A quiet Sunday night

Greetings from The Hague. Not much going on here in The Hague. I will be in Milan in two weeks and I am very excited. Usually I plan and research and prepare for every trip I take (those that have traveled with me understand......)but I have hardly done any preparation for this trip. I have my tickets, a hotel room, two passports and a couple of guide books, what else does one need? I did try to get tickets to the Opera but did not have any luck. I am trying to get a reservation for the Last Supper (not my Last Supper of course but the famous painting). You can make a reservation to see it for 15 minutes, after you have been sprayed down for any chemicals you may have on you-I think it sounds very interesting and very blog worthy. Work continues to be busy and interesting-before my next move I am going to research employment law and that will play a large part in my preference list. Who cares if it is a third world country and I won't have internet-I want to know if my new post has unlimited sick leave! I am still in awe of a country that allows employees to have unlimited sick leave, AND if an employee is sick they are paid for TWO years (granted the second year is only 70%). AND as you get older you accrue additional annual leave. When you are 65 an employee earns 32 days of annual leave a year on top of the 22 days of holidays we have. But enough about that.....I have a new "it's not possible story". I joined the gym down the street from my apartment. I went in the first day to look around and see what it is all about and decided I wanted to join for 1 year, after all it is cheaper and we all know about the dollar vs. the euro. I soon found it "it is not possible" to join for an entire year until you have been with the gym for a year paying a monthly fee. I just don't say anything any more, I just file the newest "iinp" (it is not possible abbreviation for future blogs) away, smile and nod and remind myself I am living in Europe! I have been entertaining alot and will be hosting an Embassy wide Wine and Cheese party on October 17th, I had my very fun dress rehersal W&C (wine and cheese abbreviation for future blogs....) but I have found that entertaining in a foreign country is like preparing for a party with one hand tied behind your back and a blind fold on. The simplest things that you take for granted are nowhere to be found-for example tooth picks-who knew that Dutch people don't believe in tooth picks? I was making brownies only to find it was not possible to fit my 9X12 inch pan into my oven! What can you do but laugh and serve brownie batter for dessert and tell people it is an Oklahoma thing? Well I am off to bed-I am still trying to recover from staying up until 4:00am to listen to OSU demolish Troy, then get up at 8:30 to go to a 3 hour brunch, come home to prepare for a group of 6 to come over and have dinner and watch football (do you know I am becoming quite adept at planning meals that don't require tooth picks OR my oven).

It's not possible......

The most well used words in the Dutch language...it's not possible. When I first arrived many expats told me about the favorite words for anyone related to customer service but I didn't believe them. I must say I am now in the "it's not possible" camp. I will share with you a few examples. Ziggo (internet/cable/landline company THE only internet/cable/landline company in existence) coined the phrase. One of my colleagues was having trouble with their tv-so they blocked 3 hours out of the day to call ziggo, which charges per minute if you call them using your cell phone, she was so frustrated because nothing they tried worked. They were able to get the tv picture but no sound. After the second call she finally asked if it was possible to send a technician to fix the problem, there was silence on the other end and a small voice said-but that is not possible, we only send out technicians for big problems!! Then I heard the story (true) of a friend who went to purchase a cell phone and a cell phone plan. She went the first day and found it was not possible to sign the plan AND leave with a phone on the same day. So being a true believer she went back the next day actually believing she would have a cell phone THAT day. The salesman said I can't give you your phone, nor can I tell you why I can't give you a phone, we have mailed you a letter that will tell you why you can't get your phone today. The logical line of thinking would be for the sales person to divulge the contents of this mysterious letter.....but it was not possible. But I must say the it's not possible to end all it's not possibles happened last week when a group of us went to a restaurant. I felt like I had fallen onto the front page of the Onion. There were 6 of us and we were going to *gasp* order dinner. The waiter came over and leaned over the table and imparted this gem...he says...with a table this large we could only order 3 different hot main meals after all we don't want to overwhelm the kitchen. As a newly minted member of the it's not possible club I wanted to say "well we had better not pay at the end of the meal after all I don't want to overwhelm the kitchen" instead we all just ordered another glass of wine and a every appetizer on the menu....it turns out all things are possible!

How 'bout them Cowboys

I must say I was very happy Sunday morning when I woke up to find that my beloved Cowboys had won-as I like to say we are still in the hunt for a National Championship!

All is well in the Hague-as soon as September hit we have had cold, windy and wet weather. The heat in my apartment is already on! Yesterday 4 of us went to the Army base about 2 and 1/2 hours away. You would have thought we had been stranded on a desert island for years rather than living in a first world country for 3 months! We could barely fit everything into my Jeep for the trip home-of course between all of us we probably had 35 bottles of wine but MOST importantly 2 jars of pickled okra. When I saw the pickled okra I think my cheeks became damp with tears I was so happy. The funniest part is that we all shopped as though we were going BACK to a desert island, after all I know I am going to need 7 brownie mixes and 5 cans of cream of chicken soup.

I have already planned my Columbus day trip, I am going to go to Milan. I was going to just go up to Lake Como but have decided to stay in Milan and then go up to the Lakes next time I go. I don't know what I am going to do in November when we don't have a 3 day weekend, we have to work the Friday after Thanksgiving and I am duty officer that week so can't go anywhere.

Paris was great-I went with 3 friends and we had a fantastic time. Lots of wine and cheese. I was very proud of myself, I was relaxed and didn't feel the need to organize and plan (for any of you that have traveled with me you know that is quite a coup). On the first day we walked to the Eifel tower and sat in the park and drank some wine, then we walked to the Champs de Elysses to go to the Louis Vuitton store, off to Sacre Cour-the best view in Paris. We then sat in the grass, ate our picnic and you guessed it drank some wine....the next day we slept in (what a surprise given all of the wine). We had our omelets for breakfast and made our way to the Orsay museum-which is my favorite museum. We then went to lunch, while at lunch we ordered some Asparagus as an appetizer. The waiter asked us how pink we wanted our appetizer-at this point you would have thought that we would have thought something was wrong at this point but nnnnoooo...we asked for our asparagus to be not so pink. Imagine our surprise when our 9 Euro aspargus turned out to be 24 Euro PINK lamb chops. Once again who has heard of pink asparagus?? We headed over to Notre Dame and walked around the Latin Quarter. For dinner we went to the park at the Eiffel Tower and had dinner which consisted of wine and cheese! When in France! Upon my return from France I learned that I am a true Cowboy fan. I settled on to the couch to watch the game against Washington State (I love Slingbox). To my dismay, even though I knew the score I was convinced the Cowboys would some how manage to not win the replay!!

I have to get ready for my (don't laugh) wine and cheese party on Friday night. I have invited all of the my coworkers that live in my apartment complex. It is really sad but I schedule my hosted social events around the week my housekeeper comes!