Thrills Are Cheap

Thrills can be rather cheap in my world - or in this case approximately 31 Euros.  I FINALLY, after 3 1/2 agonizing months, with 3 trips to the RDW, 1 trip to the automotive shop and 1 trip to Wittebrug Audi, got Audrey all registered and my license plate on my car!  For those of you whole follow my blog, you will remember my late night craft session when I had to make my own license plate, or so I thought.  Well it turns out that I could drive on my Alberta license plate and I found out yesterday that I could in fact drive with it for up to 6 months! Who knew. . .

Audrey with her new "bling" 

I had a great trip back to Canada but I have to say that it was nice to come home and sleep in my own bed again and have all of my "stuff" and to just be home.  My friend Heidi who is an expat in Dubai, had posted something on her Facebook about what expats bring back after a trip Home.  In my case, my list was pretty simple:  bacon, they don't have a lot of good bacon here, or rather the type of bacon I like, Top Dogs (hot dogs) - I am a firm believer that hot dogs should not come in a can.  Plus - they were on sale for $2.50 at Superstore so I bought 4 packages as that was a steal!  I also brought back shredded cheddar cheese - yes, I am lazy and although there is a  lot of cheese here, it can be difficult to find cheddar.  I haven't been able to be able to find any Frank's Hot Sauce, so I bought a couple of bottles at Costco, as well as a few boxes of Triscuits and some Premium Plus Crackers (saltines) to go with my Campbell's Tomato soup which I have a healthy stockpile of.  I also brought back some wooden hangers - I am quite particular about the type I use and of course 6 new pair of shoes :-).

With the bacon, hot dogs and cheese, I was taking my chances, as technically you aren't able to bring these back into the country.  Fortunately for me, Schipol was a shit show when I landed with 1000s of people in the baggage claim area, so they pretty much just let everyone through customs and didn't ask any questions.  Score 1 for me and my bacon!  LOL!  If you are wondering how I got all of this home, well I bought one of those large duffel bags from MEC and loaded it up.  I already had one but I had forgot to pack it so I ended up buying a new one.  I figured that the guys at customs would just think it was part of my regular luggage.  In my past life of living up in Old Crow, I used to pack my groceries in rubbermaid containers and bring it on the plane, but I figured that 1) it would draw WAY TOO MUCH attention and 2) I couldn't see me lugging it home on the train and the tram!  So duffle bag it was.  As for my bacon, hotdogs and cheese, I froze them first and then packed them in my suitcase amongst my stuff to try and keep it cold (didn't work).

It is hard to believe that I have 7 1/2 months already!  Where has the time gone as it feels like I hardly even know this place yet?  I know - it is the 3 trips to Asia so far that have seemed to have sucked up my time!  LOL!  Speaking of which, I am only home for about a week and a half and then I am back to Asia again for 3 weeks (China, Malaysia and Brunei this time).  Then I am home for a week and then my friend Janet and I are going to Honduras for a week for a diving holiday.  So I guess that is where the time is going. . .globetrotting!  LOL!  Don't get me wrong - I am not complaining but before I know it, it will be Christmas!

Is that grass back there?

Well the day has come that all of my neighbours have been anxiously waiting for - I finally mowed my lawn!  The thing about living here is that we all live in these really old, brick row houses and while each unit is generally separated by fences and you can't really see laterally into your neighbours yard, you can definitely see into your neighbours yard from your first floor (which to us Canadians is really the 2nd floor but they call 1st floor the ground floor or 0 - don't get me started!) So needless to say, I am pretty sure that all of my neighbours have been wondering when the hell I was going to finally mow my lawn!  My one neighbour, Martin, who I literally bumped into in the kitchen in our office in Beijing, 2 weeks ago - weird, popped his head out of the 2nd floor/1st floor window and made a comment :-)

It is hard to believe that a little patch of grass this small, can produce 2 1/2 bags of lawn clippings.  Mind you, when it is already June 10 and you haven't mowed the lawn once yet this season and it has rained a lot and the grass is up to your mid-calf, then I guess you would expect as much!  LOL!

Seriously though, it took me a good 45 minutes to mow my lawn and you will see, it is not that big!  My landlord left me with a little gutless wonder of an electric lawnmower.  Seriously, this thing has no juice whatsoever and I wish that I would have brought over my nice gas mower with me - something with some power!  And what had been holding me up mowing my lawn was that I needed an extension cord, or a "garden cord" as the guy at the hardware store called it.  I was finally able to buy one this weekend and today was the magical day of use!

No my grass isn't dead, but I think it was being choked out by this fern-type of thing growing it it and that is what was giving me this false sense of pride that I had green lawn.  After mowing it 3 times, yes 3 times, I noticed that it picked up all the nice green and I am now left with brown.  Nice.  So it looks like I will be finding the garden centre and picking up some fertilizer and giving it a little boost!  Yah, lawn maintenance isn't exactly my thing.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE a green lawn, but I want it to just happen.

I am also going to hire a gardener and come in and figure out what is what in my flower beds and hopefully get me all organized when it comes to that.  I can't see myself planting much this year, because I said it is already June 10 and I don't even know where the garden centre is!  And knowing this country, it is definitely not open past 5:30pm on a weeknight!

So the upside of all of this is that I actually have a back garden and a nice area to sit.

Oh by the way, yah, I am finally back in The Hague for more than 2 days so I should be back to my ol' bloggin' ways!

I Live Here Now

As I think most of you know, I am currently back in North America on a little vacay.  Prior to moving to The Hague,  I hadn't completed my annual pilgrimage down to Palm Springs and a very dear friend is getting married in Calgary next weekend and I could not miss her wedding, so I decided to combine the two into a nice little Easter holiday - killing two birds with one stone, so to speak.

I had a bit of a moment on Friday, at the airport as I was leaving.  Just like everyone else, I had to go through passport control, so I handed over my passport and watched as the agent flipped through it and just as she was about to land her stamp on a blank page, I said "I am a resident", as I realized that she hadn't seen my visa.  She nicely asked for my residents card - which I don't have - see previous entry but I pointed out my visa, which she then stamped and I was on my way.  That was the first time that I think I said to anyone, I live here.

Now add to that, when I go into Canada on Friday, I have to check off the little box that says visitor and to be honest, that one is going to hard.  I get teary just thinking about it.  It is weird to think that I am going to be a visitor in my own country.  A country that I so proudly hold a passport for and a country that I will forever proudly call Home with a capitol H.  But, I am no longer a resident, so that makes me a visitor.  Good thing though, my Nexus card still works :-) and I can still avoid all of those line-ups that I hate!

For this trip I still used my Canadian address for everything because my credit cards are still tagged to that address, I haven't traded in my drivers license yet (on the To-Do list when I get back) and it is just easier that trying to spell out Bezuidenhoutsweg 65-130 (my current address) every time I rent something or check-in.

I am also using this trip to stock up on those things that either I can't get in The Netherlands, or I know I can get cheaper here - like ice cube trays.   The Dutch aren't big fans of ice cubes, and none of the freezers I have looked in have ice cubes or ice cube trays, so I bought some.  I also bought some dental floss - the thread that they have there, well it ain't dental floss in my books.  I also bought some toilet cleaner - I know, odd purchase but I really like the Method toilet bowl cleaner, so I bought a couple of bottles.  Let's put it this way, me and Target have been good friends on this trip and I packed an extra-large MEC duffel bag so I could load it up with stuff to bring home.  Now in my defence, I have also agreed to pick up a new winter jacket in Calgary for my friend Lindsey and that will take up a fair bit of space in my bag.  Thankfully I have a 3 bag  baggage allowance so I can cart all of my "stuff" home. I also bought a really nice 10 piece set of All-Clad pots and pans, as I Goodwilled all of my pots before I left and if I want to feed my mom, I am going to need some pots.   At least the pots are in a nice sturdy and albeit large box.

It's true what they say, Home is where the heart is, but home is where also where I live now.

It Ain't Cottonelle

This installment of my blog is dedicated to those things have just made me go "huh?" or wonder "WTH?"  or just shake my head.

Good ol' TP.  Now in the past, my friends have mocked me when I load up on Cottonelle when it is on sale dirt cheap at Superstore, but I can tell you, I am so looking forward to my shipment arriving because I want my Cottonelle.  I figure that I probably have a good 6 month stock in there!  Now don't get me wrong, Dutch TP is okay but is just isn't as good as what we have in Canada.  And the rolls are a lot smaller and you can only buy small packages like this one below.

It ain't Cottonelle!

Looks like yogurt to me!

Now another thing that has completely perplexed me is Kwark or in North American they spell it Quark.  To me, it takes just like yogurt and has the consistency of a thicker yogurt but it isn't yogurt.  According to the internet (because everything is true on there) it is more like cottage cheese or cream cheese but if you ask me, it is yogurt.   And there is also a way GREATER selection of Kwark in the grocery store than there is of yogurt, so Kwark it is going to be.  Plus, you can get no-fat Kwark but it near impossible to get no-fat yogurt - go figure.



One thing that I am most looking forward to getting is my bed!  My temporary apartment is a fully-furnished 2 bedroom including what looks like a queen sized bed but after closer inspection (and sleeping on it) it is really 2 single beds pushed together and I have learned that this is very common here.  I am in the market of buying a 3rd bed for guests (hint, hint to all of you - my door is always open) and unless you go to IKEA, it is near to impossible to buy a queen sized bed that isn't 2 mattresses.  I think it has something to do with the fact that in old Dutch houses, the stairs are VERY steep and it would be very difficult, if not impossible to get the mattress up the stairs.  I typically like to sleep in the middle of my bed - I mean, why shouldn't I - I have the whole thing but with this bed, I have what I affectionately call "the moat" in the middle, so I can't sleep in the middle and rolling from one side to the other, isn't that simple.

You can see "the moat" in the middle - really it isn't that wide but that is what I have affectionately named it.

The one thing that I have seen that has made me go "WTH" is the following:

This is located in a plain (a big park or square), which is surrounded by patios and restaurants - in full public view.  You will notice by the little symbol on it, it is for men.  Fortunately there isn't one for women to squat on.  I am not sure what they expect us to use, but it isn't it!

And only in The Netherlands will you see an ad on the TV for ironing board covers. . .who knew that that could be such a market that it warrants expensive ad spend on TV!

Comforts of Home

Starbucks - I found it!!!! Now I know what you are thinking - you are in Europe and they have way better coffee there - that is true, but to finally find one of of the comforts of home was great! Short of letting out a small scream or jumping for joy, a big smile came across my face as I rounded the corner at the train station on Saturday morning and saw the sign. I had seen the odd person at the train station carrying a Starbucks cup but I honestly thought that they were people coming off of trains from Amsterdam, as Starbucks does not have the proliferation here that there is in North American (which isn't a bad thing b/c there is way better coffee out there!) Now I haven't been yet but it is nice to know that it is there and it is so close. :-)  

It is a small comfort of home. . . particularly when I am living in a country where you can't even buy bleach!  Yes, it is true - you cannot buy bleach here, so I bought some at the Antwerp Train Station at the Spar.  I will buy it where I can find it! (see my travel blog - My Journeys www.calgaryheather.blogspot.ca)

Playing Frogger

On my way to work the other morning I realized that crossing the main roads here is kinda like the game Frogger.  You are trying to cross multiple lanes (there are car lanes and bike lanes) and in between these lanes are these little islands for you to stand on.   On each island is its own crossing signal, so if you look across the street, the farthest signal might be a green person (which means that you can walk) and the nearest might be red so you wait. Then when it turns green, you have to dodge the bikes (see previous post about Dutch pecking order) and move from island to island without getting hit – just like Frogger.At times the little green person starts to blink, so you know that you need to move across faster. I have also learned the hard way that when you get to the islands, you need to push the walk button or you could be standing there for some time :-)  

I also had a query the other day about some shopping and whether or not you could get Cheez Whiz or Kraft Dinner here and the answer is no.  A few brands that are the same as back home include Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Boursin Cheese (A LOT cheaper here), Pringles, Coke, Lays, Doritos. . .are you seeing a trend here - junk food!  A co-worker of mine also told me that if I go over to Calais, France, they have some larger grocery stores there like Sainsbury (UK chain), with much more selection. She also mentioned that you cannot buy chocolate chips here. . .hmm. . . not sure what I think about that!  I have a feeling that I may be doing quarterly trips to Calais to load up on all of those things that I can't buy here but also to feel as though I have some choice.

Tonight I decided to venture out to the movies, as a little Googling showed that there was a movie theatre about 10 minutes away and that they played movies in English.  I went to see the movie "The Impossible" which was about 1 families story about the tsunami in Thailand in December 2004.  Wow!  What a horrific experience to go through, I can't even imagine.  So going to the movies is a little different than back home.  One thing that is similar is the cost - you pretty much have to mortgage your house to go to the movie here as well.  A single adult is 9,50 Euros.  What is cheaper is their "buffet" as they call it - the concession.  I got a medium popcorn and bottle of pop for 6,90 Euro.  For popcorn you have a choice of salted or sweet however me being the Canadian rebel that I am (yah right!) I asked for mixed which he was more than happy to do.  You can also buy a 4 pack of bottled beer and outside of the theatre door, they have a nice little stand to put in your empty bottles.  When you buy your ticket for your movie, you pick your row and your seat - none of this searching in the dark for an empty seat or asking people to move over so 2 people can sit together.  In addition, the seats have way more space between them, so you really don't have to get up to let someone past.  And they are clean.  You can put your purse on the floor without worrying that it is going to stick.  For a Friday night, the movie theatre here does not have the frenetic feel that it does in Calgary.

Another experience conquered on my list :-)

Dutch Pecking Order

I have quickly learned the Dutch pecking order of the road - it is:  Trams, Bikes, Pedestrians, Cars.  Does not matter where you are or what you are doing that - that is the order.  A few people have asked if I have bought a bike yet and the answer is "no" for a few reasons.  1)  It is COLD and I am a fairweather biker.  Somehow I can't see me riding a bike in a toque, mitts, scarf and my winter boots  2)  I am not sure where I will store it for now.  I am sure I can haul it up in the elevator to my apartment, but for now I am fairly central and can pretty much walk everywhere.  3)  It scares me!  Riding your bike in the Netherlands is just not the same as back in Canada.  Big difference is that they rule the road (see above) and NO ONE wears a helmet!  I am just not sure I am confident and aggressive enough on a bike yet.  I am however asking around to see if anyone offers a biking 101 course.  Seriously though, my intention is to buy a bike once I have moved into my permanent home.

On my way home (I walk through the main train station) I was approached by a lovely girl with a rose who started to rattle on to me in Dutch to which I normally just smile and nod, but this time I said "I don't speak Dutch", at which point she launched into English (as most Dutch do when I say this) and she handed me a rose for Valentine's Day courtesy of some lingerie shop.

Stopped at the ol' Albert Heijn today on the way home to pick up some more groceries (as I have eaten through what I had previously bought) and experienced a new challenge today, on top of not knowing what it is that I am buying - directions/instruction.  Yep - they are in Dutch too!  I know that I said that I was going to take my iPad with me next time but I stopped on my way home and didn't have it with me.  I am not sure why I torture myself like this!  The oven still is giving me challenges but I haven't given up yet (and can't if I want to eat hot food!)

Here is some of what I bought today - I know what they are - kinda.  Or at least know that I could cook it!  LOL!

This I know how to make - even if the directions are in Dutch!

I have figured out the Kip is chicken - just not sure what kind of marinade this was - still not sure even after I have cooked it and ate it.  Kinda a cross b/w Mexican and Indian

How could I not buy this?!  The one thing they do have a lot of choice of his hazelnut spreads :-)  Not sure what the white flavour is yet though.

Grocery Shopping & Laundry . . .my first foray into Dutch living.

I went grocery shopping last night mainly b/c I was in need of some laundry detergent as I hadn't done laundry in 2 weeks, and had a suitcase full of clothes that I had in Mexico that need to be done and until my air shipment arrives on Monday morning, I am limited to the clothes that I had packed in my other suitcase and upon review, not sure what I was thinking!  So off to the Albert Heijn I went.  The one thing that I have observed about living here is that everything is measured in the number of minutes of the walk away something is - and they don't round up or down to nearest 5!  So I was told that the Albert Heijn was 6 minutes away - not 5, but 6 and it was.  I was a little timid about trusting Google maps to get me there, as Monday ended up as a complete sh*t show trying to get to work, but this time it was very straightforward.  Exit building.  Turn right.  Walk about 4 minutes.  Turn right.  Walk about 2 minutes and there it would be - and it was!

Albert Heijn is the major chain here in the Netherlands - kinda like Safeways but a fraction of the size.  Challenge #1 when I got the store, I saw these baskets that seemed to have an extra handle and as I stood there trying to figure it out, up walks a 4 year old, who picks one up and quickly proceeds to use it properly.  It was an extra handle so you could tow the basket behind you - duh.  I swapped it out for a regular basket.  Challenge #2 - NOTHING is in English.  I don't know why, but for some reason I thought that some things would be in English but they weren't.  Thank God for fresh vegetables and fruit because I can realize that.  The one food group that continues to stump me is dairy.  I can't seem to figure out what is what and I think they drink yogurt here, so for now, I am avoiding it.  There were a few things that were familiar so I bought them.

Sabra Hummus & Laughing Cow - those I know!

Challenge #3 - there are no brands that I recognize with the exception of say Oreos but that wasn't what I was looking for.  And unlike in North America where you have 50 different types of something, here you are lucky if you have 2!  Since I had forgotten my Dutch phrase book at home, I just stuck to the basics like some veggies, cheese, bread and chocolate!  I have noticed that compared to Canada - groceries are cheap here.  Today I have to head back to the market to buy things like dish soap, garbage bags, etc. You would think that they would have them here but they don't!

When you check out, they ask if you want these mini-groceries - so I said "sure" not knowing what the hell she was telling me - and here is what I got.  Not too sure if I am collecting something or what!  I guess time will tell.


Activity #2 last night and what precipitated the trip to the grocery store was laundry!  Fortunately my apartment has an in-suite washer & dryer and THANKFULLY it isn't one of those combo units that seems to be common in Europe, but the washing machine is slower than molasses in January!  I do think though, it could have something to do with the operator and her not understanding Dutch, so may not be using it the right way.  In the end though, my clothes came out clean!

Washing machine controls - yep, that is Dutch!

In the end, I survived both my first trip to the grocery store and my first loads of laundry!

I Saw a Windmill

Yes - on my way from the airport to The Hague on Sunday, I saw a real, honest to goodness, Dutch windmill and I almost peed with excitement!  Who would have guessed that I would have saw one so soon!  Oh I think I might just enjoy this whole living in another country thing! (this wasn't the actual one but it looked like this!)

So windmills aside, I have decided to start a new blog chronicling my life here in The Hague.  I can't promise that it will always be exciting, but I am pretty confident that I will make you laugh from time-to-time as I learn to navigate living my life outside of Canada for the very first time.  Yes, I have travelled a lot (see my other blog - www.calgaryheather.blogspot.ca) but I have always said, that living somewhere is different than travelling somewhere - so this will be about my living and my other blog will be about my travelling, if I ever get around to updating it.  Yes - I know I am a trip or two behind!

So with that, I am about to try and find Albert Heijn aka the grocery store (www.ah.nl).  If you clink on this link you will see that most websites here are in Dutch and yours truly knows no Dutch.  I have however figured out which link on the website I need to hit to figure out where the closest Albert Heijn is - so here is to not getting lost and to trying to figure out what I am buying!   If I don't blog in a day or so, that means that I am lost and am wandering aimlessly about The Hague trying to find my way home! :-)