Amsterdam Expat Blogger Meet Up 1.0

Last night, I went to the first Amsterdam Expat Blogger Meet up. I met a bunch of expat bloggers who live in and around Amsterdam. It’s funny to me to get together with a bunch of people who I know from doing a very solitary activity - the blogging thing that we all insist on doing. Most people I meet in life don’t come with a whole blog laying out what happened to them in the last year or four. I generally don’t know anything about people when I first meet them. Maybe I’ve got some general brush strokes or an interesting tidbit, but people are generally fairly blank (or vaguely painted) canvases to me when I’m meeting them for the first time. Not so with this meeting of bloggers.

Some surprises, some people were exactly how I expected them to be. One of the participants was an ex-co-worker from my first job in the Netherlands. It was sort of a sprawling crowd in a strange space (an L-shaped table). However, it was probably the best and only place we could have sat in the bar. (Thank you, Hanny and Jason for snagging it.)

It was really just a lot of sitting and talking, which is exactly what the doctor ordered. There were a few ‘plus ones.’ (Fred was out of town, but for the record would not have gone.) There were two other Texans (making a total of three with me - and all of us from the D/FW area. This is one short of the legal limit to the number of Texans who can congregate in the city of Amsterdam.) We also had one guy at the end of our table who we did not know. Everyone would ask him, “So what’s the name of your blog?” And he would answer, “I don’t have a blog. This is just my usual seat.” He was a 34-year-old British guy who had braces and was a little concerned about hair loss. I just smiled and said, “Develop your personality.” He could talk easily in that guys who hang out alone in bars talk easily.

It was so amazingly loud in that bar. I was talking to Steph and John and I couldn’t always understand everything they were saying. They were talking  loud enough, but there was so much white noise that bits of words or the ends of sentences were sometimes inaudible. As a native speaker, I am able to put it all together and hold a conversation. That’s what I can’t do in Dutch. I wouldn’t even try that in Dutch. Give me a noisy room like that in a Dutch crowd and I will sit and smile for a long time, but I won’t participate that much. It’s still really difficult.

The photo above was swiped from Anita’s blog. (Thanks, Anita.) Pictured from left to right are Angela, Steph, our new British friend, me and Pat. My camera is not cooperating, so I left it at home. If your curious about other bloggers’ accounts of the evening - or to see photos - click on some of the links below. There are also a lot of other examples of how expat blogging is ‘done.’

This is a list of who was there last night. It was lifted from Amanda’s blog - and slightly modified. Thanks, Amanda.

• Angela from Amsterdamned
• John from John Does Amsterdam
• Haley from Texaantje
• Anita from Greetings from Holland
• Hannah from Jandals
• Jason from Hanson World
• Amanda from Amanda Blog and Kiss
• Lizzy from Lizzy Goes Dutch (also Texan)
  
• Pat from Byfurcated Carrots
• Steph from Abacus and Quill
• and of course me.

Amanda and John organized the evening. (Thanks, guys.) It was just going to be a few people and it turned out to be quite a crowd. I suggested a pot luck for next time. It’s so nice to have people smile and know exactly what I mean when I say ‘pot luck.’ I think they call that an American dinner here - or something else that makes me roll my eyes. They way they say ‘American dinner,’ it sounds cheap, like “I’m not providing food, but you’re all welcome to come for dinner.” I prefer pot luck - although I know the importance of organizing a pot luck so you don’t get five no-bake cheesecakes.

I love stuff liket his. I heard that I sounded a little ‘not into it,’ but it was a lot of fun. It was a completely different Friday night than I’ve had in a long long time.