Well, I have finally arrived in this amazing freeking city! Last night, after 26 hours of travel (thank you aeroplan travel miles), I arrived at 47D Derde Hamersstraat, Oud-West, Amsterdam. I carefully followed the only map I had, a fuzzy, print off from google that I had tucked in my bag... let's just say it was an intuitive journey and I thank my sense of direction. I rang the buzzer. Lisa, our host was not there and my sister arrives tomorrow. The plan was to text Lisa upon my arrival at the airport but well, you know... things never go as planned. I'd better back track...

Location: somewhere in the air between Vancouver and Chigaco

Who: Emily's brain (Eb) and Emily's iphone (Ei)

What: a conversation

Eb: "Gee, I sure wish the passcode for my iphone was 9999, these passcodes are so stupid anyway... I'll change it."

Ei: "Sorry, your passcode can not be not be 4 repeated digits."

Eb: "Oh well, I'll change it back to my original code 1122."

Ei: "Sorry, you may not reuse a previously assigned passcode"

Eb: "Oh darn, oh well, I'll change it to another easy to remember number..."

Ei: "Passcode accepted"

Eb: "I'm tired, I better have a nap"

Perhaps you can see where this is going. If not, I'll tell you that my task today is to fully restore my iphone because I forgot the new passcode, post nap. I tried as many as possible with no success and in fact, I completly disabled my entire phone. It is unusable and the contents will be deleted upon restoration. Trip playlists, Contacts, Photographs, Applications (such as Catan and Rdio), Passwords to everything, Unposted Blog Posts... all gone. However, for every down there is an up... Apple Amterdam is a 10 minute walk from where I'm staying! Our host Lisa, provided me with a laptop and my fingers are crossed that I can get some of data back via iCloud. If not, I don't really care... at least I'll have wireless in my hand when its available. The show must go on...!

Lessons Learned (there's always a few of these):

-don't make important decisions when you are tired

-people (except those employed at the Chigago airport) are very helpful, you just have to ask... thank you business man at Chigao international, Angela for talking things through with me, Patrick at apple support, the lady beside me on the airplane to Chigaco, the couple on the street (Derde Helmersstraat)

-People in Germany don't smile very much

-I rely on my iPhone to be a filing cabinet for my weak semantic memory

-things will always work out... I keep learning this lesson over and over

My wonderful first evening in Amsterdam consisted of a glass of red wine, a duck salad, a thunderstorm and a pretty solid sleep (thanks to melatonin).

Looking forward to Sara's arrival in a couple hours... I am SO lucky!