Wednesday, November 19, 2008

An American in Europe at the Holidays

As many of you know, Eric and I have access to a commissary. It is conveniently located only about 1.5 hours away from our house (okay, so I am using my New Mexico definition of convenient location). There we can almost pretend that we are not in a foreign country. We can buy the tastes of home - like canned pumpkin. Strangely, lots of pumpkin are grown here. You can even buy them at the grocery, but only fresh.

Now, maybe I haven't explained that the Dutch prepare a bunch of things up front. The luncheon meat is presliced and packaged when you arrive (no asking for special thickness or amounts). The vegetable mix for the stir fry is cut to the right size -- except the hot pepper that they let you cut for your taste -- or potatoes that are right for boiling or frying are pealed and appropriately cut or sliced. There are soup mixes of veggies that are preselected and cut for you. They also have bagged salads of various sorts. The meat comes pre-seasoned and ready to be cooked. In fact, it took me a while to find raw ingredients that were not pre-packaged and sliced, so that I could cook in my own way.

That said, their canned goods seem limited to the exotic (coconut milk, green curry paste, bamboo shoots, etc.), the pickled, and the fruit varieties. They do have some canned veggies, but they look dusty on the shelves where I shop. Most people get either fresh or frozen. They don't have canned pumpkin.

In fact, the reason I started with the commissary in this post is that we are likely to have at least one more trip down there for 1) cheap(er) frozen meats (okay, more like poultry, knowing me) in bulk, 2) canned foods: tomatoes, pumpkin, chicken broth and possibly treats for the cat, chocolate chips,...

Friday, November 14, 2008

what do you do with a visitor

My friend Carolynn is visiting. So, between naps, we have managed to wander through Den Bosch, visit the local windmill, and go to Uden.

So, I am sure we could have gone to Amsterdam. We could have gone to Eindhoven.

We could have taken a canal tour or seen museums.

Instead, we visit and drink tea.

I promise not to trap you in the baby centered world if you visit...but it is my lowest energy point.

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In other news, I see a lot of horses around here. I have been wondering what type of horse I am. I am not a Clydesdale,nor Belgian. I am clearly not a quarter horse, since my legs are not the right length. I guess, I am looking for suggestions as to what kind of horse I could be (please, I am not a pony).

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

The Joy of Sippy Cup

It was a drastic wake-up call today when I emptied Eileen's sippy cup of milk yet again. It tasted bad yet again. Turns out that it wasn't the milk; I have a dippy-sippy-cup. The liquid restraining device that keeps the upended cup from creating a Jackson Pollack of grape juice or other beverage on the floor is almost completely uncleanable. I boiled it was vinegar and will reserve that cup for only water from now on....Happily I have a different cup that had water in it, but is easier to clean. It has now graduated to being her milk cup.

Meanwhile, if the pickings get meager on this blog for a couple of weeks, I beg forgiveness. My friend Carolynn from White Rock NM is coming for a couple of days on Thursday. Following her visit, we will be packing for our own upcoming US adventure. Eileen and I leave a week from this coming Sunday for the US. We are getting to see the Balkin family, the Hirsch family (although I might be missing one or two cousins and of course my brother, his wife, and Eileen's cousin Isaac). Then we fly off to Boise to see Eileen's sister, Tia, Grandma Joanne, Aunt Sandy and Uncle Dax, and cousins Cortni, Carissa, and Camden. We will miss the rest of the Jacksons, but recognize how far flung they are.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Choices

My ex-husband, Anders, always talked about how many choices you had in American restaurants. Do you want a salad? What type of dressing? You get a choice of side... And, he is right, in Europe, you order your meal and it comes as it comes. Sometimes exactly as described, sometimes with a small salad or other side dish, but you certainly are not asked if you want it. He used to complain that there are really too many choices in America.

I have begun to believe that Europeans make up for those choices in their appliance options. I think our microwave has more than eight modes to it, for example, and that doesn't count just manually lowering the power output on it. Our washer dial makes roulette look simple. I think that there are about 16 choices there, different temperatures, etc. and again, that doesn't count an extra rinse or a pre-wash cycle or the ability to change the rate of the spin cycle. For reference, our top end washer that is in storage back home had about eight settings -- as I recall.

The funniest bit of all this, is that every European I have met swears by how wonderful their appliances are (our washer does get clothes really clean during its two hour cycles), but most of them talk about only using one setting. So, for most of my European friends, these are faux options anyway.

Ah well...just a strange observation!

Thursday, November 6, 2008

A Bike Seat for Eileen

Yesterday I used the local equivalent of Craig's List (http://Marktplaats.nl) and my meager Dutch to purchase a used bike seat for Eileen to use on the front of the bike. Now, as soon as we have a helmet that doesn't fall from her head, she and I will look even more Dutch than we did before.

Today I have the bike seat. Sold by a woman less than 5 km from my house for less than half the price of a new seat. This is hardly used. I promise to add a picture to this post in the not too distant future.

She even was kind enough to speak English to me when I sent an e-mail explaining that I spoke virtually no Dutch. I am so proud of actually managing to function in society (sort of).

Monday, November 3, 2008

The Phone Company

We have voicemail that comes with our home phone. Not surprisingly, we haven't been able to access it due to the fact that we don't speak Dutch, and it doesn't speak anything else.

The phone company was only recently (in the last 5 years) made to cede its monopoly status. But, we use the national company anyway, much like we might have used AT&T in the States.

Like AT&T, KPN (as it is known) has a cell phone component, complete with cell phone stores. I spent Saturday night searching web sites trying to find out how to set up our voicemail and was surprised to discover a set of key strokes for setting up the cell phone mailbox that turned the instructions to English. Didn't work for the home phone.

Dutifully, Monday Eileen and I trekked over to the KPN mobile store to ask for help with our voicemail. A kind young employee told me that of course there was no English for the voicemail on our home phone - KPN is the national Netherlands phone company. When I pointed out that there as on the cell phone, he responded that home phone is a utility.

Funny distinction, since the instructions and everything else should be the same - isn't voicemail voicemail?

When I called Eric to report my findings, he said that it would be much the same in a Verizon store if we wanted the instructions in Hungarian. I pointed out that Spanish was the English equivalent in the States (second most prevalent language, necessary for at least some business, etc.) and that in fact, most phone companies published a handy guide in Spanish.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

The difference between be a European Tourist and Living Here

I think that Eric and I came to the Netherlands with some preconceived notions. It is time to admit them. I will admit Eric's first, because it is both funnier to me and of course not my own notion. Eric was surprised at the number of tall, old trees here. I know that part of this came from the idea that the Europeans deforested their continent to build and to keep warm in their past, part comes from how densely populated at least the Netherlands are, and part of it comes from how often wars have been fought in this area in the recent past. Anyway, we got here and he was surprised to be driving through old growth forest not far from our bed and breakfast.

My preconceived notions stem from having come to Europe as a tourist who was staying with family when married before. It felt like I wasn't a tourist, because I was in their homes. It turns out that Europeans, like people everywhere, spend their weekends catching up on laundry, mowing the yard, cleaning the gutters, working on the car. Most do not spend every free waking moment traveling to distant cities to see the sights. I know, you guys are all shocked that I am not jetting off to Barcelona this week, Paris next, and sticking closer to home in Luxembourg the week after. Instead, we might get as far as Amsterdam or Den Bosch...and we might have clean laundry.

Other preconceived notions that have bit the dust: Europeans are more concerned about energy efficiency than their American counterparts; that a VW Beetle or other small car cannot haul a huge camper or horse trailer with a horse; that riding a horse means that your feet cannot touch the ground (they have some tiny horses here).

When we have Halloween photos, I promise to post them.