The night before last, we ran through a hail storm, as lightning brought thunder. We had been celebrating: Shannon has a job interview tomorrow with Boom Chicago, an English language comedy dinner-theatre. She had been worried that her lack of Dutch would be a major employment obstacle.

During our celebrations we met an interior designer from Kenya. He analyzed our handwriting, and mystified us with his insights into our personalities, and our relationship. Then he mentioned that he had blood ties to Dracula. Blood ties, eh? Exit stage left.

My job search continues. I've submitted my C.V. to the various English language temp/employment agencies, as well as directly to a few programming firms. I've also started a computer repair/troubleshooting business, but have yet to see my first customer.

This past weekend, we had a night on the town with the parental units, sister, and her boyfriend. Our evening began with a boat ride on the canals, followed by Chinese food on the edge of the Red Light district. Later we watched a movie in an amazing Art-Deco theatre. (In how many movie theatres have you had the urge to photograph your surroundings?). Some beers rounded off the night.

Of note: My cousin Jane has started her own blog. She writes well. Explore.

On Dec 16th we flew from Prague to Amsterdam. After spending a few days in Holland, we took a train to the Black Forest (famous for their ham and cake). In Germany we saw snow, and streets lined with houses. The first, we hadn't seen since last winter, the second since the fall, (European cities tend to be peopled by apartment dwellers.) We spent Christmas and New Yea's Eve in the Black Forest along with my sister's boyfriend, his family and my parents.

On New Year's Eve we set off a large number of fireworks. These were not your standard off-the-shelf North American fireworks. Although there were some Roman Candles amongst our explosives, we were also able to acquire many large payload rockets, (i.e. the kind of fireworks I normally associate with government sponsored Canada Day festivities.) Much to my delight, firecrackers are also legal in Germany. Boom boom snap boom.

We returned to A'dam on the 1st to continue our work-abroad bureaucratic paper trail. To start, we registered with the Alien Police. This took two days as they didn't accept credit cards and the 25 euro processing fee caught us by surprise. Once the appropriate forms were filled out, and the processing fee paid, we were each issued a 6 month residency permit. Next, we made an appointment to obtain our SOFI (tax) number. We had our appointment today, and all went well. After we were issued our numbers, we were told to report our address to the Public Registrar's office at City Hall. There we were given a form our landlord (aka my sister) needs to complete, which in turn must be taken to the Alien Police. Round and round we go.

A quick note on Dutch toilets: In the place of the toilet bowl there is a concave shelf, holding less than one inch of water. This is the "inspection shelf." The flushing mechanism also leaves much to be desired.

If you want a glimpse of the city we currently call home, watch Ocean's 12. (Ignore the meandering plot.)