We had just returned back home from an afternoon at the market to find an anonymous jazz marching band coming up our street. No idea who they were, where they were going, what (if anything) they were celebrating, but on a warm, sunny Saturday afternoon… who cares?

Between outdoor markets, pub patios in the sun, and random marching bands, it’s been a pretty stellar day so far, and it’s just past 4:00 in the afternoon. I wonder what the rest of the day holds?

Items for sale in haphazard stacks and piles, yet everyone who was there shopping seemed to know exactly where to go and what to look for. People seemed to know that they could “part the sea” and find exactly what it was that they wanted.

Today was also a bit damp, which is why Shannie only spent 10 minutes out at the market, instead of the much longer walk she had originally planned.

Shannie also, through the course of the day, managed to figure out and solve the problem we had in our temp apartment with it always being REALLY STINKIN’ COLD, and why we could feel the wind blowing IN our living room.

I hope the people who own this place don’t mind that we used their placemats to plug the fully 1″ wide gap in the window. Replacing placemats is probably cheaper than the heating bill being jacked up by essentially having no windows.

As was mentioned, it was my first day at work today. I don’t have any photos of the office (yet), which is fine since we’re apparently all moving in a couple of weeks anyways. Seems like a really good group of people to work with, and do we EVER have our work cut out for us over the next little while. Kinda wish I’d been here a month ago to start working on some of this stuff.

Shannie tells me that many of “her people” have been asking exactly what the heck it is that I DO for a living that brought us here in the first place. Long story short, I’m a computer nerd. When you go to a web page on the internet that lets you do all sorts of fun things, that’s what I do. I make things on the internet work. Other people make pretty pictures, I make them functional. The company I was working for in Calgary partnered with a company here to work on a number of advertising campaigns for a small athletic apparel interest headquartered in Amsterdam that you may or may not be familiar with.

Apartment update: We got word back today that we are indeed getting the first place we looked at last Wednesday (Apartment #8, for those of you keeping score at home). Requisite paperwork has been delivered, and we should be moving in on Friday. Anyone in Amsterdam that wants to come and help us haul boxes for 4 blocks just might be rewarded with beer.

Today was market day. Right around noon we put our walkin’ pants on and saddled up for a hike down to the Albert Cuyp markt, a large (4 blocks long, at least) open-air daily market in the De Pijp district of Amsterdam. Google Maps puts it at a 3.4 km, 41 minute walk from our place, through what is quickly becoming very familiar territory to both of us. Today also included the first real steady drizzling rain that we’ve seen since we arrived, which seems to be pretty standard weather here for most of the winter/spring seasons — those of you from cities such as Vancouver and Seattle will be well familiar with this. Shannie felt that the rain actually made her grow. She’s still just as short as ever, though.

Plenty of new sights, sounds, and smells at the market. Not only were there mannequins for Shannie to pose beside, but also stacks of severed fish heads for sale and even a couple of bike shops. Much of it was typical Farmers Market-esque fare (lots of fresh vegetables, baked goods, crafty knick-knacks), but there were also some things we didn’t expect to see, such as drug stores and lingerie shops.

Shannie, being much more the open-air-market connosieur than I am, felt that it had a good “vibe” about it, and that the general bustle about the market showed that the locals knew exactly where their regular stops were, and the tourists were able to walk the entire strip and take it all in. A good mix of cultures, both local and foreigners (like us!).