Cookies!

Where to start...

Kevin received his SoFi number last week. This is like a US Social Security number, you have to have one for tax purposes, banking, insurance & employment. Kevin wasn't able to get one until we had registered at the Town Hall (yes, you have to do that too) and the Town Hall acknowledged our marriage. Kevin's legality in The Netherlands is based on my Work Visa and my residency (hence the marriage tidbit). So...he finally received a SoFi number last Monday, what we thought was the last hurdle to his being able to work. Monday afternoon he sent his resume and cover letter off to about 6 International Schools in the area. Tuesday found him spending all day at the International School of Amsterdam (technically in Amstelveen). They are very sure that they can keep him busy subbing full time and started to apply a little pressure on him to apply for their full time Math Teacher position. Kevin really liked the school, teachers and students. We were very excited that he was finally going to be able to get out of the house and feel productive! On Wednesday he went back and dropped off all of the appropriate paper work; copies of his teaching license, proof of health insurance (a legal requirement in Holland), SoFi number and temporary residence permit). Later in the day the school emailed him back to let him know that he wasn't actually legal to work yet as the temporary residence permit says he can not work with out a work visa. Agghhhh! 

My little ongoing joke/bitterness has been "one more thing and 3 more weeks". Turns out he can't work until we get the letter from the Immigration office that says his residency has been approved. As soon as he has this letter he can work. It is supposed to come in the next couple of weeks (yea right, the last paperwork for it was submitted on Jan 8th). A few weeks after we receive the letter we will get another letter that tells when and where to pick up the actual residency cards. What a hassle!

While at the ISA Kevin had observed a Math teacher, who has since been recommending Kevin as a tutor to parents. So far he has one student who is he tutoring twice a week. He is really enjoying it!

Yesterday, Kevin had appointments at the International School of The Hague and the International School of Almere. Both school directors were positive about his opportunities and want him to get in touch with them as soon as he is legal. They both said that native English speaking teachers are in high demand and that he shouldn't have a problem finding work, either full time for the rest of this year or part time next year.

Yesterday I fell as I was walking off of the escalator in the "bike garage" of the train station. It was raining really hard outside and the end of the escalator was wet and my shoes didn't have a lot of traction. I took one step and went down. I hit my elbow on the rail and my handlebars landed on my head. I didn't fall off of the bike, I was standing next to it which is actually a little more embarrassing. I was stuck under my bike so one of the attendants had to come and help me up. Don't worry, the little guy wasn't touched in the whole thing...just my head, elbow and pride. 

Last week we had dinner at our friend's downstairs. I had commented that I couldn't wait for our friend Bill to arrive in a couple of weeks. He was bringing us a bunch of baby stuff, glue mouse traps (we seem to have an unwanted roommate who laughs at our mouse traps -- so I am getting serious and you can't get the glue traps here), chocolate chips & shortening (both of which you can't find here). Well, as we were leaving Brian & Courtenay's on Sunday night, Brian slipped me a package of chocolate chips...yea! I promised to bring him some cookies as soon as I made them. I have an America's Test Kitchen recipe that doesn't use shortening (which is good because I don't have any). ATK's chocolate chip cookies are by far the best I have ever made. Each cookies uses about a 1/4 cup of dough. The end result is a thick cookie that is moist in the middle (the butter is melted and cooled before mixing with the sugar) and firm on the outside.  I made a double batch as there are several people we want to share them with!

Before I could make the cookies I had to scavenge the town for cookie sheets that would fit in our oven. Our oven is the size of a microwave as it is also a microwave, conventional oven and convectional oven. My american cookie sheets don't even come close to fitting! The first store I tried was Hema. This is kind of like Target, but not nearly as big. We picked up some baby stuff, from the list of 'must haves', but didn't have any luck on the cookie sheets. We stopped by Blokker, which has most house stuff, no luck. On the way we tried the cooking/baking store near our house...they didn't have anything small enough. I hadn't tried here first as this store tends to be expensive and I didn't want to pay a fortune for 2 sheets. The clerk did recommend a store by Albert Cyup (a huge street market). Kevin was starting to get annoyed by this point but I had to give it one more shot. The store was the best cooking/baking store I have ever been in! It was huge, had everything you could possibly need. I think I am in love with the store..ooh and they even sharpen knives...this is good as my chef knife has gotten very dull. I can't wait to go back and peruse everything that they have!