Six months

On Sunday, July 10, Marlon and I celebrated our first six months in Amsterdam.

Update: I just remembered a few months before we left Singapore, when we were agonizing over whether to move or not, give up the bigger (joint) income or not, and basically freaking out all the bloody time. We couldn’t talk about anything else for weeks. Finally one afternoon in the pool (pool! I miss swimming!), Marlon said, “You know what, six months from now, we’ll be in Amsterdam laughing about this and wondering what took us so long to decide.”

Well we are now at that six-month point. And what do you know… we are laughing. No regrets.

We used to ignore our Singapore anniversaries (left before I hit my third), but as you can probably tell, things are different here. We slept in on Sunday morning and spent a long time cuddling drowsily on the daybed. Though it sounds normal, it’s actually rare for us to do that on a weekend, so the day started off feeling pretty special.

Then, a huge milestone for me: I went out on my bike. We brought our bikes to Haarlem one weekend and spent some time cycling along the canals. But Amsterdam, with all its traffic (pedestrians, bikes, scooters, cars), is a different animal. Since my goal is to bike by myself regularly, I thought becoming familiar with the route to a place that I actually frequent would be a good start. So with Marlon as my guide (and hawiboy, haha), we biked to the Albert Cuypmarkt.

Intersections are the bane of my beginner’s existence. I’m completely atrocious at starting up again after a stop, so I veered and wobbled into quite a few cars’ path, and probably left quite a few bikers behind me rolling their eyes. One particularly tricky intersection where the bike lane disappeared completely shredded my nerves, and I took to wheeling my bike across the pedestrian lane on several occasions.
The market was closed when we got there, but… I got there! Woohoo! So we took to a bench in the Sarphatipark to calm my frayed nerves, celebrated with some excellent lemon cheesecake ice cream from Het Ijspaleis, and I resolved to keep at it until both my biking skills and confidence improve.

It was only on my bike ride home that I noticed that I had been wearing a tight frown and chewing on my lip all throughout. I made a conscious effort to iron out my features (like my flamenco teacher used to insist we do). And looking calm and collected—even happy—was easy, because the ride home was much, much better. Marlon led me down a different route with fewer intersections and less traffic, and I had a much easier time of it.
On the way home, my big loving bear of a husband bought me yellow roses to celebrate. Yes, arriving home in one piece, insurance intact, deserves flowers. He also pulled a first by biking home one-handed, with a bouquet of flowers in one arm. So very Dutch! Now all he needs to do is mount a baby between his handlebars and start texting with the other hand, and he’ll be a full-blown Amsterdammer.

In the evening we got all dressed up for dinner at Lucius, a seafood restaurant in the city center. And no, we didn’t bike there. But I look forward to hopefully, someday, becoming one of the legions of Dutch superwomen who get dolled up in heels and a dress and think nothing of biking to dinner.



Just as I look forward to more adventures in Amsterdam with my one and only partner in crime. Happy six months to us, Amsterdam. Let’s make the remaining (at least) 4.5 years count.

10 Comments
Posted on July 12, 2011
Category: Life in Amsterdam · Labels: , , ,
  • sandseasky

    Grabe 6 months na. How time flies! Congrats on the street biking. I know the feeling of getting down and just walking through the busy intersections lol!

  • cris

    I love reading your blog. It's as if I moved to SG (then) and Amsterdam too! :)

  • Jason

    Like!

  • Katrina

    Seconding Cris!

  • redfirepixie

    reading your blog always makes me feel two things:
    1. inggiiit! na may halong paglalaway (sa foodie photos)/wanderlust (you know how much i love your life, with the food and travel and so much time to do all these things AND tell the tales, not to mention THE partner in crime to do them with/to/for); and
    2. i miss you!!! la lang ;p

  • Deepa

    Haha, kanya-kanya lang yan. I know I would LOVE to be skinny and have a job… like you! Miss you too Tata. Sana you can visit me here!

  • toni

    I love reading your Amsterdam stories! More, more! Happy homey anniversary :D

  • thediplomaticwife

    Hahaha! Siguro ganun talaga pag pinoy ka. Kasi inis na inis na ako sa mga beach dito sa Bali. apat na beses na kaming pumunta. Isang beses palang ako lumangoy at hindi ko na uulitin. Mas-maganda naman sa buhangin diyan pero ang sakit talaga pag-tapakan, at hindi ligtas languyan ang tubig sa sobrang lakas ng riptide. Bilib na bilib ako na nakakakuha sila ng sampung milyon bisita sa isang taon sa isang isla lamang. Habang tayo sa ganda ng mga isla natin, tatlong milyon lamang. Hay. Underrated talaga tayo. Sobrang namimiss ko na mag-beach. Masarap mag-Bali pero para sa akin wala talagang beach doon. Natuwa ako nung nabasa ko (hindi para sayo siyempre) kasi naramdaman ko na may kadamay ako. Thanks for writing this post!

    P.S. sorry for the super crappy tagalog. please don't judge me. I'm from mindanao. hehe

  • thediplomaticwife

    Just to make sure there is no misunderstanding, I am in awe of the culture, the restaurants and hotels in Bali. Pero hindi ko talaga siya maisip na isa siyang beach. So in terms of the beach bum in me… bigo rin ako. =(

  • Deepa

    DW *clap clap clap* Your Tagalog is much better than Marlon's and he grew up in Manila!