Welcome back and welcome to our newly designed website! Like so many people around the world, we’ve been “sheltered-in-place” for around 6 weeks now. We decided this was the perfect time to modernize our site and improve some content. We’re excited to get back to blogging, here’s some things that we’ve had going on.
The Virus & Living in Amsterdam
As many of you know, we relocated to the Netherlands back in November. Since we’ve arrived, we had several months to fall in love with the city before the global disaster hit. We became aware of the virus at the mid-February but we weren’t really concerned until early March. A beloved friend from the US came to visit, she left weeks before everything began to close down.
When they made the announcement, we were in the middle of our weekly D&D. We had less than 10 minutes warning before stores were told to close their doors. You could feel the confusion and worry lingering in the air. The next day the minister announced more laxed rules, stores with food can operate with restrictions on crowd sizes or to-go only. Coffeeshops and some stores could open as well, but hair salons, dog groomers, gyms, office spaces… all remain closed.
Quarantine & Stay-At-Home Orders
This means no King’s Day, no Pride Parade, weekly D&D sessions cancelled. This means thousands of local businesses, potential clients for our freshly opened business, have all closed their doors. Things will likely remain this way past June 1st. Today, they cancelled Oktoberfest. We’re finally seeing a tapering of infections and deaths after over a month of some of the highest infections in Europe. Honestly, travel restrictions will probably last longer than the June 1st deadline.
Amazingly, almost everyone in our neighborhood has been compliant. There’s still children playing in the park, people exercising or walking through the streets, but most people have adjusted and stay home. We’re all going stir crazy, the weather has been gorgeous so it makes it hard for anyone to stay inside. Instead, Dutchies bring their tables and chairs outside their doors, drinking wine in the sun and saying hello as people walk by. It’s not the perfect example of social distancing but it’s lovely to meet so many people. Music students that live up the street put on a little concert from their windows this weekend. Everyone is finding their own way of staying happy while we wait this out together.
Day In and Day Out
Despite the terrible state of things, we’ve found ways to enjoy our time at home. We’re lucky to have about a billion hobbies, wonderful neighbors, and a cute dog to keep us busy while we wait for the world to heal. Check out what we’ve been up to:
- New Boardgame: Thanks to free bike delivery from local game store, we began playing this fantastic map-building game called Carcassonne. You play by strategically placing map tiles to build castles and farmlands. The game is extremely easy, fun, and less time consuming than our other games. Based on the famed defensive building style of Carcassonne, France, we really enjoy building a new beautiful map each time we play. Definitely check out the River Expansion as well.
- Video game Favorites: We play more video games now than ever. With all this free time, we’ve taken time to enjoy some of our all-time favorites. Bethesda finally released the Wastelanders DLC for Fallout 76, it feels so good to have new quests again! The new NPCs and factions have helped revive our dying interest in the game. John has started so many old or new games it’s hard to list them all. He restarted Zelda: Breathe of the Wild, completed his pokedex in Pokemon Let’sGo, and slaughtered many questionably copyrighted foes in Knights of Pen & Paper. We’re checking the market daily for a discounted copy of Final Fantasy.
- Dungeons & Dragons: Although our weekly meet-up has been postponed indefinitely, we’ve still found ways of connecting with our D&D crew. Thanks to video chatting on Zoom and the screen-share program Miro, we’ve only missed one session this entire time. Our group is made up of three couples, making scheduling and technical planning a breeze. We’re lucky to play with players that seem to look forward to sessions as much as we do.
- Art Projects: I’ve always had some sort of art project going but self-isolation has kicked it into overdrive. I purchased my very first sewing machine after over 15 years of sewing by hand! It’s amazing and I cannot believe I waited this long to get one. The instructions are not in English so that alone kept me busy an entire day. I’ve already started creating, I’m making face masks for the neighbors, as well as a dress from a favorite painting. I’m also trying to learn watercolor painting; I bought the wrong paper so it’s only going okay.
In these difficult times, travel blogging has become one of the endless industries that’s stuck in limbo. Although we’re not able to travel, we’re still committed to providing entertainment during a time when entertainment is needed most. Stay tuned for updates, news, announcements, and more. We look forward to hearing for you, if you’re stuck at home, drop us a comment or message telling how you’re doing and how you’re enjoying your time!
