Hallo From Holland!

I managed to find myself some internet connection here on the YWAM base in Amsterdam! And, after navigating around the blog site here (the words around the page are all in Dutch...it took me a while to find the button for 'New Post'...) I thought i should maybe put a wee hello from here up!
Here's something I wrote on Sunday night when we arrived here, but hadn't gotten the chance to type up till now:

Sunday 21st October 2007
The landing of our flight into Amsterdam airport confirmed at least 3 of my pre-existing stereotypes of Holland:

Canals
Flat-land
& Windmills

And these have only been confirmed more as we traveled in, although...Erin and I still have a competition going of who can spot someone wearing a genuine pair of clogs first!

We had a great journey getting here, no problems along the way at all...that is unless you count the confused looks we received when we arrived at the base here in Amsterdam. I thought my communication skills had gone awry, and I'd organised us to stay here a different week or something, until we all realised that there was a bit of a misunderstanding...Apparently, when i say the name "Erin" on the phone to our Indian host from the base, he hears the name "Aaron" and prepares a room for two guys! Ahh, the joys of a cosmopolitan environment!

After an initial misunderstanding, Erin and I were blessed with a sporadic meal from our new friends, and then shown to our freshly prepared (and be assured SEPARATE!) rooms. Then we headed out to explore a bit of the city, walking around for a few hours just getting a taste of what the flavour of the city was.

On this little adventure I bought a phrase book after realising that the only Dutch I knew was:

"I'm sorry, I don't know Dutch"

(and I'm not sure I was even saying THIS right!)
So, now I'm armed with a phrasebook, and about to set about to a quick lesson before tomorrow. However, a quick flick through has alerted me to a few essential phrases one MUST know to survive in Holland...including:

"Voor wie is de erwtensoep?"

Apparently, "Who's the pea soup for?" is a pretty commonplace dilema faced by the waiters of Amsterdamm.. You can however be assured that when I hear this statement across the restaurant tomorrow lunchtime, I will be jumping to my feet shouting: "I ordered that pea soup! It's for me!" If only i could figure out how to say it in Dutch...

The conference is beginning tomorrow evening, so work will start then, but as for now, we're going to take the morning to explore the city again, and maybe trying to make it to Anne Franks house, so we'll see what unfolds!
Blessings from Amsterdam!
Good Night (or "Godenacht"...)


So that was the other night! I realise this has gone pretty long, so I'll just bring you up to date quickly... Yesterday was a good day of exploring, Anne Franks house was both expensive and had a VERY long queue, so we forwent it, but may return on Thursday... Then, we spent the afternoon meeting a Dutch girl called Margreet (I'm pretty sure I just butchered the spelling of that name...feel free to comment below and correct me!) who did the first DTS that Erin staffed in Belfast. So that was a nice afternoon of catching up, and being introduced to some traditional Dutch delicacies!
The conference then began last night, and it's been going well. It's a little intimidating if I'm going to be honest...I'm sitting here around a table with guys who have been in YWAM for over 30 years, and here I am two months in... But, i'm catching a bit of the vision of YWAM worldwide, and trying to find a voice for myself here and see what I have to offer in this group.

So, that'll do us for now I think... We're about to head out in half an hour for the night with the people on the conference, so that'll be good to get to know each other a bit more informally and share in that environment.
Hope things are well wherever you find yourselves reading this!