Trip Advisor App to find some lunch. Bill found a spot a short walk away called PiqNiq (get it). We weaved through some canals and strolled – we are working on improving our strolling and not always rushing places – to the restaurant. The general atmosphere felt very homey. It felt like a place I could find in the states. The food seemed to be focused on local seasonal ingredients served in small portions. You could choose two, three or four dishes. I love a good mix and match. Like tapas but not Spanish food. I went with the Carrot and Coconut soup with a spicy chicken sandwich and Bill got a salmon sandwich, cheese and tomato sandwich and watermelon arugula salad with balsamic. My favorite was the soup (Bill’s least favorite) and Bill liked the salmon sandwich the best. But honestly, everything we ate was good. I would definitely take anyone who comes to visit back there.

Post lunch we came back to the apartment before our walking tour. Thankfully we had something scheduled in the not too distant future because we were on the jet lag struggle bus in a big way. I broke one of my cardinal travel rules and shut my eyes for 30 minutes. Shockingly, I didn’t feel that groggy after. I actually got a bit of a second wind. At 2 pm we made our way to Dam Square – tourist nightmare – to meet up with the Sandeman’s Tour. For those of you who have not used Sandeman’s before, it is a company that provides free walking tours of various cities throughout Europe and a few other countries. We have done their tours in Copenhagen, Prague, Lisbon, etc. and really think they are a great way to orient yourself in a new city. They take you by a lot of the major sights and give you recommendations on things that are worth going back to and what to skip. They usually give a good history of the cities you visit as well. And they are free, well except tip. They basically tell you at the beginning of the tour they are free in the sense that you can decide what the tour was worth to you as opposed to taking a tour, paying up the nose for it and not enjoying it. If you come visit Bill and I over the next 2 years, this is a great activity to put on your list. It is also really great for the first day because it keeps you up and moving. Instead of telling you every single fact our guide shared with us I will give you 5 interesting ones:

1. The city is currently experiencing a drop in the eel population as a result of increased cocaine usage. Apparently when people expel cocaine from their system (i.e. pee), there is still trace amounts of cocaine in their urine that won’t be filtered out. The amount in the water is enough that the eels are strung out and don’t want to reproduce. Hence the drop in the eel population.
2. Eberhard van der Laan was the mayor of Amsterdam from 2010 until 2017 when he died of lung cancer. This guy was beloved by Amsterdammers. A few days before he died, a local appealed to Amsterdammers to gather outside the mayoral house and sing “Aan de Amsterdamse Grachten” (apparently super anthemic Dutch song everyone knows) so they could honor the mayor before he passed. Thousands of people showed up. When the mayor opened the window and waved to the crowd, the applause lasted 17 minutes.
3. Napoleon’s brother, Louis, was actually king of the Netherlands. In one of his first speeches, he said “Ik ben je koning” which translates to “I am your king”; however, the French struggle with the Dutch pronounciation of King so what the Dutch heard was “Ik ben je konijn” which means “I am your bunny rabbit”. Talk about first impressions.
4. For as small as the Netherlands is, that actually had a HUGE impact on modern civilization. Like Internet huge. In the 1600’s the Dutch were introduced to exotic spices by the Portuguese. They wanted to get in on the spice action but it was extremely risky. People would invest their entire fortunes in wooden ships that would take a year to sail to the far east and a year back, often sinking along the journey, bankrupting the individual. So the Dutch thought, why not start a company (the Dutch East India Company) and reduce the risk to the single individual by having them buy into the Company to buy a “share” of a ship. Boom. Capitalism.
5. Café ‘t Mandje is a bar in the red light district opened in 1927. It was one of the few bars at the time that allowed same sex dancing. It has only closed once in it’s history and it was not during WW2 when the Nazis took control of the city. Despite the Nazi’s essentially criminalizing homosexuality, the club stayed open. No one really knows why. The only time it closed was in the 1980’s when Amsterdam experienced an extreme heroine problem.

Post tour we walked back towards our flat for dinner at a local establishment named Mister Meatball – another Trip Advisor find. To say this was a hole in the wall is putting it lightly. I think there was space for 6 people to sit. 8 if you smooshed. Thankfully there was a space open and we sat. I ordered traditional dutch potatoes with sauerkraut and a meatball and Bill ordered the meatball sandwich. Though both were good, Bill won the order award this time. This sandwich had triple layers with sliced meatballs, peanut sauce (fab), rye bread, tomatoes and pickles. It was sort of like a rueben. They almost forgot to bring the sandwich and we were both very happy they remembered.

Today was pretty boring so I will spare you the details. Immigration appointments, grocery shopping, etc. Bill and I had our first train snafu though which was a little funny. One of my immigration appointments was in the Haague (about an hour southwest of Amsterdam by train). We got to the Haague with no problems but on the way back we didn’t realize we had arrived at Amsterdam Centraal and didn’t get off the train. We realized our mistake immediately and thankfully it was only about a 10 minute mistake. We were able to just get off at the next stop which was very close and hop on the next train back into the city. Crisis averted.

Tomorrow we go apartment hunting. Before you make a House Hunters International joke – yes we did apply and no they did not email me back. Those bitches. Hopefully tomorrow we can find our real new home! Keep you posted!

To say last week was a whirlwind is putting it lightly. Moving in general let alone halfway across the world is no joke, let me tell you. For me, the official push to Amsterdam began Wednesday night as I was forced to go to Phoenix for training Monday – Wednesday. I originally hadn’t planned on attending training but I got a nice little nasty-gram that I needed to complete 602 prior to my departure so off to Phoenix! There was definitely nothing else I would have been doing those 3 days though so it’s fine… Poor Bill was probably the biggest loser on me being gone. In my absence he was subject to a “Honey-Do” list and constant texts from me with chores. To his credit, he kept a good attitude and accomplished 95% of what I asked of him.

So Wednesday I get home at about 10 pm and start tearing through the house trying to make up for lost time. Bill, was not about that. He had already spent the full day getting ready and it was time to sleep. After about a half hour I put him out of his misery and agreed to go to bed dreading Thursday. The movers were coming Friday at 9 am so we had a very busy day ahead of us. Thursday I woke up and it was off to the races! Quick work out, packing, dentist appointment, more packing, turn in my US EY computer, lunch with the Fluor team, packing, packing, packing, and dinner with Taylor after which we were supposed to do more packing but red wine and sleep sounded much more appealing. So we sat on the floor of the kitchen drinking out of solo cups. A classy end to the era of my college house.

We woke up early Friday to do some more packing before the movers showed up at 9 am sharp. Man those guys are efficient. It was probably the best money I have ever spent aside from Global Entry – look it up, it will change traveling forever. The movers had our house cleared in under an hour and everything was efficiently tucked away in the moving truck. Bill accompanied the movers to our storage unit so I could – you guessed it – continue packing. I never really realized how much stuff we had until we started this process. With everything we owned we had to ask ourselves, should we take this to Amsterdam, store it, sell it or donate it. It was exhausting. And just when you think you have gone through absolutely everything, you discover a random drawer you forgot to clear out or find that the closet you thought was empty actually has a few more things left in it. Poor Bill probably made 5 trips to Southlake to take stuff to the storage unit. Good thing he loves me.

Anyway, once the movers took everything out of the house life got a lot less stressful from a packing perspective and we moved onto the errand and cleaning phase of our endeavor on Saturday. Another best money I ever spent moment was hiring a maid to clean the house. Natalia cleaned every surface, every drawer, everything. She even discovered more stuff hidden in cabinets we hadn’t checked leading to more storage unit runs for Bill. While she was busy cleaning, I tackled the errands. Returning the cable box, getting Euros, recycling old batteries found in the bottom drawer, so many things. At about 3 pm Saturday though I felt like I could breathe. We were basically done. Now all that was left to do was wait for Monday.

Then it arrived. The day of our departure. The day I have basically been anticipating for over a year. It was a little strange because I wasn’t really feeling nostalgic leaving. I had spent the majority of the last 10 years in Fort Worth but I didn’t really feel that sad leaving. I am not sure why exactly, maybe because I knew I would be back in 3 months for the holidays or that this move itself is only temporary. Regardless, the strongest emotion I was feeling was a sense of readiness. I was ready to get on the plane and go. And that we did. Poor Susan got wrangled into helping us get to the airport. We at first thought we didn’t need luggage carts. How wrong of a decision that was. After about 50 yards of serious struggle bus trying to make it to the terminal, I made us stop and told Bill to go get the carts. After that we looked less comical but we still had an obscene amount of luggage. I could sense people staring and thinking “wow how much stuff to you really need” mostly because I think this every time I see someone with huge stockpiles of luggage. I felt a little better when the couple in front of us also had bags on bags on bags. Turns out they were also moving to Europe. What are the odds.

Fast forward to the actual plane ride, I had attempted to surprise Bill by upgrading us to business class using miles. Bill checked his American App though 2 days before the flight and noticed we were in the front of the plane so my plan was foiled. It did not, however, dampen my flight experience. After a few glass of wine and a movie, it was off to sleep in our fancy lay flat seats and when we woke up we would be nearly to our new home.

So that’s it. That’s where we are now. In our temporary apartment, in our temporary city, ready to really start our adventure. Here we go! We will keep you posted!

Well here I am. Sitting on an airplane. Before you jump to any conclusions, I am not in fact on the plane to Amsterdam. I am instead on a flight to Chicago because I am a crazy person. The Jenny of 3 months ago thought it would be no big deal to travel 10 days before Bill and I move half way across the world. Well Jenny from 3 months ago, you were mistaken. Moving is in fact very stressful. Our house right now looks like a tornado went through it. There are boxes and bags and bubble wrap everywhere. I have a google sheet (because as an accountant even my personal life is documented in excel format) with a list about 50 items deep of things I need to do before moving thousands of miles away. Bill and I have a full schedule of lunches, happy hours, and dinners with various friends and family for one last goodbye. But yes, let’s get on an airplane and leave town for 5 days. Half of the trip is for a very good reason. A bachelorette party of a very dear TCU swimming friend. We are missing the wedding, one of drawbacks of moving abroad – missing milestones. There will be weddings, births, birthdays, etc. that we will miss. This is a milestone for Bill and I though. We are young and haven’t started nor are we ready to start a family just yet. So we have decided to delay adulthood 2 years and go on an adventure. Have passport will travel as they say.

I caught the travel bug early in life. I am so thankful Bill has the same passion to see the world as I do. As scary as it will be to leave everything we know behind, with Bill by my side I know I will be just fine. Hopefully even thriving. As we started pursuing our rotations many people asked me if I would write a blog. Let me say, I hate blogs. I mean, why does some random person think I should spend time reading their thoughts and opinions on things. Yet here I am. Writing my first entry of a blog. I ultimately decided that while people probably don’t care about what I have to say and I am hardly the authority on travel, I want to have my own personal record of my adventures over the next two years. If someone else wants to keep up with our travels they are more than welcome. Selfishly, I hope people read it. It means people are interested in what Bill and I are up to and haven’t forgotten us. Hopefully our loved ones will feel a little closer to us and feel like a part of our big adventure. I can’t promise, however, I will be very good at blogging. I have a tendency to be very factual – an accountant factual, shocking I know – which doesn’t lead to very riveting content. I solemnly swear I will do my best to throw in some humor with my facts.

So some facts, I knew I wanted to do an international rotation through EY basically since I first heard about it at one recruiting event or another. Of course there are hoops to jump through if this is something you want to pursue. First, you have to have been at the firm long enough to have a few years of top reviews. A good motivation to be good at my job. Next, you have to build a business case for going international. That was probably the hardest part of this whole thing. I was on Lockheed for 3 years but I knew I couldn’t build an international case around that. Even though they send planes all over the world, all of the audit work is done domestically. So when the opportunity to go the Fluor was presented to me I snatched it. I knew Fluor had international opportunities. This was my ticket abroad.

As I got closer and closer to actually applying for the program, the question was where would we want to call home. Where did I want to go and more importantly, where could I go that Bill could get a transfer with KPMG. Bill didn’t necessarily have a business case so we needed to focus on a city that had a large financial services market – Bill’s area of expertise. Conveniently, the two cities I could build a business case around were London and Amsterdam. We thought we wanted to go to London. I wanted to take the tube and go to high tea and the theater. Then I went to London for work. Several armpits in my face during the tube rush hour quickly put a lid on my romanticized view of London. So Amsterdam it was!

I spent a full year on the team before officially starting the process of applying for the Global Exchange Program (GEP) back in May of 2017. Yes you read that correctly. May of last year. It’s a little deceiving of EY. They send out this every year advertising the GEP like it’s something you can just apply for. Not the case. You have to get on the list to receive the application. While the application doesn’t come out until February each year, you have to get on the list almost a year before that. After some calls, I was on the list. Now all that was left to do was wait. And wait. And wait. Until February 2018 when the application became available. The problem was once I turned in the application I wouldn’t hear back on my acceptance until June. So I waited. And waited again. Then the day arrived. My acceptance came across my email one fateful morning in San Antonio teaching the youths of EY. After that is was off to the races. Less than 3 months to go global.

Prior to going abroad in July they bring the full EY GEP class to New Jersey (very exciting location) for an orientation. It’s a 2 – 3 day crash course before we ship out. While we were there, we met the majority of the group that would be starting in Amsterdam in the coming months. My starting group consisted of myself, two other girls (Jaclyn and Christy) and 2 gentlemen (Spencer and Ryan). I didn’t end up spending much time with the Amsterdam crew because we weren’t seated together – which in retrospect is dumb because you would think they would want us to get to know each other beforehand – but I am sure we would be spending a lot of time together through our rotation. Bill and I are arriving about a month before anyone else which is a bit nerve racking as we will get to be the test subjects for everything.

These 3 months have been a blur. We have listed the house, packed many many boxes, worked our last days and now we leave in 10 days. And I am on a plane. Not to Amsterdam. I’m crazy. Crazy or not it’s wheels up in 10 days because we have our passports, and it’s time to travel. I hope you enjoy the adventure with us!

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton