European Vacation

We are taking our first trip outside of Holland this weekend, a last minute idea since Alex took his son, AJ, back to the US and we have his car to get around. Being in Holland allows you to travel fairly easily to other countries. Holland is only 16,000 sq miles roughly half the size of the state of South Carolina; Belgium & Germany are only a short drive away.

Our first trip will be to Bruges, Belgium. Sometimes referred to as the "Venice of the North" because of the role the canals play in the city center.

We'll post more when we get back from our trip on Sunday. If you want to check out Brugges while we are gone, here is a link to their tourism page (they have info in english).

The Market in Bruges

Snack Bar!

We went to the snack bar for the first time yesterday!! It is Holland's version of fast food, and I will say I think it is greasier then American fast food. The fries were DELICIOUS--however local custom is to dip them into peanut sauce and mayonnaise. I want to immerse myself in the culture, so I tried to eat my whole basket this way, but just couldn't do it. I needed ketchup or honey mustard!!!

I also liked the bami--which was a fried breaded pocket full of noodles. I know that sounds absolutely disgusting, but it was really good. I will take a pic next time I go to the snack bar!

A day at the office..

Yesterday I went to work with JR and Alex. Cambuur had a "friendly" with a Greek team last night in a town about 2 hours south, so I went to work with them so I could go to the game.

I helped organize their merchandise room and with a mailing..which brought me back to my days at K-Dub (I swore I would never participate in putting together another mailing back then!). The highlight of my day came at lunch...

On Tuesdays, the club provides lunch for everyone. A guy JR works with asked him what he wanted off the menu (which of course was in Dutch). JR responded by asking him what he was getting..he responded in Denglish (that's what I call Dutch people speaking English while infusing Dutch words for English words they do not know..). JR then replied by saying "that sounds good, I have that".

When lunch came, JR took out his sandwich and cringed. It was a celery slaw sandwich with cheese and pinapple :(   I was laughing so hard that I was crying and could not even look at him.  JR was a good sport and ate about half of it. I told him to be more like me and don't look at the menu and just say "ham sandwich please".  BTW..the Dutch put deviled eggs on their sandwiches. I LOVE LOVE LOVE deviled eggs, but I just couldn't eat it on a sandwich..let me know if any of you are brave enough to do this..

After work, we drove to the southern part of Holland for the game. It was very forest-like there, and was a nice change of scenery. The game ended in a 1-1 tie.

"Family"Fun!

Yesterday, our family in Holland (the Pama clan) had a bar-b-que. Here are pictures of Alex's son, neices, and nephew presenting us "welcome"cards. They were too cute! The food was great and we had a wonderful time.

Earlier in the day, Alex's brother in law let us borrow his Smart car! I have always wanted to ride in one, and it was roomier than I had imagined. JR and I drove to the beach, walked around, and went for lunch at a local restaurant. Luckily our waitress spoke English because the entire menu was in Dutch..We had a few of the menu items figured out, but needed a bit of help!

Random thoughts and observations

North Holland is VERY flat. I thought Florida was flat, but this place has it beat! There are not very many trees, just miles and miles of farm land between towns and villages. There are lots of cattle and sheep here, and you can only imagine the smells :(

It is summer here, but it is very cold compared to the US. I do not think it made it to 70 degrees yesterday! I was freezing, and definitely did not bring enough fall/winter clothes! Also, during the summer, it stays light so long! It is about 10:30 pm before it gets really dark outside! I have been told that the sun comes up around 4:30 am, but have luckily not experienced that yet!

It is also really quiet! In the US, you have a constant hum of crickets, birds, and other animals/insects, as well as cars. Most people have cars here, but don't drive them everywhere like we do.I guess they don't have the noisy bugs either! It is very peaceful and simple here.

Everyone rides their bikes everywhere! It is funny to see 80 year old people on bikes going to get groceries! However, it is great exercise and saves gas money!! (and gas) I am going to use Karen's bike as soon as I figure out how to pump up the tires. For now, I am walking places, which I am fine with.

Below is a picture I took walking into town to explore. Notice how narrow the streets are!  Also, a picture of a store front full of wooden shoes!

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Adventures at the JUMBO!

JR and I were both going through major jet-lag today. I slept until almost 11 am. JR woke up around 3:30 am, was up for awhile, then rested until about 7 am, then took a nap in the afternoon. It is crazy how your body senses that your sleep cycles are off!

Today's main goal was to get groceries. I went to the grocery in Den Helder yesterday with Fenny, and thought I was ready for the challenge. However, the grocery in Bolsward was very busy, and none of the products had both Dutch and English (in Den Helder, I noticed a lot of English on products). JR and I had to look like the most clueless people ever!

Our first item was to get deli meat. As you all know, I am really weird with meats, and did not want to end up with sliced rabbit or duck or something equally as gross. We looked at the packages forever, and finally decided on what we thought was turkey (after looking up the word in the dictionary it ended up being chicken-and we are okay with that). Selecting cheese took equally as long. Swiss was easy to pick out, so I thought we should go with that. However, JR is more picky, and ended up getting a "'young Belgian '' and it is delicious!

We wanted fresh fruit and veggies, but you had to weigh them, enter some code, and take them to check out. We decided it would be best not to try our hand at this, and purchased fruits already packaged! Everything else was okay. We just looked at pictures on the products to make a selection.

When we were checking out, the cashier did not speak English, which caused a funny scene. I think she was asking us if we wanted our receipt, but who knows! JR and I were like "English?" and she just looked at us funny and kept speaking Dutch!

Ahh the drama of the Jumbo supermarket!

On The Plane

We're here!

 The trip over look a bit longer then expected: 14 hours total of waiting in airports and in the air. When we arrived in Lexington, our flight was delayed to Detroit. The delay would have caused us to miss our connection to Amsterdam, so we were re-routed to Atlanta. However, in Atlanta, we had a 3 hour lay over! We spent the time power walking the terminal, eating McD's fries, and reading.

 We finally boarded our plane to Amsterdam around 11 pm. The plane was completely full, and JR and I sat in the second to last row. Shortly after take off, "dinner" was served. I was really confused on why I needed a 4th meal a little after midnight. JR explained that we would not eat again for about 5 hours, so I decided to eat.

 After being offered either a pasta or chicken dish, I went with the chicken (JR assured me it was the better choice). However, I think the chicken was more like mystery meat, so I ate my salad, grits, cheese, and roll. Of course there was dessert too- cookie brownie bars, yum!

  Once 4th meal had been discarded, I decided to sleep. I slept okay, but kept waking up because my legs were too long to fit under the seat below me nicely (next time we have to fly business or 1st class!!!). After about 4 hours of sleep, I woke up for the day. Shortly after, breakfast was served, I watched part of a Harry Potter movie, and we were on the ground in Amsterdam!

 Fenny Pama and A.J. picked us up and drove us to Den Helder. After a delicious meal, Fenny drove us to Bolsward, where we will be staying the next 6 weeks. Now it's late, and we are off to bed. Big day of exploring is set for tomorrow.